Alni's page

Nice! The armor is cool.

Thanks :d

Been doing some characters in different clothes drawings and thought I'd do Flavio, a PC I had in my hell's vengeance campaign. One of those characters your players make that you'd love to play yourself.

Flavio the Hellknight. Well, Hellknight 2 / Fighter 14.

I can see that slayer being very sarcastic about the crumpet eating.

lol... Ill make sure I have a lot of tea parties once we start the campaign. Also first time I get PCs that have mom, dad, aunties, uncles and sweet lil nephews n nieces living in the city the adventure takes place. Abduction n blackmail fodder... mouahahahaaaaaa "I know who you are and I know where you live!"

Nice!

Thanks :)

Slayer and wizard for Curse of the Crimson Throne.

The eternal DM (me), drawing the PCs once more. One day I will draw my own PC. One day......... :P

My personal responses:

1. Can They "Quit": If they do so without proof that they were betrayed first, not without legal ramifications.
2. Informant: I'm not sure what is being asked here. Nothing in the oath says they cant pass information down the line if they want to.
3. Alter the oath: I doubt Fex would allow this. He needs them to be legally bound to him.

I agree with his. The oath is to House Thrune not Fex. If they think Fex is against the Thrunes they're free to hang him in the square. Also need to say...

YOUR PLAYERS ASKED QUESTIONS??? WoW! Wish mine had. :P

Was curious how they handled the trap door? My players are half way thru the tree fight and im already dreading putting them against the hound and paladin with the trap door? The hound can easly draw the pcs anitpaladin in then drop the trap door and then just greater teleport back up? Leaving the tank on the ground below

My players meta'd the trapdoor cause I had a mark on the map... lol. That careful placement of "no-no we dont rush in this time. Weee... umm... stay safely at the room entrance. YES! YES! Ya know... precautions..." That said they had already fallen off those trees twice and they weren't having fun with the 'get-back-up' bit. So I let it slide.

I'd suggest you either remove it or cut the fall. Ask for a reflex save and, unless they roll something you cant save, fake something like "You grab hold of a branch and swing to a platform right below. You need 1 round to run back up". If they roll low ask for a second reflex and give them a "2 rounds to return to battle branch" etc. Cause otherwise whoever falls is out of the battle.

So your goal is to make it exciting but make sure theyre back fast and well... try not to make it to obvious what you're doing. Really thick folliage or whatever... lol

"Fex essentially took all the credit for expelling the GR." <- Thats actually good. I like when the PCs HATE, HATE, HATE the bad guy. Makes it all more satisfying when they finally go down.

Btw, a word of advice since we've finished the AP. If you can do the same with Alexerea somehow, it would be fun. The way the AP is written when you reach the final boss its the first time you ever meet her and the PCs had heard nothing of her other than 'shes the GR leader'. I missed the ball there. It wasn't personal or anything, just: Kill another boss you dont care about. Maybe you can do better and add something there :)

Like dunno: She sends people to try and kill them and they know it was her? She puts posters of their faces around with a bounty? Sends them a letter asking them to leave the dark side and come to the light? Somehow she needs a bit of connection to the PCs and there's none written in the AP.

Well couldnt edit the post and I find I sometimes sound a bit negative and you guys seem to be having loads of fun! I do enjoy reading how another group is going through the same story, thanks for updating this!

Not clamming much when the GR hold the territory. lol

Then why burn the house and the people? So that when the GR falls Fex's distant Uncle Bob has to rebuild the manor? Oh well, just find it weird unless they already met his cousin and just wanted to piss him off.

