Bog's page

"Beyond the Doomsday Door" could be a good starting point to the campaign!

However, to start on this part, you won't have a central hub-like location from which to venture. Magnimar and Kear Maga are both great locations to have some sort of home-base, so your DM might want to tie one of those cities to the AP a bit more.

The collection of the artifact is another concern; as a player, you would have to drive yourself to really want to other parts if you play in the adventure, since you would lack the emotional investment in the parts of the artifact you've already "found". You should keep in mind they're really powerful and it took a lot of effort to collect them!

Also, your DM might just give all the players the Adventure Background as printed in the first part. When the players start the 4th part, they should at least know 'something' about Thassilon.

Concerning that trap:

Straight from the Players Guide, also applicable to PCs: "Character that rely on mounts or animal companions might find Large creatures a liability in thigh underground corridors."

However, I don't think there are many tight corridors (a lot of maps are large scale, 1 square = 10 feet).

I don't see how this should be a problem. Someone who can heal the rest of the party is, while handy, absolutely not required to play this game. For years I've DMed for players without cheap healing and it never was an unsolvable problem.

However, as a GM, you're probably already 'pulling punches' in some way. It might be minor, but most GMs tie the adventure at least somewhat to the interests of the players. So f.e. if the party happens to encounter a magical shrine, which doubles the amount of healing when resting there, it's not that strange..

In any case, you shouldn't go out of your way to punish the players for not playing optimally!

In my experience, Pathfinder converts very well to DnD3.5. This is because a lot of the things Pathfinder actually changed are very minor; the system mostly only adds to DnD3.5 and this addendum is easily ignorable.

The other way around, however, is only compatible on paper. Enemies and PCs from 3.5 will feel weak and crippled in a Pathfinder setting.

The way I see it; is that while the two systems are very compatible in terms of rules and can easily be mixed together, they're not compatible in terms of satisfaction!

Unfortunately no. What I did was give Sheila the party a handout of items as they were about to enter the crow. One of them was a Scroll of Knock.

I described the room as to have several broken lockpicks lying around the door. All of them bend beyond usefulness or partly molten and re-solidified. The party was supposed to either use the scroll, or the masterwork thieves tools hidden in the Cat Burglars Boots from Natalya (they were described to be particularly sturdy). Still a better encounter than the anagram imho :/

The adventure kinda leaves you in the dark considering the text says both Terisha and the Goblin Snake could try to take the shard away and flee.

This didn't happen in my group, but in case it would happen, I would've run it like this:

The shards curse affects Terisha almost immediately, making her unwilling to still serve under Ayala Javeski. They probably would have a fight to the death if she would return to the Crow. Instead, she persuades some of the Wreckwash Blades and Tower Girls thugs to her side and starts (at least in her own thoughts) her own little criminal empire. (the Tower Girls were formerly part of this group) The next day, this will cause some strife and armed conflicts between the Wreckwash Blades and the newly formed splinter group. Perhaps the group has stolen some goods from the Blades. They definitively consider the men who left 'stolen' at least.

As Zograthy knows the Pathfinders were connected to the Tower Girls through Natalya, and the PCs probably questioned him just before these events. He suspects the PCs or Pathfinder lodge is at least somewhat responsible.

The PCs will be confronted by some Wreckwash Blades thugs, perhaps even accompanied by some powerfull individual (like a Mob boss) demanding gold for the troubles they've cause. The PCs will likely resist and fight of these thugs, then the thugs can tell them about Terisha's little group. Holed up somewhere in a boathouse. They mention that they hold the Pathfinder Society fully responsible. This should motivate the PCs to seek out Terisha's new lair (also, Sheila really dislikes the situation and urges the PCs to take action)

The PCs then probably decide to seek out the boathouse. A little fight with some goons later (mix of Tower Girls and Wreckwash thugs) they confront Terisha sitting on a simple throne, but she has used the shard to make an illusion of rich tapestries and beautiful statues of herself. She's unwilling to move from her throne and extremely arrogant. This also clues the PCs something might be amiss and they'll be careful with the shard.

Why not send them directly to the shard? I believe the vision that is shown when the PCs use the shard to find the next one should show a 'new' location. This will make the vision more powerful and less obvious.

Hope to have inspired you somewhat.

I'd like to shamelessly plug my alternate Paradox Box here.

Also, I would formulate the 'trap' as if the monsters where always somehow enclosed (in stasis) in the box (it is an extradimensional pocket after all). This way, there is no trap, and also no grumpy Rogue when it does 'spring'.

