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GM'S NOTE: I forgot to add Valariot's +1 Wisdom modifier to the "pounds of food" and "gallons of water" results. Those d6 results should be one higher each. Thanks to a helpful Discord user (#TheReal_Decoy) for pointing this out. Gameplay edited to reflect the change.
This thread will serve as an ongoing log of the die rolls made for the r/RedditPlays5e play-by-post campaign.
An ogre mage oni has a reach of 10 ft, but it doesn't cast cone of cold any differently (even though that spell specifies that the cone "originates at your hand"). It might "feel" right to visualize it differently, but area spells really don't have anything at all to do with your reach, I'm afraid.
Take a look at the Ancient Gravedigger in the PRD (Monster Codex), I don't recall the particulars but it may shed some light. It's a ghoul stone oracle. Wow - great find. This entry answers the two most important questions with a RAW source. Evidently, there is no non-proficiency penalty and the rock is a one-handed weapon (since the ghoul is making iterative attacks with rocks).
So I've got some questions about the rock throwing revelation from the oracle's stone mystery. Here's the ability as presented in the Advanced Player's Guide:
Rock Throwing (Ex): You are an accomplished rock thrower and have a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown rocks. You can hurl rocks up to two categories smaller than your own size. The range increment for a rock is 20 feet, and you can hurl it up to 5 range increments. Damage for a hurled rock is 2d4 for a Medium creature or 2d3 for a Small creature, plus 1-1/2 your Strength bonus. So this ability seems unfinished - actually, a lot of revelations do (moonlight bridge, looking at you). My questions about this one in particular are: 1.) What kind of thrown weapon is the rock? One-handed or two-handed? The language regarding adding x1.5 your Strength bonus to damage seem to suggest two-handed, though thrown weapons in general only apply your standard Strength bonus, regardless of handedness. Daggers, clubs, shortspears, spears, darts, javelins, throwing axes, light hammers, tridents, shuriken, and nets are thrown weapons. The wielder applies his Strength modifier to damage dealt by thrown weapons (except for splash weapons). It is possible to throw a weapon that isn't designed to be thrown (that is, a melee weapon that doesn't have a numeric entry in the Range column on Table: Weapons), and a character who does so takes a –4 penalty on the attack roll. Throwing a light or one-handed weapon is a standard action, while throwing a two-handed weapon is a full-round action. Regardless of the type of weapon, such an attack scores a threat only on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. Such a weapon has a range increment of 10 feet. If it's a two-handed weapon, that means that throwing it takes a full-round action, which is a bit silly. Can we assume that it's a one-handed weapon, then, since (Ex) abilities take a standard action by default? 2.) How much does each rock weigh? 3.) Since a rock is an improvised weapon, can I assume that I take a -4 nonproficiency penalty on the attack roll? Giants are proficient with thrown rocks, but that's because the Bestiary includes specific language granting a monster proficiency with any weapons listed in their Bestiary entry.
Hi there. My name is Daron – I’m the founder and lead author for Abandoned Arts, a mid-to-small sized third-party Pathfinder RPG publisher – and I’ve recently undertaken the task of GM-ing a new Kingmaker campaign for a group of three players. We’re actually all complete strangers, playing twice a week(ish), long-distance via the Fantasy Grounds software. We’re playing a very conventional, rules-as-written game with no houserules or third-party content (not even my own). Actually, we’re playing only with content featured at the official prd. At time of this posting, we are only two sessions in. My players seem to have mixed levels of experience with Pathfinder, but are playing pretty well together so far. The party is fairly small, so they should level quickly. If you’ve run a Kingmaker game before, you know that the random encounter table is absolutely brutal at the lower levels, so the extra experience point gains should help. Maybe. I’m the kind of GM that runs things by the book – I’m not a killer GM, or a “nice guy” GM – I’m just bringing the module to life, here, and letting the rules (and the dice) do the talking. That means that I play it straight with the rules, the encounters, and that damn wandering monster table. Why do I mention this here? Because if there’s any appeal to a campaign journal like this one, it’ll be in watching a small group of players with mixed Pathfinder experience tackle one of the most sandboxy and difficult (at least at first) Paizo APs out there, and succeed (or not) on their own merits, and – let’s be honest – on their own luck. What follows will serve to document our campaign, so let’s kick things off by talking about our (squishy but practical) party of three. Click the spoilers for details. Descriptions of sessions one and two to follow this post. We play about twice a week, and I plan to update once or twice a week. I don’t know if my players will post here or not, but if anyone’s dying for more details on this-or-that encounter or event, I’m sure that either myself or one of our heroes will be happy to oblige. Eventually, I'll probably get full character stats posted up here, too. Happy reading. The Party Beru Flatpeak, CN halfling oracle:
