DM Visser's page

I'm going to be running a planes-hopping game for some people soon and one of them is a worshiper of the god Ra - since it's hard to find information on the Osirian Pantheon, I was wondering where he would reside. The obvious place would be Axis, but none of the other Osirian gods are around there so I'm not sure where to find them.

The light of the waning moon shines gently down onto the empty village square, sending low shadows sprawling from the buildings surrounding it. For such a bustling, crowded place during the day, the stillness that night brings makes this place feel like a ghost town.

It is nearly midnight when the first of you arrive, perhaps out of some sense of punctuality, or you simply misread the moon's position in the sky. Either way, it seems as though your contact has not yet appeared. Nothing to do now except wait.

Welcome to the discussion thread! I'm sure things happen here, but I'm not sure what they are.

Couple of things - I will be running in block initiative (NPCs go then PCs go) with bosses or leaders having their own initiative. I think this will be quick and allow for faster combats in the situation that not everybody is available at one time - however, each person will still roll initiative and their actions will resolve in order.

As well, while I haven't done this before, looking around it seems like most people use google drawings in order to do tactical movement. So I'm going to do that, put your icons on there, and you can move yourselves, I think? Sounds good. And again, I haven't done a Pbp, so if you have suggestions I will gladly take them. Thanks a lot for joining me on this campaign, and I look forward to having a great time with all of you!

It is a troubling time for Golarion. Deep in the taverns and the courts, rumors of war are spreading like a virus, rumors of powerful preparations and the wooing of potential allies. Everyone can feel it coming, like the calm before the storm, like a silence before the entire world is drowned in a wave of violence.

From the north, a cold breeze blows. Demons and monsters howl, the wind carrying their terrifying howls across the continent. Something is coming. Something big. Something powerful enough to organize monsters, to make orcs more confident, to cause imps to break free of their lashes and attack their masters, to destroy everything in its wake. Contact has been lost with the Mendevian Crusades, and the worldwound has been left unprotected. Whatever is leading the demons from there has been collecting evil creatures left and right, with little regard for any town or village that gets in its way. Survivors have only listed one thing that this army wants - destruction.

Talks have begun for some kind of unified army, some sort of protection against this onslaught of beasts that is organizing itself, but every discussion between leaders falls apart, Cheliax, Taldor, Varisia, Ustalav, each chat risks starting another fight between countries, all while the dark forces grow ever closer, rolling over everything in their path.

In this uncertain time, there is only one thing people can be sure of: This means war.

Deep in heartlands of Cheliax, a small town stands, known as Vivario. Whatever your reasons for being here, you are approached by a hooded messenger with a small, dirty envelope. After taking it, the messenger disappears the moment you look away from it.

I do not know who you are, only that you are the best and the strongest to carry out this task. If you have heard the rumors, you know that war is coming. I need you to transport something for me - out of Cheliax. I will make it well worth your while. Meet me at Please do not disappoint me.

--

Hello all! I have never DMed a Pbp before but I have a lot of experience with DMing and free-from forum roleplay, so I figured I'd give a campaign a shot. I've wanted to, for a while, run a war-based campaign. This campaign will take place in a couple of parts, Pre-war (which will be levels from about 1-5 or so) and wartime (5-onward), with the opportunity for mythic power and epic level battles. I'm a very free-form DM, and while I have certain events planned, I try to let the players steer the story, with an emphasis on player interaction.

This campaign is intended for 4-6 Players, with the possibility of Mythic options late into it.

I would like to say at minimum, 1 post per day. I am understanding if real life stuff comes up, it will likely happen to me too, but I will take over your character if you are gone for too long, or if you disappear without letting me know.

--

I think that's about it! Let me know if you have any questions. I will update as necessary. I will be closing applications Next Wednesday, and hopefully we can get started by that weekend!

Uh-oh, here I come again with another advice thread.
As the title implies, I'm coming here because I feel a little irrelevant in my current party, and given that my character just died (we are level 8 so it's not that big of a deal, but I've never been a fan of death just being a 3000 gold deficit and nothing else), I am thinking about making a new character.

Details on the campaign: We are playing an undead/Ustalav focused campaign, a big modification of the carrion crown adventure path. We just got out of the shadow plane after about 10 sessions or so and we fought a lot of fetchlings, undead, zon-kuthon clerics, and wizards. We are level 8 and are almost at level 9. 20-pb.