After a hiatus I'm back to playing this AP again. My party has entered the crow but have not explored beyond the initial level. I'm curious how other groups of players experienced the humongous (!) amount of repetitive encounters in the dungeon? (F.e.; there are 7 potential fights with the Tower Girls in this AP before the group meets the boss of the girls, with a minimal variety of interact-able environments between. The same can be said about the spiders later in the dungeon.)

Also, I'm wondering if anyone already had an alternative idea about opening the Siccatite door in room B22. The puzzle to open it is unsuitable for my group (and imho very stale).

I've been somewhat successful with a similar approach. Every session I make sure I have one page per player as a handout concerning some topic which provides the players with background information. Note that my players aren't really into the Pathfinder setting and don't interact with it outside the gaming sessions. I just take some articles from the Pathfinder Wiki and add/remove some parts (and subsequently are now grotesque chimeras of Dutch/English documents).

So far I've done a summary on ancient Thassilon and all the Runelords, a bit about Magnimar (the founding of it by the paladin and the Ordellia-angel thing, the names of the districts and some nice monuments/Irespan) and some details about the Irespan and the Underbridge district.

It succeeded in giving the players (not the player characters) some hints of things to come and some insight on the relevance of the events in the AP, as well as providing a sensible motivation for the needs of the NPC's and a gentle nudge in the right direction.

In my experience, the success of these kind of added background information pamphlets (or little books) is severely dependent on your players lust for knowledge. Considering 90% of all of the PC-game players of Elder Scrolls, or Baldurs Gate never reads any of the books littering around in the game-world (I made up that number), one probably should expect the same kind of interest from the average Pathfinder player.

About information density; less is more. And non-relevance might end up in non-interest. Also; images really help sometimes! I would definitively add something about the denizens below Kaer Maga when my players are about to start part 3.

The cover for part 5 of Shattered Star features a Fire Giant though; Link to product cover

I think it's safe to assume at least some Fire Giants will be in the adventure and thus in the pawn collection. Unfortunately, it wont be out until May 2013.

An update on how the thing turned out; I started my party in Shattered Star last night and the puzzle box really worked. It took some 20 minutes before the puzzle was solved. I think the scenario including the Pugwampi was very enjoyable.

As a bonus, my players decided to explore the library at Magnimar and then even more parts of the city, emphasizing the city as the central hub of the adventure.

I didn't really like the opening scene of this AP. The writer probably wanted to introduce the newly formed adventuring party with something else besides the cliché CR1/3 monster ambush, which is something I approve of. However, as written, I don't imagine the puzzle box working in this way. The puzzle is essentially just an anagram and as a non-native English speaker I couldn't possibly have solved it, since I have never heard of the word 'Lucre'. The entire encounter would just boil down to an Intelligence check == boring.

This is really unfortunate. I love puzzles and I love unorthodox scenario's even more, so I created an alternative Paradox Box as a nice puzzle oriented intro for this AP. The design goal was to be able to give the players something they can actually interact with and to take away from the focus of miniature battlegames, yet be easy enough to solve to not distract to much from the game.

Have fun with these :)

Just make sure your players have not played the Baldurs Gate 2 PC game already.

All the AP's are named around the anti-hero or trouble-making elements of the story. Would it not be an interesting idea to name the AP not after the villain or menacing scenario which plays the central role in the story, but to name the AP 'from the other side'? Thus sort-off describing the valorous and glorious acts to push back the demons incursion.

I don't consider myself eloquent enough to create great names, but for this reason I actually really liked 'The Demonblight Crusade'!

Note that it is only a DC20 Perception check to notice the the floodgates and DC28 Perception to notice the raised portcullis.

Disclaimer: In the following suggestions, I'm making some assumptions on you and your players behavior in role playing games in general. If you feel I'm wrong or you're offended by these assumptions, rest assured that I do not care at all, but still only wish you and every GM out there the best.

As is written, any PC entering the room wouldn't understand the purpose of the room until triggering the trap and suffer from it. However, if you take time to add some flavor to the room description, this could trigger a thought sequence in your players' minds, easily mitigating the potential hazards of the trap while (and this is important imho) not taking away any of the danger, preserving the feeling of accomplishment afterwards.

Some examples;

• Have characters investigating the floodgates notice an increased weathering of the stone on the edges where parts of the stone doors interlock, (as water has been slowly seeping through these slits over the centuries, suggesting a body of water is on the other side) or some encrusted traces of algae.