Beru had a hard time learning to speak as a child, often mispronouncing or mixing up words badly. His family would joke good-naturedly that Beru spoke a language all his own. Eventually he mastered the common Taldan tongue, but when a roaming priest of Erastil sought a night’s rest at the Flatpeak estate, the priest was surprised to hear Beru speak in his “first tongue,” for it was not a language of nonsense. Beru was speaking in the Celestial tongue of the angels. Perplexed by this information, Beru spent time travelling through Avistan and speaking with priests and practitioners of every faith, searching for the meaning of this strange, intrinsic gift. Finding no bond or peace in any known faith, Beru came to discover that only the moon and stars seemed to “speak” to him in the spiritual sense of the word – in the ways that pious men and women would describe the voices and visions of their gods. What’s more: his gift of tongues, it turns out, is also a curse – a linguistic impulse that overtakes him in times of stress or trauma. After returning home to Brevoy, Beru sought a simple life in the south of Brevoy – far from the bustle of the cities, and perhaps nearer to the tranquil night skies. Though the halfling has discovered that his gift is greater than he ever dreamed – his connection to the heavens and the cosmos is strong enough to empower him with the ability to work miracles – he also supports his income peddling fortune-tellings with a deck of cards. Beru has accepted the Lord Mayor’s charter in order to better test himself and sharpen the blade of his double-edged divine gift. With no gods to guide him, he must make his own way in the world and discover the meaning of his cosmic mystery alone. Boszin Hartz, N samaran druid:
The tale of Boszin’s life is a tale of self-inflicted exile. His family immigrated to Brevoy in generations past, and lived honest lives in the Rostland Plains. Tragically, Boszin’s homestead burned to the ground when he was young, taking the lives of his immediate family… including that of his beloved sister. Rather than forge a new life in Brevoy, Boszin swore off the world he’d known and left civilization behind him, trekking south and adopting the life of a pioneer. Though Boszin’s kind ascribe to a spiritual search for self-perfection and reincarnation, this belief did nothing to dull the sting of his sister’s death. As time wore on, the pain grew only sharper, and so it was that Boszin put his family’s superstitions behind him and swore a bond to a nameless circle of Gozreh-worshipping druids. The samsaran learned the druidic craft and conjured his companion, Feltch (a young tiger from the Valley of Fire beyond the Gonzi Forest). Eventually, Boszin disclosed his past – and his agenda – to the circle. Boszin sought spirit magic which might return his sister’s soul to the mortal world. In time, his elders revealed to him that their magic could not bring his sibling back, because her spirit was unwilling to return. Perhaps her cycle of reincarnation had begun. Perhaps her spirit did walk the world again – inhabiting another body, living another life… loving another brother. Boszin’s refusal to accept this possibility – and the rage that simmered within him – were enough to convince the samsaran’s druidic elders that he was preparing to walk a forbidden path, and exiled him: and they were right. Now, Boszin seeks magic closed to druidic tradition: the powers of necromancy. Half-recalling necromantic spells from a previous life, the druid slowly succumbs to the unnatural temptation even as he takes up arms for the Lord Mayor’s charter in an effort to protect Brevoy’s frontiers. After losing two families and choosing exile from the bonds of both civilization and brotherhood, the Greenbelt is the only home that Boszin has left. Tarnil Lostwing, CN aasimar inquisitor (sacred huntmaster) of Gorum:
