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Thank you for the suggestions, folks. I think I've got a plan!

548. Everyone's a Critic

After a goblin raid in a small village, the heroes find a new craze is suddenly taking over. Story books. Not spell books or instructional tomes, but books that simply tell stories and are oddly enough cheap enough for the average peasant family to afford. There seems to be only one author currently doing this, a tiefling Bard who calls himself Barthos the Magnificent.

The party comes across the first volume, which accurately accounts the Goblin Raid with only one small change... the party is not mentioned at all. It seems Barthos has inserted himself as the hero.

They stop a flood. They save a maiden. Each time they find that Barthos has seemingly singled out the adventures and imposed his name over their deeds. Only... something doesn't add up. The books are coming out BEFORE the conflicts happen.

If you are a member of the Military Gaming League, bugger off. This post isn't for you.

---

So... I'm the Navy Community Branch Manager for an eSports League. While eSports and streaming are our primary gaming focuses, I recently suggested adding a Roll20 5e game to our channel and the response was far more than I anticipated. Also far more than can be reasonably played at a non-physical tabletop.

Then my wife had a brilliant idea. Instead of trying to run a 10+ man party, why not run two 5-6 man parties, alternating games between the two of them. The catch? These are not seperate campaigns but rather are intricately linked in ways that are not immediately apparent, but slowly over time both parties make the connection.

The first session for each might involve a shipwreck on a floating island, but where one party runs their ruined sea going vessel into the side of a colossal turtle; the others' skyship crashes into a more literal floating island in the sky. Parallels that are identical on a macro scale, but different in one key element.

There will possibly be one NPC who appears in both sessions oddly regardless of time, distance, or whatever divides them. Over time the parties draw closer and closer together, with a final confrontation and conclusion to the arch where everyone is finally at the table together.

Thoughts?
Ideas?
Campaign seeds?
Who's the BBEG?
What DOES seperate the parties?

I very well could, but with how easily they handled the last few encounters I am going to stop pulling punches. The party has character knowledge that the next one is going to be a big one and they will need every last trick they have up their sleeve. Every character is getting a special 15 minute mini-session while we level up to give them some sort of buff or whatnot before they go in. This is how he wants to use his.

Running a party of mostly new players through Rise of the Runelords, and the Fighter has decided that he wants to dual wield shields and work himself up the Shield Master tree. Problem is, he already took Cleave and you can't cleave with a shield. He wants to retrain that and I am all for it, even giving him a +1 Shield of Bashing so he is doing the same damage as he was with his greatsword. Problem? Time.

Without spoilers, the party just finished a small dungeon that boosted them to level 3 but they will be quickly moving on to the next major encounter. An NPC has gone off to scout on the Thistletop Goblins and is about to get in WAY over her head. Time is of the essence and they can't take the 5 days needed to train.

Enter Amontage. A high level Fighter who speaks in a French accent and refers to himself exclusively in the third person. The training won't be cheap, but Amontage can teach a man many many things if a man has coin and strength. Amontage could make a man forget Cleave to learn Improved Shield Bash... but How?

This will end up being a series of skill checks, but I am looking for suggestions to spice it up. Shield Bashing slabs of meat. Jogging around town while tied to a horse, and so on.

Suggestions?

Where I'm sitting right now...

The Skald's kit had a good amount of things in it for a bundle discount. No sunrods, but there were 10 torches and as a Half-Orc I have low light vision to keep me going.

At 2d6, the Great Sword looks like a far more consistent option than the Greataxe... But I prefer the flavor of the choppy no piercy. A Masterwork Cold Iron Greataxe fits my primary weapon slot.

As a secondary weapon I have the Lucerne Hammer. Nothing special on this one, but it gives me both Blunt and Piercing as well as the ability to reach out and touch something as well as Brace in the rare occasion that will come in handy.

A sling and twenty bullets was a cheap solution for ranged until I pick up a composite bow.

Lamellar (Leather) armor is a cost effective solution that gives me +4 AC. My Dex is currently such as I don't lose anything for wearing it. The Mithril Breastplate will eventually replace this as well.

I'll likely add a grappling hook to go with the rope that I have.

As of now I'm still sitting at under 500g and I have 650g to spend without cashing in my 2PP. I think I'll keep some coinage in my pockets to help grease some palms. What do you guys think?

Also, I've come up with a name for my One-Man Metal Band... A Band of Orc.

I'll recheck the math. I'm running a 14 Cha with the free Extra Performance and Favored Class: Skald that also gives me a round.

17 Str should make me viable on the battlefield, and a 13 Con isn't horrid. The only stat I dumped was Wis down to an 8. The skill points really threw me off, 5/L versus the 12 or so as a Bard.

Alternate Racial Trait Sacred Tattoos and Fate's Favored shores up my saves with a lucky +2. Talented, I could probably get more miles out of something else, but I like the option of ALL performances being class skills.

Sounds like I have some reading to do. Also Lute of the Battle Ready. That is a thing that MUST happen. Everything was going so well... Until the Skald attacked.