• When the PC's do not notice the portcullis, make sure to mention the corridor is filled with bits of chipped stone (the portcullis comes crashing down! It probably has closed once before somewhere in the past)

• If you use a battlegrid/dungeonmap, draw the statues on it. Also, have one of the statues fallen of its small pedestal. Make sure the players understand the statues are not so much part of the static shape of the dungeon, but more there as furniture. This encourages interaction with the environment and could perhaps suggest the idea to block the portcullis before triggering the trap with some objects found in the tomb.

• Add a little dust covered skeleton of a lobster or fish. (From a previous time the chamber was filled with water)

• Change the lay-out of the room so the alcoves are at the south end of the room. This way the the emerging monsters are not between the PC's and the exit door should they want to turn around and lift the gate. Alternatively, have the monsters spend 1 or 2 rounds after the trap has triggered busting down their secret doors (which we'll change to be thin walls instead).

• Describe the water rushing in. It's vividly in motion, creating foam and turbulent whirls as it passes through the bars of the portcullis and making the gate emanate loud noises of metal scratching the surrounding rock from the shaking of the portcullis in the strong current of the water. This also suggests the players the portcullis is not static and can be interacted with (lifted!). Or perhaps the Giant River Eel that comes down with the water crashes in this gate and deforms it with its impact.

• When all else fails 1: Make the room higher. Add ledges to the side of it and place some ornaments on it (suggesting the ledges are purely aesthetic upon first entering the room). This gives some leeway when flooding the room. Perhaps after 4 rounds or so the water has risen to the level of these ledges, postponing complicated under water fighting rules for some rounds (and hopefully altogether).

• When all else fails 2: The southern portcullis system has actually weathered quite a bit throughout the centuries and this caused the portcullis to not come down completely. Describe it as somewhat deformed. Parts of the bars had been thoroughly rusted and crumble to a paste as the portcullis crashes down. It's still slightly ajar and although only the tiniest of creatures would fit underneath, it makes the lifting of this gate slightly easier (DC21 Strength Check). Of course, this 'escape' would only allow the PC's to venture further into the dungeon *evil GM laughter*

Once you've shown some doors in the minds of your players, they can take the next steps and open each door, exploring possibilities they wouldn't come up with beforehand. This is an extremely rewarding experience for your players.

Final thoughts:
In the current world, where all players have experience with adventuring and RPG games on computers, it can sometimes be difficult for the players to transfer to a traditional pen and paper RPG without imposing themselves the same limitations these computer games have. Therefor out-of-the-box thinking is unfortunately less and less common in my experience.

A way to alleviate these problems is add description, add flavor and most importantly, add purpose to the places and objects they explore.

If you (or/and every GM out there of course) can defeat the players attitude of just passively accepting and processing limited input, problems presented to your players will drastically decrease in negativity of the outcomes for them.

Just a little rant of mine. :) In the end, I hope you don't have to think about rules regarding things like underwater spellcasting, grappling etc. at all.

The Inquisitor stayed with Erastil, but moved to the Animal domain - that nets an Animal Companion into the group at Level 4 (and it's a full Animal Companion at level 5 with the Boon Companion Feat).

NO! I see this usage of the Boon Companion feat a lot on these messageboards. However, this is not how this feat works! Learning the Boon Companion feat would gain your inquisitor no benefit in this situation.

The feat is listed in Pathfinder Chronicles: Seekers of Secrets and everyone would do themself a favor to read the full description, instead of picking from a list of feats with just short summaries. (And checking sources in general)

No offense intended. This is just something that irks me and my OCD ;)

I actually really like it when a published Spell has a description which not only focuses on the obvious uses, but also keeps in mind the Spell might be outside the intended situation. Some excellent examples have already been given by the posters above me. These 2 spells would also be really nice when chained to a Contingency!

Bottom line; To answer your question as to why these spells confuse you, think outside the box. What always defines a set of rules is not it's intentions, but rather it's exceptions. Always keep this in mind when designing your own game-logic :)

Other Mirror Image-related questions, for which I didn't want to open a new threat (and induce a cascade of unrelated and totally unhelpful responses <_<);

• What happens with the figments, created from the subject under the effect of the Mirror Image-spell, when the subject becomes invisible. I'd assume the figments also become invisible, but then: What happens when the invisible creature is attacked? A concealment-roll is made to determine whether an invisible creature is hit or not, but since the additional (and invisible) figments are not a valid target in this case, I assume the effects of the Mirror Image-spell are circumvented.

  Also in the same scenario, if the concealment-roll, from the invisibility, makes the attacker miss his target, can a figment still be destroyed. The attacker did in fact swing his weapon through the space occupied by both the invisible creature and all the figments.
  In other words; The concealment granted by the invisibility made the attacker miss the creature, but maybe not his Figments?

