AvarielGray's page

Oh this is great info, thank you! Very much appreciate you pointing me to the feats - the cleric in question will only be around 5th-6th level, so I don't have to worry about the 8th level feature too much, but it's good to consider in case I use them again in the future. Conceal Spell looks like potentially a good bet if I can just get them really good at that skill, but I guess Bluff/cha in general already aren't super great for clerics (especially since I won't be too focused on channel energy).

I'm thinking their domains would be Arcane and Knowledge, and would replace the Knowledge ability if I went Hidden Priest. Conceal spell feels like it'd be really good for things like day-to-day NPCs but less so for anything with a decent Perception - totally not a dealbreaker but I think that + it taking up 2 feats makes it a worse trade than for the ability to grab some info on a beastie as a melee touch attack. The Samsaran route and Varisian Pilgrim route are also neat, I'm pretty set on my elf from Kyonin/Absalom but I might try these out with other characters! ^^ Thank you for your help!

Omg this does look perfect, thank you! I completely missed this.

Reading over it, it doesn't seem to cover Channel Energy (understandably, and that could leave some interesting tensions around whether to risk channeling in dire situations). But just in case, are there any options for, like, disguising a channel as arcane too? I've not seen a feat covering it but maybe I'm missing it.

Hi friends! I'm looking for advice on 1e build options to fit the narrative of a cleric hiding in Rahadoum. They're part of a party visiting Azir, sent for their knowledge and aptitude with religion but also their ability to hide their association better than others of the clergy. I'm not too attached to a specific deity but I'd like them to be good- or neutral-aligned. My current ideas revolve around an elven cleric of Yuelral that maybe multiclasses a bit as a wizard and can disguise a lot of their divine magic as arcane, but I'm wondering if there are any more appropriate/specific options I'm not aware of. Happy to rework or discard this idea entirely if something better pops up!

Any pointers would be very much appreciated, thank you!

Yeah I definitely wanna keep that sense of danger/immediacy, so after the Redoubt there'll likely be no rest. It's the time before that that I was hoping to maybe squeeze in a chance to get dailies back. But GM Cthulhu is right, the Sump Steward room looks like a good opportunity.

Unfortunately my table have been spoiled on what happens to Vigil (and some other features of the adventure) by accidentally stumbling across details on the wiki/future adventures/memes on Reddit. They don't know the specifics, but I think they know it's coming. So I guess that's gonna put them on edge a little, maybe enough to preserve some resources (though I'm sad I'm not gonna get the raw surprise reaction from them).

If it comes to it, I might engineer some sort of shorter rest to gather back some resources, a moment of refuge in the cathedral or something. It could lead to a momet of good emotional reflection before they have to run off to the next thing, but I don't want it too long to remove that sense of urgency and pressure. Also, though, looking at the encounters in the final section I think they could probably handle most of these with fewer resources, and maybe I can have Aylunna, Evni and Veena supply some consumables. Or maybe a long-duration buff from the altar at the Cathedral or something like that.

As for SKT: they are not written in. There's a part early on when the party meets some Knights of Lastwall, and having just wrapped TG, I added them as cameos.

Also thanks for the info! I'm doing my best to preserve continuity across our adventures and now we're 13 APs, 20 modules and a few homebrews deep its getting hard to keep track of the consequences of player agency.

Linking back to what GM Cthulhu was saying, I too have some concerns about this next part. They're about to enter the Dyeworks, and I suspect they'll go straight from here to the sewers to the old temple and then into the Apocalypse. I need to reread the whole of the temple section to see if there's good rest options there at all, but if not then I'm worried they'll be taking on a lot before their next rest, and at least 3 of them are resource-intensive classes (cleric, wizard, paladin (the swashbuckler can buckle swashes for days, they're fine)).

Does any one have any tips for like "this is a good rest stop" or "here's a good item/option to give them back some resources"? Pearls of Power are already acquired. I do wanna make them feel the heat a little bit, but not that much, and I don't have a very good way of signposting "this is gonna be a long haul".

Also, are Dondun Daradun and Doeswyn Aubry written into the Sky King's Tomb adventure? Or are they cameos you added? Just want to check for future reference in case either character dies in my TG campaign and I need to replace them for SKT in the future.

;-; Little Tiger Stone....

Thank you so much friends! Your wisdom is greatly appreciated! I'mma keep my eye out for statblocks for this lil guy in the future but until then I might just homebrew one if ever I need it.

Hi, super duper important question - does anyone know what the lil guy on page 16 is? The tiger rock spirit thingy under Magic in Tian Xia? I love him and it's imperative that I know what he is so I can properly introduce him into a game.

LOL, the best laid plans of mice and GMs etc etc.

You could have Kilibrandt as the wise crow who gets kidnapped by the seal breakers and taken to the sewers? Or if you wanted to keep her as the ambusher, simply have the party find the bodies of two wise crows in the storefront, instead of three.

I like the idea of having her be the kidnapped one! At this point I'll see how it all plays out, keep a few plans open just in case. I also have another NPC that could be a good kidnappee - I made a doppleganger worshipper of Yog-Sothoth who acts as a creepy information broker and takes pay in secrets using at-will detect thoughts, whom the Crows had paid to let them know if they ever found out someone in the city was looking for them. The Wizard went to them for information, and in turn they let the Crows know about the PCs (which is how they found out so fast).

I also set Usundra aside from the Crows (for reasons) so there's space for a sixth unlocated Crow if I need one.

