How is the bone spear spell supposed to work? The Target line says "One creature", but is that supposed to be one Thrall, or is the Target of the spell also the Target of a thrall's attack? Should the Target line read "One of your Thralls" perhaps? If we assume the former, that it's supposed to be a Thrall that's within the 10-foot range, then that means it's possible for the Necromancer to catch themselves in the path of the resulting line.
I've noticed that a lot of sounds and music in the Playlist reference specific scenes or events. I remember seeing the "how to use" page mention that there would be links and references to these audio cues, to remind the GM to play those. But those links aren't in the journal entries. Did I miss where they're supposed to be, or would it be possible to edit the journal entries to tell me where I should be playing certain audio tracks? It's a bad feeling to find out AFTER a specific scene that there's custom music for it.
Everyone seems to love to hate on the Chirurgeon alchemist. It's not just that the name is hard to spell and pronounce. Someone playing this particular version wants to be the go-to guy for healing, except they're handing them out ahead of time instead of doing it on the spot. Problem is, they don't hold a candle to a cleric's ability to heal. Initially they look just fine, and perhaps at higher levels it works out to be good enough, but there's a critical point -- between levels 2 and 5 -- where the Chirurgeon simply isn't doing well enough. For starters, the Elixir of Life. The 1st-level version heals 1d6 and gives a +1 bonus against diseases and poisons for ten minutes. It's an okay amount, only a little worse than a healing potion or a touch-based Heal spell. But for most characters, when they need some healing they're in bad shape, and getting out that elixir requires four actions -- stowing their weapon, getting out the elixir, drinking it, then readying their weapon again. By comparison, a cleric can simply cast a two-action Heal and give that person 1d8+8 hit points, at range. Or even just a one-action Heal for 1d8 by touch, if they're already adjacent, and still have most of their round to do other things. When a party has advanced to 3rd level, their hit points have doubled and their damage potential starts to scale up. But so have their opponents, so the amount of damage they're taking increases proportionately. And that 3rd-level alchemist is still handing out 1d6 healing elixirs. Only difference is he can maybe afford to give out a few extra. Now, a lot of classes get some sort of special ability at 3rd level, but alchemists don't. They just get the usual feats like everyone. Granted, they also get access to new formulas, but that assumes they have the time to make things. A Chirurgeon doesn't get anything extra, because by RAW they only have three formulas on their list -- antiplague, antitoxin, and healing elixirs. They can pick two of these to be signature, getting three doses per batch instead of two during their morning preparations... but the option to switch one out at every level is wasted on them. Especially once they hit 5th level and automatically get that benefit with healing elixirs. By RAW, they only have three formulas on their list, so they'll always have the same signature items. Now, I've played around with the numbers a bit, and come to the conclusion that, when compared to a cleric's ranged Heal spell, an alchemist's healing elixirs are about half as effective -- but a Chirurgeon can crank these suckers out in significant quantities. At 13th level, for instance, a cleric probably has four or five free castings of Heal, while a Chirurgeon can hand out twenty-seven elixirs and only use up half of his allotment of reagents. So half as much at a time, but over triple the amount overall. Anyway, back to the thread title. What needs to be fixed? First, the healing an elixir can give doesn't keep up with a party's needs for healing at middle-low levels (2-4). I suggest, at 3rd level, giving the alchemist the ability to add their Intelligence modifier to the random factor of any alchemical item they create -- the damage for bombs and poisons, the amount healed from elixirs. This gives them a needed boost at that level regardless of their research field, and isn't so much that it overshadows what they can do at higher level. This also balances out the effective loss of the healing elixirs' secondary benefit -- once a Chirurgeon reaches 7th level, they're going to be dumping antidote and antiplague into their allies' food, so the elixirs' save bonus is useless. Second, the Chirurgeon doesn't get very many options. Let them have any non-mutagen elixir on the list of alchemical creations they can choose as signature formulas. Third, expand on the base ability of the Chirurgeon, the ability to use a Craft check to Treat Wounds. Remove the need for medical supplies, assume they instead use alchemical means -- dumping strange powders into open wounds, asking the subject to drink something suspect, stuff like that. Let their Craft skill substitute for Medicine in all ways related to the Treat Wounds action, including meeting requirements for feats such as Battlefield Medicine, or using the higher DCs for the Treat Wounds action. Keep the requirement that they be trained in Medicine -- after all, they're not some hack who never even studied a medical journal. They just have... different methods.
