Danse Macabre

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300 posts. Alias of Devil of Roses.



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Hello all! Hoping to dig into the hive mind's honey as it were...

I'm running Extinction Curse for my group, and want to do more with Mistress Dusklight and the Celestial Menagerie, while also making the main selling point of the AP for my players remain a bit more viable through the end of the campaign. I've heard the climax of book 2 being like a home invasion, a justified home invasion of a nasty piece of work, but one that might make all the build up done in book 1 feel rather empty. As such, I want to work out something that might better serve a campaign that wants to keep some attention and focus on the circus past book three.

My ideas thus far are such:

* 'defeating' Mistress Dusklight in Book 2 is not a goal, at least not martially, I can take or leave her being in league with the Xulgaths, but if so, I want it to be on a much deeper level that can play out throughout the volumes.
With this in mind, I propose something else, finding dirt on her to effectively give her the boot from the town she's been holed up in. Essentially getting revenge, not through murder, but perhaps humiliation, which leads to the next idea:

* The thought that the Circus, even by the time it reaches the final volume and characters are approaching level 20, won't be able to compete with anything in Absalom, is ridiculous. Making it the end goal, at least for a campaign that maintains the circus element rather than casting it aside, strikes me as fitting. Doing this while maintaining Mistress Dusklight as a villain and the Celestial Menagerie as a rival circus, strikes me as even better. So how?

* Well, Absalom is a huge city, real estate is scarce, and as mentioned, only the best and most prestigious shows can really afford the good and worthwhile venues. I figure, every ten years, Absalom has a grand festival that hosts a competition where the best shows get exclusive right to a ten year contract to perform in one of the largest venues in the city.

* Humiliated and kicked out of her comfortable home turf, Dusklight challenges the Circus of Wayward Wonders to to competition, but to even compete, they have to reach a certain level of prestige. So, both the Celestial Menagerie and the Circus of Wayward Wonders are traveling Erran and Kortos to build up their prestige with the intention of a final showdown in Absalom.

* This could feature sabotage attempts, performance show downs, etc. Maybe recruitable NPC's that the PC's don't get end up in the Celestial Menagerie, or a number of other things. The final showdown could be an excellent epilogue for the campaign.

Doing this would require that Dusklight, while obviously evil, hasn't quite gotten to the 'she must be murdered or imprisoned' point.

Anyway, I'm reaching out to you Paizo Hive Mind, what do you think, any ideas or suggestions?


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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So, I'm just now diving into the playtest, and I'm having a hard time understanding a couple things.

Am I correct, that with the current rules, I can't essentially play what would have been a standard dwarf in previous editions because each separate racial ability that has been the norm, is now an ancestry feat?

Am I also correct in that a first level 'human' with a 'half elf' or 'half orc' ancestral feat, basically pays a feat tax and can't actually buy any of the racial traits at first level?

Maybe it's because it's late, maybe it's because I've been drinking, but I can't find anything saying otherwise, and if that's the case, I think I'm done with new Pathfinder before it's even begun.


Hello! So I put my subscriptions on hold awhile back on account of financial issues. I was trying to determine what it would take to reactivate them. I've sent a few e-mails since last week but have not received a response. Any chance someone might e-mail me an update?


So my roommate and I have been playing this game, and while the rules need some serious technical writing expertise, they are navigable enough that we think we're playing the game correctly. There are, however, a few instances that we're not clear on. The one that comes up most often is Lini's ability to reveal her animal allies and get an additional 1d4 to a roll. Are there any restrictions on this? I can't seem to find any, which implies if she had 4 animal companions with her, then she can just reveal them for a 4d4 bonus to just about any roll. Is this actually the case?


Please,

I've sent three e-mails since yesterday, I haven't gotten a response. I need this order HELD. It's killing my grocery bill. Can someone respond. Please?


Once upon a time there was a pdf floating around that told people what, outside of the Pathfinder Core, could or couldn't be used. It had things from Seekers of Secrets, the APG and other sources in it, I haven't been able to find it anywhere... Anyone know where it is these days?


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So I'm moving to Portland, once I get settled in with a job and all that fun stuff I'll be looking for a group to run games for. I'm a GM through and through and playing is something I only do once in awhile so it's kind of important I find a group I can be a primary GM for. The systems I enjoy are Pathfinder, Savage Worlds (particularly Hellfrost and Deadlands), Star Wars Saga Edition, Castles and Crusades, and more.

Those are what I have that I've played, I have and want to play many more games from d20 variants like Iron Heroes, Arcana Evolved and Midnight; to strange RPG's like Monsters and Other Childish Things, Don't Rest Your Head, All Flesh Must Be Eaten (and the Army of Darkness game); I also have the Dresden Files RPG.

I am, and will be for some time, primarily a Pathfinder RPG player, it's the one I've invested much of my funds in. I have, however, been with a group that hates the thought of trying something new and different, that had players who'd latch on to one mechanic in a system they didn't like and then loathe the system because of it and thus refuse to play, I've felt like I've been suffocating being unable to run other games would like to stretch my DM wings. That said a group that is at least willing to try new RPG systems is definitely a requirement.

Might sound like too much to ask but a GM can hope can't he? :P


1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

So I was discussing the changes made to Alkenstar with one of my players and a side comment I made caught his attention, I mentioned that Alkenstar has Alchemists and he was confused about this, after all, isn't it a dead magic region? It's a good point, why would anyone be an Alchemist in Alkenstar when the bulk of their abilities (Supernatural effects) are rendered useless? Or are Alchemists some sort of exception for this? Near as I can tell there's no crunch supporting this so unless the Alchemists in that industrious city are the poor bastards who made those items that become worthless after a level or two (you know, *those* items) why would there be any of the base class from there? Unless it was, of course, an oversight and something not quite thought out when it was written up...

Any input on this?


Players wanted thread is up on RPOL: http://rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=4&date=1289506325


So, I'm running my second attempt at a face-to-face game of Kingmaker. The previous group dissolved due to conflicting schedule and by the time they had started gaming again I wasn't available so they started other games. They were good roleplayers and sort of made the exploration interesting on their own playing off of little bits I'd toss them about the weather and general traveling conditions. My present group has one or two good roleplayers but seem a little more focused on the hacking and the slashing. They can get down with the role playing (instead of the roll playing) in certain situations but dice rolling heavy aspects of the campaign (like the exploration) sort of fall flat.

So, does anyone have any ideas on how to make things interesting and get rid of the monotony between encounters? Anything help would be welcome.


I'm considering opening up a Kingmaker and Serpents Skull play by post game. It wouldn't be here on the Paizo boards however, I've grown comfortable and used to the play-by-post sight www.rpol.net as it is designed quite specifically for pbp games as opposed to being a modified message board.

If there are any takers feel free to post here and make an account on rpol.net where you'll be able to post an RTJ once I figure out whether I'll be doing one, the other, or both.


I have two players interested in joining a game of mine. They both have ideas that deviate a bit from the norm and I wanted to get some opinions and advice.

The first on the list is Snowy.
Snowy want's to play a spell singer. As there are no spellsinger classes he had the idea of a sorcerer who's bloodline and the abilities therein were bardic based. The bloodline being descendant of a powerful (no laughing) bard. This is what Snowy sent me:

Snowy wrote:


I used the Celestial Bloodline as a working draft, which seems to draw clerical stuff for the bloodline...

As a draft i have...

Class Skill: Perform Skill [Pick One].

Bonus Spells: 1st Level Bard Spell (3rd), 2nd Level Bard Spell (5th), 3rd Level Bard Spell (7th), 3rd Level Bard Spell (9th), 4th Level Bard Spell (11th), 4th Level Bard Spell (13th), 5th Level Bard Spell (15th), 5th Level bard Spell (17th), 6th Level Bard Spell (19th).

Bonus Feats: Arcane Armor Training, Armor Proficiency Light, , Dodge, Mobility, Performance, Skill Focus (Knowledge [Pick One]), Skill Focus (Perform [Pick One]), Weapon Finesse.

Bloodline Artist: Whenever you make a knowledge skill check, add 1/2 your sorcerer level (minimum 1) and may make all Knowledge skill checks untrained.

Bloodline Powers: Music is in your blood.

Soul of an Artistic: Starting at 1st level, you can use Bardic Performance (per Bard), for 2+Charisma modifier. +1 additional round per level per day (See Bard). You are also considered a 'bard' for the purposes of using magic items.

Versatile Perfomance: Starting at 3rd level, you may use your Perform Skill to substitute for skills, per the Bard.

Lore Master: At 9th level, can take 10 on any Knowledge skill check that he has ranks in. You can choose not to take 10 and can instead roll normally. In addition, once per day, you can take 20 on any Knowledge skill check as a standard action. He can use this ability one additional time per day for every five levels he possesses beyond 9th, to a maximum of three times per day at 19th level

Jack of Trades: At 15th level, you can reroll any one ability check, attack roll, skill check, or saving throw you just made. You must decide to use this ability after the die is rolled, but before the results are revealed by the GM. You must take the second result, even if it is worse. You can use this ability once per day.

[Too high to worry about?]: At 20th level, (Drawing a blank)

I left Perform open to be picked, so that the bloodline doesnt HAVE to be a singer, even though that's the perform skill that interst me.

I left bonus spells sorta generic at the moment, jotting down levels and figuring we can sorta work that out later, or you can assign as you think appropiate.

Feats were reflective to make the sorceror feel more bardish.

Bloodline powers are all bardic in nature, but the sorcerer is not as skilled at it (ie 1/2 levels to add to knowledge rolls and 1/2 the rounds to use Bardic Performance) or got them at much later levels.

I dont think this is too over the top or unbalanced. It's only a draft though and open to discussion.

Then there's the other player. His gnome Cavalier is based heavily off of classic gnome D&D archetypes of big noses, mischievous pranks, etc. I'm trying to get him brushed up on Golarion gnomes but I think his concept can work with some tweaking. His Cavalier Order is that of the Forest Moon... unfortunately I don't have a full write up yet. When I get it I'll post it to see what people think.

Thanks


I am curious, however, as to whether or not you will be publishing the rest of this series...


Using the Paizo Critical hit deck in a pickup game recently one hit resulted in "Normal Damage and target is sickened" which I figured didn't apply to a creature made of fire. Looking through the Bestiary I only found that they are immune to being stunned but nothing about fire elementals stated they couldn't be sickened, this doesn't make much sense to me so I decided to ask here:

Can an elemental be sickened?


So,

I was running Kingmaker with a very good group. They stayed on task, and while goofing off and joking did occur we were able to get through many encounters. They all role played, even the new and casual gamers, and were a winning group all in all. Alas real life got in the way and the host got a job that involves heavy over time. So now the game is canceled and we haven't even made it to the second module yet. My other group is working their way through Legacy of Fire, which is a good AP altogether, but it still saddens me that I won't be able to run Kingmaker any time in the foreseeable future.

