Dire Squirrel's page

Nice, thanks Sardaukar! I will have to try this out with my group tomorrow.

negative con

Ah gotcha, that's what I was missing, thanks.

it comes back at half-health when you resummon it (which you'll need to do about every other encounter, it seriously dies that fast),

Am I out of the loop? I thought you could only summon the Eidolon once per day (and not for the rest of the day after it dies, which seems redundant to me)... which with your experience makes it sound like the Eidolon's only good for one encounter each day.

and the Summoner, unlike other special animal friend classes, like the Druid, Paladin and Ranger, not only has no healing spells (or class abilities) to get his buddy back into the action, but doesn't even have the Heal skill as a class skill, since he's apparently *intended by class design* to let his otherworldly friend die in every combat.

But the Summoner can sacrifice hit points to keep the Eidolon alive, correct?

Cool. Thanks all for the good advice. I think he will appreciate the scrolls of Shrink and Enlarge Person tucked into the back of the book he found in the library... :)

I'm a first-time DM running Legacy of Fire under PFRPG. The party just reached level 2, and I noticed that, not only have they not found any scrolls or spellbooks, there aren't any in this entire 1/6 of the AP. (For those not familiar with LoF: this part of the AP takes place in the desert without any easy access to settlements or shops.)

I feel that this is a problem for the Wizard in the party, because while other players are/will be getting fun new magic weapons, armor, trinkets, etc., he can't learn any more than the two spells per level granted by his class. Would it be un-balancing to pepper their treasure with random scrolls and spellbooks for him to fill up his spellbook?

Even without the unluck Aura the king had quite the AC which was all the more frustrating due to the aura. he ended up surrounded while we spent round after round simply trying to hit him -- he couldn't really hit us either but that was little conciliation.

When I DMed this encounter my party had a similar experience. Although our Bard was able to take him below 50% hp in one hit (critical with Magic Stoned sling bullet from the Druid), it took the rest of the party surrounding him and aiding the Fighter (that's +10 to hit, not to mention buffs) a good 10 rounds to get the last few hits in. All the while the King kept missing himself and I was tempted to end the battle with a "OK guys, eventually you wear him down and [fighter] gives him a death blow. Good job!"

I think Intel can be easily mapped using an intelligence test 90= 9 100= 10 110= 11 ext and yes i know there is no 20 think about it a real world 20 no way. 15-16 maybe 20 is epic

INT is better mapped as 2 INT points per 10 IQ -- this can be readily seen by comparing the standard deviation of 3d6 -- about 3 -- with the standard deviation of IQ -- defined to be 15. So e.g. an IQ of 140 maps to an INT of 18; 20 isn't epic but at 3.3 standard deviations that person is probably the smartest one in a small town.

Then, I open a small stall in a market and put a sign that says:

"We buy your magical items for 55% of the selling price"

...

Just switch you sign for this one:
"We sell magical weapons with a 10% discount"
You sell your 5 weapons and make a profit of 3500gp.
Must take a lot more time for other kind of merchants

I have a few DVDs to sell you on how to get rich buying and selling real estate...

Joking aside, finding buyers and sellers takes time and footwork. Any character in D&D can make ridiculous amounts of money, given time. (e.g. weaponsmithing, busking, spellcasting) But that's boring, and frankly, not what D&D's about. By the time you make any serious dough, the BBEG's killed the orphans, built a castle, and taken control of MacGuffinton. If that's the game my players want to play, then they might as well replace their miniatures with thimbles and Scottish terriers 'cause the next game board I pull out is gonna have Park Place where Mordor used to be.

Start the campaign while it's really hot. It's more interesting that way.

Indeed. I started near the beginning of Sarenith (June-ish), which not only means Fortitude checks for all, but our Cleric of Sarenrae has a fun holiday coming up.

By that logic, two huge giants should not be able to flank a medium sized PC, but that is obviously not the case.

I think you're misunderstanding the question. Of course two medium creatures can flank a tiny creature -- my question is what happens when that tiny creature is in the same square as one of the medium creatures. This is a situation which cannot happen with medium + huge (or medium + anything else for that matter). The argument that you cannot flank a creature which is underfoot makes sense here.

