Enforcer

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A Phase Ungoliant is a brutal, less subtle killer and cousin of the well-known Phase Spider. Where the Phase Spider prefers to bite a foe and then return to it's plane to watch the poison claim a life, the Phase Ungoliant is content with enjoying the company of others of it's kind, gathering around unsuspecting victims, and ferociously biting at it, inflicting their strange poison and ripping it to shreds as onlookers watch in horror as he disappears and reappears with more and more injuries.

They are also capable of rather poor, droning flight, which, for some reason, is audible on the Material plane.

Phase Ungoliant CR 7
XP 3,200
Phase ungoliant
Large magical beast
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 19, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+3 Dex, +7 natural, -1 size)
hp 73 (8d10+32)
Fort +10, Ref +9, Will +3
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft., fly 30 ft. (poor)
Melee bite +12 (2d6+7)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
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Statistics
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Str 20, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 10
Base Atk +8; CMB +14; CMD 27 (35 vs. trip)
Feats Ability Focus (generic ability), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills Climb +18, Fly +2, Perception +6, Stealth +7
SQ blinking poison, ethereal ambush, ethereal jaunt
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Special Abilities
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Bite—injury; save Fort DC 20; frequency 1/round for 8 rounds; effect; poisoned player is under effects of blink spell; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.

A Phase Ungoliant is fully capable of striking any creature that warps to and fro from the ethereal plane in a quick shimmer. Their poison destabilizes their matter and sends them frequently between their, and the material planes of existence. As a Phase Ungoliant is often Ethereal, this means that it can attack said blinking creature while it warps, but the creature has 20% concealment towards it.

Another issue of this spell is the difficulty of both escaping, and saving said person. The poison, however, is supernatural, and the blink cannot be dispelled via Dispel magic. Any spell that might heal the poison, however, takes into account the dispel concealment, as below in the spoiler.

Blink:

School transmutation; Level bard 3, sorcerer/wizard 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 round/level (D)
You “blink” quickly back and forth between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane and look as though you're winking in and out of reality at random. Blink has several effects, as follows.

Physical attacks against you have a 50% miss chance, and the Blind-Fight feat doesn't help opponents, since you're ethereal and not merely invisible. If the attack is capable of striking ethereal creatures, the miss chance is only 20% (for concealment).

If the attacker can see invisible creatures, the miss chance is also only 20%. (For an attacker who can both see and strike ethereal creatures, there is no miss chance.) Likewise, your own attacks have a 20% miss chance, since you sometimes go ethereal just as you are about to strike.

Any individually targeted spell has a 50% chance to fail against you while you're blinking unless your attacker can target invisible, ethereal creatures. Your own spells have a 20% chance to activate just as you go ethereal, in which case they typically do not affect the Material Plane (but they might affect targets on the Ethereal Plane).

While blinking, you take only half damage from area attacks (but full damage from those that extend onto the Ethereal Plane). Although you are only partially visible, you are not considered invisible and targets retain their Dexterity bonus to AC against your attacks. You do receive a +2 bonus on attack rolls made against enemies that cannot see invisible creatures.

You take only half damage from falling, since you fall only while you are material.

While blinking, you can step through (but not see through) solid objects. For each 5 feet of solid material you walk through, there is a 50% chance that you become material. If this occurs, you are shunted off to the nearest open space and take 1d6 points of damage per 5 feet so traveled.

Since you spend about half your time on the Ethereal Plane, you can see and even attack ethereal creatures. You interact with ethereal creatures roughly the same way you interact with material ones.

An ethereal creature is invisible, incorporeal, and capable of moving in any direction, even up or down. As an incorporeal creature, you can move through solid objects, including living creatures.

An ethereal creature can see and hear the Material Plane, but everything looks gray and insubstantial. Sight and hearing on the Material Plane are limited to 60 feet.

Force effects and abjurations affect you normally. Their effects extend onto the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane, but not vice versa. An ethereal creature can't attack material creatures, and spells you cast while ethereal affect only other ethereal things. Certain material creatures or objects have attacks or effects that work on the Ethereal Plane. Treat other ethereal creatures and objects as material.

Ethereal Clarity (Ex) Phase Ungoliants are used to harming creatures that blink between planes, and suffer only a 20% miss chance against blinking targets.

Ethereal Ambush (Ex) A Phase Ungoliant that attacks foes on the Material Plane in a surprise round can take a full round of actions if it begins the combat by phasing into the Material Plane from the Ethereal Plane.

Ethereal Jaunt (Su) A Phase Ungoliant can shift from the Ethereal Plane to the Material Plane as a free action, and shift back again as a move action (or as part of a move action). The ability is otherwise identical to ethereal jaunt (CL 15th).

Flight (30 feet, Poor) You can fly!

Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.

Power Attack -3/+6 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.

What do you guys think of this thing? Is it an improvement over our beloved annoying spider, or does the blink make it much easier to kill?


Alright gents, so, right now, I've been going through the ropes trying to figure out what and all to do with my current players who are going through Dracula's castle. I was looking at their wealth per level, and presently our poor oracle has the least of the gold, and they've all just reached level 8.

What that basically means for him is that, at level 8, which requires you to have 33,000 gold, or roughly that in items, he has very little. Particularly, he has about 20,000 gold total, mostly because his character has shirked the need for other things.

However! The reason for this is because he is an oracle based entirely on keeping the party nice and alive, which is a good thing, I guess, but apart from the occasional chain of perdition and blessing of fervor he doesn't have much to offer the party. As a result, I had the thought of giving him a particularly tailored magic item; a Gauntlet.

Now, making a gauntlet with charges is simple enough, I think... I'm fairly certain you can make a gauntlet without an enhancement bonus have a magical ability, like a glove, so that's nice. Tell me if I'm wrong. Regardless, this current setup takes into consideration the idea that you don't make the gauntlet a +1, albeit it will be masterwork because that's easy to add... and who knows. He might actually hit something.

Anyways, here's my dilemma.

The price to make an item capable of casting a spell over and over and over again, is Spell level x Caster level x 1,800gp and that's easy enough to understand, although a cape of the mountebank isn't the best example on the srd... (Since it has charges). Fortunately, the gauntlet I want to make actually does have charges.

However that's the issue. I want it to be an item that has a "Pool" of charges, with multiple options regarding that single charge. Only 2 options, however. Cure moderate wounds and Align Weapon, Communal.

The question is, is giving the gauntlet options free? Or do I make the exact same gauntlet and add 50% to the price of that gauntlet and slam the 2 prices together?

Or, do I just add 50% more price to the overall item to signify the extra option? I could understand if the weapons had 2 different charges, 1 for each spell, but he could essentially use either one...

Or should I just treat the gauntlet like a staff in price? I'm confused. I can't treat it like a staff, however, because the 1 charge comes back automatically every single day because of the "Use per day".

Some assistance would be appreciated.


"In the world of Azura'gareth, there exists, to the farest of norths, a small island with frozen oceans on all sides. Only the most well-crafted of ice-crushing ships can pass through without issue. Even then, they can't make it all the way through, and as a result, people must make the "Walk to Bendt" which proves unnaturally cold and fantastically treacherous to outsiders.

From Bendt, and after you cross the great bridge, stands Dracula's age-old castle, which often remains stalwart against those that would go through it's doors. However, the belmonts are moving, and as are characters in the shadows. The small island of Bendt is uneasy, and there's been word that people have seen folks moving in and outside of the enormous castle. Some returned with glittering gold, and others insane. You? Well, you're on the boat there.

Perhaps you heard of the Belmonts making their way to the isle, and also knew that this is where Castle Dracula laid dormant. Perhaps you knew that it's only once every 300 years that the castle-esque artifact opened to strangers as Dracula attempted to burst forth and reclaim the island and his terrible rule? What purpose do you have to come to the castle and raid it? Do you want to join the ranks of the Belmonts, or gain his lordships dark power? I guess we'll find out soon."

Race In the world of Azura'gareth, there is only one race, and that is unfortunately human, however, they are a malleable, fantastical race that varies greatly.

Using the Advanced race, the Human's of Azura'gareth base race looks like this:
Skilled Treat every class as though they gave 1 additional skill point per level. You may also make one skill a class skill, even if that class doesn't usually get it.
Flexible Bonus Feat In addition to whatever your classes give you at first level, you gain 1 more feat for free, but must meet the requirements for it.
Focused Study At 1st, 8th, and 16th level, this race gets skill focus as a bonus feat for free.

Variant Human Instead of gaining a single random +2 to any ability score, A human from Azura'gareth gets a +2 to both a physical and mental score, and may place a -2 wherever they please, even into one of the other 2 scores to break even.

Classes Anything is allowed, except Summoners and Gunslingers. People come from all over the world for this event, and while most die on the shores, the differences are still very very present.

Character Creation - All characters must be the mentioned race, begin at level 5 with the suggested wealth for that level. The only strict rule I place on wealth allocation is that you may spend no more than 40% of your starting gold on any one item.
Rolling Stats - Roll 7 sets of 4d6, and remove the lowest. Re-roll all 1's. Re-roll any stat entirely that is less than 7, even the 7th removed set.
I'll answer any questions you have beyond this, and help suggest things that you're considering.

Maps will be handled through the creation process of DD3, and then placed on Google Docs for people to move their character's icons around. (Preferably your character's Icon on these forums) and Initiative will be handled properly by myself at the start of combat to avoid cheating.

Gameplay The Vast Majority of the campaign will take place within the Castle itself, and along it's bridge. Generally speaking you may need to venture into the nearby forest, talk around town, or what have you, but the vast majority is a dungeon dive throughout the massive castle. All of the grids will be 5 feet squares on inch grid, and easy to work around.

Character creation currently has no time limit, whereas I'm just now typing this, but for the sake of having one, let's put it at the 15th, which is next Sunday.

Health will be ROLLED, as well, but you may reroll anything that's less a third of your possible maximum. (36 health barb with 10 con at level 3 can't have less than 13, and Fighter's can't have less than 11, and so on. This doesn't take into consideration Con, however.)


"In the world of Azura'gareth, there exists, to the farest of norths, a small island with frozen oceans on all sides. Only the most well-crafted of ice-crushing ships can pass through without issue. Even then, they can't make it all the way through, and as a result, people must make the "Walk to Bendt" which proves unnaturally cold and fantastically treacherous to outsiders.

From Bendt, and after you cross the great bridge, stands Dracula's age-old castle, which often remains stalwart against those that would go through it's doors. However, the belmonts are moving, and as are characters in the shadows. The small island of Bendt is uneasy, and there's been word that people have seen folks moving in and outside of the enormous castle. Some returned with glittering gold, and others insane. You? Well, you're on the boat there.

Perhaps you heard of the Belmonts making their way to the isle, and also knew that this is where Castle Dracula laid dormant. Perhaps you knew that it's only once every 300 years that the castle-esque artifact opened to strangers as Dracula attempted to burst forth and reclaim the island and his terrible rule? What purpose do you have to come to the castle and raid it? Do you want to join the ranks of the Belmonts, or gain his lordships dark power? I guess we'll find out soon."

Race In the world of Azura'gareth, there is only one race, and that is unfortunately human, however, they are a malleable, fantastical race that varies greatly.

Using the Advanced race, the Human's of Azura'gareth base race looks like this:
Skilled Treat every class as though they gave 1 additional skill point per level. You may also make one skill a class skill, even if that class doesn't usually get it.
Flexible Bonus Feat In addition to whatever your classes give you at first level, you gain 1 more feat for free, but must meet the requirements for it.
Focused Study At 1st, 8th, and 16th level, this race gets skill focus as a bonus feat for free.

Variant Human Instead of gaining a single random +2 to any ability score, A human from Azura'gareth gets a +2 to both a physical and mental score, and may place a -2 wherever they please, even into one of the other 2 scores to break even.

Classes Anything is allowed, except Summoners and Gunslingers. People come from all over the world for this event, and while most die on the shores, the differences are still very very present.

Character Creation - All characters must be the mentioned race, begin at level 5 with the suggested wealth for that level. The only strict rule I place on wealth allocation is that you may spend no more than 40% of your starting gold on any one item.
Rolling Stats - Roll 7 sets of 4d6, and remove the lowest. Re-roll all 1's. Re-roll any stat entirely that is less than 7, even the 7th removed set.
I'll answer any questions you have beyond this, and help suggest things that you're considering.

Maps will be handled through the creation process of DD3, and then placed on Google Docs for people to move their character's icons around. (Preferably your character's Icon on these forums) and Initiative will be handled properly by myself at the start of combat to avoid cheating.

Gameplay The Vast Majority of the campaign will take place within the Castle itself, and along it's bridge. Generally speaking you may need to venture into the nearby forest, talk around town, or what have you, but the vast majority is a dungeon dive throughout the massive castle. All of the grids will be 5 feet squares on inch grid, and easy to work around.


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Sargassium Fiend Variant:

Bloodclot Abomination CR 9
XP 6,400
Sargassum fiend (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 235)
NE Abberation
Init +6; Senses blindsense 60 ft., low-light vision, tremorsense 120 ft.; Perception +11
Aura mirage (300 ft., DC 18)
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Defense
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AC 24, touch 12, flat-footed 21 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +12 natural, -1 size)
hp 123 (13d8+65)
Fort +15, Ref +8, Will +4
DR 5/slashing; Immune plant traits; Resist cold 10
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 40 ft.
Melee 2 slams +16 (2d8+7 plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (2d8+10), grab (Huge)
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Statistics
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Str 25, Dex 14, Con 20, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 15
Base Atk +9; CMB +17 (+25 grapple); CMD 30 (can't be tripped)
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Stealthy, Weapon Focus (slam)
Skills Acrobatics +2 (-2 to jump), Climb +19, Escape Artist +4, Perception +11, Stealth +7, Swim +15
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Special Abilities
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Blindsense (60 feet) (Ex) Sense things and creatures without seeing them.
Climbing (20 feet) You have a Climb speed.
Damage Reduction (5/slashing) You have Damage Reduction against all except Slashing attacks.
Energy Resistance, Cold (10) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Cold attacks.
Grab: Slam (Huge) (Ex) You can start a grapple as a free action if you hit with the designated weapon.
Immunity to Mind-Affecting effects You are immune to Mind-Affecting effects.
Immunity to Paralysis You are immune to paralysis.
Immunity to Poison You are immune to poison.
Immunity to Polymorph You are immune to Polymorph effects.
Immunity to Sleep You are immune to sleep effects.
Immunity to Stunning You are immune to being stunned.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Mirage (300 feet, DC 18) (Su) Creatures see fiend as whatever would compel them to approach (Will neg).
Blood PoolThe Blood-Clot Abomination usually stays in the form of a slightly stagnant pool of blood just long enough to grab whatever gets closest first. This is normally unnatural, but not in the crimson castle. It is a Dc 24 perception/survival check to notice the strange differences in it's blood and the blood elsewhere in the castle. This doesn't immediately reveal it as a large dangerous creature, however, but should be enough to cause concern. Any minor attack against the creature in this form lowers it's initiative roll by 4, but starts combat.
Swimming (40 feet) You have a Swim speed.
Tremorsense (120 feet) Sense things and creatures without seeing them.
Negative Energy Affinity This creature is healed by negative energy and harmed by positive energy.

So I recently made this creature to go against my 4 player party of level 6's. What I'm wondering, however, is whether it's too strong for them or not, as the risk of them getting grappled is very high. I'm also completely oblivious as to how grappling works beyond the initial role to grapple, despite consistent minor fights with a barbarian drow in one of my pbp games.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, or opinions, but I'm mostly wondering whether the constriction damage is done as soon as a grapple is made, because that would mean that when the thing slams someone, and grapples as a result, it could constrict them the same round, but then what happens to the other slam?


Here's where we'll make sense of all this.


Here's where we'll get things organized as soon as I know everyone's somewhat interested in the idea.


If you came to this looking for a tutorial you're going to be disappointed.

In my most recent games I've developed a very simple, yet easy-to-remember method of doing maps and I've been looking to incorporate digital art into it, but, unfortunately, I've been having some glaring issues. First off, is my love for the 1 inch square, which is indefatigable. That said, I can't, for the life of me, find an easy way to incorporate that into my maps without painfully placing every single individual square, and I'd frankly like to fix that.

Now, here's what I'm in the middle of looking for. A simple square placer. That's it. Something I can just put tons of squares on and call it a dungeon map that I'll edit shortly in Paint Tool Sai by screen copying, or something. I've had almost no luck and would appreciate some assistance.


So, in my latest campaign I've devised a series of new monsters with interesting gimmicks, and of them I believe my favorite might be the "Mirror Monster" that I haven't found a great name for yet. Till then, it's just Mirror Monster.

Essentially, this enemy is a CR 18, lurking in every single mirror of the dungeon with complete capability of fleeing from fights rather easily if given the chance. All the same it can surprise the party during what are normally the much easier fights within it.

The "Castle of Reflection" the dungeon it's located in, has, what else, many reflective surfaces. These usually take the form of mirrors, and the boss is annoying the party throughout the entire dungeon until they come to a room with giant mirrors on both sides of the walls. There is another room where the whole ceiling is a mirror, and another where the floor is a mirror where the monster attempts to use it's "Replace Existence" ability to pull a player into the mirror world.

The Mirror Monster can only be hit by the reflections within the mirrors, which means that, due to the wonkiness of that, has constant concealment as if you are using a mirror to hit it, like fighting a Medusa or Basilisk

If a player is not in the reflection of the mirror, the monster cannot hit them, and they can't hit the monster. All the same this means that, on a medium sized mirror, only 2 people may actually hit the monster at once, which poses an issue.

The Mirror monster IS capable of hitting enemies within the mirrors while not perfectly in view as it treats the mirrors as somewhat of a dimension of it's own and can freely walk about them, and has a pervading, yet increasing chance of being in the mirrors similarly to a wandering monster. There are no less than 30 mirrors within the Castle of Reflection, and that excludes the large ones.

While mostly a creature bent on the destruction of the players, the Mirror Monster doesn't enjoy it's trapped situation, and as a result of that, also attempts to escape at any opportunity. While not entirely capable of leaving on it's own, the Mirror Monster Can reach out of one of the mirrors with it's 20 foot reach, grapple, and pull a player into the mirror and be allowed to leave as a result. It replaces the player in the same action.

