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"The spirits of nature will allow me to provide a light source as well," says Garuneh. He summons a glowing light source focused on his hand.

Light; I can cast it every 10 minutes as needed...not as great as a lantern in terms of permanency, but doesn't run out, either.

"It is prudent indeed that we bring extra fuel, food, water, and blankets for this descent, Elizabeth" agrees Garuneh. "Hope for fair weather, expect the hurricane, we say." He grins and shoulders some supplies as well.

Odraude wrote:

I was wondering, how far does someone fall per round? I couldn't find it anywhere in the core rule book and it had come up when a player fell into a ravine.

Someone did that math at one point, and it was fast. AKA: for most falls, you'll hit bottom in the same round you start falling, so it won't normally matter.

Correct me if I'm wrong but:

Distance = 1/2 * Acceleration * Time squared.
D = 0.5*9.8m/s^2 * 6^2
176.4 meters = 578 feet 8⅞ inches in 1 round.

I am very curious, if you happen to just lurk here, for good or ill, can you like this post. I just want to see how many people lurk. I have noticed on various threads people mention this one who never post, so my curiosity is up.If that sentence made any sort of linguistic sense?

Or hey just post saying long time lurker first time poster ;)

Fascinating. Comparing areas in square miles between the official scale (125 square miles/hex, 7 miles per hex side, 12 miles to cross) and the JBE scale (375 square miles/hex, 12 miles per hex side, estimate 20 miles to cross) leads me to toss the JBE scale out the window. Sorry JBE!

One, this means I don't have to bork around with estimating army speeds. Second, the former fits pretty precisely with the pre-release indications that the Stolen Lands roughly equate in land area to Indiana. They do - at 280 hexes, that's 35,000 square miles on the 125 square miles per hex ratio. At 375 square miles per hex, the Stolen Lands balloon to ~105,000 square miles.

Taking this further, I've found a few tidbits:

The whole of the River Kingdoms including the Stolen Lands is ~600 miles horizontally by ~420 miles vertically for a total claimable area of ~252,000 square miles resulting in a total of 2,016 claimable hexes. 6 PCs = 336 claimable hexes for each. 5 PCs = 403.2 claimable hexes for each. 4 PCs = 504 claimable hexes for each. This is about 5% more than the entire land area of Texas – and thus comparable to a slightly larger than modern France.

Brevoy measures ~450 miles vertically by ~400 miles horizontally for a total claimed land area of ~180,000 square miles, 20% larger than the land area of California for a total of 1,440 claimed hexes. Brevoy is probably about the combined land area of the Iberian Peninsula.

Iobaria measures ~180 miles horizontally by ~225 miles vertically for a total land area of ~40,500 square miles (on a 45 mile scale for the map-without-a-scale in KM Chapter 3), resulting in 324 hexes for Iobaria.

All three areas together combined to an estimated area of ~472,500 square miles – equating to 3,780 hexes. Iobaria may not be deemed to be worth the effort, as Brevoy and the River Kingdoms combine for a total of 432,000 square miles / 3,456 hexes in and of themselves. Of course, there is the matter of "just being thorough" for would-be conquerers of the known world.

Puts some things into a bit better perspective, eh? :)

Found a way to have the PC's actually immersed in the game world and not worrying about what their build will be in 3 levels let alone 20th?

Yes. Play with people who think that story and character development (as in personality, not numbers) are just as important as game rules and 'winning'.

In my experience game rules have little to do with immersion. Good story telling, creative players who are willing to add their stories into the setting's and each others stories and a gm not affraid to act out npc's and use some props for flair make for good games.

Have them answer these questions about each of their characters and keep their answers on file to use in your game so you can tailor the stories to include their characters more. Sometimes creating something more than a combat toon will get them more invested in the character RPwise.

Also their answers can often tip you off to those players in your game who don't care one bit about immersion.

1.What is your full name? Do you have a nickname?

2. How old are you? When is your birthday?

3. Where were you born? Where do you live now? Are you patriotic?

4. Who are/were your parents? (Names, occupations, personalities, etc.)

5. Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?

6. What is your occupation?

7. How tall are you? How much do you weigh?

8. What color is your hair? What color are your eyes?

9. What is your race?

10. To which social class do you belong?

11. Do you consider yourself to be attractive? Do others?

12. What is your style of dress?

13. Do you have any scars? Tattoos? Birthmarks? Other unique physical features?

14. Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses?
15. Are you right- or left-handed? Left

16. What does your voice sound like?

17. What kind of vocabulary do you use?

18. List three quirks or other defining characteristics.

19. How often do you bathe? Do you wear perfumes?

20. What kind of facial expression do you commonly wear (dour glare, wry smile, etc)?

21. Do you use body language? How?

22. Do you have a commonly used saying?

Part 2: Growing Up

23. What is your earliest memory?

24. How much schooling have you had? Did you enjoy it?

25. Where did you learn most of your knowledge and skill?
26. How would you describe your childhood in general?

27. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

28. When and with whom was your first kiss?

29. Are you a virgin? If not, when and with whom did you lose your virginity?

30. Do you have a notorious or celebrated ancestor? Does that affect you?

Part 3: Past Influences

31. What do you consider the most important event of your life so far?

32. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

33. What is your greatest regret?

34. What is the most embarrassing or shameful thing ever to happen to you?

35. Do you have any secrets? If so, what are they?

36. What is the most evil thing you have ever done?

37. When was the time you were the most frightened?

38. Have you ever traveled outside of your country? If so, to where?

Part 4: Beliefs And Opinions

39. What is your alignment?

40. Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic?

41. Do you believe in a god? If so, which one and why?

42. Do you believe in an afterlife?

43. What is your greatest fear?

44. What makes your character angry? Sad? Happy? Why?

45. Do you think people are basically good or basically evil?

46. What are your views on politics? Religion? Sex?

47. What are your views on gambling, lying, theft, and killing?

48. How far will you go to defend your beliefs?

49. How much do you value money?

50. In your opinion, what is the most evil thing any human being could do?

51. Do you believe in self-sacrifice for the greater good?

52. Do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love?

53. Are you superstitious?

54. How much do you respect the beliefs and opinions of others?

55. How honest are you about your thoughts and feelings?

56. Do you have any biases or prejudices?

Part 5: Relationships With Others

57. Who is the most important person in your life, and why?

58. Who is the person you respect the most? Despise the most? Why?

59. Do you have a significant other? Who?

60. Do you have a lot of friends? Who is your best friend?

61. How do you relate to members of the same race? Class? Sex?

62. How do you relate to members of a different race? Class? Sex?

63. Have you ever been in love? If so, describe what happened.

64. What do you look for in a potential lover?

65. How close are you to your family?

66. Do you want a marriage, family, and/or children?

67. Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict?

