Pentosh

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Grand Lodge

I decided to re-start my Adventure Path subscription, and also grab a non-mint copy of the first volume of the Skull & Shackle's AP while I was at it.

However, when I completed my sale I didn't see any mention of the non-mint book. Just a confirmation that my AP subscription went through. I did leave my cart several times to re-set my payment and shipping info.

I haven't managed a subscription here for a while, so I'm probably missing something obvious, but could you confirm what my order shows on your end? I just want to make sure I didn't mess something up.

Grand Lodge

6 people marked this as a favorite.

Explorers just found a cave system in China that is so massive it has it's own internal weather system, including clouds.

Grand Lodge

Did anyone else read the "Kenabres Before the Fall" chapter and come to the conclusion that Sibella Morond, the half-elven stonesmith who worked on the pump system and built the Kite fortress, was actually either Minagho, or Baphomet's daughter (whose name I can't recall at the moment), or maybe Areelu Vorlesh in disguise?

Sibella constructed the original stone sheathing for the elaborate pump system that brings water into Kenabres. Later, she came back to construct the fortress that held the Wardstone:

From the History of Kenabres:
"Strangely, Sibella Morond returned to Kenabres that year. She had left with her reward after the pump’s defenses were completed, and hadn’t been seen in Mendev in the 18 years since. The leaders of Kenabres asked Morond to construct a fortification to house the wardstone. She agreed, and oversaw construction of the wardstone’s fortress in the Ring District at the base of the center pump’s structure. When the construction was complete, Morond presented the city with an oversized stone shield engraved with the city’s sigil."

We know from the opening Wall of Text for Wrath of the Righteous that:
the Wardstone & The Kite exploded just before the demons attacked. The characters who describe the attack, like Quednys Orlun, blame the Storm King for destroying the Wardstone but they are unreliable narrators who aren't really in a position to know either way. The initial attack happens quite quickly, the Storm King appears in the sky almost immediately after the explosion, and the last time there was an attack on the Wardstone he's the one who physically cracked it. So it makes sense that everyone would blame him directly. But the opening discussion of what the Demons are planning to do mentions that the Storm King is pressed into service to lead an attack against the city, and that the demonic army gathered in anticipation of the Wardstone going bye bye. So that at least implies that he was otherwise engaged. Plus, he doesn't strike me as the sneaky type.

No one really expects demons to launch a coordinated attack. They all seem to be under the impression that demonic in-fighting is holding the invasion back. Irabeth (I think) mentions at the end that it almost seems like "they've been planning this since the beginning".

So it makes sense.:
After Sibella Morond took her money and left, the demons would have a target. Kill her, replace her, and when "Sibella" shows up 18 years later to build the Wardstone Fortress no one is really going to ask too many questions. They already know who she is, she has a solid reputation, her pump work has been working great. There probably wouldn't be many (surviving) people who were close to her from when she was last there, particularly after almost two decades of war. That would make bluffing a lot easier. Magic could mask her alignment.

If it was a Lilitu Demon like Minagho, then it would be a simple matter for a "temptation demon" to find and get close to Sibella after she left town the first time and turn her into a husk.

Or it could have been Baphomet's Daughter, who we know is running the extra planar mining operations. So she probably knows enough about stonework to fake it, and she's ... you know ... Baphomet's daughter. So quietly infiltrating a city shouldn't be too rough for her.

Or it could have been Areelu Vorlesh herself. She certainly has the power level, but I don't know if she'd risk the exposure. Overall, my money is on Minagho. It would also make sense as to why she was in charge of the fragment (and how she got it).

Either way, if a demonic infiltrator:
was in charge of building the castle to hold the Wardstone then it would explain how, decades later, they were able to get to it when they wanted to. Especially if, in the process, they had access to the water pump system (which "Sibella" would, without raising suspicion since she already worked on it once before). The pump system would provide covert entry to the city and bring the infiltrator out right next to the Wardstone and/or the giant stone shield she "gifted" to the city could have been a trap of some sort. It was hanging on the central pipe, right next to the Wardstone building.

Using the pump system:
to get to the wardstone is also supported by the entire opening dungeon crawl. If you line up the maps, one of the underground water reservoirs feeding the pump system could be pretty much right underneath the starting area in Old Kenabres. You know, that giant section of ground that collapses? Deskari would totally be down with infesting one of the water reservoirs with his minions, slowly, over decades. When the Wardstone blew up, the ground collapsed like a rotten piece of flooring over a termite nest and the PCs fell into it.