Things to note:
- The Mirror Monster has no Reflection, and as a result, the player who is replaced is incapable of defeating it.
- Replaced players cast no reflection within the mirror, and don't appear outside of it.
- The Mirror Monster is a CR 18, but has 4 negative levels that it regains when it replaces itself with a creature, making it a CR 21.
- The Mirror Monster cannot appear in shattered mirrors, and shattering a mirror it's in grants it a temporary negative level. This is easier said than done, however, as the mirrors in the Castle of Reflection are quite sturdy due to magical enhancement and their creation process.
- Shattering a mirror with a PC in it bestows 2 negative levels upon them, and makes it where the PC can't escape through that mirror. Just the same, the Mirror Monster can't replace the PC in the shattered Mirror either.
- The Mirror Monster may crack any mirror it exits as a free action.
- The Mirror Monster is completely immune to Illusion based effects.
- The Mirror Monster is treated as a Daemon for purposes of Immunities and resistances.
- While within a Mirror, the Mirror Monster has Fast Healing 5 and can, and will lick it's wounds by escaping to an area where it can't be seen or attacked. It does this when placed below half health.
- A Mirror Monster is entirely capable of attacking a player too close to a mirror, and if it places itself between the player and his reflection, has a concealment of 50% as turning around to hit it counts it as invisible.
- True sight is useless against a Mirror Monster, as well as See Invisibility, as neither spell reveals the monsters location within the current plane.

What do you guys think? Is he a nifty monster? I'd like to get your opinions.


So, as of late I've played with the idea of a truly wonderful campaign in my eyes. It's a mythic campaign, and the players would start out reasonably high, but at the same time they would know that a general majority of everything they'd be engaging would too, be mythic. This is the idea, and I'd love to hear everyone's suggestions.

The Players - The players themselves would begin the game at level 14 with 6 mythic tiers. That's a good amount, but it's about right given the ratios of everything else. At this point in the game, at the beginning, the players have designated themselves as the lowest forms of a deity, and that's one that's ascending the ranks of the pantheons.

What kind of God? - Generally speaking the players would, with their knowledge of the campaign, choose 2 domains. The players would then build their characters according to the domains they picked as a sort of "Gimmick". These domains should, preferably, not butt heads normally. This means you can't be the god of Positive and Negative energy at the same time and treat it as "Balance" or Fire and Water and treat it as "Steam" Simplicity, yet, creativity, are both king. Vague things are typically shunned unless they play a prominent role in the character.

The Story - The campaign would begin with the 4 chosen players (And no more, because mythic games are difficult to balance as is.) in a place known simply as "The Plane of Fracture" with only 1 other being; Fracture herself. It is here that Fracture explains that the heroes are on the verge of becoming true demigods, and that all deities eventually come through this plane to prove their worth in the on-going game of balance. Those not worthy and those that lack resolve in their personal beliefs have no place in the pantheon, and are a waste of mythic power.

Fracture then takes this moment to explain to the players that their services are not only required but unnegotiable and necessary, and explains that she primarily is the source of all mythic power, but beyond her realm she is only able to gift it. That said, she is the patron deity of power and trial, and she is unable to leave her domain as well.

It's for the above reasons that Fracture claims that the rising gods replace the old ones, and that misplaced power must be sought out and reclaimed. Hence the player's location.

Fracture's powers include, but are not limited to; The siphoning of mythic power from an individual, planar travel (but only for others) and the careful choosing of mythic power's allocation.

With these she tells the players the stories of the "Forgotten Ones" which she would prefer to eradicate and reclaim their power for herself and the new gods. These Forgotten Ones all lead their various campaigns and did their adventures, but all eventually strayed from their original beliefs, and as a result, Fracture wishes for them to be sought out and defeated, and as it is, she's bided her time for quite a while, slowly finding them in the reaches of the grand expanse of all the planes, and has finally found them all, well-protected and surrounded by those that venerate them, or carry their likeness or beliefs.

This is where the players come in, as they choose what they wish to do in any order. 12 Different areas exist, all wrought with mythic power and unimaginable beasts and protectors, and somewhere in all 12 lands, their ruler, brimming with mythic radiance, guards their power in many different ways.

The Locations

- The Seer of Ice, who once poured forth knowledge and the waters of life. Retreated to his study, hoarding his knowledge and the cold.
- The Forger in Fire, who once made the vestments of the gods, created weapons to steal their power.
- The Baron of Filth, who once found peace in cleanliness, found something at the bottom of the great sewer and never returned.
- The All-mother, who tended to children no matter their race or situation, stole from their mothers for she wanted children of her own.
- The Warden of the Forest, who once tamed great beasts, began to see revelry in defeating them and gaining their power.
- The Angel of Lust, who once prided herself on purity, found revelry in both pain and pleasure.
- The Man in the Mirror, who prided himself in his great glassworks, was tempted by his own reflection.
- She that Sleeps, who once dreamed things into creation, found a spark within nightmares.
- The Archon of Wrath, who once found himself just and kind, now feels himself the one true law.
- The King of Storms, who once blessed the sky, found clarity in desstruction.
- The All-King, who once ruled with unmeasured wisdom and piety, seeks only greed and gold.
- The Deep one, who once ruled over decay and age, now plots within darkness to strike at the gods.

These phrases are written at the top of every Obelisk that sits within the room with Fracture, awaiting those that would take them, the trial of their ruler and the challenge that comes with defeating them within their own domain.

Character Creation - Each character would require the following.
- Absolutely 0 Third party, no exceptions to the rule.
- Will not make exceptions. Do not ask.
- Starting Gold is a whopping 185,000 gold.
- Crafters cannot create anything but scrolls and potions with starting gold.
- All Starting gold must be spent.
- No single item purchasable beyond 62,300 gold.
- No Gunslingers or Summoners.
- Characters Will Not Level

Starting stats are up to the players, but generally they're 18,18,16,14,14. The point buy is rather large, but everything else is also susceptible to this point buy. This doesn't include mythic boosts, or path abilities.

If you achieve a stat above 30, no other stay may go above 26. The 30 may still rise.

Starting level is 14, with 6 mythic tiers. Any alignment except chaotic evil is legal, but the rules are as follows:

- Do no harm to those that would take the trials with you.
- Do not return from a Trial until it is complete.

What does everyone think? I'd love to get opinions and questions.


So, I've recently taken an interest in a new rise of the runelords campaign, and the book restriction is palpable. The books allowed are Core, Advanced Player's Guide, and Ultimate Combat. Ultimate magic is out, or otherwise I'd build a magus. Right, with that, here's the skinny of it.

Point buy is 25

Simply speaking I want to build a divine, or arcane melee combatant. If I could, I wouldn't mind Eldritch Knight as a future investment, and have no issue with getting into the thick of things. What's more important to me, however, is the pervading Air/Wind/Lightning theme of the character, and I would enjoy his spells reflecting that.

I'd be applying the character as the token 5th weird build, after the Fighter, Dedicated Arcane, Dedicated Divine, and Skill Monkey, so I'm open to weirdness.

Starting level is 1, and average starting gold depending on class. At the moment I'm looking at Cleric, Sorcerer, and Fighter, with multi-class potential. Wizard 5 Fighter 1 is certainly on the table, as well. Sorcerer is also there, but the wait time to become a Sorcerer EK is horrific... Arcane Archer is also on the table with the wind effects.

Generally speaking I'd prefer to use a Longspear and Longbow, as I'll be buffing the second one most likely asap.

What do you guys think? What would you suggest? Cleric is definitely the strong contender here.


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Within my campaign I've placed a weapon that requires grueling, time consuming pain and anguish to get. I call it the "Forefather's Sword"

The story behind the sword is that the original founder of the city of heroes, an Eldritch Knight by the name of Zarthid Zinis'mal'ghul had, in his possession, this particular sword. The sword wasn't going to bend reality or kill swathes of enemies in one reap, but it was still powerful because it simply destroyed those that were most important on the way to his ascension once he'd found it.

Zarthid founded the city of heroes at the peak of his long life (For a human) and died, his party disbanding to commemorate the event and splitting up. This left only the summoner, a summoner who was great and powerful in his own right, with the sword.

This summoner was more than just a tad mythic, and he had taken upon himself 10 disciples and studied deeply into the workings of eidolons, creating spells that focused primarily on the bond between a summoner and his creation.

The Summoner's 10 disciples joined together to rest the rule of the city from him, but were banished into the Aether from which their Eidolons were created, leaving them Unfettered, yet different than one might imagine. The primary colour of their ex-summoner's personalities brimmed within their creations, and they became outraged and chaotic within the inner chambers of the city after the battle. In response to this, the Summoner attempted to Banish the Eidolons, but accidentally made the stones that would harness their power, and when used, would temporarily bond the wielder of the stone with that Eidolon for only a moment before it returned to the stone.

It was at this moment that the Summoner realized that the sword would be sought after, and with his final breath and the last spark of his life, came to the conclusion that the sword couldn't fall into the hands of evil, but at the same time, couldn't be forgotten. In a flash of power and a display of his magical might, he, silently, created the Door of Founders, which would only open if all 10 Eidolon's stones were placed in the door.

He placed, inside the chamber with the sword, his own Eidolon, and scattered the 10 stones to the farthest most dangerous reaches of the world. Lymph, the Eidolon of Water, to the Eye of Abendigo. Wold, the Eidolon of Earth, was placed at the door's front gate to ward off intruders. Phair, the Eidolon of Fire, was placed at the bottom of an inactive Volcano to the west, and the Eidolon of the Sky, Catuvatike, rested on the undercity near the giant magical artifact that keeps Chul'Galbrann Afloat. The Eidolon of Strength was placed in the Deserts to the south, and the Eidolon of Dexterity to the north, where the rivers were unpassable by but the deftest of feat and magic. The Eidolon of Wisdom was placed at the top of the highest mountain were he rains down judgement upon transgressors, and the Eidolon of Constitution sits, forever feasting, at the basin of all filth. The Eidolon of Intelligence would only reveal himself to those that have gained all others, and truly test them. The Eidolon of Life sits on the doorway to the plane of positive energy, and tests those that would call upon her with spears of light, and the Eidolon of death sits amidst the Vel Web, where he carefully watches the dead trickle into Pharasma's Boneyard.

Should people prove worthy enough to collect the stone from all these grand creatures, their reward shall be the Forefather's Sword.

The Forefather's Sword is a +3 Vicious Vorpal Longsword that doesn't harm it's wearer despite being vicious, and, once per week, can, with no save, banish an existence from the world. No creature is immune to the final ruling of the Forefather's Sword.

Major Artifact: The only way the Forefather's Sword can be Destroyed is that if all 5 founders, who now rest in the VelWeb's halls, agree upon it's destruction. It then shimmers out of existence and turns to dust, leaving no trace of it.


Alright, so, primarily speaking this is just me planning out new spells that a future boss in my campaign will be using every round as a bit of a gimmick spell. One of which has a cooldown of 3 rounds, and the others which are used interchangably, and I was just wondering how they would fair as Wizard spells? Maybe even figure out which level they would be on the wizard spell list.

"Trial"

Our first spell is the main concern of the fight. Every single round, as a swift action, the boss, who happens to be a stationary magical pillar with sentience known as "The Lawful Stone" casts this spell. The spell is called Trial because it tests what the enemies are best at, but can never be halved, and also tests the party's resolution to stick together in the thick of combat.

This spell deals 5d20 split between all enemies in a 30 foot burst with a burst radius of 50 feet. The range of the spell varies, however, and can't be extended in any way.

When the spell is cast it focuses it's burst on the nearest enemy, and bursts out from them. Fate doesn't hit summons, but it does hit Eidolons.

Fate Splits it's damage, so, if you roll and do 80 damage, but there are only 4 people present, it deals 20 to every single one individually.

The save against fate uses that characters highest save, as it tests their ability. Against strength characters, the force of the spell bursts from inside them from beneath the ground. Against reflex characters the spell bursts near them, and against those of a strong will, it assaults their minds with damage. All of this damage is force based, and can't be reduced below half by a single save by any feat.

Should there be only 1 enemy present, it deals the full 5d20 to them, as well, and is not split.

I'm placing this spell at level 8
Casting Fate is a standard Action
Fate cannot be cast more than once per round.
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Meteor

Simple point and click destruction, this spell calls down a magically crafted chunk of brimstone and destruction from the sky, landing and doing significant damage to any and all that are present. The rock is large, and falls incredibly fast with a fiery explosion as a result. It is subject to elemental change and widening, and can even be maximized as well.

Meteor deals 10d6 Fire and 10d6 bludgeoning damage to all those caught within a 20* burst, and deals 8d6 fire and 8d6 sonic damage to all those beyond the initial 20 radius, but stops at the 60 mark. The Reflex save of the spell is 2 higher for those it is centered on. The save is reflex

It is a full-round action to cast this spell, and no spell can be cast after, or before it is used. A character must wait 3 turns to cast this spell again, and must roll a 20 fortitude save himself after casting it to resist fatigue for the next 4 rounds. A character cannot cast Meteor if they are fatigued.

I place this as a definite 9th level Evocation (Fire) spell
[b]Casting Meteor is a Full-Round action

Meteor cannot be cast while Fatigued from Meteor's effects.
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Gavel

The simplest, and less murderous of the spells on this list, is Gavel, which does 2d6 random elemental damage to all those within 10 feet of the caster. The save is reflex based. Sonic and Force are included in the possibility. The force damage receives no save.

I'm placing this at Level 2-3 Evocation
Gavel is a swift action.
Gavel cannot be cast the same round as Fate

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Evoke

Also one of the most simple spells. Evoke merely deals 5d6 random damage to a single target. The save is reflex based. This spell cannot deal force damage. If a 6 is rolled to determine the element, a 6 requires you roll again.

I'm placing this as 4th
Evoke is a single action.

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Do you guys agree with these level placements? Would you use these spells? I would love to know.


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In my endless pursuit of magical items, I've devised a fistful of new magical weapons, and I was wondering what the community thought of them. First, I must explain the creation of them prior, and how to acquire them.

In pathfinder there exist creatures known as "Unfettered Eidolons" and in my own games, there exist "Grand Eidolons" that are also unfettered, but the trio of words don't mix well and sound silly. As a result, Grand Eidolons are different, yet for good reasons. Unfettered Eidolons are Eidolons with no summoner, and usually are banished from existence once defeated, and they serve little other purpose than to be an interesting fight. I took this to another level, and I have nothing but Final Fantasy influences to blame for it.

Unfettered Eidolons can only be grand if they have more than 16 evolution points used beyond their base forms. This means they're not pushovers. A Grand Eidolon always80% of it's maximum possible health, as if it rolled an 8 for every health roll. This is one of many benefits to being grand.

In my games there exist 10 Eidolons that are Grand, or rather, 9. 1 of the Eidolons is a cut above the rest, but more on him shortly.

The idea for the situation was simple, but quickly spiraled out of what I'd expected. To that fact, I realize that I've made what I consider to be one of my much more fun quests that my PC's can enjoy consistently, and die in the process of completing.

In the base of a city, there is a door with 8 indentions that can house what, in game, we refer to as "Grand Stones" which are the result of defeating a "Grand Eidolon". In the event you defeat a Grand Eidolon, the Eidolon picks who it believes to be most worthy of it, and places it's being, or stone, in their posession, along with the weapon they embody. This gives the party a good reason to hunt them down for the weapon potential, as well as the buffs that the stones give. Not to mention having these beasts fight for 10 rounds a week is surprisingly effective.

These 8 stones go into the door beneath the city, releasing the 9th Most Grand Eidolon, which proceeds to wipe your party on accident in the first 6 rounds. He has been since made less diabolical, but CR 23's aren't supposed to go easy on you anyway

Now then. Let's start with an example of the process using a GE.

Lymph, the Leviathan
[small]Lymph is, primarily, a Huge sea serpent. He dashes in and out of water, and doesn't ever, for any reason, come out of the Inner sea's deepest waters, preferring to raid passing ships that don't provide sustenance for him as they ride over. Lymph grabs PC too close to the boats edge and drags them under to devour them, but leaves once he's gotten his fill (Usually just 1 PC, as any more isn't worth the injury. He also settles for sheep.)
Lymph has a series of abilities that make him worrisome. Namely his water breathe ray that functions as Hydraulic Torrent, rather than a normal Eidolon breath weapon. He can use this as much as he wants, but can only force people away from him with it. His attacks are also charged with cold energy, and can create orbs of water (Aqueous Orb) 3 times per day.[/smaller]

The Lymph Grand Stone - The Lymph stone grants the wielder an untyped +2 bonus to strength, and a +5 bonus to their swim skill. It also gives the wielder a swim speed equal to their base speed.

The Lymph Trident - This +2 Frost Trident is adorned with the visage of a great serpent around it's half that aids in it's grip, and is cold to the touch. Once per day the user may use Hydraulic Torrent as an 11th level Wizard. The Spear also functions as a Decanter of Endless Water[/b]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The weapons always retain the look of the bearer, and can be used indefinitely. Grand stones are only usable once a week to summon the Grand Eidolon for 10 rounds maximum, and must be spent all at once. The cooldown for all Grand Eidolons, per party, are linked. Using Lymph sets all the others on cooldown as well. An Eidolon can't be used twice in a row. Choose wisely.

"Moving on"

The Eidolons are as Follows:
Lymph, the Leviathan Water
Wold, the Patient Statue Earth
Phair, the Brothers Fire
Khamsin, the Lightning Horse Air
Gons and Shuroc, the Sisters of Sound Sonic
Gramarye, the Magister Intelligence
Deacon, the Strongest Strength
Catuvatike, the Agile Dexterity
Vreddik, the Glutton Constitution
Brevoy, the Ruler Wisdom
Added more names

As you can see there's plenty of GE's to summon from, so let's summarize them swiftly. Lymph has already been explained.

Wold - Wold is an Earth Statue made in the visage of a knight in full armor, and everything he has is made of stone. He has the highest AC of the Eidolons, and focuses on defense, but is still a slugger.

The Wold Grand Stone - -The Wold Stone Grants the owner of it a +2 profane bonus to AC, as well as a +4 bonus to their CMD. The owner also weighs as if they were one size category larger.

The Wold Armor - The Wold Armor is a +2 Titanic Full Plate that makes the wielder weigh 8 times more than what they currently do. The wearer of this armor is treated as 2 size categories larger for the purposes of CMD and CMB, and is immune to being moved against their will.

I'll stop there for now, but would anyone like to see more?


So, essentially, I've constructed an Alchemist. Rather, a "Reanimator" but he wasn't always such a bad guy. That said, here's his story:

Himmler Stroud:

City of residence: Logas
Occupation: Mortician
Crime: Crimes against nature, Desecration, Grave robbing, Kidnapping, Murder.

Himmler Stroud was once a proclaimed Alchemist, an Apothecary, for the city-state, Logas. That was, until a chance meeting with an unknown individual sparked his interest in the wiles of horrific thoughts and practices. Primarily, he switched his tastes to, at first, a light hearted study of the average elven body. Primarily, he took an interest in the structure of women.

Himmler, being the elf that he is, once had an elven wife, whom he had married and loved dearingly for almost 2 centuries. So long was his time spent with her that the local area, awash in his friends and customers, knew very well of their love and kindness. Unfortunately, as with all good things, the end game, albeit abruptly. Himmler's wife, Sazilya, was killed by an undetermined poison.