68. Are you a listener or a talker?

69. How long does it usually take for you to trust others?

70. Do you hold grudges?

71. Do you tend to take on leadership roles in social situations?

72. Do you like interacting with large groups of people?

73. How well do you express yourself?

74. How quickly do you judge others?

75. Do you care what others think of you?

76. Do you have any enemies? How or why are they your enemy?

Part 6: Likes And Dislikes

77. What is your favorite pastime? Color? Food? Possession?

78. What are your preferences in arts and/or entertainment?

79. Do you smoke, drink, go whoring, or use drugs? Why or why not?

80. How do you spend a typical Saturday night?

81. What is your most cherished fantasy?

82. How long is your attention span?

83. Do you laugh a lot? What do you find funny?

84. Is there anything that shocks or offends you? If so, what?

85. How do you deal with stress?

86. How much athletic ability do you have? Artistic?

87. Do you like animals? Do you like children?

88. Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan?

89. What are your pet peeves?

Part 7: Self Images

90. What is your greatest strength as a person? Weakness?

91. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

92. Are you generally introverted or extroverted?

93. Do you like yourself?

94. Do you have a daily routine? How do you feel if your day is interrupted?

95. What goal do you most want to accomplish in the next six months? Your lifetime?

96. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?

97. If you could choose, how would you want to die?

98. What is the one thing you would like to be remembered for after your death?

99. What three words would you use to best describe your personality?

100. What three words would others probably use to describe you?

101. Why are you risking your life to adventure?

sunshadow21 wrote:

I can see why you would be bored. It's also why high level play tends to get problematic if you insist on the whole "slay the dragon" again routine once you hit double digits. Any plot that relies on a single encounter or outcome is going to get destroyed the second it meets the players.

See my other posts. That's why we had the FTL sailing ship. The GM set us up as a D&D version of the Green Lantern Corps. We were the defenders of the galaxy, and he'd pit us against some awesome super-villain on some planet that was raping and pillaging willy-nilly. We'd fly in and save the day.

Now the GM was very imaginative. He made up some really crazy things for us to fight. My ranger died twice, and was cast into the void and had to be retrieved by a wish. (Back then dying cost you a point of constitution, so it was a real bummer).

We weren't fighting an endless parade of dragons. Especially not after we slew an army of dragons on our home planet. We were fighting Nazi versions of Superman, or planet-spanning slimes, or interstellar super beings...

I appreciated the effort he put in, but man, another day of kicking God's ass again? Booooring.

Ayep. That's why I prefer the game to *not* be about combat. Sure there's combat, and hell, I like kicking butt as much as the next person, but an endless stream of combats is dull, and an endless stream of epic combats is stultifyingly dull.

Impossible to hit AC. The BBEG spent the last 20 years in gladiatorial combat and can hit 39 AC with a +18 on damage and a crit threat of 15? Nobody in the party can match that with their armor and shields. Which, with multiple attacks, means the meatshield of the party is hamburger after two rounds. Most parties don't have two meatshields. Everybody else pops smoke and leaves the area.

The players in my group have concluded that AC doesn't matter; at a high-enough level you will get hit. They get by okay, and I don't worry about it. In a hard combat, there's usually at least one character death; it's expected. After all, the players expect all the monsters to die - why should they be the only ones?

Magical choice lockup. Let's see, do I use the Level 9 mega-spell that will kill everyone, or the Level 5 spell just for this type of monster, or buff everyone with a Level 7 spell - is it dinner time already?

Six seconds. I say this all the time. "Hey, a round is six seconds. What are you doing? You don't know? Okay, you delay until you do." Another thing that helps a lot is the "you're next" thing - telling the next person in the initiative order to nut up and be ready. But I make heavy use of delay for spellcasters that can't make up their mind. It's even realistic - if they're sitting there pondering what to cast, that's exactly what they are doing.

Railroaded plots. You defeated a room full of ninjas? Sorry, you made too much noise in the dungeon, the ogres in the next room heard you and here they come. Defeat them and the last ogre standing sets off the alarm that wakes up the dragon. Ok, you defeated them all, congrats, you leveled. Which you did last game too. Have your character re-optimized with a prestige class at their new level by next game! You have to race the goblin hordes to save the princess by nightfall. No time for crafting, buying, selling, sleeping, or any of that "normal" stuff. The GM runs a tight ship.

Yes, I agree that railroaded plots are an anathema - but a pure sandbox campaign where the PCs wander without purpose is not fun for the GM - how can you plan for a campaign where today they're exploring deep in the elemental plane of earth looking for diamonds the size of boulders, tomorrow they decide to create a small kingdom, and the next day they start an interplanar hunt in order to rid the multiverse of the Doomguard?

I just can't see any GM staying sane with a high-level sandbox campaign. Note that Kingmaker was *not* a sandbox in the largest sense of the word - the PCs have a very defined purpose, even at higher levels. It's not like they could up and head for Ustalav without abandoning everything they worked for (and all who depended on them).

Realizing that at Level 18, your player character can pretty much take on the baddest, drunkest, ugliest dwarf in the bar - and win. Which means the city guard is about as threatening as a set of bowling pins, and you don't have to take their riffraff when they show up to break up the bar fight. By...

This is an issue, and it is why I will not run an evil campaign. If the PCs are the good guys, why would they do this? And if they're not, then sure, every once in a while some fool who doesn't know who they are will start trouble. But it's not like they'll lop his head off - they'll teach him a lesson. This is a common trope in heroic fiction and film, and it's a fun one. I've used it, and the players felt damn good teaching that no-good NPC a lesson.

Not that it didn't have repercussions later, of course :)

sunshadow21 wrote:

gbonehead wrote:

sunshadow21 wrote:

That's why you are careful about what sources and materials you use. If you allow all possibly compatible sources with no screening, you deserve what you get. You may not be able to predict every combination, but most of the major ones have clear warning signs.

I allow every single official WoTC and Paizo printed book in my campaign.

I personally am the same way, though I would probably limit the sources initially just because I'd rather find appropriate places for the rest in the world that I would be creating and using additional sources to help make the different regions feel different. But those who are overly worried about potential combinations and than allow massive amounts of material need to understand that they are the source of their own headaches.

Mixing WOTC 3.5 stuff with Pathfinder stuff without screening is a very bad idea.

Too many game mechanics, feats and spells have been changed.
You can add selected pieces of one to the other, but with a lot of caution.

Sure, but that's a game mechanics issue, not an issue with being overpowered. And the players know about the mechanics issue; whenever they want a feat from Pathfinder, they ask me about it. I've got a 200-page feat compendium with many (but not all) feats in it, and I'm doing my darndest to keep up with the Pathfinder ones.

However, that's got little to do with being overpowered. It's more of an issue with 3PP materials, which is how I treat the Pathfinder stuff (and which is pretty much the only non-WoTC material we use). I'm using 3.5e rules, and back-port the Pathfinder stuff to 3.5e. That's way easier than converting the whole bleeding campaign (and all the 3.5e material) to Pathfinder. But the next campaign will be straight Pathfinder; by then there will be sufficient source material.