The party has a skill-monkey rogue who does both melee and ranged in combat (usually invisibility until they can hit with ranged then moves in), a synthesist summoner who has wings, four arms, and a fair amount of HP (obviously), a Wizard who debuffs and blasts (he likes lightning a lot), and a witch who is pretending to be a cleric (took the channeling archetype and heals and buffs a lot). I was playing an inquisitor/shadowdancer with a polearm, which I intended to eventually use shadow dashing stuff to get to the backlines and kill casters. unfortunately, I only have so much HP (about 58), about a 20 AC, and even my to-hit is a little sub-par (+11 or so with a judgement, but no iterative attacks yet)). I hit pretty hard, but between a few bad rolls and the character's general fragility, I spend most (maybe 75% at least) of the fights feared, unconscious, or with 10 str damage while only being able to take down a mook or two while the rest of the party lays into them. If it weren't for our healer, a lot of the time I wouldn't even be able to get one of the mooks.

So, what would you suggest putting into this party? Or am I just being whiny about it and need to suck it up? Thanks for reading and any help you could give.

Hey all, I'm interested in making a Mystic Theurge, but since the errata that "a spell-like ability is not a qualifier" for prestige classes anymore, I feel like I'm kinda out of luck. I read in some statement or something that people who were disappointed by this change would be happier once Pathfinder unchained was released - I expected it to be variant multiclassing giving spell levels, but no luck - I read through them and it looks like the most anyone every gets is cantrips.

Is there something I missed or is the best way to go into it now back to "Take 3 levels in cleric and 3 in wizard"?

Thanks for the help.

(E: I realized that this might be better for rules questions, but I am just too used to posting in advice, and I'm not sure which one to stick with, sorry >_>)

So I'm playing an inquisitor/shadowdancer that doesn't much care for arcane magic users. I'm only level seven, but next level I get my rad Shadow Companion that'll be my flanking buddy and my confidant, I guess. However, this shadow companion feels like it could bring about a whole mess of trouble:

1: We are currently hunting a necromancer and have been f!~%ed over by shadows before, so I don't know how they will feel about having one of them hanging around. I feel like this can be explained to them that I will ALWAYS have the shadow under my control, but the bigger problem is...

2: Our healer is a worshipper of pharasma (a witch, but channels and heals like a cleric) and is getting a nosoi familiar at 7th level. Obviously both of which have no love for undead, but the nosoi is particularly bad as it will refuse to work around any undead or anybody who uses undead. Our characters are already thematically opposed, and this isn't likely to end well between them.

so I guess my question is how we can get past this. My character hates necromancers as well, and I'm not sure exactly what the fluff of the shadow is - why you even have access to it, why it's undead, etc (though I guess it saves paizo from making a new stat block, but you know). I guess I'm looking for a way to fluff my way out of "one of these two people is going to leave the party because they can't be in it because of religious reasons".

Myself and another friend just moved to PDX from Eugene and we're looking to start up a new pathfinder group. We are both experienced players and we welcome all experience levels. We are looking for players that are in college or around that age category. Either one of us is willing to DM, my friend would be willing to run Paizo's "Iron Gods" campaign, and I tend to run more homebrew campaigns set in Golarion. Anyone who is interested, feel free to message me or post here! We live close to Guardian Games and would likely want to meet there.

Hello again,
It's me! Asking for character build help again!

Here's the deal: I'm building a cleric, but I'm not sure how to do so. I know that they would be good for the party, and I have stats to support it, but most of the roles I attempt to take, are already taken by the party.
We have: A DPS/tank fighter, a Healing/ranged bard (picks up a wand of cure light and is a healer), and a controlly "God" wizard.

The second issue is the stat and race restriction: we do randomly assigned rolls for stats, and I ended up with a decent base for a casting/channeling based cleric:

STR: 9
CON: 15
DEX: 11
INT: 11
WIS: 16
CHA: 18

...And I have ended up a half-elf, which, admittedly, isn't the best race for a cleric.
The Bard takes up a lot of the duties I would attend to as a cleric with these stats, healing and buffing mostly, and I don't know if it's worth the effort to buff DEX enough to be a bad touch cleric. As well, she's building predominantly good, with available and probable gods being Iomedae or Serenrae, so negative channeling isn't great. We also already have tons of Charisma in the party, which does make me feel a bit redundant.

