Blosodriette's page

This show is great, agreed!

Thanks for the clarifications DQ. This makes more sense. I don't know why I was associating Mockingbird with Agent 13, but I'm now glad they're two different persons and that there aren't any weird retcons at work from Agents of SHIELD's cast.

Aberzombie, I agree with you on everything. I somewhat disliked his

I'm almost sure Zemo is the bad guy in this series. They just dropped two new Zemo and Mockingbird recaps on Disney+ (or was it Sharon Carter? not sure if that's her codename because of that dammmm Agent of SHIELDS show now... grr...)

I've watched the recaps but now I feel like I have to rewatch them a few times and read some wiki stuff to fully refresh my memory...

I'm almost ready... I might have to go check out some of the actual movie parts where Zemo was involved... hmmm... (unless one of you here comes up with a nice summary! ;) )

I might have to investigate how he related to Alexander Pierce and HYDRA as well... hmmm... much to consider now... I think I need to re-watch Cap America: the Winter Soldier and Civil War now...

Was that...

MCU isn't a cash grab any more than D&D is. :P

The tongue in cheek emoticon reassures me that you understand how much, much, much more of a cash grab big Marvel has now become. To think that Marvel was almost bankrupt before they started the movies... lol! what a reversal!

Thrune person,

There are only two left now and no idea if any FF will show up.

Thrune 'person'?! now that's hardly how to announce a royal, is it? especially one that lands such royal gifts at yon feet, Viking man 'person!' ;) :P

Good Afternoon All!

@GM TOP: whatever you offer count me in. I have only two Core characters but I'm always willing to whip out a Pregen! Thanks! :)

LOL ... I think I know that guy... or a genetically similar candidate living nearby.

I personally would have a hard time enjoying antihero / non-good type of roleplay. The 'progress that cool build you thought of' goal would do little to motivate me to go to the next game.

I cannot think of a mechanical benefit to being Good.

Other than Symbol of Death set to trigger on "Any Non-Good" alignment? :) :) :)

Yeah... the instances are few and far between I agree.

I agree with Lanathar that not all evil spells should be written 'to hurt the good PCs the most'. For instance some evil spells should attempt to corrupt the individual towards evil and should have a greater effect on neutral PCs perhaps.

However one instance where CN may not be so great is in a party which uses a lot of holy smites or similar good spells (forbiddance, etc. and certain symbol spells can get downright nasty at high levels if keyed against 'any non-good') Although PFS has a rule against PvP (i.e. any damage done to another PC is a no-no), I wouldn't extend that rule to a home game where one PC has fallen. Let that PC take damage from a holy smite and have the good PCs look down on him/her questioningly, if that PC is just a shrug master and doesn't care to bother about atonement.

Huh. I now feel better about my ruling, since most of the apathy came from the uneducated Chaotic Good slayer.

It was the proof that the character had been Chaotic Neutral all along. Not enough to be evil, and not enough to be good. Complete lack of care beyond anything other than the next pile of loot she'd uncover. And to clarify, it wasn't a case of the real-life player not caring, as the player made sure to point out "My character doesn't care, and she says 'Meh, too late for you fools. Enjoy rolling in your filth'..."

It was clear cut to me, and somewhat of a sad point in the campaign for me as a GM, especially since the party had another CG, a NG cleric, and a LG paladin. They all stood by and took that comment in. And I somehow, as a good little dutiful GM, kept on rolling and described the next room after a few moments of shocked silence. I didn't slow down the game to make a point to that player on the spot: the alignment change came a few mornings later after her return to Kintargo (and in real-life I took the player aside before the next game; the player was fine with it).

At some point some of these situations are meant to elicit some kind of response from the players who are supposed to act out the life of pure hearted heroes. I think the authors of the adventure do it in part for flavor, but the grim tableaux on displays for the players are meant to somewhat also bring out some emotion. Otherwise why bother? should rooms all be described as blank, empty spaces with [insert monster X, Y and Z] in them? I don't think so. I think what separates the bland adventures out there and the great Paizo APs we've enjoyed so far is the pull for player engagement.