In that moment of her death, Himmler buried her corpse and planted a tree directly above her corpse, and placed no grave stone. He was, unfortunately, not capable of ever getting over her time with him, and exposed her resting place with his frequent visits.

Originally, Himmler further developed his skills in Alchemy, and began by finding the antitoxin for his lover's fatal poison, which he found to be particularly, though not coincedintally, fatal towards Elves.

Himmler began his studies toward the poisons antidote by conducting experiments on Logas's prisoners. Particularly half-elves, as they were slightly less vulnerable than true elves, and mostly because the poison had almost no effect on humans and the other races. He was never able to test it on a Drow, but he consistently considered conducting a test on one of the loathsome kind. A fleeting thought, however.

Upon discovering his deepening talent for Alchemy, Himmler sequestered himself from people, talked less, and fell into a deep, dark depression, and frequently found himself destroying his work and sobbing relentlessly over his recent loss. It wasn't a month before he was approached by a wandering man whom the locals had never seen before. It was, when this happened, that only a few days later, Himmler had packed his things and left Logas.

Himmler's visitor had teased him, for unknown reasons, about the possibility of returning his late wife. In this regard, he presented him with a bundle of formulae papers, torn from a book with black pages with the text written in white. On said pages, were the early workings, but the man mysteriously disappeared just as soon as he'd made the trade, having sown his seeds of internal destruction for the poor Himmler Stroud.

As aforementioned, he took his first steps lightly towards the art of necromantic liquids slowly. At first, he made diagrams of the Elven body, based on his memories. They unfortunately weren't enough, and as a result, he happened along the news of yet another death of an Elf in Logas. It was... surprising.

Given that, Himmler realized, almost as soon as the townsfolk did, that there was a serial killer within Logas that was targeting elves. Only a few miles away from the city, Himmler decided that he was presented with an opportunity. What he lacked in combat prowess, he made up for it in future planning, and so, with his lengthy lifespan, he found a good plan.

The killer would do 2 things. Be both sent to prison for his wrongdoings, and... provide him with research material.

Himmler received, over the course of a year of murders within Logas, the bodies of 4 elves. He also received other bodies of little consequence which he tended to borishly, but he mostly wanted his hands on the corpses of the elves. A pattern that revealed itself immediately was that the killer only ever claimed the lives of elven women, and always with the same poison. Before long, this realization caused the majority of the elven population to flee. It wasn't long after, 2 more elven women, that the killer attempted to poison a half elf who curtly shrugged off the poison and killed his assailant, robbing Himmler of both his revenge and his bodies.

With only 6 corpses Himmler properly discovered many things about the elven body, but these corpses were all well preserved and... well. They left a lot to the imagination, as far as what really happened to the body was concerned. Himmler made, in his notes, the statement that necromancy, despite his good intent in the long run, was an alluring thing with many benefits.

It wasn't long before Himmler abducted his first corpse from the cemetary. Another elf, mind you, but he wouldn't dare touch the grave of his late wife. Comparitively, he learned much, if not more, from the long-dead corpse, but only because of his vivid understanding of the well restored ones. The differences were night and day, and all the more clear to him.

Upon carefully looking into the differences, and carefully tweaking his potions, Himmler gave his first attempt at bringing a corpse back to life. To put things simply, it wasn't a perfect success...

The thing that he had created was, simply put, a regular zombie. Nothing special. A simple, simple zombie. Himmler had just committed an act against nature.

Himmler didn't stop there, of course, and proceeded to perfect his art of necromancy, losing sight of his goal for a moment, but then, after he'd conducted enough experiments, looked into the final pages of the book. The ultimate result that he'd expected, was to dig up her remains and return everything to normal that had been with her, but... even after removing her from her grave, in her perfectly preserved state, he couldn't bring her back to life.

Consistently afterwards he tried and failed, over and over and over again, becoming slightly less sane and more reckless each and every time.

Another week, and his zombies returned to the grounds with a battered and unconscious elf, and it was then that his madness finally overcame his good sense.

She had her eyes

It was this very thought that caused him to become the very murderer that he hated. If he couldn't bring her back, he'd make... another her. He even had the killer to imitate.

Long story short I'm just curious if he seems like a good bad guy. Essentially, he's potentially redeemable, I would imagine, and his "Story" is capable of being found by the players if they ask around the city about him, or happen to hear of him as the person who found the cure to counteract the poison.


So there's a level 6 Warpriest in my player's party that just hit level 6, and he's going down the bull rush line. We didn't think much of it, or rather, I didn't, but naturally a warpriest doesn't have full base attack bonus unless he's using his main weapon.

So, that said, for all intents and purposes, with a greatsword, his favored sacred weapon, he has a BaB of +6, which sets him up for feats like vital strike, and greater bull rush like he wants to have. The thing is though is that without it, he doesn't.

Does this mean that he's only able to Bull Rush with his Greatsword, as well as Vital Strike? Or is he just not capable of getting either. Has a light been shown on this yet? It's a rather queer situation.


What ones can and can't be used by a character. It's a simple situation. 2 people right beside each other, one tries to get away.

What maneuevers can and can't be used against them in that moment? Let's assume it's a fighter, as well as monk for sanity's sake.

What can they do, and please post where you find the rules. I'm at a loss.


So, in rue of my latest created Adventure path with a hefty number of tweaks, I believe I've finished my first encounters. So, without further ado, I was wondering what some of you might think of these. The quest all of htese creatures are met on bridges the gap between levels 5 and 6, and while all of the equipment they have doesn't count for all the gold that 6 PC's need, there is stuff along the way that bridges that for them.

These are all goblins from the "Stonethieves" tribe, and are actually quite competent, boasting a good number of goblin heroes just north of Ostenso, which is East of Cheliax. Essentially these goblins destroyed a Caravan on the way to a fort they "Liked the look of" and killed almost everyone, save for a man known as Cleb, an Aristocrat 4, and a young Warrior 5 that was knocked unconscious, but failed his saving throw against woundweal which prevented him from healing naturally. He's been in a coma since.

The Bugbear is met in the forest prior, just 2 miles away from the fort and acts as a watcher for the players. He'll shoot exactly 1 arrow after using his true-strike of the day, going so far as to aim for the lighter armored of the bunch with a sleep arrow before sounding his horn and warning the fort ahead.

If the goblins go on alert, every single hero is at their respective posts, wide awake and ready to defend their new home from the humans, going so far as to make use of traps that may or may not be ready. That said, they're more than ready... unless the players remain hidden among the forests, or other places. The goblins don't respond intelligently, and if the players wait too long they'll send the dumber of the heroes first, starting with the Goblin Fighter 5 (Also known as Shiny) who usually defends the storage room in the lower levels of the fort.

Regardless, here's the complete spoiler for all of these goblins and I would greatly appreciate your opinions on them in regards to 6 level 5 players during combat. These goblins are never met alone, and usually have an entourage of Level 4 Warrior Goblins made with 20 point buy, as well as level 2 Goblin Bards that bolster the entire fighting force in certain areas.

At the moment there are 4 ways into the Fortress, which I'll try to explain as clearly as possible.

On the eastern cliffside is a set of drainage pipes about the size of a small creature, though a medium one could easily squeeze through with a respectable amount of difficulty. The wall is rather sheer, however, but the pipes lead to the Lou, which is surprisingly well washed due to recent rainfall, in direct opposition the rest of the fortress which is covered in a remarkable amount of filth.

On the western side of the fort is the secret entrance that important high ranking officials would use to enter and leave as they pleased, and leads to a hidden area within the fort itself, in the crafting area.

Finally the other 2 are the Northen and Southern portcullises, both of which consists of 2 large metal doors that only people from inside can open, though a respectable strength check that effects both doors (As they're connected) can raise them. The DC is a staggering 26, however, but can be assisted with the aid another action. I somewhat homebrew the aid another action, however, as 2 people will roll a check that physically effects the door, and whichever rolls higher is the one doing the skill, and the other is aiding. Basically an impromptu teamwork feat.

The only other way in is to climb over the walls, but that'll alert the whole complex (Which is over 40 goblins strong, and the weakest enemies are the level 4 warriors.

Below are the "Main" enemies of the complex made to give the players their respective phat loots. In the form of weapons and whatnot. Enjoy, and please, again, tell me what you think.

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Bugbear Ranger 5 CR 6
XP 2,400
Bugbear Ranger 5
NE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +11
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Defense
--------------------
AC 19, touch 11, flat-footed 18 (+5 armor, +1 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 56 (5d10+3d8+16)
Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +2
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee unarmed strike +10/+5 (1d3+3 nonlethal)
Ranged +1 heavy crossbow +8 (1d10+5/19-20)
Special Attacks favored enemies (elves +2, humans +4)
Ranger Spells Prepared (CL 2nd; concentration +2):
1st—horn of pursuit
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 16, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8
Base Atk +7; CMB +10; CMD 21
Feats Deadly Aim, Endurance, Precise Shot, Rapid Reload, Toughness, Weapon Focus (heavy crossbow)
Skills Handle Animal +10, Heal +4, Intimidate +14, Perception +11, Stealth +14, Survival +11 (+13 to track); Racial Modifiers +4 Intimidate, +4 Stealth
Languages Common, Goblin
SQ combat styles (crossbow), favored terrain (forest +2), hunter's bonds (hunter's bond [companions]), track, wild empathy +4
Combat Gear potion of blur, potion of heroism; Other Gear +1 hide armor, +1 heavy crossbow
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Special Abilities
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Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Deadly Aim -2/+4 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Endurance +4 to a variety of fort saves, skill and ability checks. Sleep in L/M armor with no fatigue.
Favored Enemy (Elves +2) (Ex) +2 to rolls vs Favored Enemy (Elves).
Favored Enemy (Humans +4) (Ex) +4 to rolls vs Favored Enemy (Humans).
Favored Terrain (Forest +2) (Ex) +2 to rolls vs Favored Terrain (Forest).
Hunting Companions (1 rounds) (Ex) Grant half favored enemy bonus to allies in 30' as move action.
Precise Shot You don't get -4 to hit when shooting or throwing into melee.
Rapid Reload (Heavy crossbow) You can reload fast with one type of Crossbow or Firearm.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ feet by sense of smell.
Track +2 Add the listed bonus to survival checks made to track.
Wild Empathy +4 (Ex) Improve the attitude of an animal, as if using Diplomacy.

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CR 5 Goblin Dog CR 5
XP 1,600
Goblin Dog
N Medium animal
Init +2; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+3 armor, +2 Dex, +1 natural)
hp 55 (1d8+15)
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +2
Immune disease
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Offense
--------------------
Speed 55 ft.
Melee bite +5 (1d6+3) and
. . unarmed strike +5 (1d3+2 nonlethal)
Special Attacks allergic reaction
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Statistics
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Str 15, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 17
Feats Armor Proficiency (Light), Fleet, Toughness
Skills Stealth +9
Other Gear hide shirt
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Special Abilities
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Allergic Reaction (DC 14) (Ex) Non-goblins touching you must make a Fort save or take a -2 DEX and CHA penalty for 1 day.
Immunity to Disease You are immune to diseases.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ feet by sense of smell.

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Goblin Barbarian 6 CR 5
XP 1,600
Goblin Barbarian 6
NE Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9
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Defense
--------------------
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 11 (+2 Dex, +1 size)
hp 68 (6d12+24)
Fort +8, Ref +4 (+2 bonus vs. traps), Will +2
Defensive Abilities improved uncanny dodge, trap sense +2
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Offense
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Speed 40 ft.
Melee (M) +1 longsword +9/+4 (1d8+5/19-20) and
. . unarmed strike +10/+5 (1d2+3 nonlethal)
Special Attacks rage (17 rounds/day), rage powers (guarded stance +2, powerful blow +2, reckless abandon)
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Statistics
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Str 17, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 8
Base Atk +6; CMB +8; CMD 20
Feats Furious Focus, Power Attack, Toughness
Skills Climb +12, Intimidate +8, Perception +9, Survival +9
Languages Goblin
SQ eat anything, fast movement
Other Gear +1 longsword
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Special Abilities
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Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Eat Anything +4 to Survival to forage for food & save vs. nauseated or sickened.
Fast Movement +10 (Ex) +10 feet to speed, unless heavily loaded.
Furious Focus If you are wielding a weapon in two hands, ignore the penalty for your first attack of each turn.
Guarded Stance +2 (3 rds) (Ex) Gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC vs. melee attacks while raging.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Lv >=10) (Ex) Retain DEX bonus to AC when flat-footed. You cannot be flanked unless the attacker is Level 10+.
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Powerful Blow +2 (1/rage) (Ex) One attack per rage deals extra damage.
Rage (17 rounds/day) (Ex) +4 Str, +4 Con, +2 to Will saves, -2 to AC when enraged.
Reckless Abandon (+/-2) (Ex) Trade AC penalty for to hit bonus while raging.
Trap Sense +2 (Ex) +2 bonus on reflex saves and AC against traps.

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Goblin Chief Fighter 6
Goblin Fighter 6
CE Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +2
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 21, touch 16, flat-footed 16 (+5 armor, +5 Dex, +1 size)
hp 68 (6d10+18)
Fort +9, Ref +8, Will +5 (+2 vs. fear)
Defensive Abilities bravery +2
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Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 horsechopper +9/+4 (1d8+1/×3) and
. . unarmed strike +12/+7 (1d2 nonlethal)
Special Attacks weapon trainings (heavy blades +1)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 7
Base Atk +6; CMB +5; CMD 20
Feats Combat Reflexes, Mounted Combat, Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge, Vital Strike, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (horsechopper)
Skills Ride +13, Stealth +17, Survival +11
Languages Goblin
SQ armor training 1
Combat Gear potion of bull's strength, potion of cure moderate wounds; Other Gear +1 hide armor, +1 horsechopper, belt of tumbling, cloak of resistance +1, 125 gp
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Special Abilities
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Belt of tumbling +4 competence bonus on Acrobatics to move through threatened square or enemy's space.
Bravery +2 (Ex) +2 to Will save vs. Fear
Combat Reflexes (6 AoO/round) Can make extra attacks of opportunity/rd, and even when flat-footed.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Mounted Combat (1/round) Once per round you can attempt to negate a hit to your mount in combat.
Ride-by Attack You can move - attack - move when charging mounted.
Spirited Charge Double damage when making a mounted charge (triple with a lance).
Vital Strike Standard action: x2 weapon damage dice.
Weapon Training (Blades, Heavy) +1 (Ex) +1 Attack, Damage, CMB, CMD with Heavy Blades

--------------------

Goblin Fighter 5
Goblin Fighter (Phalanx Soldier) 5
NE Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception -1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 25, touch 12, flat-footed 24 (+8 armor, +5 shield, +1 size, +1 dodge)
hp 59 (5d10+25)
Fort +7, Ref +4 (+1 bonus vs. Trample attacks), Will +0
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee gauntlet (from armor) +7 (1d2+3) and
. . masterwork horsechopper +9 (1d8+5/×3) and
. . unarmed strike +7 (1d2+3 nonlethal)
Special Attacks phalanx fighting, ready pike
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 16, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 9, Wis 8, Cha 11
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 26 (27 vs. bull rush, 27 vs. drag, 27 vs. overrun, 27 vs. trip)
Feats Dodge, Shield Focus, Shield Specialization, Toughness, Weapon Focus (horsechopper), Weapon Specialization (horsechopper)
Skills Intimidate +8
Languages Goblin
SQ stand firm
Other Gear half-plate, tower shield, masterwork horsechopper, 150 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Phalanx Fighting (Ex) Polearms and spears are one-handed if wielded along with a shield.
Ready Pike +1 (1/day) (Ex) +1 to hit and damage if you ready a brace weapon.
Shield Focus +1 Shield AC
Shield Specialization (Tower Shield) You have mastered the use of one type of shield.

Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected shield, Shield Focus, fighter level 4th.

Benefit: Choose one type of shield (buckler, light, heavy, or tower shield). With the selected shie
Stand Firm +1 (Ex) +1 CMD vs. Bull Rush, Overrun, Push, Pull, Trip, save vs. trample.

--------------------

Goblin Rogue 5 CR 4
XP 1,200
Goblin Rogue 5
NE Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +8
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 19, touch 17, flat-footed 13 (+2 armor, +5 Dex, +1 size, +1 dodge)
hp 26 (5d8)
Fort +1, Ref +9 (+1 bonus vs. traps), Will +1
Defensive Abilities evasion, trap sense +1, uncanny dodge
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 dagger +8 (1d3+3/19-20) and
. . masterwork punching dagger +8 (1d3+1/×3) and
. . unarmed strike +9 (1d2+2 nonlethal)
Special Attacks sneak attack +3d6
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 14, Dex 20, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 20
Feats Dodge, Mobility, Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +13, Bluff +7, Climb +10, Disable Device +15, Escape Artist +13, Knowledge (local) +10, Perception +8 (+10 to locate traps), Ride +9, Sense Motive +8, Sleight of Hand +13, Stealth +21, Swim +10; Racial Modifiers +4 Ride, +4 Stealth
Languages Goblin
SQ rogue talents (bleeding attack, finesse rogue), trapfinding +2
Other Gear masterwork leather armor, +1 dagger, masterwork punching dagger
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Bleeding Attack +3 (Ex) Sneak attacks also deal 3 bleed damage/round.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Evasion (Ex) If you succeed at a Reflex save for half damage, you take none instead.
Mobility +4 to AC vs. AoO provoked by moving out of or through a threatened area.
Sneak Attack +3d6 +3d6 damage if you flank your target or your target is flat-footed.
Trap Sense +1 (Ex) +1 bonus on reflex saves and AC against traps.
Trapfinding +2 Gain a bonus to find or disable traps, including magical ones.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex) Retain Dex bonus to AC when flat-footed.

--------------------

Goblin Slayer 6 CR 5
XP 1,600
Goblin Slayer 6
NE Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +13
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +4 Dex, +1 size)
hp 43 (6d10+6)
Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +2
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee (M) +1 shortspear +9/+4 (1d6+4) and
. . unarmed strike +9/+4 (1d2+2 nonlethal)
Special Attacks favored target, sneak attack +2d6
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 14, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 8
Base Atk +6; CMB +7; CMD 21
Feats Combat Expertise, Improved Feint, Power Attack, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (shortspear)
Skills Acrobatics +11 (+7 jump), Bluff +8, Climb +9, Heal +9, Knowledge (local) +12, Perception +13, Sense Motive +9, Stealth +15, Survival +9 (+12 to track), Swim +9
Languages Goblin
SQ combat styles (two-handed weapon), slayer talents (bleeding attack, ranger combat style, weapon training), track
Combat Gear potion of cure moderate wounds; Other Gear masterwork hide armor, +1 shortspear, 34 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Bleeding Attack +2 (Ex) Sneak attacks also deal 2 bleed damage/round.
Combat Expertise +/-2 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Favored Target (+2, 2 at a time, Move) (Ex) Study foe as a Move action, gain +2 to att/dam & some skills vs. them.
Improved Feint You can make a Bluff check to feint in combat as a move action.
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Sneak Attack +2d6 +2d6 damage if you flank your target or your target is flat-footed.
Track +3 Add the listed bonus to survival checks made to track.
Vital Strike Standard action: x2 weapon damage dice.

