When our group decided to play Kingmaker, I knew that I wanted to make the feel of the game one similar to my favorite book series, Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. These are the adjustments I made in my campaign to make that happen. Hopefully some of you will find at least part of these ideas useful or interesting.
Bear in mind that none of this is even remotely canon, as the noble houses of Brevoy have been expanded into Dukedoms, with lesser noble houses underneath of each of them for greater political complications and possibilities. The Swordlords have been expanded from a bunch of itinerant dueling swordsmen in Restov into a quiet force equal to any of the standing Dukes. Additionally, the Churches of Abadar and to some extent Gorum also wield a great deal of influence and power, though not quite to the degree the noble houses do.
My party started out in a fictional town of Tammerling, located in the lands of the Baron Manning, a minor Rogarvian noble with amicable ties to the Swordlords. It was actually the Baron who commissioned the party to head into the Stolen Lands, not the Swordlords or Brevoy. The Swordlords approved obviously, since it gave their side more resources and land and places a buffer between Restov and Mivon. Surtova doesn’t really have any involvement in this venture, which allows the GM to involve the Royal Brevic guard either as allies, neutrals, or enemies, depending on the circumstances.
Personalities of the Duchies of Brevoy
House Surtova – very cunning, manipulative, opportunistic, use their wealth gained as a merchant family to open up doors for future advancement. Some of their extended family are secretly pirates upon the Lake of Sea and Mists, and raid in conjunction with House Lodovka. Noleski is fond of his station and the wealth, luxuries, women, and adoration it brings him. His sister has far more ambitious goals, and wants to eventually sit on the throne directly. Her idol is Abrogail of House Thrune, who she sees as a guide for enlightened rule. To assist her in her ambitions, she has fostered and allied herself with a heretical brance of the Church of Abadar that believes in using force and intimidation to maintain order and law (LE). This house is played similar to the Lannisters from GoT, minus quite so much gold.
House Medvyed – straightforward, old school, steady and reliable, strong, worship the Old Gods (Erastil/Green Faith), and rule over lands that are mostly untamed wilderness. This house is played similarly to the Starks from GoT, with a bit more political savvy.
House Orlovsky – proud, fierce, intractable hill people, who are much influenced by their Iobarian roots. They were close allies to the House Rogarvia, and do not look favorably upon the current Regent situation with a Surtovan pretender sitting on the throne. They never miss a chance to remind the regent of his true title, and speak as if the Rogarvians are merely on an extended vacation and will soon return to set things right. They will never give up ground when they don’t have to, and are politically patient and calculating in their dealings. They have a longstanding feud with House Lodovka and have see House Surtova as simpering lackeys. They are a very dangerous enemy and currently the one most in the sights of Surtova. If the Regent can stabilize things in the south enough to act in the North with a free hand, there could soon be a Crown War over the title of King. This house plays like the Scotsmen of the Northern Highlands, a la Braveheart.
House Lodovka – extensive ships, water dwelling folk, quite a bit of piracy and raiding, treacherous when dealing with anyone but House Surtova. This house is played similar to the Ironborn (Greyjoys) from GoT, only toned down a little so it is slightly more weasily and less burn and destroy everything.
House Garess – reserved, tend to stay out of disputes, hold back their allegiance until they can gain the most benefit, interested in what they payout is more than any loyalties. Played a bit like the Freys from GoT, though if the elder Lord Garess passes and his dwarven heir takes the ducal throne, this kingdom could become a bit more assertive and posturing.
House Lebeda - tempestuous, driven, prickly about their honor, in short, much like the Swordlords. The current matron of the House wants to marry her daughter off to Noleski Surtova in return for her support in his becoming king, and plans to strongarm the Swordlords who have domains in her lands into her way of thinking. Ideally, her son will be married off to a Swordlord ruling family, cementing her local alliances as well. Despite her lofty goals, Dame Sarrona has not really thought things through, nor consulted with many of those involved in her schemes. Her daughter is in love with a Swordlord scion already, and plans to keep him as a lover once she marries the king, possibly re-marrying him if something “tragic” were to happen to the king. Her son wants more than anything to adventure and see the wonders of the world, and has very little interest in ruling anything currently. He doesn’t mind ruling, he just wants to sow his wild oats and experience life some before being chained down to a title the rest of his life. He secretly plans to steal away to this new kingdom in the Stolen Lands where there are risks and adventures aplenty, if the bards and rumors are to be believed. This house is played like the Tyrells from GoT, ambitious to align themselves to the ruling power of the realm, whoever that may be. The have their fingers in many endeavors and tend to cover their bases by playing both sides of the fence at the same time, so they come out on top no matter which was the situation resolves itself.
