roguerouge's page

What's the effect on an AP campaign if I require the PCs to start with an NPC level? My intent is to add flavor to background and have that ordinary people become heroes arc, but I don't know what the mechanical effect would be.

If this lich cast Vampiric Touch, would he do 1d8+5+paralysis+5d6 damage or just 5d6 damage?

In short, can one touch attack have two results?

Is there a feat to allow bards to cast spells while using their bardic performance class ability? Or has that not made it into UM and UC from 3.5?

Okay, why does Scent still work like this: Scent rules

... when Perception includes smells now? Wouldn't it be more elegant to abandon the whole intricate sub-rule in favor of a bonus to Perception checks involving scent? Perhaps +5 or +10?

Okay, now that Elan's gotten your attention, I've got a rules question for you. What DC and modifiers do you set for the following perception check.

A team of goblin rogues successfully sneaks up on the party's night watchman, taking him down in the surprise round with hurled knives. What DC perception check do the other PCs sleeping 10-30 feet away in their tents have to make to hear his death? Does this count as "combat"? Would it not count as combat if the team of goblin rogues melee sneak attacked him?

I was chatting with a former student of mine and she asked a really interesting question: why are internet cat videos so popular? Is it something to do with cats? The medium of the internet? I confess that I'm a bit stumped.

Why do you like them?

If I have this right, the DC to track someone through a swamp/marsh is DC 5, DC 10 if they're trying to hide their tracks.

Does this make sense? I thought that due to the water in swamps that it was very difficult to track someone there. But it seems like it's the easiest place to track someone? In those fugitive movies, they always seem to go hide in a swamp or use it to throw people off their trail.

I must be getting this wrong: but how? Is it my assumption about the difficulty of tracking in this location? Did I get the rules wrong?

If I buy Trail of Cthulu, do I need any other books to create characters and adjudicate rules? Or am I good to go to use it to run some of the adventures using that system? And can anyone recommend good adventures for that system?

I saw an interesting article today analyzing Buffy as a general in seasons seven (TV) and eight (comics). There's a lot of good theory on what makes a good general, using The Mask of Command.

Even though it's on an old series, I thought it would be a good idea to post it here, since DMs and players think about how command and heroism fit all the time. It's here: “We Just Declared War”: Buffy as General.

What do you think of Buffy as a general? Good work? Flawed? Is she acting like a PC?

My google-fu is weak: is there a list of the changes to the core spells in the move from 3.5 to pathfinder? If so, I can't find it.

Using Kingmaker's mass combat system, I want feedback on the likely result of this mass combat, between Lamashtu's mass breeding program for mutant goblins and the citizens of Sandpoint, led by the 15th level PC and her two 11th level cohorts.

Note: the strategy choice produces a straight plus to OM or DV; there's no bonus to damage.

Team Bard:

Dior Schaefer CR 7
CG Fine sized army of heroes
HP 31
Offensive Modifier: +14 (melee and ranged)
Defensive Value: 24 (28 if on fortifications)
Tactics: Taunt (Morale DC17 per round or –2 to OM and DV, 2 straight saves = immune)
Resources: Magic Weapons, Magic Armor,
Special Abilities: Spell Casting (factored in)
Special Defenses: Fortifications (+4 to DV), Healing (heal 14 HP but no attack, 2/battle).
Speed: 2 hexes (24 miles/day, 30’ move)
Morale: +5 (+0 morale +CHA of leader)

Bec Schaefer CR 3
CG Fine sized army of heroes
HP 16
Offensive Modifier: +5 (melee only)
Defensive Value: 15 (19 if on fortifications)
Tactics: Relentless Brutality (Rage: +4 Offense, -4 Defense)
Resources: Magic Weapons, Magic Armor, Healing Potions (heal 6 HP at cost of attack, 2/battle).
Special Defenses: Fortifications (+4 DV)
Speed: 2 hexes (24 miles/day, 30’ move)
Morale: +5 (+0 morale +CHA of Dior)
Leader: Dior