Mwk Cold Iron Greataxe seems like the way to go then. I'll weigh my options on the armor since I know what I am replacing it with later, and Skald's Vigor should help mitigate some of the damage I'm going to take.

Here's a feat question, some of the Finale abilities sound pretty awesome, especially the one later on that heals the party for 2d6. Right now I have one that's pretty metal... Immediate action to end my performance with a flourish and a PC gets to reroll a failed save. The way I read it, I could take Lingering Performance as my L1 feat instead so that the buff resonates after the Finale, thus making them FAR more viable. If that's true, I will get a lot more milage out of it than Skald's Vigor (14hp regain for a full day of performing at L1). Thoughts?

That's not a bad idea either. Then I still have cash left over for other stuff. I can still enchant my Masterwork Cold Iron Greataxe later on in life, correct?

Thanks for the advice! I've been GMing home games for a while so I have physical copies of most of the books. I did some skimming over the online resources... And glad I did... Because I originally wanted to make a half-elf summoner. Alas, only the Summoner in unchained is legal and that is one book I do NOT own.

Scroll of Comprehend Languages, check. Negating the fog sounds great too. I've played a Bard before, but you lose a good bit of utility when making the hop over to Skald. This will be my first of the class, but I want to maintain as much of that "Oh goddess what do we do? Let's ask the Bard!" A mindset.

Skald's Vigor is likely going to be my first feat. I'll go with the chainmail shirt to keep my 30 foot movement, but when my song is up I lose an additional point of AC. Running the Pre-Gen Skald I took the most damage of the party, so the self heal is definitely welcome.

Seeing as few other L1 chars would have a Masterwork weapon right off the bat, saving up might not be a bad option either. I could make my money go farther with Masterwork Lamellar (Leather) armor... Then save up for that Mithril Breastplate later on. It's not as metal as chainmail, but I mean... It's still leather. Maybe I'll say they are pants and I'm shirtless 80's hairband style.

Medium armor, it is. It impresses me how much DEPTH there is in society play versus home games. Sure, we had to worry about colossal sized Monsters that had HP for individual limbs ( had to "kill" the legs to make it stumble so we could reach the head with melee ) but we glossed over things like spell failure and such. Thank you for the responses and resources. I LIKE the extra preparation that is going to go into this.

The GM explained how crafting is limited, and considering how PFS is geared so I can play anywhere, I can understand that... Still, the choice for Oratory came from not being able to put guitar strings on my Greataxe. Chainmail? That fits the flavor. Maybe I can get Bloodsong on my axe at some point and just play air guitar with it when the Keen activates.

Torches ( or sunrods ). Rope. A hammock. Air bladder. A few field rations in case there is a particularly picky GM.

Now what about wands, potions, and scrolls? We burned through a Wand of Cure Light Wounds in our session, so I can definitely see the use in them... Though I'll use them as drumsticks to cast. Harry Potter isn't metal. As for potions and scrolls... I've heard a Comprehend Languages scroll can be invaluable as it frees up a spell slot for something less situational. Problem is, I don't even know how to price those things out.

Greetings Pathfinders,

My fiancee and I recently made the decision to jump into society play. We ran level 7 pregens today and had an amazing time of it, but now we want to carve out our own legacies. I've played home games for years, but we were fast and loose with the rules so it was a pleasant surprise to have a bit more structure.

I am building a Half-Orc Skald who will wield a 2-Handed Greataxe, with a hammer of some fashion as backup (in homegames we never worried about P, S, and B. Fought some skellies today and I now know why Pathfinder art shows characters with multiple weapons). Might keep a sling in my back pocket, or a few throwing axes to reach out and touch things. I'm taking Skald's Vigor as my first feat because I love the flavor of it.

My ability scores are set. My skills are set. I have a clear vision of what I want Dutar Bloodear to become. The last thing I need to do before I can start forging ahead as a heavy metal bard that bashes in faces... is to spend all this gold on some stuff.

The GM told us that 500gp that we earned today can transfer over to our level 1 characters, which gives me 650gp to build with. I figure 320 of that will go to getting a Masterwork Greataxe... but what do I do with the other 330? Light armor? Medium armor? How much rope, cutlery, and misc things do I need? I'm going Oratory for my performance so... no instrument? How many throwing weapons do I really need?

I agree with you on the phonetics. The major issue with creating new words is remembering how to pronounce them the same way each time. My players know that I use ambagrams(sp?) in my works, so I may give them the original spellings, but I should write it phonetically in my own notes.

I am not sure this will go full tilt human hate... But I want to show the flip side of the other campaign I set in the same world. The human race was saved... But at what cost?

Before you read this, know that the PCs are all races that could loosely be described as Anthropomorphic and live in a Federation made up of their respective tribe's species. They are largely nomadic, heavily rely on oral passing of stories, and so forth. The campaign in the sequel to another I had run where the world of Thear is actually our own Earth so far in the future that no one even remembers the apocalypse that changed it from what we, as players, know to what the PC's experience. The PCs in THIS campaign have never seen humans. They know very little of technology and are quick to assume that everything that is sill working is a hold over from the ancient magics of their ancestors.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Long ago, the world was not as we know it today. Our greatest grandmothers and greatest grandfathers prowled the soil on their hands and knees, growling and snarling because they had not received the gift of speech, killing because they had not received the gift of peace, and devouring one another because the first Wendigo hand not been born.

