Alexander Sommer's page

Your argument for a dancing ranged weapon is gonna sound like this to your DM.

Proceed how you see fit.

My advice would be to fold the Odyssey section into the main plot. They still are sailing about, but they already are traveling to each city-state, so there is little need to stall them with too much side questing. Plus, you don't really need an excuse for some god or another t be mad enough to force them onto plot-point-island. They are already set to upset most of the pantheon and earn the curse of every city.

there are plenty of good monsters to introduce a mechanic at lower level before it becomes common.

lizardmen- aquatic rules
trolls- regeneration
kobolds- traps
goblins- ambush (they have a net +10 stealth out of the box)
wolves- trip
vermin- poison and disease
shadows- incorporeal, ability drain
zombies and skeletons- undead (channel, holy water, DR, ect.)
grick- DR (low attack, slow and DR 10/magic, a good learning experience)
ettercap- a good starter boss: traps, minions, affliction, and lair

be sure to issue the kits from the Equipment book, they give a decent set of tools for low level.

dont forget terrain. water and swimming rules are good to know.

147 Anatomist Sketchbook
The pages of this artist's sketchbook are high quality rag paper, bound in soft leather, with the contents written and drawn by silver point stylus. The first section contains several artistic studies, including some tasteful nudes, and a few picturesque landscapes. The middle section is a set of highly accurate anatomical drawings and dissections of the humanoid form, annotated in detail. The end pages are filled with strange geometric diagrams, hieroglyphs and arcane formulas.

The book gives a +2 bonus to Heal checks if the reader takes 1d4 minutes to consult the diagrams. Furthermore, A mage who makes a sucessfull spellcraft check DC:28 can use the information in the book to construct a flesh golem of medium size as if he or she had the Craft Construct feat, and make it look like a living humanoid.

If I might suggest a Devil based encounter similar to Ashiels Demon Horde
this one weighing in at CR 15 and designed to take the fight to the airship, and maybe even steal it.

There is also "Clinical Lycanthropy" a mental disorder where the minds ability to perceive the body's shape is deficient. The sufferer will feel as if their body is changing into strange shapes. In japan, it is often reported that they feel they are turning into a fox, as cultural background shapes ones interpretation of the symptoms.

become familiar with the squeezing rules.

You totally need to use Eando Kline, his statblock is even in one of the paths.

Okaty, time to back up a bit.

First off, unless you change the universe expectations, what you really are going for is an NPC that will fill the same role, with a similar style as the original inspiration.

That said, Azog was set up to be a great enemy that was a terrible foe to any who faced him. A BBEG at its most basic.

The Line of Durin was set up to be the best of the Dwarven Race, even in the limited space of the film. Durin being the mythical Ancestor of the Dwarves and the Line of Durin, as heroes among them.

In a Pathfinder environment, i feel that the best way to build a foe to evoke that same sort of feeling is to put them on par with the PC's and maybe a bit above. To me that means PC levels.

You can calibrate your game to whatever you like, but the thing is, if we focus on what it MUST BE, rather than what it CAN be, I do not feel that we will keep the same sense of awe that made the character appealing in the first place.

I like the Scarred rager personally, because the Barbarian makes for a decent chasis to create a durable foe, and the Scarred Rager seems to fit the personality of Azog well. Ranger Fighter And even Cavalier could work, bu as those were stated, i decided to add to the options presented.

Tangaroa wrote:

Dreaming Psion wrote:

You mean like an awakened half-fiend tyrannosaurus rex?

Depends... is his visual acuity based on movement, and he'll ignore me if I just stand still? If so, I'm not worried!

Grant's theory was bunk, if it had recently eaten anything the size of a goat or larger it just generally wouldn't be interested. Lol see if anyone else remembers that quote.

Also, according to the material, that trait came from the frog dna used to fill the gaps.

The wizard would do well to be mindfull off history. Youre only source of spells beyond 2nd lv. is your predecessors spell book.

I usually run worlds where if the gods come into conflict, they fight it out, usually through proxies. Directly snuffing the sun yourself would upset the balance of power, like if the Soviet Union nuked west Berlin, or the US invaded Cuba during the Cold War.

Cleric was like "I got this covered, just let me get my scrolls of cure blindness out". Everybody out of character just stared at him for a few seconds before the player facepalmed in shame. Needless to say it was rather difficult to get out of that situation.

Note to Self: Potions of cure blindness.

I sometimes want to try some radically altered settings, like fully embracing gun rules and using a 3 musketeers style napolionic setting.