Pro-memory: when adding a long post to an already existing one always copy it with CTRL-C before posting it. :(

Install Lazaras.

sunshadow21 wrote:

gbonehead wrote:

sunshadow21 wrote:

That's why you are careful about what sources and materials you use. If you allow all possibly compatible sources with no screening, you deserve what you get. You may not be able to predict every combination, but most of the major ones have clear warning signs.

I allow every single official WoTC and Paizo printed book in my campaign.

I personally am the same way, though I would probably limit the sources initially just because I'd rather find appropriate places for the rest in the world that I would be creating and using additional sources to help make the different regions feel different. But those who are overly worried about potential combinations and than allow massive amounts of material need to understand that they are the source of their own headaches.

After I got burned in a Cyberpunk 2020 session in which a player threw the "Smear" rule from Maximum Metal at me, I changed my rule to: If I don't own a copy, it doesn't exist. I'm letting players create characters using the Core book and the APG, plus the players guide I'm writing for the campaign.

I do have a rule that they can only use WoTC books that I own, but it's not a huge issue. But that doesn't mean I've read and/or memorized all of them, nor does it mean I intend to. Too much material.

I guess I just have a different take on it. Rather than rigorously using carefully selected rules to make sure that my plans for the campaign don't get derailed, I just roll with it. They've done some crazy and incredibly stupid stuff, and some crazy and incredibly clever stuff. In the end, it all is creating a story, and they're creating the story as much as I am.

Of course, now I'm thinking about making a "Spells that don't exist in my world" list. Teleport and Wish are probably going to be in the Top 5. Not only that, magic items are NOT for sale, and most rewards will be allies and contacts, not treasure.

No teleport, greater teleport, wish, miracle or plane shift? How about word of recall or transport via plants? Or wind walk? You start ending up with a huge ban list.

I'd suggest working on plots that don't require removal of teleport in order to function. Adventuring at a high level is not just adventuring at low level but with more hit points - it's a very, very different animal.

I've both DMed and played in 12+ and over games. When I hear people having PCs say I'll use fly or ressurect, I sigh and say what are you trying to put them against? granted they have a lot of power but you are GOD!!! as DM you should craft a tale that makes them have to do specific challenges. I had a group having to do a scavenger hunt around the multiverse to win the soul back from a triskter god as he was testing the PCs' who had "decided" to retire. i had clearly set challenges and they either met them or didn't. also dungeon delving is mostly a thing of the past at these levels as is most material plane encounters.

They have these powers and spells thatwhen put against normal armies can easily decimate foes, have them be called upon by some planar traveler or other high level npc they met at lower levels to help them in some alien landscape to battle a coven of fiendish dragon witches who are breeding powerful half-dragon demons to slowly send into the multiverse aided by there fiendish undead companions.

As for players who are using spells and other things to break the rules, let them for a bit. I mean if its fun for them don't completely squash there fun. though if they break them you can to the have uped the ante than break the rules add templates that can't noramlly be added to a creature, splice a creature my classic is the hydra-dragon or the beholder-tarresgue, or any other interresting combinations, i try to cap my adventurers to about 30 or 40 levels though, because after about 22 its is honestly hard to do stuff on the fly but not impossible.

Though a good rule to remember for High level play is you are the DM, you are GOD and it is your world your multiverse and the PCs' no matter how high a level they are, are still peons in this world and subject to the rules that you and the books have in place.

This is a short summary of our last game. It ran for several hours.

While using a flying temple to search for the lost shrine that's its home base, they find a tiny isle in the middle of a nearly endless swamp that is home to a small group of half-celestial dwarves that have lived there for millenia. The dwarves were in hiding because their sentries saw an incoming attack.

Reassuring the distraught dwarves, they close the door again and the PCs easily defeat three paraelemental ooze monoliths (CRs 17, 17 and 20) advancing Godzilla-like on the islet. Then they're attacked by the two ooze elemental kraken that were watching the outcome (CRs 20 and 30), and the larger kraken takes out two PCs with Devastating Critical before going down to the 63rd-level fighter. The other kraken is no match for the monk and goes down quickly.

The party briefly pops home - the cleric didn't make the game that day, so they went "to the temple where he was meditating" in order to get a couple of true resurrections cast, and less than half an hour later they're back on the island.

After this show of force, the party has time to speak with the dwarves, and recognize the poverty of their existence. So, they dump off several loads of lumber (more precious than gold), the druid does a plant growth on what's left of the hidden garden (the target of the ooze creatures, who don't get much vegetation to munch on these days, turn their boats to ironwood, etc.

They realize that the chambers the dwarves live in, under the island, were not actually created by the dwarves, and in fact are so incredibly depressing that the party brings in some of their staff to redecorate. Studying the grim architecure, the wizards (with their insane Knowledge (planes)) realize this is probably daemon architecture, but there's no clues as to why it's here. They also find that the rooms descend below water level, but were sealed up by the dwarves becuase oozes kept coming up from below.

In addition, they realize that there's some sort of immortal cat living with the dwarves, but there's no sign of it, and given the half-celestial (and leonine) aspect of the dwarves, they are pretty sure it's a silvanshee agathion.

Finally, the dwarves share a cache of odd objects they've collected in their travels in the swamp - a small cache of miscellaneous goods and magic, virtually none of it of any value to the dwarves. One item is associated with an assassin's guild they've run into in a far away kingdom, one is a headband of inspired wisdome +4 that bears emblems of the Four Horsemen and thus the dwarves locked it away, and one item is a small, greasy green idol of an octopus-headed fellow, that they got from the northeast, in a place of bad dreams.

---

The combat took perhaps an hour, probably less. I used average damage for the kraken, which had the full Improved Rapidstrike tree, giving them something like 27 attacks per round, and I had one of the players calculate the damage for me. The biggest delay was the wizard, who couldn't decide what to do when the fighter was dragged under the muddy water by the kraken - he ended up going incorporeal, diving into the water, and shooting maximimzed repeating split-ray twinned disintegrates like a blind gunfighter. Even hit the kraken once. Even with about 1300hp, the kraken didn't survive the fighter more than two rounds because he had the full weapon specialization tree allowing him normal attacks even in a grapple. But the Fighter did feel it.

The majority of the game was exploring the island, talking to the dwarves, and trying to figure out where and if the puzzle pieces they found fit into their larger picture.

Next game they'll explore the submerged tunnels and then probably head northeast to see what exactly the "place of bad dreams" is, though they have a sinking suspicion they know, given who the idol was of. And that's why I found Wake of the Watcher so delightfully timely. It's all the worse for them because in the past they were warned by an oracle (not an Oracle) that one thing they would have to do is wake the sleeper, and that it might be their doom.

---

As you may gather, this sounds a lot like a normal game. The main difference is that they can accomplish a lot more - but that doesn't make them omnipotent. And since they have a specific goal in mind (yep, it's "save the world"), it's not like they're just hanging around and eating pie.

