Harold, yes to normal PF choices. Just know that this is a fairly low-magic setting [at least for now ;)]. Most people haven't encountered anything as exotic as an elf before.
Update more after work.
Here are the notes I made years ago about the setting:
Wow! That is amazingly comprehensive. It's comprehensive enough I think I can date when you did it by which books are included!
I see you've got around the equipment disparity by mostly removing the classes - good idea. Trying to re-balance is problematic.
I still think you'll end up with players asking for things piecemeal - but this'd remove 90% of that easily. Maybe 95%. You could go to 100% by limiting the books.
I really like the line about the cyclops 'raised with magic for mortar' - very nice!
I hope you get the time to run it one day :)
Thank you! I believe in being thorough.
As for running it -- yeah, I never got around to actually coming up with, you know, a scenario to run in the stone age.
I know I owe everyone an update. Tonight.
Question: Are we splitting here, with Mel staying to search the place and the others pursuing leads in the local tavern? Or were other players expecting to participate in the search of Davis' house?
I mean, if Mel's been waiting two and a half hours she probably is a little puzzled that the others haven't returned yet. I could have her wait for them, but this kind of seems like an opportune moment to slip in and case the joint.
Mel's great at Stealth and Perception, so she stands a reasonably good chance of pulling it off undetected and learning something interesting. But on a meta level I don't want to exclude the other players if any of you were eager to be in on it.
Nelly, do I correctly understand your mechanics as a move action to locate the source of the scent?
Yes.
Move action to locate the origin direction. I could take a chance and move to one of the bushes, thus pinpointing the hare - but such behaviour may trigger the rabbit to try and flee.So she's only doing a move action to find out which bush, then a ready to "intercept" the hare in case its a nervous little buddy and attempts to flee anyway.
(move to block the path of a run, forcing it into a normal move(that, and hares have 50 foot speed, so to have a chance to charge it I'll need to get closer.)
I'd prefer not to chase it down all over the arena.
So I'll try and close in next round...if he has a ready action to move away/flee, I should be able to position myself tactically, if he does not have one, I have a standard left to try and knock it out.
I'm fine with Mel searching the place. We did n't know 5here'r be such a great opportunity, but since it's there I figure you should go for it.
Okay, let's see if I can get in.
Oo, Hal is an actual polytheist. Awesome!
@Mel: :)
Just hoping Fyrtor doesn't take that the wrong way.
Nice, no worries, Fyrtor will judge Harold a bit and try to convert him, but he tries to convert everyone. He's also quite used to the attitude (I figure most people are actually like Harold and worship a pantheon).
Awesome, that works well!
For reasons that are not entirely clear even to me, I spent most of the day composing this Brief Guide to Healing without a Caster.
I kind of wish Mel was there for this conversation -- she'd have some things to add.
But then, she probably couldn't say them out loud in public. Ostara is not commonly worshipped here and she does not want to attract attention.
I love your guide. Seriously. Thank you for writing it!
Also sorry for being more quiet than usual. I’m neck deep in looking at homes, and fighting the national guard for documents needed for my home loan. It’s eaten into my free time something fierce.
Thanks! I was reviewing my notes on how Mel's healing stuff works, because the Heal skill unlock was written in a stupidly hard-to-understand manner. And then I thought, "Why not convert all these into a guide?" It took roughly eight hours to type up. ;_;
It is very useful! I have a soft spot for surgeons, and despaired at how complicated the heal skill is.
I don't have a reddit account, but...
I think people are missing how often GMs want to run games where magical healing is rare.
the Boline allows treating deadly wounds with only 1 charge - so 5gp.
If you can use Craft to make a Healer's kit you can save up to 2/3 of the cost without a Feat - about 1.7gp per heal. A crafted wand is still 1.5gp though.
For the record my research turned up that a lot of folk beliefs centred on a family Bible, and the Saliharion seemed to be the closest Golarion equivalent. If it's problematic, I can switch it.
Just like the old family bibles it's beautiful but has more words scrawled in margins, bookplates, and inserted notes than the book itself. I was hoping to combine it with The Birth of Light and Truth for a truly enormous book.
It might make sense to wait for Mel before making plans.
Mordred/Turion/Janus has informed me that he's been ill but is feeling better. He should be back around soon.
I've decided I should take a more active role in making sure this intrigue arc keeps moving forward actively and clearly. So I've added a link to intrigue notes I'm going to take the lead on in campaign description. For now, I've just started writing a few things down but will try to keep adding to this. Please take a look at these notes from time to time, especially if you're getting confused about what to do next. You can also add to these as it's set to let you edit.
