Bacchreus's page

And that is what's commonly know as false advertising. I've been experiencing the same problem too. They really should clarify this quickly as falsely advertising products as discounted is not a good look

Hi all,

I currently have a number of items loaded in my shopping cart to take advantage of the discounts on offer currently and a few of them do not show the sale discount at all when I have placed them in my shopping cart and proceeded to the checkout. I have only gone as fare as shipping details to see if this changed but it didn't and I won't proceed further if the advertised discounts aren't being honored.

Hope you will be able to rectify this so I can complete my order.

Thanks

Thanks for the advice Bellona. I'll probably tone down the lust/sins elements as they are still fairly young.

I'll also look into the Viorian Dekanti backstory and see if I can weave it in somehow.

I'll also sift through the other suggestions you made, thanks.

The sandpoint sourcebook you mention. Which one is that as i'm unfamiliar with it?

I forgot to mention a session we played before they made up characters.

I ran them through We Be Goblins to kind of get the murderous and destructive instincts out of new players that i've noticed over the years. I think this is a similar phenomena to how open world computer games have many players doing destructive things. The loss of real world consequences tends to lead many new players to push the envelope more than the otherwise would. This also allowed me to introduce the concept behind Pathfinder goblins really well with their chanting songs and murderous little black hearts making the players really enjoy them. It also introduced them to the death mechanics rather effectively with no permanent consequences. The goblin games were also great for getting the players more used to skill checks.

Anyway I set this up to let off steam and tie the fireworks narrative together. So we went back in time again as I set this to be 4 weeks before the Swallowtail festival and had the players go after the fireworks on the ship. They encountered the wreckage of their initial scenario complete with the dead body of my Kyra character at the bottom of the charred hole in the deck.

Vorka and co managed to kill 2 of the goblin characters with the scimitar taken from the previous players corpse which went over brilliantly with players loving the tie in and they couldn't get over using a previous players weapon to kill the current players. One of the characters lumbered away with the fireworks and the other close behind with Vorka shouting curses at them.

They then ran into the chief and the rest of the tribe who was surprised they were alive and admitted they were only a distraction while they got the weapons for the upcoming fight they needed but he added that the fireworks will come in handy for it. One of the goblins had the love interest mentioned in the module who I made the female dead goblin from Black Fangs dungeon and she had a brother Fatmouth who was to take the fireworks North to Black Fang. Again the players loved that they were the ones that brought the fireworks to Black Fangs dungeon which lead to the death of multiple goblins in a previous session.

The Chief wasn't pleased that one of the 2 remaining Goblins had lost his prized possessions so he killed that one leaving only Poog of Zarongal who I intend to insert into the Swallowtail attack somehow.

Following this session we then spent the next two sessions making characters as described in the previous post

I started the next session with the players rolling up their own characters and we spent this and the next session making them up. I told them they could port over all the things they gained from their intro characters but they would also have to port over any negative effects too. Or they could just start with a fresh slate.

My rogue character decided to change Merisiel into a male human rogue. He kept the Djini (Efreet) lamp and we came up with a backstory of him being a bastard son of King Eodred II from Korvosa who had to leave because Ileosa wanted him dead. He found the Lamp in the treasure room and used one of the wishes to escape. This got him and his companion (my valeros player) to Magnimar into a bit of trouble with the Szarni which they then started trading their work for training to be Varisian and fit into the lifestyle. They did this for 6 months when there was a raid by the city guard led by Justice Ironbriar which led to the imprisonment of most of the gang including their friend from Sandpoint Delek Viskanta (the Sczarni that got Nualia pregnant) who had been hiding out here since leaving his Uncle Jubrayl 4+ years ago. They then went to Sandpoint and met up with Jubrayl in a rp scene I ran after the characters were made

My valeros character decided to stay as a Fighter but became an Ifrit one who had been a slave/orphan from Katapesh and taken as a scullery wench in the Korvosan guard. She proved obstinate and worked her way into the city guard proper and was assigned to guard the Kings bastard son. Ileosa tried to get her to betray the rogue and set him up to get caught raiding the kings treasury so Ileosa could legally have him killed or exiled. The Ifrit was complicit in this to start with but had a change of heart and helped him escape stealing the Dragon bane bastard sword Verminax in the process (she chose to port over the assets from the previous character which also means she has early stage lycanthropy)

My ezren character (my daughter - only experienced player) decided to play a disguised drow sorcerer - a servant of the Azrinae clan out on the surface trying to find out about thassilonian relics and if they will be of any help for the future plans of the drow. The old light at Sandpoint is her focal point but she has met up with my rogue who is an information broker of sorts after 6 months living in sandpoint. She is disquised as an elf. I gave her a hat of disquise to help, it will also make a great heirloom item for Aldern to perhaps steal. None of the characters know this although the players do know some as none of these new players can keep secrets from each other.

My Kyra player has made a Druid Samsaran but it looks like work might get in the way of her regular play ability

I then have another new player who has made 1 session and is playing as a Elven Druid but we haven't fully developed her back story although I'm going to tie in some Fort Rannick stuff and play up a Game of Thrones - the wall feel to it

Finally my newest player who looks like being a regular is playing a half elf (Shoanti) Warpriest that grew up in Sandpoint. He has taken the Belor Hemlock connection and his religion is Pharasma so I made the gravedigger a priest of her who he also has a connection with. He is from a Shoanti tribe and his parents died so he was passed on to distant relative in sandpoint and works at the White deer and also as a part time militia member. His shoanti background will let me add some fort Rannick foreshadowing too if needed. I've also told him he had a crush on Nualia and gave him background for her pregnancy and his rival Delek who ran away after. He doesn't like the Sczarni much at all and this puts him at odds with the rest of the party. I haven't quite worked out how I'm going to reconcile the groups cohesion going forward. I'm intending to force them to work together during the Swallowtail fight. I have also had him be the connected to the Chopper incident and was saved by the previous Sheriff just before his death. His character was about 15 during the late unpleasantness

Eventually the Black fang dungeon went off well with the goblins having a box of old fireworks (from the ship in the setup scene).

The party had been escorting Jeva the poor tortured orphan and gave her the dragon toy they found. They later took it off her and gave it to the goblins for information which upset Jeva. They left her safely away from the goblins and went after Black fang.

Black fang tried to convince them that the humans of sandpoint were evil and had been destroying the natural habitat of creatures who were now forced to take cattle from farms to provide for her babies. The party finally worked out that Black Fang was both too young to birth and male so he was lying.

I also made the dragon bane sword intelligent with the soul of a Green dragon (Verminax) trapped inside it and extremely jealous of living dragons. He had a battle of wills with the valeros and won which forced the fighter to charge. After a couple of rounds the fighter rolled a crit with the dragonbane sword doing around 40+hp to Black fang. I decided his front claw had been severed. Black fang then leapt into the air and flew away.

As the party gathered the loot and a magic lamp with a trapped efreet I added. I had a visual/audio mix of the scene from Aladdin with an Electro Swing version of the song and told them he was like that but red - they loved it.