Why would they kidnap Blissy? And a burned down house doesn't mean you cant reclaim the land and build anew. They just deprive Fex's relatives of a house and maybe 50 platinum worth of slaves :P

They reaaally should have held on to that portal. Of course they couldn't know but the final book use of it provided us with a lot of laughs, strategy planning (Calling Vispy as a buddy and ally), housing problems (We're at 350 devils now? Umm... how many floors does this building have?), friendly imps (Trying to set PC against PC with lil whispers) and a few new friends from Hell :)

I am running this for a mostly CE group who are in their element. The aspiring hellknight just recently cut off the hands of pious Pete and nailed them to the door frame of the house of iomedae for making profit off of his loose understanding of her life. Unfortunately for him pete got a look at who did it. At the brunch the devil impostor summoner noticed oppians feelings and decided to help him get back at loredana by proposing a tryst to make her jealous and want him. It has so far worked out ok. Loredana was purposely made aware if this plot. Our serial killer vigilante has quietly murdered 2 drunks who have yet to be found. Our pyrokineticist has not been let off leash to torch stuff but is chomping at the bit. The halfling twins were easily lulled into a false security and easily captured.

Nice one. I have goody guys. The aspiring hellknight got into a religious nationalistic debate with Oppian and wanted a duel for the glory of Cheliax. The bard after sleeping with the one inkeeper (Jana I think), was after that sleeping with Loredana to make Oppian depressed. The halflings were taken care by Cirmi cause like I said my guys are too nice and one is an escaped slave :P And the necro (dhampir, with a preference for elven blood) was exchanging recipes with Lindon.

I have to say that this is maaaybe the best part of the campaign though. The adversaries in the other books are not too fleshed out.

Sigh... so small advice.

Pentagram ritual. Remove some of those opponents. It make no sense that in 5 locations they get into 7 battles.

The aquatic guys at the marina? Remove those. They make no sense, my players said so and I agree. Also remove the plant goat thing -whatever its pet name is.

I'd just keep the Asmodean temple (condensed into 1 big battle), the Rack Headquarters and maybe the demons made of slime.

Its lovely when you prepare a session and you see that look of utter boredom in your players face.

Alni wrote:

I think its best to let the players do it. The dragon will come back later on its own anyway, the players may see it a twice resurrected dragon as becoming a pattern from the DM rather than 'it was our choice the first time'

I meant as the PC's perform the resurection have something come with it.

My bad. Missunderstood your post. Sorry :)

Pre-explanation. Im not big on romance unless it serves a plot point. Occasionally PCs might tell me they're interested in X, and a couple of times per campaign I'll have an NPC say 'Hey, wanna have a drink?' My ranger has been clear she's not interested.

For fun last session after a mess at the palace I decided to throw in for chuckles my usual 'Hey, wanna have a drink after you kill this ghost dragon?'
Ranger player out of game: what the heck, been turning everyone down.
Ranger player in game: Sure.
Tiefling player who just found out where his devils blood comes from: Ranger, lets talk.

Silliness :P

Given that the dragon fight -which they had to retreat and prepare and then take on again- went horribly, and this was the worst session in the whole campaign, at least we had some laughs.

Thanks guys! :)

If the Ranger has 3 hits plus 1 from haste what can the guy with this feat block?

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/weapon-mastery-feats/cut-from-the-air-weapon -mastery/

Thanks!

have the dragon come back maybe with some help from the spiritual powers of some of the heroes they have slain in the past.

"As the dragon materializes a heavenly glow surrounds the room, stepping from the glorious radience is a familiar figure. Her face an unmoving platinum mask of stoic faith, gossamer wings of blades unfold from her back. The Angel Knight Reborn!"

I think its best to let the players do it. The dragon will come back later on its own anyway, the players may see it a twice resurrected dragon as becoming a pattern from the DM rather than 'it was our choice the first time'

I like the idea. The soul has to be willing to return but since in the conclusion the dragon is very eager to return and take revenge anyway, their resurrection would work just fine.

You could make a small sidequest too where the have to leave Cheliax and travel somewhere far and wide to find another good aligned dragon. But I really would leave them get on with their plan. Let them enjoy preparing better and setting up the controlled environment.

Or... hihihi... "You only find a scroll of wish. Now what EXACTLY do you wish for?"