Also loving the idea of some gnome warfare, maybe using some of the Mortic Gnome stats if it's right after the blast.

Update: Just ran the Brunna's Quality Shields encounter and....

...they've taken Dondun Daradun into custody for interrogation.

The moment I showed him visible in the alleyway the wizard cast Black Tentacles. He dispelled the first but didn't get far before the second one got him too. Then the rest of the PCs chased him down (except one who stayed behind to help Rolf. I even had Killibrandt pop up and start shooting down the alley. On the fly I figured I'd swap Dondun's scroll for a Teleport instead, meaning if he could just get a moment to use the scroll without a super high Concentration check, he'd be outta there, but no dice.

I had Killibrandt scarper once Dondun was knocked out, so I'm thinking she might come back for a jailbreak attempt instead of an alley ambush - we'll see how the land lies.

"You know this isn't how it ends..."

;-; I'm gonna cry how dare you make me feel things.

Why the heck did Gildais tell Killibrandt to leave one piece of the Shattered Shield in place?

I think the Reliquary was an optimal place for it - I think the Seal was right under Watcher's Tor, after all, and blowing it up there seemed to do the job! And since no one was looking for missing shards anyway, why risk taking it out only to put it back later, right?

But I'm also adding in that one of the actual shards being there was integral to disguising that the others had been removed. I don't think it goes into a lot of detail exactly what enchantments are placed on the replicas to make them detect as exactly the same item as the missing shards, so perhaps it's sort of copying the aura of the true piece. Even if not, if someone was to cast a Locate Object "Shard of the Shield of Arnisant", it'd show one right where you'd expect it.

Update on the way station situation: I ran the encounter today and piled all three into one fight that all happened outside on the battlements/in the air.

I had the Wights drop barrels of oil down on the party at the portcullis and set them alight in round 1, creating a bunch of fiery terrain and some constant fire damage on the Paladin who decided to tank the fire damage each round and keep fighting rather tha put it out (valid tactic but it did ramp up those d6s of burn). Then they started hurling orcish throwing axes down at them from on high. Paladin got up on the battlements with a spider climb potion and Wizard cast Fly on the Swashbuckler so they got up there too.

Okagu joined the Wight Fight on the battlements in round 3, and I gave Usundra a scroll of Fly to give her some better maneuvrability outside - she flew out and was gonna go for the Wizard or Cleric when the Swashbuckler flew off to intercept her, giving her a prime target for Slay Living. That obol energy resist is doing work.

Paladin slew Okagu in like 1 round because holy hells is he buff, dealt 108 points of damage with 2 crits with a smite evil flaming keen falchion. Usundra took a Wizard Fireball and a couple Bursts of Radiance from the Cleric, then the Swashbuckler finished her off.

Overall, it all felt much more interesting and dynamic without having to stuff it all inside those little rooms imo.

I've done something similar - one of my players is (unwillingly) a member of a cult working with the Way (the Six Wise Crows are members of the cult too), and was sent to receive this package in Roslar's Coffer. It was only a few sessions ago that she realised what the innocuous shard of wood in a sealed box was. I also swung it that the PCs were all staying in a local tavern, either sharing a room or in adjacent rooms, and their close proximity is why they were all affected by obols rather than just blasted to death like everyone else. Watching my player's cultist wizard making notes and drawing theoretical blast radii centered on her on the tavern map and then going "oh... oh no...." was very satisfying.

Prince's Wolves: Monk/ninjas and snipers (Numeria is close, after all).

I'm sorry, Numerian sniper werewolves?! Incredible, love this. I'm also so here for this montage you've done too! If you end up doing this for the next book too I can't wait for it <3

Also Matt Berry as Duristan? "You really are the most devious b*****d in... Ascanor Lodge!"

In my campaign, my party didn't really feel all that familiar or invested in Count Galdana from book 5-6, and I kind of saw that coming. From the beginning I'd been seeding stuff for the possibility of Kendra taking Galdana's place - in the beginning Adivion wanted Professor Lorrimor for his plans (they had the bloodline instead) but Lorrimor caught on too early and confronted Adivion at Harrowstone; in pride and anger, Adivion went too far and murdered his old rival.

Short of other options, he set his sights on Kendra instead - the original plan was to sort of indoctrinate her into the cult, but with the PCs interfering he had to speed things up. Took until book 4-5 for an opportunity (the PCs left Kendra behind in Lepidstadt to care for a PCs sister (long story)), but he breezes in, there's a fight the Kendra and Sister inevitably lose, and Kendra is kidnapped for the final ritual. A little bit damsel in distress for the last part, but she'd been pretty girlboss up to that point (highlights include fireballing just a whole horde of undead minions to ashes in Feldgrau).

There was also some love-triangle...square? Love polyhedron stuff going on - she and the tiefling Magus both crushed on the lovable farmboy Barbarian, who instead ended up with the PC Wizard. Kendra and the Magus sort of had this bickering thing between them for a few books that suddenly grew into a beautiful gothic romance all of its own (they were much better suited for each other tbh, but the Barbarian had such golden retriever energy that they were blinded by his golden himbo light.)

Perhaps the most important change though is that I swapped her bonded item for a raven familiar called Poe who was very good and a little guy (the Way killed him when they kidnapped her, probably their greatest crime).