One other thing: the dwarves? The highest level was the level 3 adept. Why? Because it's realistic. Why would a group of level 30 dwarves be hanging around on a island? On the other hand, a small group of normal dwarves trapped there 5,000 years ago when the entire region was subsumed by swamp, sharing the area with a few leonal agathions and a silvanstree agathion? Well, you're likely to end with what the party found.

As far as shortening the time, I think most folks have hit it right on the head when they say "Make your players know their character." If someone has played a character well enough to know it (ie, played up through the levels to where they are), they won't need to refer to their sheet for most information.

I agree that the biggest issue I've seen for high level play is spell casters. As a veteran player of spell casters (of all types) and someone who has spent more than a decade running games as well, I've picked up a few pieces of advice along the way that I'll take a few moments to share. A lot of these come from various books of fictions where Uber Powerful Wizards exist: If you ever want to look for ways to curtail the power of magic in a world, look to high fantasy authors, because they've been dealing with the problem for longer than we role-players have been around.

Raymond Feist once had a wizardly character discourse at length on the problem of involving wizards in warfare in one of his novels of the Serpent War saga (I don't remember which one). The comments that were made basically went "First wizard tries to throw a super spell, opposing wizard tries to counter. Third wizard tries to help first wizard, and fourth tries to stop him. This continues, right up until the moment when the army comes along and hacks all the wizards to pieces."
-How to apply this to high level play: Simply put, every spell can be countered, at least via counter-spell (and often by other methods as well). When you want to let your fighters shine, have a wizard with the Improved Counterspell feat be standing by on the NPC side, and watch as the muck around with the party's cannon (Or, for better results, try a sorcerer who happens to know spells of every school. Arcane Bloodline + Heighten Spell will make this work better). To be sure, you can't do this all the time without being a jerk to one of your players, but you can do it occasionally, particularly if your BBEG is the person countering things, and the rest of the encounter are NPCs of no account that are covering his retreat. Also can be achieved with Ring of Counterspells, Rod of Spell Absorbtion, etc.

Jim Butcher once had the titular character of the Dresden Files say something along the lines of "when a wizard is prepared, he can do almost anything. But if he doesn't have that time to prepare, he's nowhere near as strong or as fast or as durable as most of the nasties in the world."
-How to apply this to high level play: Don't give your PC wizards time to prepare. If someone is going to take them captive, have them do it when the PCs are sleeping, rather than trying to threaten them. Or even just when you're sending assassins after them. Don't make expensive spell components readily available to your players (at least, not all the time). Diamond Dust for ressurrection? Religious institutions are now controlling that, and you'll need to preform a service for their faith before they are willing to even let you buy any. Those rare incenses and herbs for a Gate spell? they can only be harvested once a year. Can the PCs really afford to let the BBEG get on with his plans for 8 months before they call up the reinforcements? My personal favorite here (which can be used at all levels of play) is to have enemies destroy spell component pouches. There's a boatload of spells that are capable of doing this, and wizards who actually expend a feat on Eschew Materials are rare (Sorcerers, unfortunately, get it for free). But you can even go one step further: there a particular spell that an NPC should be worried about? Have the spell book containing it get stolen, and make part of the story line be about getting it back (also, take a few moments to enjoy listening to your wizard player curse their own stupidity for putting all their ninth level spells in the same spell book).

One of the recurring tropes in Fantasy literature is the magic eating sword. I've found it to be very useful to create similar things for enemies that I want to challenge my players: A sword that is a mobile Antimagic Field will make even a relatively mundane enemy seem a challenge to a party that has grown reliant upon magical weapons and abilities (Side Note: If you want to give one of these to someone and make them even more frightening, consider a 3.5 edition Vow of Poverty for them, with the sword being their only object of value). If your goal isn't to make someone immune to your spell casters all together, and you just want a caster out of commission long enough to make a fight seem desperate, consider having a missile using NPC have invested in some barbed ammunition that has a permanent antimagic field on it. The spell caster struck is going to have to spend a turn or more getting the piece of ammunition out of himself and tossing it far enough away that he can cast again and be helpful (I recommend you rule that the ammunition is destroyed in the process of being removed). Best part? The caster's buffs that usually protect against ranged attacks and in which he has so much faith? They have no affect.

Also, never forget Terry Goodkind's astute observation from Wizard's First Rule "People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."
-How to Apply it: This one is a great thing to have your NPCs exploit in game, particularly at the higher levels. Characters have reached the point of being able to do amazing things, and so the Players and the characters have come to the expectation that their enemies will also be able to do amazing things. Sure, every warlord out there could line his keep with lead to prevent scrying, because that would be safe. But a truly conniving and malicious NPC might instead put up an illusion around it, so that no one but them actually knows what it looks like. Oh, sure, they can be scryed on (why they don't care about that is up to you to decide, but communicating anything important via thoughts often works), but folks attempting to teleport in as part of a Scry and Fry attempt are going to be Very Disappointed about how that turns out. For an added twist, perhaps the mis-informed teleport sends the party into a dungeon death trap from which they have to try and get out (Tomb of Horrors, anyone?). PCs using divination to get too much information on your big baddy and prepare for fighting him too precisely? Perhaps it's been using polymorph and spells to masquerade as a white dragon all these years, and it's actually a black. There's absolutely no limit on what sort of misinformation your players can learn IC. Again, you can't always do this to your players (or at least, not always in the same way), but you can do it occasionally.

There's a few other tricks I've found as well, to get around certain problems.
-Can't give the monsters permanent protection items, for fear of screwing with the Wealth By Level charts? Give them spells that can be worn away through exposure (For instance, an active Protection from Energy spell). It doesn't entirely negate a character and their contributions (a good enough spell might even overcome the protection entirely and deal some damage), but it should prevent your wizard with his uber fireball from one-shoting the ambush party. Players wonder how that happened? Perhaps they find an empty potion flask on each of the enemies after the fight is over.
-Spell caster taking too long on their turn to decide their action (or anyone, generally)? I've found that a house rule of "You have 3 minutes from when I call your name" works well. If you as a player have too many options and can't decide on one by then (Note that I run a table of nine players, plus myself, so if you're paying attention and thinking on players turns, you've probably had closer to 30 minutes to consider it since your last turn), then your character is ruled to have been just as lost in considering their options as you were.
-Plot railroading isn't any more of a problem at high levels then it is at low. It all comes down to player and GM preference.

The last bit of advice I have for running a high level game is to focus on the ending. Personally, I've taken a line from the Dark Knight and made it my mantra for planning out the endings of my games ever since I heard it; before I'd heard it, I often had trouble ending my games, but it clicked for some reason: "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Ultimately, there's a lot of stories being told when we're gaming: there's the tale that the GM is weaving, and then there are the personal stories of each character that comes along. The trick to master is managing to end all of these stories at once. In a low level game, that can be easy: The PCs have saved their village and served the local lord and ensured peace in their lives. They can follow the heroic journey (note: Read The Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell if you haven't before now), and return home to retire.