Updated alchemist, with a focus on the Chirurgeon but part of this carries over to the other fields. The Research Field ability got the following addition in the 2nd errata: Quote: Your research field adds a number of formulas to your formula book; these are your signature items. When using a batch of infused reagents to create your signature items using advanced alchemy, you create three items instead of two. Each time you gain a level, you can swap one of your signature items with another formula in your formula book. This new signature item must be on your research field's list of possible signature items. Is this intended to cover all formulas of a specific type, allowing for higher-level formulas as the alchemist advances? Or is it always limited to 1st-level items? Is the Chirurgeon, under this revision, meant to have the ability to have any elixir as a signature formula (with the caveat of the above question)? Because if not, then all Chirurgeon alchemists will always have the same two formulas as signature -- they get the same benefit automatically with all Elixirs of Life at 5th level.
The 2nd-round errata added a new feature for Alchemists, to make up for their low number of infused reagents at low level. Quote: Your research field adds a number of formulas to your formula book; these are your signature items. When using a batch of infused reagents to create your signature items using advanced alchemy, you create three items instead of two. Each time you gain a level, you can swap one of your signature items with another formula in your formula book. This new signature item must be on your research field’s list of possible signature items. The last sentence comes across just fine for all the research fields... except the Chirurgeon. Let's compare.
Now, the problem here is that the "list of possible signature items" isn't clearly defined. By RAW, it is only the 1st-level alchemical items of each field's specialty. Except for the much-maligned Chirurgeon, who only has three to pick from. And their Field Discovery at level 5 makes it so that one of those is permanently gaining the same benefit. So what's missing? Clarification. Does an Alchemist's list of potential signature formulas include all formulas of the class that matches their research field? In other words, can a Bomber pick any alchemical bombs as he advances, or is he limited to only the 1st-level list? Was a Chirurgeon supposed to be able to make any elixirs signature formulas, or is he limited to only the three he can pick from? On that subject, why isn't the Chirurgeon able to pick any other elixirs to start? Why don't they get a list to pick from for their Perpetual Infusion ability? Everyone else does, but they only get two.
There's something the rules regarding drugs and addiction that isn't coming across very clearly. To use an example, let's say that someone chokes down a pint of Dwarven Fire Ale. Now, according to the description, four things happen simultaneously:
In what order do you apply these? This is a case where the character's chances of becoming addicted are immediately dependent on whether or not you apply one (or both) of the other effects first.
There's currently a heated debate raging on one of the Facebook groups regarding the Rapid Shot feat. The feat doesn't specify that the additional attack is at your highest bonus, so people are actually trying to argue that it's at your lowest bonus. Seriously. I double-checked this against the latest printing, and the book says "highest bonus" as it should. I've already corrected this on the other SRD site, but you might want to get this fixed on the PRD site as well.
Really, you shouldn't be using them very much. The book points out that you should only tally significant events that match one of the sins or virtues. The activities that come with adventuring won't trigger these, unless someone takes something to an extreme. It also states that the Runeforge only considers someone 'sinful' or 'virtuous' if their score in that direction is at least 5. Also given that doing something virtuous erases a point of sin (or vice versa), it's entirely possible for most of your group to have only a point or two -- or even zero across the board. It shouldn't be hard to think back on anything dramatically sinful or virtuous your PCs have done. Don't worry about getting it exact.