Just after that they headed back towards the goblins when a large explosion happened (the fireworks). Jeva, not being happy about losing her toy took matters into her own hands and dismembered the 4 goblins and with them trying to defend themselves with unstable old fireworks and thus the explosion. The party raced back in to see a flash of yellow dress and brown (fur) exit the room and body parts and gore strewn across the room.

A couple of players went after Jeva and the rogue scoured through the remains for treasure. The ones chasing Jeva caught up to her failing her concentration check trying to turn back into a little girl. The players freaked out with accusations flying across the table on how they should have killed her from the start. A tough fight ensued and they managed to kill her with some silver weapons placed earlier and brute force.

I had previously foreshadowed a full moon during the rusty dragon dinner and again when they left the dungeon. On their return trip I had them encounter a small campsite with a wagon and some tents just having dinner around a campfire. As it was getting late they decided to ask to join the campers. I had them recognize Tsuto from the Rusty Dragon. He was there with Lyrie and Orik making a run from sandpoint to thistletop with supplies (fireworks for the upcoming raid, food, writing and digging supplies for Nualias search). When they first got there I had them arrive mid conversation with Tsuto talking about how she will never love him and he just feels trapped by someone who's using him but he is devoted to her with Lyrie then telling him to forget about Nualia and try finding someone that is interested in him instead of what he can provide (hinting at herself).

I had previously decided that Black fang and his dungeon would be part of Nualias influence and a scout lookout for Sandpoint activity while her plans were building. So Tsuto was quite keen to hear about what the party was up to which the players found suspicious and were quite circumspect with their answers. Tsuto lied about his own group stating he'd had enough of his father and was heading to Magnimar for a while with some friends.

The rogue looked through the covered wagon and noted the fresh fireworks and the other items then went to bed. The party was paranoid and valeros was having stomach cramps and a headache throughout the night. Now the player wasn't sure if this was because of the full moon or the swords sentience which I described as feeling like it was taking pieces of your soul each time it won a contest of wills.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully and the party made it back to Sandpoint where they collected their reward from the Mayor saying they had destroyed Black Fang and eradicated the monsters in the dungeon - a lie. I'm going to have so much fun with the Sins part of this AP

I should note that I'm kind of using a hybrid of majority of PF 1st edition and some interesting ideas from both PF2e and D&D5e thrown in.
The purpose of camping scene was naturally for foreshadowing purposes.

Overall these new roleplayers tell me they are having a fantastic time and they are each keen to play more often. I'm currently on a weekly schedule and they want to add more sessions

I then jumped in time to 2 weeks before the swallowtail festival and ran Black fangs dungeon with them running the same pregens but from pf society.

I ran a roleplay dinner/interview with them, introducing them to the Rusty Dragon inn and Ameiko Kaijitsu. I also had them witness a heated discussion between Tsuto and Ameiko with him complaining about all the problems their father is causing. They then had an interview with the mayor who was harried and dropped lots of information about events around town - missing fireworks and supplies, the sczarni, sandpoint devil, junkers point goblins etc.

I'd also given them 3 personality cards as suggested in the kids track and got them to introduce their characters and hold a conversation demonstrating those traits. Upon completion each player got to pick a set of 7 polyhedrals in a velvet bag in their preference of color. I'd picked these up cheaply online for this purpose. It was very gratifying to see their reactions to getting their first set of rpg dice. I don't think i've mentioned this before but my players are all around 17 years old.

The party consisted of merisiel, valeros, ezren and kyra

They set out for the dungeon following the road. I had them meet Shalelu who gave them clearer directions and she pointed out some of the goblin atrocities in the nearby woodland

I also added jeva and the orphanage from crown of the kobold king which had some interesting repercussions when they found the priest that was scourging Jeva had been of the Sarenrae faith, the same as my Kyra player. This created all sorts of party tension with the group split between thinking Jeva was a monster and the others thinking she's a helpless tortured orphan. During one part the valeros player held a blade to jevas neck to get the truth out of her with the party struggling to free her and valeros getting scratched by the naturally hysterical child. I made the fighter make a save later with an undisclosed roll that everyone rolled and valeros failed so now has early stage lycanthropy - this will be fun.

Anyway, the purpose of these early scenes was to get the party to the dungeon and have them play a few roleplay situations to get them comfortable with the concept and also to introduce them to important background characters - Ameiko, Tsuto, Mayor Deverin and Shalelu

I have run them through a shortened version of the kids track program paizo put out basing the ship encounter on the Kaijitsu crossing to Varisia many years before and focussing the scene on the fireworks carried on board. I used pregens from beginner box and told them they all had an Tian flavor.

I had goblins come aboard and sever the tiller ropes which led the ship to crash into the swamp from we be goblins. The boxes of fireworks lashed on deck exploded leaving a gaping hole in the deck thanks to fire loving goblins. One of the party managed to roll two critical fumbles when swinging on a rope above the flaming hole in the deck and fell to her death.

The purpose of this was to set up the players understanding of how to mechanically proceed in a combat situation and make skill checks while giving them a cool media res scenario on a ship in a storm with fireworks exploding

Hi everyone.

A little background first.

I've been a member of this forum for many years but have only recently returned after about a 3 year hiatus from roleplaying.

I've been GMing since the mid 1980's and have a reasonable amount of experience running campaigns with my most recent completing the Savage Tide Adventure path from Dungeon about 5 years ago.

ROTRL:

My daughter has always been interested since a young age (thanks in large part to me) in Rpg's and geek culture. She had always wanted to play a campaign and has enlisted a group of friends to do so. Aside from my daughter they are all first time rp gamers.

I will describe the story so far in a post below.

My main aim for coming here is to find out tips I may have missed and particularly learn of any foreshadowing I should try to add from the later parts of the story.

Any help and advice you all can give would be greatly appreciated

@Mr Jacket Potato and your resourceful wife. Thank you so much for these. I see even the links to the old character sheets are broken even if you already have them on your downloads page.

Does anyone know where I can get the previously published character sheets from now?

Thank you for your quick response and i look forward to my subscription copy

Hi all you wonderful goblins at Paizo

I just received Order # 1967175 which was supposed to contain
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #54: The Empty Throne (Jade Regent 6 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition
Paizo Publishing, LLC (subscription copy) 1 @ $19.99 $13.99
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Pirates of the Inner Sea (PFRPG) Print Edition
Paizo Publishing, LLC

However it unfortunately didn't have Pathfinder Adventure Path #54: The Empty Throne but instead contained a copy of distant worlds.

While I do appreciate you sending me content i have not requested and can understand the mix up as they have similar cover design I would really appreciate getting the final copy of Jade Regent to complete my set.

Please do your best to fix this error at your earliest convenience.

regards
a loyal pathfinder player
Mark

thanks for your efforts and you'll be glad to hear that pathfinder #48 arrived yesterday safely.

