Dire Elf's page

Lately I’ve seen a lot of custom character sheets for DnD5 on Pinterest and I’m jealous. For years I’ve been using some sheets a friend made in Word and I modified for my personal use, but they are not very attractive. They’re made entirely of tables, which makes some editing easy but other edits are hard. It ends up looking like it was made in Excel even though it wasn’t.

I do not want to use an app. I find that too annoying during a tabletop game. I do not want a printed sheet I have to hand-write all the details in. I want a sheet I can type information into on my computer and then print. I’ve seen the suggestion to use Excel, but I despise Excel. I want the sheet to have space where I can insert things like graphics and decorative borders. I want to be able to select from a variety of fonts for the fillable fields. I do not want it to do formulas for me.

I want a sheet that I can edit to suit changing needs or customize for specific characters, and I want it to be attractive but functional. Does such a thing exist? Is it possible to create one without having to purchase new software or develop artistic skills that I lack? Why is all the cool art going into DnD sheets and not Pathfinder?

The group I belong to has been playing through the Wrath of the Righteous AP. I've read several reviews of this AP that complained the monsters weren't powerful enough to threaten the party - though of course none of the reviewers described what kind of party they had running through the adventure.

I'm always confused by this kind of review. Unless the whole AP is made up of fighting 2nd-level tiefling rogues and some goblins, I can't imagine the monsters being too weak to challenge most parties. Our party doesn't have a cleric or paladin. We'll always be limited in the amount of divine firepower we have available to us, and I foresee that being a major challenge for us. Instead of powering up the monsters to challenge us, the GM may have to de-power them or level us up faster so we'll be up to the challenge.

We're in the midst of the 2nd book, Sword of Valor, right now, and I know we're going to be meeting up with swarms of something nasty soon. Swarms terrify me. My wizard doesn't have any area-effect blasting spells. The only party member who does is the warpriest. I envision us being eviscerated by the swarm before we ever get to the big fights with demons and large monsters that are ahead of us. We're always more interested in roleplaying something fun than in optimizing for the adventure path we're playing.

The only time I've ever seen our group walk through an adventure was years ago in an AD&D game, when one of the elves used his 'detect secret doors' ability to find the treasure haul without us ever having to go into the dungeon. That was just an accident, not character optimization or bad rolls from the GM. Well, maybe a little bit of bad dungeon design.

Just how do you end up with a party that is too powerful for the adventure, anyway? Can anyone explain to me how that happens?

I'm expecting my wizard to be encountering a lot of evil outsiders. She doesn't have many area effect spells in her spellbook currently, and I want to plan ahead. But for roleplaying and practical reasons, I don't want to take fireball or other fire-damage spells (burning hands, scorching ray, etc.).

I know a few area effect spells off the top of my head: sleet storm, stinking cloud, black tentacles, ice storm, cone of cold... What am I missing? I worry that most evil outsiders will have resistance or immunity against the energy-type spells. What are other area effect spells that are particularly effective against evil creatures/outsiders?

(Darn I miss how 3.5 had more force spells than PF.)

Introduction: I enjoy playing wizards. But I've historically avoided taking any metamagic feats that use higher level spells slots, because I feel I don't know how to effectively manage my spell slots when using metamagic feats.

Currently I'm playing a wizard in the Wrath of the Righteous AP. This seems like an AP in which it would be a good idea to take some metamagic feats like Extend Spell, Heighten Spell, or Intensified Spell. But I haven't figured out a good method for myself to track that I've already used a higher-level slot to prepare a spell. It also seems unlikely that I'll be able to acquire any metamagic rods during the AP, since opportunities to buy magic items will be rare.

I use Simply Spells spell cards to manage her spells. Just to add to the complexity of managing her spells, I've taken the Forest's Blessing arcane discovery, so my wizard can cast spells that are on both the druid and wizard lists with some bonuses, and because she's a wood elementalist she gets access to some druid spells that aren't normally on the wizard list. I'm already having to track which spells get bonuses from that arcane discovery. Her elemental specialization gains her an extra spell slot per level, but she can only prepare certain specific spells in those slots. I've been writing the bonuses from the arcane discovery on the cards, and using highlighter on them to indicate which ones are the spells gained from her elemental specialization. I suppose I could write additional notes or use sticky tags to indicate if a spell has been enhanced by a metamagic feat, and that would hopefully remind me not to prepare more spells than I have available slots for.

How do other players keep track of spell slots used when applying metamagic feats?

Introduction

I previously posted a journal about another Star Wars campaign that concluded a few months ago: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2tq2t?Star-Wars-A-New-Hope-Revisited

We've now begun a new campaign, set 10 years after the previous one. One character from the previous campaign, the Jedi padawan Taanar Ryl, is returning. The other three characters are new. The remaining player-characters from the prior campaign will appear occasionally as NPCs.

It's 10 years since Emperor Palpatine died. In the aftermath, Darth Vader resumed his identity as Anakin Skywalker and assumed the throne as the new Emperor. His son Luke became Crown Prince. A New Republic formed, but many planets refused to join either the Empire or the Republic, instead falling under the control of local warlords. But I'll let the opening crawl tell the rest of the story.

I'm playing a 5 Elements wizard, and I realized that the spell lists I can find here and elsewhere are only filtering by energy type, but don't have the option to filter by element (air, earth, fire, metal, wood). It's not hard to find the spells where the element corresponds to the energy type, but finding metal and wood spells is a bit more challenging.

Short of building a spreadsheet of my own with an element filter, does anyone know if there is a filtered list already available somewhere that includes element as a sorting option?

I'm looking for stories of incredible things player-characters have done, good or bad. Here are a couple of examples from my own experience.

