Would the feat Secret Signs allow a spellcaster attempting to cast a spell with somatic components only (regardless of how or why the spell has only somatic components) to hide the fact that they are spellcasting, including hiding the magical manifestations/clues that would normal tell a non-trained observer that the spellcaster is casting a spell?
Secret Signs was written some considerable time (in 2011) before this Paizo FAQ (in 2015), so I am not 100% sure if it would hide the magical manifestations that comes with spellcasting in general or hide the act of attempting to cast a spell with only somatic components that would normally allow characters trained in Spellcraft to identify the spell?
(Under normal circumstances, an observer must be able to hear the verbal components or see the somatic components of a spell in order to be able to use Spellcraft to identity the spell.)
I am curious as to how Dual Initiative interacts with Combat Patrol with regards to the following:
(1) If you start your first initiative turn in a round with Combat Patrol (a full-round action), does it end at the start of your second initiative turn in the same round or does it end at the start of your first initiative turn in the next round?
(2) If you start your first initiative turn in a round with Combat Patrol and IF it lasts until the start of your first initiative turn in the next round, how much movement you have for the Combat Patrol? Would it only only be up to your speed or up to twice your speed?
It is easier to figure out how the two works in conjunction with each other if you initiate Combat Patrol on your second initiative in the round.
I hope to get some opinions and thoughts on both the RAW and RAI of this particular combo. (I'm the GM for my gaming group so I can decide whatever I want on how this works but I do like getting the perspective of others to avoid the horse-blinders bias).
Not sure what happened to the product discussion as I am positive there used to be quite a few posts in the thread for this product.
At any rate, I figure I mention here that when I decided to use the Vine Maiden introduced in the Forest Kingdom Compendium for an adventure to replace a different creature, I found a few errors within the stat block of the Vine Maiden.
(1) The initiative modifier is listed as +2 but the Vine Maiden has a Dexterity score of 19 so the modifier should be +4.
(2) The saving throws are listed as +5/+9/+7, but I calculated that it should be +4/+10/+8 (base 2/6/6 for an 8 HD fey, Con mod +2, Dex mod +4, and Will mod +2, no other modifiers).
(3) The save DC for its entangle spell-like ability should be 14, not 15 (base 10 + 1 for a 1st level spell + 3 from Cha mod = 14).
(4) The attack line for the vine lash should include the bleed damage it inflicts on a critical hit).
(5) Not an error but a minor suggestion: maybe it would have been ideal to have included a second melee action that was a disarm attempt with the vine lash since the vine lash is a whip for all intents and that means it has the disarm quality as well which is an additional +2 bonus to disarm attempts. Again, that's just a minor suggestion. :)
(6) The Vine Maiden is missing skill ranks. A lot. Fey creatures normally have 6 + Int mod per HD. With 8 HD and Int mod +1, that should be a total of 7*8 = 57 skill ranks. The Vine Maiden does not have any penalties to her skills so based on reverse-engineering to get the skill bonuses shown in the stat block, 37 skill ranks were spent, leaving 19 skill ranks unspent.
According to the Soulbound Construct template, the host construct gains "the Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based skills of the soul held in the soul focus. If the host construct already has any of these skills, select the higher total bonus between that of the base creature and that of the host construct."
My question is does that mean the host construct gains the skill ranks in the aforementioned skills from the base creature used for the soul focus as bonus skill ranks above and beyond the host construct's original ranks in the skills (so long as it is not greater than whichever of the two creatures had the higher bonus), thus exceeding the normal total number of skill ranks the host construct should have?...
OR...
The total skill modifiers of the relevant skills (if higher) from the base creature used in the soul focus are treated more like virtual total skill modifiers (thus cannot be used to fulfill prerequisites)?
A part of me thinks that for game-balance, maybe the skill ranks gained from the increased Intelligence for the host construct should be used to purchase ranks in the aforementioned skills of the base creature (if higher than the host construct originally had) until it matches the number of skill ranks the base creature had in those skills, but I am not sure that is the route to go.
It's pretty clear-cut with the "bonus feats" the template grants to the host construct but for the skills, I think a GM can reasonably choose between the first and second interpretations I mentioned above. Ultimately, while there isn't much of a difference between the first two interpretations overall in many cases, it kind of matters if you are making a construct that serves the campaign villain that advances in power while hiding as the PCs level-up throughout the campaign.
This particular template also makes me wonder what would be the best 9 HD or less creature to use for the soul focus.
So, in order to have my players flummoxed, I am redoing Vordakai's class levels as a necromancer. I did add the standard create undead spells to the class' spelllist so that will help explain how he created the undead in his lair, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for an undead creature of CR 6 or less that Vordakai can summon in battle (the summon undead those necromancers get are different than the normal summon undead spells; they can summon undead of a given CR level instead of specific undead creatures).
I am not looking for spellcasting undead or those with a lot of spell-like abilities (as those are a pain to make in Roll20) but battlefield control and debuffs are good. My players' pcs are mythic so I want to really give them a strong challenge.
I did ask this question in the Inner Sea Temples product discussion yesterday but was not sure if the designers still check that periodically so I figured I ask here: can an alchemist use the extract version of the spirit share spell (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/spirit-share/) to transfer extracts he has prepared into other willing creatures? It calls out liquids such as potions and elixirs are valid, but doesn't mention extracts specifically. It seems like a handy way to share extracts without having to learn the infusion discovery.
A follow-up question (regardless of the answer to the first question) is how many times during the spell's duration can the spellcaster transfer a liquid on their person into someone else. It seems to imply only once given that the spell has a focus (of the liquid to be transferred) but if that was the case, shouldn't the duration be 1 round per level or until discharged? If you could do it multiple times per casting, shouldn't a limit on how many liquids you can transfer into others be imposed to prevent possible cheesy combos (not that I can think of any at the moment but a nagging feeling persists that there could be an obvious one I am missing)?
I am running a Kingmaker campaign online and I am starting to feel some mental fatigue in running it due to its massive open-ended nature. I don't want to stop just because of the additional amount of randomness in it that could be important on any given day in the game (i.e., generating weather, generating new npcs for the pcs to interact with because they decided on a plan of action that I was not prepared for, or they are looting random things that I didn't think would qualify as treasure but can serve as a memorable souvenir, and it needs a cool description).