Mark

Hi all, its me again
this order (Order # 1750397) just arrived and although in my order history it says its all arriving as one package, when i opened the box pathfinder adventure path #48 was missing and on the invoice it says this was previously fulfilled. I have definitely not received pathfinder #48 and am wondering why and also if it was going to be shipped separately then my order page should reflect that. Can you please look into this.

regards
Mark Rogerson

thank you, i'll let you know if it turns up

I have been waiting patiently for this order to arrive now for quite some time. As I live in australia it normally takes at least a month to arrive and since its been more than 6 weeks I don't think its coming. I recently spoke to a friend of mine here who also subscribes and he said his order had come. It says in my history this has been shipped. Can you please help me by either finding my lost order or sending me it again.

Thanks for your help
Mark Rogerson

Well this is my attempt with apologies to George RR. Hope to see some other versions and opinions.

Storm clouds gather on the Storval, and now my watch begins.
It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.
I shall repent my past transgressions.
I shall live and die on my ranging.
I am the arrow in the darkness.
I am the scouter of the wilderness.
I am the fire that burns the unclean, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards Magnimar.
I pledge my life and honour to the Black Arrows, for this day and all those that follow.

I'll be yoinking this as well.

I've only just got past this point in the campaign and my Bard player will be gratified to hear theres been an encore performance called for his excellent stage presence. Tsuto will have time to drop an anonymous note in an empty cooking pot at the rusty dragon for Ameiko to find, warning her to stay away from the opera. This should forewarn my players as the aforementioned bard is developing a romantic attachment to Ameiko and he'll be present when she discovers the note. Hopefully it'll reinforce the idea that the goblins are getting outside help with connections to the town.

thanks for the great scene PWU. This should be a great addition to my game

Thanks for all your efforts Liz. I appreciate it a lot.

regards
Mark

Thanks Lillith, thats great to hear. I'm really looking forward to painting the mantises and queen ileosa. the sculpts are awesome.

<gratefully accepts cookies>:)

I just had a look in my account page and it says
These items will ship with a future subscription shipment:
• Pathfinder Miniatures: Queen Ileosa of Korvosa
Reaper Miniatures 1 @ $3.99 $0.00
• Pathfinder Miniatures: Red Mantis Assassin
Reaper Miniatures 2 @ $4.99 $0.00 ea. = $0.00

but theres no mention of the other minis that were missing.

ie:• Pathfinder Miniatures: Seltyiel, Iconic Half-Elf Eldritch Knight

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Visbaronetess Delour Aulamaxa

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Chammady Drovenge

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Eando Kline, Pathfinder

sorry to be a pain but I just want to make sure I won't be missing any.
regards
Mark

Hi all, I just received this order today and it was supposed to consist of the following.

• GameMastery Map Pack: Dungeon Chambers

• GameMastery Map Pack: Temples

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Desert

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Theater

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Pathfinder Lodge

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Bandit Outpost

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Pirate Island

• GameMastery Flip-Mat: Forest

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Queen Ileosa of Korvosa

• Pathfinder Miniatures: Red Mantis Assassin x2

However none of the miniatures were in the package. When I placed the order it said this would be in one package and my order page reflects this too. I did receive all of the flip mats and the two map packs. Obviously this is of great concern to me as I have been desperately waiting for these minis to start painting the beautiful sculpts. Please get back to me as soon as possible so I know if they are coming in another shipment or this was an oversight and you will still have to send them.

Thank you for your time
regards
Mark

The reason that this statement, "Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness" doesn't negate the operation of the lantern completely is *because* the lantern both "sheds normal light in a 30 foot radius" (not described as an increase, therefore uneffected by this bolded text from the Darkness spell) and also "increases the light level by one step for an additional 30 feet beyond that area" (described an an increase, therefore negated by the Darkness spell). I do not disagree that the Lantern fails to produce normal lighting in an area of Darkness created by the spell, but the only text in the spell that applies to the 30 foot radius of normal light is the initial sentence "This darkness causes the illumination level in the area to drop one step", resulting in Dim light in the area of overlap.

Now we're in complete agreement.

Doskius Steele, I can agree with you on almost everything you've said except for the "no" answer in part 2 regarding non magical light sources and your conclusive summary on same.

How do you reconcile this sentence from the Darkness spell description?

This darkness causes the illumination level in the area to drop one step

with this example sentence from every light source description in equipment? (i've used hooded lantern because I'm sick of using torch)

A hooded lantern sheds normal light in a 30-foot radius

Every argument so far has pointed to this sentence from the darkness spell description to say nonmagical light doesn't work.
Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness

Now to my understanding,

A) Given the equipment descriptions, the nonmagical light in question (the lantern exampled above) isn't increasing the light level because it is the light source, ie. normal light. And therefore can only be reduced as per the individual spell.

B) If the specious argument about nonmagical light not working in darkness were correct then the sun would also be extinguished in an area of magical darkness which clearly isn't the case.

The meaning I see from the sentence
Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness
is that after a darkness spell has reduced the light level in a given area any attempt to increase that light level by nonmagical means will fail. As i've said before, whether that was the intent behind it I don't know but that is how it definitely reads.

Now if all the equipment entries said something like
"A hooded lantern increases the light level 2 steps up to a maximum of normal light in a 30-foot radius"
then it would solve the dilemma with nonmagical light sources completely but unfortunately it doesn't.

Also after a 100 different posts on the subject it'd be nice to hear a dev chime in to give us some idea of the intent. Or perhaps they're in as big a debate about this as we are.

I too have still been following along this thread with great interest as my party has been dealing with a shadow demon over the last two sessions. I had stopped chiming in because I found myself in almost complete agreement with BigNorseWolf.

It also feels like we've been going in circles a bit until AvalonXQ suggested there was a thread giving more clarification which I've also found here.

Now from that thread after a false start from James Jacobs we get an answer in line with what Avalon, Steel et al are proposing and I'm quite happy to change my view in line with this. There definately needs to be errata to add this 5th light level to the light source rules. Also as an aside I appologise to my party for screwing the dwarfs darkvision when it was cast in lanternlight during last nights game.

Which brings me to my original argument about nonmagical light sources present in the area before whatever dark.... spell is cast. The question was asked also in that thread as BigNorseWolf points out but it wasn't answered. heres the quote.

I do have another question though related to Darkness (& Deeper). It might be a bit tricky. They include this line, "Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness."

Does this refer to:
# All nonmagical sources of light,
# Nonmagical sources that are lit after the darkness comes into effect,
# or Nonmagical sources that are inside the area of the darkness.

The big question mark is if you have an "area of normal light", how is it lit? If it is lit only (but well) by torches and lanterns, and those do not increase the light level in an area of darkness, does that mean instead of dim light you have total darkness? What if you then light a sunrod in the area? Outside the area? Taken to an extreme, does the sun count as a nonmagical source of light?

How I run it right now is that whatever light *exists* is dimmed (or darkened). Fresh light sources in, or brought into, the darkness will not increase the illumination. Light sources without do. This gets more complicated since an area of darkness can *move*.

I really like the Pathfinder system of Darkness, but I just need a bit of clarification.

I would also like this clarified before I screw my party over again unintentionally

As an aside observance about light...

So a vampire could exist outside under the sun by casting Darkness, as it would reduce the ambient level by 1 (Bright to normal). Which a vampire can act normally normal lighting conditions.