Or running a golarion game set before Earthfall. Azlant and Thassilon struggle against snakemen and aboleth oppression. Centaurs and Cyclops are major races. Dwarves and Orcs have yet to show up. Even the Major dieties are different. Aroden is still a mortal hero wandering about somewhere.

40 and counting
On #7, there was a briliant energy luck blade with a wish, just buy it and wish for "holy"
#23, vicious spell storing sword of the planes of speed,
On the plus side, #4 had a well of many worlds, we can keep searching all day!
#25 another luck blade with a wish.
Passing up WAY more interesting weapons, like the throwing sword of sutblety, and the ghost touch, shocking burst throwing sunblade.
We should take one of the luck blades, or the totally awesome rapier of puncturing and call it a day.

Q: Where do you feel the Fighter outshines the Paladin in this adventure?

Skill checks oddly enough. The Paladin needed to have ranks in Spellcraft and Knowledge (What manner of Evil is this?), but the Fighter can have more ranks, and be competent at things hindered by armor checks, like climb, swim, ride, and even Acrobatics.

Q: Where do you feel the Paladin outshines the Fighter in this adventure?

Saveing vs status. Paladin easily squashes saves and status effects turning a dangerous encounter like mummys into something trivial. It's a bit more even on ability damage, but

Q: What encounter would you be most worried about if you were playing in an actual game with your Fighter? (With my sample Paladin, I'd probably say my biggest concern was the Basilisks, because even at a 90% chance to succeed, that's still two 1/10 chances of getting turned into a lawn ornament per round.)

Definitely most worried about the mummies, in fact with a slightly adjusted gear set, The fighter could make a good go vs the Hydras with thrown axes and chakrams. But the mummies are ambushing with save-or-sucks, and there are to many for one fighter to lock down with maneuvers or crowd control. The basalisks are less worisome, as i would be reasonably sure to bash one before getting stoned, or could just fight blind and eat the penalties, letting my armor soak the regular attacks. The Big Bad is scary, but we can all gang up on it, no holds barred. The action economy would be better, and It's expected to have bosses be tough. Im just glad you didn't use the Dread Mummy template

Q: If you could make one adjustment to the Fighter (pretty much anything) what would be? (I would probably like the option to trade Smite Enemy for Smite and get a 1/2-power Smite usable on any alignment which would reduce effectiveness vs evil but really help out vs Gazebos).

Fighter needs more defenses to his repertoire. Id give him a class feature to postpone or ignore certain status ailments and ability damage. "Grim Determination," "Adrenaline Surge" or the like. It could be as simple as a fighter only feat. Right now, the best thing to do is choose a simple combat style, and sink your normal ranks into some defensive feats like iron will that improve saves.

Q: Just because I'm curious, what did you like and dislike about this dungeon?

I like the themeing, and the wide range of encounters that seemed plausible. The spread of CRs was good too. It Needed more oppertunity to use skills, besides the pit trap. Also, some social interaction at the town to highlight another difference between Paladins and Fighters, Alignment and social skills. Im intending to make my own test scenario if I can get some time, stay tuned.

Q: If you were building a party, what would your ideal party of 2, 4, and 6 be? (My ideal 2-man would probably be a Paladin or Ranger and Wizard. My ideal 4 man would be a Paladin or Ranger, Bard, Cleric or Druid, Wizard. My ideal 6 man would be Paladin, Ranger, Fighter, Bard, Cleric, Wizard. At the moment at least.)

Lets see...

But the only real stand out is Clerics, who add more resiliency to the party than anybody. Having all status removers is big. I generally will run with any party composition, and let the bodies fall as they will.

Q: If you were going to build a party of a single class (say like the single class challenges in Final Fantasy games), what class would you choose? (I'm kind of up in the air about it, but I think 4 Rangers would be cool, I know 4 clerics is quite good, 4 druids would be amusing, 4 Bards would be very-doable, and 4 Fighters could be fun just by sheer dakka if they were all ranged specialists).

Rangers. I really like rangers, and they can cover alot of bases even solo. A party would be awesome, especially if they all get stealth ranks. Second Choice: Alchemist for similar reasons, go team Nuke'Em.

I think that a +1 constitution is a fair reward for besting a wish granting demon. After all, they'll need it now that they got the attention of demon kind.

I can see an army somewhere, a senior NCO adresses a squad of Fighters:

"Detail, Attention!

You men have been selected for anti-caster detail, the finest, most rewarding job in this man's Legion.

I really like this image. But I must point out that this would represent fighters with ranks in spellcraft.

There is also a pathfinder web fiction that details a fighter dealing with a shield spell.
See Part 4 for the event.