In a GURPS Black Ops campaign, one of the players had his PC frequently bend/break the rules of the Black Ops organization. On one occasion the team was infiltrating a high-rise building, and this PC stripped naked, painted "I'm with stupid" on his abdomen with an arrow pointing at his groin, and ascended the building by suspending himself upside-down on the bottom of an elevator car. It was meant to show the character's contempt for the team's foes. He later engaged in a shoot-out while still nude.

In a fantasy campaign, the party had entered an ancient structure that had been unoccupied for centuries. They were alarmed to find the floor covered with a layer of sticky blood. There were several torture devices in the chamber, including an iron maiden, and the walls were covered with murals of gruesome battles and scenes of torture. A goblin-like creature appeared, climbed into the iron maiden, closed the door, and began to giggle maniacally. The GM's description made most of the PCs feel like they should at the least touch nothing, and at best leave immediately. But one PC (same player as above) noticed that there was an ornate throne in the chamber, and thought that he ought to sit in it. As a result the PC spent the next two months of play sessions in a coma after his mind was overwhelmed by contact with a malevolent deity, because the rest of the PCs could not find a method to revive him (fortunately he had a secondary character he could play until his primary PC was finally awakened).

What stories of awe-inspiring or cringe-inducing player-character actions do you have?

We began our Mummy's Mask campaign in September of 2015, so I have a bit of catching up to do to get this up to our latest session from 3 days ago. Here goes.

Player-characters:
Azzaria - female nagaji bloodrager
Koori - female tengu investigator
Sula - female suli-jann druid
Uto - male half-orc shaman
Nyema - lioness, Sula's animal companion

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09/20/2015
Session 1

The Ruby Scarabs formed in the Osirion city of Wati, where they prepared to participate in the lottery to explore the ancient Necropolis. Koori and Sula had already met in the Mwangi Expanse near Kho Rarme Pass, and had traveled to Wati together. Azzaria and Uto were strangers to them and to each other before agreeing to join together as the Ruby Scarabs to explore the long-sealed Necropolis.

Azzaria, Koori, and Sula were staying at the Tooth & Hookah prior to the beginning of the event. Uto, a local, had his own lodging. On the day before the lottery, Sula had a brief encounter with three fierce dogs that menaced her lioness companion, Nyema. The dogs turned out to belong to a group of halflings led by one known as “Mad Dog”. Mad Dog and his companions were part of an experienced adventuring group called the Dog Soldiers. The Scarabs were also introduced to several other adventuring groups who were planning to join in probing the mysteries of the Necropolis: the Crypt Finders, the Daughters of the Desert, the Sand Scorpions, and the Scorched Hand.

The group also met a priest of Pharasma, Ptemenib, who answered their questions about the lottery process. Ptemenib explained that the drawing was not to decide who would be permitted to enter the Necropolis; any adventuring band that had picked up a token from the Temple of Pharasma would be allowed to explore. The drawing was to determine what area of the Necropolis the group would be searching. Each group would be permitted to explore a total of three designated locations – assuming they survived. Ptemenib also told them the three cardinal rules the Church of Pharasma had set out for this event: 1) remember the origin of the Necropolis: it is a holy site and those who treat it with disrespect will be cursed; 2) do not desecrate or vandalize the tombs; and 3) honor the dead.

Following their conversation with Ptemenib, the Scarabs discussed what gear they had in their possession and what they thought they might need for their exploration effort. They planned to visit the marketplace the next morning to purchase additional equipment.

At the market on the following day, the group encountered a man named Fangrim who was part of a group called the Flickering Four. He was also shopping for supplies, but after telling the Scarabs that he thought fire was the best solution for any challenge, he decided he no longer needed his shopping list and abandoned it. Koori picked it up, and the companions decided to use it as a guideline for their purchases. They pooled their funds to buy a shovel, several potions of alchemist fire and acid, vials of antitoxin, holy water, a collapsible plank, and flasks of oil.

The next day they joined the other adventuring bands at the Grand Mausoleum, where High Priestess Sebti the Crocodile said a prayer for their endeavor. When the prayer was done, her acolytes drew tokens from a jar. The Sand Scorpions were the first team to be drawn, followed by the Ruby Scarabs. The Scarabs were assigned the tomb of Akhan-tepi as their first location to examine. The tomb had existed prior to the plague that led to the creation of the Necropolis, and lay on the far side of the walled area that enclosed the ancient burial ground. The Dog Soldiers and a group named the Four Lanterns drew locations close to the tomb. The three teams agreed to enter the Necropolis together and look out for each other until they split up to head for their assigned locations.

At dawn on the following morning the adventurers entered the Necropolis through the Gate of Dawn. As the Scarabs and their companions headed toward the opposite side of the Necropolis where their assigned sites lay, they heard a hiss from above and spotted a gaunt, fanged creature that Azzaria identified as a ghast. Several of the adventurers fired arrows at it, but the creature dodged them and fled.

Shortly afterward the three groups separated and the Ruby Scarabs proceeded on to the tomb of Akhan-tepi. Its heavy stone doors were buried in sand, which they took turns shoveling away until the doors could be pushed open. While they worked they heard a distant scream, but couldn’t identify which direction it came from.

The doors opened into an empty chamber with stone masks representing Pharasma set in the four corners. Against the wall opposite the entrance stood a huge stone disk resting in a track in the floor. This disk appeared to be a doorway. Uto cast a spell to detect magical effects and examined the room, finding nothing magical. Koori scanned for traps and also found the chamber clear. They lit torches and set them in the brackets behind the four masks, hoping that might activate the disk door, but nothing happened. Azzaria and Uto then combined their strength to push the stone aside.

The stale air that issued from the next room smelled of death to Koori. In the center of the next room was a 10’ square pit, which proved to be an opening into a shaft some 75’ deep. Uto dropped a torch down the shaft so they could see the bottom. At the edge of the opening a piton had been hammered between the stones of the floor, and a length of rope was tied to the eye of the piton, the other end descending into the shaft. But on examination the group discovered that the rope had been cut about five feet from the piton.