At high levels, an ending like that can still happen, but for a lot of players and GMs it can feel anticlimatic after saving the world. Why would the master of the arcane go home to a village of cabbage farmers? Why would the greatest swordsman in three planes settle down to run an inn in the middle of nowhere? Determining how to end high level games depends a lot on what you've seen your players do. Some will play a character that has been pining for home and the girl next door since first level, while some have never once mentioned their back story. But at high levels, I find that the most compelling and enjoyable endings of the games are the "oh my god epic!" scenes of sacrifice by the PCs. I'll give two of my favorite examples, one of which I had the good fortune of playing in, the other of GMing.

The first was group of PCs who hit level 35 in 3.0-3.5. They'd gone through hell and back (literally at one point) trying to figure out what was going wrong with their world, and they'd discovered the answer was that an ancient and epic level spell caster had been slowly siphoning off the world's life energy to try and a) ascend to godhood while b) giving life to a small army of atropals he'd gathered, who would then kill all the other gods. Their final adventure consisted of their assault on his demi-plane, intent on destroying the caster and his 'army' entirely, in body and soul. At the end, only two PCs made it to the final encounter, as each of the rest of the group was killed in the course of making it to the inner sanctum. There, the two final PCs died heroically, using their last moments of life to force a pair of spheres of Annihilation together, an act which they'd theorized would cause the demi-plane to implode and everything in it to be destroyed. The players and the GM all sat back as that last scene ended. For the sake of completeness, the GM gave the PCs a short epilogue that they had been successful, and discussed what had become of the PCs' followers, and how each PC would be remembered by the world they'd saved. And that was the end of the game, and the group of players involved still fondly recounts (6 years later) that entire ending.

The second was in a call of Cthulhu campaign, where five of the PCs stepped in to give their lives in sealing a rift through which Eldritch Entities of Horroer were trying to come to Earth. For a brief moment, they had the ability to tap into powers far beyond mortal ken, and impose one new law (metaphysical or otherwise) on the universe. And that was the end of the game. Triumphant, but with a true and final ending to the PCs that each of them could be proud of.

At high level games, planning for and making sure that these endings happen is important. Very few players will be satisifed with the ending of "and then you retire, go senile, and die of old age" to a character that is this capable. Either the character will become a BBEG for a new generation of PCs to fight, or let them move on from the world in glory and tears.

Tomorrow I am hosting a game for my friends in which they will go into a goblin dungeon with a small military group to wipe out the goblins.

I want this to be a Tucker's Kobolds type of scenario that will humble (but NOT KILL) the heroes.

Does anyone have any advice for how to polish up just such a dungeon (largely just a big burrow under a forest)?

The tunnels will be made for small characters, forcing the entire party to squeeze all the time. Lots of bends and turns will limit line of sight and ranged abilities. Traps and murder holes aplenty will mean the PCs will be under constant attack. Tiny-sized escape tunnels will allow embattled goblins to flee where they cannot be pursued and also allow them to circle around the intruders.

Beyond that, I don't have much. Please help me keep it interesting for the players.

Here is a list of the player characters (with PDF character sheets):

Hihachi Belecqua (human fighter 9)

Selfane Goldbound (human sorcerer 5/dragon disciple 4)

Trinse Woodman (half-elf sorcerer 1/ranger 6/arcane archer 2)

They will be in command of up to 60 foot soldiers and military adepts.

From my experiences hosting past games for this crew, I fully expect them to do something fairly idiotic like burn the whole forest down prior to entering the goblin den. They might even split up. I want them to succeed, eventually, but their power has gone to their heads lately and I want them to be brought down to earth a little.

Oh boy, this will be awesome. ^.^

Goblins are widely considered one of the weeny monsters. Often seen as the enemies that party's stomp all over on their way to 2nd level, they have developed a reputation in most gaming groups as being small, weak, and easily defeated. That reasoning just seems to make good, good sense. Well reasoning be damned because goblins, like their kobold cousins, are in fact one of the nastiest enemies you can run across, right up to mid-levels, and make your players beg for mercy.

Let us begin!

The Six Million Dollar Goblin
We have the technology to rebuild him...

Pathfinder saw fit to really give goblins a boost. Now they are easily on par with other humanoid races of their challenge rating. Let's look at some of the things that goblins have going for themselves.

• Abilities: -2 Str, -2 Cha, +4 Dexterity. Oh heck yes. Goblins are the kings of Dexterity as far as core humanoid races goes.
  
• Small Size: Small is a good thing for goblins. It's a +4 to Stealth, +1 to hit, +1 to AC. Goblins should avoid being close enough to suffer for the -1 combat maneuver problem. This is great.
  
• Darkvision: This is just another wonderful way for goblins to ambush the heck out of people. Goblins can comfortably lurk in areas of darkness, even leaving entire dungeons or lairs dark. Invaders who lack darkvision will quickly forfeit any element of surprise with their lights in the dark.
  
• Speed: Goblins have a 30ft speed. Not a big deal but it means they're as fast as medium creatures. Excellent.
  
• Racial Skills: Goblins get a +4 to Stealth and Ride. This combined with their +4 Dex, and +4 Stealth due to size, and goblins quickly become kings of not being seen.
  

So what can we determine by looking at their stats? They're suited for ranged combat, don't really want to fight with things bigger than they are in melee, are quick and stealthy, and will excel at ambushes. Perfect.

Ability Scores: NPC-classed NPCs are built using 3 PB. You can use the sample ability scores found in the goblin statistics or you can customize your goblins a bit for their suited role. Not every goblin is going to have the same ability scores, for example. Consider playing around with their stat allotments, or trying a few 3 PB builds.

In general, if you're making soldier goblins, you might consider dropping their Charisma deep into the negatives to reflect the amount of their willpower that is beaten out of them, while having a comparatively higher Dexterity to represent their increased focus on things like shooting.

Sample Ability Score Arrays (3 PB)
13, 12, 11, 10, 9, and 8.
14, 12, 12, 10, 9, and 7.
14, 12, 12, 12, 7, and 7.

I personally recommend stat array #2 for general purposes, prioritizing Dex>Str>Con>Int>Wis>Cha, resulting in a goblin with Str 10, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, and Cha 5 after racial modifiers.

Equipment: By default, each goblin will have about 260 gold pieces worth of NPC equipment for a standard campaign on the medium XP progression. For a fast XP progression, the value of their gear moves up to 390 gp. If the campaign is high-fantasy then you double these values. I will be using the standard NPC wealth for this guide, and if your campaign allows for additional equipment you may use your judgment.

The first question is, "What would a goblin use"? Well goblins are naturally predisposed to ranged weaponry at the expense of melee combat. Especially since they are excellent ambushers with naturally amazing Stealth results. The second would most assuredly fire. At least in Golarion, goblins seem to love fire because it doesn't require strength to be effective (makes total sense).

So let's look at a sample equipment list for some 1st level goblin warriors.

• Melee Weapons (0 gp): For melee, clubs (0 gp). They're simple, cheap, and goblins should be avoiding melee anyway against anything but commoners.
  
