Dover Pro's page

Not a problem. I, too, am slowly working through an adventure on my own, but using D&D 5e. Its to test out the second dungeon of Thornkeep before I run it with my players who haven't played 5e yet. I ran the first dungeon for them in Pathfinder, but I asked if they would try 5e to see if they like it as it runs more quickly, which would work better for a group that doesn't play but once a month, and whose numbers run from 3-8 players each session.

Thank you.

Solo play testing the dungeon using D&D 5E before the players try it sounds like a good idea. From my own experience with Pathfinder and D&D 5E, it does run more quickly. With your schedule and group size that makes sense.

I am playing by myself.
I apologize for being unclear.

In April of this year I decided to start running a First Edition Pathfinder solitaire game. Jason Bulmahn's YouTube video lectures inspired me to do it. I've been getting up to speed on the Pathfinder rules and the setting of Golarionm

Oi, this is one sol-lid character description. I think I'll adapt from it when I go to create my own Necromancer. Thanks for posting it!

I spotted this and just *had* to download it. I glanced at the first page and I am engaged in the rules.

Cool! This is a product line I can get behind, with a page count and price point which fit my reading time and my budget. I have liked Frog God Games fluff writing from the first time I downloaded their PDF on the Camp for The Slumbering Tsar, "The Desolation, Part I: Edge of Oblivion". :D

Excellent Tool. I checked it out and bookmarked it a couple days ago. I've used it to name my latest Golarion NPCs and have generated lists of Chelaxian and Varisian names for random wilderness road encounters.

Backed as soon as I got the email notice that it went live!

This is a resource I really, really want for my campaign. I have one experienced Pathfinder player, one AD & D grognard, and myself, an AD & D / D & D grognard. The ability to devise fresh, variant monsters cannot be understated.

The most recent weird character concept I want to play is my own Awakened Wombat with class levels. Possibly Sorcerer. Don't know much about the Bloodline mechanics. Haven't created a Sorcerer yet. Would be a funny little talking animal somewhat like Yoda. Cute, irritable and you have no idea just how powerful he really is.

Oh, well. I thought I'd weigh in on this one. I've been watching anime since 1965. While I was initially interested in Ghost in the Shell from Shirow's description of it in the back of one of the American Appleseed releases, when I saw the actual Ghost in the Shell movie, I was...displeased. Studio I.G. has been consistent in mucking up the material from Ghost in the Shell. They're one of the few anime studios whose work I refuse to patronize.

Then there was my actually reading the Ghost in the Shell manga. As far as I can tell, it's a bog-standard cyborg police procedural which ends in a train-wreck of noodling about identity.

The only person whose work I can tolerate on the movie is the scriptwriter. I've forgotten her name, but she has one good movie to her credit.

Yeah, pretty much, "You kids get off my lawn!" ;)

Cool news! B| Maybe I can scrape up the cash to buy Heaven Unleashed at the end of the month? Do Want, for use in my version of Magnimar. The Road System Map Pack would serve well for my epic travel adventure / urban adventure Abyss of Kaer Maga, capping off the current arc in my Varisian Pathfinder campaign.

Noice selection! B| Do want, but my PDF budget is locked up for May. I'll see what I can make room for in June. :D

Dover Pro wrote:

I have a follow-up question. Awakened Wombats are based mechanically on Donkey Rats. I am thinking of replacing some Donkey Rat encounters with Awakened Wombats. Would this be fun or would it lead to bad craziness? ;)

Those two options are not mutually exclusive. :D

That said, you know your adventure and your players better than I ever could, so I'd trust your gut on that question.

Thanks. B| I haven't given them any bad craziness encounters yet. I'm still feeling my way with adventure site design. And you are correct. Some of the more interesting encounters for my characters have been the weird ones.

My gut says not to do it, because one of my players, a grognard like me, can get annoyed when I introduce something weird in one of my adventures.

On the other hand, I am planning on spreading the influence of my BBEG, Thelsikar (yeah, *him*, from the Beginner Box) and his activities are like a bad meme. I've described him as barking mad and suffering from massive cognitive dissonance from being a Human cleric of Lamashtu.

I had a policy of not backing Kickstarters until early this month. I had been following Tenkar, of Tenkar's Tavern and had read his horror stories about game Kickstarters. Then there was the saga of a certain third-party publisher which played out here on the forums. Their name is now mud because of how they failed to handle their Kickstarters.