So I was looking for useful tools and a friend of mine mentioned this:
(I would have used the link format but it doesn't seem to be working on my phone.)
This seems like a worthwhile GM toolkit but I am still curious about what else other Kingmaker DMs here have used to minimize the workload for them, whether online or in person. Please feel free to share whatever you think helped you with running Kingmaker (especially when you add in modifications and other adventures to fill in gaps in the overall plot or to make a more memorable campaign for your players).
I was hoping the fine folks here in the Paizo community could help me, as a GM, come up with a fairly robust list of psychic spells known for a 11th level psychic who has the psychic lich template and the Dread lord template.
As I understand it, the psychic lich template removes the standard undead immunity to mind-affecting effects (including morale bonuses) and if it makes a Will save against mind-affecting spells, it heals a small amount o hit points. It does not otherwise have the ability to heal itself like a normal lich does with its own touch attack.
That being said, I always have a hard time finding a good selection of spells for npc spellcasters without overdoing it. Is there a robust spellbook/spells known generator I could use or if any of you have solid suggestions to fill those spells known, I would appreciate the advice. Valid sources (for my gaming group at least) are any Paizo books and books from Third Party publishers such Rogue Genius Games, Dreamscarred Press, and Legendary Games.
Thank you in advance for any and all help offered.
I was wondering if anyone knows of a suitable map that I can use that features a multi-level observatory or tower on a mountain with a winter theme?
I am going to run a modified version of Dudemeister's additions to the Talon Peaks (see here, including the Darkness Betwixt the Stars pdf that Dudemeister linked to in that thread) and since I run my Kingmaker game online at Roll20, I need a fairly usable map for these series of encounters.
Ideally I like to have such a map before this Sunday but I could stall my gaming map for one more week. Hopefully someone here will have a good suggestion or link to what I need! :)
To give a bit of explanation here, as part of an attempt to gain access into a rival organization, the PCs decide on the following:
1. Clone one of the party members who has a listed bounty by the rival organization. Let's call this party member Alice.
2. Modify and remove select memories of another party member (one that the rival organization does not know about beforehand) so that individual truly believe that they want to join the rival organization's inner circle and that they never have met the other PCs before. Let's call this party member Bob.
3. Modify and remove select memories of Bob again so he truly believes that he tracked down, fought, and defeated Alice, killing her in the process.
4. Arrange for Alice's clone to have the very wounds that Bob believes he inflicted on Alice (best if Bob actually inflicts said wounds - a real battle can be done to help support the false memories implanted into Bob afterwards).
5. Bob takes Alice's clone (after the 2d4 months period of growing the clone) to the rival organization to gain admission into the organization and since he believes in his own memories that he wants to join the inner circle, he will work towards gaining their trust and learning what he can.
Having said all that, I come back to the question posted in the thread title: can a corpse be identified as a clone? Is there a way (whether it be using skills or via magic) for someone to figure out that a clone is not the original body and that the original is still alive?
I tried looking earlier for any additional information about the clone spell but didn't find quite what I was looking for. Thank you in advance to everyone who replies for any clarification/answers here.
As the title asks, I am curious if anyone here has attempted a conversion of the Mind Mage prestige class from Dragon Magazine? I did a search earlier on this forum but I did not see anything beyond someone doing a base class called Mind Mage.
I am going to give it a try myself but I wanted to check first before I attempted a conversion.
I am slowly implementing psionics into my campaign (via one player who is playing a rather complicated character he converted from 2nd Edition AD&D) and I am a bit confused about Psychic Chirurgery, specifically the transfer of knowledge function.
First, when the telepath manifests this power, do they impart the knowledge of only one power known per manifestation to the target or do they impart a number of powers known to the target equal the target's key ability score for the target's manifester class?
Secondly, can the target benefit from psychic chirurgery from multiple manifestations by the telepath to gain numerous powers known (subject to what the telepath knows) with no limit to the sum of powers known from multiple manifestations OR regardless of how often the target is selected for the psychic chirurgery, they can only ever learn a maximum number of powers known equal to the target's key ability modifier for their manifesting class?
As to how the player character is getting psychic chirurgery manifested on him, he is paying a telepath for their services. I am not worried about the player character paying a high level telepath to receive the benefits of this power since the campaign is a high level game (and based on the character's adventures in 2nd Edition AD&D, he knows a few high level telepaths).
I appreciate all help in dispelling my confusion regarding psychic chirurgery. Thank you.
I strongly suspect that RAI (and almost certainly RAW, but continue reading to see what I mean), the cerebremancer prestige class is intended for a character who has an arcane spellcasting class and a manifesting class only.
However, the psychic mage archetype's Formulaic Powers' description could be argued that the psychic mage can get around that hurdle by virtue of having the necessary powers in his spellbook (because the reading of the ability states that his manifester level for such powers is equal to his caster level).
Can anyone shed some official light on whether or not a psychic mage can get into the cerebremancer prestige class on its own without having to have an actual manifester class prior to entering the prestige class?
Namely, the Illithid psychic sword that is described in the AD&D The Illithiad. I am running a Forgotten Realms adventure for some friends who still have their 2nd Edition pcs (we are converting them to PF) and they have a collection of gear that I am trying to convert (for whatever reason, their DMs were big on magical loot and they got quite a few items that are essentially minor artifacts in 3.5/PF).
Anyways, one of the items I am having a bit of difficulty converting is the Illithid psychic sword and I was hoping that a 3rd party publisher might have already done something similar to the item in question.
In 2nd Edition, the sword's enhancement bonus to attack and damage was dependent on the user's intelligence (which is easily replaced with the psychic enhancement for weapons), granted specific powers based on your intelligence, and had a 50% chance per hit of treating said attack as if the target did not have any magical defenses.
So, yeah, a weird weapon to convert so I am hoping that a 3rd party publisher has done something similar already.
Thank you for any suggestions to a 3rd party publisher/material that may have covered this.
OK, I can't say much right now (at work) but there is a Kickstarter going on right now that anyone who is a fan of the Kingmaker AP should check out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-kingmaker
I have read through numerous suggestions on changing Vordakai's spells selections, feats, adding more class levels, and etc. All of them are great ideas but I wanted to go for an entirely fresh take (no pun intended) on him.