• Since any figment has an AC value (AC10 for medium sized figments). What happens when a subject under the effect of a Mirror Image-spell is attacked, but the attacker missed by 5 or less AND the total result is less than the AC of the figments. Is one of the figments still destroyed?
  

Thanks for you answers. Note that the first question may actually have severe side effects, since Mirror-Imaged creatures might suffer in their defenses if made invisible (a condition surprising easily gained, considering you can also blind yourself for the same results!)

Unfortunately, I'm in the 'hating (Overland) Fly'-camp as well.

The smart people in this threat responding with the encounter-ideas of lava-columns or trees with strong wind etc. might take a note from 'Table 4-5: Wind Effects on Flight, pag. 97'. The only way a medium-sized wizard is affected by any kind of wind, is if the force of the wind is that of a windstorm, and the only slight danger said wizard might endure, is only when the force of the wind is that of an hurricane. Which is cool, I guess, if your PC's are on the Elemental Plane of Air all the time.

Even with the penalties to Fly of strong wind conditions, the generic wizard has such a large bonus to his Fly skill, that any difficulties when flying become obsolete. (Half Caster Level (~5) + Good Maneuverability (4) + Fly Ranks (~12), versus DC15 or DC20)

Effectively, the Wizard who did not shun the Overland Flight-spell, is now immune to >70% of all hazards presented in your average Adventure Path, for >9 HOURS a day (so; the whole day, every day)! Combine this with Invisibility of any form, and out go all arguments about the Wizard sticking out as a target..

Good DM's of this forum who DO like flying PC's; Do you only put your players in abandoned mine tunnels all the time? Or maybe everyone in the entire world that is the potential enemy of your heroes carries Scrolls of Web. What if the flying PC is also invisible all the time? Do you like to only target the other PC's with your 'bound to the ground'-monsters and villains? Have you actually ever tried to run an Paizo AP, which is mostly outside, with some flying characters???

tl;dr: I don't like the ease of availability to be able to fly. The consequences of being able to fly are so immense, almost no other ability any Class has at equivalent levels has the same game chancing implications. Also, Fly as a skill is IMHO not nearly limiting enough to bother about once you have some ranks in it.

Ok, I notice the module suggests the PCs are well into level 11 when they go after the baron and level 12 when they go after Armag. At the start of this my PCs are just barely into level 10. Should I hold off on the "surprise" attack to kick off this module and perhaps play up the PCs getting rid of the Boggards and secure their east border (the random encounter and a few set encounters should put them into level 11 by that point) and then run the surprise attack? Any suggestions on level 10 group in Drelev keep vs. level 11?

Yes, I would definitively do this. I have the same problem happening now in my own group. This, plus the fact that my party went straight to the barbarian camp (to rescue the daughters was their top priority after defending Tatzlford) makes it a bit hard for them as the encounters are somewhat too hard.

In hindsight, I should have started the adventure with Garuum approached the PC's, so they would first encounter the Boggard Tribe. And only thereafter have them defend Tatzlford.

Also, I would not make Kissandra have a captured daughter. It will be better when she was actually supposed to be the hostage, and therefore her (and thus the PC's) first priority is to rescue her father. This will keep your players more on track I hope, so they wont be killed just because of their lower levels.

Name: Vincent 'de Wolf'
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Ranger6
Adventure: Varnhold Vanishing
Location: Varnhold
Catalyst: Chuul in the rivercrossing
The Gory Details: While the party was crossing the river in Varnhold, the Chuul emerges from the water. After snapping the Wolf Companion, Fang (the 5th), of the ranger in half, the Chuul easily gobbled the ranger, paralyzing him and chewing him to fine bits.

The Chuul then tried to swim away with it's two tasty snacks. The Companion of our druid however; a crocodile, was luckily able to finish the Chuul of and drag the corpse of the ranger out of the water. Afterwards, he was resurrected at Restov (the party didn't have acces to the scroll in the church of Varnhold at this point..).

Surprisingly, this was only our first death in the AP.

This encounter also had me worried a bit, but in the end, my party defeated him almost effortless!

The opening of the fight was the wizard flinging a fireball, the Troll-king failing his save, and then his magic item ALSO failing it's save, demolishing everyone and everything in the room.

Unexpected surprise for the party when I rolled an addition 40-or-so d6's when the fireball struck!!

Just wanted to say I like these very much! I hope you will continue creating all the pages :) (I love handouts!)

Lora as Feiya gets my vote!