The Stars looked over the edge of their dark world and pittied the beasts that we were, but from so far away they could do nothing but watch... until one of them fell.

Ut'Nrae was this star. A beautiful young woman with the light of the universe in her eyes and white hair that shimmered like the river under Luna. The girl was pure and awaiting her marriage when the Cold Star Mn'A'E'Chi began to visit her. He whispered the sweetest lies into her ear and showed her the other side of darkness that no star may see. As he whispered his lies and filled her with blinding knowledge, unnoticed, Ut'Nrae's belly began to swell.

Ut'Nrae woke with a sharp pain in her belly and realized what had happened to her. Mn'A'E'Chi had impregnated her with his lies. Fearing that her husband-to-be may find out, she fled the village. In her hate, blinded by her tears, she stumbled and fell from the Starland. Her hair flowed behind her, rippling as she plummeted to Thear.

As she fell, her tears fell before her and created the sea in which she landed. Frightened, alone and with ever growing pain in her belly, she swam through the sea towards a great spire of land in the distance. With each drop of her blood spilt into the waters, schools of the first fish were born. The first canyons were dug with her fingers as she clawed up onto the land. Her thrashing created the waves that we still see today. Such was her struggle.

Our Greatest Grandmothers and Greatest Grandfathers watched Ut'Nrae from the bushes, grass and trees with teeth bared. They waited, ignorant and angry, ready to tear her throat once she lie still... but a new cry gave them pause. Ut'Nrae was giving birth.

A great star rose in the sky, silver and round, bathing Thear in soft light as she delivered her child. Too far to reach Thear, too close to join its brothers and sisters, we call it Luna because it was first and it was alone and it was beautiful as the son she bore. His fangs and claws shone like the lights in the homeland he would never know. His fur and feathers and scales looked as fields of grass and neverbrown trees and river rocks. Silver slit eyes, full of wisdom and kindness rest upon his face. She named him M'Rae Chi, for she had never dreamed that something so beautiful could come from Mn'A E Chi's lies.

M'Rae Chi stood from the moment he was born and called out to our Greatest Grandmothers and Greatest Grandfathers. The wisest of them came forward and felt their anger die and their tongues grow clever and peace came to their hearts. The cowards fled and many of them still hide in the bushes and the grass and the trees to this day. All of this came to pass within moments of M'Rae Chi, the All Father's, birth... but Ut'Nrae was still in pain.

M'Rae Chi was not an only child and Ut'Nrae was in agony trying to bring his twin into the world. "Mn'A Kndi! Mn'A Kndi!" She screamed his name over and over, gargling blood as her body was twisted and torn. Hideous and deformed, Mn'A Kndi burst from his mother's flesh, clawing her open with stubbed talons and gnashing her with blunted teeth. Pale, sparsely furred skin, save for the top of his head, covered his form. Hair, as golden as the burning star that rose with him, stuck to his misshapen, muzzeless and beakless face, matted with the gore that gave him life. The star that we call Sol rose and hid the stars and faded the moon with it's blinding light. Every plant that drips poison or holds barbs sprouted from the soil as he rose from her corpse. Every beast that still felt anger or cowardice or was too stupid to rise up on two feet followed him off into the blistering heat.