As the team were examining the shaft chamber, they suddenly heard a hiss from the outer doorway. Everyone went out into the entry chamber to find out what it was. A scorpion the size of a small dog, its carapace translucent, had entered the tomb chamber. When Sula and Nyema approached, it rushed Nyema and grabbed the lioness with its claws. Sula struck it with her club and Azzaria struck it as well, leaving it crushed and expiring on the tomb floor. Sula identified it as a ghost scorpion. It had probably entered the tomb chamber seeking shelter during the day. After this brief incident, the Ruby Scarabs returned to the shaft room.

Koori checked the room for traps and found none. The Scarabs had brought three lengths of rope with them, each 50’ long. They decided to cut one length in half and tie the two pieces to the other two coils, creating two ropes that would be long enough to descend the shaft. They attached one rope to the existing piton and set a second piton of their own for the second rope. Because Nyema couldn’t climb down a rope, Sula had her remain on guard at the edge of the shaft opening. Then the four companions climbed down to the bottom of the shaft. Koori descended first. On arriving at the bottom the tengu saw a patch of dried blood, a corpse, and a coil of rope. The corpse was desiccated and had probably been there for a century or more. The legs lay at unnatural angles, indicating that the person’s legs had probably been broken in the fall when the rope was cut. Azzaria bemoaned that this might indicate the corpse’s compatriots had taken all of the valuable treasures from the tomb.

After searching the corpse and finding two vials of alchemist fire that had somehow survived the fall, Koori proceeded to the next door, which lay at the end of a short corridor. Despite carefully searching for traps, the tengu managed to activate one that caused darts to fire from channels in the walls. Koori and Azzaria were struck by darts. Sula quickly cast a spell to detect poison and assured them that the projectiles were not poisoned. Koori feared that this trap might be one that could reset. The group gathered their heaviest equipment in Uto’s pack, tied the length of aged rope from the corpse to it, and tried to use it to set off the dart trap again while they stood back out of range. But the pack proved too light. They then hit on a plan to use Sula’s spear to push open the next door, laying the collapsible plank they had brought across the trigger to allow them to safely step over it.

The room beyond the dart trap contained a large tapestry that appeared to depict Akhan-tepi and his family. Koori took a moment to consult with the spirits and asked them if there were any hidden doorways. She was told there were none. The tapestry chamber had two exits, one to the party’s left and the other to their right. When they opened the right-hand doorway they found a staircase descending into darkness. The left-hand exit revealed an identical scene. Concerned that they might need rope again and the old rope they’d found with the corpse was getting too frayed, Azzaria went back to the shaft to get the second length of rope they had left hanging into the vertical shaft. After she returned they passed through the door to their left.

They were led to a room containing statues of Anubis and Pharasma, and a large mirror. When they looked into the mirror they suddenly realized that the image showed five people, not four. The fifth person was Akhan-tepi himself. His image wore an expression of displeasure. Azzaria began trying to determine where he could be standing to create the reflection, and she spoke to him, trying to reassure him that the Scarabs did not mean to desecrate his burial place. Sula stared at his image intently for several moments, and suddenly felt a pain in her forehead. At the same time, Koori realized that the word “thief” had been branded on Sula’s head in Osirion script. Uto recognized that this type of brand would fade in a week, but until then while it could be covered it could not be removed.

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9/27/2015
Session 2

As they stood in the reflecting chamber, the Ruby Scarabs heard scuttling sounds from the next room. Azzaria looked into that room, which proved to be designed for preparation of mummies, and saw two camel spiders moving toward the doorway. She and Sula moved into the doorway to meet them. Sula crushed one spider with her club, but the second spider wounded her twice with its pincers, which when combined with her injury from the cursed brand caused her to lose consciousness.

Azzaria killed the second spider, and Uto then channeled positive energy to provide some healing to Sula. When she had recovered enough to move on the Scarabs opened another set of doors exiting from the mirror room and found a long descending staircase. The passage at the bottom of the stairs was full of sand, which Koori recognized was not natural sand. Suddenly a creature composed of sand rose up from the floor, and the group members realized it must be some type of elemental. Uto created water to drench it, which temporarily slowed it, but no one was able to communicate with it and the creature seemed unfriendly. Sula hurled a fistful of flames at it, and then the elemental struck Koori with such force that she was near death. Sula cast a curative spell to prevent Koori from dying. The elemental then withdrew through a series of small holes in the walls.

The Scarabs then decided that they were overmatched and in need of more healing, and that it would be wise to withdraw until they were at full strength again. They returned to the surface and made their way back out of the Necropolis without incident.

At the Grand Mausoleum, they told the chroniclers what they had experienced thus far in the tomb in exchange for healing. Afterward they returned to the Tooth and Hookah to rest. They heard rumors that two of the other adventuring bands hadn’t returned from the Necropolis, but no one knew which groups. They also learned that the Dog Soldiers had lost two of their dogs to a gelatinous cube, and heard a heroic tale from Falto of the Crypt Keepers that both Azzaria and Sula suspected was untrue.

While they were resting, the group members decided they needed some additional supplies to continue their investigation of Akhan-tepi's tomb. They traded the two vials of alchemist fire they had found on the corpse of the tomb robber for a scroll containing a spell to heal wounds. They also purchased another length of rope so they could make a harness to lower Nyema down the shaft and have her accompany them when they returned to the tomb.

The next morning the Ruby Scarabs returned to the tomb of Akhan-tepi. They found that nothing appeared to have been disturbed in their absence. They lowered Nyema down the shaft with Sula accompanying her on a second rope. On the way through the first chambers, they picked up their collapsible plank which had been left over a trapped floor tile and replaced it with a door that they had removed. They then returned to the mirror room and opened a door decorated with gilded scarabs which they had seen the previous day.