:-(


Greetings,

I run two tabletop games.

One game runs smoothly, we get a lot done and still have room for the B.S. that's inherit in all but the most hard core of gaming groups. The PC's in that group are very prepared. They have printouts of their special ability as well as printed lists of their spells and what page number of what book they belong to. They roll their damage dice with their attack dice. They review their characters to make sure they fully grasp what they're capable of to avoid flipping through the book for ten minutes in the middle of combat. They even have a simple rule wherein you must use the restroom before initiative is rolled for going to the bathroom during combat is not allowed.

While combat isn't over and done before I can blink this Player Preparedness helps things move quick and smooth.

The other group provides a study in contrasts.

Until recently we rolled initiative every round. I put my foot down and started using static initiative. The speeds things up a little (I've even timed) but not much. I've tried to convince them to help me out in this field but to no avail. It could be that the players are just more casual gamers compared to the above group. It could be I just fall into old bad habbits as this group holds two of my oldest friends whereas the above group I only just started gaming with in the past couple months.

Anyone have any tips and tricks I might use to keep gameplay flowing relatively smoothly in spite of the Players themselves? I'm running Legacy of Fire if that is of any assistance. Anything from techniques on how to speed up combat to DM preparedness would be welcome. There are some ideas floating about in my head but I am curious as to what I can get from the community itself.

Thank you for your help.


The PRPG answered many problems I had with 3rd edition. It condensed the skills down into something that made more sense to me mechanically. It gave me new rules for grappling and tripping that made such things not only viable in combat but easier to manage. It improved upon most of the melee classes (though I still think the Barbarian is grossly underpowered compared to the other warrior classes).

It is not without it's flaws however, at least not in my eyes.

Apparently there was a consensus amongst the community that spellcasters were too powerful. I could kind of see that but felt that they needed a trim but what they got seemed closer to castration. Sure they got some niftiness with the bloodlines and the domains but ultimately it didn't make up for what happened to their bread and butter: their spells got nerfed to near uselessness.

There are some who do not think so, well... a lot, these changes couldn't have occurred in the RPG unless there was a substantial mindset that said spells were too powerful. If you are of that mindset: this thread is not for you.

I agree that some spells were a little too powerful, some, not the vast majority that seemed to be fall under the axe. Those that I felt merited a little weakening instead of being trimmed the %10 they needed got cut down to half their potency and rendered nearly useless. Practically making battlefield control magic pointless and forcing one to focus on combative of defensive spells seeing as enchantment and illusion have always been flawed schools.

Rant:

By way of example:

Solid Fog.
One of the mid range spells at 4th level. The level where you seem to lack a lot of the good offensive spells. A level that is not exactly meant for throw away spells. Let's take a look at the 3.5...

Verbal, Somatic and Material components. A wizard isn't going to be stealthily casting this spell if he's in sight of anyone. The components seem easy enough to come by.

Duration of 1 minute a level. More or less guaranteeing it will last a combat session. Perfectly reasonable.

It acts like the 2nd level Fog Cloud so it only covers a 20ft radius, that's 40x40ft square and 20ft high. Not a lot of ground.

It hampers movement reducing it to 5ft a round. Can't really see in or out. Those withing suffer -2 attack and damage penalty and falling objects are slowed. This doesn't seem over powered for a 4th level spell to me. It's good for battlefield control, keeping that onrush of minions from getting at you until you've dealt with some of the heavier hitters (or vice versa) or maybe letting the BBEG slow the PC's down so he can either cast a fireball or buff himself or heal himself. Or the PC's could use those same tactics, all in all a reasonable trade off.

Now let's look at the PRPG version...

Virtually the same as far as components duration and area of effect go. In fact it's virtually the same save for one glaring difference: It's considered difficult terrain rather than hampering movement to 5ft a round across the board.

I could see that working for a second maybe third level spell but not 4th. It'll only really effect any enemies for what, two rounds at most and that's if you caught someone smack dab in the middle. A 4th level non-damaging spell that only hampers it's victims for a round, maybe two. I could see it work out if the AoE increased some. Maybe to 40ft radius, but it doesn't.

I can kind of see the reasoning. What happens if you use Solid Fog on someone with a higher movement rate, is it fair that he's slowed just as much as everyone else? Maybe, maybe not, but rather than think out how to balance it for such a case, trim it down to the %80 percent it probably needed they took the cheap way out and cut it down to near uselessness.

And it's not just that spell. This is done with many spells that got hacked up and spit out sad shadows of their former selves. Game balance is well and good but it seemed they went to far with this. I could go on as to how the Druids shapeshift abilities just aren't worth it in comparison. I could see how the 3.5 version could be abused but did you need to render it pointless now? Now the druid can shapeshift into the weakest brown bear in the woods.

So this long winded rant brings me to my request of the community. I have two players who love playing spell casters. Unfortunately the game just isn't fun for them any more since the spells got neutered. I want to try and make it fun for them again by making spells worthwhile but not going back to 3.5 spells completely.

Do you guys have any suggestions for handling this so that I only need the PRPG book and don't have to carry a 3.5 PH around to reference it's spells? Should I go through them and adjust them on a case by case basis? One player recommended I create wands that act as the 4th edition implements and serve to enhance the PC's spells rather than store charges of spells themselves?

How would you have edited the wizard spells that got nerfed?

How would you have handled the Druids shape changing ability?

One of my PC's is quickly losing interest as he realizes glitterdust is virtually useless now and that web might as well never grace his spellbook, he's basically reverting to what he hates: a blaster and it's because the utility and battlefield control spells have been chewed up and spit out in a manner that made the great 3.0->3.5 nerfing look like a power up.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.


The time has come.

For the past few months, since it was announced that you were selected for the coming trial of the Quest for the Everflame, it seemed every day has been spent training. Those you've learned your skills from have been working you three times as hard as normal in their enthusiastic pride that their respective wards have been chosen. Thankfully you've all been given a days rest for contemplation and to settle your nerves though whether or not it has worked depends on you.

Not that there's anything to fear. While some have gotten hurt on the Quest for the Everflame it's usually been by their own stupidity or accident rather than any real danger. Everyone knows that the traps are safe and the danger only in your minds. Still, the solemnity with which the people of Kassen deal with the quest is quite infectious.

You find yourselves there, in the town square on that cold fall morning. A winters wind blows through the town cutting through garments and chilling you to the bone. No one in the town can be seen save the others who are undertaking the Quest for the Everflame and the silence is rather oppressing. As leaves are blown across the cobbles when the wind blows through again you realize you have some time to yourselves to prepare for the coming challenge.


The Crypt of the Everflame
An Adventure by Jason Bulmahn
PBP DM'd by DM Doom

Those who are questing...(More information forthcoming)

  • Anwyllia: Ranger
  • Carrion Hawthorne: Rogue
  • Drosk Ironhame: Cleric
  • Lianth: Druid
  • Senmont Al’bkar: Fighter
  • Tymothy Smallwood: Wizard

Those who have come before...

None... yet.

Character Creation/Advancement Rules:

Abilities
Abilities will be 25 point buy system. In addition PC's can bump up one 'odd' ability to an even provided it does not increase said ability score higher than 16.

Hit Points
PC's will gain Max hit points through level three, after that it will follow the following system per Hit Die. Yeah it's static but I find it makes things a little easier. Of course you get to add con modifiers, favored class bonus and any feat/trait modifiers to the mix.

HD HP/lvl
d6 4
d8 5
d10 6
d12 7

Material's Allowed
I'm pretty much keeping things Pathfinder right now. If there are any 3.5 Pathfinder stuff you'd like to use, let me know and we'll see about the conversion of said feats and abilities. Wayfinder material should be run by me first but is likely to be permitted. If you have a character quality that's not in the PRPG pdf please note the source and pagenumber in your character sheet, this goes for character traits as well.

Character Traits
PC's may acquire two traits from the PDF in the downloads section or any of the Pathfinder Companions. Let me know what you're getting and be sure to work it into your character background on some level. If you want more you can buy the feat that's posted within said PDF. Should you find a Wayfinder Character Trait you like, run it by me first.

Experience Advancement
We will be advancing per the medium advancement table. Should I feel the need to advance you faster I'll simply give you more experience points.

Starting Gold
Purchase your equipment as though you had max gold. Once you are finished purchasing your equipment your remaining gold will be as follows based on your class:

Barbarian: 10gp 5sp
Bard: 10gp 5sp
Cleric: 14gp
Druid: 7gp
Fighter: 17gp 5sp
Monk: 3gp 5sp
Paladin: 17gp 5sp
Ranger: 17gp 5sp
Rogue: 14gp
Sorcerer: 7gp
Wizard: 7gp

There are two exceptions:
1. If, after spending your max starting GP, you have less than the above coinage you keep that instead.
2. If you have a trait that lets you start with more gold than usual and your background fits then you keep whatever change you have after buying your starting equipment.

House Rules
Here is where I post house rules. I might even include a brief bit of my reasoning for the house rules, the language may not be nice happy fluffy bunny language, if it offends your senses and you aren't a moderator then that's too bad.

Races

Humans get the Multitalented ability that the Half Elves get.

Why: Quite simply, I thought the humans got the shaft. One of their perks was that they were better at multi classing than everyone else because they were able to pick a favored class. Now everyone can pick a favored class, which is, to me, the humans losing out. So they get the Multitalented ability.

I think I recall someone writing me wondering if they could get the weapon proficiency that was available in the PRPG Beta testing. I figure if someone is willing to give up the Multitalented ability above they can get the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat.

Classes

Clerics get Heavy Armor Proficiency if it fits their deity.
Why: I never liked that change. Pure plain and simple. That said I don't think it makes sense for a Cleric of Nethys to have Full Plate but one of Gorum or Torag seems much more reasonable. Use common sense, if you have questions e-mail me.

Clerics can Turn Undead.
I never liked this change either. Basically Clerics who channel positive energy have the Turn Undead feat for all intents and purposes. If they actually buy the Turn Undead feat then whenever they channel positive energy to damage undead they can turn at the same time.

Feats

Spell Focus and Improved Spell Focus give a +2 bonus.
Why: +1 to a DC of a single school of spells is not worth a feat. I've thrown level equivalent monsters at PC's and they easily beat the DC's that used the 3.0 version of this feat. Personally I think whoever thought it was too powerful didn't know how to DM for spellcasters.

Spells

I thought they went overboard on weakening a lot of the spells out there. Cutting them down by %50 potency when a mere %25 trim would have balanced them out nicely. The result: a lot of spells I feel are far too weak for their levels. These will be adjusted on a case by case basis.

Remove Disease and Neutralize Poison
The caster level check can be substituted with a heal skill check if the heal skill is higher.

Why: I respect the desire to make Poison and Disease more deadly, really I do, but I don't like the idea of a poison or disease grinding my game to a halt. Personally, I thought it could have been an opportunity to make the heal skill more worthwhile, as it stands there's no real reason to pump more than a few points into that skill and call it a day. Now there is.