Mel: Will you please merge your Bannehold NPCs document into the embryonic NPCs section of my new document? Then we'll just have one document to help us keep track. I'm certainly not picky about formatting as long as it's helpful, e.g. that table of contents you made in the NPC document would be great. Again, I'll keep incrementally developing this document as I have time and you learn new things.
Documents integrated.
The "Table of Contents" is extremely easy to do. It's generated automatically from headings. For example, suppose we made a new friend: the Lady Katherine Vinland, Marquessa of Elen. To add her profile, you would:
1. Type in her name
2. Select it
3. Click the "Style" drop down (located immediately to the left of the font-selection drop-down).
4. Change its style to "Heading 2".
5. Press Enter and start typing your notes.
That will make her name a heading. It'll be in bigger text and automatically added to the document's outline. If you were to later cut/paste it, the outline would be automatically updated.
I rearranged the contents of the documents a bit to keep notes on specific NPCs in one section and other stuff elsewhere. We've got 3 level 1 headings ("Quests," "General Notes", and "Bannerhold NPC Profiles"). Any level 2 or 3 headings will show up under the closest adjacent level 1 heading.
Headings are also super-helpful for blind people. A document with clear headings is much easier to navigate using screen-reading software.
Lastly, I would like to point out this bit of information from the Command Words section of the Magic Item rules:
The spells detect magic, identify, and analyze dweomer all reveal command words if the properties of the item are successfully identified.
Now, if the GM wishes to rule that a cantrip should not be enough to defeat the security precautions of Davis' handler, who clearly knew what they were doing, that would probably be reasonable. Identify just gives a bonus on the Spellcraft check to identify properties, so I can see how that might get ruled out too. I would raise my eyebrows if Analyze Dweomer didn't work -- but I don't think we have access to that.
Thanks, Mel!
Good point about command words. I think it's got to be an oversight that it would reveal the activation word of an item where the activation word is the whole point. Analyze dweomer would, of course, reveal the command word. I'd say identify could also cut it with a very high arcana check, say DC 45. I don't want brute force mechanics to short-circuit a bit of sleuthing too easily.
@Brookside GM: I was going to have Hal suggest a few spells in the hopes people had access to them. While he definitely has the skills to recognise them, I'm not sure what the roll to know of them is.
For the record; Alarm, Speak With Animals and Mark of Blood.
The first two are commonplace enough (I mean, asking a druid if he can chat with animals seems pretty obvious) and I feel he should be okay, but Mark of Blood is typically rarer.
Let's say the same DC spellcraft check as it would be to recognize it being cast. If you can recognize it being cast, then you probably knew what it was before you saw it cast.
Dear Universe:
The year I recently purchased (the 2020 model) appears to be not just defective, but actively harmful. I would like to return it, please. How do I attach the return label? And how much postage will I need?
Thanks.
-- Me
It's not that the year is defective.
It's that the simulation was only supposed to run until 2012(as per Mayas).
Our reality is basically now running on a legacy system, without any further patches or updates, which honestly explains the past 8 years best imho.
It started mild, with some obscure stuff getting weird and variables running wild, but we're fully off the rails now and whoever runs the simulation probably wonders what train wreck will finally push the system into shut-down.
In other words, aye, I'm back :)
Sorry, I kept this game for the last set for updating because there was most catching up to do. I'll try and get to it this evening.
Hey Túrion! Do you want in on the book-decyphering? I only started it up because you'd been kept away.
I'm a little puzzled as to why Fyrman is preparing spells for taking people down? Does he expect the book to possess someone?
Also, I think the passphrase is probably spoken, not written.
So I have spells prepped that are less lethal generally because we are in a city and doing more delicate work. So for instance instance instead of preping flaming Sphere I've got aqueous orb preped. Throwing around fire and brimstone is great, but not when you might catch the city on fire.
Edit: Well actually I do have Greater flaming shower preped, but that is the general idea. Here's a list of the spells I've got right now.
4th (3/day) Plus 1 Evocation
Aggressive Thundercloud, Greater (DC 18)
Explosion Of Rot (DC 18)
Flaming Sphere, Greater (DC 18)
Slowing Mud (DC 18)
3rd (4/day) Plus 1 Evocation
Aqueous Orb (DC 17)
Dark-Light (DC 17)
Nauseating Trail (DC 17)
Pack Empathy (DC 17)
Spider Climb, Communal (DC 17)
2nd (4/day) Plus 1 Evocation
Barkskin (DC 16)
Burst of Radiance (DC 16)
Euphoric Cloud (DC 16)
Reduce Animal (DC 16)
Reduce Animal (DC 16)
1st (5/day) Plus 1 Evocation
Blend (DC 15)
Burning Disarm (DC 15)
Faerie Fire (DC 15)
Heightened Awareness (DC 15)
Mudball (DC 15)
Obscuring Mist (DC 15)
Pearl of Power 1
Pearl of Power 2
0th (at will) Plus 1 Evocation
Chameleon Scales (DC 14)
Detect Magic (DC 14)
Guidance (DC 14)
Light (DC 14)
Oath of Anonymity (DC 14)
Gotcha.