Then you can put in a little surprise. Not to give them a hard time or anything but wish has so much potential for fun!

My group plays online and I'm looking to get the FG modules. What will those give me? Will I need to get anything else? Has anyone used them and would like to share their experience?

The FG modules have been the deciding reason for me picking this campaign. I don't have enough time or I'm darn slow and I end up wasting my time making notes, importing maps and images to FG and stating opponents. I would like to be free of that and be able to concentrate on the story and bringing the world to life, which I think I will be able to if I get the "boring" bits out of the way.

We're still in Hells Vengeance, end of book 5, but since two new first time ever players may join in the next campaign I'm looking into it now :)

Well that's interesting. Post how it goes. My guys just had a chat with Visp, made a contract for Cheliax using the gate and turned it over to the Pike.

Actually this book went pretty smoothly for us.

Senara: Not much there. My party allied with Tillo so the only one they really fought was the Angel.

Bounties: This is a biiit of a waste. I got lucky and one of the PCs, who wanted to be a Hellnight, wanted to do them all to impress the Pike. Otherwise your players may wanna skip on them. Pin that component list somewhere. My guys kept forgetting what they needed to do.

Fex: 99% the moment they get that note from Fex they will drop it all and return to Longacre. My players did unanimously. You may want the confrontation with Fex in Longacre but if you don't be ready with a story and hope it sticks. "Of course I told Visperthul that you would be the sacrifices. I lied my friends, to get his cooperation. Would I EVER go against my beloved allies? So here's the plan. You found the talisman didn't you? Im trying to BIND him! But I needed a story, couldn't tell him that could I?" Some crap like that. My PCs bought it.

Battle outside the gate: My party ran through. Scouted, killed the first group and took their armor, disguised themselves and ran. They fought once in the start (for the clothes), once to pass the bridge and once the leader before entering the fort. I described like "Theres a LOT of fighting going around you" so we skipped some of that. There's too many encounters, I'd suggest you do the same.

Stairway battle: Just ask for a couple of rolls and describe it. Its on a thin stairway, your party will be in a silly blocked position with low level opponents all over. Its a really spooky scene but I think it should be mostly narrated.

Final battle: Quite hard for my PCs. I kept Visp out of it. They attacked him after and almost died. So I had him say mid battle "See how I can kill you all? Bargain or die!"

So, we've reached the Barleybridge point. My players went through it but now they are … unhappy. Not the players but the PCs. It has been building up since they reached Egorian. The nationalist village boy come Hellknight is having certain issues some of which I did not know how to address. The party is evil but not cruel. Its a mix of "I will do anything for my country" and "I will do anything for myself". So... issues...

- Competency. Is everyone in Cheliax this incompetent? From the first day we stepped into Egorian -and waited 3 hours at the line- this does not seem like the well organized country our characters believe in. (They are all residents of Longacre so they had build a certain admiration for the Glorious Cheliax in their heads)

- Nobles. We have not met a single noble that doesn't look like an incompetent, rude, idiotic waste of space. Sethic and Levisvia were squabbling over crap. Bramilla was an idiot. The elf was worse. Who rules this country? How is it ruled if these guys are in charge?

- Levisvia. If the Queen needs a sacrifice is she unable to inspire a single person to give their life for our glorious nation? Our PCs would if asked. Dragging unwilling people to be sacrificed seems like the worst way to do it.

- Barleybridge. Why couldn't the Queen ask 100 people to die for their country or even promise them hefty compensations for their family? (Note here that they never found out about the Caiden Cailean worshippers in the village). Are we murdering our own now? Isn't murder illegal? Isn't Cheliax a lawful country? Why are the authorities illegally murdering people?

