Andros Morino's page

Hello. I'd like to cancel my Comics subscription, please. :)

Andros Morino wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

I imagine they have plenty of normal laws as well, involving fines, imprisonment, community service, etc. But for what you're talking about, I think we're looking at a lot of knuckles. :)

Thanks for the input James. They managed to avoid the trial by asking a favor to Dakar. (I had run before the City of Strangers PFS scenarios and they thought that he could use his influence with the Ardocs). Boy I am going to have fun planning what they have to do to repay that favor. He warned them that it would be a big one. :)

Technically, "Alaznist retreated to a place of safety accessed via her runewell located in her Demesne at the top of Hollow Mountain. Yet the realm into which Alaznist retreated is not physically present within Hollow Mountain."

The Therassic Order in the Spire in Kaer Maga is willing to give total ownership of the Shard to the PCs if they can clean the undercity just in case something would get out and kill folks because they don't want to be blamed by the Duskwardens.

This part bothers me and I'm looking for alternatives.

In the book it says "The whole operation is highly taboo, as unauthorized expeditions into the city's depths put the whole populace at risk of increased monster activity, and the library wants to avoid responsibility for any death or damage their hubris may cause.)
At this point, Koifa really just wants the whole problem to go away. She fears a possible scandal, and is desperate for someone competent to fix whatever's gone wrong."

I think that it is doing a disservice to the followers of the Peacock Spirit to portray them as weak enough to give up the shard so easily to complete strangers (the PCs) in exchange for not much.

Did anyone give them ulterior motives to propose this deal? Are they lying that they would let the PCs keep it? Considering the influence of Xanderghul (Holder of the Peacock Throne) and Karzoug (Being in Shalast and their historic relationship with him), could runelords shenanigans be in play?

With my group, they already bargained with Koifa to acquire information about the Dark Forest and its exit by exchanging valuable information about Sorshen discovered in the Lady's Light and the location of another black menhir underneath the Godmouth Ossuary. They did not want to divulge information about the shard, sihedron or Council of thruth because they still believe that another team is racing to get the shard before them. Koifa has not ask them to do anything either because the mission with the first group is still very secret.

How about the PFS scenario Cultist's Kiss? It has ties with the Runelords and is in Palin's Cove, near Korvosa.

Aaron Scott 139 wrote:

Awesome book, but I can't un-see the "unicorn" on page 63.

I am intensely curious as to what you're talking about here...

I think that he is referring to Merisiel's weapon coming out of her behind.

Thanks! I should have looked there first.

Hello all. As a GM, I am looking for advice on the Indulge (Su) power for the Sin inquisition. It states:

Indulge (Su)

At 8th level, once per day as a standard action, you can awaken a creature’s vice and overwhelm its senses with urgency. You must decide to use this ability before using your sin sense ability on a creature, and the target receives a Will save to negate the effect. If the creature fails its saving throw, for the next 24 hours, whenever the affected creature is given an opportunity to indulge in its favored sin, that creature must yield to the impulse or make a second Will saving throw to avoid becoming sickened for 1 minute. This is a mind-affecting effect.

So my question is how should the DC be calculated? Being a Supernatural ability, I would be inclined to use this section...

Most special abilities that cause damage, such as breath weapons, give a save (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will depending on the ability). The DC for almost all special abilities is equal to 10 + 1/2 the creature's Hit Dice + a relevant ability modifier (usually Constitution or Charisma depending on the ability).

So Charisma makes more sense based on this. However, being an inquisition, Wisdom is the more appropriate because that is the spell casting ability for inquisitors.

And to make things more confusing, the Sin Sense power from the same inquisition is used 3 + Wisdom times per day and gives a bonus on the next Charisma check against that creature.

So fellow GM, which ability would you use to calculate the DC of this save?

Andros Morino wrote:

James, why was Avalexi the succubus trapped by Sorshen in the black basalt monument near the underground entrance to the Lady's Light? Was it to power some sort of magical device or spell? If so, what exactly?

Thanks!

Been several years since I've had my head in that adventure, but there was indeed a reason. Not one I'm ready to go into in more detail quite yet, though.