The description of the smugglers' tunnel really doesn't come across very clearly. If you look at the compiled resources thread (here), you'll find a map of the tunnels under Sandpoint. It shows where the smugglers' tunnel leads (both branches), and places the Catacombs in the right spot so you know where it is relative to the town. If you have trouble finding it, let me know. I'll put a copy up for you. (I'd prefer the originator get credit, if you can locate it.)
There's something else you'll probably miss in the text, 'cause I've missed it twice so far. Encounter Layout: At the time the PCs find the goblins in the glassworking room (A17), Tsuto isn't there. He's actually in the basement, having drunk himself to sleep in the hidden office (A22). The problem is, when you get to the part where they describe the encounter, they give you the goblins' stat-block immediately followed by Tsuto's.
At the table, trying to keep everything straight, I ended up interpreting this format to mean that he was present when the PCs came into the glassworking room. Actually, what's supposed to happen is that the goblins recognize the PCs after a few of them die (the goblins, that is), and the survivors flee to the basement. This is kind of important, because otherwise the PCs might not think of looking in there, and therefore fail to find Ameiko.
...or you could allow for their choice to have its natural consequences, especially if they count 'dropping the bridge' as a victory. Let them pat themselves on the back a bit, maybe have a random wilderness encounter or two, then return to Sandpoint claiming to be the almighty heroes. Then, three or four days later, have the town swamped by all the combined goblin tribes of the Hinterlands, led by the equivalent of a full adventuring party with three hounds driving everyone into a panic. Unless they have someone guarding the Smuggler's Tunnel, or blocked it off, part of the attack will come from within the Glassworks, and other attackers will boil out from more tunnels elsewhere. Basically, the wall would be useless as a defensive measure. Arm these goblins with extra incendiaries -- torches, flasks of alchemist's fire, maybe even some bombs. Be sure to have every tribal leader and goblin hero at the front lines. It's entirely possible that Nualia might have figured out how to set the barghest free and put him in charge of the whole thing. They were warned, if they paid any attention to Tsuto's journal. They should know that the attack is coming, it's larger than anything they could stop, and that the only thing making it happen is the group of leaders in Thistletop.
The initial attack catches the town by surprise because the enemy was smuggled in past the gates and walls and other defenses. The entire premise of the first set of encounters is to establish the PCs as an unusual presence who step in and deal with the problem first-hand. Additional events afterward are there to reinforce the PCs' status as local heroes, and should get the players more invested in the town's safety. After Shalelu comes to town with news of goblins uniting, Sheriff Hemlock decides that it's time to fortify the town. He leaves for Magnimar to recruit some additional soldiers -- the town is still reeling from the first attack, and he needs better combatants than he'd get from a conscripted militia. While he leaves the town's overall safety to his deputies, he is supposed to task the PCs with staying in the public eye, to reassure them that they're covered should another attack come. It's during this time that Ameiko turns up missing, which should motivate the PCs to go to the Glassworks. Dealing with that should turn up a route to the Catacombs of Wrath, and Tsuto's journal. His journal has clues that point out that even more goblins are preparing for an assault on the town, and that some are going to be brought in through secret routes to attack the town from within. Everything in the journal points to two things: the Catacombs (which the party may have already dealt with) and Thistletop (which is where the leaders are). It should be pretty clear that the town guards have to stay at home to prepare for an attack. The Sheriff is away, and won't be back in time. Shalelu is already busy harassing goblins to delay them. There is, literally, no one else in town of the PCs' caliber. If they then raise the question of "Why doesn't the town fix their own problems?" then they can exercise the second option: sit on their butts, complaining, until the town gets overrun by four full goblin tribes at once. Goblins should be pushovers for the PCs by this point, but not when there are upwards of 100 of them, murdering and starting fires all over the place. Simply put, the heroes should go to Thistletop because they are the heroes.