Anya’drea Schaefer CR 3
CG Fine sized army of heroes
HP 10
Offensive Modifier: +10 (melee and ranged)
Defensive Value: 20 (24 if inside fortifications)
Tactics: Spellbreaker (+4 DV against spell casting foes)
Resources: Magic Armor, Magic Weapon, Healing Potions (heal 6 HP at cost of attack, 2/battle).
Special Abilities: Spell casting (factored in)
Special Abilities: Can grant Mobility Advantage to Fine-sized armies (+1 DV)
Speed: 2 hexes (24 miles/day, 30’ move)
Morale: +5 (+0 morale +CHA of Dior)
Leader: Dior

Sandpoint Militia CR 1
Medium army of humans (50 third level warriors)
hp 5; DV 11 (15 if inside fortifications);
OM +1
Special: Ranged weapons
Speed 2; Morale +5
Rout conditions: If army’s HP is reduced to equal to or below 1, it flees immediately, unless commander makes DC 15 Morale check. As it flees, the enemy can make a parting attack.

Sandpoint Irregulars 1 CR 2
Large army of humans (200 first level commoners/experts)
hp 3; DV 12 (16 if inside fortifications);
OM +2
Special: Ranged weapons
Speed 2; Morale +5
Rout conditions: If army’s HP is reduced to equal to or below 1, it flees immediately, unless commander makes DC 15 Morale check. As it flees, the enemy can make a parting attack.

Sandpoint Very Irregulars 1 CR 2
Large army of humans (200 first level commoners/experts)
hp 3; DV 12 (16 if inside fortifications);
OM +2 (no ranged capacity)
Speed 2; Morale +5
Rout conditions: If army’s HP is reduced to equal to or below 1, it flees immediately, unless commander makes DC 15 Morale check. As it flees, the enemy can make a parting attack.

Sandpoint Very Irregulars 2 CR 2
Large army of humans (200 first level commoners/experts)
hp 3; DV 12 (16 if inside fortifications);
OM +2 (no ranged capacity)
Speed 2; Morale +5
Rout conditions: If army’s HP is reduced to equal to or below 1, it flees immediately, unless commander makes DC 15 Morale check. As it flees, the enemy can make a parting attack.

Team Lamashtu:
Inbred Goblin Horde
Huge army of goblins (500 barbarian 1, CR 6)
hp 39; DV 17;
OM +6 (melee only)
Special: Improved Armor
Tactics Relentless Brutality (+4 OM, -4 DV)
Speed 2; Morale +0 CHECK AT 3 HP

Birdcruncher Tribe
Large Goblin army (200 first level warriors) CR 2
hp 11; DV 12;
OM +2 (melee and ranged)
Tactics Sniper Support (+2 damage from archers held in reserve)
Speed 2; Morale 0 (Leader: Bugbear Bruthazmus) CHECK AT 2 HP

Mosswood Tribe
Large Goblin army (200 first level warriors) CR 2
hp 11; DV 12;
OM +2 (melee only)
Tactics Taunt (Morale DC12 per round or –2 to OM and DV, 2 straight saves = immune)
Speed 2; Morale -2 (Leader: Big Gugmut) CHECK AT 4 HP

Harpies
Diminutive Harpy army (10 Bard 4 Harpies) CR 1
hp 4; DV 14;
OM +2 (ranged and melee)
Special: Mobility Advantage (+1 DV), Spell casting
Tactics Captivating Song (Morale DC11 or no actions while Harpies sing; 1 try/army)
Speed 2; Morale +3 (CHECK AT 1 HP)

Advanced Sandpoint Devil’s Mate
Fine Native Outsider Army (1 Sandpoint Devil) CR 2
hp 11; DV 17/27 (+6 vs. Dior, Anya’drea due to SR);
OM +6 (ranged and melee) +1d4 damage
Special: Mobility Advantage (+1 DV), Spell casting, Spell resistance
Special Attack: Breath weapon (+1d4 damage)
Special Attack: Fear (Morale check DC 12 or unable to act next round, flees if it fails a second morale check)
Special Defense: Significant Defense (DR 5/cold iron) for +10 DV,
Speed 2; Morale +3 (CHECK AT 1 HP)

Malfeshnekor
Fine army of Greater Advanced Elite Barghest CR 1
hp 4; DV 26
OM +5 (melee and ranged)
Special: Mobility Advantage (levitate, dimension door, +1 DV), Spell casting
Special Defense: Significant Defense (DR 10/magic, blink, invisibility sphere, polymorph into goblin/wolf) +10 DV
NOTE: MALFIE'S going to be used only at the end, if he's winning, as 4 hit points means a quick death and he knows it as the leader of the Lamashtu forces.