--------------------

Goblin Sorcerer 5
Goblin Sorcerer 5
CE Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +2
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +1 size, +1 deflection)
hp 36 (5d6+14)
Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +6
Resist fire 10
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee unarmed strike +2 (1d2-1 nonlethal)
Special Attacks bloodline arcana: elemental
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +9)
. . 7/day—elemental ray
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 5th; concentration +9):
2nd (5/day)—frost fall (DC 17), pyrotechnics (DC 16), scorching ray (bloodline energy type)
1st (7/day)—burning hands (bloodline energy type) (DC 17), disguise self, enlarge person (DC 15), mage armor, shocking grasp
0 (at will)—acid splash, bleed (DC 14), ghost sound (DC 14), light, mage hand, resistance
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 18
Base Atk +2; CMB +0; CMD 14
Feats Elemental Focus, Eschew Materials, Spell Focus (evocation), Toughness
Skills Disguise +9, Ride +7, Spellcraft +6, Stealth +17; Racial Modifiers +4 Ride, +4 Stealth
Languages Goblin
SQ bloodlines (elemental)
Combat Gear wand of cure light wounds (17 charges); Other Gear ring of protection +1, 150 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Bloodline Arcana: Elemental (Ex) You may change any energy spell to use Fire energy.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Elemental (Fire) You may change any energy spell to use your bloodline's energy type.
Elemental Focus (Fire) +1 DC to spells that deal damage of the chosen energy.
Elemental Ray (7/day) (Sp) Ranged touch attack deals 1d6+2 Fire damage.
Energy Resistance, Fire (10) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Fire attacks.
Eschew Materials Cast spells without materials, if component cost is 1 gp or less.
Spell Focus (Evocation) Spells from one school of magic have +1 to their save DC.
Wand of cure light wounds (17 charges) Add this item to create a wand of a chosen spell.


Okay, so, here's a recap. I had 4 players, each of which picked normal things. We had a Fighter (Archer), Ranger (Two Handed), Cleric (Iomedae Up and Close), and a Wizard (Conjurer).

Everyone in the group was of 18th level, with the final combat being against a Fighter 1 Necromancer 9 Eldritch Knight 10

In concert with the Necromancer were 2 Ghast Clerics. Both were 11th cleric level.

The thing that happened is this. The BBEG, the EK, had a Scythe. An Adamantine +4 Spellstoring Keen Scythe.

With a Wished up Strength of 24, Power Attack, Arcane Strike, Heroism, Bull's Strength, and Rage all cast on himself, he was a sight to behold.

2d4+7
-5, +15
2d4+23
+5 Arcane Strike
2d4+28
+2 Bull's Strength
2d4+30
Heroism
2d4+32
Rage
2d4+34

That's a lot of buffs. That's a very prepared wizard who's been watching everyone's strengths, and has come to respect, as well as understand the fact that the wizard in the party is the most dangerous.

First round, Initiative Victory, Quickened Dimension Door, Critical, Critical Confirm. Pain

8d4+136 damage. That's survivable for a tanky character at this level, and even the wizard would have been okay with it, but that's when matters get complicated. The Spell stored in the Scythe was Vampiric Touch, which did 10d6 damage.

8d4+136+10d6 damage.

8d4 + 136 ⇒ (2, 3, 4, 1, 1, 3, 2, 4) + 136 = 156
10d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 4, 4, 1, 1) = 22

188 damage, 20 above the wizard's, and he gained the bonus health to boot, made only worse by the necromancer's Maximized Greater False Life...

To make matters worse? Cleave. He did more than 3/5ths the fighter's health as well.

He dies in the first round, and the wizard casts yet another quickened Dimensional door at the start of the next round after the clerics cast sanctuary on him. (He prepared 3, and his 2 cleric minions made sure to both prepare heal.)

Was it a dickish move, or was he just unlucky?


So this is Maxwell Lionheart, a character I've just submitted to Wrath of the Righteous, which I've never played at all, nor have I looked at the book, as I prefer to go into most AP's totally blind so as not to ruin the experience. My only exclusion from that little rule is Rise of the Runelords, which every self-respecting AP player knows far too well.

That said, I was wondering if, from what's listed here, whether or not he'd be good for the AP itself. He's not good, which I hear is a bad thing, but at the same time most Demons aren't going to be able to use any fancy Anti-good or Anti-law spells on him, if only because he's 1 step away from their alignment. (A fact he's totally okay with admitting.)

Feat suggestions and equipment to be looked for are great things at the moment, as my only goal is a suit of Full Plate at the moment.

Maxwell Lionheart:

Maxwell Lionheart
Male Human Warpriest of Groetus 1
CN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +5; Senses Perception +4
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (+5 armor, +1 Dex)
hp 13 (1d8+5)
Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +6
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee gauntlet (from armor) +3 (1d3+3) and
. . heavy flail +5 (1d10+4/19-20) and
. . unarmed strike +3 (1d3+3 nonlethal)
Warpriest Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +4):
1st—divine favor, magic weapon
0 (at will)—light, resistance, stabilize
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 8
Base Atk +0; CMB +3; CMD 14
Feats Improved Initiative, Toughness, Weapon Focus (heavy flail)
Traits exposed to awfulness, indomitable faith
Skills Climb +3, Heal +7, Perception +4, Sense Motive +7
Languages Common
SQ aura, blessings, enshrouding darkness, madness supremacy, Sacred Weapon, blessings (darkness blessing, madness blessing)
Combat Gear potion of cure light wounds, potion of mage armor; Other Gear scale mail, heavy flail, fighter's kit, wooden holy symbol (Groetus)
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Aura (Ex) The Cleric has an aura corresponding to his deity's alignment.
Blessings (3/day) (Su) A warpriest’s deity influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, his values, and how others see him. Each warpriest can select two blessings from among those granted by his deity (each deity grants the blessings tied to its domains). A warpri
Enshrouding Darkness (Su) Touched ally gains concealment for 1 min, unless foe can see in Su darkness.
Exposed to Awfulness (1/day) Vs Death/Incapacitation by demon: Reroll saving throw as free action, keep 2nd result.
Madness Supremacy (Su) As a swift action, foe in 30 ft replaces some conditions with confuse for 1 rd ("attack self" or "attack nearest creature" only).
Potion of cure light wounds Add this item to create a potion of a chosen spell.
Sacred Weapon (1 rounds/day) (Su) As a swift action, grant weapon enhancement bonus or certain powers.

History:

If there were ever a man down on his luck throughout every stage of his life, Maxwell is most certainly that man.

At the age of 12, he lost his father and mother to the fourth crusades, as both were deeply seated in the faith of Iomedae. That aside, they ended their lives unjustly at the tip of a goat-demon's blade, according to the wounded paladin that had come to deliver said news. At the time, Maxwell couldn't hear anything else the man had said. Looking back, the muffled, silent words and the flapping of gums muted by the sound of static despair were likely something to do with fighting through it, or that they died for a just cause. The world wound wasn't just, he thought to himself. It was a slaughter for the good and foolish.

Losing his parents forced him to grow up fast, and he ended up shunning the worshipers of the more good-aligned deities. All-the-same, he didn't hate them for what they stood for, he merely hated that for their cause, his parents had lost their lives. Senseless death was stupid death, and when the abyss can repopulate itself on the very souls that it reaps, the idea of fighting seems all the more senseless.

Truly, at such a young age Maxwell as gripped with a deep, dreadful sense of despair. He saw the world in gray and white, and found that he had lost hope. That same day, and not 4 months after his parents deaths, a powerful demon nearly broke the barrier to Kenabres, piercing his shoulder in the process with it's foul weapon. The sickness that it carried nearly claimed him. As he leaned against the hay cart he had been filling so recently, with his eyes closing slowly, he was happy for only a moment believing that death would allow him to meet his family.

But death did not come. Nor would it ever.

In his coma he saw the boneyard, the hundreds upon thousands of souls spiraling into it with a frenzy unlike anything he'd ever seen. Tormented souls, souls that wanted to do more, souls that were angry that they'd been put to rest. Vengeful spirits, every last one of them. People that died didn't want to enjoy their deaths, they wanted out. Death was a prison, not a release, he thought to himself. The world went black, and in the calamitous stars of the void that he found himself in, he saw, laying on a gray bit of sand along a strange island in the darkness and madness, a symbol.

The symbol was that of the religion that belonged to Iomedae. Beneath the sand next to it, Gorum. He sifted through the sand as it turned to dirt, and the dirt as it turned to mud, and the mud as it turned to stone, unearthing these symbols, and casting the dirt away. It felt as if it had taken weeks, but finally, at the bottom of it, he found a material he couldn't remove. His fingers were filthy with mud, and fingernails had abandoned him to let loose the flow of blood from his hands, aching in pain, yet still he persevered.

With a surge, the strange orb in the dark sky of loneliness, madness and silent solitude cast him off of it, along with the stone, mud, dirt, and sand. As he fell away, not the floor but to the dark tendrils of the abyss, he saw it turn to face him. A moon, bedecked in a skull's grimmace that cried black tears that filled this place. This damned place, did it fill to the brim, and this damned place he had been for so long. The desire to die had left him, but so had the desire to live, and in that symbol, he heard, in the darkness, the name, "Groetus"

He awoke from a coma, his left eye had been removed and replaced with bandages of strange make. Again, he looked about as the alchemists, the clerics, all of whom had kept watch on him scuttled about. One noticed him and left him be, only to return with a queer look in his eye. He saw his mouth move, but no words came, yet again. He had been deafened to good intention, and he had come to the conclusion that this whole thing, this town, these walls, the crusades.

All of it was meangingless.

Skip forward 24 more years, at the ripe age of 31. He had found love not long ago, in his den of hopelessness. A woman named Calistria, who saw the good in everything, even him, who was always eager to point out flaws in anything, especially himself. He had taken up the vestments of Groetus, the God of Misery and Madness, praying that the power that was take interest in him every day since he recovered from his Coma.

Little did he know that Groetus, whom never takes interest in his worshipers, should never gaze upon the lives of those he has influenced more than once...

Somehow a demon had made it through the walls, whether beneath the city, with immunity to it, whatever, it had made it. His house burned to the ground, his dead childs reduced to ashes that he could only watch burn as his son screamed in agony, claimed by the unholy fire. The man watched his son's soul erode at the edge of the abyss, claimed, to create another soldier for the world wound. His wife faired no better, impaled by the same ilk of fiend that claimed his father and mother, a schir. The woman lay impaled, and he, beneath the ruins of his own home, his hand impaled by a beam of wood and his hip, too.

Upon the glaive did that demon take away his wife, back to the wound to defile her corpse or worse, but in that moment, even as the guards arrived, he heard silence. The fires didn't burn, and the wound didn't hurt. All he felt was anguish as he removed the woodbeam from his stomach and hand, standing up and walking toward it, badly burned all over his left side. The guards, they motioned for him. He could feel them yelling as he walked slowly in the direction the fiend had went, and had one of them not tackled him to the ground and knocked him unconscious he would have followed them to the very pits of the abyss.

He awoke again, this time silent. With tears in his eyes he prayed to the god of misery, not for power, but to not look at him ever again and only grant him the power he'd need to die, as his wife and child, mother, and father had.

And so he did, but not before planting the seeds of madness... And so, Maxwell peered into the abyss of his life, and future.

And it peered back.

Personality:

Maxwell is a depressed individual who sees no point whatsoever, short of dying with dignity and killing demons, in the crusades. To him, they are a waste of time and effort, and if he didn't have a vendetta against the fiends that pushed him to near-insanity, he would have washed his hands of the place.

He is quick to point out flaws in others, himself, plans. If it has even a slight chance of failure, he makes sure that everyone knows it. Despite this, he is still reliable, but rarely takes into consideration his own well-being. Not bound by the religious doctrine of a paladin, Maxwell takes no joy in killing demons, fiends, or undead, rather they do nothing more than stir dark thoughts in him.

To say that Maxwell has righteous fury is an understatement. It is not righteous in the least, and is nothing more than pure hatred for the fact that the demons took everything from him. His eye, his child, his wife, and his parents, and even a few of his friends, and now, even his money.

Maxwell joins the fifth crusade with just the mere hope that he dies killing what he hates the most, and doesn't fear death as it is no worse than actually being alive.

Intention:

While it isn't his in-character intention, Maxwell can still become good. His hatred could turn into righteous fury, but he will never turn his face away from Groteus, his deity, despite the things the god had done to him. He could be redeemed, becoming Chaotic good in a way to where he believes that no one should experience the misery that he has, and avidly preventing anyone from doing so.

At the beginning, however, he typically finds relief in the fact that others can feel pain as deep as he has, but at the same time doesn't believe anyone in the entire city is as deep in the darkness as he is, though he does welcome them to join him.

Description:

Maxwell is officially out of gold, and happens to be flat broke as he prepares to join the fifth crusade. He spent all of his savings from his lifetime, a measily 100 gold on 2 potions. 1 of cure light wounds, and 1 of mage armor, and he's honestly even sure they actually work.

He stands at a modest 5'6 with someone thin, yet wholesome brown hair that's matted from lack of washing. He wears a somewhat dirty blue and yellow vestment over his scale armor, but he makes it a point to wear his metal greaves and rusted gauntlets as he holds his Heavy flail off to his hip which has 3 smaller metal balls on it, rather than 1 large one.

Seeming to always have a look of disdain, the man rarely smiles, and when he does, it's usually after someone's been mocked, or if he himself just wants to display his level of apathy towards a situation.


So, for all intents and purposes, we have a level 3 evoker with 18 intelligence. He's a learned scholar and he rolled 2d6+6 to get that stat and it landed in his favor. Good for him.

Let's assume this Evoker doesn't have spell focus or elemental focus yet. He's thinking about it but there are other ideas.

Without any inherent bonuses, minus his specialty school, he's working a very simple save DC for the level 1 spell Burning hands, which currently does 3d4 damage with a save of 10+1+4 which means 15.

Alright, so a level 1 spell with a DC 15 save. Not terrible, not impressive, and it'll eventually be much higher, but still. Alright, so let's add Spell Focus (Evocation) to that.

Now it's a 16, well, how about that? Elemental Focus gets thrown in and now it's a DC 17 level 1 spell. Great.

Alright, now here's where I get tricky and start asking questions that don't make much sense anymore. Let's raise the Wizard's level by 4, so he's 7 now, and has delicious level 3 spells.

He took the Metamagic feat that gives you half cold damage. So now the spells he uses it on will technically deal cold damage. Alright, so...

Fireball. Level 7 wizard with an intelligence of 20 (He found a Headband. Good for him.)

Level 3 spell, 10 base, Spell Focus. Elemental Focus, 5 modifier. 20. The save DC is now 20. That's actually pretty high, but a real elemental evoker doesn't settle for "pretty" now does he?

Alright so he metamagics the Fireball to make it do half cold. It's now a riveting ball of pure icy hot that's gonna be a wonder to every athletic team this side of golarion. But here's where my question comes from.

If I have Elemental Focus (Cold) and Elemental Focus (Fire) AND Spell Focus (Evocation) in contingent with a Ice/Fire fireball that splits the damage, does it benefit from everything prior and actually get a DC of 21 to be resisted? Or am I just wasting my time and I should just get heightened spell instead?


Discussion Thread is Officially open! Let's first start off with the posted stat block of "Zarthid's Linnorm" a variant of the Tarn Linnorm, and a unique beast native to only Chul'Galbrann. I should make note that all super-integral NPC's as well as defeated enemy types will go into the campaign description to be viewed somewhat like trophies. I can't tell you whether or not you'll ever fight this monstrosity, but what I can say is that when and if you did, you'd remember it for quite some time. This adventure path goes all the way to level 20, gentlemen.

Zarthid's Linnorm:

LINNORM, ZARTHID’S
This nightmarishly huge, snake-like dragon possesses a row of oversized, clunky teeth at its head and well over 30 eyes along it's length to boot. A row of tiny wings cover it's entire body and it is famously referred to as "The Great Sky Snake" and "Gatekeeper".
ZARTHID’S LINNORM CR 20
XP 307,200
CE Colossal dragon (Flying)
Init +14; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision, scent, true seeing; Perception +40
DEFENSE
AC 40, touch 12, flat-footed 30 (+10 Dex, +26 natural, –8 size)
hp 385 (22d12+242); regeneration 15 (cold iron)
Fort +24, Ref +25, Will +20
Defensive Abilities freedom of movement; DR 20/cold iron; Immune Sonic, curse effects, flanking mind-affecting effects, paralysis, poison, sleep; SR 31
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft., fly 150 ft. (Good),
Melee 1 bite +30 (3d8+16+6d6/19–20 plus shattering bite), 2 claws +30 (2d6+16), tail +25 (3d6+8 plus grab)
Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft.
Special Attacks Deafening Roar, Shattering Bite constrict (tail, 3d6+24),
STATISTICS
Str 42, Dex 32, Con 34, Int 7, Wis 25, Cha 27
Base Atk +22; CMB +46 (+50 grapple); CMD 64 (can't be tripped)
Feats Awesome Blow, Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Improved Overrun, Improved Vital Strike, Lightning Reflexes,Power Attack, Vital Strike
Skills Fly +35, Perception +40, Stealth +27, Swim +49; Racial Modifier +8 Perception +8 Stealth +8 Fly
Languages Aklo, Draconic, Sylvan, Common.
ECOLOGY
Environment Chul’Galbrann’s outskirts
Organization solitary
Treasure triple
SPECIAL ABILITIES
All-Around Vision (Ex) A Zarthid Linnorm’s multiple eyes give it a +8 Racial Bonus on perception checks and it cannot be flanked.
Deafening Roar (Su) Once every 1d6 rounds as a standard action, a Zarthid linnorm can expel a deafening roar, dealing 22d8 points of sonic damage to all creatures struck (Reflex DC 32 halves). This sound creates hideous reverberations when it makes contact with metal—on the round after a creature takes sonic damage from this attack, it must make a DC 32 Fortitude save or become permanently deafened from hideous noise. (this secondary effect is a vibration-based effect). As a full-round action, the linnorm may roar and claw twice at the same time (but not use its other weapons). Alternatively, as a full-round action, it can roar much louder and focus a 120 foot burst on itself that effects everything in its area as a 20th caster level shatter that effects magical items. In this case it cannot use its roar again for 2d4 rounds. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Deafness Curse (Su) When a creature slays a Zarthid linnorm, the slayer is affected by the curse of deafness. Curse of Deafness: save Fort DC 32; effect creature is permanently deafened. The save DC is constitution based. Vulnerability to sonic damage, despite deafness.
Freedom of Movement (Ex) A Zarthid linnorm is under the constant effect of freedom of movement, as the spell of the same name. This effect cannot be dispelled. It is also under a constant Fly spell, despite its lack of wings.
Shattering Bite (Su) Bite Reflex DC 29 effect 6d6 sonic damage. A player that successfully avoids a Zarthid Linnorm’s bite is subject to a small 15 foot cone of sonic damage as its teeth ferociously smash together. One random piece of equipment is subject to a DC 29 fortitude save or it gains the broken conditions. All broken items affected by this shatter into pieces dealing 5d6 slashing damage in a 10 foot burst.
True Seeing (Ex) A Zarthid linnorm has true seeing, as the spell of the same name. This effect cannot be dispelled.
Vulnerability to Silence A Silence spell negates the shattering bite, but the Linnorm and a caster must make opposed checks when the heightened deafening roar comes into play. The Linnorm’s check for this competition is made at a +18 but should the silence effect be dispelled as a result of this, only it is removed, and all items in it are safe at the cost of the dispelling effect.
Frightful Presence (Ex) Will DC 32 As part of Heighted Deafening Roar. Effect: Frightened 3d6 rounds.