• Ranged Weapons (100 gp): I'd swap a bit of the goblin's protection fund (-30 gp) over into their weapons and go for longbow (75 gp) plus a hundred arrows (5 gp). It's important to remember that small-sized equipment is half as heavy as medium, so that's not a lot of weight in arrows (only about 7.5 lbs which is easy for our gobbo to pack).
  
• Other Weapons (100 gp):We'll funnel a bit more of our protections (-20 gp), consumables, and gear fund into purchasing some alchemical items to use as weapons. Against creatures larger than themselves, goblin soldiers should outright thrive on items like alchemist fire, tanglefoot bags, and acid flasks.

  I'd recommend at least two alchemical weapons per goblin (like standard issue grenades). With a budget of 100 gp, we should be able to purchase our grenade-like weapons comfortably. Two alchemist fire plus 1 acid flask and a tanglefoot bag should be a good bet for most goblins, providing both offensive and control options to our little goblins (slapping someone with a tanglefoot bag means slowing them down while also making them much easier to hit with a gratuitous barrage of fire and acid). Keep in mind you can change it up a bit. 3 flasks of acid, an alchemist fire, and a 1st level potion (such as a magic weapon oil, longstrider, and even reduce person are good bets).
  

• Armor (10 gp): Goblins will likely favor leather armor because it's cheap and efficient for them. It lacks check penalties that would hamper their ability to ambush targets, and their naturally higher Dexterity modifiers and small size ensure their AC will be suitably high (an 18 Dex goblin will have a 17 AC in leather).
  
• Other Funds (50 gp): With the last 50 gp, I'd recommend either a potion, or a masterwork tool (such as boots or cloak) for +2 Stealth. If the goblins are out of reach of such conveniences, you can also purchase gear such as canteens, rations, and other useful tools (perhaps a masterwork survival kit which provides a +2 to Survival), allowing them to easily take-10 and survive extended periods away from their village or burrows.
  

Of course, you can switch it up a bit. A goblin adept probably has no use for a longbow but might carry a small light crossbow instead (35 gp), or maybe not carry any weapons beyond clubs and slings, and instead carry a few scrolls, a partially charged wand, or a larger payload of alchemy items.

Sample Adept Gear (260 gp): Club or Staff (0 gp), Sling (0 gp), rocks for sling (0 gp), leather armor (10 gp), wand of scorching ray (2 charges, 90 gp each), wand of obscuring mist (1 charge, 15 gp), wand of bless (1 charge, 15 gp), acid flask (4, 40 gp), 15 gp remaining.

Feats: Most goblins are probably going to have feats that help them do what they do best. I highly recommend Point Blank Shot for most goblins, Skill Focus (Stealth) for excessively ambush-intensive groups, and Skill Focus (Perception) on the occasional goblin lookout or hunter.

Combat and Encounters: Goblins will naturally gravitate towards what they excel at. Specifically, goblins will gravitate towards ambush tactics, ranged weapons, grenade-like weapons, and small spaces. Here we'll discuss some options that goblins have to put all but the most prepared of heroes in their place.

• Those Dirty Goblins!: Goblins are often described as uncultured and filthy. True or not, it wouldn't be surprising to see goblins who leave their arrow tips dipped in feces (such as goblin-dog excrement) out of spite. Historically, many archery wounds actually killed due to infections from where archers stuck arrows in the ground and then pulled them up for faster firing (as opposed to a quiver). Same general concept here.

  These goblin arrows are covered in filth fever, so every arrow that hits an enemy forces a DC 12 fortitude save or it could become infected. Such might warrant raising the CR of the goblins from CR 1/3 to CR 1/2, but since unlike poison disease doesn't stack and has no immediate effects, I'd probably not bother and just consider it something of a situational hazard (at best perhaps award XP as though the encounter had favorable conditions for the goblins). Personally, if I was a player, I'd not really expect a CR-increase for filth fever on dirty arrows, and just appreciate the fact I grabbed a +5 vs Disease alchemical item (see D20PRD.com).

  This makes the encounter a little bit more personal. Disease basically means the goblins will be remembered a little longer if someone gets infected. Over the course of an entire goblin warren, somebody is likely to get unlucky and fail a save, and you can inform them that a nasty infection is setting in later.
  

• Focus Fire!: Goblins should treat everything they fight like they were fighting Giants. Focus on one at a time and bring them down, thinning the ranks. A group of 12 goblins with ranged attacks focusing on a single opponent is actually quite scary for a surprising number of levels. At low levels it is almost an assured death sentence unless you're a tank with a high AC.

  However, against heavily armored or special enemies (such as adventurers) the goblins should pull out their alchemical weapons. In tight spaces like a goblin warren full of tunnels, you will make your players feel like they stepped into the first layer of hell. Twelve goblins shooting at a guy is scary. Twelve goblins lobbing alchemist fire at one guy is terrifying (12 ranged attacks vs touch AC dealing 1d6 energy damage immediately, 1d6 energy damage each round after until doused, and inflicting 12 points of splash damage in a 10ft radius is nasty). For those at home, goblins with Point Blank Shot would inflict 12d6+12 fire damage on round 1, and hit for another 12d6 fire damage on round 2 from the burning.

  Stuff like resist energy will block this tactic entirely, but that's when the goblins swap to acid flasks and continue their rein of terror. If your party casts resist energy twice on everyone in the party, they are sufficiently fearful of them.

  Looking at the NPCs you provided, your party's Fighter - Hihachi Belacqua - has 109 hit points and a 14 touch AC. If a group of 12 goblins with Point blank shot were to attack him with touch weapons from around 20ft away they'd inflict some serious pain (+4 dex, +1 base attack, +1 point blank shot, +1 size, -2 range = 60% chance to hit, or 70% if within 10ft). He'd be looking at a statistical 32.4 points of damage from the ones that hit him directly, about 3-4 points of splash damage from the ones that missed him, and another 25.2 points of damage on the following round. With his max HP being 109, this will most assuredly get his attention.

  Meanwhile, Selfane would be able to enjoy his Fire Resistance 10, though he would suffer lesser damage at the hands of acid flasks, though he'd find a nice use for that resist energy spell on his sorcerer list, allowing him to burn through his 2nd level spell slots to protect the party from getting slaughtered. However, due to his lower HP, I assured that the 32.4 points of acid damage from our hypothetical 1 dozen kobolds would get his attention just fine.

  Poor Trinse only has about half the hit points of Hihachi according to your pdf, and could actually be reduced to negative HP values in the first two rounds from the same volley that Hihachi would have suffered, and he lacks resistances to either fire or acid, meaning that he would definitely need to rely on Selfane to provide resistances. To make the entire party immune to grenade-bombs, Selfane would need to cast resist energy 5 times (twice for Hihachi, twice for Trinse, and once for himself). If the kobolds were also packing alchemist frost or similar, he might even have to resort to scrolls or recharging spell-trigger items.