- Queen. We don't like the Queen (Here I probably played her wrong / understood wrong.) She doesn't seem like she cares about her subjects. She expresses no feelings over the sacrifices, especially Barleybridge. She shows no remorse. She looks like a petulant kid not a capable individual. Maybe we should attack the Queen -for the glory of Cheliax- even if we die trying. (I have NO IDEA what to do if that's their endgame)

-Cheliax in general. What are the armies of Cheliax doing? Why does it seem that we're the ones handling everything? Why did we have to go to Barleybridge and murder peasants? Why couldn't Dotari or someone else do this crap job? Why does it seem that everyone is sitting on their ---? (Again here I believe I failed)

How the poop does an 8th-level rogue only have an AC of 18 when he has Dodge and Dex is his highest stat? (Is he still in nonmagical leather? Yes) Why does he have Weapon Finesse on his feat list? (Is he unaware of Unchained Rogue?Yes)

Quote:

So I told the player they may respec (they can't change their stats or the levels they've taken in each profession but everything else can change)

Have your players abused the Retraining Rules in earlier games? They've never retrained. Never asked for it. And this seems like such a mess that I thought... just reroll it(Just curious why you're curtailing it.)

Let him retrain into the Eldritch Scoundrel and Bruiser archetypes, and/or Arcane Trickster. The character is otherwise wasting his huge intelligence score that could easily have been dumped as far as it'd go and still be netting him 7 points per level as a human. (Rogues do not need an 8th/9th/etc maxed skill; every other class in the game someone manages with far less.) A single fighter, or other martial-class, level would help out tremendously in the proficiencies department.

Build would be something like: Swashbuckler1/uRogue[Eldritch/Bruiser]4or6orX/TricksterX (in this stack, Swashbuckler provides that Finesse that Bruiser forfeits). Not bad but the player is new and I think this will be confusing. This is their second PF game and in the first they played a pure ranger

~ ~ ~

Boredom.... Might it just be <clouds part, ray of sunshine> that a (I'm just guessing here) young male player is now over his chaotic-evil phase and tiring of a character indulgent of those themes? Keep an eye on him, and if he starts doing non-evil things, have him "fall" UPward!

I laughed at the last paragraph. The player is female and the campaign in Hell's Vengeance. Exited to play evil but if you ask me edging upwards all the time. The party isn't murderhobos or something but the particular player is... confusing evil with neutral.

Honestly, I just grabbed two martial weapons that were readily available. any weapon is perfectly fine. the difference between a short sword and a dagger is 1 average damage per hit, and a dagger is more easily hideable on your body and has other advantages. the main thing is that they're light weapons to work with two weapon fighting.

I definitely went with a less balls to the wall offensive build, and one with a bit of control, for several reasons.

1. Your players eventual goal is to kill things some of the time via a save or die, so trying to kill things via sneak attack every time and sinking every available resource into it may not be the best route.

2. Your player is dying a lot. Giving them crowd control options via dirty trick will help mitigate that, rather than leaving them to the mercy of trading full attacks with an opponent and praying they kill them before they get killed.

3. improved and greater two weapon fighting, with the penalties to attack, are less effective and prone to missing. greater two weapon especially, with a -10 to hit, really isnt going to be effective all the time, so I included the basic two weapon fighting because the basic -2 (offset by the +3 from studied target) shouldn't be a hindrance and will make up for the attack you lose from the dirty trick in the first place.

edit: also, make sure you're taking advanced of the focused study alternate racial trait. if you want skill focus for hellcat stealth, theres absolutely no reason not to take it and get another free skill focus at level 8 (which i used for perception)

If you wanted to go for more damage, you could trade out iron will for improved two-weapon, or even accomplished sneak attacker, adding 1d6 to the attacks you already have with better attack bonuses might be better off than adding another attack in general.

Really though, both paths are totally valid, and there are other ones too. If you're going the full sneak attack route, I might include the pressure points rogue talent in order to do...

Thank you. I didn't mention this but there's enough damage going around with a 2 handed fighter, a ranger, a two weapon rogue. Control is much better. Will have a small test run with the player out of game to see how this works for them :D

@Weables Thank you VERY MUCH! Glad you were bored! This looks great! Send it to the player and the like it :) They were very, very impressed with the AC 27, kinda tired of dying and reincarnating into different forms :P

I may have more questions when we look at it in detail later but why the two short swords?