So, what would you build with those stats and this party? As of now, I am looking at a tanky crusader cleric going into Holy Vindicator to take advantage of all that channeling, with an emphasis on auras, but I'm looking for suggestions because I'm not sure how to fit in with the party dynamic. (Also, I'm coming in at level 8, so I have a lot of room to play with. We are in the middle of the Reign of Winter path, and my last character left fairly unceremoniously)

Thanks for any help as always, guys.

So, a bit of context - Shadow demon magic jars me. DM allows my character (since NO ONE in my team was able to realize I wasn't me) that I am basically trapped in my own body - I can perceive the world and what goes on, but not control my body beyond that. Certain evil characters in my party know I am possessed, but, being evil, could care less, and me being possessed helps him.

My character is, understandably, fairly angry about this, but there is nothing they can do, for obvious reasons. She is currently only a level 5 alchemist, with a focus on bombing/knowledges (mindchimest), for some context, and is from Cheliax. She wants to somehow get herself out of this situation/ruin this evil guy's day for being a bit of a dick, if possible. She is fairly patient, luckily, and will wait for her moment if necessary, but I was wondering if anyone had any bright ideas to deal with this (in-game). Other party members include the evil cleric, a ranger who couldn't really give a care, and my character's well-meaning but sort of dopey best friend.

I don't mind as a player being possessed, it's something that happens, but I'm simply not sure if there's anything my character can do about it.

Cheers!

...Man, I post a lot of threads looking for build advice. Sorry :P

Anyway, I'm looking at creating a new character for the party I am currently in, which has a very solid setup already - conjuration wizard, archer bard, and two-handed fighter. This fighter isset up for the sole purpose of doing TONS of damage (Read: oversized bastard sword and +25 damage at level 6), and everyone can basically take on most of the roles we need in the party - bard buffs, and arches, wizard debuffs and controls, and fighter kills things. So, I'm pretty much free to play whatever I want. One of the ideas I'd like to look into is a character that sets the fighter up for dealing all her damage, as the only real issue for them is getting to the enemy before she kills it. This would also help take the pressure off the bard and wizard, who are obviously squishier. What would be a good way to do this? I was considering a drag/reposition build, but was wondering what other ideas or advice there might be, for this build or something that might work well in this party.

Thanks!

Hey all,
I'm looking into a control fighter build, but as my DM did the stats, I ended up with some sub-par ones for the sort of build I was looking for - and a ridiculous charisma.

NOTE: These stat's can't be changed, and I am fairly committed to my character concept. I know I could pull off a spellcaster much better with these stats.

STR: 14
DEX: 14
CON: 12
INT: 13
WIS: 11
CHA: 19

Anyway, I am looking to create a fighter who can really utilize his high CHA - in the beginning I am going to be building a performance combat intimidate build (dazzling display into hero's performance, so I can intimidate as a swift action), but I am not sure where to go at that point. The character's personality is very narcissistic, and believes their skills are far beyond anyone else's, and I'd like to give them the opportunity to steal that glory.

I know the order of the cockatrice cavalier has a feature like what I'm looking for (when an ally scores a critical hit, you get an attack of opportunity), though I wouldn't like to play one for obvious reasons (dungeon crawling campaign). As well we do have a dedicated DPS machine, so I'm not really looking to fill that roll either.

Any help would be awesome, thanks!

Hey all, so just a quick question: long story short, a barbarian I have ended up with a horrid con modifier (-2) and I was wondering if that effected the number of rage rounds they have, or if it was still the regular 4+ 2xlevel, like skill points.

Thanks!

So, I'm playing a rogue/sorcerer with the intent to become an arcane trickster (I am at level 7 now, so I will be going into it next leve). However, the DC for my spells is horridly low. I only have a 13 cha (boosting to 14 next level) and this makes most of my first/second level spells 12 or 13 DC, something most monsters shrug off no problem. For the most part this isn't an issue, as I'm a selective blaster first, rolling to-hits rather than reflex saves, but as I get up in levels, I like to detect thoughts or simple command with SOME possibility of success.