Now, if the player would have been evil, lawful neutral or something else, it would have been interesting to see them play that from that angle. But when the GM / mod author cues are completely ignored, it's a sign in my opinion that the GM has to remind the players of a few things. Ultimately, I think the game has been more fun for that player since the character's change to CN. A coming to reality of sorts. But overall, it would be a disservice as a GM to just push all those supposedly good PCs through the drive-thru window of apathy because the GM is scared to hurt some feelings or cause a speed bump in the sacrosanct PC level progression that was planned out from Level 1 to 20. There are things like roleplay (and even if one sucks at it, crutches like Atonement) which can be used by the players to respond or self-correct to GM feedback.

Most of the time, if you're in Hell, you did something and Pharasma sent you there. Out of all the things to be sorry for, a soul in hell normally isn't one of them. Nothing wrong is happening there.

I disagree, and to be complicit with evil is to commit evil.

"Nothing wrong is happening here" would be right if spoken from a psychopomp or Pharasma's perspective at best, but would be completely out of character for a band of Chaotic Good heroes. Of all the alignments on the chart, it is the only one that doesn't care about the structures of the universe and prizes individuality and capacity for change above all else.

It's seeing someone suffer at the hands of devil and issuing a dispassionate "meh". It's evil, especially when you wield the near godlike powers of a 15th-level adventurer. It would have warmed my heart if one of them would have pulled a waterskin out and at least offer some water to the tortured prisoners. Perhaps if the paladin would have simply made a somber comment about their unfortunate plight...

In my campaign I had to move two Chaotic Goods to Chaotic Neutral: it happened when they went to Hell and showed no empathy for the imprisoned souls. Something along the lines of, "They must have deserved it if they are in Hell; meh, let's move on."

I was like: "Wait, what?! you agree with Hell's reasons for damnation now? and you, like, totally don't care about these people's suffering at this present time, right under your nose?! that's a paddlin'!"

The main task a GM must do when they hit a roadblock like this is take a break and analyze their group. Sit down, close your eyes, and go over each player one by one, taking note of their play style, whether they are paying attention or playing on their phones while you run the game, whether they know the rules or not, etc.

Then look at yourself, and take notes on your GMing style, how you talk to them, how fast you run the game, how much details you provide before you say 'roll initiative.'

Then compare your GMing style with their playing style.

Sometimes the answer is for the GM to relax and goof off more. 'Always' being the 'serious' one and nagging group should not be the GM's default. Very rarely does 'being serious and businesslike' the good answer for a GM (perhaps never). The players have to feel like you're enjoying yourself.

Finally, are you running this for PFS credit or not?

But unfortunately I will get furious anger and tantrums if i do the above.

And group is already wavering.

Somehow the adventure has become entirely reliant on one player being enthusiastic and when he isn’t, somehow, the game doesn’t really move ahead. Others think if he quits the game will fall apart (which is insane to me)

And they currently say they are not having fun at the moment and “Roll20 isn’t helping” - implying it is not really the reason but they haven’t said what is. And not being able to talk face to face makes it almost impossible to resolve

So people don’t want to play but don’t...

I'm sorry then... in light of what you just said I'll amend my recommendations to the following: cease this campaign immediately. There's a weird relationship existing between you and your players right now, where they are holding you in ransom, somehow, threatening to quit if you don't do their bidding. The other way would be to have an adult talk with them. If that's not possible due to fear or whatnot, pull the plug yourself and find a new group to play in or GM for.

There's a serious pre-existing lack of balance in this AP. It is an overall cakewalk. It is meant for roguish types (more for Agents of SHIELD than for Avengers). So in effect you'll lose control of the campaign at character creation if you're not careful. The only other way is stop giving gold and let them drag about two levels behind the book's recommendation...

Lanathar it sounds like the players have become too powerful. I would throw a few assassination hits their way: every hit costs them a resurrection spell which is a bit expensive which should reduce their resources and until they really find a way to prevent these, it's gonna cost them. Perhaps a magic item or two each. And don't run these as encounters: look at part 1 of Book 6 for guidance on this. The PCs are just found dead in their sleep the next morning. Rinse, lather, repeat, until debuffed sufficiently.