And so it was that Mn'A Kndi and M'Rae Chi came unto Thear. And so it was that Sol and Luna came into our skies. And so it was that our Greatest Grandmothers and Greatest Grandfathers learned to walk and talk and live and love. And so it was that sickness and plague and corruption and hate came into our world.

~~~~~~~~

So, questions? Suggestions? Moans? Groans? Complaints?

Thear = Earth
Ut'N'Rae = Nature
Mn'A E Chi = Machine
M'Rae Chi = Chimera
Mn'A Kn'Di = Mankind

Could Wall of Ice or something similar be used to hold the raided vessel? Literally freeze the water around it, and connect it to the berg. The raidees would have to fend of the giants WHILE breaking away the ice that connects them.

I don't know nearly enough about the mechanics to throw numbers around... But when I hear this, my mind automatically goes to clockwork constructs. A Tinker or Engineer type class could make this work. Throw in "gadgets" that mock magical spells like a flame thrower or lightning rod on the bishop or little steam powered thrusters on the Knight to make him charge... Oh... This will be a boss fight in my next campaign.

I think I'll even draw the board and move the pieces as if they were stuck to the movement rules of the game, and stagger moves with the party.

Geth!

The Fursona book also has a bit of Ero in it that I would just as soon not introduce by Proxy. Two of our players are new, and the last thing I want is to show them a spell of Tentacle Rape and run them off lol.

I'll look into the other sources as well. Thankfully there are already a few decent ones provided in Piazo's books that I have access to.

I'm drawing up a campaign that will parallel a techno heavy human only one I ran before. The party saved the human race... But I want to show what was given up for that victory, and give THIS party a chance to stop it.

Where the first was big on technology, I want to center this one on Native American Creation stories, Revelations where the other was Genisis... And races that could loosely be mutated animals instead of Human Only.

Aside form those specifically listed as Common and Uncommon races, are there any other sources for "Furry" type characters? I told the players they could ONLY be human last time. I want to open Pandora's box for races here. Brownie points for animals that would be native to North America.

If you don't mind pulling from other sources, you could take some traits from the bug race in Ender's Game or the Rachni from Mass Effect. The trait I am talking about specifically is the Hive Mind. Think of the Borg from Star Trek if the idea is more familiar.

You wipe out a pack of Zerg... But they still adapt before you face them again. The only way this could happen is if there was some type of hive mind. Maybe the creep acts as a neural network and they lose the hive mind ability when they are not on it. Zerg have been encountered before in the wild, but they were simply mindless beasts disconnected from the hive. Something caused the creep to expand out from the underground caverns and bring the intelligent versions to the surface.

Mid campaign bosses could be creep spawners that are heavily defended. Bust it open and the creep begins to retreat. The Zerg are still there, but they are no longer organized and far easier to kill.

End Boss? The party must delve deep into the Zerg hive and defeat the hive mind itself, the Queen. Or perhaps it was a powerful creature such as a dragon or extraplanar being that fell victim to the infection... But was powerful enough not to be fully consumed and overtook the simple hive mind with it's own corrupt thoughts and ambitions.

Another thought, and I will pen them here as they come...

The problem with super magic holy weapons is there are just so few of them. If you start your journey with one you should keep it, but things get stronger and that mega holy weapon begins to seem a bit less mega holy.

I think I will keep a hidden counter of killing blows. The weapon doesn't just destroy the nanites, it absorbs a portion of them. After a set number of killing blows, the weapon will "level up". Perhaps getting a +1 or an enchantment. The players may even find the " Forge" where the weapons are created and have to spend the levels they earned for those enhancements. Maybe an LCD display on the handle...

Magic will be nanite enduced effects. Oh! Maybe the nanites have never effected the animals in the past... But now that they are becoming more humanoid they are. The magic user in the party could be the FIRST to ever use magic. Perhaps a plague has wiped through the villages and the nanintes stopped it, but if they are disabled they will all die.

At the end of the day, the Human party disabled the nanites to give the Human Race a second chance. I want to show that there were dire and unknown consequences to this. Mass genocide of many just to save the pink skins. Then, I want to give this party a chance to stop it. They have never seem humans before, so they wouldn't know what they were. I could have them encounter their old players multiple times before they figure it out.

Still on the fence if I should run this with Native American mythology as the ideas I pull from, or counter the Genisis theme with Revelations. I admit, I like the continued use of A.I.s to simulate demigods.

For Revelations, the four horsemen could be AI programs. War, the defense grid. Famine, Agriculture. Pestilence, the CDC. Maybe each AI is programmed to give an appearance that reflects the state of the human race... Thus Famine and Pestilence would be grotesquely thin and diseased whereas War would be massive... I mean, there would technically be 10 nuclear warheads per human at this point.

For Native American, two idea sprout up that I enjoy. 1.). Some end session battle against a giant sentiet spider that references the dream catcher mythos. 2.). The Cherokee believed that sickness was caused by angry animal spirits. The only thing that has been spotted in the forest that they do not know, of course, is the human party from the last game.