Encumbrance

I'm not a big stickler for encumbrance. I might peek in occasionally and see if that pack you carried into combat is overstuffed but if it's a few pounds over the weight category it's no big deal. If, however, you're carrying everything and the kitchen sink and you're the wizard with 8 str expect me to apply penalties to your rolls.

Critical Hits

I'm not a full on Grognard, my starting edition was 2nd Ed. AD&D, but back then a crit was a crit and I've carried that well into 3rd edition. I don't, however, want to make this too deadly for those who are not used to my method of doing things so I'll used a trimmed down version of my home game house rule.

A roll of what is normally a "critical threat" results in the following based on your critical damage multiplier.

x2 = Max Damage
x3 = Max Damage x 1.5
x4 = Max Damage x 2

See? Simple, and makes rolling a crit worthwhile, no more wasted natural 20's and you no longer have to worry about confirming a crit only to roll a 1 and do poor damage regardless. Of course if you have sneak attack or some magical ability on your weapon that adds a die of damage you still have to roll it and it doesn't get multiplied but that's normal. Does this mean fights will be deadlier? A little, but I think you'll be fine.

I can't think of much else in the house rule thing. If I update I will post here in the OOC thread then edit and update this post accordingly.

Posting/Combat

Alright, this isn't like my usual PBP site so I have to adjust my standards some. Here's some basic guidelines as well as things I like and dislike as well as things you can expect from me as a DM.

When you post please include any actions you take that have a game mechanic attached to them and post them using BBCode for OOC posts along with relevant information I'm including a crude example below.

Finius waved his hands about and murmured a string of strange syllables in draconic before pointing at the brigand and whereupon a dark mist seems to surround the highwayman displaying unto him his darkest fears

Finius is casting Cause Fear at the Brigand. DC 15

Simple enough right? This goes for other things as well like skill checks. Sure you can assume I understand you're picking the lock if you describe yourself picking the lock or what not but I want to see it written out briefly in OOC.

A few things not to do. Some go without saying but I'd rather spell it out then hear someone say 'but you never mentioned anything about...'


  • Don't write blocks of text, paragraphs are your friend!
  • Don't write novels, sometimes a situation will allow for a rather large post but in other situations try to let people get a word in edgewise.
  • Do not dictate the actions of my NPC's. I'll avoid creative license with you, if I do use creative license with your character, rest assured I'll send you a message or e-mail confirming that I'm not going too far in doing so.
  • Don't disrupt the game. Inter-party conflict is fine but I don't want any player vs. player action going on. Should you find your character cannot co-exist with another then e-mail me and we'll find a way to resolve the issue outside of the boards.

Skill Checks

I like there to be a degree of uncertainty in my games, however I don't like to remove all control from players, so I strike a simple balance and swipe one of the few things I liked from 4th Edition: Passive Skill Checks.

Basically it goes like this. Occasionally something is going on that you guys (the PC's) don't know about. Maybe an Assassin is sneaking into position or someone is lying to you. I will have these NPC's roll checks against your Perception or Sense Motive as though you were taking 10. This will not always be the case of course.

Should you wander into an Ally way and roll a perception as you keep an eye out for danger then they'll have to beat that instead. Or if you don't trust that street urchin when he tells you the thief went that-a-way you can make a sense motive check. You can do this in two ways: either post in OOC that you're making a check and I'll roll it myself. Or you can post in OOC and use the BBCode to roll your skill check.

That goes for any skill: you either roll yourself, or declare your skill check ooc and let me do it. Sometimes I'll use my own judgment if you forget or don't think of it. If you're trying to talk your employer into bumping up your reward but you don't post anything about making a skill check then I'll probably roll your diplomacy (or intimidate depending on the method you use IC).

Languages
One thing I'm nervous about is that there's no private message option on these boards. As such many things will require the honor system. Thankfully, one thing that isn't that much of an issue is language so here's how I'll handle that.

Whenever you are hearing someone speaking in a language other than common I'll check everyone's known languages. If someone knows the language being spoken I will post it as a spoiler with something indicating what language it is and those that can read it may look at the spoiler. Those that can't read such and look at the spoiler and then I find metagamed based on such knowledge will receive an XP penalty on the first violation and then get booted from the game on the second. So, you can look at stuff said in languages you do not speak but you cannot act on it unless someone translates. It's an honor system thing.

Also, when posting in a language other than common, do one of two things: either post it as a spoiler identifying the language or post it without a spoiler identifying the language. Whatever your preference is provided you make it clear what language you're speaking in.

Internal dialogue should be italicized.

Knowledge Checks

The results of a knowledge check will be posted as a spoiler. The spoilers will be listed with the name of whoever is permitted to read the information within. Knowledge checks work like skill checks above, you can declare and roll via BBCode or you can have me roll.

Dice Rolling

In case you haven't guessed, dice rolls made by players will be done via BBCode, pure plain and simple. I know some people like to use some website that's out there but I'd rather not deal with that. Any rolls I make will be made in private, think of it as your DM who rolls behind a screen at your table top game and you'll be fine.

Combat


  • Combat will start in one of two ways: if it's something the PC's are ready for then I will post that you may roll your initiative accordingly. For surprise rounds I will handle the initiative rolls.
  • Just like regular posts: have an in character description of your action and then post the mechanics and die rolls OOC. If you leave it up to me to interpret... well... don't.
  • If modifiers or there are any adjustments to your stats and abilities show them and the duration in either an OOC BBCode or better: a spoiler. Just copy and paste it each round. It gives me a quick reference otherwise I might forget that you cast Mage Armor on the previous page and just use whatever I find in your character sheet.
  • Post when you can. Don't worry about waiting until player X who rolled a higher initiative goes.
  • Sometimes it might behoove you to post a 'if not this then that' element. Something like: If I can't attack enemy A then I'll heal ally B. That way you can post out of initiative order and I have something to work with for the round resolution.
  • After everyone has posted for a round I will write up a round resolution. This will take into account the order of initiative and whatever the players did. Should one post conflict with another I'll adjust it logically or per the PC's post. This resolution will also include a mechanics summary in OOC.

Whew, okay, I think I've covered the necessary bases. I know it seems like a lot but, well, I've played PBP with all types and I'd rather have all the above than not. Let me know when you're character is made and ready for me to look at. Send any questions, comments, concerns to dmofpayne at gmail dot com.


][i wrote:
"Once again the winter winds blow through the Fangwood, marking the end of another harvest. There are wolves in the woods, howling at our walls, and serpents in our shadows, waiting to strike. Just as it was one hundred and seventy-four years ago, when Kassen himself left these walls to protect us, so it is today. Where are the heroes? Where are the brave folk that will venture out to Kaseen's tomb and retrieve the flame to keep this community safe for another winter?"[/i]

It was these words Mayor Uptal spoke to the assembled crowd that cool fall day as the winds did indeed blow through the town heralding the coming winter. It had been four years since you last saw the Mayor climb up and recite those words, four years since a small group of young villagers, each on the cusp of adulthood took that rite of passage, four years since the Everflame was returned to Kassen to keep the village safe for another winter. Sure the whole thing was little more than symbolism but it brought the small community to life and was an exciting ritual to undertake. Those who did were surely destined for great things in or out of the community and many a village youth longed to prove themselves against the tests the village elders and mentors pit against them.

You have been given the honor of undertaking this rite, you have been selected by the town elders based on your merits and the praise of your mentors, are you ready? You've spent the past few years or perhaps all of your lives listening to stories about those who have gone before, of the experience and the legends behind this ritual and now it is your turn. Don't worry though, only rarely are people injured, the traps are harmless and the threats are simply clever illusions after all. It's for the fun, the experience and the prestige, what could go wrong?

************************************************************************

So, in case you didn't get it the first time, I'm starting a PbP game! Looking for first level upstarts... er... heroes to run through with spears... I meant the Crypt of the Everflame as well as the following modules. I've run plenty of PBP games over at www.rpol.net which is a wonderful site dedicated to the craft but I wanted to try my hand here.

What I'm Looking For
4-6 1st level characters. This will not be first come first serve, I've run enough games to be a little picky who I let in.

English: I'm not too picky on spelling and grammer, gods know I'm certainly not perfect with it myself, just please make an effort to write legibly.

Reliability: Things happen, that's understandable, but try to post regularly. What's regular? I'd say once a day but sometimes you're waiting on someone else to post or for me to update so I understand. I'm bad at updating on weekends so I'd say about five times a week is a good number to aim at.

Secondly, do not try to join if you think something will happen soon that might take up all your spare time and keep you from posting. Are you taking 20 credits this semester? Perhaps you are expecting to switch over from part time to full time work? If you can handle posting under such conditions: Great! If not, might not be a good idea to join a game right now.

Group Cohesion Your character doesn't have to be best friends with everyone else but I would like them to be able to work with the rest of the party. Look for role playing opportunities instead of conflict. Paladin doesn't like rogues? Maybe they can try and redeem them, provide something of a moral compass, plenty of RP opportunities abound. That being said if we have a Paladin we shouldn't have a child murdering necromancer in the group. Inter-party conflict can be fun, let's avoid making it not-fun.

Alignment Good and Neutral alignments. If anyone is thinking of Chaotic Neutral they better prove to me they can play it.

Want to Join?
Send an e-mail to dmofpayne at gmail dot com

This e-mail should tell me the following things:

  • Character Name
  • Race
  • Class
  • Brief description
  • Brief background
  • Any motivations or plot hooks I might use
  • Your potential posting rate
  • A sample post, perhaps from a previous game
  • Do you have any qualms exploring mature subject matter?
  • A good e-mail to contact you at

That should be enough. If you have a general idea how you plan on building your character as far as multiclassing or prestige classes go let me know. I like to have PC's roleplay entering into a prestige class rather than just getting in and advance notice gives me a better chance to set it up.

I'm aiming for five players but if I get enough good submissions six is more than doable. Once I have my players I'll give out character creation information.


So,

It would seem I have a little excess time on my hands, which means I want to get my DM Juices flowing by running another PBP game. Thing is, I've never run a game on the Paizo boards, I mostly stick to rpol.net which is specifically designed for PBP gaming and is where I run a Black Company game as well as a Pathfinder game (specifically the Darkmoon Vale modules).

So I guess I'm here to see if there's any interest in a Crypt of the Everflame game that would include the following modules as well as whatever else comes to mind. Meanwhile I shall dig around the PBP boards and see how things are done here while I debate directing interested players to RPOL.net or trying my hand here at Paizo.com.

Anyway, let me know what you think,
DM Doom


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So I was originally planning on playtesting the Summoner on Sunday but I got impatient and wanted to see it in action. That and who knows how many other people are running 1st level play tests and the like? So I canceled our standard Saturday game of a rather colorful take on the Red Hand of Doom and opted, instead, to have a playtest night. I tried to give my players as much of an advanced notice as possible but alas we were only able to get in a few hours of gaming.