There's much to be said about PCs with individual gear total that's above 100K gp and still stay in an inn that only charges 2gp a night... and if they stay in their HQ, have the HQ infiltrated over and over again. If they lose a lot of Silver Ravens on guard duty this may force them to rethink where they've invested all their GPs (i.e. on themselves instead of the organization).

Finally, after the defeat of Brazillai end of Book 4, I would immediately 'disband' the Silver Ravens and all bonus feats the organization grants. Those guys and gals have gone back to work in Kintargo now, and the reason for their existence is now moot.

You have to enforce 20 pt. buy and adjust things up if there party has more than 4 minis on the map. Why? pets, cohorts, summons, etc. will tilt the action economy so bad in their favor that all threats they face will be eliminated in a round or two.

If my PCs have anything on the map that pushes the count of friendlies past 4 I do this:

-all monsters gain the advanced template (+4 to AC and +2 to all rolls incl. dmg)

If there are more than 4 actual PCs (tables of 5 or 6 with or without pets) I do this:

-double the monsters on the map

Reason: Hell's Rebels is particularly easy and a cakewalk if the players bring things like arcanists, occultists, and other highly mutable classes that can be hyper focused against devils, undead, etc. The whole AP was developed for 4 players and 20 pt. buy, and it's not a particulary 'hard' AP in the first place because 'Vive La Rebellion!' type campaign assumes light armored rogue types and priests of Milani, bards, and other Perrier CG types etc. When you bring on the Red Bull spiked with Jägermeister heavy hitting paladins, arcanists, occultists specialized in defeating Hell minions, etc. into the mix the enemies stand no chance.

I had to drop Batwoman as well. Better Call Saul and The Hunters are amazing. Powered through The Witcher but feels pretty numb about it.

Have you gone through Vikings yet? Are you planning to check Dispatches from Elsewhere?

Here's another question: The First Warden now has nothing to do, having lost her only prisoner to outside forces she knows nothing about. What would this lich do? Stay on the level? Work with the Thrune agents holding the castle? Simply start searching block by block in the city for her lost prisoner?

Slay people in the streets until the PCs come to confront her, at which point she asks, "Where's my prisoner?"

The Adventurer's Guide frames her as a leader or at least a prominent person among the new Silver Ravens, on a par with Shensen and Rexus.

Interesting point. If that's the case, perhaps she can actually take care of transitioning those rebels to actually useful citizens once the PCs save the city in book 4... take them off the PCs' hands so that they can, you know, go to Hell. :P

Help with Jackdaw:

Forget her. She deserves a happy retirement and recovery period.

Blosodriette wrote:

Did you consult for Owlcat's latest Wrath of the Righteous game yet? or will that come down the pipe later? if you have, mind sharing some cool stuff with us? :)

Yup, I've been working with Owlcat on Wrath for about a year already. I can't remember the exact date they first started talking to us about what they wanted to do next, but it was early 2019 if I recall correctly.

Ratfolk, Kitsune or Catfolk? :P :D :)

Did you consult for Owlcat's latest Wrath of the Righteous game yet? or will that come down the pipe later? if you have, mind sharing some cool stuff with us? :)

Rysky wrote:

Have you watched any of the Castlevania animation on Netflix?

I saw one episode, or at least part of one episode. Wasn't really into it and never went back.

fyi: some of the stuff appears heavily influenced by Pathfinder... especially seasons 2 and 3..

BTW: Would an intelligent dancing weapon rise to defend their sleeping and/or helpless/bound owner?

Long post so I'm just gonna copy paste your questions:

- one player wants to make a deal with Odexidie to protect their spouse from the Red Mantis assassins - of which the player was once a part and tasked with killing the person who would become their spouse and not following through (from the backstory)
----> Yes, absolutely do a deal. Use the contract template found in Appendix of that book. You don't have to overcomplicate things: his spouse is now safe, and the PC's soul will go to Hell when he dies. Or use the complex sample contracts in Appendix if you want other things than his soul.