Advanced enough to have nano machines that can bind the soul to the body ;) For reference, let's say they never advanced far enough to leave earth... but say... iRobot-esque? They DID fight a few AI constructs and there was a library that had a hologram of Kermit the Frog who still read stories to children who had been dead for a thousand years (and a tribe of childlike cannibal frogmen who worshiped it as a God.)

As for human mutation, it would be possible due to radiation and such. I like the idea of the Ghouls from Fallout as possible NPC characters in an encounter where the party could simply attack them assuming they were hostile.

The sky is the limit on how nature could be affected... but I want to be careful about TOO much magic. The last one I went off of the principal that "Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic." The nanomachines were responsible for the 'magic' but the party had no idea.

A few corrections this campaign will make over my last one, the party became pretty daring once they figured out they were immortal too. The immortality does NOT cross over to the animal kingdom. Also, I want them to at some point come across "Sacred Weapons". In reality, these weapons will put off a tight EMP field that disables the nano machines and "kills" the undead.

So, I play with a group of guys and we each take turns being the GM. It is interesting because we each have our own styles. One of us is all about dungeon crawling, another enjoys gimmicky fights, I enjoy story telling. Thing is, my turn is coming up soon... and I want to do a sequel.

The first campaign takes place in the world of Thear, starting out in the Kingdom of Ned'e which for all extensive purposes is the last bastion of humanity in existence. In this world, the soul was trapped within the body so one could be mortally wounded... but live on. Small catch, you continue to feel the pain of the would forever and it drives you mad. People age slower once they hit the age of 20 or so, and to keep from overpopulating every century they have a lottery where families may win the chance to have a child to replace someone lost since the last one. Outside of the walls it is your typical zombie apocalypse type setting with throngs of the undead, the "Old Men", wandering around.

The party had five characters, but I asked my two regulars to allow me to name theirs. The names were Daam and Vee, a male Cleric and a female Monk respectively. The Prince of the kingdom addresses the people one day, stating that in the night the King and Queen had been mauled and had to be released (a full day ritual that CAN actually release the soul, but as the individual has to be restrained and it is so complex it can only be done one at a time, not viable for cleansing the world). He summons the party and has them seek out an artifact called the "Ah-tome" because he believes it can right the wrongs of the world and blazzay blazzay blah.

Here's the catch. "Ah-tome" is just a weird way of pronouncing Atom. The "artifact" they seek is an arming device for a network of nuclear warheads that had been placed under each populated hub thousands of years ago. They activate it... boom... except for the Emperor who watched the mushroom clouds from the sidelines, they believe they just wiped out the human race.

Long story short, this High Fantasy world is our own in the far future. A nanorobotisist from the near future had a daughter who suffered from a terminal disease. Knowing she would die before a cure was created he somehow managed to create nanomachines that would effectively bind her soul to her body and put her into a stasis until a cure could be found. Government finds out there are immortality robots. Weaponizes them. War happens. Nanomachines are dispersed in the air and effect the entire human race. Zombie apocalypse where head shots don't work.

In the end, the party has a Final Fantasy style boss fight where they fight the Emperor (who was mortally wounded as a child and went insane) in two separate forms, then face the REAL boss baddie that they had only been hinted at the entire time. An immortal 12 year old little girl, floating in a tank, kept alive by machines... but the hub, and in control of, all the nanomachines that had been created since.

They kill her. Nanomachines deactivate. Everything dies. Vee and Daam have their genetic codes scrambled so that they can reproduce without fear of incestuous side effects.

Thear = Earth
Ned'E = Eden
Daam = Adam
Vee = Eve

There were many other little mind tucks like that, glaring the players in the eye the entire time until that final "Ahah" moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOW! Part two. I want to revisit the same world, perhaps even at the same time. In the first campaign, all the players were humans... but this time I want to bar the human race. I want to bar anything that looks remotely human. Elves. Dwarves. Halflings. No no no.

Races will be things like Ratfolk, Kitsune, Tengus, etc. Anthropomorphic animals. The idea is, even though the human race royally messed up... nature continued. Perhaps even because the same nanomachines that gave the human race immortality sparked evolution in the beasts of the earth. Maybe it is what gave them the intelligence needed to speak and pick up tools and make tribes.

So... the quest for the party in the first campaign was to destroy the machines. In this, it asks the question what happens to everything else if the human race is saved?

I'm bouncing around a lot of ideas, such as the party from the first campaign being the final boss of this one, basing the story on Native American Creation mythology as the first was based on Genesis, and a few others... but I would love to hear more ideas!

Last bump.

BTW, the gun lance is a go.

Bump

Hello pathfinders,

Getting ready to start a new campaign and what the GM has told us is this:

We are Dwarves, but our size is Large
Goodly classes
Begin with weapon proficiency in pistols (may be able to request different firearm)
We are the "enforcement" arm of a religious kingdom
"Sci-Fi-esque" theme

One of our players has already decided that he wants to play an inquisitor.

Three player party.