A native of Brevoy, and a soldier by trade, the divine influence in Tarnil’s heritage attracted him to the church of Gorum, where he clawed his way up to the rank of inquisitor (with the assistance of the esteem imparted by the auspicious nature and circumstances of his birth to human parents). Tarnil carries out the Lord Mayor’s charter in pursuit of an excuse to be where the fighting is. The politics of Brevoy necessitate that church of Gorum – which is, effectively, a standing army – distance themselves from any armed conflict involving border disputes or open warfare in the Swordlords’ name. There is, however, no reason why an inquisitor of Gorum should not be able to root out heretics hiding in the Greenbelt. And what could be more heretical than cowardice and banditry? Tarnil means to ensure that any folk living on the Greenbelt belong there. He means to put every man infected with the curse of cowardice or the plague of banditry to the sword (his greatsword, specifically) – or else to recruit them, knowingly or otherwise, into Gorum’s service and make them to swear off (and hunt down) their criminal associates. But Tarnil is something more than a soldier-turned-inquisitor, and his heritage is not his only advantage in this crusade: beside him walks the war-panther Aria, whom Gorum sent to his side. Together, the pair quests for little more (and nothing less) than glorious battle in the monster-haunted, bandit-infested wilderness that is the Greenbelt. Sessions I & II
Stolen Land: Introduction
Calistril 24th, AR 4710
There’s some confusion between Svetlana and the party at the outset – Svetlana seems to expect that the party has come to the trading post to assist with a recent bandit problem. It seemed the Levetons had requested aid from Restov and hoped the party were sent to aid the operation. The party agreed to help when the bandits next returned to collect their “taxes” from Oleg. In the meantime, Tarnil collects a few jobs from Oleg’s bulletin board. It seems the Lord Mayor of Restov is offering rewards for slain bandits and for solutions to the recent spikes in Sootscale Kobold activity in the Greenbelt. Also, Oleg is looking for a tatzlwyrm head to mount at the trading post and a retired hunter named Vekkel Benzen is looking for a capable adventurer to hunt and slay Tuskgutter, the monstrous boar that took his leg. Before leaving, Beru reads Oleg’s fortunes in the cards, and convinces a hesitant Oleg to let him borrow his (somewhat jittery and neurotic) horse, Claptrap. Tarnil asks after recent Tuskgutter sightings, and proposes a trip south-southwest of Oleg’s to look for boar tracks (planning to return before the sunrise on the 1st of Pharast, (when the bandit “tax collectors” are next expected to visit, according to precedent). The party sets out. Calistril 25th, AR 4710
Finding only a disused and rickety bridge crossing a twenty-foot-deep ravine, Beru the oracle conjures bridges of shimmering moonlight over most of the rope bridge’s surface. The party manages to cross safely (this time), though their crossing is noted by a river monster which Beru identifies as a slurk, which climbs the steep cliff face with bizarre proficiency for such an ungainly creature. GM’s Notes:
Dispatching the slurk was a pretty simple affair – the creature was used to ambushing travelers picking their way delicately across the bridge, and didn’t stand up to a five-against-one assault. After hacking it apart to take the tusks for trophies, the party returned their attention to exploring the hex. Calistril 26th, AR 4710
And, boy, did they find him. I rolled the percentiles as instructed to see if Tuskgutter was “at home” when they came upon his liar. He was. The boar lived up to his reputation as a local terror. Covered in scars, with enormous chipped-and-scratched tusks, the monster-pig simply came charging out of the undergrowth some seventy feet away. The good news was: Tuskgutter wasn’t hard to spot. He’s loud, and angry, and uninterested in subtlety. Boszin dropped an entangle and Tarnil and Aria were the first to engage, while the rest of the party maneuvered as best they could for sling shots. The inquisitor landed a couple of mighty blows on the boar. Blood-soaked and shrieking rabidly, Tuskgutter repaid the injuries by thrashing Tarnil, Aria, and eventually Feltch (the druid’s companion) quickly into unconsciousness. By the time Bozsin joined the melee, the battle seemed lost. Beru had his hands full just keeping dying characters (and animal companions, in that order) from bleeding out, while Bozsin desperately struggled to do more harm to the boar than the boar was dishing out. Unfortunately, this proved futile – Tuskgutter was a true monster, and it didn’t take him long to put the druid down, too. Fortunately, Boszin had been able to put Tuskgutter into the negatives before he dropped. But, as you might know, a boar can keep fighting even as its life blood still bleeds away. Tuskgutter’s ferocity ability kept him fighting even at a negative hit point total, and so… Beru simply ran. Still mounted upon Claptrap – Oleg’s borrowed steed – the halfling oracle outran the boar, deliberately keeping only just out of Tuskgutter’s reach to keep the boar more interested in the chase than in his helpless friends. With the boar staggered and the horse outpacing it easily, it became a simple (if stressful) matter to simply wait out the clock on Tuskgutter’s remaining moments. Soon, the boar dropped dead of its injuries mid-stride, and Beru was able to return to his crippled and unconscious party, now many hundreds of feet behind. Many hours of healing and stabilizing later, the party was able to get on their feet and begin heading back to Oleg’s by the most direct route available, north-northeast through the Narlmarches. Mind you, our heroes are far from recovered. Feltch is limping along with one hit point and nobody else (except for Beru, who is unharmed) is faring all much better. Bozsin is still sitting on an entangle spell, but otherwise the party’s magic is similarly on its last legs. And that’s when the wolves showed up. GM’s Notes:
It’s somewhere between midnight on the 27th and morning on the 28th when they spot them. Six wolves, fanned out in a semi-circle around the party. Desperately hungry animals, with visible ribs and ravenous expressions, drooling in anticipation of so much horseflesh. Tarnil and Boszin dismount their steeds, and the wolves charge. At least, they try, but... Erupting from the ground, the grasses, roots, and vines of the Narlmarches spring to life as Boszin bids them to entangle five of the six wolves. As the wolves gradually struggle out of the spell’s area, Tarnil and Aria get to work putting free-moving wolves (and those close to the edge of the spell) down quickly. Beru refuses to dismount Claptrap, panicking in Celestial tongues as the majority of the wolves make beelines for the horses. Unattended, a pair of wolves topple Boszin’s horse prone, and begin to savage the poor animal, hoping to kill it now and then return for it later. They don’t get the chance. Tarnil and Boszin convene on the panicking animal (who, despite the penalties for fighting prone and for attacking with secondary hooves, actually lands a really solid blow on its lead antagonist, itself) and put the wolves down as they try to make an escape. Injured, with their pack slain, two of the last wolves to escape the magical entanglement flee into the forest, and the party is happy to let them go. Calistril 25th, AR 4710
To be continued..!
Yeah, I just look at it as a sort of "strength of mind" ability. Elves (the original "anything you can do, I can do better" race, per Tolkien) are resistant to enchantments (+2 bonus) and straight-up immune to sleep. Think of forcing someone to sleep as a sort of basic, brute-force mental assault. Elves' minds are too sophisticated for blunt assaults like that, and are resistant to more sophisticated enchantments. Same for dragons.
Browsing this thread makes me think about how cool a vigilante would be in the Kingmaker campaign.
Reading about Mr. Wigglebottom killed me inside, a little bit. I'd steal it for my game, but my fiance might leave me if I did that to her character.
Hugo Strange. He's Doctor Hugo Strange.
Interesting. Okay; thanks!
So I'm inputting my player's characters in HeroLabs, and there's a checkbox next to the Strange Aeons campaign traits (this does appear next to any other traits) that says "Enhanced?". I haven't yet read past the first module in the AP - do the Strange Aeons campaign traits get more powerful later on, as the PCs recover their memories or somesuch?
Wow, this thread really took off. Thanks for your thoughts, folks. Glad to see that my interpretation of RAW was correct. Silly, but correct. I think wraithstrike basically summed up my feelings with: When writing modules or running PFS you go with common sense. There are a few rules that people don't run by RAW because it is not intent. In other news... PS: I just realized the normal centuar in the book should have a +6 to its attack roll, not a +5. Not sure this is right. The centaur has: -1 size penalty
So I'm pretty sure that the RAI answer is "no," but I ran across this odd little corner-case while making a skeletal centaur in HeroLabs, and the more I look into it, the more it seems like the RAW is super clear that a skeletal centaur loses the "Undersized Weapons" special quality, and can therefore use Large-sized weapons with no penalties. A centaur is a Large creature, but the Undersized Weapons SQ says that it wields Medium-sized weapons like a Medium-sized creature does, owing to their human-sized upper bodies. The skeleton template, however, explicitly says that a skeleton loses all special qualities unless those qualities improve the base creature's melee or ranged attacks. Undersized Weapons does not improve either of those things, so - by RAW - it the skeleton loses the quality and may freely wield Large-sized weapons just like any other Large-sized creature could. If you were running such a creature in an official capacity - say you were writing a module, or running a Pathfinder Society game - how would you rule on this? My thoughts are, either: a.) Decide that the skeleton template language is intended to allow the base creature to keep special qualities that modify or generally affect its melee or ranged attacks, not just ones that strictly improve them; or b.) Rules are rules, and the skeleton's strength is supernatural (lacking muscle, after all), allowing it to wield Large weapons owing to the supernatural strength and overall size of the creature. Thoughts? It is possible I am missing a cleverer or more obvious answer.