A Pathfinder module by Mike Shel!? Woot!

If this is anything like the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb; You've made me a very happy DM today Paizo!

@Cartigan,

yes I do. How the Wall of Force/Resilient Sphere is worded, you would need a spherical shaped surface which is a void (the inside and outside of this surface do, of course, not need to be voids). A stomach is not a balloon filled with air, and thus, this shaped void does not exist.

I could imagine this would work in something like the belly of an enormous whale, but when you are encased in what is essentially a narrow fitting sack, the Resilient Sphere simply doesn't work.

(Although the condition of the unbroken, continuous surface should probably be taken with a grain of salt, since the Resilient sphere would in normal -non digestive related- circumstances probably intersect with the floor (barring airborne targets), yet I'm sure every GM would agree this would be an actual intended and legal use of the spell..)

The spell-description for the Resilient Sphere states: 'The sphere functions as a wall of force, ..'.

Now lets take a look at the Wall of Force, 3th paragraph : '... The wall must be continuous and unbroken when formed. If its surface is broken by any object or creature, the spell fails.

The open space in the dragon's stomach is probably a lot less than the 1-ft.-diameter/level the Resilient Sphere needs (=minimum 7ft diameter), in fact, it probably is closer to 0ft diameter, considering the elasticity of dragon stomach-tissue. Thus, the Sphere cannot form inside the dragon.

An Immovable Rod on the other hand..

Now that one of my players seems active on this message-board, I want to state that the reason I started this thread, was because of the unclearness (to me) of the rules regarding the active interaction of non-static, hazardous Figments with PCs in general. While the specific example in the OP was just a prologue leading to the actual questions, not something I wanted to uphold on these boards for judgment. Whether this particular situation was handled correctly or not is irrelevant for this discussion.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Although I still have some ambivalent feelings towards the execution of these spells, as there doesn't really seems to be a proper answer, your insights have helped me a lot! Perhaps it is this ambiguity that defines role-playing games in general, as it forces participants to be creative and stimulates pro-active engagement with the rule-system.

Just a friendly bump. Will play again in a few day and I'm still curious about this.

As a (ex-)student Chemical Engineering, I can assure everyone that most acids do not affect most metals more than they would affect any other (organic) material.

There are, of course, metals and acids that DO react violently. But those are not the kind of metals you would work into armor or shields.

If there was an acid that would deal extra damage to metals, it would also deal extra damage to wood and flesh. Thus, the 'extra damage' to metals is already worked into the base damage of the acid.

Looking forward to this! First time to play again instead of DMing in 6 years.

Now only to choose a character. Oh, the choices! Perhaps I will just make 2, ..or 3!

This has probably been discussed before somewhere, but I have a lot of questions and I don't manage to find the, or a, answer. I absolutly love Illusions (and Enchantments) in DnD and Pathfinder because of the freeform uses of it and the ability to be really creative, but often, these are also the spells that create discussions and either imbalanced results (compared to similar elvel spells) or disappointment for players for not working the way they imagined, or 'unjustified' uses by DMs.

Recently, when I DM-ed RotRL part4:

When the creature showed up, I didn't ask for a Will Save, because there was no interaction (or is the roaring an interaction?). When the Paladin valiantly charged the illusion I called for a Will Save. This and the fact that they weren't asked for a Save vs. Fear made it an obvious illusion and despite them all failing their saves, they just ignored it. I didn't really like it as it was delibaratly meta-gaming to significantly alter the encouter, but I wouldn't really have known how to handle this as a player myself (probably done the same).
In hindsight I probably should have called for a Will Save when the illusion showed, and use that result as their save on interaction (thus 'faking' the frightful presence).

This made me think, how are illusions -and specifically: illusions of creatures or hazards- supposed to interact with the PCs?

The *Image spells are Figments, from the PRD:

Because figments and glamers are unreal, they cannot produce real effects the way that other types of illusions can. Figments and glamers cannot cause damage to objects or creatures, support weight, provide nutrition, or provide protection from the elements. Consequently, these spells are useful for confounding foes, but useless for attacking them directly.

What if the creature attacks a PC? Should you:

Perhaps also important is to note that figments cannot make something seem something else, so you can't 'produce' wounds or bitemarks etc.

Some of these occured in a Paizo-published adventure:

Can we take this as an example to model our illusive creatures? If so, is there a limit to the power of the summons? A Huge Red Dragon is not really the same a an Orc, despite them fitting both in the area the spell gives you. Perhaps taking Shadow Conjuration as example: an 4th spell which mimicks 3rd level conjurations. So [i]Major Image[i/] (3th level) can create 2th level summonable creatures?