The test run would be for a higher level campaign than that of the game we're running later today. I decided to start our Rise of the Runelords game from where we left off. The conclusion of Fortress of the Stone Giants would offer the recap of the campaign up to that point (quite convenient with the library there) and run the beginning portion of Sins of the Saviors which is a nice mini dungeon with only a few encounters. Perfect for a quick play test.

So, they rolled up a trio of 12th level characters. Two of the players played APG characters while a third, deciding that the witch and the cavalier held no interest to him, decided to play a paladin seeing as he had rolled up some good stats. The characters were:

Imub: A 12th level human Stone Foci Oracle. Anyone familiar with a certain Earthbender from a certain animated TV show would know who this guy was based off of if they examined his name a little.

Arthas: A 2nd level human Fighter, 10th level Paladin. A reluctant Paladin who answered the calling for reasons that went beyond his wants or his family.

Ka'Im: a 12th level halfling Summoner. A halfling from the distant South East with an Eidolon of disturbing qualities.

Gorthrek: a NPC meant to fill the rogue slot if we got far enough that it became necessary. Suffice to say it did not.

Sources:
I restricted the PC's to Pathfinder sources only. They made their characters rather well given they weren't allowed other D20 material. While I permitted magical items from the various Pathfinder Companions and other Pathfinder books (like Seekers of Secrets) the PC's pretty much stuck to the PRPG. They were allowed 2 traits as well though those hardly factored in.

Magic Item Problems: Suffice to say it's been awhile since I've started a game at higher levels and one of the first things the PC's thought about was getting item creation feats to halve the cost of magical items. Suffice to say I wasn't too keen on it but couldn't find advice on how to handle it and maintain balance without otherwise demolishing a valid idea. In the end I permitted two items made per PC at half value but instituted a market value cap.

Actual Play (Warning SPOILERS ahead.)

The PC's teleported in to the town of Sandpoint and were almost immediately summoned to see Father Zantus considering they chose to appear near the church. They had a feeling something had happened, Sandpoint couldn't seem to go three days without some crises or danger cropping up. Apparently one of their old haunts, the Catacombs of Madness, had decided to open up a 30ft diameter sky light. After a squad of 10 of the town guard went down to investigate they disappeared. Given the disturbing noises that had been issuing from there since the town leaders were certain that death would flow forth from that pit and into the streets of the town above.

With a wearied sigh they chose to investigate rather than kick back in the rusty dragon. The Oracle proved the most proficient to this task. Putting his Earth Glide and Crystal Sight as well as his blind sight to use when he needed, he explored the former catacombs of wrath eventually coming across the cleared stairwell. Finding a patch of earth to glide into was easy enough considering the cave-in that had occurred so he followed the shaft to it's base and easily found the secret door with his Crystal Sight. A quick cast of Detect Magic also revealed a faint abjuration aura further down the corridor. He poked his head into the main chamber inadvertantly setting off the Alarm spell he had seen before heading back to report his findings to the party.

*Note: While their exists a strong mechanical argument for why the Stone Speaker Oracle cannot glide through worked stone. The flavor reasoning is kind of weak. The same went for the Eidolon and the reasoning behind why it couldn't wear armor. They understood why it shouldn't be able to but the reasoning felt weak and cheap, they sort of damaged the flavor of the classes in both cases.

The PC's eventually made their way into the main chamber of this temple to Lamashtu where they were confronted by a hidden scribbler. Refusing to answer any of his questions unless he showed himself, something even he was not mad enough to do, he grew angry and set one of the guardians on the PC's, one guardian who promptly became two as it summoned a second Glabrezu to the fight.

Battle: Playtest classes and a paladin vs. 2 upper echelon demons!

When they spied the demons through the fog they wasted little time. The Paladin charged forward into melee declaring a smite evil and promptly made the first Glabrezu feel his blade. Meanwhile the summoner sent his Eidolon forth and the large sized creature couldn't move in to attack the other one without getting an Attack of Opportunity from the first. With a +20 to hit it EASILY cut through the Eidolons defenses. The Oracle cast Divine Power on himself. As both Eidolon and Glabrezu had a fifteen foot reach they didn't need to close much further.

The Eidolon went and full attacked with claws, bite and a tentacle strike and after damage reduction came into play did a total of 5 points of damage. The Glabrezu's went. The one on Arthas the Paladin didn't even scratch him what with the Paladins bonuses from Smite Evil in place it boosted his normally considerably AC to over 40 meaning the Glabrezu had to roll a nat 20. The other one full attacked the Eidolon and with it's 27 AC they hit with both pincers, a rend, both claws, and it's bite. The Eidolon was dust by the end of the first round. When it's handler Ka'Im went he promptly cast haste.

The second round proved devastating. We roll init for every round though it didn't matter much as the only change in order was the Summoner went before the Glabrezu's. The Stone speaker used his Earth Glide to bypass the Glabs' Attack of Opportunity range and popped up behind him but the damage dealt was a mere 7 points after reduction. The Paladin used his hastened full attack to good effect as he promptly tripped the Glab, rolled a critical on the first attack and hit with the following attacks. By round two a Demon with 180 hp was dead.

The Summoner, well, the Summoner knew it's summons would effectively be useless so he just sort of stood there. The other Glabrezu moved in to assault the Paladin, it had a better chance to hit the man but still needed a pretty absurd number to get past his normal AC. This is where I groaned. Both the Claw attacks, and the Pincer attacks came up 3's. The bite was a little better but not enough to hit. So a full attack wasted that might have been put to better use using a spell like ability like Reverse Gravity or Powerword Stun. Though on a meta game level those wouldn't have done too well either.

The third round was where things ended. The Oracle tried to cast Dismissal but couldn't get through the Spell Resistance and the Paladin got another full round of attacks wherein he tripped and brought the Glab from near max to 31 hp. When it tried to use a spell like ability the two got attacks of opportunity and killed the thing.

Battle End

Conclusions?

The Eidolon isn't all it's cracked up to be even at mid level play. Now to be fair, it could be it probably wasn't as properly optimized as it could have been, but anyone looking at it would have thought it competent to go through a 12th level game.

Against such powerful things the Summons weren't even considered, the flanking bonuses they could have contributed might have been nice but the PC's had no trouble hitting the Glabrezu's they needed to damage them which only the Paladin was any good at.

The Oracle was pretty good. I had to think on my feet a bit more than usual with the Earth Glide in effect and I can see that causing considerable problems to unprepared GM's in dungeon crawls along with Crystal Sight. In combat, well, I can speculate that against non Demonic entities that mighty pebble ability would have come in handy as well as the rock throwing but alas we were only able to get in the one combat.

Given the starting gold and the stats rolled primary stats were easily placed above 25 and while the Oracle and the Summoner had their AC's in 20's the Paladin was at 37 prior to the smite.

I also had another thing of note. I limited the use of this for the purpose of the playtest but one of the PC's acquired the Craft Wondrous Item feat and wanted to know how much they could buy at 1/2 off. I permitted a few items and imposed a GP limit on them but wasn't used to how to handle it seeing as it's been years since we've tried to start a game at such a higher level as opposed to working from 1st level on. Unrelated I know but I will say I'm hoping the Game Mastery Guide will have advice for situations like this.

All in all it was a good session. The Glabrezu's weren't altogether pushovers but with the Paladin in the party they were mincemeat from the beginning. I might of made the encounter even more challenging but two CR 13 creatures should have been more than enough. Considering one full attack dropped the Eidolon (who was softened by one attack of opportunity) I'm hesitant to view the Eidolon as the all powerful monstrosity some people have been claiming it to be.

Anyway, not sure if that helps you folks over there at Paizo but it made me re-think a few things. I'll post again after our first session in the Legacy of Fire wherein we have a Summoner and a Witch.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

As someone pointed out recently this is a lot of Adventure for free. Apparently the sequel is in the works and will cost a small sum of money. I haven't gotten too far in but this adventure of ancient ruins, dark cults and a region locked in the grip of an ancient demonic terror is already getting my wheels spinning. Rather reminiscent of a dungeon module dealing with the same Demon Lord but it is it's own story all the same. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising DM's wove them into connecting plots.

Give this game a look through, can't hurt seeing as it's free right? :P


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

This is just a couple odd things that have hit my mind since looking at the PRPG...

Alright, I have to say, I'm not an expert on horses. I worked with them a little when I was younger but I won't claim years of ranch hand experience with the beasts or anything like that. Still, I noticed something strange, apparently a horses hooves aren't it's primary attack... I'm sorry, but I have seen an upset horse and let me tell you something, their teeth are not their primary mode of attack. So I'm incredibly curious as to why on earth is their bite attack their primary and their hooves secondary?

On another note, I finally saw the changes for the Remove Curse/Poison/Disease spells and while I can see the reasoning behind it, well... it just seems too much. Or too little for a 3rd level spell. A caster level check against the poisons DC? It becomes far too easy to make that a wasted spell than anything. Wasted spells and conditions you cannot get rid of in such a manner do far more to encourage a 15 minute adventuring day than to move away from. What's done is done however so I ask this, what would you do to make those spells, well, not suck. Let's face it, they suck, I as a DM have no intention of making poisons, diseases, or curses a major part of my campaigns any time soon and if I wanted them to be more deadly I'd raise the DC to slightly more realistic levels (let's face it, a nip of arsenic will drop you be you a football star or a pocket protector wearing nerd).

One of my players suggested using it in such a fashion: have the spell allow the caster to make a heal check instead (much more likely to be higher than a level check) against the DC of the poison/disease/or curse and perhaps provide a bonus of some sort. Any thoughts?


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I'm still waiting on this order. Any news on when my delicious Dungeon Denizens Revisited and Impossible Eye might arrive? :-( *hopeful look*


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I know much of these are unlikely to turn up. However I figure it couldn't hurt to post these wants and desires here in the hopes that they might get the ear of someone on high. For those reading this thread here's the deal, what would you most like to see from paizo in regards to the Pathfinder Setting and RPG. It can be anything really, it is a wish list after all, who knows... maybe something will be mentioned that might actually make it on the production board a year or five from now and you can go "Hey! I posted a request for something just like that!"

Or not...

Either way, I'll begin with my bit of wishful thinking:

Compilations.

Maybe I'm obsessed, maybe it's my collector bug, but I love compilations. I'm the guy some comic book companies hate because I don't buy comics by the issue, I buy them by the compiled volumes. One of the reason I'm eagerly awaiting the next Fables release (and a second job so I can continue to pursue that particular love). The same goes for Paizo and their products.

Now I know it's already been mentioned that a compilation project for the other two Dungeon AP's (Age of Worms and Savage Tide) are pretty much never going to happen but I loved what they did with the Shackled City compilation and would love to see something similar in the future.