So, is there a way to drastically improve my DCs? What feats should I take from here on out? I am planning on taking intensify spell at 9th or 11th, but other than that, I don't have much of a feat plan. I don't have spell focus or any metamagic feats.

Here is my current build:

Elf Rogue (roof runner) 3/Sorcerer (sanguine bloodline) 4
STR - 14
DEX - 16
CON - 11
INT- 12
WIS - 10
CHA - 13

Feats:
Acrobatic
Extra Traits (Needed Magical knack)
Shingle Runner
Spell Penetration

Rogue Talent: Ninja trick (Wall Climber)

Thanks for any help.

OK, I am dying trying to find an answer to this, I can't seem to find a firm ruling anywhere, and it's causing me great character issues:

Can spells cause sneak attack damage? My impression was spells with a ranged or melee touch attack roll can, but I can't find any concrete ruling or wording specifically saying this in RAW, which seems to be what my DM needs. I am building towards an arcane trickster, which doesn't have any ruling itself about the spells/sneak attack (other than its capstone ability, which is VERY far off), so is there a written rule somewhere that can confirm this?

Thanks.

A small amount of backstory (I love typing so much). We have an old red dragon living in the basement of our castle. He came to us as a human and a priest, but we forced his hand into revealing himself. He says he intends us no harm, but I'm not as trustworthy as some of my team. At this point, he is not actively attacking us, and we know a bit of his motivations, but I strongly feel that he is going to betray us.

So, is it possible to outsmart him? Have a contingency, somehow? He's old, and of course has a ridiculous cr (for our level, which is 5), so waiting will obviously be a part of the plan. He still doesn't detect as evil in his dragon or human form, but I definitely don't trust him. Can we even reform him? Are there ANY possibilities of getting an advantage over him at this level?

So, I have the ninja trick "Wall Climber", which: "A ninja with this ability gains a climb speed of 20 feet, but only on vertical surfaces. This ability cannot be used to scale perfectly smooth surfaces or to climb on the underside of horizontal surfaces."

Under climb, it has the rule that creatures with a climb speed have a +8 to their climb checks. Does the wall climber trick give this or does it have to be a creature, or start with the climb speed?

Hey all,
So I'm playing a words of power caster and have grown attached to the "Irresistible" meta word (though I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet), which does:

We also have a witch in our party who will generally set up a Misfortune on enemies early in combat, which does:

So, do these two stack? If so, does the target of the spell roll 4 times, or 3?

Thanks

Hey all (again),
I am a part of a group that is currently in the middle of an adventure path, but occasionally, our DM will have to go somewhere or take a break, and I generally volunteer to step in and run the characters through an adventure. Since this only happens once every month, at best, I decided to let them do whatever they want for characters. Third party stuff, mainly (most of them don't go outside of Paizo except for the Death Mage).

So, in addition to ridiculous characters, I would also like to have ridiculous adventures. Unfortunately, I have found my ridiculous well much shallower than I thought, having been exhausted after only a few adventures. A few examples of adventures was having them infiltrate a giant undead heavy metal concert, infiltrating a classy party that turned out to be run by a guy who was REALLY into s&m, and fighting an army of undead.

They are all fairly overpowered for their level (10th), one has become a lich, another is min-maxed as crap to have hit points and armor class through the roof, and the rest are fairly optimized, ESPECIALLY when it comes to undead (they are pretty big fans of undead).

As for hooks, I don't really need any, as they have been basically forced into servitude by an eccentric wizard living in his own demiplane, who sends them through space and time to get s!~$ done for him.

So, hit me with ideas if you happen to have any good ones! Our last session was just this saturday, so it'll be a while before I have to come up with something new.

Any suggestions would be fantastic!

Hey all,
I'm trying to pick a character for a new campaign I'm joining, but I'm struggling to pick an appropriate class, because they seem to have all of their bases covered.
We have a cleric who can provide heals and buffs, a summoner who will handle control and arcane magic and will likely be the party face because of his charisma (as well as his ediloin who will be a melee fighter) and a fighter/tank sort of person.
I can't really find a hole to fill in the party, seeing as traps really won't be an issue for us (because of the campaign) and everything else seems to be looking good. I was wondering if you all had some suggestions that could help guide me in the right direction.