I'm curious about what feats a rogue should build towards for the 10+ level part of the game. I find that if you don't plan ahead with feats, you end up in serious trouble at about the time that the casters are altering the basic rules of reality. So, since I'm contemplating building a goblin rogue for my next character, what should I be planning to get?

(Incidentally, I'm utterly fine with the role playing side of things, so I don't need advice there. My general take is that skills are the mechanics for RP, feats are for making sure that you don't have a three hour session of combat ineptitude. Besides with a goblin in a G/N aligned party, there shouldn't be problems finding things to RP.)

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

So, last night, I made an error in ruling on Hero Points. I had coups de gras a PC whose player wasn't there to control him, and thus was controlled by another player. The guest player, having failed the save, used a hero point to cheat death. (This was the first use of hero points in the campaign.) In the moment, I forgot that he needed two hero points to do that. Ultimately, I'm glad I made that ruling, because I wanted to send a message about the lethality of the campaign, not kill a PC while his player was in Vegas.

Now, how do I fix the system? Do I:

A) Just say it was a mistake at the next session and that from here on out you need two hero points to cheat death?

B) Keep consistent: it always requires one Hero Point from now on to cheat death?

C) Start scaling the number of points it takes to come back from each iterative death? (That is, 1 point for the first death, 2 for the second, 3 for the third, etc.)

D) Keep consistent but remove a magic items that was going to give the party one "Get out of death free" card?

E) You tell me.

Thanks for any advice you can give me, o denizens of Paizo!

What are the most famous or important fanfic? What would you recommend for an art history of the genre?

Does a horse need armor proficiency to wear barding?

How much gp to buy a...

rhino?
combat-trained rhino?
combat-trained dire wolf?

In the pfsrd, an elephant costs 1000 gp for its CR 7. Combat training on a heavy horse is +50% to the heavy horse cost. So, by my rough calculations, a rhino ought to cost 4/7 of an elephant, a dire wolf 3/7 of one, making it...

Rhino: 571.4 gp
Combat-trained Rhino: 857.1 gp
Combat-trained Dire Wolf: 642.9 gp

Should there be a kicker to the cost for an exotic animal? I assume so, but that also might be included in the elephant's cost.

I'm looking for a guide to the Elsir Vale and Brindol to hand out to my players during character construction. I'm not keen on retyping everything, however, to avoid the spoilers. I was wondering if there was an official product that did this OR a DM who posted their version of this on the internets. My google-fu is, evidently, week.

A girallon has been successfully grappled by a polar bear. How many attacks does the girallon get on its turn and how does it make them (regular attack, grapple check, etc.) On its turn, how many attacks does the polar bear get on its turn and how does it make them?

A staple of the Civilization games was the themed city: the military city, the science city, the money-generating one... But are any groups doing something similar? Or something distinctly odd or unusual?

I thought I'd post a vid on wikileaks that a former student of mine just posted. Let him know what you think!

As the title asks, I'm wondering if Pathfinder has saved high level play from itself. We're considering switching over a 12th level campaign to this rule set from 3.5, so I need your help deciding.

In my experience, high level play devolves to finding and exploiting the low save of your opponent. While that's exciting in rock-paper-scissors sort of way, I'm wondering if YOU feel that HIGH level play is better now and WHY.

FOR ME, my major concern is that Paizo ramped up the power level a bit for the lower levels, so I'm concerned that the high levels are just going to be 3e squared, rather than something that solves some of the previously known problems.

What do you think? Should we switch?

How many hexes can an army "see"? Just adjacent to it? Two hexes away? Does it vary by terrain?

How fast can one army communicate what it can see to another army? In Kingmaker 5, there's several chances for the PCs or the NPCs to get several armies to converge on one spot... if they can act in conjunction.

How do archers spot targets 800+ feet away given range penalties to perception? How do you rule on that?

If a monk has stunning fist, vital strike and scorpion style, can they do one attack that uses all three abilities: doubling base damage, forcing a Fort save vs. stun and making a Fort save or have reduced base speed for several rounds? And, if so, does the target make two Fort saves or one?

What kinds of creatures would you place in a temple to Zon-Kuthon?

