Cranky Dog's page

I just remembered a situation that happened in one of my games where rules vs sense of disbelief clash.

BBEG casts Incendiary Cloud, friendly rogue is caught in it. Rogue has Improved Evasion and rolls well, so no damage.

At this point in the game, this rogue has a very high Reflex save and pretty much succeeds at every round.

By RAW, he can remain inside the raging inferno and conceivably take no damage for the duration of the spell and even his little lungs remain cool and comfy (though still have poor visibility since it's still a cloud effect).

Is it just me or should the rogue at least take *some* damage if he remains inside the cloud? This goes for any continuous area spell vs Evasion.

I'm thinking of ruling that if he doesn't move outside the cloud on his turn, I'm downgrading his Improved Evasion to Evasion. And anyone with Evasion downgraded to none if they so decide to remain within the confines of the spell.

As the title says, a wildshaped druid (leopard) + natural spell casts a cure spell before hand.

He holds the charge in his leopard tail and uses it when appropriate.

Now since it's not a prehensile tail, should it be allowed or not?

This is not a game I'm in, but I'm acting as a consultant for one of the players in a group who keeps wondering if the druid's player is abusing the rules or not.

A situation turned up in our final game yesterday.

Heroes and villains have bards, both do inspire courage for their team. But can a bard counter an enemy performance with his own akin to countersong or counterspelling? Since several bardic performances do not require saving throws, they're not normally eligible for countersong.

Same general question for Dirge of Doom vs Inspire Courage who look like natural opposites.

After several missed games due to Easter, Mother's Day, Victoria Day (Canada) weekends, we're finally back on track.

After doing the ancestral shrine mission first, they finally completed the city events and some city exploring with the Kasai gazetteer.

I had them visit nearly every point on Kasai's map, and as usual PCs never react the way you expect them too.

They managed to make allies with the Temple of the Sun's Blade; recruited some ronin at the Sorrowful Tiger sake house for the day of battle; made dealings with the Hitsumi Gumi to help them distribute the rice from the food shortage event; the group's warrior-monk challenged the instructor of the Rising Dragon dojo (I used the lvl 15 school master NPC template) and barely won. With her last attack, she killed the instructor (way below CON negative hp limit)and became the de-facto dojo leader and had the students return the Jade Mantis's sign to her owner (which the PC accidently insulted the previous day).

They finally used the Samisen of Oracular vision to gather some info, and with the bard's ridiculously high knowledge skills and group's overall diplomacy scores, I filled in a lot of blanks on the Regent's inner circle.

The food shortage event was made with the flying asimaar paladin making a diversion outside and keeping the "pets" and guards occupied while the rest of the group used Dimension Door spells and their portable hole to fill it to the brim with rice. The Paladin nearly kicked the bucket, but managed to survive long enough to draw attention away from the storehouse. During the night the Hitsumi Gumi distributed the rice while the ninja clans made distractions around the city.

They rescued Hatsue from her execution and, with Ameiko using a "Denounce" lvl 4 bard spell, turned the crowd hostile against the Typhoon Guards. It was nice seeing the crowd getting +3 from bardic perfomances and try to pummel the Typhoon Guard. And since the Typhoon Guard commander stayed invisible and in flight, he was able to follow the group back to their base where there was night assault (with burning torches) on the compound where they ninja clans warned them just in time to escape.

I gave them their last PC level and next game we will start the final chapter and make the assault on the palace.

There will be no resting period during this time.

Things that I changed/added:
- Earlier, they made enemies of the Golden League during the Ruby Phoenix Tournament, and they had a presence in Kasai where they bribed some guards to cheaply buy some rice and resell it outside of Kasai to needy provinces for their rice tax.
- The Ulfen trader from Kasai's introduction paragraph became a genuine NPC who's ship was seized and has been stuck in Kasai for nearly two years. And since the group's half-elf bard is from the Land of the Linnorm King, they made a connection and readied the trader to protect the port.

Thing's we've noticed, now a running gag:
- Jade Eye Academy <> Jedi Academy.

Mistake I've just realized:
- Paladin smite evil doesn't fully work against onis because though they are outsiders and evil, they are not the "evil" sub-type.

In my game tomorrow, there will be some nasty sundering from an oni fire yai wielding a tetsubo (maul) of the Titans (triple damage against inanimate objects).

Combined with the oni's power attack and vital strike, it can sunder and destroy the equivalent of a +5 full plate (20 hardness, 95 hps) or a 2in thick wall of adamantine with a single hit and leave the wearer completely unharmed.

How do I go describing a monstrous giant smashing your armor with a huge overhead chop, while leaving the wearer right as rain, not even slightly dazed, staggered or stunned?

In my Jade Regent AP, my PCs will soon encounter some Taotieh (Bestiary 3) which have the ability to swallow whole creatures and put them in a pocket dimension where they eventually suffocate unless freed.

The Taotieh can hold up to four creatures. Mine will already have several corpses in them, but I want one of them to have a corpse that turned undead from the trauma.

Assuming it originally was an average medium sized humanoid (though not necessarily a nice person), which undead best fits the role?

The PCs are lvl 15, and any PC getting swallowed will be alone against that undead until his comrades free him.

Simple question but can find a good answer.

Is a Life oracle with Energy Body active a solid or incorporeal?

The "being of pure energy" "like a fire elemental" and "pass through a living ally's space" is sending mixed messages.

Undead seem to be able to damage the oracle (and take damage themselves with natural weapons or non-reach weapons), but then it makes a mere mention of "creatures" with reach weapons not taking damage, implying that non-undead creatures are also at risk?

We've been playing it as fully incorporeal, but after re-reading the rules, I'm not so sure anymore.

From the rules you gain a +1 luck bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls for every three caster levels you have (at least +1, maximum +3).

We're sort of in disagreement as to which caster level the +2 and +3 bonus kicks in.

Is it: +1, +1, +1, +2, +2, +2, +3. Meaning caster level 1, 4 and 7?

Or is it: +1, +1, +1, +1, +1, +2, +2, +2, +3. Meaning caster level 1, 6 and 9?

Both make sense, but there are many other spells with similar caster dependent powers which are better defined. This is not one of them.

A thread search left it unanswered and our cleric is currently 7th level and want to use it with Imbue with Spell Ability on the monk.