Yes, thats certainly how i'd interpret RAW. It also means vamps could operate in a forest during daylight too. But it'd give the pc's great chances to cook their a$$es by bull rushing them into the light or blasting a hole through the forest canopy. Besides, haven't you seen Buffy tVS, its all in there ;)

http://ia700208.us.archive.org/5/items/Episode009FromShoreToSeaWithBrandonH odge/ChroniclesPFPC-EP009.mp3

I really enjoy their show and listen to every ep as soon as it drops but I'd have to agree there were definately some questionalble assertions regarding the light rules made in that one, as you've pointed out.

1) A torch raises the light level by one step.

Sorry but I can't agree with this as per the torch description

2) Darkness decreases the light level by one step.

I agree with you here.

3) The torch does not operate within the radius of the Darkness spell.

I can't find anywhere that says this. Can you please give me a page reference for this rule.

but the black letter conciles all these statements.

I'm afraid I don't understand what your trying to say here. Can you please rephrase to help.

@Bacchreus: The tunnel is dim light. The torch raises the light level but does not operate within the area of Darkness. Therefore the light is still dim. The Darkness spell lowers that to darkness.

So if I understand you correctly your saying that even though the torch was present before the spell was cast it gets completely ignored. I'm sorry but I can't agree with you and it doesn't mesh with RAW unless I'm missing something you can point out. My understanding is that under the spell description

This darkness causes the illumination level in the area to drop one step

With a torch shedding normal light then it stands to reason that it would decrease to dim.

The spell further says
Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness

And in the example given it isn't increasing the light level. I would agree that if darkness had been cast without the presence of a torch then the prevailing light level would be dark and if a torch was then lit or brought into the area it wouldn't raise that light level. This is in accordance with the RAW. Whether or not that was the intent of the author I naturally have no idea.

Let's say you're in a tunnel with dim light.
Scenario #1:

You cast Light, raising the light level to normal. Let's say you sparked a torch at this point, even tho it wouldn't matter, as the light level's already normal. If Darkness is cast, the Light effect is dispelled, reducing the light level back to dim. As there's no magical light or darkness, the torch raises the light level back to normal within 20'.

Scenario #2:

You cast Darkness, lowering the light level to darkness. You again spark a torch - no effect. Then someone casts Light. As it's a lower level spell than Darkness there's no effect.

Scenario #3:

You're walking in said tunnel (with dim light) with a torch, granting normal light for 20'. Someone casts Darkness. The torch sheds no light, and the light level is reduced to Darkness.

If i've missed anything, point it out and i'll try my best to explain it.

Scenario #1: I agree with Loengrin as darkness cancelled the light but didn't extinguish its own effect.

Scenario #2: I agree with.

Scenario #3: I disagree with as Darkness only reduces the light one step. Since the torch was pre-existing in the area of effect the new light level would be 20'of dim light around the torch.

the fortnightly friday could work for me depending on which fortnight it is as I have my daughter every 2nd friday night.

Brisbane northside here

hi Dice Munkey, I was also at PaizoConOz 2010 and would be interested in continuing PFS games on a monthly to fortnightly schedule.

I'm located North Side in the Caboolture area and would be fine with either Ace in the city or more preferably Fast Break at Nundah if games could be arranged there. I can't guarantee blanket availability due to family and other social commitments but would endeavor to attend any session I could.

For scheduling i'd recommend Warhorn(dot)net which is the one rpga at Fast Break use and its a pretty good system.

regards
Mark R

Congratulations to all the venture captains especially the Aussie one as I can't think of a more dedicated person.

PS: I hope all these fine people get a shiny new title added to their forum names.

Hi all, I'm about to start in a campaign as a druid with a lion animal companion. It has the rake ability but no grab. I'm trying to understand how to make this work and follow the sequence of events to make it happen.

My understanding is that to rake, the lion would have to first initiate a grapple with CMB vs CMD of target and forego its normal attack as well as provoking an AOO. Then once the grapples achieved it can on the following round while maintaining the grapple inflict its bite damage and two rake claw damage. Does this sound right?

If so then wouldn't it just be smarter to move up to the opponent and bite on round 1 then full attack on round two. Thereby gaining an extra attack and not suffering an AOO?

Please help me to see what if anything I'm not following with this scenario.

I'd just like to add my thanks also to all the gm's and players and especially to stephen for organising a great event. I had a blast from start to finish and my Taldoran Duelist Fop Faren is eager for more Society action in the future, hopefully at the next PaizoconOz wherever it may be.

Hi DarkWhite,

As we're only a few days away from paizoconOZ 2010 I was just hoping you could post an update on table numbers so we can see which sessions are looking short on numbers so players can think about alternative scenarios. And to hear how things are tracking from your end. I'm really looking forward to meeting up with everyone and having a great time.

I remember reading somewhere (think it was torrents of dread) that the head zombie master is a Lich and is located at the Fangs of Zotzilaha. When a new priest wants to be elevated to zombie master he must go on a quest to the fangs for initiation.

I went with this idea in my campaign but inserted the aspect as the focus of the pilgrimage. As i'd played torrents of dread the party was eager to help this initiate to secure the Olmans help against the pirates. Worked out wonderfully with them killing the initiate and one greedy party member stealing some of the aspects treasure. they then destroyed it and drew zotzilahas gaze who then erupted the volcano. the party barely got away with their lives (sacrificing much of the treasure to do so)

Hi Darkwhite. I was wondering if you had put any thought into maybe running the shadow lodge interactive. I know this may be late notice but with the chatter on the forums about it you may find its doable with people willing to change over. i know I for one would love to have the chance to play it as I can't see it happening in Bris anytime soon with the three table requirement being a large stumbling block around here.

Thanks Ghetto for being upfront with us and not just dissappearing as many do. I'd also like to say thanks for the really enjoyable game you've run and I've had a great time playing Rulf.

If you are ever interested in starting up again or a new game please don't hesitate to contact me as I would love to play again with your excellent GMing (Rodg001 (at) tpg dot com dot au). Best of luck for the future and I hope your RL calms down to manageable stressfree levels soon.

with kind regards
Mark

Thanks for the prompt and helpfull clarification Jason. And I was not aware that you wrote those rules nor have I read the terrain Druid and seen its different phrasing so I will naturally defer to your interpretation.

As a follow up question and sorry for the threadjack but it seems in a similar vein. Jason, with the Totem transformation for Lion Shaman when you take natural weapons (bite [1d4], 2 claws [1d4]
for a Medium druid, rake, +2 CMB to grapple).

I'm trying to get my head around how you use Rake effectively without Grab. Was that an oversight or am I misunderstanding how it works.
My understanding is that without Grab you have to forego your normal attacks to initiate a grapple which will then let you rake the following round. Whereas with Grab you initiate the grapple as a free action if you hit and rake the following round. If that is the case then it seems rather pointless to use rake at all. Please help me comprehend.

I've only just come accross this thread and as I'm about to start playing an Animal Shaman Druid I found your post quite usefull. I find myself in agreement with most of what Jason has said except for the part about when a druid can wildshape. I've quoted the relevent rules section from the APG below.