There's all sorts of divinity methods from the looks of things! Maybe he's gonna make moves in the upcoming War of Immortals stuff (which I won't talk about too much here in case people don't want spoilers, but worth looking at!) Maybe he'll go the Irori approach and try and become such a perfect undead creature that he transcends.

Theory on the phylactery (a loose one at that but just for funsies) - we know he's popped up on the Isle of Terror; maybe his phylactery is in the Negative Energy Plane and he climbs back out of the Wizard Pit! Cue high level adventure to find his phylactery called "Into the Wizard Pit" but to the tune of The Backyardigans.

As for what he's up to, I don't think there's anything concrete mentioned besides that the Knights of Lastwall are all sort of squinting over at the Isle of Terror like "what're you up to old man". I think there's some KoL-related content in this year's PFS scenarios? But I imagine it'll be all eyes on War of Immortals for a while now.

I really should have prepped more of this sooner but I'm gonna be doing some pretty sizeable reworking to this book - mostly to connect it better to my players and how we like to play. I'll outline some of these later maybe, but at least partly it involved an infernal cult in Vigil and putting the Redoubt outside of the city rather than under it.

But one of the things I'm kinda stumped over is how best to run the waystation stuff in a not-so-clumsy way. It's a very small space, especially inside, and we've got tight corners and staircases blocking line of sight for spellcasters and like minimum 6 people in combat at once (4 PCs, Okagu, Usundra) and that's if the wights dont get involved early. I feel like its pretty cramped in here. I have a very buff Paladin and a Swashbuckler that crits with 9/10 attacks so it's not going to be a very impactful fight if I don't get creative with this.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use these pieces more efficiently? I'm also trying to redesign the map to make it just a bit bigger but Dungeon Alchemist is fighting me on this one, so ways to use the existing space would be appreciated!

Yeah I think it'd be good for the party to know what's going on to a degree, like they feel some sort of resistance as they cast the spell, feel it cancelled out by the obol or sucked into the mote of energy at their chest or something. Knowing about the SR will allow them to prepare around it in the future too - I wouldn't want my wizard to keep prepping false life and wondering why it's not working, for example.

My party have taken some negative energy damage in the past and felt it be reduced but they've not seen the SR side of things yet either so that's something I've had in the back of my mind for a while. Let us know how you decide to address it when it comes up? ^^

Thankfully deathwatch only has a 30ft range - my PCs actually don't have the glasses on because they've forgotten about them, but they do have a Paladin that Detects Evil on every square inch of Golarion he comes across. I had Arazni stand (very notably) at least 65ft away at all times. She does, however, reveal she's an undead anyway - a bid to be truthful in order to encourage some level of trust (though she doesn't reveal she's a lich since, you know, kind of a different, even more evil can of rotgrubs).

Perfect, thank you friends! I'm fighting the urge not to divert the party to Trunau (I ran Giantslayer several years back so there's some powerful allies there rn) but I'm doing a lil GS cameo thing on the way up. Thinking of having an inn on the road up with a merchant caravan stopping by after hearing of trouble on the roads (cue side quest!) A week is good though, the party need a break from the constant onslaught of Big Oof Energy.

This is advanced Advanced...

And yeah I can see my party getting kind of annoyed at people being hard to convince, so I'm still thinking on different ways to make that a more interesting social encounter.

Question for people: Does anyone know how long it takes, roughly, to get from Roslar's Coffer to Vigil? I'm not sure if it's in the books but I couldn't find a number. Even if not, what did you estimate the time around? I'm gonna have a couple things happen on the road before the start of this book (including a small settlement) and just wanted to sort of measure out the travel segment in my mind.

This is good to know, actually - fairly sure my party will be fighting him next session. I buffed the zombies a little bit to customize them more to each PC but it's more flavour than practical tbh. Buffing the familiar is a good shout though! If the nekomatas survive I might throw them into the mix (and maybe have them be particularly aloof and unreliable so as not to overbuff. Plus I like the idea of sassy cats being like "mmmmm nah i don't fancy it thanks").

At the moment I'm faced with the fact that my nekomatas have bitten 2 different NPCs and scarpered, and I'm unsure how best to utilise this. A bit of context on the party make-up - I run for 2 of my friends, and I throw in a couple of DMPCs for party balance, plot hooks, and potentially adorable Bioware-style romance options. In this game, my DMPCs are a cleric of Sarenrae and a Swashbuckler who used to be part of the Whispering Way before they defected. Said Swashbuckler also killed Valthazar's boyfriend (their brother) so V has some serious grief with them in a "not killing you right away" sort of way. I kind of want to swing it that the Nekomatas track the party back into the tunnels with their scent ability, stealth-drop the Swashbuckler and then replace them. (I'm not gonna take the cleric (who the kitties also bit) because the poor wizard got blinded by the WW Devotees and he needs his eyes back tomorrow). So when the party awake the next day, they think the Swashbuckler is still with them but betrays them in the VQ fight.

At the very least, they might get a kitty fight in the night before the nekomatas scarper again.

Gonna spoil this just in case there are any players peeking in here, but...

Would you be able to list which books from TG that these come up in, and maybe which books from CC they relate to? Since we're running them in different groups, it's possible we could delay that book and pivot to a different AP until the CC group catches up.

Yeah of course! There's some stuff in TG Book 4 that has some overlap with CC Book 6. You won't have to worry about specific people being mentioned at the very least.