And last, what is this 'force' I can use with the *Image spells? The clobbering of my illusions, the searing heat from illusive fire, or the illusion the fighter is suddely pulled to the ground as if in a super-heavy gravitational field?

To summarize, with any (and which) Image-spells can I:
-Create an monster to fight the party/enemy? (how?)
-Create hazards; fire, smoke, molten lead streaming from grates in the walls? (And use these rules?)
-Incapacitate an PC/enemy in any other way? Illusive thick fog around one character making him efectivly blind, or deaf with illusions of very loud bangs (so not able to hear anything else), Illusive gravitation/slipperiness dropping characters prone? (what will the CMB/CMD be?)

Thank you for your insight

..

..

This is very reassuring for me. Altought imho this should have sooner been made a priority.

This is also one of the prime reason I like Paizo as much as I do; there are a lot of companies who wouldn't even give the slightest impression of admitting mistakes, or possible improvements. Let alone present a solution and deadline (other than: "We'll look into it", which translates to: "We wont do anything about it"). Kudos to Paizo!

Very nice cover! What is the beast? A beach Ankheg? An oversized shrimp?

Looking forward to this adventure path, loving the Indiana Jones feeling I get from it..!

Hi Chef's Slaad,

you got mail!

'Onyx' can be used to describe the silica-gemstones (and material component of many spells), but also for some specific forms of limestone.

Limestone is actually the most used material for sculptures and was a very important building material in times without concrete. Also, Magnimar is founded on a limestone cliff, so there are almost positively a few quarries nearby that produce limestone for Magnimar.

As a material, the statue is almost worthless (to adventurers). Perhaps it could be sold as an art object, but wouldn't people know it was salvaged from one of their city monuments?

In the end, I just ignored the possible breaching of the dam. We have slain the hags and Barl now and slowly the water will settle.

When they later discussed this very problem (in character) they proposed to use some villagers as the source of energy for the floodgates, which was very amusing considering the ethical dilemma's for our paladin (should he be o.k. to sacrifice 2 innocents (volunteers perhaps) to save the lives of many?).

Thank you for all your input.

20%? Sorry for the confusion, but where is that from? The only rule on selling stuff I know of is this one:

Hmm, oops! I looked it up and you are right. I have no idea why I thought it to be 20% then. Perhaps a carryover from my (first, and last) 4E campaign when we started with RotRL. Although I remember arguing about this with my players when we started -somehow I must have read somewhere that PF also had 20%- and in the end we all agreed this was actually better than the classic 50%.

It makes you value the stuff you find and encourages to (creatively) use perhaps sub-par equipment.

..Although we are considerable behind the wealth by level..

/end of economical thread-derailment

Well, trading post credits are probably worth a lot less to Oleg than 1000gp as he buys his inventory for a lot less then what he sells it for. If we assume the 'sell your stuff for 20% value' guideline from PFRPG, he only gives the PCs 200gp. So a little extra than what the ring is worth to compensate for the troubles of getting it back and also for the additional sentimental value to him and his wife.

Compare this to a 250gp soup when a mug of ale is only 4cp.

(I know we shouldn't compare real world economics vs. magic world economics)

What if the Moon Radishes are actually asked for by Brokken (upon meeting him in his hut, or perhaps before or after gathering his Fangberries as a follow-up quest sort of thing)?

He needs them because he can distill raw materials for his potions from the pulp of the radishes (so he still needs an entire basket) and can tell the PCs he usually searches for the Moon Radishes in the Narlmarches, but is afraid to leave his hut alone because bandits might pillage his home. As a reward, some non-standard potions can be given, perhaps a Potion of See Invisibility. This is 400gp, but he had it for some time and no one was interested in buying it from him.

Laithoron, as a temporary solution, you could try to create a new PDF file on your PC, containing only the pages you want to print. To do this, you should acquire a PDF-printer. This is a tiny software program that adds a virtual printer to your printer selection in all programs.
This way, you can open your PDF in any reader you like, then print and use the 'pdf-printer' and only 'print' the pages you want. This creates a new PDF you should be able to use on your Lexmark.

I can recommend CutePDF as the pdf-printer. Download here. It is free and has no advertisments or adware (my university also uses this as their default pdf-creator)

Some pdf readers can already do this without the extra software, like Adobe Acrobat Pro or Evince, but I guess you do not have access to these programs.

Actually, I think you should not a hexagonal side as 6 mile, as it is stated that one should travel 12 miles to cross the hexagon, so the maximum radius is 6 miles.