As you appear to be allowing a synthesist with venerable age penalties (Why would you do that to yourself?) I see no reason why you wouldn't allow this either though. I try to strike a balance between RAW and RAI, but I don't deviate from either if I can help it. I want to know what the rules are, not what I can "allow." I try not to "allow" anything - I'll let the rules do all the allowing. The reach evolution is intended for it's natural attacks. I suspect that this is not necessarily the case, since the language for most other evolutions does specify "natural attacks" where applicable. I doubt it is meant to apply to manufactured weapons, but the language used in this evolution might be different from the rest explicitly because the designer(s) anticipated that some eidolons might want to use unarmed fighting styles, feats, and so on. The question might be: can a biped with claws make a natural attack? Does it need hands instead? Can a badger make an unarmed strike? Can a bear? HeroLabs seems to think so, but HeroLabs can be awfully silly. Unarmed strikes can be made with any part of the body, not merely the fist. Attacks with elbows, knees, feet, and headbutts are all possible. I'm inclined to agree with you, but I'm not completely sure. The rules for unarmed attacks seem to indicate that such attacks are possible, but the monk's "unarmed strike" class feature explicitly states that a monk can attack with knees, elbows, and so on - which seems to imply (without explicitly saying so) that other characters cannot? Maybe? Of course, the question might be moot since the eidolon in question shares a body with a monk, and is - in fact - not a separate creature. It's a pretty wacky corner-case, I'm just hoping there's some scrap of rules-text out there that makes it crystal clear. There may not be, though.
So one of my players is working with a rather unusual build: a monk / synthesist summoner build (with venerable age penalties to boot - and all penalties totally overriden by adopting the eidolon's physical ability scores). She wants to be able to take the Reach evolution and apply it to her unarmed strikes - but her eidolon is a bipedal one, with claws. Unfortunately, taking a different eidolon form is somewhat out of the question in this case. With all that in mind, my question is two-fold: 1.) Can an eidolon with claws (but no hands) make an unarmed strike? If not, does it matter that the eidolon is a synthesist form "worn" by a monk? 2.) Can an eidolon capable of making unarmed strikes select them as a candidate for the Reach evolution, or is that evolution intended for natural attacks only?
Slumber Hex characters are in for a bad time in this chapter. I hope that trend continues throughout the rest of the AP. One of my players will be running a sleep-casting mesmerist capable of stacking up to -6 on saves vs. sleep (at level 1). Worse: mesmerists can take away mind-affecting communities from NPCs... even undead, constructs, etc. So I have that to look forward to.
> Make an alias for your character, and use that when posting. > Dialogue is always in bold, and always with quotation marks: "This is what dialogue looks like." > Thoughts are italicized, without quotation marks: This is what an internal monologue looks like. > Telepathy is bolded and italicized, with quotation marks: "This is what telepathic dialogue looks like." > Action types and out-of-character information uses the blue OOC text: > When you roll dice, remember to note what kind of roll you're making (Perception check, attack roll vs. goblin, etc). See the "How to format your text" spoiler right below the posting field near the bottom of the webpage. Include and list all your bonuses and penalties. Roll damage with your attack - your whole turn should ideally be a single post. > Try to create "hooking" posts - posts that contain just a tiny bit of dialogue, or set-dressing, or some inconsequential action or bit of description. Pretend it's a TV series and the camera pans to your character, or features him or her in the background. What's s/he doing; how's s/he acting; what's the character's mood? Hooking can be a single line of dialogue, or absentmindedly shuffling your feet, or smashing a rat under your boot. > React to stuff! Other PC's hooks, NPCs, the environment. Think about what the scene would "look like" on TV. This is the easiest way to hook (giggity). > There's a little more roleplaying in PbP. You'll be bored if you don't give into it a little. Be something. Be kind of a dick, be naive, be a goody-goody, be a chauvinist. Look up the deity you wrote down and actually subscribe to some of the tenants of that faith. Be that grumpy-but-soft-on-the-inside dwarf trope (even if you’re not a dwarf). If your traits say that you grew up a pirate, be pirate-y. If you’re good-aligned, be heroic, or smart-mouth the bad guys like Spider-man. If you’re lawful, be noble, or stern, or hard-nosed, or haughty, or regal. Do things for fun, and/or because your character would. > Stuff that happens on an NPCs turn gets rolled for you. Most saving throws and attacks of opportunity for example. > You can post "predicatively" OOC if you want. For example: If you have immediate-action abilities, try to declare how and when you want to use them so the GM knows when to activate or roll them. > Unless you have PC troubles or real-life emergencies, try really hard to post every single day. It's just a game, but it's also a group social obligation.