~~~~~

I love the IDEA of the Gun Tank, though I am not sure how playable it will actually be. Pathfinder has never impressed me as a medium where a tank, in the MMORPG train of thought works. When I think of Gun Tank I invision something along the lines of the General class from Fire Emblem or a Gun Lance wielder from the Monster Hunter series. A slow moving wall of steel and gunpowder. Point-Blank Shot, Snap Shot, Stand Still. Perhaps a homebrew Tower Shield that works like the pistol buckler, or hell, if I could convince him to let me homebrew an actual gunlance...

The Holy Gun sounds equally as cool... until you start reading that it only has Light Armor proficiency. When I read it, it sounds more like Constantine or a Catholic Neo.

I found a thread that spoke on a viable build for a Gun Cleric, 1 level in Gun Tank, the rest in Cleric.

I have never dipped levels into other classes before so I DO find the option attractive.

~~~~~

Any ideas that would fit the flavor of a turtle with a cannon under his arm and STILL be playable?

So finally got everyone together to play the first session last night. The party consisted of Kale the Drow Bard, Dominic the Halfling Rogue, and Deathface the Anti-Pal. They wake up in a prison cell with the Captain of Omryka's King's Guard (whom they will later come to know as Captain Omyrka) gloating over their capture and returning to his duties.

The Bard greases the floor and feigns death which causes the fodder guards to come running. After a short intro to movement, the rogue (first time player) snatches the keys, unlocks the "evidence chest" and arms the party, a short intro to combat ends with one guard dead and the other two locked in the cell the party escaped from. The Bard convinces the other prisoners to rise up against their oppressive captors with such gusto that they don't realize they charge down the tower unarmed... Leaving the party to escape simply by strolling through the carnage.

They find their way into the sewers, where they are chased by a carnivorous blob, hacking through a rusted grate that pours out into the ocean to escape. Disguise themselves and return through the gates, and return to the Inn that acts as a front to the syndicate.

Ushered below, they discover that the syndicate's lair is actually an abandoned and forgotten Undercity. They meet the boss, a Goblin larger than any of the party had ever heard of. As they prepare to give him the glowing green gem that they had been sent to pilfer in the first place, the wall erupts and a Palidan more mountain than man surges forth with his great sword. The Goblin Boss rises with a war hammer that appears to be a battering ram with a handle and the two engage in mortal combat. As the two strike simultaneous killing blows, the guards upstairs come rushing down. The Palidin vanishes in a while of shimmering dust that is gone before the doors burst open... And the Goblin boss chokes on his own blood.

The Boss has always been the strongest, smartest, cruelest... But never the oldest. In this society, the boss rises to power by slaying the one who came before... And as the guards burst in, the only logical explanation is that these three did so.

A perception check noted three things. A red and blue spider that had been motionless the entire time, scurrying away. Every metal object in the room shifted at the moment of his death. And that glittering dust still had an aura of life. End session one.

I second the not quite negate idea. Just because you see an outline you still might not be able to decern which direction it is facing or a number of other trivial little things. If it came up for me as a HM, I think I would say the creature remains invisible so long as it stays completely still and takes no action until the effects wear off. I don't recall the actual verbiage, but Hell Cats have a partial invisibility during parts of the day/night cycle. I'd use that if they DO move.

If you click on my name it will take you to a couple of threads where I asked for advice on building worlds. I've done one to completion, a post apocalyptic fantasy where the end of the game was pretty much the beginning of Genisis and one I've been building for a whiiiile about the planes. In a nutshell, they all used to be one plane and the first archon's of the Orcs, Dwarves, Elves, and... Some killer whale race... Any who, they crafted then"anchors" that split the elemental planes and created the material planes. That happened a loooooong time ago, so long that humans came into being AFTER the fact. Few remember the lore of what actually happened except for the guardians of said anchors and a cult that is going around trying to destroy them ;)

My ultimate goal was to have one campaign for each of the four anchors, roll new characters each time as if they are happening concurrently. The final, fifth campaign in the arch, the players pick one of the four characters they have played and go off to fight the Big Bad.

It shall be... *dramatic pause* my Masterwork.

Not sure if you're familiar with the Song of Fire and Ice series (and if not, WTF?!), But it brings to mind the Dawn Bringer. Its basically a sword that glows like sunlight and sets itself on fire (though I have a hunch that in the context of the book its fake as it puts off no heat).

Any who. If you want something that Good, I'm thinking rageants like feather of an angel, morning dew to quench the blade, can only be forged during dawn, and perhaps at some ancient precursor foundry that uses a series of intricate magnifying glasses to heat the steel instead of say... Fire and bellows. Got to put the effin SUN into it! Literally :)

I'm all for the winging it concept. The numbers are always good to fall back on... but creativity and inspiration is what always draws ME to the table.

I think it would help if you gave a bit more info on what exactly it is he/she is trying to create. Is it a flaming sword? A shield that always seems to rise at the right time? A cloak that turns hard as steel the instant it feels a blade?

Love the ideas! Keep em coming!

Also thinking of home brewing up some of the quest rewards they find. Two wands that come to mind:

Wand of the Chronomaster. Dispute its name, so far as you can tell, this magical device does not seem to have anything to do with time. Rather, it looks more like an overly complicated screwdriver. Effect: Once per session it can be used to repair or disable a mechanical device as if the user rolled a natural 20.

Wand of the Neuralizor. Found on the body of one of the Inquisitors in Black, this device emits a flash of blinding light that somehow confuses those who look directly into it. Effect: Once per session, the wand may he used to completely erase the memory of 1+1/2 Use Magic Device skill Creature of the past 24 hours. Used in combat, all creatures must make a reflex save to cover their eyes (if they know about the wand) or a harder will save to overcome the effects. Users may also make a deplomacy check to give false memories of the elapsed time, though a failed check will negate the memory loss.

