BloatGoat's page

Salutations once again!
I suppose it does not go without saying that puzzles need proper context and audience. Consider it said.

Also. I'm running my campaign using the Core Rulebook and Bestiary 1 through 3, so I do not have access to spells/stuff outside those books.
The party is currently level 14.

Portal Puzzle (Shameless Torment rip-off, crude layout below):

..#3..#4
#2......#5
....#1

The party arrives in a large cave.
In the cave are five pillars arranged in a circle, each a different height (with #1 being the smallest and #5 being the tallest.) and with a portal on top. The pillars are arranged to make jumping of falling from one pillar to the pillar one step smaller possible (it is possible to jump from #5 to #4, and from #4 to #3, Et cetera.
The party should be able to scale the lowest pillar without too much trouble.
Upon anything entering any portal, one is transported to the portal two 'steps'/pillars counterclockwise, unless the portal you enter is the same portal as you entered previously, in which case the number of pillars you 'step' is increased by two.
Once you've entered the same portal 5 times in a row without breaking the sequence, you are teleported out of the puzzle and onward to glory.

To sum up:
Biff the Bold enters #1 and is transported to #4(two steps counterclockwise).
If Biff then enter #4 he is transported to #2(two steps counterclockwise).
He can keep doing this all the way back to #1 and when he enters #1 again he is back to #4.
This can go for quite some time.

If Biff Enters #1 he appears on #4 (two steps counterclockwise).
If he, without going through other portals, jumps all the way down to #1 and enters #1 again, he is transported to #2 (four steps counterclockwise).
If he jumps down to and enters #1 he is transported to #5 (six steps counterclockwise).
If he jumps down to and enters #1 he is transported to #3 (eight steps counterclockwise).
And when he finally jumps down and enters #1 for the fifth time without entering other portals, Biff gets a cookie.

A PC could start the sequence at a portal other than #1, but would eventually end up having to go to a pillar that is taller than the one they started at. That's fine, but may or may not drain some resources. That's sort of the point of this puzzle.

The DM could redesign the room to make traveling between pillars dangerous or the starting point less obvious.
Example: The PCs follow a tunnel leading into a cave sporting a classic lava floor far below them. The see pillars in front of them, the nearest pillar being #3.
Once they figure out the sequence, they should deduce how to either start the sequence at the lowest pillars (#1) or arrange for some flying/climbing.

@Mark Hoover
I've never used physical props at the table save for handout sheets and combat models. I'm intrigued.
I'm reluctant to put a time constraint on my puzzles. I fear my players will fall flat on their faces and die without a fail-safe. It's the sort of thing they might do, thus so I tend to avoid the do-or-die puzzles.

@Shifty Mongoose
Why are you having trouble implementing high-level puzzles?

Edit: shuffled stuff around

Salutations good folk!

Could we have a thread about puzzles that does not include math, riddles or word play, but instead focuses on systems/lore in the Pathfinder system.
Also, I'm aware not all players are fond of puzzles. You need not repeat this. Cheers.

I suppose I'll start.

Tile room puzzle:
"The floor in the room before is composed of large coloured square tiles. The tiles are about 5 by 5 feet and colored either red, green, blue, black, yellow, grey or white. Beyond the coloured tiles are a large metal chest resting on the floor. Inscribed on the ceiling is a large serpent biting it's own tail. Along the serpent's back from it's head to it's tail, is a line of coloured glass scales, each scale a colour matching a tile. As you near the first coloured tile, the serpent's head animates and slowly it's head turns to you. It's gaze is cold and calculating. The serpent's eyes shift colour to match the colour of the tile nearest to you."
The PCs must cross the floor tile by tile in the order carved on the serpent's back. If they stray from the path, they are hit by a spell tied to the colour of the serpent's eyes. If they teleport or fly to the chest, it will attack them (as if an animated object) and try to bull rush them onto the tiled floor.
If you wish, you could have the serpent remain inanimate in a circle, and have the correct path start at some random scale, rather than the 'first'.