What changed my mind? Chatting with respected third-party publishers over Facebook. They explained to me how to research a Kickstarter creator and how to back a Kickstarter for only one dollar.

I've backed five Kickstarters this month all from creators with an established track record of producing cool content.

So, yeah. What everyone said up-thread is good stuff to keep in mind.

Do Want! I've been fascinated by Runes ever since I read the appendix on them in The Lord of the Rings.

Oh, man. Yeah, GM NPCs can definitely serve a purpose (round out a hole in the party if you don't have many players, that kind of thing), but definitely make sure they don't outshine the party. I was running a GM NPC for awhile in my current game. She participated in fights and some roleplaying stuff if the PCs initiated that, but they were the ones doing the story stuff. (She has since taken on more of a camp-support role since another player joined the game, making them a party of four anyway.)

Giving the GM NPC xp, though? That just seems...unnecessary.

My two copper pieces on GM PC's. My current group only consists of two regular players. We've had a third, but they keep dropping out because of Real Life. For the next adventure I plan to run, I have created two adventuring NPCs to fill needed party roles. I plan to run them as combat and skill / spell bots. They will be there and the players will direct their actions as needed. Other than that they will only speak when spoken to and otherwise be in the background.

Hullo. I'm from New England, in the U.S.. That's the upper right bit of the country. The actual state I'm from is a Commonwealth and where I grew up you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting something historical.

Recently I got inspired to create a stat block for an Awakened Wombat. It's a fairly simple re-skin of the Donkey Rat from the Inner Sea Guide, with some adjustments from what I know about Wombats:

You see a stout furry creature with large claws.
Awakened Wombat CR 1/4
XP 135
N Small animal
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent, Perception +4
Defense
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 11 (+3 Dex, +1 size)
hp 5 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +1
Offense
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Melee bite +1 (1d4), +1 2 claws (1d3)
Special Attacks rake (2 claws +1, 1d3)
Statistics
Str 10, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 10
Base Atk +0; CMB –1; CMD 12 (16 vs. trip)
Feats Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Climb +11, Perception +4, Stealth +11, Swim +11; Racial Modifiers uses Dex to modify Climb and Swim
Ecology
Environment any temperate
Organization solitary or pack (2–20)
Treasure none
Wombats grow up to 2 feet long and weigh up to 25 pounds. They are irritable and will attack when even mildly disturbed.

I hope someone finds this useful or entertaining.

Thank you for making this guide, Prometeus. I tried creating a Druid as a boss character in an adventure in 2014 and I didn't know what I was doing. I think it is good that you are giving back to the community.

Dover Pro wrote:

Mr. Stephens, I was recently inspired by some of your social media posts on unusual hybrid monsters. So I dug through my knowledge of the Pathfinder monster creation rules, the SRD and a smattering of information on Australian marsupials to create the Awakened Wombat.

What do you think of such a creature?

Sounds like fun! I could easily see such creatures acting as guides and guardians of natural areas.

Thank you. :) I like creating fun content for my campaign. I have a follow-up question. Awakened Wombats are based mechanically on Donkey Rats. I am thinking of replacing some Donkey Rat encounters with Awakened Wombats. Would this be fun or would it lead to bad craziness? ;)

I only picked this up because I read that the original Ravenloft adventure was cool and I'm interested in the setting of the Demiplane of Dread. I confirmed I would buy it after learning that Tracy Hickman would only consult on its design. I think the price point for the adventure and the amount of content blows hot volcanic lava chunks.

I often check Liz Courts' new product posts, because I have found material that I didn't know I needed.

Do Want This!

I have had a soft spot for Rogues after playing a Scoundrel in a d20 Star Wars game. (Mention of this game system is not a challenge to copyright. I think I can get away with that. ;) )

I always look for EZG's review of a Pathfinder product when I'm interested in it. Given his review, I want to buy this next month, when I have room for it in my PDF budget.

I really hate April Fools Day ...

I heartily agree with you. I have personal reasons for hating it, but that's not relevant to the topic of this thread.

I think the minis are cool sculpts. Unfortunately, I can't afford them. Still, I look forward to the posts about the minis since something interesting is always in the entries.

I think Nicholas Logue's work, what I own of it, is cool. I wish I could go to PaizoCon 2016, but I don't go to conventions. Too many people in one place.

Good stuff. I found an earlier version of the guide useful for setting up an Elf Universalist Wizard. Downloaded.