• Home Field Advantage: Goblins (like kobolds) rely on ambushes and unfair advantages. Their small size can be a pain for larger characters. A goblin warren can easily be just large enough to fit small characters comfortably, forcing medium sized creatures to squeeze (-4 attacks and AC), putting them at the mercy of the goblins (who now have a near 100% chance to hit the party's Fighter, pushing that alchemist fire damage through the very low-roof).

  Furthermore, goblins can use small tunnels that they can squeeze through that medium creatures have no hope of entering at all. This can let goblins (or kobolds) move about in little sub-tunnels (like air ducts), while the medium PCs have to deal with squeezing through the main levels of the dungeon. This can allow the goblins to surround and flank parties while keeping everything very tight. Imagine for a moment that you're walking down a small-sized hallway that's mostly strait, but every 5ft there's a tiny tunnel where goblins can emerge from or flee into at any time, or even cast spells through.

  Cross this with a few simple traps at inconvenient locations, such as a collapsing floor (pit trap) that is located in an area that makes walking around it a pain (such as a 10x10 room with a 10x10 pit trap, with tunnels connecting to it from different sides). This might put the party in a position where going from point A to point B is really difficult, as you have to deal with a low-ceiling and a 10ft gap. A 10ft gap with goblins shooting little 1d6 arrows at you from the other side. You can fill the pits with other nasty things as well. This is a great place for a swarm of spiders, snakes, or a various molds and/or hazardous fungi.

  If you're really mean, allot a portion of wealth from a group of goblins towards several barrels of oil. Have the goblins use these barrels of unidentified contents as cover (+4 to AC) while shooting over them at the hapless adventurers on the other side. When the adventurers close to melee with the goblins, they fall into the pit trap. At this point, the goblins push the barrels into the pit, busting them and filling the pit with oil. Now a goblin tosses an alchemist fire into the pit, and the Barbecue commences! It's a pain to try and climb out of a 20ft pit trap at 1/3rd your speed while being unable to take your time for being on fire and having arrows shot into the hole at you.

  Don't forget that burning smoke in the area causes inhalation issues, which causes the suffocation rules to come into play as well. At this point, the kobolds will be nickle and diming the players to death, and the players will definitely feel the heat (no pun intended) as they are put in a position where remaining put is hazardous, moving is hazardous, the air is hazardous, their enemies are surrounding them (and also hazardous), and they can't easily move around, etc. We're basically talking combination claustrophobia plus increasing feelings of dread and helplessness. Go-goblins!

• Terrain Advantages: Goblin warrens likely have a number of twists and turns. This can mean that centering AoEs to kill or incap many of them can be difficult. Spells like fireball don't fill out a tunnel, so anything behind total cover (corners) is effectively safe. Worse yet, if the party is ambushed from different directions in tight corners, they may literally be unable to get line of sight or effects without catching the party in the blast or spell radius as well!

  Imagine you're walking through a tunnel when you come across a room with a bunch of little murder holes that the goblins are shooting through. Meanwhile, the tunnel is shaped like two interconnecting letter "L's", and more goblins ambush you from the front and behind. You might be able to wipe out all the goblins (including the ones with cover via murder holes) but none around the corners, and due to the corners and walls you are literally incapable of aiming your fireball or black tentacles spell without catching the party in the area too! Fear the goblins!

  Speaking of murder holes, that's another one that's mean. Walls with holes in 'em that you can shoot out of. You have cover (+4 AC) while your opponent has pretty much nothing. Like shooting adventurers in a barrel. The adventurers could even break into the small hallways on the other side of the holes (which are connected to tiny tunnels that the goblins move through the warren with), which can be pretty awesome. However, if the adventurers start tearing down too many of the walls in a single area, they might causes a cave in, which can cause them to be pinned under rubble with no save or hope of freedom (see cave-ins and avalanches in "additional rules" on the PRD).

• Casualties of War: While your 9th level party can probably come through, the soldiers and adepts they are bringing along might be a whole different story. All those splash weapons will likely wear on them badly. Most might require some convincing (via Diplomacy) to continue deeper into the warren after encountering worrisome odds, such as losing half their hit points to splash damage (the sorcerer has no way to cast resist energy on everybody).

  Essentially, even if our illustrious heroes make it out, the casualty count will be enormous. It would not be surprising if virtually every warrior and adept was dead to the last before the end of the adventure, or at least fleeing the warren after suffering heavy losses.

• Advanced Goblins: Occasionally you might want to introduce specialist goblins into the mix. No frequently, but a goblin warrior 2/alchemist 1 could be a crazed bomber. A set of goblin rogue/sorcerers with acid splash and ray of frost who spam ranged-touch cantrips with sneak attack added on might frighten them a bit (1d3+1d6+1 cold damage each round). A 3rd level goblin druid or sorcerer that keeps spamming summon swarm from the other side of a murder hole and keeps following the party using Stealth and holding concentration on the summon swarm spells is another way to mess with them. It doesn't really matter what their AC is. A spider swarm is immune to weapons and inflicts 1d6 damage every round plus a save vs poison. In such tight spaces, it can be a pain.

  A class level here or their can just be devastating. A goblin warrior 5 / assassin 3, maxed Stealth, Ability Focus (Death Attack), and a way to reliably gain cover or concealment to use Stealth is just cruel and unusual. The goblin's Death Attack would easily be a DC 16 save or die along with an additional +2d6 sneak attack, while only being about CR 4 or 5.

• Goblin Tactics: A single goblin adept in a group can crank up the effectiveness of groups of goblins. A single bless spell over a group of goblins effectively gives them +1 level of warrior for the purposes of hitting. All those nice +6 ranged attacks just became +7 ranged attacks. Likewise, using obscuring mist wands can cause the party to either go blindly into areas (possibly trapped areas) or waste valuable time (read: buffs) waiting to progress.

  Of course, goblins should also mob enemies. Aid-another should be a common action in many cases (you can have goblins use longspears and aid-another to increase the AC of the goblin in front of them). Likewise, flanking is a given. A few goblins with longspears on each side of a room who are poking the spears through the tiny ducts in the walls are flanking the party in the middle (so while the goblins do get -4 to attacks and AC from squeezing in the ducts, they are likely immune to reprisal and get a +2 flanking bonus to hit, just to be annoying). Double the fun if you make the goblins 1st level warrior/sorcerers with guisarmes who spam true strike to trip the party members in the main hallway from inside the tunnel (that's +1 BAB, +1 size, +2 flanking, +20 true strike, -4 squeezing, -1 size = +19 CMB to trip). For extra poops and giggles, give one or two a ranseur and disarm them instead.

  A well placed grease spell on a steep incline can introduce a party of adventurers to a world of suckitude as they cascade down into a room of awful and terrible disaster (at this point it could just be a swarm of goblins, a swarm of swarms, a burning pit of doom, a gelatinous cube, or anything else that tickles your sadistic fantasies).
  