Wild Shape (Su): At 6th level, a bear shaman’s wild shape
ability functions at her druid level – 2. If she takes on the
form of a bear, she instead uses her druid level + 2.

From my reading of this and the specific wording i've emphasised in bold I take it to mean that Druids still gain wild shape at 4th lvl but on reaching 6th its application changes.

good to know, i've been there and got fairly close to a drag line (by god they're big). Were you actually on it?

well, got my sessions booked in and looking forward to taking my Taldor rogue up to level 4 if the stars align. I'll finally be able to finish the Devil we know series with parts 3 and 4. booked into the first season 2 mods (before the dawn) and city of strangers series. can't wait. And so happy as my APG hardcover arrived today.

I just finished the battle for farshore at the end of TOD tonight. It was an epic fight and I used a hybrid of Battlesystem and Trafalgar rules to run the large scale stuff. Took 5 three hour sessions and ended awesomely with the baddies winning thanks to a last minute betrayal by one of the pc's who has stranded a large chunk of the party on a desert island by teleport. During the battle I had 700 pirates and used the following 2 statblocks for most of the basic guys. They are PFRPG and I also have conversions for all the main players.

Pirates (560) CR1/2
XP 200
Human warrior 2
CE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +0; Senses Perception +1
Defense
AC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 16 (+3 armor, +1 shield)
hp 15 (2d10+4)
Fort +5, Ref +0, Will +0; +2 vs. enchantment and mindaffecting
effects
Offense
Speed 20 ft.
Melee short sword +4 (1d6+1/19–20)
Ranged shortbow +2 (1d6/×3)
Statistics
Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 8, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB +3 (+5 to escape grapples); CMD 13
Feats Free Spirit (see below), Weapon Focus (short sword)
Skills Craft (sculpture) +4, Diplomacy +1, Intimidate +4,
Perception +1, Profession (cook) +3
Languages Common
Gear Studded Leather, light wooden shield, shortbow with 20
arrows, short sword
Special Abilities
Feats These pirates have the Free Spirit feat, which gives a
+2 bonus on saves against enchantment and mind-affecting
effects, and +2 on Escape Artist checks and to CMB to
escape a grapple or bindings (see Pathfinder Chronicles
Campaign Setting 129).

Veteran Pirates (100) CR 2
XP 600
Human fighter 1/rogue 2
LN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +6; Senses Perception +10
Defense
AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 32 (4 HD; 1d10+2d8+12)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +1; +1 vs. fear
Defensive Abilities bravery +1, evasion
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk Heavy Flail +6 (1d10+3/19–20)
Ranged mwk dart +5 (1d4+2)
Special Attacks sneak attack +1d6
Statistics
Str 15, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +2; CMB +4; CMD 16
Feats Alertness, Evasion, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus (Heavy Flail)
Skills Acrobatics +7, Disguise +3, Intimidate +6, Knowledge
(piracy) +2, Perception +10, Profession (sailor) +5, Sense
Motive +10, Sleight of Hand +6, Stealth +8
Languages Common,
SQ rogue talent (combat trick), trapfinding +1
Combat Gear potion of cure light wounds;
Other Gear masterwork chain shirt, darts (5), masterwork Heavy Flail

For the first battle I was still using 3.5 but there's no reason why you couldn't make the standard pirates the first one and just run slipknot pete as is but his CR will drop to 7. -1 for being 3.5 and -1 for PF CR is equal to character level -1 unless they are equipped as a PC (which he isn't)

Scipion: I'd also like to throw my hat in the ring as a potential player. I'd like to use a character that I'm very fond of from a defunct 2nd darkness pbp. His name is Calinder (http://paizo.com/people/Calinder) and is a Cleric of the Holy Warrior Variant from pg43 of the pathfinder campaign setting.

Of course I'm happy to change any details that may be necessary and I'll naturally reset his xp to 0. For simplicity i've cut and pasted the campaign setting details on holy warrior below.

Holy Warrior (Ex): A cleric with this ability is proficient with
her deity’s favored weapon. In addition, her base attack
bonus as a cleric equals her cleric level, and her cleric Hit Die
becomes a d10.

Class Abilities: Some clerics think of themselves more
as holy warriors than proselytizers or shepherds. For these clerics, the ability to fight trumps all other concerns. Taking the above ability
requires a cleric to give up both of her domains, including her
domain powers.

Darkwhite, well done on getting this up and running. Your providing a fantastic survice to gamers that otherwise would have been stuck with wasted trips.

I have a question regarding session D. My character is projected to be lvl 2 and one session short of level 3 at that time and I'd like to play in #51 The City of Strangers Part I Shadow Gambit (Tier 3-4) because part 2 is the next session and my character should be level 3 then. Is it fine to sign up for a tier higher than your character level ie; play up?

On another topic you ask for players availability to GM sessions. Are you just looking to fill the 5 table per session gap or are you open for more than 5 tables at a time? Also will gm's be expected to also pay the $10 per session fee.

Hey, Prankster. don't know if you've heard but with the cancellation of Gencon Australia this year DarkWhite is planning on running Paizoconoz 2010 over the same dates to run lots of pathfinder society mods in Brisbane.

heres the link: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderS ociety/grandLodge/genConOz2010BrisbaneCancelled

Also good luck on your shoot. which town btw?

Ierendi should work fine. Sasserines supposed to be some kind of isolated city state but it really doesn't need to be. It really doesn't get revisited after SWW except for teleporting parties cashing in loot. For Krakens cove you could just use one of the smaller islands (wasn't there one with white apes that springs to mind. just thought, savage white apes - cool).

my current savage tide campaign is in Mystara

while my runelords campaign is in Golarion

*Off-topic warning!*

Bacchreus - out of curiosity, did you beef up the final encounter in "Ashenport"?

I ran it as a Lovecraftian one-shot, and the last foe's abilities seemed somewhat "all-or-nothing". While I am no fan of 4e, I did note that the 4e version of "Ashenport" (available for free on-line "in" Dungeon 156) has some hench-beings in the same room as the Voice. (Probably as a result of 4e's rules for designing encounters.)

offtopic/ Anyway, I decided that if I were to run "Ashenport" again then I would re-vamp more of the encounters. (I had already re-done the fish-men as a nastier kuo-toa/Deep One [from d20 CoC] hybrid.)

yeah, I did use the 4e version as a guide and stole some ideas from that such as the last room. The voice on his lonesome would have been owned. I also used the deep one (same source) for the base monster and beefed it up. I also pushed the lovecraftian themes. /offtopic

Hi Bacchreus,

I'm organising PaizoConOz in Brisbane, Thursday 23rd - Sunday 26th September 2010, during school holiday break, in lieu of GenConOz which was canceled recently.

Did you attend GenConOz last year? Are you interested in coming to PaizoConOz this year? Are you in contact with any other local Brisbane players who might be interested in playing?

There are several interstate players flying into Brisbane for the event, but I haven't heard of any local Brisbane players until now. In fact all of the GMs for the event are interstaters. We're really interested to meet local Brisbane folk to encourage a Pathfinder community in Brisbane if one isn't already happening that we're unaware of.