Zarthid's Linnorm that patrols Chul’Galbrann carries the name of Vox. No one immediately knows the origins of its existence or why it protects the city of Chul’Galbrann as its founder, Zarthid Zagatayal, is long dead. “Zarthid’s Linnorm” is a massive Linorm in the same jurisdiction as that of a Tarn Linnorm with many similar abilities, but it focuses on the delivery of destructive sonic damage during combat, threatening equipment as easily as it does lives.
Zarthid’s Linnorm allows the passage of ships that contain passengers who own emblems of the city, and it can discern a fake without failure, and should it ever do so will destroy the owner of the emblem, the ship it’s on, and every passenger aboard it. Otherwise it allows them passage into the city without issue, often to the New Blood’s collective slack-jawed awe.
A Zarthid linnorm is 130 feet long and weighs 30,000 pounds.


Erastus the 28th. Oathday. 4714

Oh, now here's a story. Here's one that a lot of people remember well. It's about a group of adventurers that went to Chul'Galbrann at one point. Now, I know what you might be thinking, and yeah, a lot of those types went to that city. These guys, though? They had a different spark about them. See, Chul'Galbrann could be defined as a place where an adventuring career went to die, as, the city was so magnificent, that adventurers, who were usually out of place, were the norm.

There wasn't a soul in ol' Chul that didn't have a history of excitement and greatness. Sure, some people were a bit less extravagant than others, but, at the same time, what happens to people when you're surrounded by people that are just like you? Average folk see adventurers on a higher plane, and they get glory, but for that kind of thing to happen in Chul'Galbrann you had to have a special spark. You had to be something more than just a wanderer, an enthusiast, or smart to really make waves in the city.

These guys though? They did it. Don't remember particularly which ones, and I think 1 or 2 may have even gave their lives, but... Well... Hm. Ah, I'm beating around the bush. Here, let me think for a moment... How'd it go again? Ah, yes... It all started on a boat... in the sky.

It was late in the month of Erastus, a couple of years ago, before the war. The ship, the "New Blood" was carrying it's namesake. The New blood was the ship that went out the farthest to pick up the new recruits, the "Fabled" or, the "Drips" as the long-standing mercenaries, the guildsmen, liked to call them. They called'em Drips because Chul'Galbrann may as well have been a still lake most of the time. Well, honestly it was a roaring tide, but the city was paved on extravagance. The drips were the people that made a splash, though.

Now then... let's talk about these fellas that were on that boat."

The sun was at it's peak in the sky. The great ship, the "New Blood" sailed through the air on it's alchemical engines at full. Magic had been weaved into the wood to resist the air flow on the deck so people didn't get blown off during the storms. There'd been a few accidents, sure, but they weren't annual, and some of these crazy people even managed to survive the fall. Al the more reason they needed to make it to Chul'Galbrann

The ship was made of wood, primarily. It was made with a masterful hand, as if a genius carpenter had his hands in every piece of it. The walls of the deck were typically walled off at about waist height, so people could admire the view if they didn't get sick or weren't afraid of heights. The ship, by all means, wasn't that large like it's sisters, but that's a comparison for later. At most the ship could hold about 30 passengers, but it's load was feeling a bit lighter than usual. Probably had about 20, 25 people on board.

Below decks there was a bar. Thing may as well have been a full blown Yacht, really, only a bit more compact. Nothing fancy, really, but you could get as much magically crafted ale as you wanted from a fountain that had the cups sitting near it. New blood didn't stay in the sky long. She was far more vulnerable than her sisters. The lower decks were pretty rowdy, honestly. See, I remember being on that boat, actually. Hell of a time. This is what happened..."

Below decks, the lot of you find yourselves enamored. There's only 3 sections, but despite being so straightforward it's still designed with an artistic hand. The bedrooms have 30 beds, with 2 king sized ones in the corner for the heavier set. Whoever planned the rooms pulled out all the stops and seems to have registered the fact that there are some larger adventurers out there. The room has so many beds that its pretty easy to sleep comfortably, even at full capacity. It's mid-day though, so there's not a soul in there, save for the occasional chatty types that wanted to get away from the crowd.

There's the ale-room, where a fountain will poor you as much as you can handle. It's not extremely alcoholic, but enough of it will knock out anyone, and you can have as much as you want. The room has 2 very long tables with about 12 chairs each. At the moment there's food on the table, and more than enough for everyone on the ship to eat till their stuffed. The room roars with excitement as the various grab-bag of races converse with each other and stay rowdy.

If you can name it, it's in the room. The shady types against the wall, the hulking brute stuffing his face, the fickle and small halfling telling his stories. Everyone in this room has a story to tell, and some are grander than others.

The final section is a rather wide, empty room with a staircase that leads to the deck. You can hear the hum of boisterous laughter echo about the room, but other than a staircase and 1 or 2 of the silent reserved types, there's no one here.

Finally, on the Deck, there's a few people that are just looking out across the vast expanses of land as the clouds roll by. At the head of the ship, looking far out into the distance is a man with a different aura about him from the rest. He stands, with an eyepatch and a noteworthy scar over his eyes. His hand rests on a long bladed katana within it's sheathe and the other at rest at his side. Beneath his coat is some serious, finely crafted armor from the east.

Here are my 2 methods of story-telling. My preferred is third person with a past tense as a "Narrator" and the second is the usual. Please, at the top of your first post, tell me what you prefer. Enjoy.


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Hello gentlemen! I haven't hosted a game in quite some time, as college has unfortunately managed to be a veritable thorn in my side for quite some time, but I've news! College is ending for the summer quite, quite soon. No more than 2 weeks from now and summer is officially here. Thank 7 different kinds of Jesus.

I started work on this adventure path 1 year ago. Amidst college and the like, I've managed to successfully make a rather large portion of it. Truly, this is a wondrous thing for me, as I have high hopes of publishing it once I've found that the players enjoy it's rich story-infused NPC's and the plethora of different quests.

For a long time I've tweaked and prodded at the adventure path, and for a long time it was some really weird thing that arose the players, dead, and used a currency, as well as a an entire world, that just made things difficult. I've since axed both those counts, and while the main city that the players will be residing in is still a new one, it is still very much completely fleshed out. I've even made the appropriate campaign traits, which the players will make it a point to use. The only issue with it, however, is that players may only choose 1 campaign trait, and it must be from the listed ones.

With the fat trimmed, and the NPC story lines made something outstanding, I finally believe I'm ready to give players a shot at it, and revel in it's glory, coated in blood and sweat.

I'll be honest. Frankly, the game isn't made to be easy. It is geared for 5 players and I will pick no more. Every quest is enough to get a player at least half their level in experience. The very first quest is enough to almost make you level 6, should you kill everything.

Allow me to take this moment to carefully explain what this game entails, considering that there is no manual to read. I'll try to be concise and short about the explanation. I'm likely going to fail miserably.

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The campaign places players, shortly after its beginning, in the great city of Chul'Galbrann, a city in the sky, held down by great chains. The only methods of travel into the city are by crossing the bridges, built onto the taught, immovable things, or by using the sky ships, a city favorite. No one knows why the city hangs in the air, or how, though ultimately in the day and age that golarion is in, everyone just chalks it up to magic and doesn't ask questions of the floating metropolis.

Chul'Galbrann is known for, among other things, its rather high amount of people who seek out a higher plane. Mercenary guilds dot the entire city, though our players belong to a specific one. It's healers are close to their deities, it's monks are wise and well-traveled, and its people are colorful in every way, shape, and form. Chul'Galbrann's namesake lies within the fact that is a paradise for those that seek out a life on the fringe, where every day is full of excitement and adventure.

People from every corner of Golarion make their way to Chul'Galbrann, each with a rich history of guile, wit, strength, and of course, drama. Some people are shady, some are fun loving, and some seek out power through the constant inflow of requests for assistance from the outside world.

You are a Mercenary. A member of one of the guilds, and your recent exploits have reached the ears of Chul'Galbrann, and as such, the city welcomes you with open arms into it's array of grand, story-filled men and women. More on that in a moment. Now, the lot of you may be wondering indeed. What does a member of the Mercenary guild do?

A Member of the Mercenary guild, and his travelling companions, whether they are alone or with others, sift through the massive number of requests on the post boards, or find important missions through hearsay. They take these missions, inform the head of their respective guild, and set out accordingly. Each post has it's own respective reward. Some may request that all obtained items go to the individual that requested help, but these often pay in raw gold.

These mission aren't simple "My Kitten is Stuck in a Tree" types, either. They can range from Goblins ransacking, raiding, and claiming a fort rather close to the city itself, or cultists being discovered in a distant nation. They are not simple, and you'll make friends among the guild members, as well as enemies, along the way.

The way the missions work, simply put, is in Tiers. You may not access Tier 2 until you are level 6, 3 until you are level 7, and so forth. Generally it requires 2 missions per level to reach the next tier, but sometimes it will take 3. Your first mission is a mandatory one, however.

Each mission will be laid out to you, and after you've went to the next Tier, you will find that missions you didn't do before leveling up disappear from the boards as other guildsmen take up the mantle.

Now for the most important part that involves how you'll inevitably make your characters. You're characters can be from anywhere in the whole world of golarion, as long as it isn't some fringe country, or some half-fiend from the world wound. This game assumes somewhat mid-level optimization. It also allows only 1 multi-class, though prestige classes are allowed.

You can prepare for anything you might think you need to prepare for. This game has quite literally everything. Goblins, Wizard Sewers, Cultists, dungeons with no enemies and more than a few traps, gay french fighters, monks that can't see, horrible weather, boat fights, a giant war against augmented soldiers, unicorns, excessively flamboyant goblins, samurai, ninjas, one badass ronin, the dark tapestry, chelaxian politics, sandpoint, an entire house dedicated to the 7 sins that aren't bad people, an archer with daddy issues, and a leech covered druid.

You name it, it's there. You couldn't optimize for this whole thing if it killed you, and to be honest it might.

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Traits

The way I do traits is, honestly, fairly simple. It's nothing complicated, and it's just so straight forward it kind of hurts. There's nothing fancy that effects your bardic performances or raises your caster level checks, or anything like that, no, this effects your skills and only your skills.

Acrobat - Tales abound of your shows of dexterous wonder. Whether you're able to dance around enemies for fun, or just generally jump grand chasms, the world knows you're light on your feet.
Gain a +2 in Acrobatics and Acrobatics is always a class skill for you. Once per day you may roll twice on an Acrobatics check and take the higher result. Must be declared prior.

Appraiser - It wasn't a big dragon you killed, and it might not even be a hoard you looked through, but one things for certain. You've brought some weird, valuable things that most people would've glanced over and made quite a penny doing so.
Gain a +2 in Appraisal and Appraisal is always a class skill for you. Once per day you may re-roll an Appraisal check and take the higher result. Must be declared prior.

Liar - You're the most silvertongued devil in whatever gutter you managed to crawl out of. That, or you're just good at politics. Whatever it is, you're a liar, and hell knows you're not half bad at it.
Gain a +2 to Bluff checks, and Bluff is always a class skill for you. Once per day you may roll 2 bluff checks and take the higher of the 2. Must be declared prior.

Climber - You've scaled things that don't even have ledges. You stick to flat walls like some kind of socially awkward gecko. Long story short, you've had an infatuation with high places your whole life, or you've just found that being vertically challenged isn't your favorite thing in the world. Whatever it is, very few people can beat you when it comes to going up without wings.
Gain a +2 to climb checks, and climb is always a class skill for you. Once per day you may roll twice on a climb check and take the higher of the 2. You may take 10 on climb checks.

Diplomat - You're a real charmer. Ladies love you, men love you, and dammit, you'd make a good first man. However you go about it, you've come to terms with the fact that you've talked yourself out of some pretty hellish situations, and word of your... well... word, has traveled abound. You're a smooth talker for sure, and you stand out amongst the gruff crowd.
[/i]Gaina +2 to Diplomacy checks, and diplomacy is always a class skill for you. Once per day you may roll twice on a diplomacy check and take the higher of the 2.[/i]

Saboteur - Whether it be bombs with 3 seconds left, doors with a nasty lock, or your best friends chastity belt, you're good at picking things and a guy who doesn't know what a door is. If it can be picked, you can pick it. If it can't be picked, you'll find a way to pick it. Tales of your craftsmenship with a lockpick are abound, and someones got something that needs jury rigged somewhere, and you're gonna find them.
Gain a +2 to Disable Device. Once per day you may roll twice on a disable device check and take the higher of the 2.

Sociopath - Do you have any idea how hard it was to find you beneath the silly hat and big nose glasses? No? Wrong person. Regardless, you're a hard man to find in a crowd, and you're number of faces could very well be why the guild is after you. You're list of Aliases are 3 scrolls long and miles wide. You're a tough man to follow, and you're really good at getting into the crowds that don't want anyone in them.
Gain a +2 to disguise. The first person to roll a perception check versus your disguise must roll 2 and take the lower result. This doesn't include fellow players.

Escape Artist - You truly cannot be contained. Hairy houdini be damned, you're impossible to bind. You're a class act. Whether it's because you keep finding yourself tied to beds, hugged inapporiately for long periods of time, or constantly meeting up with a monster's tonsils, you've found a plethora of ways to escape confinement. You might even be an escapee right now!
Gain a +2 to Escape artist checks. You may roll 2 twice on an escape artist check once per day, and take the higher result.

Flyer - You're a dam good flyer. Whether it be on a horse, with your own tiny little wings, or just generally a circus clown, you're accustomed to being in the air for extended periods of time. Whether it's good for your health or not, or natural, depends on you, but who really cares? You're an air-head.
Gain a +2 on fly checks. You may roll twice on a fly check once per day, and take the higher result. You may take 10 on fly checks.

Practically invisible
Gain a +2 on stealth checks. You may roll twice on a stealth check once per day and take the higher result.

Plays well with other species
Gain a +2 on handle animal checks. You may roll twice on a handle animal check once per day and take the higher result.

Heal - The phrase "You can't die on me" isn't just moral support. It's actually close to being literal! You've saved dumber people from dumber luck, an cannonball wounds may as well be scratches. You're a wizard with a scalpel.
Gain a +2 on Heal checks. You may roll twice on heal checks once per day and take the higher result.

Intimidating
You gain a +2 on intimidate checks. You may roll twice on intimidate checks once per day and take the higher result.

Linguist
You gain a +2 on Linguistics checks. You may roll twice on a linguistics check once per day and take the higher result. There are actually linguistics checks in this game. There's every check in this game.

Perceptive
You gain a +2 on Perception checks. You may roll twice on a linguistics check once per day, however, if you fail a perception roll rolled by the DM, this is immediately expended and rolled secretly.

Ride
You gain a +2 on ride checks. You may roll twice on a ride check once per day.

Sense Motive - Nothing gets past you.
You gain a +2 on Sense Motive checks. You may roll twice on a sense motive check once per day.

Magic fingers
You gain a +2 on Sleight of hand checks. You may roll twice on a Sleight of hand check once per day.

Spellcraft doesn't get a trait like the rest.
Spell Spinner
A player with this trait is not allowed to make daily checks in regards to crafting items. In regards to crafting magical items, he may only roll twice in regards to a month of work (30,000 GP) and must make other checks regarding creation normally. Gain a +2 to spellcraft checks. Once per day you may re-roll spellcraft checks made to determine spells, the contents of a spellbook, and whatnot. Warn the DM of this prior.

Survival - The hell is a house?
Gain a +2 bonus on Survival checks. Once per day you may roll twice for a survival check and take whatever is higher.

Swim
Gain a +2 bonus on swim checks. Once per day you may roll twice for a swim check and take whatever is higher. You may take 10 on swim checks under any circumstance.

Knowledgeable
Gain a +2 on a knowledge of your choice. This knowledge is always a class skill for you. You may take 10 on this knowledge check and this knowledge check only one per day, or you may roll twice and take whatever is higher.

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Character Creation
- 25 point buy! You're all ridiculous heroes.
- Fifth level, you've been at this a while.
- 1 Extra skill point that goes into a craft of some kind.
- Your character's personality.
- Your character's history.
- Your character's greatest fear.
- Your character's uncross-able moral line.
- Your character's physical description.
- Your character's goals, and reason for accepting the guild's letter of invitation.
- Your character's backstory, as well as his home nation. Can't be made up, and must be within the world of Golarion.
- A written letter, third person, no longer than 5 lengthy paragraphs detailing your achievements. This is a recommendation letter from an anonymous source to the Mercenary guilds.
- During the letter and backstory you can not have killed a creature beyond CR 7. You're grand heroes, not lucky.
- 1 Trait from those listed above. No drawbacks. No questions.
- 10,500 starting gold. You may purchase a single +1 weapon and a +1 armor, and with the gold left, may not purchase an item that is over 3000 gold.

(optional)
- 1 example of a long-running campaign that you are currently in, if any.

Stuff that's banned

- No Summoner
- No Gunslinger
- Anything outside of Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Magic, the Core rulebook, the Advanced Player's guide, and the Advanced Race guide is strictly prohibited.
- Third Party everything.
- No player-made races.
- No Chaotic evil. Other evil alignments are allowed, however. Have a good story. Don't be a jackass.

Homebrew

- Paladins can be Lawful good and Neutral good. Not Chaotic good.
- Antipaladins can be Lawful evil and Neutral evil. Not Chaotic evil.
- No other class is restricted by alignment, but Monks may not be chaotic.
- Critical hits that get confirmed draw cards from the critical deck accordingly. Expect shenanigans.