@Avr Yes, they can get a second weapon. They are at Egorian, haven't spend any money so they have about 50000 gold sitting there unused. Thank you! I'll check it out in combo with what Weables send.

yeah. the assassin prestige class is largely a trap for that reason. assassins function in teams with either other assassins, or alone.

I'd recommend a rebuild to a slayer. They function far more similar to what this character sets out to do, and at level 10, can do far better what they want. its not too far away.

This is the advanced slayer talent that can be picked up at level 10:

Quote:

Prerequisite(s): Advanced talents

Benefit: A slayer with this advanced talent can kill foes that are unable to defend themselves. To attempt to assassinate a target, the slayer must first study his target for 1 round as a standard action. On the following round, if the slayer makes a sneak attack against the target and that target is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly killing the target. This attempt automatically fails if the target recognizes the slayer as an enemy. If the sneak attack is successful, the target must attempt a Fortitude saving throw with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the slayer’s level + the slayer’s Intelligence modifier. If the target fails this save, it dies; otherwise, the target takes the sneak attack damage as normal and is then immune to that slayer’s assassinate ability for 24 hours.

its basically a better version, as it only takes one round. as well, the slayer gets sneak attack, though at a slightly slower rate, but has D10 hit dice and better saves than your rogue build does, so will be sturdier and die less. Studied target provides better to-hit bonus, and really, i'd just take a look, show your player, and see what they say. Most of your feats will still be applicable, so will your target, etc.

Slayers are a hybrid class of ranger and rogue, so your player will have a lot of familiar feeling, but without a lot of the traps they've fallen into.

I can provide a full build if you'd like, but yeah. builds that take 3-4 rounds to do anything just dont work in pathfinder, because combat doesnt last that long. its that simple....

Thanks! It seems good. The story of the character is that they started out as a street rat and then joined an assassins guild (this happened in the campaign) so Slayer -from what I'm seeing- won't change the characters story, just the abilities. Studied target seems to provide a consistent bonus to attacks, which is nice, and as you said the d10 will help though I think they will need to pump up their constitution a bit anyway. The skill points are good too, so they player can maintain their role as the party's scout.

Death attack hasn't worked for the player a single time by the way. Just once when the party snuck up to a low level guard and the assassin took him out. But that was out of battle.

If it's not too much fuss to provide a build, I'd appreciate it.

Soooo... my rogue turned assassin at lvl 8. They weren't doing too well till then and now they're doing worse. Basically, they might as well sit out the battle. What the player has been doing is studying the target for 3 rounds after which (a) the others have already killed said target or (b) the attack fails or the target saves. And that's about how every battle has been going for them. Oh, and they die a lot which doesn't help. They've been very useful in scouting and disarming and stuff but still... So I told the player they may respec (they can't change their stats or the levels they've taken in each profession but everything else can change). I'm unfamiliar with how an assassin is build or played, have never had one in any group I played with. So here's what they have:

Rogue 8 / Assassin 5
CE Human
HP: 50, AC: 18

STR: 16 (+2 item), DEX: 20, CON: 8, INT: 17 (+6 item), WIS: 10, CHA: 14

Death from Above, Dodge, Fast Getaway, Fiendish, Hellcat Stealth, Iron Will, Ledge Walker, Mobility, Shadow Duplicates, Skill Focus, Weapon Finesse

Equipment: Leather armor, Dagger

Any advice on what they should have (feats, equipment, anything)? Any advice on how they should play in battle?

lol... happy birthday :)

Happy you enjoyed it guys! Will pass on the comments :) She's just out of college so hopefully she'll do a lot of nice work in the future. Have a great day!

Alni wrote:

In the mood to show off my friends thesis work :)

Cute thesis link :P

The redhead is the kitsune sorcerer she played in our Rise of the Runelords campaign... lol. In a different setting of course.