So instead of Vordakai having arcane spells, I was looking at recasting (heh) him as a psychic. Because I run a mythic campaign, I considered making him mythic as well but then I saw the following two templates: psychic lich and dread lord.
With those two templates in mind (I can alter his mental stats slightly so that it will fit whatever psychic discipline I decided on for him), there are a few things I wanted more information/recommendations on to reach a satisfying and memorable villain.
Although I might still make Vordakai mythic as well (I have 5 experienced players, with above average optimized mythic characters), I was looking for a good archetype for the psychic class to help bring in the flavour of Vordakai being a necromancer and/or a devotee to the Four Horsemen. In addition, I need an appropriate psychic discipline.
So far, based on my limited knowledge of the psychic class (pretty much only official Paizo material but I am open to 3rd Party materials if you know of any good ones for the psychic class), I have the following: male cyclops psychic 9 (warp discipline) with the dread lord template and the psychic lich template. His CR should be CR 14 (in theory). By the time my players reach him, their characters should be 9th level, with 4 mythic tiers (4 mythic pcs, 1 mythic gm'ed pc, and 2 animal companions).
Can anyone suggest for consideration other disciplines and/or psychic archetypes? One thing I am doing to make him especially frightening/weird is the addition of a countenanced carbuncle (from the Vampire Hunter D pathfinder supplement that was only available through a Kickstarter last year, as far as I know) that was a gift from the Four Horsemen.
Thanks for reading and any recommendations you may have. Cheers!
As the title suggests, I am curious to what else has other DMs used to supplement their Kingmaker campaign, particularly in regards to 3rd party publishers.
Personally I have mostly used Legendary Games' stuff (for fey, mythic, and additional adventures), but I have also used Neil Spider's Realm of the Fey Night Queen and inserted bits and pieces crafted by fellow DMs who posted on this board.
Luckily for me, Legendary Games is compiling all of their previous products meant for a Kingmaker campaign into a single book, along with new content (thanks to an on-going Kickstarter), but I am always keeping an eye out for interesting content/products to add to my campaign (from written materials to illustrations and fantastic cartography).
Please feel free to comment on what you used (good or bad) and if it was memorable for your group?
As the title indicates, I would like to have an alternative for the Tiger Lord's species. Based on the narrative of my campaign, such a large number of human barbarians is not likely. Instead, I need a more primal, animalistic perhaps, specie in lieu of humans. Basically, a race is that not one of the core or common races.
I am open to 3rd party publishers' materials, it does not have to be intended for players, and it can be monstrous. Restrictions are their CR is no higher than 8, they can wield manufactured weapons, and barbarians (and other similar themed classes) are a viable option for such a race.
I was wondering if there was any published PFRPG adventures that anyone has played or has purchased that can be easily used for a short one evening (or two) that involves subterranean environments similar to the Deep Roads from the Dragon Age game? I am trying to find some decent encounter areas with maps for virtual tabletop use.
Thank you in advance for your advice and recommendations. Oh, and if this thread needs to be moved to another forum, that's fine. I was not 100% certain on which forum would be the right one to ask this particular question.
Would it be simple to adapt this adventure to the Kingmaker AP? From the product description, I can almost picture taking elements of this adventure for the The Varnhold Vanishing or Blood for Blood adventures of the Kingmaker AP.
Does this product have any advice on how to alter/modify the adventure itself in case one was using rules for Kingdom Building, intrigue, or any other optional ruleset put forth by Paizo (or by Legendary Games)?
I do not know about anyone else but some of the encounters in the Varnhold Vanishing did not feel particularly engaging or fun, or rather, I do not think they would be for my players.
Some of the changes I made include changing the giant trap-door spiders to an equal number of spyder-fiends (from 1st Edition Dungeons an Dragons) and I changed the Ettercap scenario to have 1 Ettercap and 2 kuchrimas instead.
Has anyone else altered any of the location sites/encounters to suit their tastes/players' sensibilities, and if so, what did you do?
I could not find any suitable maps online that came close to matching the description of the Nomen Burial Mounds (Area F) in the Varnhold Vanishing, so I decided to give it a stab with my complete lack (no lie) of knowledge/expertise of virtual map-making by cobbling together bits and pieces from here and there online. Here is the link for the map with only the burial mounds (all 29 of them as described in an unspecified spiral pattern in Varnhold Vanishing).
I hope I have not violated any IP here with the link to the base map I made. (I have not added any of the stuff I'd like to insert to match Dudemeister's Cemtaur Graves mod to the Varnhold Vanishing.) Literally everything on that map is cobbled together from stuff I found with images from Google searches. If I am violating some IP rules or net etiquette here, let me know (I am not going to be a jerk about it), and I will delete the upload I added as soon as possible.
For The Varnhold Vanishing, did anyone provide the players with pictures or artwork of the jade bracelet that is described in the adventure?
I am looking into getting something like that as an appropriate handout for my players because it helps to highlight the significance of the item in question. Thus, before I attempt to use my atrocious drawing skills, I figured I check first here to see if anyone else did it before me.
According to the Core Rules, spells with the teleportation descriptor uses the Astral Plane for instantaneous travel. O.k.
In the description of tree stride, even though it has the teleportation descriptor, it is worded that the caster jumps (not literally) from tree to tree and the travel is instantaneous with each jump. It does not really imply that the travel is extradimensional in some fashion beyond the teleportation descriptor. If anything, it almost reads as if it is transportation via the earth or similar medium.
In the dimensional anchor spell description, it explicitly blocks extradimensional travel and lists a series of teleportation spells described in the Core Rulebook (like dimension door, plane shift, teleport, and so forth). It did not include tree stride, which seemed like an odd exclusion to me, since it is a core spell and one of the few long-range teleportation spells for druids.
I honestly do think that by RAW, dimensional anchor blocks tree stride, but I just want to see if others agree with that conclusion or is there something out there by the game designers/developers that indicate, perhaps as RAI, tree stride is not a form of extradimensional travel and was never meant to be hampered by dimensional anchor.
I am o.k. with the RAW conclusion, it is just that I have this nagging feeling that the second interpretation was meant to be the correct interpretation for tree stride.
Please discuss your thoughts on the RAW interpretation and the interaction between these two spells.