Re: Who I think the last two safe will be, I'd put money on Abadar being safe (badum tsh) because if he dies I'm fairly sure the world's economy will just break. And I think Gozreh will be safe because how do you kill the wind? The sea? And why? What sort of motive do they have? (Unless the culprit is Team Magma.) But then they are called the Godsrain Prophecies...

I'm so happy it's not Desna, for real. But she'll be so sad if she loses Sarenrae or Shelyn ;-; Very conscious we're not in the clear yet. And Desna was my "most likely to survive out of the Three Prismatic Rays". I need all of them to live and be happy please and thank you!

It's been a moment since I checked in on this thread and there's a lot of updates, so quick vibe check: How do people feel about Sarenrae's odds? Amongst my friend group we're all terrified it will be her (or one of the other Prismatic Baes, but feel like Sarenrae has had the most death flags) and I swg I'm gonna cry if it is. Every time a new Godsrain Prophecy comes out we all talk about the remaining gods' chances trying to find a reason for it not to be Sarenrae. But maybe I'm in a bubble over here and there's very compelling arguments being made for the others' demises.

Oh, I'd disagree! First of all, there's a mention to the plot and ending of Carrion Crown in one of the back matter sections of the first book (not the adventure itself):

Secondly, non-spoiler version, there are certainly some things that come up in Tyrant's Grasp that are related to Carrion Crown that, depending on the person, could either be an "oh cool this thing has come up again!" moment or a "I really wish this came up in Carrion Crown first" moment. I don't really know how best to give an informed warning, but I guess imagine if something in Carrion Crown came up in Tyrant's Grasp, and someone who's not played the former wouldn't necessarily know they're related but could maybe make an educated guess.

I can't believe you've done this to me ;-; I got so excited for lore and conspiracies that I forgot what day it is...

one thing you might do is RELEASE THE BEAR.

I love the idea of releasing the bear into the tunnels, like "it'll clear out whatever's down there for sure and we won't have to worry any more about it!" And when the bear doesn't come back, it'll certainly put the cult on edge, but it'll buy the party some time to recover. In the meantime, having that giant bear just skulking around the tunnels trying to find the intruders? Terrifying. More so if they don't actually fight it right away, like if they're too badly hurt and need to hide. Being in the tunnels with The Bear is a horrific experience.

Hmmm force frying pan?

They don't teach you that one in Jedi school and they should

Agree with Yakman here, a little bit of setup time for the PCs and you could have a really satisfying encounter of luring the Yaoguai into an ambush, completely turn the tables on it! There are very few points in this campaign where the PCs can really feel in control, and a little revenge ambush could certainly lighten some spirits.

Is that just within the GM Discussion forums?

I believe the Adventure Paths have specific pinned threads for GM Discussion and that's where most of the DM magic happens, while the rest of those areas are supposedly suitable for player consumption or at least have spoiler tags, but there's still a chance you'll stumble across something spoilery. The standalone adventures part of the forum (here) has a bit less structure, but just searching for "We Be Goblins" within that tab should give you most/all of the relevant threads. I think is also intended for players to read and post stuff as much as DMs, but again you might find an untagged spoiler or two. As the GM obviously that's less of an issue for you right now, mostly a warning for the future if you find yourself as a player in a game and scroll through those threads.

1. Start with something small. Gallows of Madness is a really good starting module for this as it contains three adventures that can be run in any order and a lot of roleplaying bits that allow the players to flesh out their characters. If the party enjoy that, an obvious next adventure if you can get hold of it is Feast of Ravenmoor.

Feast of Ravenmoor is so gooood! Very "Deep South Horror" vibes.

5. This may be controversial, but if you're a new GM, I suggest a "no evil characters" requirement for your first game. Most published adventures assume the PCs are basically heroic and willing to help the NPCs who are in trouble, if they aren't then you are going to have to do a load of rewriting to motivate them. Also, reffing PvP is painful.

Second this! Evil characters can be done really well, but in my opinion they're more difficult to play and to run for than Neutral/Good alignment characters. Even if you know and trust your players, its totally fair to ask them to cut you some slack for your first game - you don't wanna battle party cohesion problems alongside everything else right off the bat.

As far as I know she may not have carved out a domain for herself yet. As a Neutral Evil deity and an undead, its possible she's currently chilling in Abbadon, though equally likely that she's steering as far from Urgathoa as possible. I know Aroden's domain hasn't been reclaimed yet, though a number of parties have their eye on it including Milani who, while she's CG and has a domain in Elysium, apparently summers in Axis. Maybe Arazni will make a play for that, or maybe that's the last thing she wants.

I have a feeling we'll find out pretty soon, since...

Player-safe stuff
I ran Carrion Crown before I started Tyrant's Grasp, lots of tasty Ustalav lore, a good background on the Tyrant and the Whispering Way, and without spoilers, there are some great setpieces and maybe characters/places I'll bring back from that. Big big recommend for that, if you have the time to slip another cheeky 6 book AP in there. I also did the PFS Season 10 "Reaver's Roar" for some Roslar's Coffer setup. The first game I ran was Giantslayer, and Trunau is like... right there so maybe there will be some old friends pop up! And Tyari Varvatos, sister to Second Sword Knight Aylunna Varvatos, is there.

I'm not sure which PFS Scenarios have Evni Zongnoss in them but if you want a little more familiarity with her as a character then hunting down some of those could be good!

Also just being around Lastwall/Vigil/Vellumis and getting a vibe for the place. As a crusade nation its got an interesting culture that it could be useful to get a used to before the campaign so you're not juggling settling into the vibe and also the events of the campaign at the same time.