I am interested in any ideas for dirty tricks evil fey or other small annoying creatures can pull on my party. Occasionally, I like to make them the sort of foes that makes the party stands around and mash their dead remains into mush because they hate them so much. So far tricks I have used with evil fey are:
-improved snatch with a rogueish fey that stole the cleric's holy symbol.
-quickling that raced into camp and spread a bag of horse's blood around, followed shortly by a group of angry trolls it let to the party's camp.
-fey with a very high stealth roll stuffed poison ivy leaves into the players shorts while they slept slightly away from the guard at camp.
All of these resulted in at least one player wanting to stop everything until they hunted down the offending fey. Any other ideas?
I am trying to figure out where my groups kingdom should be BP wise at different sizes and points in the game. If anyone would mind including approx BP for either different sizes of the kingdom or different books, along with # of cities at that time, it would be immensely helpful.
My players did not like the idea of magic items generating most of a kingdoms BP (nor did I), so we are experimenting with alternate methods, but it would be good to know what my benchmarks are for BP income.
Any info posted would be helpful, but if possible posts showing progression would be most helpful. Progression could be either by # of hexes or by book.
I am currently playing a dwarven zen archer in a regular campaign. Our party is fairly large with 9 players. Party consists of bard/cavalier(going battle herald), natural weapon ranger, witch, enchantment spec wizard, elemental sorcerer, halfling rogue, half orc paladin tank, and a half orc barbarian.
My monk is primarily the scout and ranged support for the party. I am considering taking three levels of druid to supplement my monk skills, which would net me woodland stride, trackless step, and 2nd lvl spells.
I am looking for some advice/opinions as to whether this is a waste of time, decent idea, and if so, some feat and equipment ideas to complement a build in this direction.
My current build is posted below, with steel soul, spider step, toughness, and improved critical (longbow) my next feat choices.
BROTHER THAIN CR 2
Male Dwarf Monk (Zen Archer) 3
LN Medium Humanoid (Dwarf)
Hero Points 2
Init +3; Senses Darkvision (120 feet); Perception +10
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex)
hp 29 (3d8+6)
Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +7
Defensive Abilities Defensive Training
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 30 ft.
Melee Unarmed Strike +4 (1d6+2/20/x2)
Ranged Longbow, Comp. (Str +2) +7 (1d8+2/20/x3)
Special Attacks Flurry of Blows +1/+1, Zen Archery
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 14, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 6
Base Atk +2; CMB +4; CMD 19
Feats Deadly Aim -1/+2, Deep Sight, Improved Unarmed Strike, Monk Weapon Proficiencies, Perfect Strike (2d20) (3/day), Point Blank Master: Longbow, Composite, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus: Longbow
Traits Glory of Old, Outlander - Exile
Skills Acrobatics +7, Climb +8, Perception +10, Stealth +7
Languages Common, Dwarven
Combat Gear +1 Guided, Seeking Longbow, Composite (Str +2); Other Gear Boots of Striding and Springing, Bracers of Archery, Greater, Cloak of Elvenkind, Efficient Quiver (empty), Handy Haversack (empty), Headband of Inspired Wisdom, +4, Ring of Protection, +2, Robe, Monk's
I don't have UC yet, can anyone tell me if there are any feats that mimic this ability or do something like it? Obviously Fleet increases your speed overall, but I mean a feat chain or something to provide armor speed reduction compensation.
Okay, I am asking for opinions, in particular from GMs who are familiar with the material, but anyone can chime in. I am spoilering some of it so its not a wall 'o text. Here is the background:
Campaign info::
9 player campaign, so all encounters have been ramped up quite a bit, mostly in terms of adding a few levels to leader types and adding in quite a few more mooks to take up actions and resources along the way. Additionally, all mind reading and lie detection magic does not exist in my game, to better allow conspiracies, treacheries, and plots to unfold.