In totally unrelated news, did you know that Adepts don't get cantrips? They can prep and cast zero-level spells, but they're expended when cast, just like in the days of 3.5.
All good, Harold. Go for it.
I've been away and busy - in-game :) and hindered IRL.
So perfectly valid. We'll just flow with it.
@GM: I'm fine if that still does not invalidate sleuthing - but maybe some bonus to our attempts, or some insight into what is going down tonight - as in, to read the full thing, we'll still need to get proper access, but I can bypass it long enough to find out what is supposed to happen tonight - to take the immediate time pressure off a bit?
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This Pack Empathy spell is great! I get to subject everyone to Mel's emotional states. >:-D
Well, that's pretty much everything Harold's got. Hoping he doesn't get Runed!
It is great, but as a note I can only apply it to myself, plus 1 per 3 caster levels of people, so it'll be me, Mel, and 1 other. I figure whoever would be another scout, I expect I'll take a turn being high Dec trained in stealth and having some spells on hand to bolster my bonus if needed. As for who the third person should be, I'm guessing not Khaz, so Turion or Harold?
Oh. Whoops! XD
Just a note: the GM is in crunch time. This is his last month to finish writing his dissertation, so he has to focus on getting that out the door. Updates may be slow for a while.
Indeed! Dissertation is due June 30.
Good luck! Stay on target...
@Fyrtor: I think you missed the 4th perception roll. Also; Mead is post perception roll #2 if you're drinking it.
I need some advice on balancing an encounter. I'm putting the following behind a spoiler because it does contain some mild spoilers for Rise of the Runelords, but note that most of this is homebrew because the party has announced their intention to run into an area which was only briefly detailed in the AP, concluding with the phrase "An attempt to explore this immense structure could well entail an adventure in itself. Unfortunately, apart from incidental treasure and experience points, there’s little in here for the PCs to aid them in their current conflict".
The basic problem is that after five books of fairly rail-roady AP, book 6 is quite open, and my party has no clue what to do. I keep trying to arrange opportunities for them to learn important facts that might give them a bit more direction, but so far they have not chosen to pursue any of those. They're also 15th level PCs who have so far totally ignored the assorted divination spells that could provide them with useful information at little or no risk, despite some explicit out-of-character hints that maybe some divination could help.
Anyway! Shahlaria was once the military training grounds for Karzoug's rune giants, so I figure the ones he has now are beginning to repair the place and there are a few in residence. The encounter would consist of Okrutna, the leader of the rune giants, using this stat block, Leni, a standard rune giant, and 4 Stone Giants who are working on repairing the structure. There may also be a third rune giant, Teško, who is returning to give a report on efforts to recruit tribes of lesser giants from the surrounding area. It is my fond (and probably foolish) hope that they'll follow Teško in and eavesdrop on her conversation with Okrutna, thus learning assorted important information. But it's more likely they'll try to jump one or more of them.
On paper, this is a CR 22 encounter, which is a pretty stiff fight even for a party of 15th level PCs. Things are made more complicated by the fact that the level of optimization is uneven at best, the party still has several holdovers from 3.5 in play,
The party composition is as follows:
Wren, human bard 15. AC 29, Fort 11, Reflex 18, Will 13, 171 hp. Due to 3.5 holdovers -- a Badge of Valor and Song of the Heart -- her Inspire Courage functions at +5 attack/damage instead of the usual +3 at this level. Between that and assorted buff spells, she is arguably the most dangerous member of the party -- not because she's effective herself, but because she makes everyone else a lot more dangerous. I tried to nerf her a little bit when the PCs finally switched to Pathfinder 1e rules last August, but met limited success. She was able to point out (with justice) that I literally made her sing her step-father to death for that feat.
Ronia, human cleric of Ng 13. AC 29, Fort 15, Reflex 9, Will 17, 123 hp. Wren's cohort. Mechanically she's mostly on healbot duty, plus the occasional flamestrike or harm. But fun fact, she used to be a changeling!