Bored and restless, James stands in the corner, unbuttons his fly, and casually urinates on one of the captives.
This is the Discussion Thread, where you PCs can talk OOC tactics, field questions, deal with xp and leveling issues, announce planned absences, and generally conduct all the "table talk" not relevant to the fictional events of the campaign itself. If you click on the "Campaign Info" tab, above, you'll see information about your characters, NPCs, maps, and other campaign stuff. The "Gameplay" tab, obviously, is where we'll play. This group is a private, closed-recruitment gang of friends and family. We'll be tackling Strange Aeons with only three PCs. This group has played PbP only once before, so the following post will be a quick refresher on PbP formatting stuff. Spectators are welcome here, and are even welcome to stop in and say hi, offer tips, or ask our players questions. No Strange Aeons spoilers, please.
"Doctor" Ilesi Scaen: This doppelganger is a though opponent but according to its tactics, it will try to escape ASAP... but where does she go thereafter? It would make sense that she'd alert the other doppels, but then what? If I put her together with any of the others ones, it will be a slaughter for the PCs (at least a CR5 for a 1st level party). Getting ready to run this as a PbP for some friends right here on the forums, and I was wondering about this myself... it's actually kind of a big problem. Ilesi is never mentioned again after the first encounter with her. She could be a wandering monster encounter - but it doesn't make much sense that she would run from four unarmed prisoners but pick a fight with four armed ones later on. Maybe the mist takes her. Winter Klaczka's lack of intelligence: In her entry in the end of the book, it is mentioned that she was in Briarstone specifically to investigate about "recently committed patients previously in the service of Haserton Lowls". It is fair to assume that she had no description of them but when four fully armed guys pop in front of her, would not she be at least suspicious that these are the people she was looking for? The rest of your point is pretty valid - especially given her Wisdom score of 17 (!) - but the fact that the PCs are armed and armored makes a pretty good case for their not being patients at all. Generally asylum inmates aren't permitted to walk around with battleaxes and things.
Only one post so far? The obits are always my favorite page...
Hey, @I'm Hiding In Your Closet. Just discovered this discussion! Late to the party - I know - but all that Abandoned Arts' pseudo-tagline means by "fluff or filler" is that our products get straight to the (mechanical) point. We sort of have a reputation for it. Good "fluff" is great! We just don't write it. (As an aside: what is meant by "filler" is rather something else than what is meant by "fluff." In short: valueless content - mechanical or otherwise - meant to fill space or pad out word count. You see a lot of this in certain product lines - just not ours.) As a general rule, our product lines really do dive straight into "the mechanical." There is no disdain implied for non-mechanical elements of the game in the line. Rather, it's a guarantee that the product won't feature a lot of campaign- or setting-dependant flavor or background. Abandoned Arts' product lines are not as much about setting scenes with evocative descriptions, but with evocative mechanics. Tying a lot of description to a mechanic limits the scope of its use... and renders the text itself worthless if the user chooses not to use it or be inspired by it. For example: if I wrote a half-page of background for a bard archetype that was all about calling creatures to you with music - how the magic works, what the origins of the bardic tradition is like, how different races view this type of bard, and so on - that would all be fine... but you might choose not to use any of that inspiration at all. Maybe it doesn't jive with your campaign setting, or your character concept. Thus, the text is worthless to you, the buyer. Instead, I'll fill that space with more mechanical content, which is (at least in theory) usable to anyone who uses the mechanics of the game. Which is everyone, more or less. But I want to say again: I mean to imply no disdain for non-mechanical elements of the game, or for the authors of such content. It's just not, primarily, what Abandoned Arts writes.