My group nearly took him out in the first round. The paladin and rogue both won initiative, rushed in to flanking positions, and hit him with a Smite Evil and a sneak attack (respectively). They both then popped a Hero Point to act again, and did it again. This brought Mal to single-digit hit points, before he got to take a single turn. Luckily for me, I had altered the conditions of his prison so that saying his name while inside it would release him. The dire warnings on the walls included, very clearly, "DO NOT TALK TO HIM". Since talking is a free action, the paladin accidentally let him loose right after the second smite, so I had him dimension door away. I have plans for him later.
I don't believe a druid was the best choice for her, not in any capacity as a support character. A druid is best run as a front-line combatant, with a tough companion, on-the-fly summoning for even more allies, and some impressive buffs and zone-control spells. Druids have healing only tangentially, it wasn't meant to be their primary role. That being said, it is probably in the party's best interests to invest in a couple healing wands — definitely one or two of CLW, but also a mid-level CMW if they can afford it. The bigger wand would primarily be used in-combat to cover emergencies, while the lesser one(s) would be for patching up after a battle. I've house-ruled in my games that healing wands cure a fixed amount outside of combat, to speed up their use. (It's basically done by assuming you roll a 4 on each d8, so a basic CLW wand heals 5 per charge.) In combat, they have to roll as normal. It's also worth it for someone else in the group to invest a bit in the Use Magic Device skill, at least enough to enable them to reliably roll a 20 (which is all you need to use a wand of any level). That enables someone else to take on the wand-handling role as well.
I'd like to submit one of the characters that was in my (currently suspended) campaign: a human paladin of Abadar with the Oath of Charity. This particular character is one of the errant sons of the Valdemar clan, recently returned to Sandpoint after training in Magnimar. In my home game, this guy's Smite Evil has undone several key encounters, while his modified Lay on Hands has been just enough to keep him and the others going. Another idea that we never really got to see work was what my players like to call a "pinch-hitter", someone good at ranged and close-up work. What we had for that was a halfling ranger with the Horse Lord archetype, fighting from the back of a riding dog. (The player originally wanted a wolf, but I pointed out that the stats were nearly identical.)
In my game, I've changed all the NPCs in Thistletop slightly. I gave Orik the Thunderstriker archetype, to take advantage of his high Strength but keep his defenses up. That's important, because the group talked their way into recruiting him (at least temporarily). I made Nualia an antipaladin, partly as a counter for the paladin PC. I'll probably be making tweaks here and there as I go, just to keep the players on their toes -- a couple of them have at least a passing familiarity with the AP.
Here's a tip that really needs to be a standard for all maps, especially those that might involve combat: don't draw diagonal walls from corner to corner (referring to map squares). Instead, they should be drawn from the midpoint of a square. This way, if you have a diagonal wall it only cuts off a quarter of the square instead of half. This makes it very easy to tell whether or not a square can be occupied by a critter. Like this.
My first attempt at using CM didn't work out too well yesterday. I don't have a secondary monitor for my laptop, but I found an app called Air Display that lets me use my Android tablet for one. When I started up CM and turned on its initiative display, it appeared on the primary screen (as usual). Problem is, when I dragged the initiative window into the reach of the secondary display, CM crashed. Other than that, it worked fine.
Here's another thing to consider. The opening scenario has Spoiler:
about two dozen goblins attacking the town as a distraction. Why would these goblins be going into this carrying any treasure? They won't have any coin, or anything else beyond the gear they need for their job. Other than the few that have healing potions, don't worry about giving them any treasure. If any of them are carrying something valuable, it will be because they just stole it during the attack, and it should be obvious to the PCs that this stuff belongs to someone in town.
Kyle Olson wrote: It's caused when the system automatically detects that it's a double weapon and defaults to statting it that way. If a change is made in the character which might effect weapon stats, the system may redo the whole weapon block, causing this double issue. A rational fix for this may be to show both the single and double... Here's an idea. You know that little icon that appears next to the weapon, where you show one or two hands? Turn that into a multi-state button, have it toggle from "One hand" to "Two hands" to "Double". For each weapon, have something that specifies which states are allowed (for instance, you can use a longsword either one- or two-handed, while a dagger is only one-hand), and let the button switch between permitted states. For the quarterstaff, then, the button would read either "2 Hands" or "Double". Granted, this means you'll have to go back into the weapon data and add something that specifies which states are allowed for each.