As the title above implies, stating up Varnhold is something I have to do since in my Kingmaker Campaign, there is actually more than a year between each book.
That being said, it's a long process (I am only into halfway through Year Two of Kingdom Building for Varnhold), but I have to confess something at this point:
Varnhold Vanishing Plot Spoiler:
...I think...I think the die roller on Roll20 is alive and sentient somehow. Those of you who have read Varnhold Vanishing recall how...small Varnhold was, correct? We were given some context and essentially was suggested that we simply hand-wave it as thus or change it as we like.
However, in true macabre fashion, Varnhold in my campaign, according to the dice rolls, got hit with a Plague Event in month 4 of the first year. Month 4! Then a few months after that Plague Event was finally put down (it persisted for 3 months), Varnhold got nailed to the wall with the Inquisition Event. It has not even been 2 years, and this poor kingdom of Maegar Varn required the building of Graveyards, Dumps, Crematoriums, and Houses. Lots and lots of Houses.
At this point, the Kingdom suffered more than 12 points of permanent penalties to Stability and if I had to add in all of the Unrest that they suffered, it would probably exceed 20 points. Their Treasury hit the negatives twice! Kingdom Leaders had to sell off their most expensive magical items to deposit BP in the Treasury just to save the Kingdom.
Truly, the dies are malicious and terrible in their sentience.
Misery aside, has anyone else developed Varnhold according to the Kingdom Building rules (I use Ultimate Rulership from Legendary Games, along with additional buildings from Jon Brazer Enterprise and the Wayfinders magazines)?
How differently is your Varnhold, or even the Varnling Host?
For the Kingmaker campaign I run (on Roll20), I have been using a combination of the Kingdom Building rules from Ultimate Campaign (by Paizo) and Ultimate Rulership (by Legendary Games). I just recently hit a snag that I missed noticing beforehand. Basically, my players want to get rid of a cursed item and I provided a roleplaying opportunity for that choice in the form of the Witchmarket (a mobile fey-sponsored black market) that revealed itself to them while they were resting before they have to make a series of passionate speeches to convince different fey factions in the forest to work together to defeat an evil fey sorcerer (if this is ringing a bell for any of you, that's because I am currently running my players through a modified version of The Realm of the Fellnight Queen module).
The cursed item they want to get rid of is a bag of devouring (that almost sucked in the grippli alchemist) that they found (from a modified version of Entombed with the Pharaohs module). I can see what would be the value of the bag of devouring since its market price is listed in the Black Markets (by Paizo) book. Its value is definitely higher than the Purchase Limit of the Witchmarket but given how the merchants are fey, they often ask for something of value (to them) from the buyers instead of coin (or gems). I like to ask for ideas from the community on devious, innovative, or flat-out weird requests by a fey merchant from the Witchmarket.
I hope to see some interesting suggestions from you guys, ;)
Currently the majority of our gaming group is having difficulties meeting online for a rpg campaign through Roll20. It is not due to a lack of interest on the behalf of the players; rather, life takes unexpected twists and often other priorities come first.
That being said, in order to prevent the campaign from dying simply because it has been too long since the last gaming session, at least 2 players (not including the GM) are required to play per game session. When there are absent players (for whatever reason), the present players will be given control of the absent player(s)' characters. This is an agreement that our gaming group has decided on; there will be no grudges held in case of character deaths (so long as it was not done deliberately; any attempts to deliberately cause the death of an absent players' character is ignored and the GM will take over control of the character at that point to prevent further abuse).
The game is held online through Roll20 (we currently live in different cities but we have known each other since our membership days at a rpg-gaming club at York University more than a decade ago). The rules system we use is predominantly PF-based, with some adjustments. The campaign is fantasy-based, with a lower magic setting (any spellcasting class that grants spell levels higher than 6th level are not available; psionics is mostly not available either).
The Kingdom-Building rules system is in use, with modifications and other adjustments, along with the Mythic Adventures rules set and add-ons (such as The Tome of Battle from 3.5 D&D).
We strive to have a game session at least once a month. Length of a game session varies from 4 hours to 8 hours, depending on how much free time we have available.
The campaign is intended to have a fantasy feel to it similar to many rpg video games (without the excessive magic). While many published modules and segments from AP are incorporated, these are heavily modified.
What are we looking for? A player with some familiarity with Pathfinder or 3.5 D&D, but limited experience; meaning, we like to have a member with less than 5 years of playing D&D and Pathfinder combined. Why? For one thing, we believe that having someone with a fresh perspective on gaming is likely to bring in new ideas and concepts that we haven't tried before.
Another benefit is that a less experienced player tends to be a younger player, and a younger player is less likely to have as many obligations and priorities as most of the group members, thus increasing the chances that we will have at least 2 players when we try to have a game session. Yes, this sounds a bit selfish on our part, but we're trying to keep this online campaign alive.
We are, however, not interested in people who have the following gaming style/gaming personalities: power-gamers and rules-lawyers. We strive to make sure that everyone has a good time and roughly the same amount of contributions (albeit in different ways) to the success of the adventuring group; we also do not want to spend valuable time in-game on arguing about rules and so forth. It is not that we cannot work cooperatively with power-gamers or rules-lawyers (we have done so in the past quite successively), it is just that we are at a point in our lives where we don't need or want additional aggravation.
While we have no preference in gender or ethnic background, we are hoping to include a female gamer into the group to expand the group's diversity. A meeting in person with anyone who express interest in joining our group is required first so that we can discuss and get a fair sense of each other's personality and quirks, :)
If interested or you have specific questions regarding the campaign itself, please send me a PM.
I have a rather interesting issue to deal with for my Kingmaker campaign. But before I can get to the actual question/request, I have to explain the context.
To keep the long story short, in my campaign, the storylines revolve around how the world had suffered world-changing events that wiped out the majority of the races but there were plans put into place that would allow for a large number of individuals from a group of several different intelligent races to "survive" and "awaken" to "start over again" after the damage to the world was naturally repaired.
Fast forward nearly a 1000 years after the last "awakening" and we arrive to the current game year in the campaign where the player characters are building quite the robust kingdom and investigating every ruins they find as it may unlock additional secrets. I am running the campaign in a way that it has the feel of playing a fantasy rpg video-game. So naturally, I incorporated different portions of various systems (i.e., Tome of Battle and the prestige points/fame introduced by Paizo) for a PFRPG-based gameplay.