- did anyone have a chance player who wanted to be Lord Mayor? I want to “yes - and” or “yes - but” the group here but I am wondering how Jillia takes to this? Easiest would be that she is relieved having been turned into a vampire last time she was mayor.
----> No, my players are murderhobos and had no interest in running a town. They almost forced Jilia to take her job back! lol

Is it feasible for a pc to be mayor and still adventure?
----> No; if he keeps adventuring he will be just a figurehead and others will move in to take the real power (a city council person, Silver Raven NPC, a member from the Board of Governors, or a noble)

- how did people pad out getting the governors on side? As written several are very easy which makes getting a simple majority very easy.
----> This part is supposed to be easy and shouldn't take more than an hour or two of game time.

- did anyone tie the missions or random encounters to the governors part beyond the kidnapping (which I will do)?
----> No.

- one of the governors suggests a trade deal but it is mentioned that this is already resolved by Vyre. [...] Did anyone add anything like this?
----> No.

Perhaps a tracking and final defeat of hei-fen to get vyre on side?
----> I didn't do much with Hei-Fen as it felt completely detached from the main plot. I mostly ignored Hei-Fen and the Skinsaw cultists in my campaign. I believed the last time I used them is in the basement of the Opera House in "Dance of the Damned". They were so easy to defeat by the PCs that I felt they were largely a waste of time; i.e. the cultists realize what they're up against an stop trying to meddle in the PCs' affairs, which is a perfectly sane thing to do if you're running an underground organization of lunatics and assassins... the only thing they'd respect is power and fear.

This is a deadly trap and it's been written that way for a reason. It's not the GM's role to softball everything into harmlessness.

If the PCs never risk their lives doing anything, especially when visiting Hell, the campaign becomes pointless. I find a lot of battles to be a cakewalk in this AP, while some others can turn really bad if the PCs raise the alarm and have all the monsters being downloaded unto them all at once.

For instance, in the dungeon we are currently speaking of, if they battle the ice devil, ABSOLUTELY and POSITIVELY bring out the small winged archers from the other room! do NOT wait 5-6 rounds for the ice devil to go down, only to cakewalk through the small winged devils a minute later! bring 'em all at once! sounds of battle in an office setting is bound to attract attention!

If charging/running: Let them fall. This is Hell.

If advancing regular speed: let them catch the edge with DC 15 Ref save.

If looking for traps/being cautious, allow the Will save vs. illusion as they reach one of the square that is adjacent to the illusion.

Mighty thanks DIU!

Did you have each PC take a go at him and then had him take a turn? or was it like PC1, Count, PC2, Count, PC3, Count... Ultimate Intrigue says you have to impose -2 if you use the same tactic a second time I think. I downloaded someone's spreadsheet to keep track of stuff as I anticipate this to be somewhat of a headache...

He got hosed...

Any recommendations? Running this on Friday... I was thinking of enforcing the -2 penalty each time they use a tactic that's been already used, but not give that penalty to Bartleby...

After an unfortunate enforced break, we're back to the game, and my players are about to try to talk Bartleby down. Technically they missed out by a couple of loyalty points, but they've opened up with, "we've met your father's ghost and know that your uncle isn't who he claims to be", so I'm going to allow it.

But...

I'm looking into the verbal dueling rules for the first time, and I can't work out how the hell Bartleby starts with 19 determination points. (Especially as at 6th level the Pcs are realistically only going to have a maximum of 10.) Surely this means that he's going to wipe the floor with them?

Haven't looked at those rules yet but I will have to do so for my December game... dotting for interest... :)

Rysky wrote:

What areas or groups on Golarion most likely have a lot of contact with Proteans?

None come to mind.

Some ganzi seem to have lots of contact with proteans... would you say that this could be a group that sees them regularly?

I think you posted that last one in the wrong thread Vidmaster... sounds like you were imitating Goldblum... or something... LOL

Watched the first half hour alone... did not find it interesting. Told myself that it must be for kids. Played it again for my kids. They didn't last 10 minutes and showed no interest.

James Jacobs wrote:

CorvusMask wrote:

So what is the best ways to obtain paperwork for traveling to Hell?

(yes, my party insist on obtaining those :p They want to have something to show patrols and guards)

You don't need paperwork to go to Hell. I'm not sure what you're asking for.