How cool would it be if, a couple years down the line, they republished the Rise of the Runelords AP in a hard back compilation book. Perhaps added a little reformatting here, updated to PRPG there, tossed some of the more extraneous articles but kept bestiary creatures that were actually featured in the AP as well as the articles most relevant to it (i.e. the guide to Sandpoint and Magnamar).

Or to go a step further and eventually make a compilation of all the articles on the various religions of the world that are featured in the AP's. Or perhaps produce a Bestiary featuring all the AP bestiaries published. I personally would love to see something like this so I can avoid having to page through a stack of AP's to get the right combination of monsters and information on the various religions for my campaigns.

Do I expect this to happen? Not really. Paizo has plenty on it's plate it seems and the profit might not merit the cost of such endeavors. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if the second Pathfinder Bestiary featured monsters from the AP's and that, personally, strikes me as the compilation most likely to occur.

Either way, that's my 'wishlist', what's yours?


Memories of Sin
Chapter One

The sun hung fat and low on the horizon; its rays projecting out across Varisia illuminating the sky in a predominantly red hue, for a moment Zandu couldn’t tell if it was sunrise or sunset. The Varisian rubbed his bleary eyes and then patted his purse, empty, but not cut… spent on booze then. After which he surveyed his surroundings, he was leaned up against the side of some building and after a moment he recognized that he was still in Turtleback Ferry. He groaned as he began to feel the effects of the previous evening starting to build into what he was sure would be a pounding headache and with a sigh he set his hand to the ground to begin to push himself up.

Dizziness conspired with the wet viscous mass that had been last nights evening meal and sent Zandu back down onto his arse once more. He let out a hiss of pain as he somehow managed to slam his head against the wall which did nothing for that growing throbbing sensation that had been steadily building up. “Gods above why couldn’t I have slept through this part.” He said to himself and cast an accusing glare at the rising sun. “Sarenrae, did I do something to offend?” he asked the glowing orb then harrumphed. “Bah, probably mocked your holy symbol for being a child’s doll one too many times.” He concluded aloud.

Wiping his hand off in the dirt he tried to get up once again and gave another groan of pain as he discovered his ribs had been bruised at some point the previous evening. Zandu winced as he lifted a torn shirt to reveal a splotchy darkened patch of flesh shaped in such a fashion that hinted at knuckle related origins.

“Getting sloppy.” He thought only to pause, sure he had thought that but someone else had said it out loud. Looking up he squinted into the sunlight raising a hand to shield his eyes as he stood and braced his back against the building. “Alessa?” he asked curiously. Sure enough when he finally moved to a position on unsteady legs where the sun hadn’t forced her face into a silhouette he made out the smooth and pale Chelaxian visage of the one person he could call friend in this backwards town.

“In the flesh.” She said and reached out to offer a steadying hand to one of Zandu’s shoulders. “Pardon me for not helping you up but you’re filthier than normal.” She said, he knew he must have looked terrible because her usual wry amusement was absent from her voice. “Gods you’re a mess Zan.” She said softly her tone heavy with concern. The Varisian frowned as he reached up to push a strand of dirty black hair from his face but said nothing.

He waited a moment with Alessa silently standing by to make sure he didn’t fall down again. He managed to take a couple steps and swayed for a moment, kept up only by his companion’s outstretched hand which still refused to make too much contact with him. “Ugh… just get me home Alessa.” He said as he tried to think of what had happened the previous evening. That it had been worse than others was clear, but he wanted to try and learn if it had been the usual drunken affair or if something different had happened. Had he harmed anyone? Or worse?

Together they made their way through the morning streets towards the little apartment Zandu called home, a boarding house run by a halfling matron who had the uncanny ability to bring grown human men to their knees so that she might pinch their ear and chide them properly. Those who couldn’t be shamed in such a fashion soon discovered a broom handle was a deadly tripping weapon in her hands. Zandu managed to utter a prayer of thanks to Desna for avoiding the wrath of his pint sized hostess but remembered little else save falling upon his bed and into sweet sleep.

* * * * *

Before the stone church stood a small figure, a gnome judging from the size and the fact that only a gnome would shave its head save for a very long bright green top knot, he examined the church with great interest though it was simple in its construction. He wore a travel stained cloak that upon closer inspection would reveal itself to have been woven from what appeared to be Varisian silk scarves. His clothes were plain traveling garments though his boots were obviously from two separate pairs though they appeared to fit just fine regardless.

“The church was once attacked by a huge monster you know.” A halfling, just over the age of majority, said as he approached the fascinated gnome.

For a moment the gnome looked as though he was startled but soon revealed that was actually quite amazed. “Really? I knew there was something interesting about this building. I said to myself ‘Ant, there has to be something utterly fascinating about the history of this building,’ I said ‘Perhaps if you look at it long enough it will tell you!’ and then you came along. So I suppose the building did tell me with you as its proxy!” the gnome said in a rush.

The halfling laughed lightly and shook his head at the strange fellow before he furrowed his brow in confusion. “Wait, your name is Ant?” he said perplexed. “I thought gnomes liked long confusing names, don’t you?”

“But of course!” Ant said with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm which promptly died as he shuffled his feet. “But no one was able to remember or pronounce mine and kept calling me Ant. After seeing some Mwangi Dragon Ants eat one of those grumpy violent guerilla’s I decided that Ant wasn’t so bad of a name and changed it.” He said proudly.

“Just like that huh?” the halfling said more than asked.

“Yep, just like that! Don’t know why people make such a fuss about names; they’re quite easy to change if you don’t like yours. Do you like yours?” And said and the halfling smiled as he found himself keeping up with the fellows strange and sudden shift of emotional inflection in his speech.

“Yes, I like mine just fine, I’m Tallem Boldfellow, no relation to Bengiant.” The halfling said apparently quite proud of his surname and a little disappointed at the lack of relation.

“Bengiant?” the gnome asked curiously. “Who’s he?”

Tallem stared at the gnome for a moment and then realization dawned upon him. “Wait, you’re not a Sanos Forrest gnome are you?” he said and mentally kicked himself for assuming all gnomes were from the near by settlements hidden within the Sanos. “Well, um, Bengiant was one of the people who sent the monster away, some huge seabeast and servant of Lamashtu. He later returned to slay the thing.” the halfling explained.

“Oh, wow, so this town has a genuine hero as well?”

“Sort of. He’s busy in Cheliax and Katapesh trying to buy up or free halfling slaves. Word has it he wants to make a halfling nation here in Varisia. I was one of the slaves he freed in the first wave. Seeing as I’m tall for a Halfling my owners called me Tallem. I took the name Boldfellow to honor the one who saved me.” Tallem explained before furrowing his brow. “So, if you’re not from around here, what brings you to Turtleback Ferry?” the halfling asked.

Ant seemed a little confused by the question as though wondering why anyone would be asked such a thing. Eventually he shrugged his shoulders and said “Well, I saw it on a map and thought to myself ‘Ant, that place has such an interesting name, I wonder if they Ferry across the river on the backs of giant turtles!’ and decided I’d come and see the turtles of Turtleback Ferry.”

“Oh, well, they’re down by the water, just follow the main road.” The halfling said as his smile faded. “Though they don’t ferry on the backs of turtles, more like in the shells of giant snapping turtles the village founder slew.” Tallem said warily not wanting to dampen such a cheerful souls spirits.

Contrary to Tallem’s fears Ant only grinned “Really? Well I’ve seen the backs of turtles but never the inside of their backs!” and with that the odd little gnome raced off toward the river leaving the halfling to watch him depart. “That was an odd one even for a gnome.” The halfling said aloud before he turned to head into the church.

* * * * *

Evening eventually came to Turtleback, as was it’s want, and soon the shining children of Desna illuminated the streets of the small village as people either turned in for the night or made their way Bottom’s Up, the local tavern, for a drink and other vices. While nothing remotely close to the vice dens of larger cities (let alone those of distant Katapesh or Absalom’s Puddles district) there was little to do in such a small place outside of ones work or trade. Since the Paradise, a pleasure barge that plied the waters of Claybottom lake, sank there had been little to entertain the various hunters, farmers or fishers of the region. While nowhere near as decadent as the sunken den of sin Bottom’s Up sported some gambling events and the occasional fighting in a makeshift ring in the center of the tavern where all could see.

Zandu had thought he had regretted the drinking he had done the previous night before, now he realized he hadn’t truly begun to regret it. He leaned against the ropes as Alessa dabbed his forehead with a damp cloth and tsked at the Varisian. “Really now Zan, you used to be able to drop men like him in the first round,” she said giving him a slap to the cheek that was perhaps a little more hard than it needed to be for encouragement. “so stop whining about your head and show him how a real man fights.” This she said loud enough for his opponent to hear over the dull roar of the surrounding townsfolk.

The Varisian winced, Alessa wasn’t exactly promiscuous as much as she was a serial monogamist, and while the few men who had been romantically involved with held fond memories of their time with the lovely Chelaxian, Dorn was quite the exception. The woodsman had been used to being the charmer of Turtleback Ferry, he was a powerfully built man with rugged good looks, and tales of his conquests had spread far and wide in the region. He had almost celebrity status amongst the women of the surrounding villages, that was, until a very public break up showed he lacked the mental faculties to provide even the slightest bit of resistance to his lovers sharp tongue. Needless to say, after being humbled in such a fashion he had lost his luster amongst the local women and Alessa’s fast friendship with Zandu didn’t win him any favors with his opponent.

The woman could be surprisingly strong too as Zandu discovered when she pushed him up and back into the ring. He had just enough time to duck the hamfist that came speeding for his skull. He passed under the man and gave a sloppy punch to his ribs before righting himself just in time to block another punch. The next one, however, connected solidly and the Varisian felt his world spin.

The spinning came to a stop, well, his physical spinning did, the world itself still seemed to be moving. Dorn slapped his face on both cheeks bringing Zandu back to the painful reality of this match “When I’m done with you, Sczarni dog, I think I’ll show that little trollop of yours what a real man can do, whether she likes it or not.” The grizzly of a man said apparently making sure every word was smelled as well as heard.

Oddly enough the breath didn’t seem to offend the Varisians senses as the woodsman had hoped. No, indeed Dorn got a lesson right then, rare is the man who actually expects a head but.

Clutching his broken nose the bear of a man’s vision swam and when he cleared his eyes his opponent was gone. He didn’t turn soon enough as a kick to the kidney brought out a loud groan of pain from the man. A sweeping kick took his legs out from under him and he crashed to the floorboards with the Varisian leaping atop him. Already people were moving to pull Zandu off the woodsman but before they could he leaned in close “If you lay a finger on Alessa that she dislikes, listen to me and listen well: I. Will. Kill. You.” He said and gripping the sweat soaked hair he let loose a final blow with his closed fist and Dorns world went black.