Lead up::
My party stomped Happs and his three companions at Olegs, headed out and by serendipity made a bee-line for the Thorn River camp. Thanks to our alchemist and some lucky rolling, they got the upper hand and killed everyone except one minor bandit who surrendered and was questioned. Since then, they have taken out a smaller bandit gang (homebrew addition), and killed about 10 members of the staglord's men. Other allies of theirs (Kesten and his men, NPC barbarian) have taken out another 10 or so. I upped the number of roaming bandits quite a bit, mostly to portray the "serious bandit problem". They have also used most of their hard won treasure to expand and fortify Oleg's (Oleg died tragically, so technically its Svetlanna's now), another action which has caused great consternation to the Staglord. However, it took them nearly two months to find the Staglord's fort since then, and the long time in between has the Staglord irritated, so he means to confront them and hopefully fix them once and for all.
Staglord's Actions: The Staglord has kidnapped someone important to the party. He also has a witch of Gyronna working with him, equipped with a Hat of disguise. He sent Akiros Ismort out into the middle of the Greenbelt, not far from where the party was last seen, to burn a big signal fire on a hilltop for two days. The party found him, and as they approached, he informed them that "I am Akiros Ismort, lieutenant of the Stag Lord, and your hostage". This sort of freaked my party out since they had not expected this.
When they asked him what he meant, he told the party it was for the hostage exchange set to take place at a river ford not far away in two days. He was quite congenial, giving his word not to harm the party, and even agreed to help defend them against wandering monsters if his weapon was returned to him. He as rather agreeable, taking this opportunity to let the party know he doesn't really like the Stag Lord very much, and he relayed his background story to some extent. He implied he was obligated to see this current situation through to the end. The one thing he refused to tell the party who the hostage was, which in truth he does not know. This was the cliffhanger I left my group with for two weeks... :)
My Plan: Originally, I intended for this to be a straight hostage exchange, as an opportunity for the Stag Lord to see up close and meet who his adversaries were without having to resort to combat. Since re-reading his personality, it doesn't really fit. He seems more of a punish my enemies sort of guy so:
Here are some of my choices:
#1 - Simple 1 for 1 hostage exchange
#2 - The Staglord has three hostages, and makes the players choose which gets freed. These would be Svetlanna, the 11yr old brother and heir to the family of the PC leader, and an traumatized elven woman who was rescued by the party and fixated on by one of the players. My plan was to have Svetlanna be the only true hostage, the elf woman to be the witch in disguise (she wouldnt have to say much, since she hasnt really since her first traumatic experience, and this would not surprise the party), and the boy to be a minor creation illusion. This situation will for sure cause disagreement within the party over who to rescue, and the fact there are 3 hostages will upset them as well.
#3 - Straight up ambush
#4 - Lead the party on a wild goose chase, continuing to move the meeting point by a day and a location one hex further south each time, while taking the majority of his forces and attacking Oleg's.
#5 - Something else??
I would appreciate some suggestions, including maybe some I haven't thought of.
One of the coolest gaming experiences I ever had was when some friends and I tried out the DnD 2nd Ed optional rules for playing 0-level adventures. It made our characters come alive in a way they hadn't before and we felt like we were 5th level when we finally got to 1st level. We launched into a long campaign and then sort of drifted apart on our separate lives after that, so we never got to re-do it to see if it was just an amazing game moment or there was something to it.
When I tried it out again recently, it seems to be that it was just as cool, if very different even in the new 3.5/PF rulesets.
So:
1) Does anyone else ever do 0-level adventures?
2) If so, what rules do you use for your players?
3) One of the weird rules for 0-levels in 2nd ed was to let a 0-level character try to do anything ANY type of 1st level character could do, with a dice roll as a chance. That included turn undead, casting a spell, picking a lock, etc. Does anyone use this type of open-ended adaption anymore?
The burly barbarian walking besides you stops in the mid-morning sun, wiping his brow as he looks around. He smiles at you as if to say "Its good to be hunting together" and points towards the river, which for him is rather eloquent so far. The past three days, he has said perhaps three words away from the campfire, using nods, pointing, and glances to direct your attention to various clues or items of interest. You wonder again how someone so large with a giant axe strapped to their back can move so silently through the woods.
You hear a soft rustle of him reaching into his sack of jerky for the fourth time today, and chuckle softly to yourself, for he is focused in this area as well. Yesterday he made you stop the hunt to stalk a wounded elk, which you both skinned and prepared in a matter of hours, apparently something he has done quite often, given his alacrity and skill with the skinning blade.
Nightime is a different matter. Around the fire, Ingulf likes to share tales, talk about things that happened during the day, and plan the strategy for the next day. Speaking softly in Hallit, his native tongue, he regales you with stories of winter hunts, brave fights with hug polar bears and ice wurms, as well as tales of hunts that did not fare so well. You in turn have told him about some of your monster hunting fights, watching him get excited listening to stories of ghoul hunts and brownies gone bad.