Skrag, half-orc bloodrager 15, aberrant bloodline. When raging and enlarged (i.e. most fights): AC 22, Fort 23, Reflex 8, Will 14, 236 hit points. Hits things and mostly uses his spells for buffing himself or getting closer to things that don't want to be hit. Oh, and he has 15 foot reach when raging and enlarged.
Zoey, android wizard 15, universalist. AC 23, Fort 12, Reflex 12, Will 15, 117 hp. Has a large number of 3.5 holdover spells which mostly function as touch attacks. Many of them don't allow SR.
Micah, half-elf ranger 6/fighter 2/dervish 9. AC 38, Fort 18, Reflex 20, Will 18, 143 hp. The player is excellent at role play but struggles with mechanics, so she asked me (basically) to help her build the character and make him a whirling vortex of slashy death. This I have done. A bit too effectively, perhaps. He dual-wields scimitars and gets Dex to damage with both of them, which I regret allowing even though it was my own idea and I made him pay three feats to make it happen. I was a much less experienced GM when I made that call.
A big part of the problem is that Micah's AC and saves are so much superior to everyone else's. A serious threat to Micah is going to murdilate the rest of the party, while he'll shrug off anything that would be a reasonable threat to the others.
Case in point: when using Power Attack, Okrutna the rune giant overlord has +30/+30/+25/+20/+15 to hit for 4d6+31 damage. Against Micah, he needs to roll 8+/8+/13+/18+/20 to hit, and crits on a 17+. That's a significant threat to Micah. The rest of the party would be shish-kebabed in short order, though Skrag would take a bit longer because he's a giant pile of hit points.
Then we add in 2 other rune giants (who lack the 4 levels of fighter their boss has, but still). Plus a handful of stone giants. And although I haven't deliberately added any particularly disadvantageous terrain, due to the scale of the ruin (constructed for gargantuan giants) they may have difficulty with things like stairs. Oh, and they've never fought a rune giant before and don't know a whole lot about them. I take that back, they fought a zombie rune giant in Book 3. But that was basically a really big zombie.
So basically, I need a sanity check. I don't think it makes sense for them to walk into the headquarters of the ancient giant army and not find a bunch of giants, but I'm a little worried that I'm going to murder the party when all I really want to do is finish this damn campaign. I've been GM'ing Rise of the Runelords since 2011, and I am sick to the teeth of it.
Unless they alert the others, the regular Rock Giants may currently be working. That is, encumbered by construction material, busy, unarmed. They may have rocks for throwing at hand, but not carry weapons while working, needing to stick with their slams - and spending their first round getting rid of what they carry or work on and getting ready to fight(e.g. drop the huge stone block carried and pick up a smaller one to throw - effectively wasting their first turn).
Splitting them gives the party a chance to not fight Okrutna with the other Rune Giants, too - and I'm not certain about Rune Giants, but it seems they may have different abilities with their Runes?(aside control of Giants) - Wren has a moderate will save - if her song is so powerful, Okrutna may opt to hit her with a silence, spending one round trying to debuff the party(when attacking would be too lethal).
I do agree that the Terrain should be in the Giants favor, being made for them.
All that said, Okrutna is smart. If he feels the fight is going in his favor, he may opt to take the party prisoner. Either to learn who they are and why they are here, or to make them into servants(courtesy of dominate). So he may throw in a sucker punch doing nonlethal damage here and there, trying to knock people out instead of straight-up murdering them - as long as his life is not in danger.
In that case, worst case, the party fails, they find themselves imprisoned and watched over by one of the giants, and need to find a way to try and escape through some hidden tunnels(but not before a.: hearing the Giants talk about some important stuff and b.: paying a survival tax in Okrutna taking something shiny from them.(most likely stripping them of magical protection to make Domination easier).
My 2 cents.
There yep I missed that perception roll too :)
@Túrion -- thanks! I appreciate the feedback.
You're welcome. It may or may not be helpful, or fit with what you were going for or the current campaign situation, but I tried :)
I see I wasn't clear in the original description of the helmet. I think it's much more flavorful (and balanced) if the aoo can only be taken with the helmet, as I originally intended in my head but failed to communicate. You can still take your normal attacks with the hammer.
Theater of the mind for the fiend fight? After I literally made a custom map of the room you're standing in?
Mind you I didn't furnish it. There should be a table and chairs in that room.
Haha. Sorry, Mel. I completely forgot those maps due to baby/dissertation. They are quite nice and I'll make sure to attack you in your home another time so we can enjoy them.
XD
... thanks?
Hey, Bannerhold is the kind of place where your neighbors will actually check on you when they hear a fight happening! Isn't that nice?
*sparkles*