If you teleport or shift (as the conjurer's ability)
Do you take the broom with you, or is it left behind?
In the past, I've had it that you leave it behind unless you're carrying it, or in the case of ioun stones, it's 'bound' to you.
If you're riding the broom, does it just come with you compared to say a horse which would be left behind (unless it was a designated creature via teleport) ?
This brings up another question of say 'dismounting' someone from a broom. Does it follow disarm rules? As the caster may have a staff held in two hands so they're holding it with their 'legs'. Or is a bull-rush or re-position required?
By this logic, can someone 'mount' a large bar of gold, and simply use dimensional steps to move it some distance by virtue of it being an 'attended object' ?
The young heroes of the town of Kassen are ready for their coming-of-age ceremony, an old tradition in which they retrieve a piece of the eternal flame burning in the tomb of the town's founder.
Crypt of the Everflame was the module that kick-started the Pathfinder RPG, and is regarded as one of the best written modules Paizo has ever put out. It's designed for 1st level adventurers as they journey to acquire a fragment of the ever-burning flame to begin the fall harvest festival of the town they've lived in for much of their life. What used to be a time honored solemn affair has turned into a spectacle as the tradition has become more elaborate over the years. Traps were installed, and devious puzzles situated to test the mettle of those set to retrieve the flame. Some say this year will be the best harvest festival ever; or perhaps the first to finally go overboard?
Further details on character creation are in the below posting:
That's only if they use their last reservoir point, if they safely stay above it, they can avoid all consequences.
For a decently sized pool, they have more 'juice' than other characters their level, in fact, practically infinite as the reservoir can be used for more things that the occultists summoning ability.
The arcanist can spend 1 point from his arcane reservoir as a standard action to grow a long, articulated proboscis covered with small spiky hairs. The appendage grows from the arcanist’s face and houses a highly flexible, muscular tongue tipped with a cartilaginous barbed quill. The proboscis lasts for 1 round per arcanist level, during which time the arcanist cannot speak or use verbal components.
The arcanist can end this exploit’s effects early as a swift action. As a standard action, the arcanist can attack a target with the proboscis’s tongue. This is a primary natural weapon with a 10-foot reach. Attacks with the tongue resolve as a touch attack. If the arcanist uses his tongue and hits a creature capable of casting spells or using spell-like abilities, he drains a portion of the target’s magical ability and adds 1 point to his arcane reservoir (points gained in excess of the reservoir’s maximum are lost). If the arcanist hits a creature that cannot cast spells or use spell-like abilities, the tongue instead drains a portion of the target’s life force and heals the arcanist of 1d6 points of damage. Regardless of the target’s ability to use magic, the tongue’s unnerving siphoning of magical or life energy causes the struck creature to become sickened for 1 round.
The fact that it doesn't exclude friendly casters, or have a limiter such as 'absorbing' prepared spells or uses for spontaneous casters. An occultist (arcanist) can leech off their own spell casting summons, or a friendly spell-caster.
I don't get how the ability to get infinite summons at such a low level is balanced.
1.) Yes, a golden rule is that there is no PvP, I'm clear that this is a co-operative campaign as there's enough out there trying to kill the group. Ideally, we'll discuss character creation before you join the group. I don't have any hard restrictions, if there's a questionable ruling on a rule you want to use, ask first. Entering with a 'surprise I interpreted it this way' isn't a fun way to get to know people; I'm sure everyone has had their share of 'that guy'. We're all here to have fun and 'OOhhh' and 'Aaahhh' at interesting deaths and triumphs over the seemingly insurmountable odds. It's not the players vs the GM, the campaign as written is already deadly enough.
2.) Yes, since the campaign is currently at level 1, this is not an issue. Even further down the line this still isn't an issue.
3.) Rappan Athuk is in the PF setting. However given the light nature of this game, I've generalized the surrounding world as 'northeros, easteros, westeros, and southeros'. The wilderness envrions are the main stage of this adventure.