I'm not sure this post goes here. It's my best guess.

I began collecting Paizo's Pathfinder Products with the Bestiary, soon after I bought the Core Rulebook. I have been going down the lists of each product line in chronological order and buying those items. There are only two products lines I don't do that for. Modules, because I homebrew my own adventures and the Pathfinder Card game, because I have no interest in collectable/modular card games.

Recently, I've become more involved with the Pathfinder community, so I thought it would be a good idea to start doing product reviews of the items I've bought over the past three years. While I don't have much experience with Pathfinder, I have ten times that experience with role-playing games in general. Maybe one of my reviews would help someone gain some insight into a product.

Ah, okay. Thanks for your reply. I wanted to make sure that's what was going on.

Sol-lid :) That's an excellent creative effort by meloriel. I've never seen Lini's stat block that I can recall. I have seen the comments she's made in chapter introductions in my Pathfinder book collection. Congrats, meloriel!

I have a question for the community.

I have been blogging Pathfinder content using the Community Use Policy since March 7th. Today I had the idea of supporting my blogging, not just Pathfinder content, using Patreon. I'm not sure how that would interact with the Community Use Policy.

How could I structure the Patreon so that I am not charging for Pathfinder-based content?

Cool :) I played in an adventure that used elements from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks a long time ago. I haven't sampled a Legendary Games product yet. I have only begun exploring third-party options this month. I'm interested in content of this adventure. Now I just have to find the budget for it. I'd pick it up in May, at the earliest. Thanks for the heads up. :)

Subreddits, forums, threads.... that's not really what I'm looking for. I'm talking about instant messaging, stuff where people talk and respond in real time instead of leaving each other messages. It probably doesn't make a huge difference to most people, but I find it a lot more comfortable. Forums and such systems feel, I don't know, businesslike, which is good for some things, but uncomfortable for casual conversation. Personally speaking, of course.

Hrm. The only thing I know of like that is the Facebook Pathfinder RPG fan page. If someone posts something interesting and casual, responses can be had in a matter of seconds. I've had comments answered in almost real time. I've been able to make connections with Pathfinder content creators and have Friended some, with the exchange of Facebook messages in real time. Your Mileage May Vary, of course.

So far I have only made minor adjustments to Golarion as written, changes in flavor to support the atmosphere my campaign. For example, Ameiko at the Rusty Dragon is Sandpoint buys monster meat from adventurers and has an experimental dish ready every month for patrons to try out.

Creatures and NPCs are not bags of experience points in my setting. Those that have intelligence and are capable of reasoning can be reasoned with. The Seven Tooth Goblins, for example, asked the player characters to do something about the baddies who kicked the tribe out of their cave home. The player characters did that with gusto and now the Seven Tooth Goblins are grateful to them and afraid of them for their destructiveness.

Creatures and NPCs in my campaign can be pragmatic, which means their alignments tend toward Neutral. For example, the Kobold miners are Lawful Neutral with Evil tendencies. They know if they attack Sandpoint, they're going to get decimated. They reserve their evil for the creation of the nasty traps used to defend their home.

I recently joked about adding a cadre of Awakened Wombats to the BBEG's groups of minions. The Wombats would be directed to gnaw Sandpoint to its story foundations. I wouldn't actually do this, as it goes against the tone of the campaign arc. Also, one of the players in the campaign gets irritated when I include out-of-place humor in my settings and adventures.

Mr. Stephens, I was recently inspired by some of your social media posts on unusual hybrid monsters. So I dug through my knowledge of the Pathfinder monster creation rules, the SRD and a smattering of information on Australian marsupials to create the Awakened Wombat.

What do you think of such a creature?

The worst recent movie I can think of is Pacific Rim. I was recently reminded of it when I decided to watch some of the Special Features DVD. This is my response immediately afterward:

Del Toro claimed he was trying to create a completely original kaiju and mecha movie inspired by the anime of his youth. He reinvented the wheel and created something like Neon Genesis Evangelion. The characters are unlikable and unrelatable. The setting blows chunks and is unbelievable. I could not connect with the characters, situations or the setting of the movie when I watched it. It is not a great movie. It’s not even a good one. It’s a science-fantasy-based action movie, no more, no less. I could like it for being that, that's all.