Because I want to give my players more options for how to spend their BP, I said that whenever they "unlocked" a new area or discovered pieces of lore from previous civilizations, they can spend BP to "unlock" specializations or benefits for the kingdom.
My question/request is this: in regards to magic, my players want their kingdom to research types of magic and perhaps unlock specializations in magic. On an individual-basis, it's not a problem, but for spending BP, what kind of kingdom benefits and drawbacks can you think of and what would be the BP cost?
For example, if they wanted the magical academies and universities they built on Candlemere Isle (which is the centre of very power ley lines) to focus their research into healing magics (such as discovering a means to improve arcane healing), what kind of game benefits/drawbacks would you devise and more importantly, how would you implement the game mechanics (i.e., prestige class, new army boons for an arcane spellcasting unit to have the Healing boon, a bonus to Stability checks, and so forth) to represent those benefits/drawbacks?
I already have some ideas but I also want to benefit from the experiences and insights that other GMS may have as well. I am certain that I will be able to implement some of your ideas, :)
As indicated above in the topic heading, I am looking for advice and tips on running a Kingmaker campaign but adjusted with low-magic (no spellcasting above 6th and classes that have spells up to 9th are npcs instead, and pcs cannot take magic item creation beyond potions, scrolls, and wands) and mythic rules (the pcs will eventually become mythic and face mythic trials).
I understand that there are discrepancies between low level and higher levels in regards to requiring access to successively stronger magic items in order to overcome the encounters. I am not 100% but by giving the pcs mythic tiers, I can alleviate some of the discrepancies. I am looking at rewarding the pcs with boons at certain stages or completion of adventures to signify their improvement as heroic adventurers (similiar to what you would experience in a rpg-themed video game).
I also will be lowering the costs of healing magics such as potion and low-level healing spells at "churches" while tying higher level healing spells to quests instead of monetary costs.
Beyond those adjustments, what other recommendations do you fine folks have?
I was re-reading Into The Maw (for probably the 17th time) and I just realised that the magical field of effect (the forbiddance/sympathy combo) surrounding Divided's Ire may interact with the synthesist archetype of the summoner base class in a couple of odd ways.
Spoiler:
The sympathy effect in this case affects all outsiders in the area. Normally, you cannot target the eidolon separately from the synethesist. There are exceptions that are called out, such as banishment and dismissal, so I imagine that area of effects are also valid options, assuming they make sense. I think the sympathy effect applies since eidolons, while existing as a coat of armour on the synthesist, still have their own saves and mental attributes (which implies they are still affected by mind-affecting effects). So the question becomes "What happens if the eidolon fails its Will save against the sympathy but the synthesist makes his Will save?
Also, the forbiddance effect prevents planar travel, including teleportation spells, into ir within the area. If an eidolon is dismissed (voluntarily or not), what happens to the eidolon then? Is the eidolon forcibly shunted back to its home plan or does the forbiddance prevents it from leaving? If the latter, does the eidolon remain as inert mass (providing no benefits whatsoever) or slough off like decaying putrid flesh? I am not even sure if spells like banishment or dismissal actually works in an area covered by forbiddance.
The only reason why I even thought about this is because one of my players plays as a synethesist (never again, by the way, will I allow this class - it is way too good) and it would be a good idea to have explored this possible situation beforehand.
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Hey all,
I have a small handful of concerns regarding the spell mentioned in the title. I did search the message board and the PRD, but utimately none of them really addressed what I was curious about (or maybe they did but I somehow blanked out while reading a bunch of posts - if so, sorry about that).
I have read in great depth the descriptions of the illusion school, and its associated subschools. I understand that spell descriptions usually takes priority over the general rules of what spells of the relevant schools and subschools are supposed to do, mechanically-wise. However, Haunting Mists is a bit confusing (as I can interpret it, RAW, in more than one way, with neither interpretation being more correct than the other). With that being said, here are my concerns/queries:
(1) What aspect of the spell effect is actually just the figment (which can also be responsible for the fear descriptor here) and what aspect is responsible for the shadow descriptor?
(2) If the illusionary mists are infused with shadow (hence making them partially real), does effects like true seeing fail to penetrate through the mists (since true seeing cannot penetrate through effects that grant concealment)? Normally, true seeing defeats all illusion, but that would not be the case if the mists were somewhat physically real (and therefore as solid as a normal fog, which defeats true seeing). Hence, my confusion here.
(3) I am assuming, based on the description within the text of haunting mists, that the point of origin of the spell is centred on the caster, and not at any point within the listed range of 20 feet (based on the fact that the spell itself is a spread with a radius of 20 feet). Am I correct or wrong on this assumption?
(4) If the mists are partially real, that would imply that it is subject to wind effects. If they are not, then no wind effects would disperse it. Obviously the answer to (2) would provide the correct answer here. This is important to know since my players love to use wind-based spells (and other similar spells) to control encounters to their advantage, especially when outnumbered.
(5) While I am pretty certain the Will save is only required when exposed to the mists for the first time or each time anyone re-enters the mists, it would be nice to get a confirmation on this.
(6) If someone with the ability to see through fog and similar effects (such as the storm druid archetype) encounters the effect (whether from the outside or from the inside of the spell effect), can they see through the spell effect? I can ask this because figments create false sensations. If there was a Will save (disbelief), then a success would allow any character to see through the illusionary mists (albeit they remain as translucent mists), while a failed save on a disbelief is no help. This leads me to conclude that because the spell does not have a Will save disbelief, the storm druid cannot pierce the illusionary mists, since her senses are giving her false sensory input that overrides what her senses would normally tell her. Again, a bit of clarity would help here in understanding exactly what haunting mists is supposed to function/work.
Much appreciated to anyone (especially anyone from the Paizo Design Team) who offers any insight to the concerns/queries above.
As the title might suggest, I am working on conversions/updates of the notable "The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb," a work that many of you may be quite familiar with. I have recently embarked on my own conversions of the 3.5 updated version listed in Dungeon Magazine to Pathfinder.