The scarab door led into a large room decorated with a tapestry. Columns sculpted in the forms of warriors stood in the four corners. All of the floor tiles were painted black with the spiral symbol of Pharasma in white in the center of each tile. The doors leading out of this room also bore Pharasma’s emblem.

To the right of the party was a locked door, which Koori easily unlocked. This opened onto another descending stairway. The door at the bottom of the stairs was not locked, and when opened revealed another stairwell leading up. The door at the top of those stairs was also open. It admitted them into a large room with a stone sarcophagus standing on a plinth in the center. Four pillars flanked the plinth, as did two statues of Anubis. Uto detected no magic within the chamber. Koori scanned it carefully and identified two trapped areas, one beneath the plinth that held the sarcophagus, and the other along one wall to the side of the platform. She saw evidence that the columns would also do something. Azzaria noticed a lever overhead. Koori then suggested that the others wait outside the room while she tried to disable the traps. Azzaria, Sula, Nyema, and Uto went outside into the stairwell.

While her companions waited, Koori tried setting her pack on a tile she had identified as a trigger. The doors, which were the only entrance to the chamber, suddenly slammed shut and locked. Electricity arced out of the statues of Anubis. Then water began to flow into the chamber, and the sarcophagus rose up and approached Koori. It slammed her to the ground, leaving her life hanging by a thread. The water covered the floor of the chamber and rose up toward the plinth. Koori crawled up onto the platform to escape the rising water, but the animated sarcophagus followed and attacked her again.

Her companions became alarmed when the doors closed and immediately began attempting to pry them open. Working together using the crowbar they had brought along, Azzaria and Sula were finally able to pry the doors open with great effort. When the doors broke and burst open everyone but Nyema was knocked down by the sudden flood that poured out of the chamber. Inside the room they saw no sign of Koori, only her burnt pack. Then they noticed a bit of black cloth protruding from under the lid of the sarcophagus, which still stood in its original position. Sula rushed up onto the plinth to rescue Koori from the sarcophagus, and it animated once again.

Azzaria attacked the sarcophagus with her crowbar, while Sula struck it with her club and Nyema clawed and bit at it. Despite being animated it was still made of stone and was very tough. But at last their attacks overcame it and the Scarabs were able to pry it open. Sadly, it was too late for Koori. After being beaten, electrocuted, drowned, and suffocated, she had not survived.

The rest of the group were too disheartened by this loss to continue exploring the tomb. After Uto healed some of their injuries they gathered up Koori’s body and carried her back to the Grand Mausoleum to be prepared by the priests of Pharasma. They told the chroniclers what they had found and what details they knew of the manner of Koori’s death. Then Azzaria, Sula, and Uto went to Bargetown to tell Koori’s relatives of her death. The matriarch of the tengu, Aruk, was not very friendly toward the Scarabs, but seemed genuinely saddened by the loss of Koori. After Uto gave Aruk the bag containing the baubles Koori had valued, the three companions returned to the Tooth and Hookah to have a few drinks together in private and mourn the loss of their friend.

In another thread, I confessed that I have a separate binder for each character, complete with page protectors, and a separate set of dice. Here are a couple more of my embarrassing gaming confessions.

1. 99% of my characters are elves.

2. I like using minis so much that I pick the mini first, then make the character to suit it.

3. When I play fantasy RPGs on a console, I try to make characters resembling my current tabletop characters.

What are your 'embarrassing' gaming confessions? Do you do dice training? Have a lucky dice bag? Spent way too much on a custom character illustration or painted mini? Share your darkest secrets - well, okay, maybe not those.

Introduction:

Our group has been playing through the Kingmaker AP since December of 2012. Unfortunately the GM has some serious health conditions, and the campaign has been frequently interrupted while he deals with medical issues.

Our PCs are currently 12th level. Because we've played nearly 60 sessions, and my notes of the earliest sessions are pretty sparse, I'm not going to try to post every session we've played during the past 4 years. Instead I'm going to start with our first session of 2016.

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The story so far:

Six unrelated individuals accepted charters from Brevoy to explore and 'civilize' the Stolen Lands:

Garrick - human male (monk/inquisitor)
Landon - dwarf male (ranger/alchemist)
San'Kari - elf male (fighter)
Silverleaf - elf male (cleric)
Tahjah - aasimar female (oracle)
Thim - halfling male (ranger) - Thim's player recently left the group

The PCs met at Oleg's Trading Post and joined forces to continue the mission granted by their charters. They helped to prevent a small army of necromancers from destroying the trading post and its associated stockade. Later they defeated a local bandit/warlord known as the Stag Lord, and discovered that he was under the control of a necromancer named Nyrissa. They claimed the Stag Lord's fort as their own, renaming it New Hope and gradually building it into the capitol of the new barony of Galisat, led by Baron Garrick.

During their explorations of the surrounding territory, they discovered that an ancient cyclops vampire lich called Vordakai had been freed from his thousand-year imprisonment. Nyrissa was helping him attempt to take over the Stolen Lands, with plans to expand beyond that territory into Brevoy. The representatives of the new barony found Vordakai's current stronghold and defeated his present physical form there, even managing to acquire what they think is one of his phylacteries.

They also managed to claim the territory around the town of Varnhold, which had originally been claimed by another charter-holder but he was slain by Vordakai's minions. They rescued most of the residents of Varnhold, who had been imprisoned in magic jars by Vordakai; and they rescued a young silver dragon who had been taken captive by Vordakai. This makes two dragons they've befriended, as they had earlier found a talking worg who turned out to be a polymorphed ancient brass dragon. This brass dragon has recruited some hill giants to provide protection to Oleg's Fort (the town that has grown up around the trading post) and Varnhold.