Look at you being mysterious. :)

I'm thinking that this 7-sided black basalt monument with a lust rune on each side might work similarly to the 8 feet tall square black stone menhir found in Kaer Maga. If it is true and a fully powered basalt monument lead to another dimension, where could Sorshen might want it to lead? The Midnight Isles perhaps... ;)

I don't expect that you will reveal your secrets James but that's my theory.

James, why was Avalexi the succubus trapped by Sorshen in the black basalt monument near the underground entrance to the Lady's Light? Was it to power some sort of magical device or spell? If so, what exactly?

Thanks!

Hi! I'm looking for some advice regarding a situation in my game. I'm GMing a game. A male straight (probably) cis player plays a male character. For some in-game reason, his character became a female character.

To my surprise, when offered a girdle of opposite gender by a NPC to make him more comfortable by having his body reflect his gender, he declined.

I fully support the player's choice to say no. I offered as a GM because I know that some people have difficulties playing someone of an opposite gender.

But then I realized this. His character is now a trans man and I don't think that my player friend realize this himself. While his identity is still male, as a player and a character, he is getting used to not being in his body and not looking like the gender he is. From a character arc perspective, this could be a great journey for his character to accept himself. As a GM, as I tell the main story, I want to nudge him along his story arc while he continues to make his own decisions (just like when he refused my girdle).

So my question would be... What in-game elements would you draw from to craft a character arc about a cis person becoming trans?

I'm thinking that Arshea might use their divine powers to contact him to have a chat about gender fluidity. His character could perhaps interact with a NPC who happens to also be trans and maybe they could develop a friendship.

It may be heavy handed but I also see it a way to bring a LGBT topic to my table.

Ps: I'm a male bi cis player playing with a bunch of macho cis straight males.

I also modified the Shards system.
The PCs are now level 5 and the one with the Shard of Pride has not deactivated it yet. I'll continue to add bonuses and maluses as that PC level up until the player decides to deactivate the shard.

Shard of Pride

Bonus:
1: +X insight bonus on saves versus illusion spells, and gains a +X insight bonus on all skill checks.
2: As long as the Shard of Pride is carried, its owner can use major image as a spell-like ability once per day.
3: As long as the Shard of Pride is carried, its owner can use Raiment of Command as a spell-like ability once per day.
4: Sin Inquisition: Granted Powers: You know how to stoke the seven sins in others (envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath), and twist their dark desires to suit your own purposes. Sin Sense (Su): As a full-round action, you can determine which sin most strongly influences a target by quickly reading its mind. Once you learn this fact, you gain a +4 bonus on your next Charisma-based skill check made against the target as long as it somehow incorporates a temptation that relates to that sin. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier. This is a mind-affecting effect.
5: Delving deeper into her study of Sin Magic, she decides to follow the path of Pride just like the original owner of the Shard of Pride, the Runelord Xanderghul. As a student of Pride Magic, she receives two additional 1 level spell slots. These bonus spell slots must both be used to cast the same spell from the Illusion school of magic. The choice is made each day when the first slot is used.

Malus:
1: Since she started carrying the shard, she's grown more and more convinced that she should be the one leading the party. The thought of following the orders of anyone else in the group makes her feel increasingly sick to the stomach. Stress to that PC that these feelings don't yet make her want to leave the group-instead, they are compelling her to take on more of a leadership role.
2: She suffers delusions of grandeur. She cannot gain the benefit of the aid another action, nor can she take the aid another action.
3: The thought of serving another creature as a subordinate of any sort makes her feel increasingly sick to the stomach. Pride Drawback: You can’t abide challenges to your dignity, authority, or honor. When someone threatens, accuses, or challenges you, you take a –2 penalty on Diplomacy checks and Sense Motive checks involving that creature until the creature apologizes to you.
4: She becomes arrogant and supremely confident. She cannot stand when others know more than she does or when he cannot impress other with her vast knowledge. Anytime she fails a knowledge, linguistic or spellcraft check, a rank needs to be alloted to that skill at her next level.
5: As a Sin mage apprentice, she will seek to perfect her own appearance and domain through trickery and illusions. She can never cast spells that are in one of her prohibited schools, considering them impurities that can taint her Pride Magic —she treats these spells as if they were not on the inquisitor spell list. If using a spell trigger or spell completion item to cast a spell from one of her prohibited schools, she must use the Use Magic Device skill to do so. Her Prohibited Schools are conjuration and transmutation.