"By Crom, I still can't believe you didn't break that alchemists hand for burning your face. I would have at least given him a friendly rap on the head as a reminder to aim better!" He bashes the log he is seated on next to him, causing wood chips to fly out from the metal spikes on his gauntlet. You suspect his friendly rap would have caved in Udo's skull, but you smile at his Kellid nature coming out.
Mornings are the worst time however. Both of you seem to be plagued by nightmares, sometimes by vivid dreams of loved ones suffering horrible fates, and sometimes waking with just the vague sense that something awful has happened. Its one of the ways you can tell you are still following the right path. The Duk'kreeth as proven remarkably hard to follow, and only a few times a day do you find a small mark or hoofprint that indicates you are still on the right track.
This morning is different somehow, the air smells dirty, like a room full of soiled clothes, and the humid air hangs heavy in the grassy clearing. You have been traveling for three days through some of the heavier growth in the Narlmarches, and your leather has been marked by smashed bugs bent on sucking the life out of you, scratches from the thorny undergrowth that seems to thrive here, and no small amount of sweat. In this clearing however, there is no insect noise, no air movement to slowly stir the leaves, only silence, and a faint whiff of rotting corpses. Ingulf points to the far side of the clearing, where a low circle of stones sit, obviously too organized to be a natural formation.
This is the thread to use for ooc discussions or questions you might have regarding the game or storyline.
We will start with the first day you and Ingulf leave to chase the Duk'reeth.
Try to describe things and speak in character as much as possible, so we are both painting a picture so to speak.
Near as I can tell the way combat is handled is you state your action and include any rolls that are necessary in the post. For instance:
I charge the troll with my greatsword, hoping to kill him before the battle gets too heavy
Atk=14+7=21 Dm=7+5=12 hps.
Where the first number is your die roll and the 2nd number your bonuses. Try to also post what your next action will be so that I can continue the action or ask you to make a roll if necessary so we can keep things going.
If you want to say something ooc in the play by post thread, use the ooc code by putting a "" at the beginning and a "" at the end.
I will start the play by post and then wait for your response. If you know you will have a block of free time, like at Paneras or something, send me an email and we can try to post more frequently back and forth and get quite a bit done. We can also do more prior to the game on Sep 3 if you are back earlier.
I'm thinking of making it a recurring theme in my game that the party (or farmers, hunters, etc later on) will discover various lost tombs or underground complexes scattered around the Stolen Lands. Most likely inhabitants will be ancient fey who once lived here, but possibly a slight Lovecraftian bent for a few of them as well. Undead, outsiders, constructs, etc are all okay as well. The less retro-fitting I have to do the better, and I have a few in mind, like the Mud Sorcerer's tomb for later on. Any suggestions about some classic cairns, tombs, underground vaults that have been sealed up?
One of the players in my game, who is a great roleplayer, but self-admittedly not so good at crunch, asked me to post for advice on how to build out her fighter. She is a human 3rd lvl weapon master, so that much is not adjustable, but she is looking for a feat buildout up to 20th, including any feats that should be swapped out.
A little background that may help.
The party is 9 strong, a twf cavalier, crossbow fighter, inquisitor of Desna, life oracle, conjuration spec wizard, caster focused druid, alchemist, rogue, and this character. She ends up playing the tank role by default, which she seems okay with.
We are playing Kingmaker, and her fighter will eventually be the Queen, so her stats and such are not optimized for slaughter. I tried to help her by suggesting some feats like toughness at 1st lvl and going the intimidate route to take advantage of her high charisma, but I think she may be floundering.
Here is the crunch:
Human Weapon Master (Aldori sword) Fighter
S-15
D-14
C-12
I-10
W-10
CH-14
Items: aldori dueling sword, gloves of dueling, short composite bow
Traits: Extremely fashionable(diplomacy), Natural born leader
Is there a thread for this out there or does anyone have a list they used for their campaign? I looked through the archives and didnt see one, but I might have missed it since there are quite a few posts there..
I always felt like having a vivid imagination, being a good storyteller, and being creative were the three biggies in DMing.
Ironic that nearly all the newer GMs I meet today think that the main things to focus on are knowing the rules, balancing encounters, and worrying about the party's power creep.
Not that the latter aren't important, its just that it sort of hit home after some recent discussions with newer GMs that the focus of the game seems to have changed a great deal.