DM stuff (Player Trespassers will be Feebleminded!)

I did find out that the We Be Goblins! trilogy has a free PDF so I could use those. But those are some great tips!

What if told you there were actually six modules in that series? You don't have to play all of them if you don't want, but all of them are free I think!

I don't have any experience with PbP so I can't really help you there, though I do know it can take a long time so you may want to go into whatever adventure you're running see if there's any content you wanna cut - encounters or parts of the story you don't think you or your players will be as into and stuff. Tailor it to your table's interests (and remember you're part of the table too!) You might find you don't wanna cut anything and that's totally fine, but it's best to know ahead of time.

Someone mentioned above but the messageboards are so good, there's one for every adventure with people sharing tips and changes they thought were cool and discussing parts that were a bit confusing and the like. I remember reading the Giantslayer forum after I'd run the campaign and thinking "damn I wish I'd read this before". Absolutely take a stroll through the threads for whatever adventure you run, and maybe keep it bookmarked to come back to.

Just regular DM tips I've found useful, don't be afraid to be wrong! I recently finished running Carrion Crown and right at the end realised we'd been doing attacks of opportunity wrong the whole time, but it didn't ruin the experience. It's important to be fair, but if you screw up a rule or cant find where it specifies how to do something niche, don't worry! Luis Loza isn't gonna kick in your door and make you do push-ups while reciting the grappling rules (probably).

If your players are having way too easy a time, the advanced template is your friend. Or it has been for me at least. I have also rapidly removed an advanced template during combat after realising I'd overcompensated. That's fine. You're allowed to do that too. It's not cheating, it's a live update bug fix. If the fight has been going on too long or someone does something really cool and you're like "damn that would be a really cool kill cinematic but this thing has 12hp left", feel free to just let those extra points go if you want to!

If you prefer a more generous ruleset like me, look into stuff like Automatic Bonus Progression and the Elephant In The Room rule tweaks - they get rid of some heavy balance dependencies and feat taxes. Totally optional. Also with any homebrew rules it's important to discuss them with your players before so they know what they're getting into - nasty rule surprises aren't fun.

Nothing I've said is like a golden DM rule or anything, everyone has different playstyles, and you'll find yours in time ^^

Lastly and most importantly, stay hydrated.

nah, at my table, she DED. or as a helpful nosoi explained to the party, *POOF!*

Was that nosoi Umble? "She has "Poof!"ed with decidedly pooficious permanentatiousness!"

yeah... running TG as well, and I killed her off permanently.

I would like for the next PF campaign we run to take place in the same continuity, so might just have to tell my players that there's some differences w/ the new source material.

;-; But Arazni my beloved....

I feel you though. We've played so many of the APs now and usually we don't have continuity problems, but like they happen. For example, Return of the Runelords

Also a friend ran a really good but reeeeeaally canon-breaky homebrew campaign early on in Absalom where we brought back Aroden, and we've come across so many things we've had to rework as a result that we instead retconned it a bit and made them a "new" Aroden made of Aroden-essence called Casroden. He's just buddies with Iomedae right now because he's new and a baby. Now we've gotta work out how Arazni feels about that >.>

Love the idea of a CN caster using Protection From Evil and then decking a passerby in the face like "oof, that was close, I was almost a good person for a moment."

But yeah no I've come across some weirdly tagged spells recently. Also did you know Raelis Azatas can cast the evil tagged Symbol of Pain? Did some poking around on what outsiders of the Upper/Lower Planes could cast what (mostly looking at positive and negative energy channelling spells), and there's a few weird ones.

A few interesting pieces of the puzzle from

today’s stream: Lost Omens: Divine Mysteries is a 2024 book with a psychopomp narrator, aimed at bringing Gods & Magic into the Remaster and expanding on it. The cover shows a suspiciously alive-looking Arazni (stated to be joining the Core 20!) standing in front of stained glass depictions of Asmodeus (right), Pharasma (center), and Sarenrae battling Rovagug (left).

Whoever dies, Arazni’s filling in their slot - and maybe getting to be less corpse-y. Pharasma giving her the Boneyard job? Urgathoa kicking the bucket as a middle finger to necromancers everywhere? Gozreh gifting a big burst of vitality as they beef it? I truly have no idea.

Okay I should have read this first. Scratch that. Also holy wow this is a reveal! I mean I adore Arazni - I'm running a party through Tyrant's Grasp at the moment and I can't wait for them to get into her situation. But... wow. Core 20. I'm happy for her. I hope I'm happy for her...

My bet is also on Asmodeus. Not because of licensing issues necessarily - I think I heard somewhere that whatever god it will be, it won't be because of that, but I can't attest to the validity of that statement and can't remember exactly where I got it from. But for one, I think Cheliax has kind of had its time in the sun - Council of Thieves, Hell's Rebels/Hell's Vengeance, etc. - and without spoilers, things aren't really going well for the forces of diabolic evil recently. Also, with the removal of slavery from Cheliax in 2e, and since some of the core elements of Asmodean worship involve slavery, giving him the boot wouldn't be out of the question.

And like Atavist said, there are plenty of other archdevils to take over! It happens all the time down there. Maybe we're in for a new era of Eiseth the Girlboss Queen of Hell?

If its Desna, Sarenrae or Shelyn I will cry ugly tears. Don't you dare, Paizo, don't you dare!