That was wonderful ^w^

Glad you liked it! She's amazing! Was watching it earlier and thought I'd share.

In the mood to show off my friends thesis work :)

Cute thesis link :P

The redhead is the kitsune sorcerer she played in our Rise of the Runelords campaign... lol. In a different setting of course.

I've found that once you get out of your early 20s, scheduling games gets harder and harder, and that increases with the number of players. Kids, jobs, family commitments, and membership in other organizations (e.g. church, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Elks Club) all take precidence over gaming.

I find that it's good to set ground rules on what constitues a quorum fro play. At the moment, we have a 5-person group (GM, 4 players.) Obviously, we cancel if the GM can't make it, but our rule is that a quorum consists of 2 players. If a player isn't there, the GM will run the PC as an NPC, with the spotlight off that character.

Our rule is that a PC can get killed even if the player isn't there, but PC death tends to be very rare in our games. (Our general practice is that a PC has to make a very serious error for the consequence to be death.)

Thanks for the tips :) Good to know that other people also continue playing if someone's missing. I've been feeling kinda guilty about this :S

I generally reserve PC death for "I will ask you for the 10th time... Are you sure you wanna try seduction on the Balor?" So practically never.

In my home games, we always run unless the GM is the only person who can show up. Some groups carry along the missing player's PCs as silent, non-reactive, members of the party.

In a couple groups, the GM runs the characters when necessary (healing!) but we don't do anything that will kill the character. Only the player can get their character killed.

Thanks. I like the bit "only a player can get their character killed". Something I'll keep in mind.

Edit. Just a note. I understand that my players have valid reasons for being unable to attend. But I still want the game to move forward...

Basically I have 3 players. Used to play solo with my husband every weekend then 2 more people joined in. Since then I've had a 2 months pause because of military duty of Player1. That was ok. Last week Player2 had a relative visiting for a week. We didn't play. This week Player2 has family function and must leave early. Next week Player2 has wedding and Player1 is now taking a summer job and isn't sure if and when they will make it. Husband is getting fed up.

I'm thinking of running the campaign each week same time with whoever shows up, run any missing players as NPCs (silent going along) and posting a summary after each game for anyone missing to catch up. What do you think? How do you handle this?

No but one of my players keeps a session by session log. It is the story from his characters point of view but he mostly keeps to the facts no fluff. We're at book two but we play weekly and he updates. I can ask him to post it somewhere if you're interested.

My own logs are from an npc bard's perspective who follows the group to write their epic. And the epic and the AP have certain "differences" :)

Sil, the 16 year old kid ranger of the party and the party "promo" poster.

Not sure if its ok to use the cover art from the books... but its fanart and for personal / just for fun in game use....

Any idea how I can incorporate that and give them the opportunity to do so? I see the Order of the Rack featuring quite a bit (we're in the second book) but the player has really put an effort into that bit of their characters backstory and I'd like to give them the opportunity.

Dagon from my Hell's Vengeance game.

Two party members down, one to go :D

Great piece!

Thanks :D

Flavio from my Hell's Vengeance game.

One party member down, two to go :D

Just thought I'd post this as a closing to the worst campaign I have ever played with the worst DM I have ever played with.

Campaign fell out. Which was a good thing.

The GM had foisted a half-orc (other system / world so changing the names) kid on my paladin. The half-orc player wasn't interested. There's prejudice, will you throw a five year old out? So to go along -even though that wasn't what I wanted- I decided my goodie guy takes the kid up as his brother. My paladin is a 19 year old only child that I have made a point through the campaign always wanted a sibling. He sends the kid to stay at his Order, the other members love the kid, my paladin's parent's -both paladins- 'adopt' him. I have till this point made a lot of concessions. Working with shady characters -just protesting and going along- cause I don't wanna play the plot ruining idiot. "Sure let's break into the church vault, of the church my Order is working with, to find evidence of the church's wrongdoings on the say-so of anarchists that are hunted by the authorities. If the church is evil that has to be the only way to find out." Me deskbanging type concessions. Also note I had passed my character concept by the GM when I joined to make sure it fit.