Currently the barony has grown large enough to be considered a dukedom and Garrick is now Duke of Galisat. The party are still fighting Nyrissa, who has allied with the Black Sisterhood to take over the neighboring dukedom of Pitax and the Tiger barbarians for a planned invasion of Brevoy. To prevent Galisat from aiding Brevoy, Nyrissa and her associates have been trying to undermine Galisat's resources. Nyrissa's minions are also attempting to gain more control of the barbarians by convincing them their great hero Armag the Twice-Born has been reborn. To thwart this plan, the PCs are on their way to Armag's tomb to claim his sword before the Black Sisters can get their hands on it.

Let me preface this by saying I am 55 years old and have NEVER played a MMO. I signed up for LOTRO, but have never actually used my account to do anything. Until recently I didn't have a computer that could adequately support the graphics.

I've been entertaining thoughts of giving one a try, and DDO seems more like my style as I've been playing D&D for more than 20 years and Eberron is one of my favorite settings.

I'm considering solo play, since to be honest I'm afraid of being treated rudely by people much younger than me who have already been playing MMOs for years. I don't really think I would make a good party member anyway. Scheduling would be difficult, as would catching up with all the slang and paying attention to what everyone else is doing.

What I want to know is, can I enjoy an experience that feels like D&D? Can I solo without dying every five minutes? If I like playing wizards, will I die even more frequently? I'm not really interested in getting all the best gear or reaching astronomical character levels; in console RPGs I tend never to finish the main quests. I just want to have some fun, maybe something to do while my husband is hogging the Xbox.

Anyone have any tips, advice, experiences to recount? I know there are DDO forums and sub-reddits, but I don't really want to spend hours searching them and I have no desire to join Reddit anyway.

Introduction:
Shortly after D&D 3.0 was released, one of our friends decided to run a campaign in a homebrew setting, a vast and ancient metropolis known to its residents only as 'The City,' inspired by Byzantium so that it had a somewhat Arabian Nights flavor rather than medieval European. Almost all of the action took place within a quarter of the city known as The Warrens, where all the PCs lived. Two of the PCs, characters run by my husband and myself, were the adopted sons of a local mob boss. All of the characters were human, as non-humans were very rarely seen in The City. The GM also prohibited the use of the cleric or paladin classes by player-characters.

We've been playing about twice a month since December of 2014.

Player-characters:
Geadus Spondulix (male human rogue, adoptive brother of Simolean)
Simolean Spondulix (male tiefling warlock, adoptive brother of Geadus. Simolean is a tiefling, though his only unusual physical characteristics are his exceptionally pale skin and multicolored eyes.)
Chovezani (female human wizard, of the Romani-like Campani people.)
Tarfu (male human fighter, who comes from the Thousand Towns beyond The City. Tarfu has an enormous extended family.)

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Episode 1: “The Room”

While at her workshop in the Warrens, the Campani wizard Chovezani received a message asking her to visit the wizard Al’Saam Khayam at his workshop. When she saw him, Al’Saam told her that later she would be visiting a tavern, the Last Flagon, although she previously had no plans to visit there and had never been there before. Al’Saam asked her to tell him whatever she learned there. After Chovezani returned to her home, she received a message from Lucre, one of the most powerful men in the Warrens, requesting that she go to the Last Flagon.

Tarfu of the Honorable Company was on guard duty at the House of Infinite Dreams when the proprietor of that establishment, Mistress Jilata, told him to go to the Last Flagon after his duty period finished. Tarfu was surprised, since the Last Flagon as a very run-down tavern with a reputation for serving beer that tasted like horse urine. But before he could finish his duty and head off for the tavern, he first had to deal with a drunken patron demanding to see Mistress Jilata.

Simolean was indulging in his favorite pastime, roaming the rooftops of the City, when he suddenly spotted his adoptive father Lucre on the street below. Lucre told him to find his brother Geadus and take him to the dive bar called the Last Flagon, but he didn’t explain why, saying only that they would find out when they arrived at the Last Flagon. Simolean dutifully headed off to find his brother.

Geadus was dicing at the Dusky Brew, his favorite watering hole, when Simolean arrived to tell him of Lucre’s orders. He reluctantly left the dice table to accompany his brother. On the way to the Last Flagon, Geadus was accosted by a charming young lady who attempted to entice him away. He nearly got into a fight with a passing laborer who tried to take advantage of her when Geadus declined her offer.

At the Last Flagon, the four people met and greeted each other, all of them having met previously while doing other work for Lucre. They were welcomed by the proprietor of the Last Flagon, Alven. His tavern had undergone a dramatic change of fortune. It was now a popular and well-appointed establishment, serving excellent beverages and repast. Alven explained that he had borrowed money from Lucre to save the failing tavern, after finding something amazing while trying to dig a new well underneath the building. In the ruins below the tavern, the workmen had discovered several huge amphorae full of wonderful beer. Chovezani speculated that these might be magical jars known as alchemy jugs.

Alven explained that in addition to finding the jugs, he also found a mysterious metal door. He wanted the four to investigate what lay beyond it. In exchange he offered to pay them each an advance of 25 gold pieces, with another 75 gold pieces to follow when their exploration was complete. Tarfu persuaded him to also agree to give the group a 20% share of whatever they found beyond the door.

Fearing that someone might be watching, Alven had his trusted employee Lem show the four adventurers the way down by going through the kitchen. Chovezani confirmed that the huge jugs were indeed magical, as was the strange door of unknown metal, which as marked with runes that no one could read. The door emitted a curious high-pitched hum.

Just as Geadus was about to try the door, he and his friends were attacked by several unusually large and aggressive rats. Geadus, Tarfu and Simolean battled the rats with their weapons and held them off until Chovezani could cast a spell to send all the rats into a deep slumber. Once the rats were sleeping, the young men slew them all.

On examination, Geadus found that the door lock was trapped with a poisoned needle, which he deftly removed. The door opened into a small room made of the same type of metal as the door. On the opposite side of the room was another door marked with runes identical to those on the first door. Fearing that the door might slam shut and trap them in the strange room, Tarfu used a beer keg to block open the first door while they went inside. Within the room the four young people found a large jar of wine, and a small box, which Simolean picked up. Geadus then opened the second door.