Addendum: It's awfully suspicious that Razmir's making moves right now with all this coming up. Replacement for the roll of God of Magic? He's also is famous for his mask, and being generally a sneaky, greedy, deceitful lil... uh, so-and-so. New Norgorber replacement? Or maybe he'll just fall in the pit. Please fall in the pit.

Now another point is that healing and harm spell any cleric can use them but they are from my point of view different energy (healing is positive and harm is negative)...

This is a really good point and not one I considered. Truthfully I don't have a good answer for it - Clerics and other divine casters get their power from the god or divine spirit of choice, right? So if Positive is good and Negative is evil, why would a god of one alignment allow the use of the opposing energy? Certainly they aren't able to use Channel Energy with their opposing energy, but Harm/Inflict X Wounds both state the use of Negative Energy, while Heal/Cure X Wounds uses Positive. Neither have the [good] not [evil] descriptors either. That does stand pretty solidly against the "Negative Energy has an evil frequency and that's why Undead are evil" theory, you got me there. Though it is sort of odd that Heal is allowed for evil clerics but Channel Positive Energy isn't. They even both say "channel" in the description. I guess it'd be unfair to evil clerics, mechanically speaking, if the only healing they got was Infernal Healing or a good night's rest.

Off the back of this though, I did look into something. And that something was every non-3pp statblock I could find for the creatures of the Upper and Lower Planes, seeing if any could use spells of the opposing energy type. Its actually huge though so I'm gonna put it in a neat little spoiler box so you can ignore it or pop it open like a can of worms.

Linking back (finally) to the undead conversation, I wonder if an undead cleric could prepare cure spells... like it wouldn't help them much, but is it possible? What would happen to them when they cast them? Would they take as much damage as they heal their touch target for? Whether creatures of evil can use Positive Energy or not, undead are definitely 100% messed up by it, and healed by Negative. And there's definitely a huge correlation as to which sides of Good vs Evil use which energy. So, uh... results inconclusive. But I spent like 2 hours looking this up so I couldn't not post it

This came up recently for us, as one of my players is a Conjuration (Teleportation) Wizard and wondered about taking Dimensional Agility at 1st level. I think the general rule is that if it doesn't specify otherwise, it follows the usual ruling - in this case, since it says its "as if using dimension door", goes on to specify several differences from normal dimension door (requires line of sight, can only take yourself and familiar) and doesn't specify that you can take further actions, its safe to assume that clause of the dimension door effect is still in play.

Tangentially related, but while I know RAW you'd technically still need the prerequisite of being able to cast dimension door, I let her take Dimensional Agility at 1st level for her Shift ability - it's like casting dimension door, has no other requirements, still uses up a feat slot, and I figure if she wanted the feat then she'd take it later anyway. It's not really game breaking for the 1st level wizard to do a fun little hop now and then and they're having fun with it. Just my ruling though!

This is solely my interpretation that is inspired by the lore I've come across but not by the book. Also the recent changes in 2e alignment mechanics throw a little bit of a wrench in the theory but it can still apply narratively.

TL;DR Hypothesis - Alignments are natural forces with different frequencies, separate but affected by (and in turn affects) a creatures moral/ethical behaviours.

I like to see alignment as a frequency. For many (most?) sentient mortal beings, they start life as Neutral, or with no frequency. Over the course of their life, they perform acts of Good, Evil, Order, and/or Chaos that shift their frequency toward one of the Big 8. Or maybe they don't shift all that much and remain without any real frequency, remain Neutral. When you pass to the Boneyard, Pharasma scans you with the funky soul frequency reading stick and yeets you into the appropriate frequency afterlife.

Positive Energy and Negative Energy are forces of nature that are highly resonant with Good/Evil frequencies. That's why clerics and the like, who are gifted the ability to channel those energies, can only channel those with a frequency similar to their own. Now maybe those energies aren't necessarily good or evil but they share the frequency. Maybe its just coincidental that the stuff of the Higher Planes uses Positive Energy and the stuff of the Lower Planes uses Negative Energy. Positive is creative, healing, light, nurtures growth and life. These are nice things right? (Pay no attention to the horrors of too much Positive Energy behind the curtain.) Negative energy is destructive, dark corrupting, hungry, entropic, harmful. I have also seen fictions where the manipulation of dark energies brings with it a corruption, making it more and more likely for the user to do it again, and maybe that applies here too. Negative energy use begets more negative energy use.

Undead are made from negative energy. They are reconstituted from it, strengthened by it, they are burned or turned away by positive energy - a distortion of their own frequencies, an incompatibility. They often carry with them a corruption of life, a hunger for it, an ever present and insatiable need or rage. Unintelligent undead only have this. Intelligent undead can perhaps better keep their hungers and corruptions in check. But they are all aligned, perhaps forcibly, with this "evil" frequency. One could argue that if they have no choice but to be evil, is it truly evil? And that's a very good point. But also within the game are abilities that forcibly make the living a different alignment, including good. The cursed item Helm of Opposite Alignment shifts a creature's alignment to its opposite. Suddenly that mass murderer is a good person! How? It forcibly shifts their frequency.

Under this theory, moral ethics aside, undead are evil because they are made from evil-resonant energy, and making them is evil because it uses evil-resonant energy. You want to bring your loved one back for just a last conversation before putting them to rest, and in life were given consent to do so? By all rights that doesn't seem too evil, but it uses an evil energy. That loved one is corrupted by it, feels a hunger they can never fill, is wrought with anger and hatred not truly of their own. Intelligent undead might just claw their way up to a higher resonance with enough work, but gods is it hard work to fight against your new natural frequency. You can touch a magnet to its matching pole with enough pushing but its always striving to push it away again.