I'll be making a big announcement here on the Pathfinder Society messageboards, hopefully tonight or soon after, regarding venue, games schedule, session times, costs etc.

Cheers,
DarkWhite

Hi Stephen, I certainly was at Gencon last year and would be very interested in playing at Paizoconoz this year. you can contact me privately via email Rodg001 (at) tpg dot com dot au.

Hello rules forum! It's been a while.

I'm currently building a cleric of Zon-Kuthon and was wondering if I was understanding this ability correctly.

Undead Subdomain

Death’s Kiss (Su): You can cause a creature to take on some of the traits of the undead with a melee touch attack. Touched creatures are treated as undead for the purposes of effects that heal or cause damage based on positive and negative energy. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your cleric level (minimum 1). It does not apply to the Turn Undead or Command Undead feats. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

Here is my interpretation of the ability:

Since the duration is 1/2 your character level and I assume that as a melee touch attack it requires a standard action to use (regardless if used against friend or foe), that means that for levels 1-3 the duration of the ability is 1 round. Which means that the effect of Death's Kiss are gone before the cleric who used the ability could cast a spell or channel energy. He is not able to use his own spells/channeling to take advantage of the effect until level 4.

So as I understand it, at low levels this ability is mostly worthless. The only times it would be useful is if the party was built around it, or if you were trying to use it proactively against enemies.

I did think of one way this problem may be alleviated. What if you cast an inflict spell, held the charge, and then used Death's Kiss on a living creature? The inflict spell was being held and will discharge automatically upon touching a creature, which the Death's Kiss ability requires. How would the sequence of events unfold? Would this successfully heal the target?

Thanks all!

Steam and soot darken the skies above the docks as the clamor of voices and machines clash with each other for dominance. Winds sweeping across the harbor to blow the choking products of industrial forges into the snow capped mountains that loom around the city. Across the inner ring of the enclosed Yundalite Mountains, the march of progress and the demands of national defense produces similar results.

Times are turning. The last seven years of uneasy peace is overshadowed by the previous thirty years of war. The clash of the Church and technologists raises tensions by the day. Pirates and mercenaries make their fortune at the expense of others. The natives and barbarians seem to grow bolder with every skirmish. Even some of the skyseers begin preaching the warnings of the Church as the starry wheels of heaven tell of a new age. But what they cannot see, hidden beyond the steam and soot of the night sky, is if the new age is one of progress, or of catastrophe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please feel free to dot here so the game shows up in your campaign tabs. We are not starting yet since we still have to finalize character creation

This is the discussion thread for Ikeroth.

Congratulations for being chosen! Please dot with your character alias and we will start working on any finishing touches to backgrounds, as well as potential connections between the characters. I will be around all day and will be very active :D

As for stats, if we have Saxikath with us then we can go ahead and get started on those. She said she would be unavailable from today until Tuesday, but I'm not sure when that starts. So for the time being at least, let's hold off on rolling stats*

Steam and soot darken the skies above the docks as the clamor of voices and machines clash with each other for dominance. Winds sweeping across the harbor to blow the choking products of industrial forges into the snow capped mountains that loom around the city. Across the inner ring of the enclosed Yundalite Mountains, the march of progress and the demands of national defense produces similar results.

Times are turning. The last seven years of uneasy peace is overshadowed by the previous thirty years of war. The clash of the Church and technologists raises tensions by the day. Pirates and mercenaries make their fortune at the expense of others. The natives and barbarians seem to grow bolder with every skirmish. Even some of the skyseers begin preaching the warnings of the Church as the starry wheels of heaven tell of a new age. But what they cannot see, hidden beyond the steam and soot of the night sky, is if the new age is one of progress, or of catastrophe.

Introduction

Hello everybody, and welcome to my homebrew Zeitgeist flavored campaign!

First, stuff about me. My main alias is CampinCarl9127, and I've been around the boards since 2012. I've run a number of games IRL, and one game on the boards that spanned a few years and went from levels 1-11. I'm currently active as a player in 7 games, and in the past I've been active in up to 20 at once. To make a long story short, I'm here for the long haul. And if you're going to apply for this game, I expect you to be as well.

Second, what I mean by "Zeitgeist Flavored". This campaign was heavily inspired by the Zeitgeist adventure path by Ryan Nock. I read the extended player’s guide and fell in love with the setting and for years have wanted to run a campaign in it. As such much of Ikeroth was built with this influence, and although the plot and world history and current events and etc. are of my own design, too much was stolen from Mr. Nock to call this an original work. Ikeroth was designed solely for my personal use and will not be used in any commercial way.

What does that mean for you as a player? Not a whole lot. If you're familiar with the Zeitgeist setting you will definitely feel some similarities. But all of the names have been changed, and nothing about the plot will be even vaguely similar. So there are no spoilers if you are experienced with the Zeitgeist adventure path.

Expectations

First, posting expectations. As detailed above, I expect my players to be dedicated for the long haul. In addition I expect to hear a post form players at least once a day (if currently involved in something) or at least once every other day (if not involved in something, such as waiting for another character to finish something before they can proceed). Weekends are an exception to this, and I will sporadically post on weekends if I suddenly find the time to do so.

Second, the google drive folder with the campaign details. There are four files: A player's guide, a shortened player's guide, a map of the area, and a map of the inner isles. I expect every applicant to be familiar with everything in the drive, with the exception of the longer player's guide (although you are more than welcome and encouraged to familiarize yourself with that as well, it's just rather long and not everybody wants to read 90 pages if they don't have to).

Third, character creation. Let me make this perfectly clear. I don't give a damn about your crunch. In fact you won't even get to generate stats until after you have been chosen for the game. Instead I want you guys to go through the google drive to familiarize yourself with the setting, then create the fluff of a character who is invested in the world. These are some of the answers I want addressed when creating your character, taken from this video. Although you don't have to watch this video I think it's a great resource for helping create a backstory.

1) Where were they born?
2) Who are their parents?
2a) Are they still alive? Are there any other guardians/close family members?
3) What were they doing before now?
3a) Why leave it all?
3b) What did they leave behind?
4) What does your character want?

Keep in mind this is just something to get you thinking. I don't expect you guys to answer these questions then be done, and you don't even have to answer these questions in some sort of formal format. I want to read a short synopsis about your character and be enticed as to how they will influence the world of Ikeroth if given the chance.

*Rolls eyes* "Yes we all know to do fluff" Ah except this campaign setting, while it exists and has a plot planned out, a massive amount of the story will be dependent upon the characters. Note that plot and story have different meanings. Plot is some background influences in the world, story is what's created by the characters and what they decide to do. It is impossible for this game to be run the same way twice, because so much of what happens depends on the characters selected. Do you have parents in the church of Azgaar who are influential? Perhaps you're researching a way to eradicate the Formless, and have petitioned governments to give resources for the endeavor? Maybe you think the Skives can be made into allies, and you constantly run peacekeeping missions? Your character backstory will create changes in Ikeroth before the campaign even starts. And throughout the course of the campaign you will be influencing where the world is going. This is not a written adventure path. Your decisions as a player will shape the future in ways that even I can't predict.