General Campaign Qualities

- Despite the fact that every mission requires the players fly to them on Airship, that still takes quite a bit of time. Players will have days, weeks, and sometimes an entire month of downtime as the ship flies towards their destinations. The ships fly in routes, and there are only 2 of them. One heads east in a circle, and the other west. It drops off mercenaries as they go. This also means that the ships, upon arrival, and upon leaving, leave the players stranded in Chul'Galbrann for weeks. Downtime is definitely something important in this campaign, and there is money to be made during it, as well as magical items.

- Every magical item short of Major magical items is within the Metropolitan city. If you want it, you can likely find it, but doing so generally takes a day of work as you walk about the city. Survival checks are even required to not get lost within the bustling metropolis, though getting lost wastes the day, while not getting lost allows you to make 2 purchases.

- The Mercenary Guild's name that you join, and are requested to join, is named "Wyvern's Soul."

- NPC's are incredibly important and will meet you frequently during missions. Make friends. Explore their dialogue. Learn about them. Ask questions. Roleplay

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I look forward to an EXCELLENT amount of submissions. This isn't your usual sucky thrown-together homebrew, ladies and gentlemen. I look forward to playing with whoever makes it.

As of now, the closing time for submission is may 9th


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So, in my next campaign my players are going to be playing something rather akin to a normal rpg, what with "Chapters" and different places to choose to travel.

Some context:

"The Lodge"
- The Lodge is a place where multiple upon multiple mercenaries, people with specific talents, ambitions, or just a normal battle lust show up to seek out "Marks". Marks range from taking back a city from bandits, to finding a lost magical item, to killing evil apparitions of in-laws. There's even one specific mission that causes the players to get paratrooped into a neighboring country as part of an on-going war.

"The Marks"
- Every level the players have a choice of 3 missions that they wish to do, but at any given time they can only do 2 per rotation. The ones that they don't do influence the other NPCs, who, unlike you, travel alone. Certain NPCs in the lodge can be convinced, through Diplomacy or Charisma based checks, to go on these missions that you don't want to do. However, having them due that leaves their fates up to a percentage.

- The fighter NPC's can handle goblins just fine, but can't handle subterfuge.
- The arcane NPC's can handle seeking out magic and other things involving wizardy, but are poor when it comes to delving into dungeon depths.
- The skill NPC's can delve into dungeon depths no problem, but have trouble with hordes.

- There are no NPC's in the lodge that happen to be divine that don't do anything more than heal people and merry-make.

- The first 3 missions in the adventure path involve the reclaiming of a fort from goblins, the investigation of a crypt, and dealing with politics between cheliax and a neighboring area.

"The NPC's"
- The first NPC to introduce him is a Katana-wielding fighter named Cid, who, as soon as he meets the PC's, determines which martial member he's going to be tied with. Cid, first and foremost, joined The Lodge in hopes of mastering his swordsmanship with the katana, and has a dark secret in regards to the players. He will be nice to them, up until the plans for introducing the invasion mark are announced, in which case he fears that the PC is going to go and get himself killed. At this point, he'll offer that PC a duel. Should the PC refuse, he announces that he will see him during the invasion.

When this comes to pass, Cid will single out the martial PC to attack during one of the quieter moments, though most likely he will show up the first moment that PC finds himself alone through the glory of "Fate making them run into each other." Cid will not allow the PC to get away, and will actively try to defeat him, complimenting him the entire fight.

Cid will be an equal level of the PC in fighter levels, though he takes a reserved approach into fights if he can, using a mixture of combat expertise and power attack, Improved vital strike, and spring attack, making it a point to waltz around debris from the nearby wreckage to avoid being charged.

Cid will, as a result of his honor, allow the player, and himself, to prepare with whatever potions they deem necessary, though Cid will use none if the player won't; claiming, "Magic is for men of weak arm, but I will not fight you on uneven ground." Should the player try to stall for his allies, Cid will automatically attack after some dialogue about fate and furthering himself and the pc.

"Fate's coy, isn't she? That doesn't matter though. Think about it friend... Whoever leaves this fight alive leaves stronger, yes? All I ask of you is that you bury me with my sword should I lose."

Cid's Katana is a +1 Keen Katana, and his armor is a +2 Armored Coat. He is a Weapon Master Fighter Archetype. His coat is exquisitely crafted like the Katana, but it is magical. His weapon doesn't read as magical in the slightest, but anyone capable of making craft checks that could make such a sword will notice how perfectly crafted it is. It definitely seems masterwork at even a glance, but there's something "more" there.

Cid has a rather long story explaining his sword and it's heritage throughout his family line, but ultimately claims it was wasted on them because they merely looked at it every day. He actually stole it when he left to begin his adventure.

There are, of course, more NPCs, but Cid is the one I'm currently worried about. Against a solo player of equal level, a fighter no less, or a monk, ranger, barbarian, whatever; He is an epic encounter because of the changes to APL. The player is more than welcome to spare him should he win, but I don't want cid to be a pushover during a straight up martial fight. He's not a fan of dirty tricks, and using them against him actually causes him to ditch his combat expertise and make use of his full power attack with furious focus, which as a weapon master, practically guarantees he hits. With a katana and weapon master, without keen a katan has a critical modifier of 18-20, With it, that increases to 16-20, allowing one in 5 of his attacks to land without fail.

Right now he has no magical enhancements. His strength at level 12 is 20, and his dexterity is 18. Not high stats by that point mind you, but Cid has a grand distaste for magic, and compliments on it frequently. He'll admit it has it's uses, but all the same, he avoids it. His Keen Katana is a specially smithed weapon that has no magic cast upon it, and isn't subject to dispel effects, or anything that could possibly sap it of magic. It's just that sharp. (Not Raw, but a flavorful addition)

Cid's ultimate strategy during fights consists of moving about, making use of Improved Vital Strike, Devastating Strike, Spring Attack, Power Attack, Furious Focus, and Combat Expertise all at once. He prefers to move about, unless the martial fighter is a ranger, in which case he will abandon combat expertise to make sure that his AoOs land, rerolling with his reliant strike ability to ensure that it does. He will also use this on crits, should they land.

Fighter Level 12 BAB = +12
Str Mod = +5 (+5 Dam)
Fighter bonuses = +3 (From Weapon Master) (+3 Dam)
Weapon Focus / Weapon Spec = +2 (+ 1 Dam)
+1 from Weapon (+1 Dam)

AB= 23

Power attack = -4 (+8 Dam)
Two Handed Weapon = (+4 Dam)
Combat Expertise = -4

Final to hit and damage = +15/+10/+5 (First attack is +19 because of Furious Focus)

Damage = 1d8+22 with a X2 Crit multiplier
Improved Vital Strike Damage = 3d8+26 (At +19 to hit) (Including Devastating Strike)

His armor class would, including bracers, probably be around 30 or 28 at that point.

Do you guys have any suggestion?


So, I'm wanting to make an alchemist that hinges very specifically one just crafting plenty of potions for rise of the runelords and being a bit interested in poisons, actually.

Any suggestions? I'd like advice on what stats to go with, but I don't want to be a bomb thrower or a Dr.Hyde type. Help?


So, here's how this works. My players have just come into possession, after a long, grueling entrance into an awful, awful necromantic castle, of a lot of gold. Every corridor has had a haunt, and every haunt a backstory, and it's slowly coming into play for them what the original castle had, as far as events are concerned.

The Castle is ran by an Evil Necromancer named Naggarad, who has, instead of seeking Lichdom, achieved immortality instead. He has lived for quite a long time, and as a result, his stats have gone up according to the venerable rules, a total of +4 to all of those mind-based stats. He's a total monster of a character, and that's ignoring the fact that with all his funds he's managed to Wish all of his stats up to the greatest potential, minus his strength and whatnot.

He's the epitome of wizard, here, and is going to be a cruel bastard to deal with when they arrive to him. Luckily they're only level 7, and after a series of cruel events, have found themselves deep under the castle on the doorstep of what is referred to as the "Alchemical Foundry"

The place is literally a Necromancer's playground, or an Alchemist with interest in the undead and body splicing and whatnot. It's essentially a long-forgotten experimental room that Naggarad has turned a blind eye too to see what comes out of it.

---- Now hold on ----

The players have come into possession of a ton of gold, and a freaky merchant, who happens to be an alchemist pretending to be a wizard, has just loaded them down with quite the score of fancy magical weapons. Every player essentially had 14,000 gold to work with, while one of the players loaned 4000 of his money to the wizard.

The bard is now in possession of a rapier named "Cloud Whisper" and happens to be a +1 Lightning Burst Rapier.

The ranger gained a Seeking +1 Composite Longbow (+2 Str)

The list goes on, but those are the 2 heavy hitting bits, minus a Fighter optimized to wield a 2 handed Greataxe with impunity.

Everyone is pretty vulnerable to will saves, so I try to stay away from those, but the Alchemist has informed them up front that they're going into a new kind of place, with living, smart people. Not just a room full of mobile dead bodies.

The Group is 7 players strong, and all of them are level 7. Let me give you the rundown on their class and archetypes.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Rogue 3 Fighter 4 - Two Weapon Fighting Flanker that has an Acrobatics that's out of this world. Very stealthy, and quite good at landing hits. Happens to also be the scout. One of the less squishy members of the party.

Ninja 7 - May as well not even be there. Has a stealth score that's stupidly high and every feat she has has gone towards making it higher. Has a +19 stealth score. Not the highest it could be, but that's because when she wants to make sure someone dies, she spends a ki point and fills them full of +11 to hit 4d6 Shurikens. She even just got deadly aim...

Ranger 6 Rogue 1 - Doesn't miss with his composite longbow ever, and has every long range feat that makes sense to have at this level. Rapid Shot, Many shot, Point Blank, he's your typical "Pew Pew" ranger, and he just got a damage boost from the bow. I thank god that he didn't get something with an effect on it. Too bad he can hit anything that shimmers now...

Cleric 3 - Fighter 4 - The word Milk tank is strong with this one. He's got so much armor class that I can't bear to look at him, and frankly he's got some of the better saves. What I have learned however is that a small jump is enough to stop him in his tracks entirely, because his dexterity based skills, swim checks, and climbing checks, are all terrible. His touch AC is adorable, however. Hits fairly often, uses his buffs, and happens to have a Constitution of 22, which made my liver stop functioning for a moment. (We rolled D20's for stats, and rerolled anything that wasn't above 7.)

Fighter 7 - Uses a Greataxe. Has Power Attack, Cleave, Furious Focus, that sort of thing. Doesn't ever miss, and never hits softly at any point. Has the s%!@tiest saves in the group, and I've considered throwing in an enchantment room just to send her against the room and make the local wizard waste a Dispel Magic on her. That aside, her armor class isn't the most amazing thing in the world but her constitution almost rivals the dwarf. She's also got climb and swim checks that make me tear up in sadness, because this woman could literally wrestle a typhoon.

Wizard 7 - The saddest existence in the party that isn't the bard. His favored school is illusion which, surprise surprise, doesn't work that well against undead. However he's rather stoked for the alchemist foundry because of the fact that there are actually quite a lot of things in the room that have blood in their veins that isn't sour milk. Good for him. He's rather optimized with a 20 intelligence, and his lowest save is remarkably high, going so far as to be a 20 as a result of Spell Focus. To make things worse he has a Less Rod of Intensified Spell. Rather squishy with low saves in regards to anything that isn't will, however, and never prepares mage armor...

Bard 7 - The kind of bard that likes to get up and personal with the enemies, but focused a large number of his spells on Enchantment and buffs. Just recently he's gained a few that actually do damage, but they're minor at best. Nothing too threatening. Low AC, remarkable will save that isn't too impressive, and actually has the third highest health in the party as a result of his build.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The thing here is that there are 7 of them, and that means, to provide a fight that's good for them, It would have to be a remarkably high combat rating to throw at level 7 players.

The average combat rating of any single 1 of my players is currently +1 as a result of their gear. Maybe even +2 in some cases. The Dwarf Cleric is definitely a +2. The Dwarf alone could be considered a CR 9 encounter because of his ridiculous AC, but just as easy, he could be charmed and grappled, and whatnot.

7 Level 7 players. That means that their APL is 8, but with their gear, their APL is 9. This means that an epic encounter is a CR 12, which I will not be throwing at them for fear of complete destruction.

I will, however, not have any issue throwing a CR 11 encounter at them, as I do sincerely believe they can handle it with only sustaining a few cuts and bruises, but I've a plan to make them seriously question that idea. That said, this is going to be very rough for them.

Within the Foundry there are 5 major encounters, with 3 encounters involving traps I haven't managed to put together quite yet.

Encounter 1 is against a small gathering of the workers, who get taken completely by surprise. Essentially they're all Fighter 2 Alchemist 5 characters with feats that focus on throwing and whatnot. Making the bombs land properly and all that jazz. Every single one of them focuses on making acid bombs, however, and the "Head" alchemist will drink a Mutagen as soon as even one of the alchemists fall. The Head Alchemist is a level 8 pure Alchemist.

So that's 3 Cr 7s, and a Cr 8 to come out at an odd sort of Cr 9 Combat that could potentially be 10.

---

The Next encounter has the potential to begin during the start of the original encounter, assuming the players allow one of the alchemists to properly flee, they will activate an Alchemical Golem in the distance of the next chamber. If the players do stop the worker, it'll begin functioning the instant they enter the chamber. The golem is full strength, and comes to life rather angry. It makes it a point to to rain chemical explosive down on whoever seems to have the lowest touch AC, or whoever is too close to each other.

As an added addition to the fight, the Golem constantly shifts the element it spews from, and changes color accordingly.

The Golem shifts between being super cold, super heated, bulbously acidic, and super charged. This translates to having Improved damage reduction, a heat aura, a consequence to being attacked, and the effect of Haste.

It switches the effect every time it is struck, but can't change more than once a round.

The Aura of fire does 2d6 fire damage with an 18 fortitude save to half that damage. (Range 30)
The Aura of Electricity puts it under the effects of haste, allowing it to effectively full attack with it's slams and then attack again with one, or throw a bomb twice.
The Aura of Ice produces a 1d6 damage Aura with an 18 fortitude save to half that damage. (Range 30)
The Acidic effect causes a spray of 2d6 acid damage to spray in a cone in front of it every time it is struck, causing all present players to roll an 18 Reflex save to avoid it.

The Golem retains all of it's original effects including the ones listed.

---

The Third encounter is against a re-occuring boss, an Antipaladin in the service of Naggarad that reveres death and decay as a deity that can't be stopped. He serves Naggarad because of Naggarad's triumph over death, though he secretly harbors the motif of killing him once he finds the power. The fact that Naggarad has defeated Death and gained Immortality, however, has stumped his growth in his beliefs and as a result he no longer gains strength from the faith he once had.

The Antipaladin's name is Ark'tor, who wields a rather wicked dagger and Longsword, making use of his battle expertise to Disarm those that use rather large weapons, such as the fighter, and Smiting Good those that he feels he'll have difficulty hitting. His Longsword is a +1 Bane (Human) longsword, and his Dagger is a +1 Keen. He fights with a religious zeal, and has use of Quickened Channeling, allowing him to bombard the room with negative energy, as well as touch of corruption (Fatigue) whoever might be in front of him. This can prove especially deadly to people that think it wise to crowd him.

He is not against the idea of expending 4 uses of his Touch of corruption ability if it means hitting the entire party with his negative energy twice. He has a Charisma of 20, but only because of his headband.

Given the chance, after he's been wounded below half, 2 easier alchemists will rush into the room, where he will make it a point to flee if at all possible. The person he Smites good will likely not be able to harm him, and he makes it a point to pull no punches, in regards to the smiting of multiple people at once.

Should he flee successfully, he will not return until after the foundry, using the elevator for which he has a key for. He will make it a point to warn both wizards ahead of the player's arrival, if the Chemical golem isn't dispatched swiftly.

---

The Fourth Combat is especially taxing on the players in that it is a fight against 2 level 8 wizards, a Evoker and a Conjurer, both of which sit atop large pillars out of melee range and welcome their new guests. One speaks of their fine features and the other speaks of their experiment plans, but eventually both stand up and proceed to bombard them. Both begin the fight by fighting in remarkable coordination, one casting wind wall and the other casting protection from arrows and magic missile.

The Conjurer spends his turns summoning creatures to fight against the player, while the other bombards them with various orb spells. The conjurer will be the one who casts the various protective buffs, but neither of them wish to harm the local equipment, so they will actually make it a point to pull the more destructive, collateral spells.

The Conjurer has a feat Progression that Consists of Improved Initiative, Toughness, Spell Focus (Conjuration) and Augment Summoning

The Evoker has a feat Progression that Consists of Improved Initiative, Spell Focus (Evocation) (Replacing Scribe Scroll via Houserule), Spell Specialization (Lightning Orb), Dodge

The conjurer has more constitution, and the evoker has a higher armor class. Both are equally difficult to kill.

----

The Fifth combat is far simpler and is more of a laugh than anything else. What do you guys think of it? Too difficult? Instagib ahoy? Help me out.


We've all heard of it, really. The tales of these single people banding together with any multitude of heroes, but when are the heroes NPC's and not real people? That's the fun question.

People approach pathfinder with the zeal, and impeccable idea that it needs 4 or more to play, and I can get behind that! I really can, but frankly, to me, a man with few compatriots of enjoyable company, I've never properly ran a 4 man or more campaign. Now this isn't for a lack of trying, mind you! I'm rather charismatic in person, enjoyable, and all-together a stand up man with plenty of good qualities. Everything a DM really needs, aside from chips and food bribes for his players.

Well, recently... actually that's probably improper. Over the last year I've dabbled and dabbled, pecked at, chinked, and overall just completely sifted through an Adventure path. I've got a hefty sum of them, and have read the lot from front to back. It was around the time that I'd finished reading, and playing, Rise of the runelords, back when it was paper back and separated, that I fancied the idea of... A single man campaign.

Now I know what the general consensus is on this type of thing. It's a bad idea! It's boring, well, not really so. Anyone who truly enjoys playing pathfinder guns for multiple different things. There are those of us that enjoy the thrill of hacking down enemy upon enemy in good company, but that's somewhat... I don't know, befuddling? Sometimes?

it happens often, really too often, to be honest. You see it all the time on the Advice forums; someone complaining about a player, or making requests about how to handle a troublesome person. Be it a rules lawyer, garbage dump, or just all-around college freshman who can't ever make it to game night. So many problems can stem from having more people, when the guy at the table that's devoted to your world merely suffers!

Yes you! That guy! The one who wants to blaze a STORY! A grand tale about how you're beefy barbarian overcame wizards, or how the lone wizard overcame an assassins guild. All kinds of things, really. Plenty of us, those that want to see the Forum posts we've so dearly applied our characters made on paper, or hero lab, to. Ah yes we all know that sensation. The game starts well, online, in the paizo boards. For 2 weeks you're appeased! Then slowly, but surely, the creeping death of boredom sets in as everyone gets more rigid, and the luster is lost.