Sefu plunged across the distance and cut at the cat head on the left. The broadsword rang and rebounded from an invisible shield. Domitian's curved blade whirled at the Wave Rider's midsection. Still in the lunge, Sefu parried, then cut at the rakshasa's groin. Again, an unseen something interposed itself between the sword and its target.

Sefu gave a snarling cry, more expressive of determination than frustration. He recognized this magic as something Olhas sometimes used. And so Sefu understood that the conjured defense wasn't impregnable. It could be penetrated just like the guard of a common warrior.

Recovering forward, he feinted high, then low, then slashed at the cat face on the right. This time, the shield failed to jump in the way.

I think this story illustrates the phenomenon in question quite well. The full story deals with it from a few points of view actually.

Tacticslion: Yeah, It's all personal opinion. I was up late, and flipped through the bestiary, saw Aeons and just thought "What the hell do they need with a plane?" Ive started to see them as having use if you want to personofy a natural force from some magical experament. But ascribing goals to them just seems..... silly.

I do want to try a more streamlined cosmos some time. Possibly modeled as the wold tree.
The tree itself is the ethereal/astral planes, linking the others.
The roots have swaths of elemental properties, that mix and churn together to form the material world "Midgard" towards the center.
The tree itself rests on the infinite expanse of the abyss. Where all Evil outsiders reside, including the city of Hell.
The Good aligned realms are supported in the branches.

Preliminary idea, but its got some problems with how to make a consistent cosmology. I also like the Alchemy symbolism route, that i can't get anywhere with.

A ghost who is insistent that he's not really dead.

Edit: And was originally killed buy the Amnesia man.

Anterograde Amnesia (like from memento.)
He's stalking through the house to catch an "Assasin" but forgets where he already looked. And that he killed the man in question years ago.

3. The ideas about making the dragon invisible or difficult to detect are (again) awesome and diabolical. Unfortunately, part of the table effect I'm going for is that I'll finally be using that massive red dragon "mini" that Wizards put out years ago. And I want it front and center on the table...

I see this as a perfect time for at least one simulcrum. Put the mini on the table and scare the party, while the dragon itself keeps hidden, buffs and supports. When they kill the simulcrum, take the mini off. Then it them with fire breath and put the mini back, this time as the real dragon.

Place Portable Hole in Bag of Holding while standing next to Dragon. Taa daa bye bye Dragon.

This gives the same thing. A few rounds later, when the party buffs are running out, the dragon plane shifts back, fully healed and buffed from it's short break on the astral plane. Re-Enter the mini

Be sure to let your dragon raid his hoard and oufit himself with some items.

And make sure the Pc's get no chance to do a prepared attack.

Outside is better for dragons than inside, they have a mobility advantage and can do hit and run from out of range of many forms of attack.

Fickle winds only affects medium creatures, bu Winds of vengance is a 9th level spell that can be used to stop archers and a lot of other things too

The best place to fight would be the caldera of an active volcano, which is just where red dragons would have their lair. Use the magma and open space, along with all the goodness of a prepared lair.

Pathfinder
Conjuration[healing] was a mistake. All healing should be necromancy.

Also, contagion should be positive energy spell, and remove disease a negative energy spell. One causes life forms to spread rampantly, and the other kills them.

The outer planes are just too big to deal with. I know they are infinite and all, but all the outsiders seem to be stepping on each other's roles. Like Aeons. I don't even know what to do with them. And i still don't get what motivates daemons, even as i look at the articles about them.

I think it would be more interesting if you didn't have a plane for everything. Like Hell being a region of the abyss, and there is a continual siege on the borders.

piscodaemons should drain str with their "weakening poison" it would match the fluff of targeting the strong to make them weak. Con is not quite the same, as you fight with full strength and then keel over dead.

@ Tacticslion. Ill try to get around to reading your ramblings seeing as ive posted mine.

They are ambushing somebody else

The Diviner Wizard "Forewarned" ability is very close to "Spider Sense"
Initiative bonus, and you always go in the surprise round.

Another thing is that once they are finished buffing, just leave. Almost every fiend has greater teleport at will. Dragons have flight, and every BBEG should have an escape plan. Run away, and attack again after the buffs have expired.

silver is anything but waterproof. Unless its alloyed, it tarnishes and corrodes in seawater quite rapidly, and any adjacent pages would fuse together. i once picked up a lunp of black metal that used to be silver bullion coins, until they spent some time in the atlantic.

So the judge literally throws the book at you.

Glad this thread is still alive.

Hmmm......

This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Homebrew Mad Science!
We do what we must
because we can.
For the good of all of us.
Well, just the ones on this thread.

But there's no sense crying over those you can't please.
You just keep on trying till you run out of cheese.
And the Science gets done.
And you make a neat monk.
For the people who are still alive.