4.) Any magic crafting is done during the session if you can eek out downtime. Given the 'edge of civilization' nature of this campaign, item crafting feats aren't useful. If you decide to pop in at the later levels and figure that you can use a combination of craft and starter WBL to get better gear, this is not allowed. It is not fair to the other players (not to mention the stunted WBL). In addition, most magic crafting assumes you have access to a market to turn that wealth into a magic item. Given this crafting is done in the wilds, brew potion and scribe scroll become far more useful. A portion of the raw treasure drops will be converted into 'magic reagent supply' to be used for this purpose. You can't transmute gems and gold to magic items, but eventually when you leave Rappan with a haul of treasure, you can conceivably sell and craft with downtime... If you get to civilization in once piece.
You mentioned that you have a set character. I'm going to nudge remind you that this is a deadly dungeon, characters can very well die at the drop of a hat. There's nothing stopping you from cloning that character, but generally Rappan is a good place to throw experimental builds into a blender to check that blendability. I do keep an eye on stage time so there's a general balance among the players. Given everyone is trying to eek the most out of their characters, the bar already is pretty high. I'd advise against exploiting well known broken builds (synth summ etc..) ask about anything questionable before diving into grey territory. It's both a courtesy to the other players and myself.
Many hundreds of years ago, the forces of good allied to destroy the main Temple of Orcus in the ancient city of Tsar. With their temple in ruins, the surviving high priests of this accursed demon-god fled the city with an army of enemies on their trail—an army of heroic fighters, clerics and paladins—led by Zelkor, a powerful wizard. The exact fate of these evil priests was then unknown, for not only did the remnants of the followers of Orcus disappear from all human reckoning, but so did the army of light that followed after them disappear as well. Some said that in the eternal scales the loss of so many good men was a fair price to pay to rid the world of so much evil.
The evil cult, however, had not been destroyed. The surviving priests and their followers instead settled on a hill near the Forest of Hope, a sylvan woodland near the Coast Road. There they found a vast underground complex of caverns and mazes, carving out a volcanic intrusion beneath the hill. There, the priests of Orcus found the perfect lair to continue their vile rituals. For many years, they carried on in secret, hidden from the light and from the knowledge of men.
Many years later, their underground delving completed, the evil priests erected a hideous mausoleum and a sunken graveyard atop the hill. It is believed that these graves are in fact the final resting place of the pursuing army of heroes that had been destroyed to a man. Soon after the mausoleum was erected peaceful creatures of the wood began to disappear. Though many rangers and druids investigated these happenings, the cause of the creatures' disappearance was not immediately determined. Some years later a powerful group of adventurers, led by Bofred, a high priest of Thyr investigated the evil happenings and found the sunken graveyard leading to a labyrinthine complex. Bofred and his companions found great hordes of evil creatures in the complex. Though some of his companions returned from their expedition, telling tales of fantastic treasure and ferocious monsters, Bofred was never seen again -- lost in the catacombs beneath the cursed mausoleum.
For the last one hundred years, ranks of adventurers have ventured to the newfound dungeon. Many fell prey to bandits and monsters in the surrounding wilderness. Rumors suggest that of those who survived to reach the mausoleum and sunken graveyard, most were slain by guardians of green stone or perished on the very first level. Those rare few who return from deeper treks speak of horrible undead and creatures that cannot be slain. All who have explored Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice:
"Don't go down the Well"
.
.
.
.
.
.
Rappan Athuk is an old school dungeon crawler that chews up characters and spits them out. It's difficult, impossible even in some areas as it's not built to be even remotely fair. Every encounter can be one's last, and even the most optimally built character can become the next puddle of blood and sinew due to an unlucky happenstance. It's a throwback to AD&D with the scarcity of resources, where not every encounter is winnable and knowing when to run or hide will determine if your character will live to see another level. But where there's risk, there's reward in finding treasure far above APL.
.
.
###-- Expectations for play --###
+ Fantasy Grounds I hold an ultimate license so those who don't have a Fantasy Grounds license can connect.