So I thought I would pose the question, what do you think is important, and why?
Not sure if this is the right place to post it, but I would LOVE to see a Giants Revisted book just like the dragons revisited. Hopefully to include a few things like: special giant only feats, especially ones for combatting smaller folk, perhaps an interesting combat maneuver for giants, magic items, spells, etc that might apply. Perhaps covering:
Frost Giants
Fire Giants
Storm Giants
Cloud Giant
Hill Giants
Ettins
Cyclops
Titans
Firbolgs
1 new giant type
Ogres, Trolls, Stone Giants, and Ogrekin were covered in other books already. So were Marsh and Taiga Giants, but it might be nice to have a bit more on them in here as well, fluff-wise.
Has something along these lines been considered for the future?
Sat. night at our regular game, several questions came up regarding the slumber and evil eye hexes being used by the group's witch. Three different times the witch used hexes and we weren't clear whether or not the situation affected his ability. Specifically, the first time, he was in a net and pinned under his riding dog (he is a gnome), the second time he was silenced, and the third time he was being actively grappled by bandits.
It is clear that they are standard actions that do not provoke, but it is not clear whether there is a vocal component to hexes (in general) and whether or not a concentration check is required if you are being grappled or you are pinned. After the game when I read the hexes, it appears that there is nothing to suggest that immobility or silence affect these two hexes, and only charm appeared to have a vocal component.
Anyone else have any insight into this situation? Am I interpreting these abilities correctly? Its a bit obscure when its stated that they are "magical tricks", so I wasn't sure whether they were SLA, SU, or what.
It appears they do, at least RAW. My only concern is that both archetypes modify the smite evil ability the same way, but the hospitalier ability says it functions as the paladin ability of the same name, but does not say it replaces it. The sacred servant says it replaces it. They both grant the exact same weakened smite evil capability, and all their other replacements fit together nicely. Were these two paladin archetypes intended to stack?
I am planning on having the two bards in my game each awarded a unique bardsong as a divine gift for accomplishing a quest given them by an angelic messenger of Sarenrae.
I would appreciate comments and suggestions for appropriate cost, level,and balance for these two abilities.
Hymn of Healing - bardic performance ability that allows Fast healing for allies within hearing range of the song. I was considering FH/5 per round, at a cost of 2 rounds of bardic performance for each round played. Is this out of whack powerwise or costwise?
Cantata of Fire - bardic performance ability that adds flaming weapon attribute to the bards weapon, plus one other character per 4 levels. Cost is 1 round of performance per round.
I would appreciate input and observations. In case it matters, the group composition is 9 characters of 5th lvl currently, with a class makeup of:
I noticed references to several different templates for monsters mentioned here and there on the boards. The templates in the back of the Bestiary seem to be the most basic only, and I notice that even newer Paizo products reference the Tome of Horrors Revised. Is this the source Paizo uses for its more unusual templates (like I think a plant templated succubus I saw listed in one of the PbP games)? If anyone could point me towards a source or sources they have used, I would appreciate it. There are a few scattered through the old 3.5 monster books, but they are more esoteric ones.
One of my players in making a paladin and wanted to know if there were any guides for them on the message boards. I know at one time (a good while back actually) there were two or three posted here, but I can't seem to find them now. Does anyone have a link for a good paladin guide?
I have to do a lot of modification to any published adventure for my group of 10 players, and I mostly do all the adjustments by hand. I would much prefer to have a quick PC tool for building major encounters and was hoping someone knew of a good application that handled this and was compatible with Pathfinder RPG. The ones I have heard about to date are:
www.dinglegames.com
Herolab
PCGen
Can anyone recommend on of these or another product? None of them so far have overly impressed me, for one reason or another, however I am willing to keep at it if it would be worth it. Testimonials would be appreciated.
I am developing the whole Thassilonian aspect of Rise of the Runelords even more for my group, particularly because I have two Pathfinder Society members, both specializing in Thassilonian ancient history and linguistics. This has caused me to have to create puzzles, secret manuscripts and clues so that they travel to various ancient ruins to discover important clues and information along their way through the AP. I am placing an ancient pyramid shaped temple in the Brinestump Bog just south of Sandpoint, but I want to force the party to figure out its location on an map prior to the Starstone falling, then have to extrapolate its current location. I know there is a small map section showing the 7 kingdoms of Thassilon territories overlayed on a current map of Golarion in the back of the Campaign Setting, but I need something a little larger. Its a royal PITA to try to create a map even using import with CC3, mainly because I am not a guru with the software, and so far thats my best option if nothing like this exists.