Hmm, you do have a point, there - but shouldn't "Fluffer" be a new NPC class rather than just a feat (or maybe a Familiar Archetype)? PS: Keep an eye out for this archetype, coming soon. You'll never look at Daron Woodson
113. A race that can see ethereal creatures, and speak with dead. 114. A sage, lavender-skinned "race" that consists of exactly one guy. Whenever s/he dies, he's reincarnated elsewhere, born to another set of parents. 115. A playable duplicate from a mirror of opposition. 116. A entire race of people who are cursed to rise as (playable) undead upon their death. 117. A "dead but doesn't know it, Bruce Willis from the Sixth Sense" race. Oh, and spoilers.
81. A race borne of a wish spell. 82. A race whose members are uniformly overweight. Perhaps similar to halflings - fat, happy, and jolly. 83. An otherwise-neutral (or even evil) race that is cursed to help others and do good or suffer horrible ramifications. Maybe a great tragedy or genocide occurred because this race did nothing when they could have easily stepped in and helped, so a powerful entity cursed the whole species so that its members lose their minds or souls or somesuch, little by little, each time they refuse to help someone in need. 84. A playable hivemind. (As in: a PC plays one member of a hivemind species whose other members are presumably elsewhere). 85. A "race" of children (think: Peter Pan and Neverland). 86. A "race" of clones - all physically identical to the original, and all with similar - but not identical - personalities, shaped by their own experiences. For example, if the original was Lawful Neutral, a Chaotic Good member must have experienced extraordinary things to be changed so profoundly. (Yes, this is basically The Council of Ricks, from Rick and Morty.) 87. A race of diminutive parasites who form long-term bonds with human hosts. They don't hijack their minds; they actually live in harmony with their hosts, and develop relationships with them. 88. A playable, race-builder-style gnoll race, with a racial witch archetype that plays off the "cackle" class feature. 89. A playable, race-builder-style myconid race. 90. A race of cactacae, complete with rivebows. 91. A race of hotchi, complete with giant rooster steeds. 92. A flumph-style race: an alien race that looks very, very silly, but whose members are actually quite grave and serious-minded, possess a tragic backstory, and who have no real idea how silly they look to humanoids. 93. A race with ancestral recall. Basically, they inherent the memories of their ancestors. 94. A race sent to [insert campaign setting] in order to catalogue everything on it. Plot twist: ...because it's going to blow up / die / dis-corporate soon! Plot twist two: ...because their masters are preparing to assimilate / conquer / absorb it soon! Plot twist three: ...because they're really from the future / an alternate timeline / a parallel dimension. 95. A (non-reptile) race that sheds is skin periodically.
I certainly see where you might be coming from, Jessica, but (while I admittedly haven't read the thread "cover-to-cover"), it seems like this thread is more about whether or not women are playing tabletop RPGs in mixed-gender groups, not what men think or feel about it or whether or not they ought to play with men. I don't think there's been a deficit - historically - of blue-eyed people playing or not playing tabletop games, but there has been a disproportionate mix of players along sex and gender lines. This thread was started by a female player in order to celebrate what seemed to her to be a rising number of (and casual acceptance of) female gamers at the tables that she frequents. I think that the participants here (only some of which have remarked about their own genders) are, more or less, only joining the original poster in celebrating and confirming that trend.
Well. Tom would have to post in order to run your character.
Slim as my chances seemed for this round, that's still a bummer. I understand, though - I think I misread the rules as something like "the scale must be 5 feet to a square;" I must have missed that it had to be printed there. C'est la vie, I feel confident that this won't be my last RPG Superstar appearance; I learned a lot this year in terms of what kind of item makes the top 32. Thanks again to all the Superstar judges and to all my supporters!