There's some stuff in the theory about the Positive and Negative Energy Planes but that's unrelated to the Undead discussion and I've already gone on too long. Please feel free to openly refute and disagree with any or all of the above, I won't cry (much).

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

The Mass Effect fan in me always associates it with Biotic powers, so I'm usually in the Flashy Blue Energy wagon. But also I've played enough 5e Warlocks with Eldritch Blast to be like "what if green/purple?" I guess it's more of, like, a raw magic energy and so could feasibly be very malleable in appearance depending on caster and what kind of vibe they've got going. If my players wanna get a Vaporwave Magic Missile rave going who am I to ruin their dreams?

Any deviation of individuality is a dangerous attempt to disrupt that order and weaken the efficiency of perfection.

Hell's Order is ruthless. A good aligned lawful man/society might forgive people for breaking the law. They might loosen or change law based on good morals. A good son might have covered his father because he's family and protecting one's family is the "good thing" to do. But instead he turned him in, because it's the right thing according the law.

These are really good lines, I think these are going to be integral to his reasoning when faced with the sorts of conflicts we expect to come across. Thank you for that!

I think something people need to remember is that Good is not Nice, and Evil is not Mean. Or at least they don't have to be.

Funnily enough, my first character idea was actually the most charismatic, cheerful and jolly Hellknight you ever did see (mostly because I found some really good art for it and got inspired), I was really going to play into the dissonance between their demeanour and the sorts of merciless atrocities they were willing to commit in the name of Hell's Order. Even Vittorio is still a gentleman in polite society, he speaks respectfully and can even be charming when he wants to be, and its not even always manipulative. He likes to reward and encourage "good behaviour" - even gave a silver piece to a little girl that taddled on her vandalising friends, told her Asmodeus would be proud of her.

On the question around good and evil spells, I've definitely heard some arguments for both sides. In our Carrion Crown game, one of my players was a Hallowed Necromancer and he picked up Wracking Ray. I was like "isn't that an evil spell? Just excruciating amounts of pain?" and he posited "is it any more evil than blowing people up with Fireball? There are all sorts of terrible things we do to people with non-evil descriptor spells" and honestly I couldn't really argue with that.

But also there is of course the element of Good and Evil/Order and Chaos being tangible forces (or at least in 1e), so when it comes to the alignments of divine casters I guess it makes more sense that they can't channel the energies of their opposition into spells any more than they can into their Channel Energy ability. Maybe that demon worshipper would absolutely love to cast Prot From Evil/Prot from Chaos to keep themself safe from other demons/The Consequences Of Their Actions(tm) and is just unable to because it requires an energy inaccessible to them, so they're stuck with finding alternatives.

As for exactly what changes someone's alignment, I know there are some more objective ones like rituals at an evil shrine for example, but I feel like a lot of them are too subjective to box in. If its an element that comes up in play, I usually prefer for it to be a steady descent/ascent, a slippery slope down into evil or an inch by inch redemption arc. I think a good person can do evil now and then without it immediately becoming their alignment, though it makes for a great inner turmoil segment. And even in just the first book of Hell's Vengeance, Vittorio has risked himself to save a comrade from death because he cared for them. He's not suddenly a good person, but one might look at that and think he's perhaps not all bad.

Apologies for a double post but in case anyone else finds this useful...

My group started Tyrant's Grasp a few days ago and I thought it'd be cool to post some of the changes I've made so far to adjust it for my group's interests. They've just finished up Part 2 and are about to venture into the Dead Roads.

1. I added a small segment set in Roslar's Coffer before The Incident(tm). I wanted them to feel more connected to the people, as none of the party are actually from the town recently, though the paladin lived here as a child when the orcs attacked, and has lived in Vigil since. He was returning home to visit after all these years and marveling at how far the town had come since the attack. Oops. Local tavern owner (half-orc man called Larod who's everyone's friend) was concerned that this month's mail courier hadn't shown up this morning, so they went out to investigate, found some bandits and the courier (Swashbuckler party member), retrieved the mail, got back, drinks all round. Then, that night, as the wizard is snuffing out his candle and looks out the tavern window, he spots a hooded, masked figure watching the sky in the town square, and a sudden blinding light... Cue Act 1.

2. One of these parcels with the courier actually had the shard in it. (Later there will be a revelation that the swashbuckler was tricked/used by the Whispering Way into delivering it - they grew up in the cult, and thought they'd gotten out years ago. Guess again.) There was some drama around a mysterious box that held... a wooden stake? A piece of debris? How strange, we'll think on it more tomorrow (AN: Tomorrow never came.) Since the PCs all had shared/adjacent rooms at the inn and were therefore in close proximity to the shard when it went off, I thought it made more sense as to why they all had obols.

3. I also gave faces to some other people of the town - the elderly Humblecut couple that sit in the town square garden every day, some local sassy kids (one of whom wants to be a crusader one day - oops again), a fretful jeweler and his bookshop-owning brother whom the wizard made friends with. Ripe with feels for later in Book1/Book 2.