The room beyond the second door was quite large and filled with furnishings. Its walls glowed slightly. In addition to the furniture, the four visitors also observed planters full of exotic greenery, and they wondered how the plants could remain alive there underground without sunlight or water. Flies and bees buzzed about the big room. Geadus, who had recently been reading about building construction, realized that this room was larger than the footprint of the buildings that stood above it. This led Chovezani to wonder if the chamber might not actually exist somewhere other than under the Last Flagon. Perhaps the entrance to this room was more than a mere door.

Suddenly the keg Tarfu had used to block the door was knocked aside, followed by a muffled curse. Three burly men with crossbows entered the large room, demanding that the four surrender. Chovezani and Simolean attacked with spells, while Geadus and Tarfu raised their weapons. Geadus and Simolean were both badly wounded, but not before two of the intruders were injured themselves. The last man fled. Tarfu found that one of the men had died because he had been shot through the eye with a crossbow bolt, although the only people using crossbows had been the three assailants. There was no sign of who might have shot the man.

While Geadus and Simolean recovered from their injuries, Chovezani found a chest full of electrum coins, a form of currency no longer commonly used in the City. On a shelf she also discovered two scrolls, one of arcane eye and the other of arcane gate. Both were more powerful magic than she was currently capable of casting.

After the adventurers departed from the magical chamber, Alven’s cousin Du told them that he thought Lem had betrayed them to whoever hired the three thugs, possibly a competitor of Lucre.

The characters are now 2nd level.

Loot acquired:
Scroll of arcane eye
Scroll of arcane gate
Chest containing 3000 electrum coins
Small box containing 100 electrum coins

A couple of years ago, one of my gaming friends decided to start running the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path. Unfortunately after we'd played only four or five sessions, the vicissitudes of life intervened and we had to put the game on indefinite hiatus.

A couple of months ago my friend who is GMing this campaign finally felt he was ready to resume. Unfortunately in the intervening time period I had misplaced my session notes, so the information I have about what happened during those initial sessions is pretty minimal. But I thought I'd start journaling my summaries of our sessions, beginning with a brief recap of how the campaign began.

I've decided to sub-title this "Adventures of the Great Hero" because Jiro has a Destiny, but up to this point he was a lowly gardener. He has no combat or armor training, and has been afraid to actually hit anyone. My character, Asami, has been sent as his protector and finds him a bit trying.

Note: Most of the players other than myself are using classes from the Advanced Class Guide.

Player Characters:
Aegronius - male half-elf slayer
Asamiel no Seimei - female elf wizard (me)
Fairuna - female half-orc warpriest of Iomedae (my husband)
Jiro - male human shaman
Zosta - female human brawler

Asamiel no Seimei and Jiro both come from Tian Xia. Asamiel was not born there, but has lived for years in Jinin, the elven kingdom there. Jiro was born in Minkai. Jiro, who had been a gardener for a noble family, discovered that he was actually a bastard son of said family. The Council of the Golden Flame determined that it was Jiro's destiny to go to the far-away Worldwound to prevent the oni from using it to emerge into the world. The Council believed that the barbaric westerners were incapable of dealing with oni as well as the people of Tian Xia could. Asami was sent by the Council to accompany Jiro and look after him. Jiro was also accompanied by Uncle, an unusually intelligent and mischievous monkey who he believes is the reincarnation of one of his ancestors.

Fairuna (Runa for short) was sent by Iomedae to join the fight against the demons at the Worldwound. Zosta had gone to the city of Kenabres to visit her parents, who were the bodyguards of a barbarian priestess named Cennami. Aegronius came to Kenabres with a companion seeking work, but after the arrived his companion left. The five PCs met on arriving in Kenabres, where Cennami took charge of them and began their training in fighting demons. This training included fighting a redeemed demon named Rhino who was willingly helping to teach the barbarians and their allies to be better demon fighters (Rhino is a reference back to an old player character run by the GM in another campaign).

After the group had been in Kenabres for a short while, they attended a festival in the city. As one of the important officials of the forces defending the Worldwound made a speech, the crowd suddenly saw a demon lord appear, locked in battle with the city's silver dragon protector, Telendrev. Then a crack opened up in the earth and the five newcomers plummeted into it. As they fell, they saw Telendrev suffer a mortal wound. But before they could plunge to their deaths, the dragon cast a feather fall spell on them all. This didn't prevent them from being knocked unconscious by the long drop, but it did save their lives.

After they recovered consciousness, the group began seeking a way to get back to the surface. But first they each found a single scale presumably from Telendrev. These scales would grant them several different magical powers when used. After discovering the scales, they began exploring the tunnels in which they had landed and discovered that other people had also fallen through the crevice that opened in Kenabres: Anivia, a human woman who had suffered a broken leg in the fall; Aravashniel, an elf wizard who had been blinded by the demon that attacked Telendrev; and Horgus, a scholarly nobleman who had somehow avoided any injury. Asami was excited to learn that Aravashniel was a Riftwarden like her parents, who had died defending the Worldwound. The five young companion lacked enough healing magic to heal Anivia's leg or restore Aravashniel's vision, so they did what they could and helped the injured to walk as they continued searching for a way back up to the city.

As they explored, they stumbled upon a site where someone had camped, but no sign of the campsite's original occupant other than an emblem in the shape of a bat, which Runa picked up. Later on they also had an encounter with a dwarf. They were unable to determine if the dwarf had also fallen into the subterranean caverns or if he had already been there, for he seemed to have lost his mind and immediately attacked them, forcing them to kill him in self-defense. Afterward they discovered that he had been a wizard. Asami took charge of his spellbook, as Aravashniel couldn't see to use it and no one else could employ arcane magic. When they paused to rest, Aravashniel loaned her some materials so she could copy one of the spells into her own spellbook.