I gotta be honest. I never read the web fiction BUT this weekly post was my favorite because as a GM, I was able to have a bank of NPC images to use for my games. Let's face it, even though I ran Council of Thieves and I am running Shattered Star now, to create a rich city, I need a lot of NPCs, some are mentioned without pictures, some even have stats without pictures. It sucks. I get why the APs cannot have dozens of pictures of NPC in them but this weekly new picture was great to use. My players were able to have full conversations with guards at the entrance of the Devildrome in Westcrown and have a connection thoughout time because the PCs could see them instead of being "not important enough in the story to have a picture" NPCs. The nobility of Westcrown got their art from this blog also and individual members of a thief guild in the city... Anyway, that's why I loved this blog.

Thank you James, I'll closely read Hell's Rebels and Hell's Vengeance as they are released then to not be caught by surprise as a GM because I plan on running those 2 also. :)

I'm a bit worried with this AP going back to Westcrown. Considering that my CoT players decided to play beyond Book 6 and are ruling Westcrown, will this AP assume a certain ending or statu quo for Westcrown? If I need to assume that certain things will happen to Westcrown, I still have time to sway plotlines towards what Paizo intends for Hell comes to Westcrown instead of retconning their version of Westcrown when we'll play this AP. Thanks James if you can provide me an answer.

Sometimes as a GM I fudge a die to help a player. Sometimes as a player I fudge it if the outcome is important and one more point is needed on my die. I rarely do it though.

So my advice is that if the player is willing to suck at his rolls as much as succeed at them, there is no problem, it evens things out.

But I would not be ok with someone strangely being successful all the time when other players are not. I sometimes ask to see how player A gets such a high AC. I also roll their perception rolls, fortitude saves...

Actually those 2 APs would conclude the trilogy. Council of Thieves would be Part 1. Thrune is mostly in the background which can be a good thing. It foreshadows that there is a bigger picture beyond what happens in the old capital.

My idea does work and the faction missions (and some modified ones) do provide very interesting roleplaying opportunities so that it's not only dungeon crawling and killing the monsters. It also gives a chance for the pLayers to shine on their own.

I don't have a log to show you but my main tool is a Mind map to weave everything together.

Well I'm very excited as a GM. I'm eager for more detail but I'd love to GM this with my group. My players have done Evil before and know how to behave themselves. I even think that giving them the option of evil makes character development better because the GM can throw at them moral dilemmas. How those characters react and what they decide shows that some characters can do good things and some evil things.

You have likely already finished that campaign but I want to give you props for weavings so many APs into a cohesive world. Good job! (Even though it means more work to you.)

Hey Antariuk.

That's what I'm doing, playing up the factions. During character creation, each player picked a different faction so that throughout the adventures, they can report back to their faction leader what they find and secretly do missions for them.

Each player also have a second character in the same faction because when the whole group cannot play that night, the remaining players switch to the "B team" and do Pathfinder Society scenarios linked to Varisia/Thassilon/Runelords/etc instead.

Well good luck to all. If you need me to jump in as Roubris, DM me. :)

After reading a bit about Gestalt (never knew what it was before), I guess it would make sense with my backstory to be a Fire Wizard/Fiendish Vessel Cleric.

I'm interested.

My character would be Zolthan (Fire Wizard 1), a Tiefling whose grandfather would have been Belial the archduke according to his mother (she would have had a half-fiend lover). He was raised in Westcrown, Cheliax. His red skin and horns were a clear sign of his devilish heritage yet he never showed any innate magic. He decided instead to focus his energies into studying magic, fire magic to be precise in order to acquire magic, power and influence to eventually impress Belial, his grandfather, hoping that he would welcome him with open arms as his real kin. He worships Belial and Asmodeus. He joined the Pathfinder Society and managed to get enough wealth and influence to be able to retire in a country house in Talingarde. In his later years, he had a young halfling slave, bought from Gnolls. She managed to escape the house and vowed to get her revenge. Some time later, he was arrested for Slave Trading.