What if we changed the size of the hexes... What if each hex was the area that the PCs could explore in a week? Would that effect the narrative at all? Deter exploration in later modules? Make the nation feel suitably grand?

What do you think: good change or bad? Big change or mostly cosmetic?

What do people think the effect would be of giving characters with ranks in Knowledge: nobility or a few relevant Profession skills more knowledge of the kingdom-building rules? I'm thinking that the PCs start out with little knowledge of how to do this, as it models their lack of training and experience for kingdom-management.

Anyone do this already?

Who were they? I know that one revolutionary fighting to be free of Cheliax is listed in the book on the nation, but are there others? What's canon here?

Drawing exclusively from previously published adventures in modules or magazines, what encounters would you import to a Test of the Starstone?

Owlbear chicks went for 3,000 gp in 3.5e, with a 2,000 gp cost just to have a professional trainer raise them. How much would it be for a white dragon wyrmling?

Note: for these purposes, morality is only important to the precise extent it affects the GP value.

What effect would it have to make wizard spellbooks useable as scrolls?

I've got a brass draconic bloodline sorcerer 11 that I'm building to play in a core-only module. I'm having trouble with the feats, though. There don't seem to be many for this class.

I'm not happy with what I've taken, which are:

Princess (trait)

Combat Casting (human bonus feat)
Defensive Combat Training
Empower Spell
Eschew Materials (class bonus feat)
Improved Initiative
Silent Spell
Spell Penetration
Still Spell
Toughness (bloodline feat)

Got any suggestions? Anything helps.

If it helps, these are my spells:

LEVEL 1 –Charm Person, Grease, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Protection vs. Alignment, Shield.

LEVEL 2 – False Life, Glitterdust, Invisibility, Resist Energy, Scorching Ray, Web.

LEVEL 3 – Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fly, Haste, Major Image.

LEVEL 4 – Black Tentacles, Dimension Door, Enervation, Fear.

LEVEL 5 – Spell Resistance, Summon Monster V, Wall of Force.

I thought people might find interest in this article's analysis comparing various illustrators' representation of Buffy. It's written by a former student of mine, so I'm bursting with pride.

What do you think of it?

[It's a fair cop: I'm the editor.]

In River into Darkness, how have DMs run the final mass battle? What happened? What tactics did each side use? I'm heading into the night of a million elves, so I'm eager for guidance.

If an enemy is invisible when my cleric channels healing energy, can I exclude him from the healing or do I have to know where he is to exclude him?

If you're looking to see a movie on some of the past controversies of video gaming, there's an excellent documentary on the representations of violence in video games called Playing Columbine playing in the Boston Underground Film Festival on Tuesday at 5:30. Virtually anyone interested in video games would want to see it, especially if you dislike Jack Thompson.

Link to the festival's description of the film: Playing Columbine

I'm the one who's "in attendance" so if you have any questions about the film, feel free to ask me about it here.

How on earth is Zevanxus's alignment neutral? How can someone who

Seriously? I know what it says the base alignment is

And you did the same thing in Age of Worms with

Where do the PCs sleep? How about the other guards? The barracks chambers have tables in them, not beds. Help?

Am I missing something? A few contestants have listed effects which require saves and list a DC, but not what kind of save. Is this a new convention from the Pathfinder system? Something in the rules? Enough entries do this that I'm guessing that I'm missing something.

Thinking it over, I think that the judges and the voters are judging similar entries by different standards than the other monsters.

For example, the last two rounds' thread on the Lantern Thralls has a great deal of discussion about their synergies and complexities based on the assumption that they will be used in groups. But they're not doing the same with the other pack monsters and hive monsters.

To my mind, you don't judge a wolf's stat block based on how it would work as a single wolf. You judge it based on how it works as a pack, which is how you will use it. Similarly, I've yet to see an adventure which has an encounter with a single Giant Bee.

Rather than thread jack a bunch of different submissions, I thought I'd open up a thread here for debate and discussion on this issue:

Should monster stat blocks be judged EQUALLY on how it works as a single monster and as part of a group of 4 or 6 such monsters OR should we judge based only on the single monster stat block?

You two won the Superstar for your years and got to make a module. What was that experience like? What advice would you share with contestants who've never written a module before? What would you have done differently?