Hey all,
I was looking into an arcane trickster build for a campaign, and my GM has allowed the words of power mechanic as an option for spellcasters. I have never gotten a chance to use this, but I have always loved the flavor and the idea of it, and since I was thinking about going a magical thief, this would be a good chance to use it.

However, It seems as though the WoP has a bit less utility (and since our party has a tendency to talk or bluff out way out of most combats), which may render it less than effective in this campaign.

So, short version: Does anybody have an opinion of the words of power mechanic for arcane tricksters, and how can they still be viable in a less combat-heavy campaign?

Thanks.

Hey all, I'm working on a new character and the concept is that they are sort of a free-runner, and I was having difficulty coming up with things that assisted in this.

Basically, I know to take things like skill focus in acrobatics and climb, and am taking the "roof runner" rogue archetype, so that they can get from place to place, but I'm not sure if there are more specific feats and abilities that cater more closely to this.

The other question I had relates to combat. While most of their combat will be pretty standard rogue stuff (move to sneak attack, flank, augmented acrobatics make this even easier), I am looking for a way to make them more affective from above. For instance, I expect them to be in a lot of areas where they can sneak UP something (like a tree or a building), and was wondering if there was a way to sort of jump-attack onto them. I know of the feat "death from above" which would be useful, but I can't find anything else that helps with this. Do you guys have any suggestions on feats, equipment, or skills that would let me do this sort of thing?

Hey all,
So, my group recently came into a new player who, for lack of a less complex explanation, tries to do everything and outclass all the other players in the party.
They are currently playing an alchemist, and while it is a versatile class, whenever a new situation comes up (other than marching order, because they do understand the role of our tank at least), they are the first to say they will do it, and attempt to force their character into a situation it wouldn't be viable, while attempting to claim that it is.

Another way this manifests is through character role playing change. They try to roleplays one way, then switch as soon as it is convenient to them.

As an extreme example, in the most recent session, they insulted my character heavily, which seemed a bit out of character for a gnome, especially when the character I am playing is the prime melee damage dealer for the group. My character got mad, and said to stop, but they would not let up, and it came to combat rounds. The floor was greased, and they fell to the ground. It didn't help that they were suffering from insanity and were helpless for their round. My character spared him, of course, but intimidated him to the point (they were a small character and I rolled a 45 to intimidate) to not attack me or threaten me again. Then afterwards, the player immediately went back to talking about how his character would continue to insult mine behind her back.

I don't think they intend to act this way, but most of it seems to be a combination of over enthusiasm and wanting to be the hero - which is fine, I'm just not sure how to deal with this as a player.

Thanks for any help >.>

Hello all,
I was just looking at making an improvised weapon themed fighter and was wondering what weapon group/groups improvised weapons would fall under. I'm guessing that they are dependent on what the improvised weapon is most closely related to, but I still wanted to make sure or see if there were any different ideas on this.

I'm looking for a way to make being death viable in most situations. The character is a level 10 witch, and I am planning on taking the improved familiar to get a Nosoi (as we are playing an undead-heavy adventure and I think it could be extremely useful and interesting). Firstly, I am in contact with my party members and would assume they all take sign language of some kind as well for a language, so they could relay to my character what is happening. I'd assume she'd automatically fail sound-based perception checks, or take a general minus to them, and am prepared to take that, as she's not TOO likely to be alone. As well, I was wondering if the familiar trait of being able to communicate with their master overcomes this barrier?

Is there anything I'm missing? How would this affect sonic-based spells (I do understand sometimes it's more about the vibration than the sound in some cases)? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

So, basically, I'm having a LOT of trouble putting a character together based on a concept I came up with. The general idea is a combination frontline fighter and a leader for the party, someone rather cocky and who believes they are the greatest general in the world. An obvious choice at this point would most likely be the cavalier, but I'd vastly prefer a sort of nimble fighter, with coordination skills to back it up.

I feel like I'm asking for the moon here, but the main issue with the cavalier is the mount focus, and I'd prefer to get bonuses to other sources, as the large-size mount would end up causing some issues in the long run and from a roleplaying perspective, I doubt this character would use it that often.

Any advice you could give would be excellent. Thanks!