So we're wrapping up -just to have an ending.

GM says "Bad guy isn't really bad, he's also unbeatable, kid is potentially dangerous, please turn it in to be killed."
I explain to the GM that's not happening.
GM starts threatening. There will be war on his Order. Bad guys from all around the world will band against them. Members will die.
I'm "Ok, that's an acceptable ending. His Order goes to war. Np."
GM goes with bigger threats. Then says kid will be assassinated anyway.
I'm ok with that. I tell the GM my paladin would then make it his mission to challenge the bad guy and have his head.
More threatening. Bad guy too strong. Your characters Order will be hunted down.
I'm fine with that and have had enough (its been 30 minutes of him trying to convince me to hand over the kid) so I ask for a roll on the outcome of the duel. Rolls. Paladin wins.
GM very unhappy on that. He loves his NPCs. Threatens more retaliation on my character.
I'm ok with that too. I explain to the GM I'm even fine if my character dies, but he's not hauling a five year old to his would be assassin.
But GM is very unhappy -calls my character a liar, a hypocryte and unethical for seeking vengeance- and retcons almost the whole thing.

Other fun bits.

- He had about 10 plot lines running. We didn't understand any.
- He spoke in a bored slow voice "Umm... the baron... yeah... heeee... umm... gives... lemme see..."
- He is an aspiring author. His characters descriptions went "His tanned body is striking and his deep blue eyes twinkle as he smirks, his ebony hair cascading over his chiseled shoulders".
- He had a whole group of DMPCs he loved. When our rogue pointed out that she wasn't eager to risk her life and freedom to break out amazing DMPC from jail, he messaged the player "Quite a hero you go there"
- He never scheduled games. I did.
- He often cancelled sessions at the last minute.
- In the 11 sessions of this game 3 players quit. The last quit prompted abandoning the game. The GM said "3 players are too few to run a campaign for" and no one wanted to invite anyone to this game.
- His idea of a fun moment was. Me: "My paladin tries to blindly find the invisible foe" GM: "He grabs the invisible guy. By the crotch. Hahahahaaaa! Good one eh? I thought of that myself" Yes he did say all of that.
- Told the mage player he did not like her character.
- Asked the rogue at the 7th session 'what is your characters motivation?' Power! The player had made it clear forever but the DM only cared about his DMPCs.
- Wrote an ending to the game that had no reference to the PCs or anything we did through out.
- Used the game to promote his own "hipster artist" views. He used those words to define himself not I.
- Best one! "IT WAS NOT MY FAULT THE GAME WENT BADLY! I DIDN'T KNOW THE RULES OF THIS SYSTEM!"

And thats why I'm not exactly upset the campaign ended.

Thanks for the advice!

I pre-rolled perceptions for the next session and I'll use your advice on social skills too.

As for the necro, I'll have a few shopkeepers turn him out and give him a penalty on diplomacy rolls and a bonus on intimidation to balance things out. If he wants to play the diplomat he'll have to work for it. I'm one of those DMs who is too worried about upsetting their players :(

Hello! So after last session my fighter complained I ask for too many skill checks and I think he was actually right. I was wondering how others handle the above situations:

1. Perception. The party walks into a room there is a trap, object, something that requires a check to be noticed.

a. Do you roll behind the screen for the party and tell the person that got the check 'Your rogue notices X'?
b. Do you ask the players to roll?
c. Do you wait for the PCs to say 'I roll perception to check the room'?

2. Sense motive. This is where its gone BAD for me. Cause when I ask for a sense motive check and they fail, the wizard goes and preps his interrogation spell. Yes, its metagaming on his part but how could I handle it better?

a. Ask for a roll in EVERY dialog?
b. Roll behind the screen?
c. Just talk to the players and tell them that they 'really really believe this guy'?