GMing Advice: When dealing with such mass clusters of NPCs, I'd seriously advise using a few tricks to speed gameplay. The "take average" approach is probably the best one. Unless something funny is going on, instead of rolling a horde of different initiatives, have all the goblins go at once. Instead of rolling a horde of different Stealth or Perception checks, set the DCs at 10 + Modifiers. That way you can quickly determine the DC for the players to notice the goblin ambush up ahead (if the entire group all has a +12 Stealth, then the Perception DC to notice them is DC 22, for example).

This will drastically speed up your gameplay, and also help you gauge the expected success/fail ratio much better, as opposed to extremely erratic results or pointless rolls (if you have 12 goblins in ambush and one of those twelve roll a 1, it likely doesn't matter, while the reverse is likely true for the players as well).

This should be enough ideas to get you started. Also to show I'm a good sport, here's an NPC bestiary for you to play around with, to save you some time (as well as some sample encounter builds).

NPC BESTIARY
• Goblin Guerrilla Soldier (CR 1/3, 135 XP)
  Small goblin warrior 1
  Init +4, Perception +0, Darkvision 60ft
  ================================================
  AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 13
  Hp 5 (1d10)
  Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +0
  ================================================
  Speed 30 ft
  Melee Club +2 (1d4)
  Ranged Longbow +5 (1d6/x3 plus filth fever)
  Ranged Grenade +5 touch (varies)
  Special - If within 30 ft, +1 to attack and damage
  with ranged weapons.
  ================================================
  Str 10, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 5
  Base Atk +1, CMB +0, CMD 15
  Skills - Ride +12, Stealth +15;
  Racial Mods +4 Ride, +4 Stealth
  Feats - Point Blank Shot
  ================================================
  Equipment (260 gp) - club, longbow (w/100 arrows),
  leather armor, alchemist fire (2), acid flask (1),
  tanglefoot bag (1), masterwork cloak (+2 stealth)

• Goblin Adept (CR 1/3, 135 XP)
  Small goblin adept 1
  Init +7, Perception +2, Darkvision 60ft
  ================================================
  AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 13
  Hp 4 (1d6+1)
  Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +2
  ================================================
  Speed 30 ft
  Melee Club -1 (1d4-3)
  Ranged Sling +5 (1d3-3 plus filth fever)
  Ranged Grenade +5 touch (varies)
  Ranged Scorching Ray +5 touch (4d6 fire)

  Adept Spells (CL 1st, DC 11 + level)
  1st - comprehend languages
  0 - create water, detect magic, ghost sound
  ================================================
  Str 6, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 7, Wis 12, Cha 8
  Base Atk +0, CMB -3, CMD 11
  Skills - Spellcraft +2, Stealth +12;
  Racial Mods +4 Ride, +4 Stealth
  Feats - Improved Initiative
  ================================================
  Equipment (260 gp) - Club or Staff (0 gp), Sling (0 gp),
  rocks for sling (0 gp), leather armor (10 gp),
  wand of scorching ray (2 charges, 90 gp each),
  wand of obscuring mist (1 charge, 15 gp),
  wand of bless (1 charge, 15 gp), acid flask (4, 40 gp),
  15 gp remaining.

• Goblin Shadowcasters (CR 1, 400 XP)
  Small goblin rogue 1 / sorcerer 1
  Init +6, Perception +5, Darkvision 60ft
  ================================================
  AC 17, touch 17, flat-footed 11
  Hp 13 (1d8+1d6+2)
  Fort +1, Ref +8, Will +3
  ================================================
  Speed 30 ft
  Melee Club -2 (1d4-3)
  Ranged Sling +7 (1d3-3 plus filth fever)
  Ranged Grenade +7 touch (varies)
  Ranged Cantrip +7 touch (1d3 acid or cold)
  Special Attacks - sneak attack (+1d6)

  Sorcerer Spells (CL 1st, DC 10 + level)
  1st (3/day) - Magic Missile, Grease (11)
  0 - Acid Splash, Ray of Frost, Message, Prestidigitation
  ================================================
  Str 5, Dex 22, Con 11, Int 7, Wis 12, Cha 11
  Base Atk +0, CMB -3, CMD 13
  Skills - Acrobatics +10, Appraise +2, Diplomacy +4,
  Perception +5, Spellcraft +2, Stealth +25,
  Use Magic Device +4,
  Racial Mods +4 Ride, +4 Stealth
  Feats - Skill Focus (Stealth)
  ================================================
  Equipment (780 gp) - masterwork backpack,
  masterwork tool (+2 stealth),
  wand of scorching ray (2 charges, 180 gp),
  wand of blur (2 charges, 180 gp),
  wand of summon swarm (1 charge, 90 gp),
  wand of web (1 charge, 90 gp),
  wand of invisibility (1 charge, 90 gp),
  acid flask (3)

• Goblin Assassin (CR 5, 1,600 XP)
  Small goblin warrior 5 / assassin 3
  Init +10, Perception +2, Darkvision 60ft
  ================================================
  AC 19, touch 17, flat-footed 13
  Hp 40 (5d10+3d8+8)
  Fort +6, Ref +11, Will +3; +1 vs Poison
  Special - Uncanny Dodge
  ================================================
  Speed 30 ft
  Melee Club +5 (1d6-2)
  Ranged Mwk light crossbow +14 (1d6/19-20/x2)
  Ranged Acid Splash +13 touch (1d3 acid)
  Special - If within 30 ft, +1 to attack and damage
  with ranged weapons.
  Special Attacks - sneak attack (+2d6),
  Death Attack (DC 19), Poison Use
  ================================================
  Str 7, Dex 22, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 8, Cha 5
  Base Atk +7, CMB +5, CMD 20
  Skills - Acrobatics +15, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +6,
  Disguise +6, Perception +8, Sense Motive +3,
  Stealth +26, Use Magic Device +6
  Racial Mods +4 Ride, +4 Stealth
  Feats - Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot,
  Ability Focus (death attack), Improved Initiative
  ================================================
  Equipment (3,450 gp) - mwk light crossbow, club,
  bolts (100), masterwork tool (+2 stealth),
  cloak of resistance +1, amulet of health +1,
  rod of acid splash (1,000 gp)
  ================================================
  Rod of Acid Splash (Su, Item): This rod is wielded in one
  hand just as a weapon. It allows the wearer to throw
  globs of acid as per the cantrip acid splash.

  Death Attack (Ex): If an assassin studies his victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (assassin's choice). Studying the victim is a standard action. The death attack fails if the target detects the assassin or recognizes the assassin as an enemy (although the attack might still be a sneak attack if the target is denied his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class or is flanked). If the victim of such a death attack fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + the assassin's class level + the assassin's Int modifier) against the kill effect, she dies. If the saving throw fails against the paralysis effect, the victim is rendered helpless and unable to act for 1d6 rounds plus 1 round per level of the assassin. If the victim's saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack. Once the assassin has completed the 3 rounds of study, he must make the death attack within the next 3 rounds.

  If a death attack is attempted and fails (the victim makes her save) or if the assassin does not launch the attack within 3 rounds of completing the study, 3 new rounds of study are required before he can attempt another death attack.
  

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