The above brings us up to the point where the game went on hiatus three years ago. Now we pick up with our revived campaign.

Before I present my summary of our Star Wars RPG session last night, let me provide some backstory. My husband and several of our friends have been playing a Star Wars campaign about twice a month for a couple of years. This game is run using the Saga Edition d20 rules.

Last night was my first session of the game as an official player. It's going to be interesting playing a 14-year-old, first-level character when the rest of the group are 12th or 13th level. But I think it will be a lot of fun. I can't wait for our next session.

In honor of the 'Weird ridiculous campaign ideas that we all secretly want to do' thread, I propose that we discuss the characters we've always wanted to play but have never had the opportunity. Maybe it was never the right campaign, group, or GM. Maybe the rules just won't let you do what you really want to do; or they would, but not in the system your group is currently using. Whatever the reason, tell us about your weird, ridiculous unplayed character concepts.

I am the queen of coming up with character concepts that don't fit any campaign we're involved in or are ever likely to become involved in. Just yesterday it suddenly occurred to me to want to play a wizard entirely geared toward crafting items, specifically crafting constructs. It forces you to take several feats that aren't really optimal for an adventuring wizard, especially if your party travels constantly and doesn't have a home base where a crafting-oriented wizard could have a workshop.

My concept would require the party to have a base of operations. It would also require the GM to be willing to go along with some other details. I envision this wizard as someone who was trained as an apprentice to a crafting wizard specializing in constructs. Something happens at the beginning of the campaign to cause my character's master to disappear or die, forcing my character to take up adventuring either to find her missing master or avenge her master's death.

Since all of her wizard training was geared toward making things, I see her as someone who would have a limited number of spells in her spellbook, more limited than usual. She just didn't spend that much time scribing spells into her spellbook. She was too preoccupied with learning to forge/enhance weapons and armor.

Right now I'm imagining her as a dwarf specialized in evocation, who is just as likely to use her warhammer as cast a spell. Her hammer would also be her bonded item. If I had the right GM, I'd try to have the hammer be a smith's hammer instead of a warhammer.

If I could do it exactly as I imagine, she'd also start off higher than 1st level, because she'd spent so much time training in smithcraft that she wouldn't really know how to do much else. I've always wanted to roleplay a sort of scholarly wizard who doesn't know anything about the outside world. Just because she's a wizard doesn't mean she has to overpower the rest of the party, even if she is higher level. But that's probably a hard thing to convince a GM to go along with.

Our group is getting a campaign started in which we'll gain mythic tiers. I've been reading up in preparation, and I'm both excited and intimidated by all the things my character will be able to do.

I'll be a player, not the DM. The DM has never run a mythic campaign before, but he has in the past homebrewed a sort of mythic path for another game. He likes powerful superheroic characters.

I'm looking for some constructive advice/suggestions of how best to play with the mythic adventures rules, as well as general thoughts about what mythic tiers do to a game. I would ask that if you think mythic tiers are the worst thing ever to happen to Pathfinder, please keep that to yourself.

I'll be playing a wizard and taking mythic tiers in archmage. My plan is to focus on being able to overcome spell resistance (we'll be running into a lot of outsiders), as well as knowledge of the planes and extraplanar creatures. I intend to take the True Name arcane discovery so I can have an outsider "buddy." I'll be working with the DM to decide what type of creature it is. Knowing the DM, it will likely be more of a helper than a combat monster (the same DM once gave my character an animated, intelligent spellbook). I'm also planning to take Improved Familiar and have an outsider familiar.

The other players have chosen to play classes from the Advanced Class Guide rather than core classes, so our party will not have a cleric or paladin, though we will have three caster classes, two of them divine. It's a group of five players. How can we use our mythic abilities without slowing down the game or getting lost in the extra details?

I know everyone likes to tell stories of their gaming experiences. Here's an opportunity to tell us about the most awful things that ever happened at your table, both in-game and out of game.

Feel free to retell a tale you've already told in another thread. I'll start.

In-game: It's difficult to come up with a worst in-game option; our group doesn't usually experience anything that dismal. We did have a character who was totally consumed by scarab beetles one session, likely because the GM didn't like the character class the player had chosen (even though he approved it).

We also had a player's character spend several months of real-life time (during a weekly game) in a coma, because no one in the group could figure out the GM's hints for how to revive him. It turned out that my character could have awakened him by casting a specific spell on him. #facepalm

Out-of-game: We had a player who drove a couple of hours from another town to play for years. Eventually he moved even farther away, but continued to come to sessions whenever he could. After a few more years we started seeing him less often and assumed his non-gaming life had taken over. We were playing that campaign less often too, so it seemed like it was just life separating us. But after a couple of years of no contact from the player, the GM of that campaign made a horrible discovery: he found out that our old friend hadn't just fallen out of touch - he'd been murdered.

We keep his mini in a little shrine in the gaming room.

With the currently popularity of fantasy in films and television, and the increasing ease of animation through CG, I feel the time is ripe for a D&D-inspired animated tv series.

If Disney can do Star Wars that way, why can't we have a series influenced by fantasy RPGs?

And no, I don't want anyone to 'reboot' the '80s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. It had very little relationship with actual D&D.

I want a series that has what fantasy RPGs have: wizards, warriors, paladins, rogues, clerics, races and monsters that look like creatures from the Bestiaries/Monster Manuals, spellcasting that resembles spells from the rulebooks. I want it to have some maturity, not pander to little kids, but appeal to all ages similar to what Star Wars Rebels does.

I think it could work in a weekly episodic format, alternating standalone episodes with an overarching story. I wish I knew how to animate, or knew someone who does, so I could push for a web series at least.

Or am I alone out here? Is the fantasy currently on tv enough?