By far, the best fan-made item I've used in the early game has to be the remake of Tsuto's journal. The example in the book just doesn't feel right, and the remake is so much better. It is actually hand-written, has better sketches, and even has some of the other drawings given in the description. When I handed this out to my prior group, they kept referring back to it for the rest of that chapter. On a slightly-related note, I made a better version of Tsuto's letter to Ameiko. The one in the Community Stuff thread is a letter-by-letter transcription, and that type of writing isn't done that way. I went through the trouble of translating the text into Chinese and used the proper fonts and layout. (I was recently told that the Minkaian language more closely resembles Japanese, so I might be remaking that note soon.)
I'm going to be giving your software a trial run this Saturday, but looking it over I see two areas that could be greatly improved. First is the ability to track duration-based effects. Spell effects, poison, things like that. These effects are usually tied to a specific initiative number, and having a reminder that these effects are about to end would be really helpful. Second, I'd like to see implementation of spellcasting and tracking of similar abilities. While I can list the spells a creature or PC knows and has prepared, it doesn't provide links to the spell descriptions, and there's no easy way to track which spells (or slots) they've used. I've been using DM's Familiar for my 3E/PF games for a very long time now. You may want to take a glance at it to see how they've handled things like this. I'll let you know how this Saturday works out. EDIT: For some reason, the program is insisting that the wizard PC is using his quarterstaff as a double weapon, when he will probably never do so. It's not giving me an option to just list a single attack with it. I tried manually editing it, but something made it revert back.
I'd take this route if I had the hardware to do it. Whenever possible, draw your maps ahead of time. If you're using a full-size battlemat, draw out the site of the next major conflict and cover it with paper until the event. You could also draw it out the day before on regular graph paper, at the normal 1"/5' scale. This will probably take multiple sheets, so make sure you have them marked in a way that makes it easy to overlap them properly. When the fight breaks out, you can just pull out those sheets, lay them down, and move on. It also helps to know how to draw quickly on a battlemat and still convey all the information the players need. Got an elevation change? Draw a line at the transition, and mark the higher end with something like "+5" every 30 feet or so. Rough terrain? Draw a few blobs in the squares to represent rubble. Trees? If they block LOS, draw a circle in one space; otherwise, just put a thick dot in an intersection, then draw a quick rough circle around it to represent the leaves overhead. Keep it simple, your goal is to cram information on the map as quickly as you can. No one is going to critique your artistic ability, they're more worried about whether or not that goblin has cover.
Regarding hit points, here's how I've done it for a long time now. Max hit points at 1st level, as usual. Afterwards, they roll dice, but any result of 1/3rd the maximum or less gets rerolled. For the various dice, you'd reroll on these values:
It's still possible for someone to get below-average results, but not so far below that they're crippled by it. I also use a combat-managing program (specifically, DM's Familiar) that can be set to automatically roll hit points for all creatures the moment they're added to a fight. This means that each critter has its own hit-point value, so you might get the occasional weakling or tough guy.
My players ran into the problem of her high DR and fast healing. They didn't do any research ahead of time, so they didn't really have anything that could hurt her other than brute force. Their initial volley of spells didn't disable her, and they shrugged off the best she could throw at them. Finally, the party's tough guy just reached up and grabbed her, and held her in the pool until the bubbles stopped. Brutal, yes, but it worked. Metagame Issue: I gave that player a 'point' of Wrath for doing so, because he was clearly angry, both in- and out-of-character.
There's a really easy way to keep her from catching it: make her move. The property states that, if the character who threw the weapon has moved since doing so, it returns to the square from which it was thrown. One well-timed bull rush, or a grapple with some movement, and it'll just fly back to empty air. (In my first try at running this, the group had to resort to grappling Erylium and drowning her in the nearby pool. They just couldn't hurt her.)