Once you've thought about this, I am interested to hear about your character theme chosen (see player's guide), as well as your class (and possibly archetype). And everybody is human, although there are some variant humans and a lot of variant racial abilities you should consider. And to keep in mind as far as crunch goes, here's something to consider: I am not a fan of the power creep that Pathfinder is currently suffering from. So as a general rule, if a source is more recent than around the 2013-2014 area, ask before you use it.

Now you won't get to see your stats yet, but I will tell you how the stats will be generated. Once chosen for the campaign, every character gets to roll 1d6+2d4+4, rerolling two 1's of their choice. They then place all of their numbers into a large pool, and all of the players decide democratically how to divvy up the numbers for their characters.

I will be picking 4 players. The recruitment will close once I have four players I am happy with. This campaign starts at level 4 and will go to around level 15.

Onto you

That is all for now. Please feel free to bombard me with questions/comments/concerns. As it is the weekend I will be available sporadically, but will certainly be doing my best to check as often as I can.

Google Drive with Player Resources

Hello, I have been having an issue with getting a certain game to show up in my campaign tab. A while ago we took a break and I marked the game as inactive in order to keep my campaign tab tidy, but recently it has made a comeback. I made sure to unhide the campaign and posted in both the gameplay and discussion threads, but it still won't show up in my campaign tab. Any assistance with this would be greatly appreciated.

The campaign in question

I'm not sure if anybody else is experiencing this issue, but all of the discussion threads in my active campaigns are blank. I can follow the links, and it shows how many posts there have been, but no posts show up.

Example 1

Example 2

And the rest of my discussion threads are the exact same, although the associated threads are fine.

Edit: Update, now my gameplay threads are blank as well.

Hello everybody, I have a question for you.

Does the ghostbane dirge spell allow creatures with the incorporeal subtype to be subject to sneak attack by magic weapons (that do not have the ghost touch special weapon quality)?

An incorporeal creature has no physical body. An incorporeal creature is immune to critical hits and precision-based damage (such as sneak attack damage) unless the attacks are made using a weapon with the ghost touch special weapon quality.

The target coalesces into a semi-physical form for a short period of time. While subject to the spell, the incorporeal creature takes half damage (50%) from nonmagical attack forms, and full damage from magic weapons, spells, spell-like effects, and supernatural effects.

Thanks all for your help!

First things first, I need to give credit where credit is due. Thank you johnnythexxxiv for writing your support from a mile away guide, and also thanks to RumpinRufus for writing your Stay-At-Home Wizard idea.

But onto the idea!

First know that there are some pretty questionable rules interpretations, particularly with each of the spellcasters. Also the "party" is definitely not optimized. Also you are required to be a fairly significant level (probably at least 10) with a good amount of wealth to blow on magic gear. But nobody really cares because the idea is actually viable which is hilarious.

Between these two threads and some brainstorming with my roommates, I have developed quite possibly the most entertaining party idea I have ever had. What is this idea you might ask? The one-man paladin party.

Well, as far as the paladin knows anyways.

There are four members who make up this hilarious party.

And that is how you run the "One man paladin party and his unknown lazy entourage". The roleplaying of such a group would be fantastic, and although it's not optimized by any means it would actually function! I welcome all questions/ideas/critiques/etc., and I hope to get this idea further developed in the future!

I ran into a situation last night where the party was going to fight a group of undead, so the cleric prepared undeath ward. The problem is, the cleric is a lich. How would this work? I threw out a quick houserule that seemed to satisfy the players and seemed appropriately challenging (I had him make a save against it otherwise the spell would fail), but I want to hear some other opinions on this. Thanks Paizo boards!

What is the maximum dex bonus of Silken Ceremonial Armor? Different sources have it as either no maximum bonus or a maximum of 8.

How do the two abilities work together? Does the paladin get full smite damage on every single missile? Does that mean a paladin who buys a high caster level wand of magic missile and trains UMD is a machine gun of evil-killing nonsense?

I feel like this question may have been brought up before, but at best I can only find 4 year old threads that have reached no consensus. If I missed a relevant thread or FAQ, please feel free to hit me with the dunce hammer and point me in the right direction.

Below is the ability (relevant parts) and the spell quoted for reference.

As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, the paladin adds her Cha bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her paladin level to all damage rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target of smite evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level the paladin possesses. Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.

A missile of magical energy darts forth from your fingertip and strikes its target, dealing 1d4+1 points of force damage.

The missile strikes unerringly, even if the target is in melee combat, so long as it has less than total cover or total concealment. Specific parts of a creature can't be singled out. Objects are not damaged by the spell.

For every two caster levels beyond 1st, you gain an additional missile - two at 3rd level, three at 5th, four at 7th, and the maximum of five missiles at 9th level or higher. If you shoot multiple missiles, you can have them strike a single creature or several creatures. A single missile can strike only one creature. You must designate targets before you check for spell resistance or roll damage.

While in rage, a barbarian gains a +4 morale bonus to her Strength and Constitution...

...any morale bonus the wielder gains from any other source is increased by half the weapon's enhancement bonus (minimum 1).

When the wielder is raging or under the effect of a rage spell, the weapon's enhancement bonus is +2 better than normal.

So. Let's say our barbarian has an 18 strength when he's not raging, and his weapon of choice is a +2 Courageous Furious greatsword. What does his strength score becomes when he rages?

As far as I interpret the way these abilities work together, it's pretty scary. While raging the barbarian's weapon would count as +4 from the furious enchantment. Then the courageous enchantment augments the barbarian's rage, increasing his morale bonus to strength and con by a further +2 (to a total of +6). Am I interpreting this correctly?

So, I have a question regarding this ability and combining it with effects that increase crit range: namely, do they stack? I know the age-old ruling for Pathfinder is "Nothing about crit range stacks with anything else ever!", and with good reason, because we all remember how out of hand 3.5 crits got. However, I think this is a special case that requires attention, because instead of altering the existing crit range of a weapon it will just automatically set it to 19-20 regardless of original crit range. For certain weapons this is actually a debuff, and for a lot of others it does nothing; clearly the ability is designed in mind to be used with a weapon that only crits on a 20. However, that's where my question comes in. Does it stack with other abilities, like keen or improved critical? Let's look at the wording of keen.

This leads me to reason that it would not stack with any weapon that normally only crits on a 20 since its threat range has effectively been "expanded" by the brand. However, I believe it would stack with all the other weapons that have at least a crit range down to 19, since their crit range has not been expanded by the ability.

I'm interested in this for two reasons: 1) Can a scythe-wielding kinslayer be the utter terror of undead everywhere with a 17-20/x4 crit range? 2) Would a keen longsword-wielding inquisitor be screwed out of his improved crit range by this ability?

I appreciate anybody that takes the time to answer this question!

The title says it all. I'm playing a character who would benefit a lot from being able to cast darkness or deeper darkness, but beyond buying wands or potions I can't find a way to do it. Does anybody out there know of an item that can cast one of these spells? Thanks!

Welcome to CampinCarl’s Character Creation Guide for Pathfinder PbP gaming!