And then it dies!

Yes, just like that your campaign you waited 2 weeks for clarification on, gnashing your teeth to get accepted in, suddenly dies in less time than it took to get accepted. Is it College? Is it work? No one's ever really sure. Sometimes the DM just -stops- without warning. Was it his health? Did he actually die? Did the jokes towards his made-up world get out of hand? Or did he just not feel it? Well, I guess you have to be there to understand.

Regardless, it dies, and it dies a slow, painful death. This can usually be slowed down, of course, by holding yet another painful invitation. This is rather unwise, of course, as no one ever bothers fixing a horse's leg. It's often best to just shoot it and then eat it. The only difference is Adventure paths aren't edible, and they definitely aren't delicious.

So here's where I stand... A single player campaign. You find that one kid! That one! The one with fire in his eyes and gusto shooting out of his brains, ready to wrap his head around some problems and write a story. Find him, love him, throw him in a game.

Just like I did.

Now, people might be wondering about the campaign itself? How does it work? What happens if the guy dies? Is the story over? Does it just fade to black until some random cleric feels the need to res you? How much time passes during something like that? How does the gold work? Wouldn't it be really easy to die?

Well, gentlemen, I have solved most of these problems in my current scratch-designed AP. I've went through great pains to create a... wide caste of NPC's. Call them pets, if you want, but I personally adore every single one of them. I always find myself looking back at them, overlooking their stories, considering the context, and imagining up how I can fix their progressions.

For now, let's talk about the player himself. At the beginning of "A Dirge for Everything" your character has just recently died in one of a fistful of areas, each one rich with history and current events. It's been a week, somewhat. Anyways, the person arrives at this thing called "The Nexus."

The Nexus is a low-law purgatory with quite a few interesting rooms. 2 Great "Beings" have taken it upon themselves the job of staving off the story's main issue; the Fog. The Fog is a Black, evil thing. Contact with it causes death, and disentigration. Anything that falls into it and can't get out within the next few minutes simply dies, and the body can't be found through even the most potent divinations. The corpse ceases to exist as the person's soul is crushed into a ethereal pulp.

From the Nexus, the main player, that's you, the one with fire in his eyes, can go to any of these bastions just as easily as you could go use the bathroom. A few flights of stairs, a talk with a wizard and your first few NPC's, and voila, you're in Hazrit looking for a very sweaty Dwarf's magical tools.

While in the Nexus, the player can recruit 1, 2, and rarely, 3, NPC's to tag along with him on the venture. At this point it's natural for the DM to somewhat fill the gap in the player's weaknesses, or intentionally give him a broken wing on the matter. This typically happens when the player can still manage, or if he will likely have no trouble surviving on his own. Does this mean the player will always be having his ass saved or saving asses? Likely, but that's how every game is.

Unlike most campaigns, Dirge doesn't give 2 flying squirrels about what your alignment is. The way the area sees it, they need more strong of character people to help stave off the fog, and find out why the bastions are, well, bastions. You can either save all the kids you want, or be the reason a village burns down. You can join the Disciples of Dragons in Hazrit, learning all the secret meeting places, or look deep into Argosal's rise to Lichdom.

The only way the paladin is going to b+@$@ about what you're doing is if you bring one, and honestly, if you know you're going to be naughty nancy, you're going to avoid the guy in the fancy, marble engraved armor who most definitly worships Iomedae.

All of the NPC's do certain things at certain times. You won't be able to find certain people at certain times, but that's because they're doing their own thing in their own areas. In the Nexus, everyone is either a Hero or a Villain, but they're always great as well. Great in the sense that they're powerful. Indeed, the game begins at level 4, and every NPC starts at level 5. When you level, all of them do as well. That's assuming they haven't managed to die alot, however.

Now, here's the thing, and probably the most important as that. PC Hero death! It's an inevitable thing. The enemy is strong, and you're not sober, and it just ends poorly, and it probably involves some kind of acidic pudding. The Nexus crushes the souls of those that enter it, and recreate their bodies using that. They are made of "Colored Aether" from that point on. If a player dies, he suffers an exp loss of 50% towards his next level.

Think on it like this; You just hit level 8, but you're 20000 exp ahead! Good for you. Suddenly Juvenile Red Dragon has a poor day and ruins yours by killing you. Poor show, Tim, poor show. Anyways, you die, and you magically re-appear in the Nexus in your pre-death condition, likely with ribs shooting out of your kneecaps and smelling of freshly charred moron! The 20,000 you had will turn into 10,000. This way you can never lose a level, but if you keep screwing up you'll inevitably hit a wall.

All of the heroes in the Nexus are capable of having this happen to them, but there *is* a catch. Every single time an npc dies, they suffer a 2% chance of becoming "Crestfallen". What this means is that the NPC loses the will to do anything, and it is an effect on the mind. After a "Crestfallen" dies, they're soul is in too poor of shape to return, and that person is dead forever. The Crestfallen will actively seek dangerous situations to put them out of their misery, but if they're saved, the situation resets back to 2%.This stacks with each death.

In every single Bastion there is a tyrant of sorts. Sometimes multiple. At certain points it's very obvious who they are, but at the same time other areas are more cryptic. The chilling pass of Argosal? The lich. Hazrit? There are so many dragons you won't even be able to think of which one could be the nastiest. Each of these "Trants" or "Congresses" have *something* that's staving the fog away from them, or calling it to around their kingdoms. The whole point of the campaign is to get/destroy/learn what those are.

So Gentlemen? This isn't an invitation to the campaign at all, as it is still being debugged and tested, but I could still use your opinions. Suggestions, and tell-tel signs of whether or not I'm just screwing up here. So tell me.


So, in my self-titled campaign, "A Dirge for Everything" everyone's died at least once, and I was in the middle of making NPC after NPC, and writing them into the Adventure path file that I'm slowly developing with surgeon precision, and I was wondering. What would the forum goers think of Conrad?

His most notable equipment consists of the "Flask of Endless Grog" a play on the Flask of Endless Sake, and the lesser version of the pirate's eye patch.

As a rule of thumb he prefers to use his pistol, but can fight just fine with both it and the scimitar out. However, he isn't a high enough level to use the sword and gun feat, at least, not yet. As with all of my NPCs in the game, hardly any of them are fully optimized, as I tend to avoid that sort of thing. One of the Sorcerers in the campaign has a 18 strength and 16 charisma, but he prefers to swing around a rather large weapon with an endlss font of buffs.

back to Conrad. He has a familiar not listed here, as is usual with Buccaneers, and it's the Pirate's parrot, but we refer to it as a Mckaw, or however you spell that. Anything in particular you guys see or read that rubs you the wrong way?

Conrad Crunch:
"Conrad"
Human Gunslinger (Buccaneer) 5
CN Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +6; Senses Perception +9
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +4 Dex)
hp 39 (5d10+5)
Fort +5, Ref +8, Will +2
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 Scimitar +6 (+2) (1d6+1/18-20/x2) (While Dual-Wielding) and
. . Unarmed strike +5 (1d3/x2)
Ranged Masterwork Pistol +11 (+7) (1d8/x4) (While Dual-Wielding)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 14
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 19
Feats Deadly Aim -2/+4, Gunsmithing, Point Blank Shot, Quick Draw, Sea Legs, Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (Pistol)
Skills Acrobatics +14, Bluff +12, Climb +12, Intimidate +4, Perception +9, Swim +12
Languages Common
SQ deed: deadeye, deed: gunslinger initiative, deed: gunslinger's dodge (+2 ac), deed: pirate's jargon (dc 14), deed: seadog's gait, deed: utility shot, exotic pet, grit, liquid courage
Combat Gear Pirate's eye patch (1/day), Potion of cat's grace, Potion of cure moderate wounds (2); Other Gear +1 Studded leather armor, +1 Scimitar, Masterwork Pistol, Flask of endless Grog (1/day), Chain belt (empty), Hammer, Iron spike (5), Silk rope, 499 GP, 2 SP, 5 CP
--------------------
Special Abilities
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Deadly Aim -2/+4 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Deed: Deadeye (Ex) Use 1 grit per extra range increment to make a touch attack beyond the first.
Deed: Gunslinger Initiative (Ex) While have Grit, can use a free hand to draw a non-hidden firearm as part of the initiative check.
Deed: Gunslinger's Dodge (+2 AC) (Ex) Use 1 grit, immediately move 5 ft/drop prone to gain 1x/2x bonus to AC vs ranged attack.
Deed: Pirate's Jargon (DC 14) (Ex) Target must save or become confused for one round.
Deed: Seadog's Gait (Ex) Spend 1 grit point to ignore difficult terrain until end of turn.
Deed: Utility Shot While have grit, gain a variety of useful tricks with a firearm.
Exotic Pet (Ex) Gain evasion when pet is within 30 feet.
Grit (Ex) Gain a pool of points that are spent to fuel deeds, regained on firearm crit/killing blow.
Gunsmithing You can use a gunsmithing kit to craft/repair firearms and ammo.
Liquid Courage Gain grog points that can be used in place of grit points.
Pirate's eye patch (1/day) Cast either touch of the sea or expeditious retreat.
Point Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Quick Draw Draw weapon as a free action (or move if hidden weapon). Throw at full rate of attacks.

Fluff:
Conrad Hughes, buccaneer extraordinaire, and a scourge of the inner sea. A man with a dark complexion matched only by his coal-black bandana and even darker eye patch. Black stubble covers the man’s face, a grizzly storm of hair ready to burst forth if he ever decided to stop being clean cut. Typically bald and boisterous, the man is a fine enjoyer of many things, but one in particular. The spirits! Alcohol, brandy, sake, whiskey, bourbon, he’s tasted it all.
For the longest time, Conrad served as a pirate in the service of a captain, Hillenberg. Hillenberg was a man’s man, and a god among pirates. An Innumerable amount of ships at his control and even more at his boot among the various trading companies. Conrad was proud to be on one of the main ships, a giant, really. Capable of holding onto well over 400 men, the ships were impossible of size, giant arcs, they were.
Conrad climbed his way from deck washer, betting his left eye that he could kill his current captain in a fight with the scimitar. At that time, Conrad had never even used a sword, but had merely gotten tired of the work. In debt as a result of his gambling habits aboard the ship, all of his plunder would go to someone else. Ever greedy, he defeated the man, but as a sign of good faith, and happy of his new job, he carved out his own eye.
Given a gun, he was surprisingly accurate with it despite the arrival of the technology. A noble had shot him with it, but met his end at the man’s scimitar. Surprised at the effectiveness of the weapon, Conrad kept it. His feats of piracy went on and on, eventually tickling the ears of Hillenberg himself. The great captain delighted at such stories, and charged Conrad with the job of salvaging something he himself could not obtain.
Far away from the fleet, Conrad had kidnapped an Alchemist, a man by the name of Zire Halshack, to construct him a spelunking suit that could do the deed. The water was an eerie black that day, and a storm was coming in. They were at the edge of the Eye of Abendigo, a mighty torrent that had claimed 1000’s of bold ships that thought themselves capable of getting it.
Sinking below the sea, the water felt like gelatin, and barely moved. It was like ink, and through the suit it smelled of something wrong. The sun was blotted out as soon as he went under, yet he bravely sank to the bottom. He’d been given a harpoon gun, but figured it silly considering he couldn’t see a single thing beneath the water.
Above, a dark, merciless fog rolled in. A veritable mass of darkness followed close by foreboding. Just ahead of it, the fleet that was so far away had been running from it across the entirety of the sea. They were a great distance ahead of it, but the fact they were fleeing from it was far too obvious, as the giant ship that Hillenberg himself rode pulled beside the vessel. A peg leg made of Mithril stamped the boat as the man’s fat mass landed upon it.
Beneath the water, Conrad could see surprisingly well with the help of an alchemical light built into it. He saw horrible, horrible things, and the water was sapped of heat. As he shivered, he had fallen upon a capsized ship. His hands shivered as he searched amongst the vessel, eventually finding what he’d been looking for. An eery, deep-green glow a the bottom of platinum coins. He pulled the questionable mass from it. It had no form, yet he held it in his hands, and “Pocketed it” into the chest he’d arrived with.
The black seemed to follow him, yet stay at a distance as he went higher and higher. Coming out of the water, he was wrought with panic as he saw ships sinking in a veritable civil war. His ship was broken and falling, and to greet him as he arrived back was Hillenberg, surrounded with the dead of the ship. A long, foreign weapon stabbed him in the throat as the man ripped the chest from him. Slowly he lost consciousness as the inky blackness mixed with red as he hung from the string.
In his slow moments of death, he could see the fog staying where it had been, and the flesh peeling from the grand captain to reveal the same eery glow that he’d sought. Ghosts of many dead men stood as the storm of Abendigo arrived, and entire ships took on the glow. As his own boat capsized and he fell under, all the poor man can remember is feeling far too greedy, and seeing the green glow disappear like a dot. Just as his consciousness soon after…


So, I've got this place. A real, real nifty place, and I've just put together the map for it.

Now, when one thinks "Prison" they think of the usual; the Players have gotten into trouble, one of them, at least, and now they need to get out, yes? Well, this one's a break in, and it's not to rescue anyone.

There are 4 prisons in this complex, each one 7 floors high, and all of which feed down into an even danker, darker, wetter, more chemically tainted dungeon that eventually reaches far and deep down into the big bad.

I mean, there's even a sewer layer filled with alchemical toxins so ripe they make the whole place glow, despite there not being a light in the house. Don't even get me started on the Oozes and Alchemical Golems, and the ilk.

This post isn't about that, however, as there's a certain creature I'm very curious about, and one that I don't want to be instagibbed.

One of the PC's, through tom-foolery, has 2 bodies. The one he's currently using, aaaand the one that he left at the entrance to said prison. Good ol' Zeltos took an interest in said body, skulked about outside, and brought the corpse in. Needless to say he pumped it full of steroids and toxins, and that same PC's level 1 body ended up becoming a eerily familiar Zombie.

Now, there are some serious high points to this dear old zombie. One, the zombie has an intelligence of 3. He has his orders, he sticks to them. He patrols the halls of the Fourth prison constantly, without fatigue. Anything he finds outside of a prison cell, he carries back to it's cell and locks it accordingly.

His grip does electrical damage at a constant 2d6 per round. He has a spell-like ability equivalent of Shocking Grasp which he can only apply while grappled.

At the cost of being blinded via metal helmet, a reluctant side effect, his perception for sight based checks is down, but hearing is never better.

A weak, 14 will save frightful gaze attack as well.

To throw things on, and be as good as any other excuse as to why the man is mental, he also has Fast healing 2, via alchemical shenanigans.

This same person walks the prisons at all times in a leather coat, and is what I believe to be CR 9, on account of his rather abundant grapple CMB, as well as his constant presence. Obliteration is the only way to kill this person, really, and he's aware of that, and has special orders to fall across the railing when he dies, else he risk the inability to come back from his injuries.

This guy isn't a fight that happens all at once. He's not intelligent, so he would be glad to strangle a guy while he gets stabbed, but no, this fool seeks out the sounds of combat, whenever it first starts. This most likely occurs when the PC's first fight the ghouls in the prison, or the other guards that've been tainted in tandem.

So here's my question. Does anyone have suggestions as to what template this sounds familiar too? I like Zombie, but at the same time it doesnt legally allow feats. Also, how does the encounter sound? I figure he's the advancing wall of doom.

Also, before anyone says that he can't be killed because of the rafters thing, I understand. He's merely a method to dwindle resources that constantly makes it's way back, but the final combat with him takes place in a wider than usual area near the furnace on the bottom floor.

He also has DR 5 / piercing/bludgeoning/piercing


Discussion board! For all your questions and queries.


You awake, cold, and deaf. You can feel a hole in your chest, abrupt, and painful, beyond reason. The only thing from causing you go to unconscious once again is the very biting cold of the place you'd died. Slowly, the blood flows back into your eyes, and they flutter, opening wide along with a gasp of pain going freshly down your recently crushed windpipe.

Your head nearly lifts off of the floor as you repeatedly splutter, slowly gaining the all-too painful memories of what had literally just happened.

The yeti had approached you, and you'd just turned around fast enough to see a long claw pierce your heart, critically wounding you. It was a Yeti to end all Yetis, a massive thing.

The wound had immediately frozen over from the piercing, and you merely fell back into darkness as you saw the scarred face of your murderer, cloaked in white hair and glee.

As your eyes settled and the blur left, you get a look around. In distance, far above you, 2 blurry silhouettes, somewhat conjoined at the head, look down at you. Rotating your head, surprisingly moving rather well, you see to your right a man with short brown hair, less than an inch. His arms are crossed.

Your legs and arms still don't move, but you can raise your head just enough to see the hole in your chest slowly closing...

Your head, it pounds, over and over again, as your brain thaws. You can see the man's lips moving, but alas, your hearing has not returned. As soon as you realize this, you feel your fingers twitch a bit as the heat, the sweet succor of the blood moving, rush through them and the feeling returns.

You take a few stabs at talking for a bit, and eventually get to the point where you can make full words rather easily, something that tells you again that you can hear now. Still in a daze, you catch the man's words,

"-eet gods, man, has your hearing still not returned?" he asks, taking note of your suddenly wide eyes. "Oh good, you can finally hear me..." he says, hardly audible above the high pitched ringing.

Behind his words you hear the soft playing of a Piano, absolutely pristine playing, to make things even better, although the tune could certainly be happier...

The man continues; "Listen boy, my name is Bagrin. You're in the Nexus now, and your body is currently reconstituting to the new... conditions. Sit tight, alright?" he asks, as you feel your arms slowly start to warm. It wouldn't be long now... just what have you gotten yourself into this time?


I've been doting on a term that I can't seem to place, and hell, if it needs made up, then I'm all for ideas.

I recently started a campaign where, in my players backstories, they were required to have died. Some of them picked noble deaths, and others picked gruesome, tragic ends.

No skin off my ass of course, as they all ended up in the nexus, but there's where my problem begins.

One such player, a person living in the chilling pass of Argosal, and most definitely not a kitsune, i'm serious, hana, died. They died at Argosal's front gates, and what better for a Lich to do with a dead body than raise it? But here's where things get tricky.

When my players died, the Nexus had been running for quite some time. Their souls drifted far up, and got to the Astral plane, a point where they would change directions and head for their respective alignment. Here is where the complication begins.

The soul ended up funneling through the nexus, an unfortunate fact, for them, as it's what started the whole campaign, but they went through the soul font, got caught, and the energies that be grabbed the soul out of the trap and crushed it where it was.

The crushed soul fell to the ground, sprinkled, if you will, onto the ground where it slowly took the form of the person in question, a moment just before its death. In this person's case, his leg snapped back into place, along with his completely turned head. One of the more unruly brute wights gave him quite the indian burn... to his face.