I am inquiring into any data and research others may have utilized in their own conversions of this fine adventure. Although I am increasing the difficulty of the encounters, I am curious as to modifications others have made. I do not require statblocks per se, but rather ideas or recommendations. I am fully aware of the concerns dealing with intellectual properties so I will not be posting my conversions here either. If someone wanted me to provide them with a copy of my conversions of the encounters within The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb, that is something I can do.
For your reference, I am increasing the difficulty of all encounters by three levels. I'm strictly using only Paizo products instead of 3rd parties because I do not have access to most 3rd party products. I'm also testing the adventure with a rather large variety of different groups of characters to test how versatile I can make the adventure.
Thank you kindly in advance for your time and thoughts.
Due to the hectic work schedule I had for the last four weeks, I only noticed now that the items I had ordered weeks ago have yet to arrive. As far as I can understand, the Great Golem Sale was a phenomenal success and resulted in more than a few delayed orders. I am o.k. with that situation. I was wondering if there is any update regarding my order?
I'm already working on converting "Into The Maw," and I have run into a few concerns. My biggest concerns are (a) am I doing the conversions appropriately, and (b) are some of the choices I made fit into the character of the npc?
So, for those of you who have ran "Into The Maw" as a PF conversion, listed below are the changes I made (not full stat blocks but rather key differences) and I would like your input.
SPOILERS AHOY, PLAYERS BE GONE! Also really long.:
Most creatures are straightfoward in the sense that they have already been done in the Bestiary 1-3. Other required some thinking.
The filth demons are built from scratch - I gave them 21 HD, the chaotic and evil subtypes, but not the demon subtype, even though they pratically share most of the same qualities, because their description indicate that they're not demons born from mortal souls/sin, but from "pools of fetid ooze that collect in the cracks and crevices of Abyssal resrvoirs and sewers." I made their Powerful Bite ability doubled Strength modifier to damage and doubled threat range. This seemed more appropriate to me since their "mouth" looks just as dangerous as a shark or t-rex. Everything else is a straightforward conversion. Not sure if it warrants a CR 14 or something less.
Belshamoth is a shaggy demodand, straight from Bestiary 3. No changes other than adjusting feats to resemble that which Belshamoth originally had and changing the morningstar to the guisarme.
Blood fiends...damn, they were annoying at first but ultimately, I made them from scratch as undead. I was tempted to make them originally outsiders who become vampires but then their BAB, saves, and so forth would be too good. So, Large 16 HD undead from scratch, and gave them most of the special qualities from the vampire template except for stat boosts and extra feats. Their eight feats selection reflects the bonus feats that a vampire would have gained, except for Alertness, I left that out as that seemed ridiculous on top of the +8 racial modifiers to the relevant skills. I think I ended up with something that has the same challenge rating as the original blood fiends - 15.
Greater Lemorian Golem - built from scratch, 30 HD Huge construct. Mainly the same abilities as the original 3.5 version but I changed dual nature so that the golem could not be flanked (with it have two heads and all). Among the feats that it purchased, I decided on Critical Focus and Sickening Critical (makes sense in conjunction with its Rot ability).
Jariaxer - standard babau demon with ten levels of rogue with the chameleon and scout archetypes. Even though I used the standard babau stats, they were modified as a normal monster with heroic class levels (so +4, +4, +2, +2, +0, -2, assigned as desired). CR 17. I focused on Feints and Trips for this npc. I decided on her having ranks in Craft (alchemy) so that she had the ability to devise certain alchemical items from one or two of the labs that I have inserted in Divided's Ire (hey, it was built by Demogorgon, of course there has to be at least one lab for experimenting on prisoners).
Kululblax - similar to Jariaxer, standard glabrezu, with three levels of barbarian (true primitive and wild rager archetypes) and 2 levels of ranger. CR 18. Feats are pretty much the same as listed in the adventure but Double Slice is one of his feats, along with Improved Sunder. I have pictured as this out-of-control warden who is happy to destroy anything that gets in the way of his fun.
Lazruvakus - what the hell? Took a while but decided on building it from scratch as a gargantuan dragon with the earth and fire subtype, plus the advanced and fiendish templates with 30 HD. I think the CR is right as 21. I ran mock battles against the Deep Sea Serpent (CR 21) and the fight can go either way, depends on who goes first and how the dice rolls for damage. Even though they're not PF feats, I decided on the Awakened Frightful Presence, Fast Healing, and Shock Wave feats from the 3.5 Draconomicon for this ancient beast. Still, this is one slow monster, with a pretty lousy fly speed. PCs have an easy time of running away or pinging at it from a distant, at which point it will just hide and slumber again.
Lynnara - standard succubus, with eight levels of bard (court bard archetype) and eight levels of Thrall of Malcanthet. I believe this gives her the correct CR of 19, not 17 as listed in the adventure (I have no idea as to how they arrived at that number). For her, I did almost everything possible to skyrocket her social skills. With the same gear as listed in the adventure, her Bluff modifier is 63 without any magical boost (such as glibness). It is all ranks, stat modifier, racial modifiers, feats, and class features. I'm rather proud of that kind of Bluffing power (her Disguise is almost in the 50's) but I really cannot hide the fact that she's a demon if the players use true seeing. I'm tempted to have her disguise as a tiefling instead - much more believable.
Mature nabasu - straight from Bestiary 1, with 10 growth points. CR 15.
Nalfeshnee - straight from Bestiary 1.
Nycaloth mercenaries - built from scratch, with four levels of fighter. Total 18 HD outsider, with the evil and yugoloth subtypes (essentially the same as the one from 3.5). Sure, I could have used daemons, but it didn't seem as fitting as an actual yugoloth. CR 14. Same gear, feats selection is nothing fancy.
Quasit - straight from Bestiary 1.
S'Shara - built from scratch as a 12 HD outsider with the chaotic, demon, and evil subtypes, and eight levels of anti-paladin (total of 20 HD). CR 18. I carried over the kelvezu abilities into the PF versions. Her feat selections reflect her two-weapon fighting style and Spring Attack feat tree.
Kelubar - I made them Tarry Demodands, CR 13.