First off, I love you all. THIS is the reason I play Pathfinder. For viewers like you. Now, to toss out some replies.

@Artemis Love the idea. The whole "whoever kills the boss is the boss" idea could come from some Orcish mentality. I had originally thought of the Boss being a Mite and stupidly easy to take out (kinda Great and Powerful Oz type) but I like this sooooo much better. I'm thinking the Boss is going to be some Garrosh Hellscream like character, endgame material, and said Paladin hero will be too. Reflex save as he just bursts through the wall as the door is not large enough to allow him to pass through. Tell the PCs that if they stood on each other's shoulders HIS shoulders would still be wider than they are tall

@Owly Love your ideas too, especially how each of the Hero party has some major character flaw that can be exploited. One of my Players loves trying to break my games and that gives him a creative license to do so... in a way that works. As for the orphanage, maybe their informants bring news that sales are dropping and that is where the money seems to be going to. The gang could request that the party go over there and "Show em who's boss in dis town"

@Arachno. I was thinking something along these lines as well. Evil doesn't mean you ONLY fight Heroes. Not EVERYONE is a clueless as the gang is about the new leaders. Some pretty big villains would hear about his death and travel the world to take a shot and grabbing the reins.

@Renegade. The one that really pinged for me in your ideas was #3 because I came across that as well. I have 3 of the 4 beastiaries and honestly 90% of the creatures are geared to be taken on by "Good" characters. Sure there are angels and archons... but that might be a bit TOO epic for what I am going for. My solution to this is instead of a hundred little unique combat situations, each session will build up to a climax of one really good one (that mirrors a superhero or something. I really enjoy the brothel idea, and the cleric offers some interesting solutions... kill him, or convert him.

@Cnet I will probably steal this idea, but I'm going to make a few tweaks. I don't want to beat the players over the head with the cameos, but rather drop enough hints that the second someone figures it out they face palm. Instead of the "Mystery Machine" I'm thinking the "Conundrum Contraption" Scooby would likely be an anthromorphic dog race with a severe speech impediment. And I HAVE to get someone to say "And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you meddling Lawful Good Aligned Heroes"

@Propsken The pop culture idea is kinda what I'm going for so I'll be digging through alot of them and thank you for the Goldfish Poop thing. I had to look that up... and TvTropes quotes Disgea when you do which is kind of where I got the idea that a Chaotic Evil character does not HAVE to be blood, guts, and gory. As for the Antithesis party, I think that every other session or so they will pick up a new member. Their goal is to seek justice of course... but also to get revenge for being made fools of so many times. We can call them "The Revengers" :D And I just got the image of an Orc Berserker named "Krulk" in my head.

So just over a year since I last graced these forums and a lot in my life has changed. Transferred to Virginia... and then the two guys that I GMed for in Georgia got orders to the same base (teeny tiny world). We decide its time to get back to rolling dice... and one of the guys suggested they all roll evil characters.

Now the idea I'm going for is more humorous than dark and gritty as we do have a newbie at the table (i.e. my girlfriend and I don't want to completely scare her off with how demented I could be.) But honestly, it sounds genuinely fun. She is playing a Halfling Rogue, one of the guys is playing a Goblin Berzerker (with 7 Cha and just enough Int to learn Common... kinda), and still waiting on the other guy to roll, but he's being pressured to play a small race.

Basically, they will all start out as hired muscle for a crime ring in the capital city of Makeupanamelater. All level 4 to keep it from taking too long to get rolling. Something is going to happen to someone which is in turn going to cause something... and BAM... the three of them are now 1.) The Greatest Villains The World Has Ever Seen or 2.) The completely clueless and over their heads leading triad of the criminal syndicate.

I want to roll an antithesis Hero party that will try to thwart them every step of the way but I also want to throw in a "Boss" battle in each session... and when I describe a few of them I hope some of you will pick up what I am putting down.

1.) Lawful Neutral Werebat Rogue with a red falcon as an animal companion that looks suspiciously like a large robin.

2.) Four Ratfolk Ninjas with different colored Gi's. Blue, Purple, Red, and Orange. Lead by a Turtlefolk Samurai named Woodshard.

3.) An uber overpowered Paladin with a ring of levitation named Nam Repus. If they DO manage to get a one up on him, he'll just pull some random artifact out of his pocket that gives him a new power. Maybe later have them find some chunk of green glass that keeps him at bay.

So... here is what I am looking for. Anyone got any ideas how I should get these guys spooled up to run their own crime ring? And any more big not so baddies? (Totally down with stuff like them teaming up with a human bard named The Jester that has a really obsessive hate of the Werebat and so forth)

For the purpose of Arcane Mark in seeing something invisible, why not just use ghost sound or light? Wouldn't that make the invisible mob croak like a from wherever he goes or shine regardless?

I am the beginning of Eternity. The end of Time and Space. The beginning of the End. And the end of every Place. What am I?

The letter E.

Thank you all for the insight. I particularly love the idea about it leaving a calling card for those who find the corpse... thinking The Joker leaving a playing card at the scene of his crimes. Batman doesn't know anything more than that The Joker committed the crime. I like it. Nice flavor. And can come back to haunt the party.

The PC allowed me to make a special use of his character's back story given the nature of the campaign. The PCs are really the only people left alive other than the Antagonist that they know of. I'll have his specific mark tie into that. "U.S." maybe...

I'm running a homebrew campaign (my first as a GM) and one of my players wants to be a Magus. I figured it sounds like an awesome class, and it compliments the rest of the party pretty well. Fleshes them out.

However, he has been prattling non-stop about Arcane Mark... I don't know exactly what he THINKS it does... but to my reading it looks like it basically turns you into Zorro, adding a personal mark to your attack.