I've recently been journaling about my history with role-playing games because I wanted to reflect on what I'd been through. I came to this conclusion about thirty-six years of gaming experience:

Come to think of it, much of my role-playing game experience has been a disgusting and dirty one with demanding players and abusive referees right from the start in 1981. So why do I keep doing it? It’s a creative outlet and I’ve become skilled at it.

I've long played in mixed groups, starting with a First Edition AD & D group that was half-female, I think. It's been so long, I don't remember- 1981.

I've played in mixed groups through 2003. The last time was a large Star Wars d20 group. The female left the group because she wasn't bothering to engage the referee or the other players except for her husband. She was bored and would do things like read a magazine during game time.

For me, gender doesn't matter. What's important to me is can the group member cooperate with the other players, can they follow Wheton's Law and are they willing to learn the system rules enough to be able to engage in the game session.

I've only had one sexist player that I can recall. For my current Pathfinder campaign, a new player said he would act sexist toward any girls in the group if there were any. I told him that behavior violated my house rules (Wheton's Law, basically)and he would not be allowed to join the group. He then said his character would be sexist, but he had never interacted with a female character when he was playing.

Cool news.

I am currently collecting the volumes of Curse of the Crimson Throne for reference. I really like the city of Korvosa. It's a matter of taste that I don't like the story arc of Curse. I still plan on using material from it for the presentation of Korvosa in my campaign, should the player characters ever want to go there. An updated hardcover would be an excellent resource for me to pillage ( ;)) for material.

I have located a site which appears to host Pathfinder PDFs without permission. Who do I contact at Paizo to alert them to the existence of the site? Sorry, I couldn't figure it out from the Contact page. Thanks in advance.

I have severe clinical depression. Mostly it's been handled by therapy and medication, plus a desire to get better. When I find myself unable to do something I want to do, I set a small goal for myself. Most recently, I have been wanting to write more, with the eventual goal of being published. I was writing about a page a day in my journal, so I set the goal of writing an average of two pages a day. It took me about ten days to do it.

You might try looking at Kobold Press's Midgard campaign setting.

"The Midgard Campaign Setting brings to life a dark world of deep magic, with seven regions flavored by the folklore of Central and Eastern Europe plus a heady dose of weird fantasy."

When I sit down to write, I have to have a mug of ice tea or coffee before the words will flow.

Once I get writing and I hit a sticking point, my inspiration is nearly always the written word. In my current case, I reread the Pathfinder Beginner's Box or the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. If I'm still stuck, I refer to the First Edition AD & D rules, which had rules and random tables for everything . If I can't decide on some detail, sometimes I'll whip up a random table to help me decide.

I write much less than I used to, on a daily basis. I write, on average, a hundred and seventy words a day in my journal.

That is sad. I had a copy of "Strike Force" and I thought it was the best Champions supplement that Hero Games published.

I do feel sad about this. Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies. Egon Spengler was kind of a personal hero of mine.

I actually scrounged the Web for the price of tobacco and the cost of a pipe and converted it for my most recent D & D campaign. A wooden pipe works out to one gold piece, while a common clay pipe is ten silver pieces.

As for cigars, a good modern cigar can be had for as little as $2.50, with most averaging around five to seven dollars for a hand-rolled cigar. Premium cigars are eighty dollars.

-Dover

I'm thinking that a small simple dungeon would be the best way to explain what is going on. What sort of dungeon should I use? Actually does it really matter?

From my limited experience with Pathfinder, along with reading the Beginner Box material, a small simple dungeon is a good idea.

*spoiler*

The Beginner Box uses a set of caves with low-CR monsters with a "boss battle" at the end, with a potential recurring villain.

*end spoiler*

I hope this helps.

-Dover

I believe you are correct about Elves resistance to sleep effects.

Elves meditating ultimately comes from "Lord of the Rings", the books, where Legolas is described as "walking in dreams" instead of sleeping.

-Dover

Hi John/Zar,

I agree with Sig. More dice are useful!

As for your questions:

You're well stocked with books for starting off.

A module is a single adventure, just like they were in the old days. An adventure path is a complete campaign. A tale is a novel or a piece of short fiction set in the Pathfinder game world.

Yes, the maps are part of the map mastery series. They are used to help show how combat happens.

The maps show a complete area. The tiled sets have small individual areas on them that you can mix and match.

I looked up the displacer beast as well. It's not listed. Maybe it could appear in the next Bestiary?

I'm glad you're excited. I am excited, too. I played Pathfinder for the first time last month and I am looking forward to playing it again at the end of the week.

-Dover