I'm chipping in just because I'm running a Reign of Winter home game right now, and there's a VERY minor character (the wife of a temple cleric) in Heldren who is described as being a "priestess" of some deity or another. That character isn't a cleric or a divine caster at all... she's a 2nd-level expert; she doesn't cast spells or really even have class features of any kind. I take away from that the idea that "priest" means "any clergy member of the church who preaches and upholds the dogma of the faith." It doesn't necessarily include "and someone who casts divine spells.' If you preach and educate laypersons in a house of worship, you're a priest. I think this is one of those "all X are Y but not all Y are X" situations: all clerics (who worship a deity) are priests, but not all priests are clerics. Of course, that means that ANYONE could be a priest. A priest could be a pious dwarven fighter who serves the local guard five days a week and teaches adults and children how to fight in a way that glorifies Gorum every [insert day of worship here]. He's probably got a rank or two in Knowledge (religion) so he can answer questions about the faith and teach a little of it. If you think about it, many real-life priests are also something else on every day other than [insert day of worship here], especially those who serve in small, local churches. In Golarion, for example, I would imagine that the church of Erastil probably counts more rangers and hunters among its priests than clerics - and those rangers probably do a lot more than preach on worship-days, they probably hunt and scout and patrol and do ranger-y things on every other day of the week.
Will do, Neil.
I chose my words carefully so as not to address any content, but I understand what you're saying. Thanks, Owen.
Liz and Neil; thank you for your critiques. I hadn't thought about it this way before now, but I suppose I am counting on the temporal slime ideas to sell the map - which isn't ideal. Still, it's an idea I like and one I'll stand by (with my fingers tightly crossed). Thanks in advance to all the Slime Vaults supporters and voters, and to everyone who's worked on, worked for, voted on, or participated in this year's contest. I wish my competition the best of luck (well, maybe the second best), and may the best maps win.
Thanks, Amanda! (And R.D.! And John!) Now I almost wish I'd tied this item to the aiudara, though I'm not sure it'd have made top 32 without the door imagery. I really struggled with the name quite a bit - there just didn't seem an elegant way to say "shield" and "door" in a way that was concise or alliterative. Shield of egress, maybe?
John! Congrats on your item; I voted for it a few times myself. One question: what happens to the cloud of difficult terrain within a body of flowing or moving water, such as a river?
Reposting this:
*grasps Neil by the lapels* JUST TELL ME HOW TO WIN RPG SUPERSTAR. Ha ha. Just kidding. Ha. Right, so. The range on the dimension door effect produced by defender's door is based on the caster level of the shield. Caster Level (CL): The next item in a notational entry gives the caster level of the item, indicating its relative power. The caster level determines the item's saving throw bonus, (if variable). It also determines the level that must be contended with should the item come under the effect of a dispel magic spell or similar situation. It is pretty abuse-able in terms of passing armies through it (and the cost definitely is much too low), but since PCs don't tend to have armies, I elected to keep the word count tight for the purposes of RPG Superstar submission. Would I have submitted a longer, loophole-free version if I were submitting an item to my editor instead of to the Superstar voters? Well, yes. It's just that none of last year's 32 really even approached as many as 250 words, and most were much shorter. Still, in hindsight, "Defender's door magically shuts after 1 minute if not closed before then" wouldn't have eaten up too much space. In any case, thanks for your observations! I am relieved to see that you liked the item, overall. You can be a pretty tough judge! EDIT: And thanks again to everyone else for taking the time to share your thoughts and encouragement! Also: I love the Scooby-Doo effect this can create with people entering one door and exiting another. This made my significant other giggle.
Thanks, Lucas. Sorry you didn't like defender's door more. Unrelated fun fact: Abandoned Arts is actually an imprint of Fat Goblin Games, these days.
A tumbleweed rolls through the street. Somehow you can sense that the tumbleweed hates you all.
Thanks, Victoria! (And Jeff, and Template Fu, and Mort, and anyone else who's posted since I last thanked everyone!) I put a lot of thought and effort into making this entry as concise as possible - browsing the Hall of Fame, this seemed a winning strategy - but I do wish I'd spent a few words more on one or two details (e.g. keeping the wielder stationary, or just within reach, and letting the wielder keep the door after passing through, even if it does end effect and become a shield again). I also wish I'd second-guessed the too-low price point as a few folks have pointed out, though that's something that an editor could address with a few keystrokes. Still, better that no-one needs to do that. Even so, I'm heartened to see such positive feedback from Victoria and really from everyone. Thanks again, my fellow humanoids.
As Ansirus does some last-minute window shopping, the party prepares to embark.
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