Vanthus - He is still at CR 20. Graveknight template, on top of the Lemorian half-fiend, and he's a fighter 15 (two-weapon archetype), aristocrat 1, rogue 1 (rake). His weapons are cutlass instead of the weapons listed in the adventure. Not the most tricked out npc but I made sure the feats selection played to his strengths, and his gear has been changed (I even used the Mastercraft qualities from Dragon #358 to improve his gear so that it would not sunder so easily - again, Demogorgon is master of alchemy and crafting magic items). His base AC is 43, not bad, before any improvements, such as Combat Expertise or Defensive Flurry.
Vrock - same as Bestiary 1.
The only things I have not finished yet are Lillianth, the shadows of Socothbenoth, Saureya, and Orgosh. Lillianth is a bit tricky, but I am thinking of giving her eight levels of inquisitor. As a tactician and former general, I am thinking she was good at understanding her enemies and their weaknesses. Her job was to destroy the enemies of Graz'zt, and to me, inquisitor (and its class abilities) seem like a natural fit for Lillianth. I am thinking that in terms of determining the CR, inquisitors fall in the same role as paladins and monks.
Saureya, I am not sure yet what to do with him. Orgosh is naturally a necromancer. I might change his feats around or supplement him with feats that improve undead.
So, thoughts? If requested, I could forward the exact stat blocks. Ah, one thing to keep in mind is that I view natural spell resistance to increase with CR. Since SR = 11 + CR, if the monster's CR increase because of HD or class levels, the SR goes up too. I find it keeps SR relevant at higher levels of gameplay that way.
My players will be learning of the whereabouts of the Crimson Fleet's hideout and I was wondering how did other DMs handle running this section of the Serpents of Scuttlecove? I imagine that having a 3D model set up is ideal but were there anything else you choose to do to make it more memorable or to facilitate your job as a DM?
I have already converted all of the denizens to PFRPG, including Harliss herself as well (I made her a variant of the Aldori Swordlord prestige class) and I am looking at changing one of the Crimson Fleet captains into a musket-wielding gunslinger instead since it is thematically appropriate to have a sharpshooter on top of that 30 foot tall tower.
I appreciate any advice, feedback, and ideas others may have. My players' party composition includes an elven gunslighter/synthesist, an undine world walker/nature warden (whose animal companion is a t-rex), a human seeker sorcerer, and an olman oracle with the Life mystery.
While I like Emraag the Glutton as presented, I was looking into altering the encounter to inject a more otherworldly feel that would hint at the alien atmosphere of The Lightless Depths. How does swapping out the Dragon Turtle for an Uzollru (both the same CR), described on page 41 of Dragon Magazine #349, sound to you?
Do anyone think that an Uzollru might be a bit too much? It does make sense, in my mind, for an aquatic abyssal monster to be present on the Isle of Dread's surrounding waters.
I have a rather specific question and I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction. I wanted to make the interaction between Alicavniss and the pcs more memorable (I think she's just that damn cool) and I was thinking of somehow providing the opening and closing dialogue of Alicavniss in an actual female voice. Now, I am a pretty decent actor but faking a female voice is rather hard for a guy (try doing that while sporting a moustache and a beard -- your attempts fall flat and your players just laugh). I could just ask a female friend if she is interested in doing a recording for me but most of my female friends have never done roleplaying before and it might make them feel uncomfortable.
In short, what I am asking is has anyone else used a software or application that allowed them to record or type in a dialogue that they could convert to play in a different voice or tone range? I can do the research myself but I figured I ask first here on the Paizo forums to see if I could first benefit from the experience and knowledge of my fellow DMs.
I'm not expecting a miracle here, just suggestions and/or actual experience/knowledge. Thanks a lot in advance.
I was going through "Endless Night" and adjusting Alicavniss Vonnarc to a higher level (since my players' pcs are of higher level than the suggested level for the adventure), when I realised that there are a few flaws in her stat block.
npc:
For example, her initiative modifier should be +7, not +4, since her Dexterity modifier is +3 and she has the Improved Initiative feat. Her spell resistance should be 29 (11 + class levels [18] = 29). Her casting of mage armor seems redundant since she already has an armor bonus from a magical item (and it grants a higher bonus to boot).
Finally, her selection of spells seem to violate her prohibited schools (abjuration and enchantment). Banishment, greater dispel magic, stoneskin, and dispel magic are all of the abjuration school.
Besides a few other things that I thought were kind of pointless for Alcavniss to have, those are the primary errors I noticed (not including the silly typo about her gender). I am sorry if these errors were already pointed out in another thread (didn't see it when I did a quick search). Has anyone else noticed these errors and what changes have you considered to substitute the errors?
I original paid for the .pdf version of AD&D OP1: Tales of the Outer Planes (order number 753020) and I can no longer can see it in my downloads. Now I understand that there may be a legal issue involving the older editions (since they're under WoTC's care - I'm not particularly educated about the matter) but I am hoping there is a way I can download the .pdf file again because last month my computer crashed (big time) and I just finally got it restored. Unfortunately, my copy of that .pdf was among the many unrecoverable files.
Is there anything that Paizo can do? I hate to think I lost money on this investment, :(
Given my players' predilection to steal everything of value that is not literally impossible to obtain (i.e., stuff that is not glued down), I noticed that the large blood-red piece of quartz in the ceiling of areas 8-9 in the Shrine To Demogorgon is probably going to be removed by the party (having profession [miner] helps significantly in that endeavour).
So my question is just how big is this quartz? If natural sunlight is supposed to be filtered through it (an odd thing since the area outside is supposed to be gloomy given the heavy fog) and it is bathing the entire area with a red light, does that mean it is at least a foot in diameter?
I guess my real question is what is the value ascribed to the quartz? Sure, I can place whatever value I want to it, as I am the DM, but I like having, not exactly an official value, but rather a value that would be consistent to other gems or similiar "treasures" for the future. I, and my players, do like some form of consistency in the game, if only to add that little bit of realism to the game.
Thanks in advance for any advice in this matter, :)
I was just curious to see if anyone else had added any other encounters for the party while they were travelling on the coastal pass in HTBM as they progress towards Fogmire.
Personally, I modified some of the suggested encounters from the adventure and some of those suggested by board members to make things as creepy and stressful as possible for the party. However, I did make one original encounter (I think, unless I was inspired by someone else's contributions and simply forgotten who).