A thread for venting about your roleplaying experiences. Your GM won't let you play that kitsune kineticist you're dying to try out? You killed an ancient black dragon and all you got was a lousy +2 sword? The other players make fun of you when you try to roleplay an accent? Your game has been canceled for three weeks running? Whine about it here. Please keep the tone light and friendly.

I'll start. Our group just started playing through Mummy's Mask, and in our second session one of the characters died. Now that player gets to make a new character, and I'm jealous, even though I've only been playing my character for two weeks! I have way more character concepts than I'll ever get an opportunity to play.

Recently I ran across a cable channel running episodes of the old Legendary Adventures of Hercules tv series, and it made me realize that while there are quite a few tv series that have speculative stories, very few of them are in a magical fantasy setting. The only fantasy shows I can think of currently are Game of Thrones and Atlantis, and neither of those quite suit what I'd like to see.

I want to see a fantasy series that is based strongly in the tropes of D&D and similar games and literature. I want non-human races and magic in every episode. I want an overarching plot rather than an episodic "press the reset button at the end of every episode" show. I want the kind of things that Hercules did - magical creatures and gods appearing often - but with better special effects and less tongue-in-cheek.

Why can't we have a live-action magical fantasy tv series that takes itself seriously but not *too* seriously? Discuss! :)

I'm preparing to start playing a wizard from Tian Xia in a new Pathfinder campaign. It occurred to me that it would be fun (for me, at least) to describe her spell casting a little differently than how the spells are described in the RAW, to show that she comes from a different culture and a different magical tradition.

I wondered what other groups do when it comes to describing spell casting. Do you read the spell description from the rulebook aloud? Do you make up one of your own, or have special code words to tell your fellow players and GM which spell your PC is casting? Do you make gestures or use special dice?

Or do you just announce which spell you're casting and roll for the result, as my fellow players usually do?

I'm trying to figure out how to build a Pathfinder PC modeled after Taoist priest characters I've seen in various Chinese martial arts films and television programmes. But I'm stuck on one item: an exotic weapon.

The archetypal Taoist in most forms of entertainment is practiced in kung fu or Tai Chi Chuan, and uses a sword. But they typically also carry a fly whisk. This fly whisk isn't just for chasing off annoying insect pests. It's a weapon that can be used to wound, grapple or trip an opponent.

Sometimes these fly whisks are shown as resembling a flail, with a short piece of chain attaching the horsehair whisk to the handle. Other times it's more like an extra-large paintbrush with extremely long, flexible bristles. The link I've included shows an illustration of such a Taoist, with his fly whisk tucked in the crook of his elbow.
http://drunkensword.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/chuji.jpg?w=620

My problem is how to model the fly whisk as a weapon using Pathfinder rules. It has elements of both a flail and a whip. It isn't usually deadly (though it can be used to choke someone), but I don't see it as non-lethal damage only, like a whip.

What's the least problematic way to represent this? Use the stats for a flail but reduce the damage and give it range? Make it like a whip but lethal? Keep it non-lethal like a whip but increase the damage? Would any of these options make it seem too powerful?

I've been a great fan of LOTR for many years. I've always wanted to play in a campaign in that setting, but the rest of my regular gaming group shows no interest.

I'm curious if there are any forum members who've played in a LOTR campaign, particularly using the CODA rules from Decipher that came out after the movies were released. But I'm also interested in campaigns using the old MERPS rules, or homebrews, or mods of D&D/Pathfinder/any other system.

If you've had a go at Middle-Earth as a game setting, tell me about your experience.

I've played with largely the same group of 6 - 8 people for nearly 20 years. We don't often bring in new players or DMs, and I have rarely played any one-shots at conventions or game stores. That leaves me wondering how my experiences as a player compare with other people. I'm just satisfying my curiosity here, since I often see descriptions of activities that seem quite different from my experiences. I have a few questions, for both players and DMs.

1. Our group tends not to allow PCs to die, because campaigns are often designed around a specific group of characters, and the players in the group often become very attached to those characters. I don't have much experience of character death.
--How often do PCs die in your group? Does the DM make it hard to die, or does the DM seem to be out to kill the PCs?
--How do you handle it when they do die? Resurrection, bring in a new character, there's a last-minute "divine intervention", or the player of the dead PC bows out of the game?
--Does the way the death is handled depend on who the player is, or who the character is?

2. I've been involved in a few campaigns that just quit, usually due to scheduling problems or personal issues. I've also been involved in campaigns that didn't really have any specified goals, so they ended when we lost interest in playing them. And some campaigns have a story arc that reaches a conclusion and comes to an end, like a book or a tv series.
--Which type of campaign do you favor?
--How often do you start new campaigns, and how long do they usually last?
--How often have you been involved in a campaign that was unexpectedly canceled?

3. My group typically has several campaigns running simultaneously, sometimes in different rules systems. We usually play each campaign once a week, for about 4 - 6 hours per session. Sometimes we alternate campaigns, one campaign twice a month on Sundays and the second on the alternating Sundays.
--How often do you play?
--How long do your sessions last?
--Do you play in multiple campaigns during the same time period, or only one at a time?

4. When I play, I tend to describe my character's actions and dialogue in third person, rather than speaking as if I am my character. I have particular speech patterns I sometimes use, but I don't do accents or catchphrases as a general rule. My fellow players tend to do the same thing, though occasionally someone will insist on a special character voice.
--Do you speak in third person or first person?
--Do you use accents, catchphrases, or other speech patterns that are specific to your character?

5. We tend not to worry much about things like the effect of encumbrance except when it's difficult terrain, or keeping track of spell components unless they're rare and expensive.
--Does your group worry about encumbrance at all times?
--Are spell components tracked? Do you have to replace them when you've used them all, or otherwise you won't be able to cast that spell?

I'm interested to see how others respond. Will it turn out that most people play the way my group does, or will I find that we're an oddity in the tabletop RPG world?