1. Have any other maps of Thassilon been published to date?
2. Are there any maps planned for the new release of the Campaign guide or other monthly books in the near future?
3. Has anyone perhaps made up something like this for their game and are willing to share?
Please Help! :)
On a completely unrelated note, I just got my copy of Sunken Empires and its very nice. I especially like the extended coverage of the Aboleth and the glyph magic, which should tie in nicely with the Rune magic of ancient Thassilon.
Do paladin and cleric levels stack with regard to the number of D6 for positive energy burst or LOH? I realize you have to keep the LOH, which are .5 of an energy burst, and the full cleric bursts tracked separately, just wondered if the power of each of them stacked. For example, there is a 4th level cleric/3rd level paladin, would he have 4d6 for LOH and energy bursts, or would he have 2d6 clerical energy bursts and 2d6 LOH? An official ruling would be great or a link to this answer if it has come up before, otherwise outside opinions would be appreciated so I can come to a decision about whether to house rule them stacking or not.
I would like to suggest a section for DM tools and/or advice, to help out new DMs or someone that has a problem with adventure design, party problem, etc. These are currently intermixed among general and rules sections under Pathfinder, but having them in one specific heading would allow newer GMs to go to one place to look for solutions, read GM advice, hear about GM tools, etc. Your boards have a ton of excellent posters, who have saved my GM behind several times with advice, it seems like consolidating it might be helpful to frustrated or new GMs.
A couple game sessions ago, my party reached the Thistletop throne room and fought Ripnugget and a large group of goblins in the throne room. I modified Ripnugget into a order of the dragon cavalier and had him sitting astride Stickyfoot instead of resting on a throne. The big dwarven fighter and half-orc barbarian went ahead of the party to scout ahead, and entered the throne room while the rest of the group was crossing the bridge (after they had retreated back to the brambles to rest). He traded insults with Ripnugget and was challenged and charged, resulting in a big melee between these two. Ripnugget told the rest to not interfere, and the barbarian was afraid to attack for fear of involving the large band of goblins, including 2 lieutenants. The party finally caught up around round 3, and began fighting the goblins, but the dwarf was dropped before the cleric could burst, and the party backed up some, which allowed the goblins to close the doors to the throne room and bar them. I informed the party they heard hammering, and then when they finally breached the throne room doors, the dwarf (who has a 19 con and stabilized at -2hps) was spiked to the wall through his armor, which dropped him to -12hps. After an epic battle, they fought off the goblins and managed to free the dwarf from the wall. The funny part of the story is the elf who the dwarf fighter constantly heckled has taken to calling him "Art" now. :)
I am looking for a central list or at least a few places to look to find achievement feats/traits. By acheivement feats, I am talking about things like "cure 1000 hit points worth of damage to allies and you get a +1 hp to all heal spells" type feats. I can't recall their official name, but hopefully someone here on the boards gets the gist of what I am talking about and can point me towards source material (unless it was on a post about homebrewed rules maybe?) I was told there were some in the Legacy of Fire Players guide, so I am downloading that, just wondered if anyone knew of others.
From what I have read about Magnimar, they are very supportive of free trade and have traders from all over the world exchanging goods at the harbor marketplace. Has anyone written up or developed any NPCs, lists of merchants or anything for this market? Especially interested in vendors selling unusual goods or from foreign lands, perhaps as a way to introduce lore about other places in Golarion to players. I plan to work on this some myself, just thought that I would once again take advantage of someone else's "heavy lifting" if they have already created these NPCs. Sharing between campaigns is one of the greatest things about these AP forums!
Okay, the party I am currently running is fairly large, and happens to have two bards in it now. My question is, do their songs stack? For example, these in particular:
1. Inspire courage, competence, greatness - do these stack?
2. Dirge of Doom - two chances to affect the enemy?
I am leaning towards possibly adding +1 to the first two options, and adding to the overall DC of the Dirge of doom if they play together.
Any thoughts on the matter?
For the record, I still cannot believe I have one bard in the party, much less two, but they both devoutly want to play bards.
...at least none I could find in the Core Rulebook. I was considering a barbarian that converted to a Paladin for roleplaying character development purposes, and I was curious to see what abilities were lost by becoming lawful good, ie-non-chaotic. Unless I missed a buried sentence somewhere, it looks like there are no penalties. Since there is a paragraph for druids, clerics, paladins, etc, I assume that this was just overlooked since there is a section in the PH 3.5. Has this been answered before? If not, is there intended to be lost abilies, and if so which ones?