Ah, sorry.

I meant that they are trying to figure out how to obtain paperwork they could show to Hell's guards and patrols to get them off their backs (in the "Hey, we have legal means to be here so you can't touch us!" kind of way), so I'm kind of unsure on how to deal with that.

Would an infernal contract with a high-ranking devil to allow free passage in Hell in exchange for your soul be something that works in terms of 'paperwork'? :P :) :P

I don't think it's neurosis, but that's my opinion. Have you considered that these big conventions may become less attractive with age? It's called wisdom and... serenity, I think. I haven't been to a big crowd 'anything' for years now, and I prefer to hand out quests to young, willing adventurers.

For instance, I may join my family at a {medium to small} county fair, grab something to eat, watch my kids do a few rides, but there's an internal digital clock with a countdown of one hour, after which I hand out cash like crazy and disappear to my car or the lonely bleachers where they parade prized livestock, where I can read away the rest of the afternoon. I'm glad I never took a liking to drugs and alcohol... :P

I don't think Fisk was portrayed as autistic in the Daredevil show. I think Fisk was portrayed as a criminal mastermind genius. Those guys usually have big egos and thus create fantasies in which they are the 'victim', or the 'hero', and not the monster/bullies they truly are. In short, their ego is so big that they come to believe their own lies.

Sounds like a great opening to the campaign, Brother Fen! we also started last week, and I also feel (from a player's perspective this time) a certain Cthulu-esque feel to things! :)

We just started Strange Aeons and here's my duskwalker character concept:

...last night I finally found a combo: 3 points of Int on the plant companion, then Western Star Ioun Stone.

Thank you so much Belltrap! I wasn't aware of this book as it's not one of my subscriptions. Awesome! :)

Kudos to whoever wrote the backstory on duskwalkers! I am thoroughly fascinated by this new race addition.

Could that glorious person please provide any additional insight about the race, advice, comments, anecdotes or any other stories you have about it? Thank you!

Any advice on alternate racial traits that could replace the ghost touch weapon feature for something else? (for divine or arcane casters, for instance?) NOTE: not for PFS, but for homebrew campaign purposes... conceptual / general ideas only...

Hi James! We started Strange Aeons tonight and since this is a rare treat for me to play as opposed to GMing most of the time, I took the opportunity to test drive a new character race plucked from one of your most recent work, "Planar Adventures."

My character is a duskwalker and I am thoroughly fascinated by this new race addition. Could you please provide any insight about the race, advice, comments, anecdotes or any other stories you have about it? Thank you!

disguise self via share spells would be the fastest choice provided you find a way to make it part of your spell list...

I see- thank you Syries. Can one add ranks to animal companion non-class skills? one could argue that knowledge, heal or disguise skills are beyond the capacities of Int 2 creatures...

Pose As Scenery - Handle Animal Trick from Ultimate Wilderness for Plant Companions.

What does it do? --> gives +8 bonus to Disguise for the plant companion to look like a regular plant.

So what's the problem? --> disguise is not class skill for plant creatures, stealth is... also... plants have really low Cha...

Q: was it meant to be a +8 to stealth?

"That ring is magical. Let me see!" says Blosodriette, invisible, as she lands on Andor's shoulder to inspect it.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

The ring appears suspended in mid-air for a few moments as the invisible tiny she-devil inspects it, until you hear, "Ah! that's a ring of swimming!"

The ring falls back in Andor's opened palm.

Blosodriette returns a few hours later, clearly afraid, "Well well... if I were you I'd avoid the Opera House for the foreseeable future... I flew around the place, keeping my distances, and counted at least six bearded devils coming in and out of that place- maybe more, maybe less, as they all look the same to me, and I may have double counted or under counted... I saw at least one, but maybe two, bone devils through the windows... but.. when I saw one of the Furies casually lounging in the rafters when I looked up... that's when I decided to take my leave. No thanks. No way! I hope she didn't see me, or I'm dead! her sight extends into the ethereal plane, so only my stealth and small size may have saved me here! but please, don't order me to go back there Master!!!"