If you take RAW, than the answer is NO. If you take a real life example, the answer is also NO. Just think about a big hairy spider runnig between and around your legs, trying to bite your toe. Why would it be easier to hit this pesky spider just because you have an ally standing next to you?

Hm. For some reason this makes a lot of sense. I'll stick with this unless my group complains.

another_mage: If Tiny creatures can't end their movement in another creature's square, then there's no possible way for them to attack unless they have Spring Attack and draw up to two AoOs, since they have a reach of 0ft. I, like Mauril, take this to mean that they must be able to end their movement in another creature's square.

If a tiny creature is within your square, do you, with an adjacent ally, flank this creature?

A strict reading of the RAW would say "no" (since a line from the center of your square to your ally's square does not pass through two opposite sides of the creature's square), but I'd buy the argument that you are providing flanking by standing on one side (of your choice) of said creature.

How have others played this situation?

Who needs to distill acid? It's a big pool of acid.

Because it's likely that the acid in the pool is diluted with water (acid + water is chemically still acid), or else the trap would have cost far beyond its expected price per CR to make.

The only thing I got wrong is the total amount of kinetic energy. I would have to go dig up a textbook to remember what I am missing, because I get a different amount of KE depending on which frame of reference I use, and I am not sure which is the right frame of reference to use.

All frames of reference are "right". Ignoring the speed of light, the concept of relativity still holds in Newtonian mechanics.

I'm assuming the two frames of reference you are referring to are that which is fixed to the ground, and that which is fixed to a car (i.e. moving at a velocity v). For clarity let E be the kinetic energy of one car in the former frame of reference.

Yes, in the latter frame of reference the system will start with 4*E kinetic energy, but also in that frame of reference, both cars will be moving away from the origin at the velocity v and thus have 2*E kinetic energy. Thus the total work done remains the same (2*E).

***

To try to put an end to this awful discussion: just sum the total damage done by each victim and divy it up based on who's squishier. This is how it works in real life (quite literally if you assume energy = damage), and it makes sense in-game.

Best I can figure is to say that large quantities of acid are typically of a less dangerous variety (something like real world hydrocloric acid) as compared to something more dangerous (like sulphiric acid) in thrown flasks. Using the lesser acid would deal 1d3 points of damage with a throw, making them not an effective weapon, hence not worth harvesting.

Note: I don't purport to be any good at chemistry, but to my mind alchemy should work on very different principals anyways.

No (al)chemistry needed -- just say the acid's diluted and pin the maximum profit they can make at half the cost of making the trap (maybe more than half if they successfully use an alchemical kit to purify it themselves).

How diluted? Let's pin the CR of said acid trap at 11 (0 base, +5 for liquid, +6 for alchemical effect approximating Acid Fog spell). The cost of such a mechanical trap is 1000 gp * the CR = 11,000 gp (about 1/50th of your figure above). Hence, the PCs can make a maximum profit of 5,500 gp from harvesting this 50:1 dilution of acid.

He needs to be bought a magnifying glass.

prd (emphasis mine) wrote:

People who are neutral with respect to good and evil have compunctions against killing the innocent, but may lack the commitment to make sacrifices to protect or help others.

This. While I would expect some of the assassins to be evil (the job must certainly attract the type, unless they are weeded out during boot camp), that one act of killing of a helpless person does not in itself make that particular assassin evil -- that would require a history of such actions. However, at best, he is neutral and suffers from poor judgement.

One of the pcs in a game you are running finds a library filled with books on vasrious subjects. What happens next. The pc (a wizard) decides he want to stay there for a month and "study". What happens? Does he gain anything for it? If so, how much?

The CR mentions libraries under the Knowledge skill (emphasis mine):

You cannot make an untrained Knowledge check with a DC higher than 10. If you have access to an extensive library that covers a specific skill, this limit is removed. [...] Particularly complete libraries might even grant a bonus on Knowledge checks in fields that they cover.

The way I read this, if the PC walks into the typical town library, much like in real life, he's likely to find lots of heavily-read copies of various human-elf romance novels, and maybe one or two copies of "Cantrips for Dummies" published in 4680. Only if he happens to stumble across a good wizards' library -- perhaps at the local Polyarcana Institute -- might he find anything he doesn't already know, in which case he's granted a bonus on a specific subject after 1d4 hours.