Can you tell me if there is one particular item holding up the train on this order so to speak? It has been pending for quite a bit longer than my orders normally are before going out, so I wondered if something was backordered.
Has anyone attempted to do a conversion of the Radiant Servant of Pelor PrC to PRPG? With all the changes to turning and the new Healing Domain power, I would imagine there would be a few changes...I have a character that is a cleric of Sarenrae with an 8 Dex, so he is NOT going to be able to go in the dervish direction, and he is pretty much playing his character like a Radiant Servant would under 3.5. I was hoping to offer him a specialty priest PrC along these lines if anyone has experimented or sketched anything out in this direction, I would love to see your ideas.
For the first time since it came out, I will be playing Pathfinder instead of DMing, and I am leaning towards playing a paladin.
The game so far:
- Setting is more dungeon crawl and Underdark type vs typical fantasy so I am leaning towards the divine bond option vs a mount.
- Setting is medium fantasy, and outside of potions and scrolls, magic items will have to be player made or found from what I have gathered so far.
- Character creation is 15 pt buy, and DM seems open to alternate races, like hobgoblin, goblin, kobold, drow, etc., so potentially tiefling, aasimar, etc are on the table as options. Otherwise its pretty much Pathfinder core rules.
I am hoping to get some advice, especially from those who have played paladins already, and to a fairly high level about character building. I think the mount based build is likely to be out, unless we go underground and stay extensively and I can petition for something like a cave lizard.
I would especially like some assistance in what feats work/don't work from experience and what some advice on where to put points, since none of my games have had any player paladins so far.
One last note is that I am leaning towards making a half orc paladin, and using intimidate to shake opponents as a possibility.
I know I recall seeing a prestige class for a specialty priest of Sarenrae in one of the pathfinder books, but for the life of me, I can't recall which one. Does anyone know offhand what the name of the PrC was and which book or AP it was in? Is there an index online somewhere perhaps of all the products and their contents?
I have read several posts here and there mentioning that if the DMs doesnt add extra magic items and/or treasure and the players don't make their own magic items, there was a shortage either for firepower or problem solving at certain places in the AP.
My party looks like this atm:
dwarf warrior 2 - working towards battlesmith with armor and weaponsmithing maxed.
dwarf ranger 2 - also has maxed armor and weaponsmithing
half-elf bard 2
half-elf rogue 2
human cleric 2 - working towards possibly being a specialist cleric of sarenrae. (forget the name from the LoF AP series)
half-orc druid 2
half-orc sorcerer 1 / barbarian 1(draconic bloodline)-working towards dragon disciple
The druid, cleric, and sorcerer have zero interest in making a potion or scroll, much less anything stronger. So other than weapons and armor, anything they might need, I probably have to add to the AP or stick in a side adventure. I guess my real question is this:
What items would be useful for the party to have and what items should I NOT give them party (if any) that might make the AP too easy at points. Any suggestions would be appreciated. One final note is that due to the large number of players in the party, I have amped up the encounters to be a fair challenge to them, mostly use Joey's 6 party RotRL info plus my own add ons, since I have more than 6 even.
Since there are so many people in the group, and they are all fairly intense roleplayers, AND the AP starts getting very dark, horror filled and grotesque, I want to find a way to incorporate horror damage, done to morale instead of HPs. Someone told me there is a system in Tome of Secrets, but that it was fairly complicated and factored in HPs of damage done, etc, which is way more complex than I am looking for.
Basically, for the haunts, the dark "Seven" type events of Skinsaw, the horrors of Hook Mountain, etc, I want to enhance the role of the bard and cleric in keeping up the party's spirit in the face of all that psychic trauma. Does anyone have any ideas of a good way to do this? I am looking for something a little more complicated than a string of fort or will saves and assigning shaken status to players from time to time, but something that does not become too much of a DM's overhead nightmare.
I recently began the RotRL AP and decided I wanted to introduce the town and town backstory to the party in a different way rather than by way of a barkeep or a background narrative. Since three of my 8 player party would not be able to make the very first session, I decided to run the rest of the party as children growing up in the town, with the players who couldn't make it being outsiders at the start of the AP. I am posting the basic ideas I used in case anyone else wants to try.