If you like to have the area to be 150 square miles, radius should be 7,6 miles. Perhaps during the design of the adventure the travel distance from hex to hex was 15 miles?

Some advice wanted;

After the flood at Turtleback Ferry and the attack of Black Magga. The players thought (correctly) that something was amiss at the Skull's Crossing.

They just visited the Skull's Crossing, explored it and just went back to Fort Rannic. They killed the fiend, and all the trolls.

I made sure to have their characters notice to high water and tunderstorms (their first guess was it would be a Control Weather spell!) on the other side of the dam. I also had the fiend tell the PCs that he was being used as an energy source for the operation of the dam. The PCs investigated the miniature model of the dam, didn't know what to do with it, killed the fiend. And then they left...

The population of Turtleback Ferry in the meantime has fled to Fort Rannic, which is now crowded with villagers (there are 430 people living in TF. I guess at least 300 of them moved to the fort).

What if the PCs just leave it like this? If the pixie comes to them to ask for help later, they are gone another 2 days at least to Whitewillow. (I'm tempted to just let the dam breach and kill them all..)

Any advice on this?

As a grisly add-in to the sickness of this adventure, I gifted Mama Graul with a ring of regeneration, so that his sons could feed on her flesh as well as on the milk from her breast.

Just felt like sharing :)

Ugh... *barfs*

Cool addition. Although I would be reluctant to give a low-level party a single magic item worth 90.000 gp.

Poor little Maulgro Graul, waiting for his mammy to heal his legs while she had the means to do that all along :( I almost feel happy for them as my players slaughtered them all.

I would love to participate PFS. So far my group has played only 1 PFS game to try it. It's a shame that Pathfinder seems almost non-exist here in the Netherlands (Delft), no game store that I know of carries it.

I also wonder about this;

Also; can Vital Strike be used with an Attack of Opportunity?

Making an Attack of Opportunity: An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and most.. blabla

Is this an 'attack action' as well?

As a DM, I would allow Vital Strike to be used with Spring Attack (this used 4 feats! Whirlwind also needs 4 feats and should be on par with Vital Strike IMHO). Besides, Vital Strike is not that powerful, nor is Spring Attack. Combining them will provide more fun for the combat oriented PC, but hardly break your game. I would be much happier if my players would choose this chain of feats, instead of the **** annoying Step Up.

I have made a little adjustment to the recharge mechanic, as a house rule:

-If an appropriate spellcaster has the staff in its possession, the staff recharges 1 charge every day. Automatically. (It is assumed the wizard/druid/whatever takes care of this, using some small mundane magic ritual over the day).

-Also, if the owner of the staff wants to, he can recharge the staff the normal way, as described in the Core Rules (and still max 1 charge/day).

So the staff automatically regenerates charges, but it wont prevent staves found in dungeon-treasure to always have the full 10 charges. And the staff is much more useful this way (and not costing 2 or 3 spellslots to cast 1 spell..).

I see it as a slightly powerful 'cast X 1/day' wondrous item, with some addition benefits as well as some drawbacks. My players seem to like it!

I wouldn't mind some options, not at all. Nor would I mind maneuvers and stuff like that, as long as they remained totally Non-magical in nature.

...

I wholeheartedly agree with you. It is also my opinion that a fighter should stay non-magical. However, there are many different players, and a lot of them probably do not share our image of this metal-only fighter. But this is actually also a strong point of the sorcerer bloodline. Many people don't like Aberation tainted blood (or demon-enhanched power, or..)for their characters or other weirdness, therefore, there is the Arcane bloodline. The generic option for people who dont want some kind of half-monsterous character.

This is also true for the fighter. You can have a generic 'bloodline' (I keep on calling this bloodline, as I dont thinnk Fighting Style or similar is appropriate, as explained below) for the traditional metal-to-skin purist.

For the styles described by the flesh eating Bean; I hope I can say without you taking offense as those to be examples of exactly not what I meant. An archer, heavy infantry or cavalry is actually exactly the same as the fighter we have now. It is true that they are less generic, but their focus is still their sword/hammer/spear whatever.

Therefore, 'fighting style' would, at least in my opinion, not be any fix for this class other than make it stronger. Balance is not something I'm conserned with, but I don't think forcing the strenghts (no matter how specific those are) of any class beyond the scope of what is possible now is a good idea anyway. 'Bloodlines', on the other hand..!