3. Diplomacy / Intimidation / Bluff.

Problem 1. I have come across a specific player -that might join our game- that rolls say the warrior with 10 int and 8 wis, with 0 points on social skills and then roleplays a charismatic tactical genius. So I've been doing "Let's roleplay this but you also have to roll a check".

Problem 2. How many rolls should I allow in a social situation? 1 per player? 1 per type? Should I up the DC if the first attempt fails? What I had last session was Fighter tries intimidation and fails, Rogue tries intimidation and fails, Fighter tried bluff, Mage tries diplomacy... well, at some point they'll get it.

a. Ask for a roll in every dialog?
b. Roll behind the screen?
c. Allow one check of each type per situation and only one check per person?

Thank you!

Edit: To say nothing of my undead master who is playing a 'charismatic talker' with a shambling skeleton at his back. How do I even handle that? He doesn't have the undead with him all the time but still... shouldn't it affect this 'charismatic roleplay' and rolls?

You don't need magic for that! You need a dead (or soon to be dead) elf maiden, a sewing kit, some knives, and a couple leatherwoking/disguise checks.Rember to cast gentle repose on a regular basis, unless you have a reliable supply of elf maidens.

(Might even be able to Sculpt Corpse on the fleshbag. You know, for variety.)

Hahaha! Well, Ill inform him. We're playing in Cheliax so for 50-100 gold and a trip to the local slave market, he's got his elf or halfling maiden supply.

Alni wrote:

Title say it all. Thanks!

so long as the skeleton is a dead body I don't see an issue with this.

If by skeleton you mean the undead creature of the same name, then no. You can not use the spell on undead creatures since they are no longer "corpses".

also, keep in mind the following.

Sculpt Corpse wrote:

Any spell or effect that targets the corpse treats it as if it still had its original appearance.

So, it won't retain any changes you made if you attempt to raise or animate the skeleton after adjusting it with Sculpt Corpse. Subject to the DM's decision of course.

Thank you! I am the DM actually. My undead master wants to make his skeleton companion look like an elf maiden or something of the sort so they pass unnoticed in public. From what I gather the answer is 'no' which is the way I was leaning. It seems like a real stretch.

Just popping to say the first session went very nicely. Quite impressed with my group! They killed the tanner and his dogs, and the old couple that came in right after cause they saw their faces. The fighter didn't buy too much into "collecting taxes at midnight" so he was a bit negative when they got called a second time but he loved the second job with the Cheliax sashes, and hopped right back in. At the gathering they just challenged the Knight. They spoke up saying she had no proof that the tanner was killed by agents of the regime and the necro started a discussion on the authenticity of the mask. The rest of the session went on without any killing either. They used non lethal on the deputies and threw them into a jail cell after accusing them of assault and treason.

Roguerouge, yeah, I was thinking more of his family having bought him the elixir before everything went to hell.

Lanathar, that makes sense! A noble family spending that much at one time, when put into that perspective, makes sense. If the ointments are 50 gold a month the elixir is nearly 4 years worth of elixirs... I can work with that reason. And it may give the PCs a good role-playing opportunity when/if they decide to buy it for him.

Anyone and everyone: Any thoughts on the cost of the unguents per month and how frequently he needs them?

I had set it to 10 gold per month :)

Title say it all. Thanks!

Alni wrote:

A few more questions. Don't wanna start a new thread. This is the first time ever Im DMing for people I dont know so well so...

1. Im thinking of “point-buy” method. Which one though should I tell them? I usually go with the High Fantasy one. Is it appropriate here?
2. In Hells Rebels we leveled with the Experience Point Total -> "Medium" and that leveled the party VERY fast. Which one should I use here?

Adventure Paths are written assuming 15 point buy and a party of four characters. Usually going up to 20 point buy doesn't impact things too much (makes the SAD a little better, but really helps out the MAD more).

As for the experience track, I believe Medium is what Hell's Vengeance assumes.

Thank you! That was helpful!