I let all the player's roll up their characters, then told them to put them away, since they won't be needing them. I let them keep their highest stat where it was, to help define their child's personality, and made them take all 8s for everything else. They got 6 hps, mostly in case they did something stupid and fell off a roof or cliff. They had nothing, no money, items, etc. The premise was they all knew each other from attending school at the Tundarock Academy, and I gave them the choice of being either an orphan or a student there with parents in town. The rogue opted to have a father in town, but he was a truant and hung out in the streets waiting for them after school. The elven monk, whom it wasn't feasible to make into a child character due to age, I made the guy who was responsible for teaching the children about the different gods (he had religion ranks) and taking them on field trips around and slightly outside town. The only things they had to use were a knife one of them had stolen, the gnome race illusionist spells, and their wits.
The bard character in the party had parents in town, and she roamed around town talking with everyone and always asking questions, which will eventually feed into her performing and charisma based skills as well as her bardic knowledge. I fed all the town rumors to the group through her, except for the ones from the shady side of town, which I fed the rogue. I let them roam around town some and talk to people, meeting different ones, including some I mention in this thread here, like Marina, Jorgie Quinn's young wife.
I was able to introduce them to a lot of side information this way as well, as the rogue on a moonless night saw smugglers in a smuggling skiff get eaten by something big (the bunyip) and then he starting searching for it whenever there is a new moon. He is now obsessed with finding out what it is, and also recovering whatever was on the smuggler's boat, now at the deepest part of the harbor. While the party was sneaking around the town at night (they drugged the old lady who watched them in the orphanage), they ran across the goblins in the trashpiles, saw the little cottage on the island (Jervis Stoot's house), and ran across the first of his victims accidently in their wanderings, initially finding a bag of coins, then following the blood trail from it. All of the children freaked out except the rogue (failed fort saves after seeing the horror), who grabbed the young bard (a girl) and ran to the garrison to notify the guards. The orphans got scared and ran back to the orphanage, going along the beach and coming up near the Hagfish to return home. They ditched the bloody coinpurse and the stolen knife along the way, but got back in safely. Because the orphans were a half orc and two gnomes, the trackers in town found small footprints and initially thought goblins did the first few killings. Because of this, a lot of townsfolk STIL think goblins had something to do with Chopper's rampage, even though Jervis Stoot was discovered. The rogue in the party got arrested because even though they believed him that he didn't do it, they knew he was from the streets and had a decent merchants little daughter (she was 12, he was 16) out late at night "exploring" as the rogue put it.
The children also slightly knew of Tsuto, Ameiko, and Nualia, who were all older students who were only at the school about a year or so before they moved on, and the children were still real young then (around 6-7).
In the end, the following happened:
- rogue innocently got arrested like three times, for being at the wrong place at the wrong time and now has a reputation and several bad nick-names. One of the deputies at the time (Sheriff Avertin was still alive then), took a dislike to him, by the name of Balor Hemlock.
- Bard lost a lot of people she knew and liked in the wave of deaths, and was moved by the tragedy of Jervis. I had the children stop and talk with him several times and watch him carve his birds, so they liked him. When the townsfolk started chopping up his carvings, she took one and kept it secretly, for its beauty and tragic history.
- Half orc druid orphan was keeping watch at night, and actually saw Chopper the very last time he went out, and yelled from his window to alert the sheriff, leading up to the chase that got him killed and Chopper wounded. Even though he is a half-orc, he is seen favorably because of this, especially by the town guard.
- Both gnomes (two sorcerers!) orphans are now totally obsessed with finding out about whats inside the glassworks, because I told them they couldn't see through the stain glassed windows and the way I described it almost like a castle intrigued them.
Oh and they are all still looking for the Sandpoint Devil too, hehe..
Fast forward to the beginning of the adventure:
The two gnomes now work at the glassworks, and one is a earth elemental bloodline sorcerer and one is a fire elemental bloodline sorcerer. The half-orc became a druid and spends a lot of time on Chopper's Island watching the wildlife and trying to figure out what made Jervis go crazy (the children all had the wrath dreams as well, but they have no clue what that means). He also works in the Rusty Dragon, as Ameiko remembered him from the Academy and gave him a job there. The bard perfoms at the theatre and the rogue hangs around Pixie's and is part of the czarni crew in town down by the docks, working for Jubrayl.
After this session, I felt they all deserved an initial rank in knowledge(local). I was also very happy because they were closely interwoven with the people and town of Sandpoint before the adventure even started.
Posts