+ One shot drop in format: Each session is effectively a one shot, starting equipment vanishes upon death (Found dungeon loot is preserved)
-- Leaving/returning players appear in and out existence each session unless dictated otherwise, (In case of abuse), their inventory will carry unless it is an item needed for progression in which case it will transfer to a current player.
-- Half starter WBL due to the above average APL treasure drops, isolated location limits shop access so a majority of player wealth will be found.
-- Leveling is tied to progression as opposed to EXP, the further you get in the dungeon will advance the level of everyone in the group, including new comers. Due to the level EXP field, there will be minor perks granted to those who survive a number of character levels which is to be determined.
+ High death rate: Don't get attached to your character, there's a 90% chance they'll die, besides, epic and embarrassing deaths are part of the fun. If you manage to survive a few character levels, you'll gain minor perks (traits) but not enough to garner jealousy from others, and often relate hilariously to how you survived when your fellow adventurers did not.
+ Varying time: Depending on what days I have free, the time slot will float, but will adjust to an [U]EST/EDT evening slot[/U]. The next game's time will be announced to a group skype chat so everyone will know what games they can play.
+ Low prep: A simple white background with the dungeon drawn in using drawing tools as it is explored.
+ Medium rule adherence: Rules as written, but as with previous experience, I reserve the right to bend a few, mainly to be in favor of the party due to the sheer difficulty of the dungeon. But if you're going to argue about a 2d6 spike trap when I previously bent a rule preventing a TPK.. well... you get my drift.
.
.
###--- Requirements ---###
- Experience with the Pathfinder System: This dungeon is far too difficult for those starting out, this campaign is more suited to those who want a challenge, and [U]aren't afraid[/U] of losing a few characters, or even a ton back to back.
- Skype: The skype group chat will be a hub for updates as well as alerts in addition to being the primary voice channel during the game. Microphones are mandatory.
- Teamspeak: Teamspeak will be used to stream ambiance/soundtracks/jingles to add to the atmosphere of the game. Typically you'll connect to my teamspeak server muted as the the music client streams as skype is primary VOIP.
- Laid back: Lots of s$$+ago will hit the fan, and you'll need to be able to take it in stride. Helps in game as much as out of it.
Characters must be a Core race and can be created with any official paizo material minus the technology guide and any tech related items. In addition are the following creation rules:
New players may create a character with the following:
- 1st level characters
- 150gp starter gold (do not use class based gold)
- 20 point buy
- no traits
For those complaining, It's an option and if you own the PDF already you only play for the FG add on. On roll20, that popular 'free' option, there's a number of games that use illegal copies. Roll20 has its strengths and it sounds like the licensing deal is in their court.
There's community made libraries of almost all of the items and bestiaries for the books not released, but if you get the official ones you get hi-res artwork and a interconnected reference manual.
Is it for everyone? I think a bunch of prior posters have already made their point. It's really a 'how much is your time worth' question. Much of the Pathfinder ruleset is OGL yet I still own the physical CRB as well as the PDF. Some GMs will find it worth while to use the drag/drop links from the CRB as well as class drags compared to manual creation.
Likely they're dipping their toes in pay-to-play communities in d20pro and FantasyGrounds first before going for a freemium model. That's not a bad opening move given these players pay for content compared to the number of pirated modules I see used in r20.
If it works out, then other freemium VTTs will open up. Personally I like SkirmishVT for a freeform, and FG for a more complex game.
EDIT:
Also I believe Pathfinder is officially supported in d20pro and in FG, while not officially supported, there's a large PFS community there. Both good testing grounds compared to roll20 which is the larger overall pool. Also roll20 kinda started officially supporting 5e ~ 1 year ago, and it's not too much for paizo to expect the same treatment when they roll out there. The ball is probably in roll20's court.
I'm surprised that it's not looked at more given what it is compared to others. I mean:
-epic table which also came out doesn't even have dynamic lighting and requires manual FoW
-Fantasy Grounds relies on an old network model, and has primitive buggy drawing tools. There's a ton of vapor ware regarding Unity as a solve all but having seen the demo... well it's even behind d20pro on it's unity build. It also tends to freeze up a lot. They have great automation when it all falls together. Their extension framework however is very antiquated basing off a combo of XML and lua script.