Now these points of data make a beautiful line.
And we used psionics.
And I guess they work fine.
Even though the thread burned.
Think of all the things we learned
for the people who are still alive.

Go ahead and leave me.
I think I prefer to stay inside.
Maybe you'll find something else to help you.
Maybe Eratta.
THAT WAS A JOKE.
HAHA. FAT CHANCE.
Anyway, this monk is great.
It's so adaptive and fun.

Look at me still talking
when there's Science to do.
When I look at Core, it makes me GLaD I Home-Brew.
I've experiments to run.
There is stat-blocks to be done.
For the people who are still alive.
And believe me I am still alive.
I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
I'm leaving comments and I'm still alive.
I feel FANTASTIC this thread's still alive.
STILL ALIVE!!
STILL ALIVE!!...

Ahem.....
@ Tacticslion- If you do not have the tome of horrors, its content has just been transferred to the d20 PFRD

I think that Your campaign is shaping up nicely, you wouldn't happen to be planning it as a PBP? [/hope]

I think it would be awesome to play an Alchemist searching for immortality. Most of the Archetypes fit well too, with Internal Alchemist being my personal Favorite. I like to imagine them as being different experiments to unlock divinity.

As a note: the Animate Dead abilities should be made easier to reach as currently they are above level cap for all but the oracle.

Lo, the Thread!
Behold how it doth rise from dreaming death
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Thread R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
Ia Thread! Ia Thread!

You know, Cayden's assention is about more than being drunk. The other half of his portfolio is about being totally outmatched but pulling through by luck and strength of character.

He's actually one of my favorites in the Golarion pantheon because of how he's basically a folk hero.

Personally, Id be a wizard. Wresting ancient lore from books is already a hobby. And it gives me power over the cosmos? Im in.

I often find books preferable to people, and would probably fall tragically into lichdom to save the inconvenience of eating, sleeping, or dieing.

War Scythe

This might clear up things a bit

to be honest, one idea that really grabbed me was an area that's under permanent cloudkill, save for trenches roofed with wind walls. The idea of having the possibility of jumping the dungeon walls, if you dare brave the hazards of the open ground, appeals to me on a gamist level. I guess you could get the same effect with undetonated mines, and fields of fire from still-active defenses.

In the Dungeon that is not a Dungeon thread the idea came up of a series of WWI style trenches fueled by war magic.

Either as an active battlefield, or an abandoned dungeon complex, this idea is kinda awesome, so I wanted to see what people might break out in the Pathfinder War to end all Wars.

If i ran this as a campaign setting, I would break out the firearms from Ultimate Combat.

But As for Deployment, Permanent Symbols of Mirroring. Like Mirror image for all.

I love the effort youre doing.
Go NPCs!

My request is simple, A CR:1 warrior that will do his level best to kick the ass of a Lv 1 Fighter. Just to demonstrate the effectiveness of NPCs and 'cause i want to see what you come up with.

Weapon proficiency made more sense when it only came with the war domain, though personally, I like the boon, as it encourages a bit of flavor, even though it has flaws in implementation.

How about:
Simple gets weapon focus
Martial Gets weapon proficiency
Unarmed Gets Improved Unarmed Strike

Everyone gets a feat's worth of bonus

Wasn't there a thread about chicken sleds a ways back?

It is a necklace that has a permanant spell effect. It takes a slot.

The necklace does not depend on being worn to function.

On the subject of flour vs chalk

Can You Eat It?
The advantage of flour is that it can extend your rations when not being used in grenades. Also if you pack olive oil for your lamps, you can get the same effect. Incidentally, the Roman Army marched on rations of flour and oil, cooking it into fry bread (you remembered that iron pot) or just eating it raw if necessary.

Cast Air Bubble on a water breathing monster. Cheaper than Suffocation!

Armour spikes attach to armor. Their use is detailed in the armor section. When you wear spiked armor, you can use armor spikes. They count as a weapon, therefore can be made magic. Now go bodyslam a ghost.

"Preachers" -heavy metal shoes that let you stomp caltrops with impunity.

why are they called preachers?
They save your Soles

All the stuff in Adventurers Armory was good, and kits that have a set of useful items pre-priced would be nice.

Cost of getting new pages engraved for a printing press
More Herbs and mundane remedies
Alchemical Glue
Alkali flasks and Salts, reprinted from Dungeon Denizens Revisited
Cost of various standard Bribes (Guard, Customs, Official)

Geas is not a reactionary option. If you want it to take effect in combat, you have to set up a geas ahead of time as a sleeper instruction.
In combat its just "Would you kindly....."