The party settled down for the night at an abandoned olman village on a large beach. They had found evidence of a massive violent event that probably contributed to the disappearance of the natives there. As they were camping, they were visited by the ghosts of the slain Olmans. The party saw the natives going on by their daily life, ignoring the pcs until they screamed, pointing to the sky. Ghostly figures of gargoyles dived from the sky, bringing death to the Olmans. The pcs witnessed the entire carnage, helpless to stop the gargoyles dropping several villagers into the ocean several hundred feet above the water.
As the carnage faded away, the party wizard, a neurotic and paranoid fellow, saw, illuminated in the light of the full moon on a cliff ledge far away, the silhouette of a large ape that howled. It threw something towards the beach before disappearing under the shadows of the clouds as they obscured the moon. The pcs went to investigate and fought only one pair of footprints, belonging to that of a large ape. The object it threw onto the beach turned out to be a bloodstained thighbone of an ape. As they pondered upon this weird turn of events, a low fog billowed off the shores, only to break to let various undead walk out from the sea. A small group of skeletons, zombies, and aquatic ghasts make their way towards the campsite to act everyone there. By the 4th round, the leader of the undead arrives...one of the drowned (MM 3, I think).
Overall, it was a good, scary fight where the party had to rush to defeat all of the undead as soon as possible. They didn't hold back against the drowned, and despite that, they still nearly lost the pc cleric, and 4 npcs. Most of the pcs have mid-long attack range so they could fight the drowned one without too much risk. Another bonus from this encounter is that the pcs now really want to defeat the next group of gargoyles they will meet.
As the party now heads to Fogmire, I am planning to insert another creepy encounter for them prior to finding the shrine. Did anyone else do something like this to shake the party up? :)
I was wondering if anyone knew either a good website that features a variety of fantasy art that I can browse to obtain the right visual aids for my campaigns. One of the things that I do need to find is a really good picture of a nightmare (the horse one, not your generic nightmares), and other mythological creatures. I'm also looking for creepy scenery and etc. I appreciate any help. I already found a few websites but there is so much more than I can handle and I know I can rely on the good taste of the Paizo community, ;)
I would like to cancel my subscription, following the shipment of the 16th volume of the Pathfinder adventure paths. I do enjoy reading the materials but lately the amount of actual gaming I have done in the last 8 months can be counted on one hand. I still have enough gaming material to last me for the next 20 years and it would just be irresponsible of me to continue paying for a subscription that I am most likely not going to use in the future, immediate or otherwise.
I like to thank Paizo for its fantastic work since its involvement in both Dragon and Dungeon magazines and up to its Pathfinder series, along with other innovative contributions to the roleplaying games community. I hope to one day become an active member again of the community as it certainly is full of talented, creative, and insightful individuals (with an instinct for comedy gold) who all share a common hobby.
Thank you Paizo, and its wonderful authors, for making D&D a great storytelling game once again. :)
I am looking for this feat that allowed spellcasters to use their spells to ignore any animal, plant, and natural environments and I think I saw something like it in a Dragon magazine. Either that or in one of the various splat books. Does anyone know what I am talking about or did I conjure that nonexistant feat in my head only?
I was just going through this adventure in preparation for my players when I noticed a few things. I was wondering if they were genuine mistakes or just slipped by...
First of all, if the pcs accept the solar's offer to transport them via wish to the location of the portal, they are pretty much hosed. Not only are they dropped in a cavern that is capable of draining them of Constitution every round of physical contact, they are also pretty much in range of every symbol traps (since they're transported to the centre of the cavern, and the range of the symbols is 60 feet).
This is just nitpicking but I was wondering why Huersefful has Improved Spell Capacity when he has no metamagic feats to take advantage of with Improved Spell Capacity? Also, why would Huersefful have Spell Worm as an epic spell? That spell does take 1 full minute to cast. I doubt he will have opportunity to cast that particular epic spell in combat. Both are easy enough to fix. I altered Huersefful to have at least 1 metamagic feat and replaced Spell Worm with Ruin.
For Voursuol, all she has to do is just let loose with her blasphemy spell-like ability and the pcs are dead if they are in range. It is an evocation spell, with the sonic descriptor. So unless they are immune to it, they are automatically dead since Voursuol's effect caster level when she uses her spell-like abilities is 43rd and that is at least 10 levels higher than the recommended 30th level pcs. No save, to boot (the banishment effect is the only one that allows a save but it is irrelevant in the Hourglass).
There are a few other things that caught my eye but they are easily ignored or altered.
I will be running this adventure with the Pathfinder beta RPG primarily to see how it handles the higher levels.
Anybody else ran this adventure (whether it be D&D 3.5 or otherwise)? If so, how did your players' pcs fare?
Out of curiosity, did anyone else find the Dark Mountain Pass (in HTBM) insanely brutal? Especially
Spoiler:
the spears trap? My players had beefed themselves up just prior to crossing the bridge so they wanted to "run" through the entire complex while still enjoying the benefits of their spells. Since they didn't bother with disturbing the dead in area 3, they found the entrance to area 4 without encountering anything else other than the centipedes. However, the priest decided to stroll in and open the sarcophagus. Of course that sets off the trap. 1d6 spears per target in the room is just nasty, with a save for each spear that hits (not hard with its attack bonus). Tavey alone suffered 8 points of Con damage while the rest suffered, on average, 3 points of Con damage. Now they have to deal with the mummies that will arriving soon after. More Con damage (thanks Mummy Rot!) I sincerely doubt the entire party is going to surive.
I am just wondering if perhaps the brutality of Dark Mountain Pass was intentional or just accidental. Of course, it doesn't help the party if they don't have a single rogue or scout.
At any rate, feel free to share your experiences with Dark Mountain Pass.
I was away on an extended trip so I did not get to check my shipment as soon as it has arrived. However, upon checking my shipment, I noticed that the GameMastery Combat Pad that I ordered only has the magnetic wet- and dry-erase board. It did not include any of the indicators nor the magnets. I thought it was odd that the board was in its plastic package by itself. Are the other items packaged separately? I'd appreciate any help on this matter. Thank you.
CB out.
[EDIT]
Nevermind, I am a completely idiot since I did not checked the back of the pad. IF I did, I would have realised the magnets and indicators are there. Duh.