I recommend following the advice of the Angry DM. In this post, he mentions the idea of the "Gun Safety Rule", which is "Never aim at something you aren't prepared to kill". If you introduce something that is planning on blowing up the Town of Townville, then you'd better have a map prepared that shows a crater where Townville used to be. If the bad guy takes an NPC hostage, be ready for that NPC to no longer be around.
One of my players came up with the bright idea of using it as an arrow-head. Even though it specifies that the Returning property is only for thrown weapons, I allowed this — partly because he could only use it once per round, and also because it was just such a novel idea. So, every round, his arrow would dig itself out of his target, and sail across the room back to his hand, ready to be fired again.
It sounds like you're doing a pretty good job of it, actually. You're giving them descriptions, rather than just a laundry list, and letting them use their skills and abilities to learn more. What you might want to do for yourself is add some extra notes to the items found. For anything potentially valuable, make a note of the Appraise DCs. For magic items, include a note about the item's school and aura strength (for instance, a +1 sword would have a faint evocation aura), and the Spellcraft DC for identification. You can't retry these Spellcraft checks (you only get one try per day), so you can't take 20. The Identify spell is useful here, since it gives +10 to this check on everything being examined. It works out to one item per caster level.
There are a few items where the people who post here have made far better items than the handouts pictured in the book. The best example is Tsuto's journal; someone here made a version that actually looks authentic, and has some sketches that really draw attention to the important parts. Try this thread: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2i3wa?Community-Created-Stuff
I feel the need to second (third?) the verdict, that you can't force the players to gain an interest in the extraneous material. Be sure to keep that material there, and drop references to it whenever it comes up. You might eventually find something that grabs their attention, but if they just look away don't keep waving it in their faces. They'll let you know when something interests them. It sounds like your group is happiest when they're rolling dice and crunching numbers. As long as they're clearly enjoying themselves, it's hard to say they're doing anything wrong. If you want some time to pass, and maybe give them a chance to earn some XP and other rewards that missed roleplaying is leaving out, consider tossing in a short dungeon-crawl that's worth about the same amount. Your players will probably jump at the slightest pretense to go dungeon-crawling.
I briefly ran this campaign earlier in the year — the players only got to Thistletop before I moved out-of-state. In that time, though, I added several opportunities for people to accumulate Sin or Virtue. When the tavern owner was first given incentive to help the PCs, I started by having her treat them to a full-spread breakfast, with enough food to cover a large table. One PC immediately filled two plates, one for each hand, so I gave him a point of Gluttony. At the same time, another PC only selected a single apple, so I gave him a point of Temperance. Something similar happened when Shayliss Vinder dragged one of the PCs into her cellar. (Heh.) That PC panicked and tried to get out of anything compromising, so I added a point against Lust. One of the other PCs, though, was shouting encouragement as they were leaving, so he got one point in favor. I wouldn't necessarily limit the awarding of Sin/Virtue points to excessive acts, but use them at times where someone clearly acts in a way that fits.
I had an all-male group responding in much the same way, especially with the quasit. None of them had seen pictures of quasits before, while I'm a 30-year veteran to gaming. Not once had this critter gotten this sort of look. Don't forget some of the iconic characters, especially Seoni. I do wonder if the art director was trying to emphasize the 'seven sins' aspect, but lost track after one.
The description in the book was a major pitfall for me. It went at length about a long, curving passage following the coast to an abandoned cave... and THEN mentioned the branch, less than a minute's walk from the entrance, that had the next plot location. It doesn't help that there is no indication of which path is which when they fork. Not unless you add your own "go this way" marker of some sort, like tracks.
I have a different issue with the map of the briar patch. The description states that there are 'doors' throughout, and sections where the ceiling is higher than the default (i.e., spots where Medium characters won't have to kneel). The map, however, shows none of this. The only 'doors' spelled out are the ones at the entrance and those at the abandoned guard posts.
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