* * * * *

“Stop being a baby.” Alessa said as she dabbed at some of the blood on the side of Zandu’s face where a rather large bruise had almost swollen his eye shut. The Varisian hissed as she cleansed the cut with strong spirits and gave her a glare that had no spirit behind it. She smirked though when she spoke again her voice was tinged with concern “You really laid into him out there, we thought you might kill him, all the men were actually surprised you only hit him once after he went down.” she said and when her wounded friend said nothing more she continued. “He said something to set you off didn’t he. What exactly was it he said?” she asked tilting his chin up so she could look the Varisian in his good eye.

Zandu looked at his friend, one of the few people he cared for, and while they had shared a bed once before it became clear nothing could be between them. “He called me a Sczarni dog.” He said after looking into her eyes, they had always fascinated him, one was blue while the other was green. Sharply contrasting at that, not a hazel or darker tone that blended well.

She tsked again and dabbed especially hard “Well if you don’t want to tell me then fine.” She said angrily, again her tone softened “We made some good coin, I’ll get you some mead, don’t move.” She said and left him propped in his chair as she made her way to the bar. Dorn had already regained consciousness and left the tavern taking his wounded pride with him and after the congratulations were over the young Varisian sighed and placed the wet cloth over his eyes and closed both as he got lost in the hum of tavern conversations.

“Wow, that was impressive.” A nearby voice said prompting the Varisian to open his eyes. He looked around and noticed no one speaking to him. Zandu, however, had been in Turtleback Ferry long enough to experience the growing halfling population first hand and promptly looked down to see a rather odd looking gnome. His cloak was clean, pristine even and made of brightly colored silk woven together, it took only a moment to recognize the silk as Varisian silk scarves. The little one looked up at him as though eagerly awaiting a reply.

“Um, thank you.” He said a little thrown off by the brightly colored hair and cloak combined with the rather drab traveling clothes.

“You’re most welcome mighty Zandu!” the gnome said and bowed “I am Ant and was over there watching you fight when I said to myself ‘Ant,’ I said… that’s my name by the way ‘you should go and commend that noble warrior on his prowess in the ring’ and so I did and here I am.”

For a moment Zandu could only blink. “Um, thank you… again?” he said and then paused a moment “Wait, how do you know my name?”

“A little slow there aren’t you, a bit punch drunk maybe? I over heard your friend saying it.” The Varisian felt his head hurting again and rubbed his temples as he listened to the gnome. “By the way, why didn’t you tell your friend you got angry because the mean hairy human said he’d rape her?” His eyes widening Zandu could only stammer for a moment, Ants eyes widened as well and he promptly began an apology “I’m sorry, um, good ears I guess, sometimes too good, should I not ask?”

Still taken aback Zandu laughed and shook his head “By the gods you’re a dizzying little man aren’t you. No worries Ant, no worries, let’s just say Alessa doesn’t take kindly to chivalry, she takes offense to anyone who thinks she can’t protect herself.” He said and promptly looked behind him to make sure his friend hadn’t been nearby when he said that. He turned back just in time to catch a bottle the gnome tossed his way. Considering all the gnome had was a belt pouch on him the Varisian wasn’t quite sure where he had acquired such a bottle. “What’s this?”

“A reward!” the gnome said thrusting a finger to the sky. “That and I don’t like alcohol, makes me sleepy, but this is a bottle of spirits from… now where did I get it… Katapesh!” he said triumphantly, once again thrusting his finger into the air. This drew a couple looks from the surrounding patrons though when the gnome said nothing further they turned back to their conversations. “Anyway, you look like an ale drinker to me, this is Acolyte Ale, I thought the man selling it called it Aco Light Ale so I figured it might be weak enough for me but he was kind enough to clear that up for me. Are you a religious man?”

“Well, I did follow Desna… once.” Zandu said, he had already uncorked the bottle and promptly took a swig. It was indeed a less potent ale and he preferred his ale as a good substitute for breaking ones fast but it was still crisp and tasty. It tingled slightly as it hit his tongue and he felt a rather strange sensation around his eye which he soon found himself able to look out of once more. “What in the…”

“Oh, yes, he called it ‘Priest in a Bottle’ which is why I gave it to you. I said to myself ‘Ant, this man looks like he could use some healing, you should have him try that Acolyte Ale stuff seeing as Red Cardinal Wine might be a little too strong for the mans hurts, he looks like an ale drinker anyway.’ And so I gave you that bottle instead of the wine.” The gnome said in a rush.

“Who’s your friend Zandu?” Alessa asked having arrived with two tankards of mead. She looked disapprovingly at the bottle in her friends hand but that disappeared when she looked at his face. “How did…” but Zandu interrupted him raising the bottle with a smile and making a show of corking it and placing it on the table.

He pointed to it and simply said “Good stuff that.” Before he made a waving motion with his hand, “now hand over the tankard already and sit down. This here is Ant. He apparently liked the fight.”

The three talked into the night with Alessa positively charmed by the strange gnome, Zandu suspected he might have been more annoyed by Ant had he not been in such a good mood.

* * * * *

Dorn listened to the laughter from outside the tavern. He had indeed left but not until he had snatched a bottle of particularly strong spirits. Dwarves made good vodka, this only made sense considering their fondness for potatoes as well, and at present the better half of a fifth had gone into the bears belly. Bastards, he thought, all of them, in there laughing at his expense, they were probably talking about him right now, Dorn the fool, who couldn’t break a Sczarni boy who was half his weight.

Tired of listening to the merriment he made his down the road towards his home. When the Skull’s Crossing dam broke and flooded the town a series of houses closer to the river had been damaged beyond repair. Rather than find a place that was still in good condition he had bought a little land nice and cheap and simply rebuilt. He liked the solace of the place, the cluster of rotted buildings gave him the illusion of company while giving him the isolation he found himself preferring more and more these days. Eventually Turtleback Ferry would tear them down and rebuild but until then he’d enjoy what he considered the perks of living here.

Which was probably why he was startled when he heard the voice from the shadows between two of the abandoned homes say “Help… me.”

Dorn jumped at the sound but upon recovering he squinted and peered into the shadows but only starlight permitting him to see he was only able to just make out a figure in between the buildings. “Please… help...so…weak…” the raspy voice said as it staggered a little closer.

The woodsman stepped closer as he found himself grinning despite the anger in his voice “Who are you, what in the hells are you doing near my home?” he said wanting nothing more than to throttle something. “No one should be out here you know. Just me and I’m not in the mood if you’re trying to get something from me.” Dorn said, or at least tried to, he slurred most of it. While the man could drink most under the table he hadn’t had anything to eat that evening so the spirits went straight to his blood.

He moved forward hoping whoever was in the shadows would give him some excuse to attack it, but it was far faster than the lumbering hunter, so fast he only saw a blur as it slipped past and behind him. So fast he was only able to grip its strong leathery wrist. So fast he didn’t even get to cry out in alarm before it smashed his forehead against the wall of the abandoned building near his home.

And for the second time that evening, Dorns world went black.

* * * * *


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Disclaimer:
This is pure opinion. Something that's been nagging me as I work on a project and try to do something within the bounds of the rules only to find myself blocked by those rules. That, and despite the rule in question being more of a concern for players it still chafes me as a DM... Sure I know I can change it, and I do, often, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt all the same.

The subject in question? Point Buy Stats. I have never been satisfied with them as written. What's worse is that I find if infuriating that a set of stats are considered appropriate for "epic fantasy" setting that I have come to view as... sub par or moderate at best. In short I would subject my players to the PRPG's 25 point buy system only if I were feeling particularly mean or spiteful.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's how I ran my games growing up. Maybe it's the simple fact that stats a couple points higher always seemed worth it to me. They made my players happy and never seemed to break my game and if I did feel that balance of power shift it seemed easier to compensate than to have my players grumble about their stats being unable to meet their characters concept. Good concepts, by the way, not munchkiny concepts.

What gets me the most is the whole the implication that epic fantasy is so... mediocre. Honestly I'd put the 25 point by in High Fantasy or Standard at least. Then if I had 25 be my High Fantasy I'd feel I had to allow a 1 for 1 exchange up to 14 rather than having 14 cost 5 points. With the 25 point spread keeping your stats at ten and above allows for two sixteens and a 14 which just seems insufficient.

Maybe it's that whole line of thought that in order to have a character who's not only good at what they do but good for role playing they have to have some sort of weakness to balance out their perks. I'm not sure how that mentality came about, I think I recall it being referred to as the 'Stormblade Fallacy' or something, not sure. It is a fallacy though, good roleplaying is good roleplaying, whether you have a stat or two below ten or not.

Maybe I've just been spoiling my PC's all these years I've been letting them play with stats that looked something closer to 18, 16, 14, 12, 12, 10 (36 points per PFRPG Beta's point buy) than 18, 16, 10, 10, 10, 8 (25 point buy). The PC's all die the same when a troll crits them. I think it's because that part of me that over thinks these things always feels like I'm being told "You're doing it wrong!" whenever I see things like that second example being considered 'epic'.

Just needed to get that off my brain. I don't expect this to change at all, I don't expect many (if any) people to agree with me, but it's irked me since 3rd edition came out (during second edition I never really considered other methods of stat developing beyond rolling them up).


Feats have been one of the best, and occasionally most annoying mechanics of the D&D game since 3rd edition came out. Since then I've heard the phrase "You can never have enough feats!" I created a system in my homebrew (3.5, not PRPG Beta) where a player could sacrifice a feat for a stat point and, well, no one thought it was worth taking. Well, one did and that was only to round a 15 that was bugging him up to a 16.

I ran into two feats, one I traced back to Book of Nine Swords and one I only know the origins of in a PbP game. I'm sure it exists elsewhere but I've no clue where that might be. The BoNS feat was Superior Unarmed Fighting (or something to that effect) and I think this feat is just plain cool. It allows someone to make an effective pugilist and increase their unarmed damage without dipping into monk or getting the shaft. It grows with the player and while the damage is never as good as a monks it's enough that it doesn't suck.

The other feat I found was Ambidextrous, with 3.5 we saw that feat go the way of the dodo as the mechanics were combined with the then Two Weapon Combat feat to make the now Two Weapon Combat feat. Still, some people found it strange that while it combined the two feats the person who took them was never, in fact, ambidextrous. Ambidexterity is the equal use of both your right and left hand/arm, by definition you have no off hand. The feat I ran into fixed that by saying that your character had no off hand. I.E. A two weapon fighter using that suffered no strength penalty with his "off" hand.

My main regret is that I was absent during the feat discussion of the PRPG and never thought to at least try and get some variant of the above two feats into the system. Gods know I'm house ruling them. Still there needs to be a purpose to what I'm writing so here it is:

What sort of feats out there do you think are just plain cool? Not stuff for some uber build but feats that are downright neat? Perhaps the flavor of them struck you or maybe you thought "why the hell wasn't this made sooner?" whatever tickles your fancy.