4. I rewrote Roslar's Tomb a bit. I wanted to make it shorter, and I wasn't all that big on the mites or the random bugs (are there just Material Plane bugs chilling in the Boneyard?). The ostovites were creepy and great so they stayed. I cut down or combined some of the rooms, made it 2 floors instead of 3, made the Arazni statue puzzle more of a ritual (but they didn't do it, sad - I don't think I made it clear enough). Instead of mites, I had a particularly ambitious cacodaemon looking to score some tasty souls, who had gained command of a few ostovites eager for bones and a particularly hungry fiendish small earth elemental called Scuttlemaw that had nibbled its way up from the Lower Planes with the cacodaemon's direction. The paladin was very happy to finally have something to Smite Evil on after all the faux undead Bone Chariots and the Bone Cobra.

I remade the map in Dungeon Alchemist; I'll include a link and a brief detailing of the rooms in spoilers below. I did make a small mistake though, in that the upper floor isn't directly above the lower because of stair placement. Doesn't change how things play out though, but I'll probably fix this for the tomb in Book 2.

5. I've added the Castrovella plotline in that Kresblain talked about above - they don't suspect much yet but they have her shortsword. They brandished it against Garrid Tharmethion to taunt him away from the wizard and he was furious, screaming about besmirching the honour of the Shrikes and the honour of Roslar.

3: I agree that the Planar Traits should have been brought up. In their absence, I think the best thing to do is for GMs to also not address them. I personally applied Boneyard traits for parts 1 and 2 of the Book, and removed them once they were transported to the Deadroads. Again, the book doesn’t point out any difference, but I considered the Dead Roads a separate planar body than the Boneyards - not quite its own plane, not quite part of the Boneyard or Material. This allows all creatures on the Dead Roads with Diseases and Poisons to use them.

Just came across this issue in our last session (after totally forgetting it for the entirety of Roslar's Tomb, mb). For one, we've got a paladin of Ragathiel in the party so he's got a -4 to all mental checks and skill checks until they leave, and I just found out about the hunger, thirst and age (less relevant) catching up once they leave (thank you to Serisan for flagging that!). First I debated just having Barzahk just handwave all those issues away but a) ehhhhh and b) my players are gonna worry about the effects right up until that happens and I dont want it weighing on them, so I think going with the "The Dead Roads dont suffer the planar traits" is perhaps a better move. Like they're a space between the Boneyard and the Material Plane rather than the Boneyard itself. It also gives a bit of the sense that they're one step closer to home than before.

These are all really great responses, thank you! I appreciate the time you took.

...when creating a villainous character, it's usually good to give them a character virtue.

I like this a lot, and it's not something I've really considered about him yet but there's definitely space to do so. This is something I'm gonna look at a bit more before our next session this Saturday.

I'm in agreement with a lot of you focusing on order and fanatical patriotism; he "wants whats best for the society of Cheliax" in a very twisted way that makes him think opposing, good-aligned people with the same goal are just as wrong as they see his views to be. Without order there is chaos. But it also has to be the right brand of order, none of that soft Iomedaean stuff!

I actually gave him the Persistence Inquisition as he buys into the ideology heart and soul, and is stubborn and bull-headed enough to not back down in the face of opposition (also free Step Up and a little 10ft extra movement now and then is fun - git back here you varmint!). It's almost like a blind faith at this point, his indoctrination has given him all the right thoughts to think to justify his actions and never doubt. I'm looking forward to the first time he's made to really question himself, and how he'll react to it - totally not against him having a moment of redemption, but I also don't want to play him as just "a good guy brought up evil and waiting to figure it out."

Within his ethos, and the hierarchy and world-view these produce, servants are expected to offer unwavering obedience to their masters. The strong should rule the weak, and, just as importantly, it is right for them to do so. At the same time, though, the dogma of Asmodeus is such that gaining an advantage over others by way of an ostensibly fair deal is seen as praiseworthy.

This is really important. Vittorio has been praised for his tactics and ability to get the upper hand, and has praised others for doing so. It's right for the powerful to lead, its doing the weak a favour since they'd never be able to do so properly. He earns that right by being stronger, smarter. more cunning. That's his ambition and pride in play - while he respects people with the strength to rule, he also desires to be above them (especially if they're ruling but not that strong, like some of the nobility that have their right to rule inherited rather than earned.)

Thank you friends for helping me think this out, its been very helpful and inspired some other lines of thought, namely:
- How he justifies things that are harder to explain as "for the good of society" like slavery
- Why choose the Order of Hell over the Order of Heaven
- Where the weak points in his faith might be

Hello friends! So I'm playing an Inquisitor of Asmodeus in our current Hell's Vengeance campaign (no spoilers please!) and, although we've been playing it for a little while, I'm having trouble really getting into the headspace of the character. I've not really played evil characters before, and I don't want them to be too cliché or comical or anything. I want to understand them, to get why they're evil so I can make realistic arguments from their point of view even though I don't agree with them as the player. But, as a non-evil person, I really have trouble rationalising his thought process. I was wondering if anyone's handled similar characters before and if they could maybe provide some advice. I'll include some character details below in a spoiler, not totally relevant but could be useful for context.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the topic, I recognise the possibility for some less than nice topics to come up, so I want to keep things respectful and within forum guidelines. The character is not sexist, racist or homophobic, there are plenty of ways to be evil without taking that approach. Also, this is kind of my first time reaching out on the forums, so apologies if this thread should go elsewhere or something - lemme know and I'll move it if needs be!

Thanks in advance! <3

Vittorio Imbrexus