Now I know a few cool ways they could use it... marking paths, marking allies in the event of fighting dopplegangers, etc., what I am looking for is how he can use it in combat.

As a Cantrip, he can cast it as many times as he wants in a day... so I gather he can use Spell Strike, Arcane Mark (as a freebie that dosn't use up any of his more powerful spells in a day), and get a free attack at -2... move... and attack again normally.

Is that right? Am I missing something?

By the by, he is coming into the campaign around mid-way, so he starts at level 6.

I completely agree. Right now their adventure is based on vengeance... but there will be an opportunity to set things right, a final goal, but one that comes at a great price. Even my frog thing had a semi-happy ending when they returned to the village later and spotted a tadpole with purple eyes.

If the Genocide thing is really what you want to aim for, look into Mass Effect, The Krogan, Genophage. Those three key phrases should open a few dark ideas.

Before I start, I would like to express one thing. The Holocaust was a series of events and actions taken by the Nazi's during WWII. The word you're looking for is Genocide (threw me for a loop when I read that in one system you played as Holocaust victims.). The Holocaust WAS a Genocide... but it's a case of all apples are fruits but not all fruits are apples.

That said, dark and gritty can go one of two ways. Epic or Epic Fail. By the second session of my homebrew campaign, all human life that the PCs were aware of other than themselves and the antagonist had been wiped out... but the act of it wasn't nearly as defining as I had hoped. The players treated it as just another element of the story and moved on.

In the third session I tried something different. I introduced a race of anthropomorphic amphibians that for some reason never matured past adolescence and the start of sexual reproduction. The race was seemingly without strife or argument, they created crude yet effective traps along their small borders which kept out the monster hoards, but they never seemed to do anything openly hostile. A sense motive check when the one they met invited them to a feast for the Life Giving revieled 'you have never heard anything in your life that felt so... honest."

During the feast, the frogmen... or rather frog boys and girls, presented an alarming amount of food, a perception check showed that it was likely ALL the food in the village. They ate until their bodies were bloated and almost unable to move... except for Mit (the one they met) who was so focused on being a good host and 'sharing with my pink friends' that he forwent stating at all himself.

All around the altar with the food, small grey orbs (eggs) sat in massive piles. MIT begins to grow nervous as he realizes that almost all the food is gone and he has not eaten. One by one, the frogs swallow their tongues, committing suicide... but Mit... having not gorged himself is unable to do so.

He looks back to the PC's just as needle like teeth begin to burst from his lips, his purple eyes flickering red as he glances back and forth between them and the now squirming eggs. In a last grasp of sanity before he bursts off of the log bench towards the eggs he whimpers, "Kill me..."

This led to a frantic 'combat' event where he completely ignored the PC's as he ate the eggs, one 5x5 square at a time, his body morphing, growing, twisting with each mouthful.

While a smaller event in terms of actual lives lost, the impact on the party was MUCH greater because they had emotional involvement with the NPCs before their deaths. It was a natural and selfless act that they had no control over, and acting as good guests doing seemingly nothing wrong, they had made things far worse. It really compounded it when they noticed the wax drawings on the sides of trees that crudely detailed the ceremony for the new generation as they would nor be around to teach them. More so when they finally met the 'God' who had taught them the importance of sharing... a hologram on an infinite loop of Kermit the Frog.

"Kermit de Frog here! The word of today is... sacrifice.". Going on to say how in times such as these (referring to when the recording was made so many thousands of years ago) we must all make sacrifices to the greater good.

Make your players grow attached. Give them the world... then make it rot and drip between their fingers. THAT is how to make them care about the horror you are trying to weave into your story.

Mark. I love you. Not in a gay way. In a prison way. Where it's about power.

I don't know how practical it would be (stating that it is ALWAYS considered an off hand weapon) but I loooove the flavor of the Gun Buckler. And only 750g to boot!

I use countdowns quite a bit in my campaign to give a sense of urgency while exploring and in rare events, during combat. I don't know how you DM, but I ways have my laptop up and running.

Pull up the calculator, enter his total number, -1, enter. Each time he fires another round, just alt tab to the calculator, hit enter again, and go back to what you were doing.

At least your players are thinking outside the box. In my homebrew campaign the antagonist is using clockwork spies to methodically hunt them down. They found a deactivated one... and rather than take it back to the engineer in the last village to... I dunno... reverse engineer it to spy on the antagonist... they pluck out it's eye thinking they can hock it in a trade later.

Check out the Spaniard boss in Metal Gear Rising ( I forget his name ). He's a Samurai that boosts his unsheath attack by having a clip of blank cartrages in the setup. Pull the trigger on the handle of the Katana, unsheath slash near the speed of sound.

This ONLY works for the signature draw attack... but there are Sword Saint Sammies built for that sort of destruction.

Monster Hunter also has a nifty black powder hammer. The head looks like the six chambers of a revolver.

Oh. Then they will find the library... and hear Kermit's preachings.

Lol I wanted to make it heart wrenching, but at the same time as much a fact of life as one eagle chick killing another in the nest. This will give some allusion to the sacrifice the PCs must give at the end.

Intelligece wise, these frog folks are going to be dumb as rocks... I mean... they focus their entire belief system of sharing and trusting openly from the recorded teachings of a puppet who also happens to be a frog. Wisdom wise, they are beyond their years. Fangs will begin to sprout from their new friend's mouth as he tries to explain quickly while his brothers and sisters convulse and die around the party.

In a last cling to sanity, he will beg the party to kill him as he lunges towards the clutch of eggs...

I'm not sure about spells, but the feat Strike Back and the alternate racial trait for Suli could come in handy.