RotRL was the best. My first PF AP and the most memorable. My Monk also took Fort Rannick and turned it into a Monastery of Irori. I am GMing Shattered Star so you can be sure that I'll include the impacts our group had on Varisia. :)

Well my partner and I played them a few times in PFS so I hope so. ;)

Witchguard and winter witch (or any spellcaster).

Oh. I did not know that the 1000gp was a big bonus. What amount of BP would you put on this building then? I'm interested in your input.

How about this then? I want to create a Thieves Den.
I would take the Guildhall template and modify it:

Guildhall 34 BP, 2 Lots

Kingdom Economy +2, Loyalty +2
Discount Pier, Stable, Trade Shop
Upgrade From Trade Shop
Special Base value +1,000 gp
Settlement Law +1, Productivity +2
The headquarters for a guild or similar organization.

Thieves Guild, 8 BP, 1 lot

Kingdom: Economy +2, Loyalty -1
Special Base value +1,000 gp
Settlement Crime +1
The headquarters for a thieves guild or similar organization.

Explanation: the Kingdom stats are a net +1 so compared to 1 lot, 2 + 1 stats, they average 10 BP... Only one +1 stat should be less than 10 BP, i settled on 8BP.

What do you think?

I did a quick search on the forums but could not find the answer.

If I want to create other types of buildings, are there some kind of rules (even unofficial) to calculate what the price in BP and the bonuses should be? Rule of thumb is fine too, i just don't want to screw up with picking unbalanced stats or under/over priced buildings. Thanks!

Hum... I'm planning to use Tyrax as a new government council member since the players are countinuing playing Council of Thieves after Book 6 and are now ruling the city.

The players are evil PCs so Tyrax keeping an eye on them is a good plot point and will eventually step in to stop their evil plans.

But maybe it's a 3.5 thing that I don't get or a retcon because Dragons Revisited don't fit anymore into Golarion but ... How can dragons disguise themselves as human in society? Do they usually wear some magical item, cast "Veil" on them or something? Looking at Tyrax stat block, I don't see how he can be disguised as a human.

Wow! Thank you so much Tangaroa and Avoron for your builds! Specially your highly detailed one Tangaroa!

So, if someone asks will I die tomorrow, do you think this is too direct of a question?

Not too direct but what if the reading says that you (or another PC) will die? What do you make of it? As a GM, I would perhaps kill this character which might not be what the player wants but the cards should be respected somehow. Maybe the character dies BUT he is being revived after. Do you avoid combat the next day to not die? (Maybe someone will kill you in your sleep though!) That is why I said to not ask a question you are ready to know the answer.

Is the Baron what he seems to be?

Will taking on this new adventurer lead to fortune or doom?

Good questions that lets the cards tell a story. Careful about giving 2 choices in the question (fortune OR doom). Let the cards tell their own story instead of putting boxes in front of them. It's more gray than black & white.

Will people laugh at me if I wear this hat?

Am I the fairest in the land?

Doesn't matter if the questions are silly or not, but I would only focus on one good question instead of a Q&A. Asking the right question to have valuable information is better than pointed yes and no question that leaves little to nuance.

First, as assume that your questions are about the roleplaying aspect of the Harrow deck and not the mechanics of it.

1. What kind of questions can be asked?

You can ask any question but be careful of asking questions you are not prepared to know the answer to. Questions about death are not recommended for example. If a PC learns that he will die soon, is he prepared for that? Your questions should not be too vague because the answer could be interpreted in different ways and you won't know which interpretation is the correct one (until it's too late). Your question should not be too pointed either. If it's a yes-no question, the reading of the cards might not explain the bigger picture. Because the reading will include many cards, it's the connection between those cards that matter instead of the individual cards themselves. The reading tells a story.