Well, I'm running a 4th edition campaign set in a future Golarion, certain things have occurred and while some aspects of the world have remained the same a significant amount has been changed to fit my personal vision of a 4E version of Golarion. Chances are in some twisted alternate dimension where Paizo jumped on 4th edition and converted their 3.5 Golarion to said RPG system and used the setting as I have some of the changes would ignite nerd-rage across the message boards akin to what occurred with the Forgotten Realms transition. :P

I, however, digress.

I am curious, there are certain elements of 3.5 that don't transfer well to 4e and certain elements of 4e that I'm having trouble finding a Golarion counterpart for. One example are the gods. In the first gen 4e core books each god has a Divine Power feat associated with them. Any advice on who might get what feat or has anyone written up anything custom to the gods of Golarion? If so I'd love to see a thread or website that includes it.

Should I not get anything here I suppose I could get off my lazy butt and page through the PH to find various equivalents.... :P


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My group and I are about to go through the Red Hand of Doom adventure. I'm going to start the group off with Tower of the Last Baron and toss in a lead in to the Red Hand of Doom story line. My only problem is where to set it. I had originally thought the River Kingdoms wold be perfect but unfortunately that does not seem to be the case. Any advice? I'd rather it wasn't too much further than Andoran...


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I have to say of the various lust gods and goddesses I've seen in D&D I have to say I've found Calistria to be one of the more interesting in that, well, I find nothing about her appealing. Everything about her meant to be enticing is simply... a turn off. Nothing about bees or wasps is appealing, I find the color of yellow unappealing in just about any form... hell, even traditionally it deviates from things lustful, heh, even the hair in her depiction. I'm not against it or complaining I just found it personally amusing.

On the other hand there are interesting aspects to her. Combining her with Trickery and Revenge, two portfolios that are typically relegated to separate deities (i.e. Trickery to a god of Illusion or Thievery, Revenge toward some more sinister or violent god that sort of thing) but remains a combination that makes sense. Personally I'll probably try to lose the bee motife and go with something like a red rose and a mask which keeps the Calistria's Sting element and adding something indicative of trickery.

Anyway. Interesting concept I have to say, though I don't agree with it, maybe I'm just finicky, just felt like commenting on that.


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So it happened, and technically I should have seen it coming but, alas, I did not.

Anyway, I'm seeking advice as there is a slight problem in my group. Our parties Cleric has become rather powerful and normally this isn't a problem for me, I always thought that 100% game balance for for sissies as far as GMing goes (my beliefs that whatever the PC's can do bad guys can do too has often worked as a great counter when handled properly) but this is a different matter entirely next to my usual issues of encounters being too easy.

Basically the other PC's feel over shadowed by the guy. One of them has apparently been quoted saying "I don't come to game to be *players name* *explicative* sidekick." and, well, that's a problem. When a good half of the group aren't enjoying themselves then something is wrong.

Now much of this is my fault. The player has out damaged the fighter, out stealthed the rogue, out initiated everyone (though I think the rogue is actually better now and just rolls poorly, I'll have to check the character sheets), and while he hasn't out blasted the Evoker he's come close. He has, through the rules: summoned over a hundred celestials capable of casting Raise Dead and Hallow over the course of a week, teleported long before he should have via little loopholes. And is an all around bad ass. The scary thing is this isn't him trying, all of it has role playing elements behind it and he has worked for his abilities. He's written two packets to explain down time activities. Suffered ability damage for some of the cooler actions he's done, and sacrificed xp to summon those celestials. And all with good in character reasons.

The player himself is a freakish blending of a master Power Gamer and a good role player. He has the free time and the will to study the various books in the apartment and suffice to say the other players simply can't compete. Oh, and everything I mentioned was done during or before 9th level.

The other player involved in these issues it the player of the party's Wizard. Well, one of the parties two wizards, and in general is a good and solid gamer but has some personality quirks that are hard to ignore. Suffice to say it seems there's no satisfying him and he has been prone to sulking after a fashion during game when things don't go his way. This isn't saying the player of the cleric has an Angelic personality but it hasn't been an issue in game, well, not as persistent at least. The wizards irritation comes from the Cleric and a strong dislike for the lack of good loot in the adventures we've been running (Rise of the Runelords), he also dislikes how certain things make little sense (to him) throughout the module

Spoiler:
(His most recent issue being the Fortress of the Stone Giants wherein the PC's encounter a mummy that is not only a monk but has his arms and legs bound tight and is in the middle of an otherwise empty and hollow tower. No explanation for the PC's, nothing in the tower that they built up to be the actual fortress rather than the gaping pit in the ground, etc.)

and has been bringing the game down on many levels. At the same time he has also brought to light the issues two of the other players are having (these issues have been confirmed the Wizard is simply more the speaker than the other two) with certain aspects of the game as well as the Cleric.

Now I'm tired of tiptoeing through the tulips, of hearing all of these complaints from both sides, and I have issues of my own. The advice I'm seeking though is on the two players mentioned. We have one who is far too powerful and one who does a lot of complaining. There were issues with the magic items but ultimately that's an easy fix. I'm also to blame for some of the Clerics uber-mojo. I permitted him to build his cohort when he took the Leadership Feat which, while he had fairly altruistic designs with him he still got to customize the guy entirely which rubbed people the wrong way. One player, the Wizard in question above, wanted to take the Leadership Feat but lacked a good in character reason for it and was accused of trying to step on the clerics toes.

So the issues:
One character is so powerful he's killing the gaming buzz for half the group.
One player complains a little more than is comfortable and sulks which kills the mood.
They're both strong personalities and the better RPers of the group.

Any advice is welcome though I'd like to avoid anything involving kicking the players in question out. Quitting the game. Killing any of the characters. And please, I understand that it is my fault for permitting the powerful character to be as powerful as he is, I'd rather not have it ground into my face any more than it already has. Especially seeing as it wouldn't actually lend itself to helping solve the problem.

Any takers?


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Adventure modules are a great thing. Whether you use them entirely or simply pluck bits and pieces from their pages to enhance your own home brewed game. I myself like to run modules for a variety of reasons from simply not feeling I have the time to run my own adventures to the fact that Paizo has some pretty badass Adventure Paths and I can't help but want to run them all, but for all the good things about modules (Pathfinder AP's especially) there are just some things the designers can't quite cover when working on them, events when players go left instead of right or home rules that may make it easier or more difficult to bypass an obstacle in the game. These things are expected to come up and a bit of clever or quick GMing is all that's needed when handling them.

But then you get those Doozy's.

You know what I'm talking about. Something where the players deviate from that neatly laid railroad drastically or perhaps do something that doesn't damage the rails per-se but makes for one hell of a scene or an effect. So I'm starting this thread as a place to tell stories about players, or hell, even GM's who throw the module or adventure path through a loop and have a good time doing it. I'm going to focus this one on Rise of the Runelords, Paizo's initial foray into the realm of AP making outside of Dungeon magazine. So everyone, tell us your stories.


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I know I'm on day 12 of the 8-17 business days but I have to ask. Why does it take so long to ship? I mean 8-17 business days just to ship? I was wondering if there was even a point to higher shipping rates as you could get next day delivery but if you have to wait 8-17 days it doesn't really matter. I've pretty much chalked this up as an item that will arrive by the 17th of October. Over a month after making the order. I can accept that, but I'm curious as to the why, I wanna watch my Gamers 2! :-P


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In my Rise of the Runelords game one of my players is a Cleric of Desna. His domains are Luck and Travel and while he makes prodigious use of his travel domain ability his bit of luck ability has been considered next to useless due to it's pre-meditated nature. Once a day on one person and you have to choose when before the roll is, well, lame, especially considering it requires a standard action. The 3.5 version, listed below, proves much more worthwhile.

3.5 D&D wrote:


Luck Domain
Granted Power

You gain the power of good fortune, which is usable once per day. This extraordinary ability allows you to reroll one roll that you have just made before the game master declares whether the roll results in success or failure. You must take the result of the reroll, even if it’s worse than the original roll.

With this one gets the chance to gauge whether the roll succeeded or noth then they can choose to reroll based on that. Should they see the roll having likely succeeded they don't waste their luck because it's already with them. However should their roll be on the lower end of the spectrum they can effectively increase the chances of countering that ill luck by rerolling when they more or less assume it's a failure (a safe bet on most rolls of 5 or below for example). It makes having the luck domain far more... lucky.

With the way it's written in the PRPG you can slightly increase your chances but really it'll be hit or miss. Sure that emulates luck fairly nicely but, in my opinion, not nearly so nice as the 3.5 ability. First, you have to do it either before combat or within the first round of combat, anything else would likely be more of an exception to that rule. Because it requires a standard action you're using it because you think it would be better than a buff the cleric could otherwise cast instead. Then you have three rounds to choose to use it. First you have to use it when you know you want it to count and once you do that is that. You can't get it for the rest of the day. Meaning this requires guess work and playing it right to make sure you don't waste it.

My solution would be a combination of the two instead. For three rounds the person touched with bit of luck can choose to re-roll one roll before the gm informs them as to whether it was successful or not. So lets say the cleric of the party uses bit of luck on a Paladin. The Paladin rushes in and makes a basic attack on the BBEG, he hits an AC of 24 and deals damage. The second round he decides to Smite Evil, he rolls poorly so he chooses to activate his bit of luck and re-roll and rolls a little better. He still hits and the Smiting goodness is dealt. He's happy because he had a little more control over when luck blessed him by choosing after recognizing a likely failure rather than guessing at the need for one.

Now I can see the ability as being useful, but I think it would be better, yes, better and likely more balanced with abilities like that of the travel domain if the player in question had more choice and control in the matter. Yes, luck is about chance, but bit of luck is about getting lucky. That, and it's nicer to choose rather than guess and choose any day, even if the choice turns out a poor result you still had that much more control.

Anyway, I'd like to see other peoples thoughts. I know it's not a major discussion issue like skill points and the Power Attack Feat (I'd still like to hear Jasons input on why the PA feat was neutered so unnecessarily :-( but that's for another thread) but it's been a concern in my game and while it's easy enough to house rule I'd like to at least try to push to make it what I and the player in question see as 'better'. I'd also like to see what the community thinks on the issue as well.


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Do Human Bane Weapons affect half breed creatures like half-orcs or half-elves? I am running Hook Mountain Massacre and the PC's will be fighting Jagrath Kreeg and his human bane weapons. Now, this party doesn't have a single human, what it has is two half-elves a half-orc a halfling and an elf. Would the human bane weapon actually affect any of the half breeds?


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Do Human Bane Weapons affect half breed creatures like half-orcs or half-elves? I am running Hook Mountain Massacre and the PC's will be fighting Jagrath Kreeg and his human bane weapons. Now, this party doesn't have a single human, what it has is two half-elves a half-orc a halfling and an elf. Would the human bane weapon actually affect any of the half breeds?


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Do Human Bane Weapons affect half breed creatures like half-orcs or half-elves?


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Hmm, sounds like a good adventure, I have to admit the Dungeon Crawl Classics rarely held much appeal for me but this story sounds intriguing. What do other people think and do you have any suggestions for their older 3.x stuff that I might try and track down?