If a PC has the Luck Domain and has taken two luck feats from Complete Scoundrel granting 2 re-rolls on initiative and healing spells, how many times can he re-roll ANY roll? 3? 1?

What Paizo product released in 2009 did you like the best? Why?

What non-Paizo RPG product released in 2009 did you like the best? Why?

What percentage of a human settlement of about 1200 citizens would be considered a combatant in an invasion scenario? We're talking "hold this place while the women and children seek shelter" kind of a scenario, with no army in sight to help them. (My world's Cheliax is doing a surprise raid on my version of Falcon's Hollow, hoping to enslave the populace and burn the woods to prevent the island federation from ship-building.)

My player's going to the arctic north to meet with the Mammoth Lords when they gather at the beginning of spring. This meeting, based on the Viking Thing, is used to resolve differences between clans, plan the upcoming warm season, have men and women of different clans meeting to promote genetic diversity, and to deal with the outside world. The PC desires the Vikings to go on raids against slavers and the Cheliax, whom they supply. Cheliax is there to prevent this and even to get the Vikings to raid the PC's home islands. They sent a disguised Erinyes as their ambassador, with a fake ambassador as window-dressing.

So, I'm going to need your help creating interesting NPCs for her to meet and create allies out of. (More on plot and setting below.) What I need:

An experienced guide for their various missions.

Merchants or someone who sells to outlanders.

Petty Chieftains to persuade.

A chieftain charmed by the Erinyes.

Some shamans.

1-3 very important persons.

The emphasis should be on a memorable RP quirk, a problem to be resolved, a complication, and a reason why they might vote to go raiding for either side.

Additional elements to play with: mammoths, white dragons, and skalds

Specifically, what magic items would an Erinyes Bard 4 have while undercover running the Cheliax ambassadorial mission to the Land of the Mammoth Lords? Basically, only Mammoth Lords can speak at the Mammoth Lord spring congregation, and the Erinyes is trying to get them to go raid the PCs' lands.

Thanks for the help!

There seems to be no "Against the Slavers" or "Rescue the Slaves" adventures for 3rd edition, with the exception of a rather obscure Elric d20 module. Can anyone think of any? And, if not, can anyone think of any reason why Paizo WOULDN'T do something like this as a module or even an entire adventure path?

I need demigods. Gods with too narrow domains. Gods with silly domains all to themselves. Gods that most PCs wouldn't worship and that most villains would be ashamed to.

The reason I need them is that my campaign's going through a winnowing process as the world simplifies its cosmology. Minor gods either have to get more believers or fade away. So, they've each got an avatar wandering around, trying to recruit believers. So, if you have ideas for what the chief earthly representative of this god would be like, I'd love that too!

Examples thus far include: demigod of cannibals, goddess of good luck (not luck in general and certainly not bad luck or superstition), Lamashtu the demigoddess of monstrous births (not monstrous humanoid mothers; monstrous births), a god of small insects, a sphere of annihilation (god of vacuum, emptiness, lack and not), and Aroden (god of a nation, which set off a rebellion).

Any ideas? Silly or serious, I'm brainstorming.

Please, I beg you, set up a board for it. You already have a board for play-by-post, so there's precedent for goof-by-post. Please spare the rest of us from being inadvertently exposed to the digital equivalent of LARPing.

Basically, I just waded through 180+ posts on Council of Thieves 2 on the product page, of which maybe 5-10 were useful to people trying to see if they wanted to actually buy the product. While some of the remainder was people anticipating the product, which I guess is a part of sales, there was a sizable chunk devoted to Faction wankery which would serve only to alienate and/or confuse potential buyers outside of that little in-club. (James Jacobs wasn't even certain if people were actually posting a complaint or posting "in-character" which made it hard for him to deal with a potential customer's concerns.) If there's one board that shouldn't be dominated by in-jokes, I'd recommend that it be the product discussion board.

I feel that a separate board is the most likely solution to this issue, as it creates an archive for these fascinating displays for those that are interested in them and de-clutters the remainder of the boards. Everybody wins.

Can someone tell me if Pathfinder's system modified this pain in the ass system in any way? Or did it just fix it for undead via the new turning rules? I've looked on the srd and it seems to be the same, but they could have made it rarer in the spells or monsters, I guess.