-d20pro's dynamic lighting is buggy, their controls convoluted; and it's user base has mostly abandoned it. It also relies on an old network model. It does have a good load on demand data transfer though. Their plug in framework is java based and buggy.
-Roll20 is super easy to connect to, but requires a subscription to get dynamic lighting and for even more money you rent the privilege to help yourself or scalp off plug-ins others have developed to access the script features. It's server based so if the server is conjested or down, so is your game, and all the content in it. Their plug in interface is Javascript based and works great until the server is conjested, usually on the days games normally run (sat fri).
- Map tools is free and has been around the longest. It's open source and anyone can mod it or script for it. It also is stagnant in its development as far as new features are concerned. The network model is also dated and I highly doubt they'll be able to move to brokered server model given the costs. But for what it offers on the Java swing backbone It does it well.
-Skirmish VT is a broker based network model among peers where it determines the best host among your connected peers. Remember matchmaking on Xbox/console games where it would find a host among the players? It then distributes the data to only be revealed when the game master reveals it so you could host from a hotel by piggy backing a strong connection of one of your players. No server required. Plug-in extensions are available for free users so you don't need to pay in to get a chance to mod in the features you want. They have a plug in limit for free users though, but the fact you don't have to pay out the gate to see if it's worth it is applaudable.The main drawback here is that it is windows only; but so was Fantasy Grounds initially, and Skirmish is looking foward to the multiplatform space... oh and their FoW implementation which even can illustrate dark vision (see the vids, seeing is believing.. and I've actually used it in their beta) is the only modern implementation on VTTS to date.
It's actually pretty well thought out in terms of it being freemium.
It's mix of FG and Roll20 in that it has the benefits of a server broker so no more port-forwarding, and the power of a modern VTT client for things HTML can't do.
Their FoW really puts others to shame in that it dynamically reveals and remembers past locations as greyed out compared to what your character sees.
EDIT: also the above link is broken, here's the corrected link
A white-haired witch concentrates her mysterious powers on improving her prowess in melee, using feats of agility and her prehensile hair to deal extreme damage.
That however is in the fluff description. The actual ability:
Spoiler:
White Hair (Su)
At 1st level, a white-haired witch gains the ability to use her hair as a weapon. This functions as a primary natural attack with a reach of 5 feet. The hair deals 1d4 points of damage (1d3 for a Small witch) plus the witch’s Intelligence modifier. In addition, whenever the hair strikes a foe, the witch can attempt to grapple that foe with her hair as a free action* without provoking an attack of opportunity, using her Intelligence modifier in place of her Strength modifier when making the combat maneuver check. When a white-haired witch grapples a foe in this way, she does not gain the grappled condition.
At 4th level and every four levels thereafter, a white-haired witch’s hair adds 5 feet to its reach, to a maximum of 30 feet at 20th level.
The hair cannot be sundered or attacked as a separate creature.
In addition, a white-haired witch further improves her ability to control her hair as she progresses in level, gaining the following abilities:
Constrict (Ex): At 2nd level, when the white-haired witch’s hair successfully grapples an opponent, it can begin constricting her victim as a swift action*, dealing damage equal to that of its attack.
Trip (Ex): At 4th level, a white-haired witch who successfully strikes a foe with her hair can attempt a combat maneuver check to trip the creature as a swift action*.
Pull (Ex): At 6th level, a white-haired witch who successfully strikes a foe with her hair can attempt a combat maneuver check to pull the creature 5 feet closer to her as a swift action*.
Strangle (Ex): At 8th level, when the white-haired witch’s hair is grappling with an opponent, that creature is considered strangled, and cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components.
This ability replaces hex.
Here the description describes it as prehensile, but the ability itself does not describe it unless it presumes that the description is self explanatory.