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Playtest of PRPG Beta Rules
Campaign: Rise of the Runelords
CAUTION: Shameless Spoilers.

The players hit 7th level today. Er, yesterday.
After our last session I've decided to house rule Power Attack to a 3.5 variant that's essentially capping it at 6 points. I'll give my player the option of getting an improved version, if he desires, at a later date. Given that we're going up against Ogrekin and they've nearly killed a player twice a max of 8 points of damage from a power attack just isn't cutting it (The half orc fighter has an 18 strength) so I've decided to move back to 3.5's version scaling it down slightly by giving it a cap. It still lets him add +12 damage to his Earth Breaker if need be and all things considered: he needs it. Contrary to popular belief he doesn't waste much time with calculations, at least no more than a rogue might as they count up their sneak attack dice.

My note on this matter: PRPG Power Attack needs to change. I've mentioned my opinions on such in a thread on the topic unfortunately it seems the thread is decaying to a flaming battle between two oversized egos. That aside I've noted more people in favor of changing the Pathfinder feat than in favor of it which, in my not so humble opinion, signifies it at least needs to be changed. I personally believe it wasn't broke and thus didn't need to be fixed.

In the first encounter of the game they learned that the Grauls hit hard for deformed humans. They learned the hard way. Though it wasn't until they arrived at the farmstead that things really heated up. There were two rather nasty crits on the part of the Grauls in this game. The first one almost dropped the halforc with his 76hp. Thankfully the sixth level fighter had a lovely racial ability that kept him up and fighting and the party made short work of the ogrekin after that.

They immediately entered the barn and with a well placed fireball and three failed saving throws as well as a few uses of create water to quench any potential fires (though I ruled that the moldy hay hampered rapid spreading enough for them to make good use of the spell). I admit my knowledge of barns and the flamability of hay is limited but mold usually means moisture and thus not as flamable. Their fight with the pet spider was a little harder. They did some good damage and finished the thing off by round three but not until it's poison dropped the fighters strength to 7. The party cleric had the foresight to make a wand of Lesser Restoration during one of the periods of downtime and promptly got him back up and swinging. My thoughts as a GM: Finally, a poison that's actually effective. It's so rare to come across a poison or disease that poses any genuine threat to the party but this one and it's 22DC was a challenge even for the half-orc hammer swinger.

And yes, the newly power attack came in nicely there as the half orc was still able to swing wildly and use the momentum to carry the attack rather than his raw (and at that time mere 13 strength) and deal some actual damage. An attack that would have otherwise been able to get only a +3 bonus... well, +5 if you count Weapon Specialization, to damage.

They rescued the captives of the barn and used magic, water, and rations to help coax them back to the land of the living. There was an incredibly awkward reunion and some tears between the NPC's eventually, though, they found them a place in the nearby woods to camp out and wait while the PC's moved on to destroy the abominations that were the Grauls.

During this time we clarified the Acrobatics/tumbling rules. During our last session a combination of impatience and sleepiness caused a misunderstanding of the tumbling through threatened space and tumbling through occupied space rule. Somehow we were under the impression it was based on the enemies attack bonus total, not their base, if it had been things would have been difficult, as it was it was far more manageable for the rogue to tumble through a dc 21-23 threatened area rather than a DC 29-31 or something five points higher for moving through occupied space.

There were some grumblings about certain cleric spells being nerfed (Divine Power though if I recall the numbers were remarkably on par or at least not as bad as depicted) and how in the transition from Alpha to Beta the Wizards got more flexibility and power while the clerics remained unchanged. I admit I write off these complaints because they come from someone who has three domains. Not the most powerful combination of three domains possible but Luck, Travel and Knowledge aren't things to sneeze at either. That and this is a player who believes very few things considered too powerful (in 3.5 or 3.0) actually are. I'm not quite of the same mindset (Though I still say Spell Focus should have remained +2 :-P).

Beyond that the session was fairly smooth. They cringed and grimaced at how revolting the ogrekin were but otherwise went through the session with some difficulty in some places and ease in others. The fighter loves the overhand strike feat and uses it when he can. I feel I'll be tested soon. He's decided to try and get into the Dragon Disciple prestige class. It'll be countered by the slower attack progression but he'll still be a melee force to be reckoned with. If this were a game I was running on my own I might be hesitant, but I've read ahead, he'll need it. They'll all need it }:-) Though he'll have to explain this sudden change in RP terms. I'm not going to let him effectively become a half dragon that easily.

Anyway, things noted:
Power Attack: Needs to Change
Acrobatics as Tumbling: Works fine thus far.
Perception: There's some irritation that search is included in this now and that it's no longer an Int based skill. But in opposition there are players (the cleric mainly) who enjoy that it's included in Perception. Not smiled upon by the rogue or the wizards though.
Poison Use: Nice smooth system, I like it, no... I love it. Keeps things interesting and easy to figure out. Well, once you get familiar with it that is. And boy are we familiar with it. :-)

That's it for now. More to come next week.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

My PC's have been going through the Rise of the Runelords AP with the PRPG rules and they've been loving it. They love the stories, the love the RP, they love the plot but one thing that has irked them to no end is that most of the magic items they have are things they've made. They haven't found any solid good Wondrous Items, they now hate war razors with a passion and if there is one thing they've hated with any adventure in general is that it seems if ever there's a low level module the PC's are almost guaranteed to get enough cloaks of resistance +1 to provide blankets to everyone in a town of Sandpoints size.

Now of course nothing can be done right now but I've always considered magic items to be a good crunchy part of the fun and my players do as well. Seems the bad guys get plenty of nifty toys but they're either horribly evil items or something considered useless by and large (i.e. war razors, pole arms, etc). I basically got tired of it and decided that the PC's could get one of the masks redeemed per the Book of Exalted Deeds and us it that way sans the icky evilness. Now granted, it's not nearly as bad as Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave where a PC was screwed if they weren't a wielder of a Spiked Chain but it is annoying for a GM to list off what they get as they wait with bated breath and then have them groan and roll their eyes and talk about how they might sell such and such item to provide gold for making such and such item instead.

So I guess our request would be if it would be at all possible to take magic item dispersement into more consideration with future AP's? As a GM I am more than capable of slipping things into the game on my own but it would be nice to have a little help. I'd never consider my group a montey haul group under any circumstance but the magic item dispersement has been a touch bland. I'm presently sifting through Hook Mountain Massacre to see if I can't slip a few handy wondrous items into the mix or if I'll even need to.

Please don't think this a major complaint. I and my players love your products so at this point we're just being nit picky. I'm not sure what formulae you're using as far as how many magic items you're placing in the game, of what power and whether you're taking just monetary value into effect (i.e. including things like the Skinsaw Masks) or taking into account how useful certain items are (i.e. few players ever wield pole arms therefor this would likely be sold 7 times out of 10 and fewer still are likely to use the skin saw masks let alone find a buyer for them and thus... etc etc) but it's still a request my players and I would like to make. Whether you listen to us or not :-P is another matter.

Thanks.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Greetings,

I know there probably aren't too many Alaskans on these boards, never are, but I figure it's a good place for me to begin before I put up posts at my FLGS and the like. I'm thinking of running, or if there's a group already forming, playing in (I'd prefer the former) a Pathfinder Society game in the largest city (*snicker*) of America's westernmost, northernmost, and easternmost state. So, if there are any Alaskans on these boards interested let me know and perhaps we can works on something.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Greetings,

I'm presently running four games using the Pathfinder Alpha rules and set in the Pathfinder world, two are using the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path and two others are presently running through some various modules. Three of these games are Play By Post.

I, however, want to try something a little different...

I've been wanting to run a 4e game, my tabletop group isn't keen on the system but I kind of like it, so I figured I'd run a Play By Post game on RPOL. Problem is I didn't want to run it in the default campaign setting because I find it and the gods within a bit boring, and I didn't want to run it in Golarion as it stands, Golarion just holds too much of a 3.5 feel for me personally. So I came up with a compromise:

"Over a millenia has passed. Cheliax rose in power but fell when the Last Azlanti, Aroden, returned very much alive but now a force of darkness and having stolen the portfolios of some of the other darker gods came after Azmodeus' portfolio of Tyranny. The resulting war between the two gods combined with a last ditch effort by an alliance of 'goodly' nations caused the empire to crumble. While civilization isn't gone it's no where near as established as it used to be. The efforts of many of the nations go towards keeping the growing threat of the World Wound at bay while other threats aren't held in check. Varisia is back to a more frontier status as Korvosa crumbled during the wars and the Shoanti returned to their original homeland. Humanoids have increased in number in this region and have taken up the mantle of Aroden, one that once stood for civilization now twisted to a darker end. One nation holds these forces at bay and you, the PC's, are mercenaries in their struggle."

I'm curious as to what people think of this. Please no 4e bashing, I myself am sticking with PRPG more than likely but I paid for the 4e rules and dammit, I want to run the 4e rules! So if you're a hater, shove off, besides the setting isn't mechanics specific anyhow.

Thank you.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Just trying to gauge whether or not there's any vested interest in Pathfinder here in wonderful warm and sunny Alaska. Particularly in the Anchorage area. I'm also considering forming a Pathfinder Society group here as well.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I hate to be a pest, seems I've posted on these boards more times than either myself or the good folks at the Paizo customer service department would like. I'm just wondering what the status of this order is. It tells me it was shipped on the 10th but I've yet to see hide nor hair of it. Now I live in Alaska and receive mail in a mail box rather than a post office box so I'm willing to bet that it is simply late in arriving. Still, is there any way to check and see where it might be?


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Hello?


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Greetings, I was just curious, I had a simple thing come up in a game I'm about to run. The character background is a classic, an orc raid resulted in a raped mother and thus a half orc (the player) was born. Then I got to wondering... are orcs plentiful in the region they are considering being from?

It's a question along the lines of "Oh I'll just buy a new [ insert magic item here ] in the city" can they actually find the item in the city or are not no magical wal-marts around? Are orcs so plentiful in the world that they might raid anywhere from the obvious Hold of Belkzen to Andoran to Osirion to... well you get my point. Where do these classic beasts roam Golarion? I suppose I could consult my classic monsters revisited and see if it mentions anything there...

This same question could be posed for any creature. Or should I simply leave it up to my discretion. I just wanted to know if there was an answer out there already.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Just so you guys know, I love your customer service and you've been nothing but helpful to me in the past, I didn't want to sound b!##~y up there. I just miss my Gazetteer *sniff* :-)


Figured I'd advertise here for my PbP game. I'm a regular at RPOL (RoleplayOnline) and have decided to run a game using the Pathfinder RPG rules. If anyone is interested feel free to check this link:

http://rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=31807&date=1215062916

If posting an ad for a PbP game that takes place somewhere other than these boards is against the rules then I apologize. Mods, feel free to delete in such a case. :-)

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