As to studying in said wizards' library, I feel this a prerequisite to gaining any further ranks in the associated Knowledge skill -- you don't get an additional bonus: the rank is your reward. If it's a particularly extensive library, I might even rule that he can take notes on some of the more difficult texts in order to study them at a later time, and allow him to take a second Knowledge rank at the following level without having to visit the library again. There's only so much you can take in at once.

Once created the illusion of a cave-in when my party was being chased by a group of baddies (there was a room or two between us). The baddies believed it and ended up taking the long way through the dungeon to find us :)

And will I, the caster have to pass a bluff check or will the speaker, the bard have too

or should we say nothing and let the silent illusion "speak" for itself?

As a DM, in such a situation I would have a successful Bluff add +2 to the save DC, and a failed Bluff, -2 (perhaps more or less if the Bluff succeeds or fails by a wide margin). So if your bard's a good liar, go for it... if not, he'd best keep quiet lest he tip the baddies off: "You guys are TOTALLY surrounded by a REAL, GENUINE, adamantine cage right now, yup, not illusory at all... don't even bother to try touching it or hitting it, it's so real!"

The caster wouldn't have to bluff -- that is the spell's job and the point of the Will save.

I will be running a group of 4-5 through a pathfinder AP. Kingmaker is not an option because i will be a player in a kingmaker campaign. I have not Dm'ed for 2 years and thus have not run a pathfinder game. I have 2-3 veteran players and 2 new to DnD. All are new to pathfinder.

I was in almost the exact same situation -- 3 beginners, 2 veterans/first time Pathfinders, my first time as a DM. I had narrowed down my choices to Rise of the Runelords and Legacy of Fire. My gut told me to go with Legacy of Fire so I did. Ran my first session a couple weeks ago and it went VERY well. The first chapter of LoF is perfectly suited to beginners:

Plus, it takes place in the desert, which, without being too exotic, is a nice change of pace for my veteran players. As a first time DM, I've found the material to be well-written and organized (hats off to Erik Mona!).

We wiped that out by going to an old initiative/sequence system I used probably 15 years ago where the party members declare what they are going to do this round in reverse order of intelligence, they only have about 6 seconds to tell me what they are going to do, no suggestions or talking during this phase allowed. Then we go into the action resolution in the order of initiative as would be normal.

I think this is a great idea. I just started a campaign; if my players start strategizing too much I may use this.

For WIS, I use sense motive checks as a kind of insight or intuition into a situation. Ex, when the party goes to open the door carved with ancient arcane runes, and doesn't check for traps first, I have them roll DC 10 (or whatever depending on how obviously dangerous I think the situation is) sense motive check. They fail, then the action proceeds as described; they succeed, and I ask "Are you sure you don't want to check for traps first?" They can either stop and check for traps or proceed as before, it's up to them.

This also. I have three beginners whom I fear might have trouble getting into their character's mindset; this could help a lot.

Besides an Int of 8 isn't imbecile range. I would suggest most of us regularly work with someone with an Int of 8 probably without it causing any untoward problems. It's not until you get down in the 5~7 range you really start seeing the lack.

In fact, if you want to compare the statistics, the standard deviation of 3d6 (think, typical NPC) is 3, while the standard deviation of IQ is defined to be 15. So you could work off the assumption that +-2 INT is approximately +-10 IQ. Hence 8 INT is comparable to an IQ of 90, in that they are both about in the 30th percentile of the population. Not spectacularly dumb...

Found all the creatures in HotCK converted here.

Hm, the CMB of Pugwampis is listed there as -6, which would be -4 Str + -2 Size. But since they are Tiny, shouldn't their Dex modifier (+1) be used in place of Str? That would make their CMB -1. I've never played a PFRPG campaign before, but that seems awfully high compared to their -12 Grp in 3.5e. What have others done here?

My first time DMing... we'll be starting Saturday!

• Male Human Fighter - current slave looking to earn freedom
  
• Male Half-orc Cleric of Sarenrae - sent on a mission to restore the church in Kelmarane
  
• Female Human Druid - grew up in the Brazen Peaks, managing water for her people; wants to drive out the Gnolls
  
• Male Human Wizard - on his first mission from the Pathfinder Society
  
• Female Half-elf Bard - her elf-mother was killed when Kelmarane fell, she's been piecing together family history