Planning for any kind of epic level play is incredibly daunting. I myself have been planning a sandbox distant world's game starting with an elf gate, eventually leading to interplanetary travel by space whales and a planetary war with Eox vs Versi.
There's plenty of great ideas for fantasy space punk, but I feel that the access to epic level abilities really saps the fun out of normally deadly, drama filled situations.
Technic league won't let them grow that big. As soon as they expand beyond Scrapwall the Technic league will immediately send agents both overt and subversive. If not them, then the black sovereign as he won't entertain the idea of another self-proclaimed king.
I'm sure you can work something out if you really want it though.
At the end of the lords of rust, it mentions that you can allow the players to go to starfall and poke around, that essentially just lets them get burned to pursue another means.
The choking tower is essentially a dungeon crawl at the end of a town RP sequence if you break down the adventure path logically. Part of dungeon exploration is that there's a goal at the 'lowest level' which in this case is the basement. If you send your players to the choking tower which has a good amount of allusions surrounding it as a dark and mysterious place... only to just make a back door; it takes that fun out. Making it obviously known that there's a back door means almost 100% of the time your players will take that option so you might unintentionally sap the fun out of the exploration.
Now every group is different, so scrambling up the format as you mentioned can work as you know your group best, but you'll have to somehow make up the lost levels though I guess you already resolved that part.
You'll need to figure out something about Furkas Xoud's response to someone essentially digging into his tower. After that, I'd think any of your listed suggestions can work.
... but they are all level 9, one challange from mythic 3 from various other things they have done...
That's insanely high for this part of the AP unless you did some serious modifications. Either way, if your group is cool with it all is good; but you essentially unearthed a super weapon, but it's not at all functional if you dig into the details.
It needs a least a few more months to charge off the receiver array, and that would put Torch through months of strange headaches and perhaps illnesses and the reactor going critical eventually.
You can hand-wave all that if you want, but you'll be in a very rough shape trying to piece together the remainder of the AP.
Curious how you fellow DM's would handle the foundry - make them deformed androids? I was thinking of letting them create one batch of normal androids before it running out of resources. Since it needs more than just power. If they ever took the androids against UNITY I may have her take them over. Maybe.
They foundry is damaged, all it can do is produce deformed androids. I'm sure with nurture you could conceivably create an army of Hodors, but nothing terribly complex until they spend a year or so re-building the foundry and that's with high level 'memory of function' spells as well as a large team of technicians. I'd delegate it to something they could accomplish with a well earned favor from Zenebreth after winning her control over the technic league.
What you suggested sounds like a cool twist as well. It's your world, go crazy!.
Another AP maybe a year or so down the line that explores more of the themes visited in 'distant worlds'.
In all probability paired with the 'Space Adventures Guide' (SAG) and other things.
Joking aside, I'd look forward to it actually as Eox and 'The Stranger' Are indeed interesting locations I've often thought about. There needs to be an explanation for why there's so much life in this one star system.
The printed layer peels up when putting the stands on.
It sounds like you're jamming them in. Squeeze the bottom part together so it can fit in the stand rather than sheering them in. When it expands again (think Styrofoam) the pressure will keep it in place.
I understand that androids and aliens would be considered property and experiment subjects, but how would your run this? It'd be pretty hard to get past the gate with an android in the party, even more so if Isuma is accompanying the party.
Had no androids in my party, but Androids can easily disguise themselves. As far as starfall, Kathsasha are known, but they're a rarity, I'd treat them as a novelty people seem to oogle at; akin to Asimars (without the superstitions).
Hey guys, I'm planning to pick up a new party to resume the story arc from a prior one. Fortunatley this shism occured just as we hit the boundry of book 3 to 4. I have a few ideas, but I'm curious what take you guys would have for gathering a party at this level. Golarion explorers? Plane walkers? Native Triaxians?
Also what would be the motivator or the build-up-to-encounter? For book one this was the winter portal and eventually reaching the hut in the second; so I'm curious as to how I can do this. Perhaps I can have them start a level lower and build an arc to reach the appropriate starting level. Question would be how to structure such an arc.