So "Sibella Morond" designs and builds the fortress to hold the Wardstone. In the process, she has access to the pump system so she is able to study the "wards and locks" protecting it, as well as learning the relative location of the reservoirs that feed it. From that point the demons just have to infiltrate the cave system under the city and slowly corrupt it from within. Which is pretty much demon-warfare 101. The followers of Baphomet set up down there, locate the bottom of the central pipe, and then just wait. For however many decades until they're told to make their move. When the time is ready, the infiltrator goes up the pipe to the back side of the fortress, exits through a "locked and warded" hatch right by the back entrance to the fortress, sneaks through a fortress that the demons helped design, and destroys the Wardstone which signals the Storm King's (very rapid, because teleport works again) attack.

Heck, there are even good reasons why the Storm King failed in his last attack. Deskari wasn't ready to move forward and no one told Khorramzadeh that infiltration was even an option. For all we know, his attack was just a random decision by him that wasn't even vetted by the "higher ups". They wouldn't tip their hands to support someone who is basically their rival and the destruction he causes even if he fails makes them all very happy. If he succeeds, great. If not, great.

I wonder if:
we'll find Minagho's collection of husks in a future adventure. If so, how much do you want to bet that one of them is a half-elven stone mason?

Grand Lodge 1/5

There is a PFS legal trait in the Dungeoneer's Handbook called Destined for Greatness:

"You start with a kit (such as those found on page 7 or in Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment) worth no more than 300 gp, and the expendable contents of the kit are automatically restored to their original capacity at no cost to you whenever you enter a settlement with a population of at least 2,500."

One of the available kits from Ultimate Equipment is the Troll Slayer's Kit, which contains:

"...1 vial of alchemist’s fire, 1 flask of acid, 10 torches, one tindertwig, and 5 flasks of oil."

The Troll Slayer's Kit only costs 30gp, well within the limit of the Destined for Greatness trait.

Which means for the cost of a single regional trait, you can get a free, unlimited supply of alchemist's fire and vials of acid that replenish automatically whenever you're in a modestly-sized settlement.

So ... how would this work in Society play? Even though it says that it is restored automatically, I think it's reasonable to assume that the character would need to have some amount of downtime to go shopping to replace the equipment. Could the kit be restocked more than once in an adventure, time permitting?

Also, Society play does keep a fairly tight reign on equipment and spending. Should a trait granting endless, free alchemical weaponry even be legal for organized play?

Grand Lodge

8 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

One of the traits in Ultimate Campaign doesn't seem to work as written:

PRD wrote:

Storm-Touched

You share an affinity with elemental lightning. You gain DR 1/— against creatures and attacks with the electricity type

Other than a couple monsters in the 3rd party Tome of Horrors, I can't find any creatures with the electricity subtype.

As for "attacks with the electricity type" ... isn't electricity damage energy damage? Energy damage bypasses Damage Reduction.

So is this supposed to be 1 point of energy resistance to electricity? Or is this feat really totally useless?

Grand Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7DOzBtadMk

Grand Lodge

One of the authors who had a major influence on the development of D&D, Jack Vance, passed away on Sunday.

Obituary

His official website

Grand Lodge 1/5

I'm coming down to NYC for Comic Con in a couple weeks and I was wondering if there are any PFS games going on that weekend. Any suggestions?

Grand Lodge

Since my group has been playing a campaign set in/around Alkenstar for a while now, we all pretty much jumped into the Ultimate Combat playtest the moment the pdf hit. Our opinions on the class are mixed but hopeful overall.

The big problem that anyone using a firearm has is the prohibitive cost of weapons and ammo. I understand that the prices are high in order to keep firearms rare in the world as a whole (Jason Bulmahn said this in the "giving up on the gunslinger" thread), and have no problem with that reasoning.

Giving the gunslinger class a free weapon helps solve part of the problem, but there is still a problem with ammo.

The suggestion we have is to give the gunslinger class the ability to cast their own bullets for substantially less money (or even for free). It should be a low level (maybe 3rd?) class ability. Assuming they have access to the necessary components, they can craft some ammo for the day simply by spending X amount of time doing so. Sort of like a wizard preparing spells.

To keep things fair, only the gunslinger who creates the bullets (maybe also another gunslinger who finds them) can use this specially crafted ammo. Sort of like how an alchemist gets to create a certain number of bombs that only they can use. You could set gradually increasing limits to how much ammo the gunslinger can get for free each day, and how much they can keep on hand.

There would still be a reason for the gunslinger to buy some extra ammo, but these additional shots would be like charges on a wand. It costs a little bit of money but it helps you keep going longer when you start to run low on resources.

We have other suggestions, but I thought I'd start here and see what people think.

Grand Lodge

...my subscriptions.

Thank you!
Jason

Grand Lodge 1/5

This may have been asked elsewhere (I did a search, but didn't come up with anything that seemed relevant), but does anyone here organize their chronicle sheets in electronic format?