If you’re here, you’re either a new player who wants to get his feet wet on the boards, an experienced player who wants to get better at formatting and resource tracking, a GM who wants to benevolently dictate his players make a more readable profile, or a critic to tear me apart. Any and all are welcome!

First, a little about myself. I have played Pathfinder for about five years now, and I’ve been around the boards for a little over two years. In my time on the boards I’ve played in dozens of games and am currently involved in nearly twenty, including running my own homebrew game. Throughout this entire process I noticed something. Almost nobody makes their character profiles the same, they are often hard to read and understand, and some are just downright illegible. After I ran a game or two on the boards, and when I got a little more used to the boards and started checking other people’s builds, what began bothering me was that almost every profile style has a learning curve to it. Most of the time all of the information was there, it was just hard to read and you had to do a fair bit of detective work to really understand where all the numbers were coming from.

So after some experience and experimentation, I designed my own standard for creating and formatting my PbP characters. It has inspiration from how stats look in bestiaries, but other things are more fleshed out and broken down, like special abilities and skills and equipment. The endgame of this formatting is so that when anybody looks at a character, they should be able to find what they’re looking for and understand it completely in seconds, no detective work required and no questions necessary. I’ve had numerous people praise my profile style and eventually I decided that for the good of gamerkind I would write this guide.

Now while this guide is a catch all for all races and builds (in Pathfinder), different builds will look differently. For instance, a Human Fighter will look vastly different from an Elven Wizard, mostly due to the increased complexity of the wizard class compared to the fighter. Similarly, a low level character will be different than a high level character due to the massive increase in complexity as the levels raise. While you can easily document everything on a low level character inside their profile, a 20th level character has too many options and abilities to be compressed down to a readable length, which is why hyperlinking some of your abilities/feats/etc. can be beneficial.

So, without further ado, let’s get to breaking down how to go about this PbP Character Creation guide!

Congratulations, you’re now done with the crunch for your character! You still need to do fill out your stat lines, but that should be a cakewalk now that the rest of your profile is done. Also you need to write a background and describe your character’s personality and appearance, as well as choose an avatar, but that’s fluff stuff and I’ll leave you to figure that out for yourself ;)

Let me know what you think either on the thread here or with a PM. I believe I’ve checked it over enough times so there’s no silly mistakes like spelling or grammar or bad links, but let me know if I’ve forgotten something important or should add something else to the guide. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming!

Ok, here's the scenario. You're playing a half-orc barbarian whose only weapon is a greatsword (I know, a crime to not have a backup or a ranged weapon). You are fighting a strix fighter who uses his natural flight to stay 10' above you and poke you with a polearm. Question is: Are you completely boned? The only thing I can think of to deal with him is to try and take the polearm away, but I'm not sure if you are allowed to make a disarm against somebody that is 10' away when you don't have a reach weapon even if you are trying to disarm a reach weapon. Love to have some rules clarification with this.

Hello Paizo boards, it's good to see you all! I am here because I am considering running a zombie style game with pathfinder rules, except things are going to be as non-fantasy as I can make them. No spellcasters, no magic items, no magical creatures, just a scientifically born disease that is causing the end of the world.

This idea is very, very, VERY raw. So I wanted to ask you guys: How would you go about doing this? I want generalizations as well as specific ideas so I can start writing down what I want to get doing.

So for example, I wanted to implement a "field of vision" system. Possibly something like you can be in one of two modes of awareness: Broad but shallow, or distant and detailed. Focusing on a zombie to attack/kill it would automatically put you into narrow focus, potentially allowing a zombie to sneak up on you (as we see in so many zombie movies).

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Concerns? Ideas? Feelings? Drink?

This is a closed forum for a test battle.

Hello fellow board members! I am currently working on a character who covers rogue things and arcane casting for the party, and I ended up dipping into assassin before going arcane trickster.

Generally what I'm asking for is tweaks. What are some of the smaller things I can change? Between managing spells, poisons, and equipment things got fairly complicated. I had to go back and redo the crunch several times due to little mistakes.

Could I spend my money better elsewhere? Should I take different feats? Perhaps a different arcane school? I don't want somebody coming on and saying "Actually you should do rogue 2/sorcerer 4/bard x!" or whatever. I'm open to suggestions on tweaks within the class, such as archetype or arcane bond and such, but generally no huge changes. That goes for race as well, I'm staying with elf but you can suggest other racial traits. All of the details are under this alias, although the fluff isn't necessary to read (it is pretty cool though).

Thanks!

Hello all, I've recently created a character with the intention of turning her into an arcane archer. Her character sheet is here, I started her off as a fighter (lore warden). While I realize that isn't a fantastic archetype, I figured the loss of shield and heavier armor didn't matter since I'd be casting arcane spells most of the time. So why not take a few extra skill points?

Anyways, there are two major routes I'm thinking about taking. The first is Fighter (Lore Warden) 1/Magus (Myrmidarch) 7)/Arcane Archer 2. The other is Fighter (Lore Warden) 1/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 3/Arcane Archer 1. There are a lot of pros and cons to each one, so I'll lay them out.

Any and all feedback is appreciated. Feel free to criticize any of my choices as well. I'm also not saying no to an entirely different build (some people say ranger is the better route to go than fighter), so feel free to suggest anything and everything. Thanks!

I'm in a game right now and just used summon monster 3 to summon 4 creatures from the summon monster 2 list. However, we have two enemies and I want to divide up my forces to deal with both of them. My question is, how do multiple monsters being summoned with one spell work with respect to their starting locations? Do I open up one portal and they all come flooding out (meaning they have to appear adjacently or otherwise as close as possible)? Or can I make them each show up individually within the range of the spell?

Also posting via the wizard casting the spell.

The sun is setting, bringing a cold nip to the air. As the orange glow of the sunset cast across the hills, the Andril army surges like a never ending anthill. People rush about their business, delivering messages, finding comrades in arms, milling about aimlessly. All the movement is accompanied by the many noises of such a large body of people. The baying of horses, the sharp pang as the blacksmiths made or repaired armor, the laughter and singing of men wanting to ease the tension, and when you got close enough to the red tents, the groans and cries of the dead or dying. Cast over everything is the ominous wall you are to siege tomorrow. Despite the war being such a one sided onslaught, tensions are high. The spellcasters, the tacticians, even the famous Colonel Geoffrey himself all failed to find an easy way into the city. No weak point in the wall, no underground entrances, no noble willing to sell out his country (or at least none that survived to see it through). On top of that the queen is demanding they finish the war quickly, which got rid of the backup plan of starving them out. In less than 12 hours, they were to storm a well fortified seemingly impenetrable wall that was defended by fresh troops. Nobody doubts their ability to win the battle...but nobody wants to think of the losses in such a direct approach. Some men are brooding, some men sleep early, some men laugh and jeer a little too loudly, and despite the officers best efforts some men drink, all of them wanting to escape the stress of the situation.

Dot here, giving a description of your character and what a stranger would know about them with a passing glance. It's a large army and you may or may not know each other, but at one point or another you've probably at least seen each other.

Please note, I have edited the original version of this.