Prismatic Wall Puzzle:
"Big fat prismatic wall is blocking the now long dead archmage's treasure, and the players are not capable of dispelling it.
In a nearby room, a reshapable Ice Golem sits dormant. The golem is the product of an experiment undertaken by the archmage, but was halted when the archmage realized the golem would become unstable and degenerate one hour after the first reshaping. The golem and the experiment is documented in journals left by the archmage, but not well enough for the experiment to be replicated by the PCs. A control circlet can be found near the golem. and any PC wearing it can reshape the golem into almost any object of large size."
The golem is not affected by the prismatic wall. The PCs have to reshape the golem into something that can carry them through the portal. A chest on legs, a barrel or similar will do. They can then grab some loot and get out while the golem is still stable.

That was the two puzzles I've used so far. I may post more in the future. I hope to see more puzzles.

There are temporary bonuses, and there are permanent bonuses.

After wearing the headband for twentyfour hours, the bonus from the headband counts as permanent, thus granting extra spells per day.

I am overwhelmed by the amount of work you and other put into programs like these.
Combat Manager could become 'That Program' I've been looking for all this time!

Bug report:
1. run Combat Manager
2. Select Monster tap > Dire Bear
3. Show Monster Advancer
4. Check the following:, Advanced (x1), Giant (x1) and Half-Dragon (whatever)
Monster now has the following attacks: 2x Claw, Bite, 2x bite, Claw
....
5. Go to Customize > Offense > Attacks Editor. Edit attacks as fitting.
6. Press OK
All templates are reapplied, resulting in a Giant Half-dragon Giant Half-dragon Dire Bear (Adv +1) (Adv +1)
...
7. Uncheck all templates and you are good.

I just want Dragonbears!
Keep up the good work.

Excellent program. Well done, sir!

The "Arcane" template (Mythic Adventures, page 224) grants the "Simple Arcane Spellcasting" feature.
This feature has no classification (Ex, Sp or Su)
the feature reads:

The creature gains the ability to cast spells from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. Select a number of spells with total spell levels equal to twice the creature's CR. No spell for this ability should have a higher level than 1 + 1/2 the creatures CR. A 0-level spells counts as 1/2 spell level toward this total. the creature can cast each of these spells once per day. Its caster level is equal to its Hit Dice. It uses the higher of its Intelligence or Charisma modifiers to determine its spell DC.

This raises some questions.

Personally, I'm leaning towards ruling them as SLAs. The template has no requirements and I would like it to represent a creature infused/empowered with arcane energy, rather than a creature studying/developing arcane energy.

Any thoughts?

That was pretty much my gut feeling.
And yes, I know the extra damage from deadly stroke is not multiplied, which is why i listed 9d6 instead of 12d6. The question was more along the lines of, if 1 and 2 is true, do you get 3d6 (normal) + 3d6 (critical) +3d6 (deadly)

What nags me is that I cannot find any rules supporting that assumption.
Channel destruction is not listed not listed as precision damage ( - and I personally do not think the fluff supports it.)
The flaming enchantment and sneak attack both state they are not multiplied on a crit, Channel Destruction does not.

... additional damage dice from weapon special abilities (such as flaming) are not multiplied when you score a critical hit

I guess "weapon special abilities" means "special abilities that affects weapons" and not "a given weapon's special abilities" ?

Thanks for the answer by the way!

*Tumbleweed*

Channel Destruction (su): Any weapon a graveknight wields seethes with energy, and deals an additional 1d6 points of damage for every 4 Hit Dice the graveknight has...

...If you hit, you deal double the normal damage... *snip* ...The additional damage and bleed is not multiplied on a critical hit

Bob the Bastard, a 13HD graveknight, walks up to a paladin and thwacks him silly with his sword. A critical hit is rolled and confirmed.

Q1: Does Deadly Stroke multiply the fire damage from Channel Destruction (resulting in a total of 6d6 points of fire damage)

Q2: Does a critical hit cause additional fire damage, as per weapon damage muliplier (resulting, again, in a total of 6d6 points of fire damage)

Q3: Does Deadly Stroke stack with a critical hit for a total of 9d6 fire damage?

Cheers

Edits: Typos and missing content