I was thinking about scanning & storing mine in pdf format (easier that carrying around a bunch of paper). Has anyone else had luck with that?

Also, there is a sample chronicle sheet at the end of the organized play guide. Has anyone created a modifiable version of it? Something that can be filled/stored electronically and then printed out if needed?

Is that even legal? Josh? Anyone?

Grand Lodge

Cosmo wrote:
Aberrant Templar wrote:

Hello,

This one seems to be taking an extra-long time to arrive. It says it was shipped on January 22nd. Is there any tracking information available?

Thank you,
Jason

We don't have an means of tracking USPS shipments. However, it should have long since arrived by now, so I will put a replacement copy in with your next subscription shipment. Please take a moment and review the shipping address on your My Subscriptions page to ensure that your subscriptions are going to the right place.

Thanks,
cos

Hey Cosmo,

I wanted to notify you that my copy of Descent into Darkness arrived today. The package was a little beat up (and, from the looks of it, was rerouted a few times) but the book was undamaged.

Thank you for offering to replace my missing book, but I don't believe it will be necessary anymore since my original copy finally arrived.

Thanks again!
-Jason

Grand Lodge

Cosmo wrote:
Aberrant Templar wrote:

Hello,

This one seems to be taking an extra-long time to arrive. It says it was shipped on January 22nd. Is there any tracking information available?

Thank you,
Jason

We don't have an means of tracking USPS shipments. However, it should have long since arrived by now, so I will put a replacement copy in with your next subscription shipment. Please take a moment and review the shipping address on your My Subscriptions page to ensure that your subscriptions are going to the right place.

Thanks,
cos

I wanted to notify you that my copy of Descent into Midnight arrived today. The packaging was a bit beat up (and, judging by the stamps on it, it had been rerouted a couple times) but the book was undamaged.

Thank you for offering to replace my missing book, but that is no longer necessary as my original copy has finally arrived.

Thanks again!
-Jason

Grand Lodge

Hello,

This one seems to be taking an extra-long time to arrive. It says it was shipped on January 22nd. Is there any tracking information available?

Thank you,
Jason

Grand Lodge

Quote: Jason Bulmahn

"Skills: Concentration is gone and its role got shifted to Spellcraft, which has been pointed out as unfair to some classes that do not invest in a high Int. One compromise that is being considered is shifting the entire raft of uses over to a Will save, removing it from the skill system entirely. Thoughts?"

---

Jason,

Why not go ahead and remove “casting defensively” from the skill system entirely, but as an ability check instead of a saving throw?

If a caster is being threatened and wants to cast a spell without dropping his guard and provoking an attack of opportunity, he would need to make a successful ability check using whichever ability is tied to that character’s spellcasting. A wizard would use his Intelligence. A paladin would use her charisma. Etc.

As originally written, the DC to cast defensively ranges from 10 to 19 (10+spell level). Assuming a caster had the bare minimum ability score required to cast a particular spell, he would have to roll anywhere from a 10 (for an apprentice with a 10 Intelligence casting a cantrip) to a 15 (for a high priest with a 19 Wisdom trying to invoke a Miracle) on a single d20 to successfully maintain the proper mental (or spiritual) focus to dodge and weave and still cast his spell.

Even in the above example, the marginally talented apprentice has a 50/50 shot to handle the pressure well enough to daze the threatening goblin, while the high priest has a challenging but not impossible roll to make. Both characters are using the most powerful spell in their repertoire under rather intense pressure to perform.

Higher level characters still have an advantage over lower level characters, as higher level characters have more of an opportunity to permanently or temporarily raise the necessary ability score (and plenty of other incentive to do so). Non-major spellcasters such as Paladins and Rangers are less likely to raise their spellcasting attribute, but they also cap out at 4th level spells (DC 14) so casting even their most powerful spells defensively in combat should stay fairly easy for them.

Characters are encouraged to cast their spells in situations where they are not directly threatened, but if the difficulties never rise so high as to become impossible if they are. This would also give the Combat Casting feat a little more mileage.

Thoughts?

-Jason

Grand Lodge

Hello all,

I have just set up an ongoing subscription to Pathfinder, and I had two questions.

1.) My subscription to Dungeon spilled over to Pathfinder (at my request). When I received my first issue of Pathfinder, it came with a free .pdf of the adventure. Now that I've set up a continuing subscription, will I continue to get a .pdf with my adventures or was that only a Dungeon/Pathfinder Transition promo?

2.) Is there a way to combine shipping on order? If, for example, I were to purchase D1: Crown of the Kobold King could I have it shipped out with my next issue of Pathfinder?

-Jason