Please look at this far from optimised example;

Well, there you go, an non-fighting-style AND non-magic style option for your fighters (and it doesnt overshadow other characters!). This is probably a horrible example and should not be seen as a serious option, but I think the essence is good. Would you not rather play Bob the Fighter-Bodyguard/Inquisitor/Platoonleader!! Who, as being a fighter, can ALSO specialize in being a blowgun user/two-weapon fightig/heavy infantry/cavalier/dresses like a spartan fighter! I know I would!

As I'm actually typing these responses on a GSM, I'ts painfully slow. So please excuse any typing error. (English not my first language doesn't help much either).

Just to throw my 2 cp in..

In also think fighter is the least versatile and thus, unfortunatly, also the least interesting to play. What I would like to see for the fighter are not more skills, or social options or anything that expands his role. Instead, I think the bloodline-idea from the sorcerer or domain powers from the cleric would be perfect for our beloved underappreciated fighter!

'Bloodline'-surrogates would be more like roles the fighter can take, like; Bodyguard, Wizardslayer, Adept of Steel, Godslayer, Samurai, God-favored, Arcane-infused, Inquisitor. I'm just making these up now, some might be more fitting than others. The point is, these 'bloodlines' could give additional powers, like the sorcerer, which are not combat oriented. This would probably make the fighter a little bit stonger in the eye's of some, but it will not make it stronger in it's favored role; as a front-line fighter.

Some detailed examples I can think of now;

-The inquisitor 'role'-line would add same gather informationesque abilities as well as more uses for the intimidate skill. At higher levels the fighter would be able to reproduce the effect of a Zone of Truth, or similar magic.
-The bodyguard would gain abilities that would prevent enemies from landing blows on allies, or negating those attacks completely at higher levels. Or maybe the ability to mimic some Abjuration spell effects.
-The Godslayer would gain spell resitance, but only to divine magic. At higher levels it might gain an ability to channel all channelled energy types (from clerics) to himself, automaticly turning it in the healing kind if negative energy was channelled. Or maybe something like the barbarian's Superstition-power. Or absorbing divine or scrying spells, or gaining some scrying or other divination spells himself (to seek out the cults).
-The Samurai could gain some spell like abilities, but only those that would effect himself, like; Jump, Expeditious Retreat, Spider Climb, Invisibility.

These examples should not be seem to literal, they just serve to be examples.

Some of you would (and I believe: correctly) say that this does nothing to adress the problem of fighter being one trick ponies or being 'boring' out of combat. However, it would make the fighter a much more _fun_ class to play! Think about it, why do people play RPG's? To identify themself with a well-defined avatar of their idealistic/opposite selfs. No-one sees himself as just a 'generic' fighter (generic equals boring). That is also why barbarians are more fun to play than fighter, they have a strong personality. The fighter has NO personality.

A secondary role would give that personality, and at the same time improve the secondary abilities of the fighter (or not! if the character truly wants to be a perfect engine of destruction!)

Edited: I should add that I'm aware all these possibilities could by some be considered the same as taking prestige classes. I resent this; prestige classes just make the fighter from one one-trick-pony into another. This should be avoided.

Veit, Dwarf Cleric of Torag, LG
Wilhelm, Human Necromancer, LN
Alexander, Human Paladin of Iomadae, LG

No background whatsoever. I think the Paladin once mentioned he came from Taldor, but we don't do anything with it..

We have a great time playing RotRL! I don't consider myself to be a great DM, but the adventure story and all historical information on ancient Thassilon the players slowly find is really keeping everyone interested.

We are now playing HMM and just arrived at the Graul homestead. I consider all 3 players to be at advanced DnD level, so it is a little disappointing when they don't try any creative approach to the given situations. (they just burst every door and slaughter all enemies, and when that doesn't work, they just flee and try the exact same thing next day..). Also the paladin plays as if he is running a solo adventure; just wading into combat expecting the cleric and wizard to back him up and prevent him from dying (which is a shame, because the cleric doesn't really shine in combat because of it, constantly casting his cure spells..).

Thank you! I did not realize only creatures could withstand an Abjuration being forced on them (Although lorewise, I think this doesn't really make sense..).

The suppressing ability could still lead to some confusion I'm afraid; what if a 'delayed' spell was cast in the Antimagic Field? Can they even be casted? For example: Delayed Blast Fireball, Symbol of X (Does it come in effect as soon as the field is removed?)

The Globe is a very interesting spell. I can't wait to use it for some villain, who casts the field in a confined space, then steps back to let his melee henchmen open up that can of whoopass. That will teach the Cleric to prepare some other spells instead of that 4x Bull's Strength and other buffs he always prepares.. *evil laughter*.