3. Who do the cards in the spread represent?

I think that if you have cards that are partial matches, they can help give context to the "lead" card being analyzed.

That is interesting indeed Brad. I am not opposed to that and I meant it when I said that I did not have criterias. If you have a great concept, go ahead and stats it up. :)

I was leaning against it because being a very high ranking member of the Chelish army, I though that he must had proven is worth in battle numerous times in a hands on approach instead of a support character.

Hello Mathias, the PCs are overpowered already so technically, they don't really need his help in a battle. But if you want to build him as a cavalier instead of an aristocrat 5/fighter 10, I'm fine with it. Just keep in mind that he might fight the 2 PCs eventually so don't make him the buffer NPC. :)

Douglas, he was a NPC in book 2 and 6 of Council of Thieves. The description above comes from the book so Paizo titled him general.

Ruling now the city of Westcrown as an independant city-state, the PCs decided to build their new government council and somehow recruted the general of Queen Abrogail II to sit at their council. He'll then play a recuring role and will likely join them in battles as an ally and maybe betray them and fight them eventually.

Thanks for the fast reply Rynjin. I thought about restricting criterias but decided against it to not limit the imagination of generous contributors like you. Stats what feels right to you. Unless you min-max it, I will be thrilled with the results. :)

Hello all. As GMs we all have our strengths and weaknesses. As for me, I'm a good storyteller but not much of a battlemap tactician. My group is continuing Council of Thieves after book 6 so I need to stats new NPCs, allies and adversaries. I suck at it. Yet, I know that on this board, a lot of folks LOVE to build characters. So here comes the challenge! I challenge you to stats, feats and gear up this NPC with the description below! :)

If you feel like it would be fun for you to do that, please try it! You'll have me thankful and I'll credit you in my homegame! The character doesn't need to be optimized but there is a good chance that he'll fight at some point, hence the needed stats.

So, challenge #1: General Vourne

"LE male human aristocrat 5/fighter 10

Role
Commander of the Gemcrown Bay Imperial Fleet of Cheliax

Appearance
Vourne is a grizzled, mean-looking middle-aged
man with receding black hair and a neatly trimmed mustache. He wears a suit of stiff, black ceremonial leather armor that displays his rank in the Chelish navy."

You can google his name to see a picture of him.

KEJR, what is Trogeni and Trask's relationship? Are they ennemies or they don't care what the other is doing business-wise?

"In Westcrown there is a Chelish-owned private pub close to the docks that’s run by clerics of Iomedae called the Bell of the Sea. The ground floor of the Bell is a typical pub and restaurant, but the basement is a meeting place for central Chelish Bellflower tillers and functions as the harvest moon barn for all slaves freed from that area."

I agree with the few people who talked about the Hero point mecanic (or the beanies variant). That is what I use as a GM to reward players who care enough about their unique character to not want to let him/her die. If there is a game session with heavy RP (Trials of Lazarod, We Be Goblins) I give one hero point to players who did not acted like my usual friends but as their characters.

With each point, they can either make sure that their character do not die if they would have, or they can add a d20 to their roll.

That way, people still level at the same time. The roleplayer increases the odds of his character surviving combat while rollplayers can just play their stats, not feeling the pressure to roleplay. If their character die due to bad rolls or bad strategy, they can just reroll a new character...

Skeld, what interesting new info do we get in the Brigh article? Thanks!

... And that's why I Love Adam. :)

RAW

That this why I love GMing APs and modules in my homegames and refuse to be a Gm for PFS. Playing is is fun though.

That would be pretty cool. Also, the more we go down the Darklands, the more Lovecraftian goodness we could find. :)

Top 4:

Vudra
Arcadia
Telling more about the Peacock Spirit
More Lovecraftian horrors!

It came out in the Advanced Class Guide and isn't up on the PRD/PFSRD yet.

Thanks! I just bought the pdf and will look for it. :)

you could grab an inexpensive ring of inevitable summoning and summon some very clockwork-looking inevitables.

First of all, THANK YOU for your great answer!

Also... I could not find any mention of a ring of inevitable summoning anywhere... Do you remember in what book is it from?