Anyways, the weird part, is that his body Didn't go anywhere on the material plane. He is fully capable of walking back up the pass, looking down at his body, and losing his mind as a result. One of the side effects happens to be that if you stare at your dead body, it's as if you came under the effects of a haunt. A rather high will save, too.

So here's the thing.

What would you call this? The body isn't capable of being affected by resurrection as the soul is destroyed, yet the body, while somewhat incorporeal in the Nexus, is corporeal and normal everywhere else. The Body is still affectable by animate dead spells, or other things that don't much require a soul.

I've fancied the idea that they're just Ether taken raw form, but they're most definitely not undead, ectoplasmic, ghosts, or anything of that sort.

As of this moment I'm just referring to them as Aetherlings, as "Aether" is apparently what they're made of. I was merely wondering what they could also be referred to as, outside of that.

Suggestions?


I've been doting on a term that I can't seem to place, and hell, if it needs made up, then I'm all for ideas.

I recently started a campaign where, in my players backstories, they were required to have died. Some of them picked noble deaths, and others picked gruesome, tragic ends.

No skin off my ass of course, as they all ended up in the nexus, but there's where my problem begins.

One such player, a person living in the chilling pass of Argosal, and most definitely not a kitsune, i'm serious, hana, died. They died at Argosal's front gates, and what better for a Lich to do with a dead body than raise it? But here's where things get tricky.

When my players died, the Nexus had been running for quite some time. Their souls drifted far up, and got to the Astral plane, a point where they would change directions and head for their respective alignment. Here is where the complication begins.

The soul ended up funneling through the nexus, an unfortunate fact, for them, as it's what started the whole campaign, but they went through the soul font, got caught, and the energies that be grabbed the soul out of the trap and crushed it where it was.

The crushed soul fell to the ground, sprinkled, if you will,


Alright, so, stat wise, I may have made the most hideously debunked fighter in the history of ever. Barring severe mental issues, of course. That being said, here's Dmitri Mavis; a hideously devout fighter in the service of a sadomasochist lawful evil paragon of female domination and subjugation.

Dmitri Mavis:

Dmitri Mavis (Legacy of Fire)
Male Human Fighter (Unbreakable) 1
LE Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +1 Dex)
hp 16 (1d10+6)
Fort +5 (+4 vs. hot or cold environments and to resist damage from suffocation), Ref +1, Will +1
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee Scythe +2 (2d4+1/x4) and
Unarmed strike +2 (1d3+1/x2)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 12, Dex 12, Con 17, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 16
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 13
Feats Diehard, Endurance, Persuasive, Toughness +3
Traits Ease of Faith, Missionary (Knowledge [religion])
Skills Acrobatics -3 (-7 jump), Bluff +5, Climb -3, Diplomacy +12, Escape Artist -3, Fly -3, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +6, Knowledge (religion) +7, Ride -3, Sense Motive +2, Stealth -3, Swim -3 (+1 to resist nonlethal damage from exhaustion)
Languages Abyssal, Common, Infernal
SQ silver tongued
Other Gear Breastplate, Scythe, Fighter's kit, 9 GP
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Diehard You are stable and can choose how to act when at negative Hp.
Endurance +4 to a variety of skill checks. Sleep in L/M armor with no fatigue.
Silver Tongued You can shift a creature's attitude by three steps with Diplomacy.

Dmitri is a character I have for a Legacy of fire campaign, which, oddly enough, the DM allowed an Anti Paladin in. No complaints, of course, as it's one of the few classes that work particularly well with the character's personality, something I'm namely interested in more than metagaming.

That aside, I was wondering if the lovely members of the paizo boards would be able to help me, as I need help with two things:

-The group just went through the lab below the church in the first part of the AP, and of all things;

Spoiler:
he became the moldspeaker
or whatever that means. So yeah, the debauchery loving, sadomasochist just decided it'd be nice to become critical to a plot device. I haven't read anything on LoF, so I have no idea what that means for him.

Apparently I've been getting a few headaches involving the courtyard about

Spoiler:
Tempest
. Yet another thing I have no clue on.

That aside does anyone have any suggestions on future feats, and how would a much-beloved servant go about his ascension into antipaladinhood?

My original idea was to just go into the lab, close the door, lock it, and then just have him cut himself to ribbons while he asked for power and repeatedly spoke in abyssal about how good a servant he'd been. (Although, a little beta about it.)

So yeah. That.


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Hello everyone and welcome to a small quest I've made for a small group of players. 5 Level 2's are going to be doing this, making them APL 3, and all of them seem to be more than capable, each easily having more than 20 point buy.

So let me take a moment to post exactly what these 5 people are, and give the gist of their stats.

Paladin:

Tera Flinders
Female Angel-Blooded Aasimar (Angelkin) Paladin (Warrior of the Holy Light) 2
LG Medium Outsider (native)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 20, touch 11, flat-footed 19 (+7 armor, +2 shield, +1 Dex)
hp 25 (2d10+9)
Fort +11, Ref +5, Will +8
Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee Heavy Shield Bash +7 (1d4+5/x2) and
. . Halberd +7 (1d10+7/x3) and
. . Masterwork Bastard sword +8 (1d10+5/19-20/x2)
Special Attacks smite evil (1/day)
Spell-Like Abilities Alter Self (1/day), Detect Evil (At will)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 20, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 19
Base Atk +2; CMB +7; CMD 18
Feats Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard sword)
Traits Blessed Touch, Hard to Kill
Skills Acrobatics -6 (-10 jump), Climb -2, Diplomacy +9, Escape Artist -6, Fly -6, Heal +7, Perform (sing) +6, Ride -6, Sense Motive +6, Stealth -6, Swim -2; Racial Modifiers +2 Heal
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic
SQ aura of good, lay on hands (1d6+1) (5/day)
Other Gear Masterwork Banded mail, Heavy wooden shield, Halberd, Masterwork Bastard sword, Backpack (empty), Holy symbol of Iomedae, 10 GP, 5 SP
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Aura of Good (Ex) The paladin has an Aura of Good with power equal to her class level.
Blessed Touch Heal +1 damage when using lay on hands, channeling energy, or casting a cure spell.
Damage Resistance, Acid (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Acid attacks.
Damage Resistance, Cold (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Cold attacks.
Damage Resistance, Electricity (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Electricity attacks.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Detect Evil (At will) (Sp) You can use detect evil at will (as the spell).
Hard to Kill When dying, your penalty to stabilize is only 1/2 your negative Hp.
Lay on Hands (1d6+1) (5/day) (Su) You can heal 1d6+1 damage, 5/day
Smite Evil (1/day) (Su) +4 to hit, +2 to damage, +4 deflection bonus to AC when used.

Abjurer Wizard:

Bannon the Abjurer
Male Human Wizard 2
LN Medium humanoid
Init +1; Perception +6
-Defense---------------------------------
AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10
hp 15 (2d6+ [6+1, 3.5+1] + 2 favored)
Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +6
-Offense---------------------------------
Spd 30 ft.
Melee Quarterstaff +1(1d6+1/1d6+1;double,monk| x2)
Ranged Light Xbow +1(1d8/19-20 x2)

Wizard Spells Known (concentration +6, CL 2nd)
1st (4/day) - Adjuring Step, Hold Portal(DC 16), Protection from Evil, Peacebond (DC 16), Mage Armor, Charm Person(DC 15), Sleep(DC 15), Disguise Self, Vanish

-Statistics------------------------------
Str 12, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 19, Wis 16, Cha 16
Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 13
Feats: Scribe Scroll, Eschew Materials, Spell Focus(Abjuration +1 DC)
Skills: Appraise +8, Fly +1, Knowledge [All] +8, Linguistics +8, Spellcraft +9, All skills listed are class skills
Traits: Focused Mind [+2 Concentration], Diplomat [+1 diplomacy / sense motive]
Languages Common, Celestial, Infernal, Elven, Dwarven, Aklo
Combat Gear quarterstaff, light crossbow, 10 bolts,
Special Abilities:
Resistance You gain resistance 5 to an energy type of your choice, chosen when you prepare spells. This resistance can be changed each day
Protective Ward (Su): 10 ft. radius, +1 Deflection AC; 4 Rounds [ 7 Uses]

Cad 1 Gunslinger 1:

Roman Tsarko
Male middle-aged Human Fighter* (cad) 1/Gunslinger (pistolero) 1
CN Medium humanoid (human)
Initiative +3; Senses: Perception +8
*favored class (+1 skill point)
==== Defense ====
AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+3 dex, +4 armor)
HP 20 (2d10+4)
Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +3
Special defenses: gunslinger’s dodge

==== Offense ====
Speed 30 feet
Melee mwk longsword +5 (1d8+2, 19/20x2)
Ranged pistol +5 (1d8, x4)
Special attacks up close and deadly 1d6

==== Statistics ====
Str 14, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 16, Car 12
BA +2; CMB +4; CMD 17

Feats: Gunsmithing, Rapid reload (pistol), Point-blank shot, Combat Expertise
Skills: Bluff +6, Climb +6*, Craft [alchemy] +6, Intimidate +6, Perception +8, Sense Motive +5, Sleight of hand +7*, Stealth +7*, Survival +7
* -1 armor check penalty

Languages: Common, Dwarven, Regional dialect
Traits: Killer, Armor expert
SQ: Human racial traits, Grit (3/3), Deeds (quick clear, up close and deadly, gunslinger’s dodge)

==== Gear ====:
Clothes and armor:
chain shirt (100 gp)
explorer’s outfit (10 gp)
fine leather hat (5 gp)
Weapons:
masterwork longsword (315 gp)
dagger (2 gp)
pistol (free)
bandolier (5 sp) containing
15 doses of gunpowder (150 gp)
15 bullets (15 gp), 3 cold iron bullets (6 gp), 3 silver bullets (9 gp), 1 pitted bullet (5 gp)
Miscellaneous equipment
gunslinger’s kit (backpack containing: bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, gunsmith’s kit, iron pot, mess kit, powder horn, rope, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), waterskin) (26 gp)
harmonica (5 gp)
potion of cure light wounds (50 gp)
Iron pellet grenade (50 gp)
Flask of acid (10 gp)


Bit strange, I know, but it seems to work.

Two Handed Fighter:

Bromen Spelllbane
Male Dwarven Fighter (Two-Handed) 2
NG Medium Humanoid (Dwarf)
Init +4; Senses Darkvision 60’, Perception + 4 (+6 w stonecunning)
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 22 (1d10 +3 Con) (max @ 1, avg @ 2)
SR 7
Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +2; +2 trait bonus vs charm and compulsion effects
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee
Dorn Dergar +6 (1d10+3/x2)
Light Hammer +4 (1d4+2/x2)
Dagger +4 (1d4+2, 19/20/x2)
Ranged
Dwarven Arrow (Light Hammer) +4 (1d4+2/x2) range 20
Dagger +4 (1d4+2, 19/20/x2) range 10

--------------------
Statistics
--------------------

Str 14, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 15, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB +4 (+6 on bullrush, +8 on overrun, +5 on sunder); CMD 16 (17 vs sunder)
Feats Power Attack (L1), Improved Overrun (F1), Weapon Focus: Dorn Dergar (F2),
Traits
- Birthmark (+2 trait bonus on all saving throws against charm and compulsion effects, mark can be used as divine focus)
- Reactionary ( +2 Initiative)
Languages Common, Dwarven, Draconic

Bard:

Hana Miyahara
Female kitsune bard 2
CN Medium humanoid (kitsune, shapechanger)
Init +5; Senses low-light vision, Perception +6
-Defense---------------------------------
AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+4 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 15 (2d8+2 [8, 4.5+1)
Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +4; +4 vs. bardic performance, language-dependent and sonic
-Offense---------------------------------
Spd 30 ft.
Melee masterwork rapier +2 (1d6/18-20 x2), bite -5 (1d4) or bite +1 (1d4), dagger +1 (1d4/19-20 x2),
Ranged masterwork short bow +5 (1d6/20 x3) or +6 (1d6+1/20 x3)
Special Attacks bardic performance 9 rounds/day (inspire courage +1, countersong, distraction, fascinate)
Bardic Spells Known (concentration +5, CL 2nd)
1st (3/day) - sleep (DC 15), hideous laughter (DC 15(DC 16)), silent image (DC 14)
0th - daze (DC 14), detect magic, lullaby (DC 14), prestidigitation, mending
Kitsune Spell-Like Abilities (concentration +5, CL 2nd)
3/day - dancing lights
-Statistics------------------------------
Str 11, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 17
Base Atk +1; CMB +0; CMD 13
Feats Point Blank Shot
Skills Acrobatics +8, Bluff +8*, Diplomacy +8, Disguise +7 (+17 to pretend to be human), Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +7, Knowledge (local) +7, Knowledge (religion) +7, Linguistics +6, Perception +6, Perform (sing) +8, Sense Motive +8*, Spellcraft +6, Stealth +7, Use Magic Device +7 All skills listed are class skills, * denotes versatile performance
Traits Reactionary, Charming
Languages Common, Sylvan, Aklo, Abyssal, Giant
SQ bardic knowledge +1, versatile performance (sing, bluff/sense motive)
Combat Gear dagger, masterwork composite short bow, 40 arrows, leather armor consumables under gear below
Special Abilities change shape (standard), kitsune magic (+1 DC to enchantment spells), agile (+2 acrobatics)

Alright so with that, let's look at the quest. I'd very much like you to reply, assuming you actually read all of this, and tell me what seems the most dangerous.

Backstory
The NPC's arrive at the Nexus, a creation of Keeper Argus, a wizard with very little time for socializing. Unaware of the Wizard's existence, the PC's venture around the Nexus, meeting the friendly NPC's and learning much about their new home, eventually meeting the local craftsmen.

One particular craftsmen is Blacksmith Arcus, a Dwarf from the mountainous region of Hazrit. After careful explanations by the local Apothecary, Marco, the Half-Elf Jeweler Finelia, and the Dwarf himself, the PC's agree to assist Arcus in the return of his magical tools.

A Wyrmling's Tools

The tools are currently in the clutches of a red wyrmling, the same creature that killed Arcus and sent him to the Nexus. The wyrmling decided that he enjoyed the Dwarfs smithy, and has since made it it's den, the dwarves skeletal frame still sitting in the corner of the area outside, a warning.

That's not all, however, as the NPC's, upon leaving for Hazrit, show up at the pass-stone, an Archway of sorts that only Aether-made things are capable of seeing. Underneath a cliff, some stone stairs have actually fallen away from the cliff-side, along with the railing. Not to difficult to pass, however.

Upon climbing onto the broader cliff, the arid ground of the mountains crumbles underfoot, though not dangerously. Following the pass, the players arrive upon an abandoned mining facility that doubles as a construction sight. Here, the PC's encounter their first set of problems, and namely, a rather rough encounter.

The local Ogre, banished from his family for various reasons, has taken refuge in the local area rather recently, and is never alluded to by Arcus, the smith.

At the time of doing this, Bolgar, the Ogre, is sleeping up in an overlook of the mining sight in a rather filthy bed. Make-shift hammers and horrible tools that don't even make sense are everywhere. If the PC's fail to force open the door, (A strength check of 26, or a disable device of 18, the Ogre gets a free perception check, 15, to hear the PC's trying to get in. If they spend more than 3 rounds, the Ogre is more than ready after donning his scrapyard armor, a makeshift suit of splint-mail.

Bolgar, Scrapyard Hero, CR 4 Encounter

Spoiler:

Bolgar CR 4
XP 1500
Ogre Fighter 1
CE Large Humanoid (giant)
Init -1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +6
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 20, touch 8, flat-footed 20 (+7 armor, -1 Dex, -1 size, +5 natural)
hp 47 (1d10+4d8+21)
Fort +9, Ref +0, Will +3
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee Gauntlet (from Armor) +8 (1d4+5/x2) and
Great Pick +8 (2d8+7/x2) and
4 Javelin +4 (1d8+5/x2) and
Unarmed strike +8 (1d4+5/x2)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 21, Dex 8, Con 16, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 7
Base Atk +4; CMB +10; CMD 19
Feats Cleave, Iron Will, Power Attack -2/+4, Toughness +5
Skills Acrobatics -8, Climb +3, Escape Artist -8, Fly -10, Perception +6, Ride -8, Stealth -12, Swim -2
Languages Giant
Other Gear Splint mail, Greatclub, 4 Scrapyard Javelins.
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Cleave If you hit a foe, attack an adjacent target at the same attack bonus but take -2 AC.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
--------------------
Tactics
--------------------
Bolgar is rather lazy, save for when it comes to touching up his armor or constructing his make-shift javelins to throw at the local goblin community. If the players decide to enter the structure he's in with access to the nearby bridge, he don's his armor and prepares an attack with his pick, rather certain he's going to catch one of them flat in the chest. (The pick is a recolored Greatclub made to do piercing damage)

If the PC's break the bridge, Bolgar comes out of his structure shortly, and audibly. He'll run down from his hill, forfeiting every bit of surprise and cursing the group the whole way for "Hurting the bridge" he'll also hurl javelins starting from 4 range increments away, pulling out his pick and fighting shortly after with the pick.

Bolgar will also attack the PC's no matter how the bridge falls, whether it breaks or the PC's actually get it to work, as both are easy to hear happening from his watching area, even if he's asleep. The rust sound is unnerving.

If the PC's can't, for the life of them, get the bridge working from ground level, Bolgar will actually strike a deal with them, saying "I'll let the bridge down if yoo get rid of dose rust monsters. Dey keep breaking stuff." This is only if the players Diplomacize him as he prepares to swing his pick from inside the building, however. They have to hear him moving first, but that's only a 10 perception check, as he's rather heavy and clanky in that armor.

Bolgar literally answers with "Nobodies home!" if asked who's inside the control room.

If reduced below 15 health, Bolgar will drop all of his weapons and beg for mercy. Provided the PC's let him go, he'll most likely climb down the cliff-side and become a recurring character, though, he'll never pick a fight with the PC's ever again.
--------------------

A1 - The Control Room - Overlooking the entire facility is the control room which houses Bolgar. Outside of the room, the most notable thing is that the original door has been thrown all the way to the middle of the path that leads up to it, and has been replaced with 2 rather large doors that are a bit clunky and hard to open. (DC 26 Strength check to force, DC 20 Disable device, if only because the lock is so clunky.)

Inside the first room, a rather musty smell hits the players in the face, though it's nothing too awful. From here, there's only 1 door that leads to another room, but the current room, barring a 20 perception check, reveals about 72 gold pieces under a destroyed bench. The other door is not locked, but is rather large, just like the previous door. It's so shoddy and rusted that opening it stealthily takes a -5 to the check. On the other side is the Ogre, sleeping, with no armor on at all, and far away from his weapons in the next room.

If Bolgar is encountered asleep, he's groggy upon waking up and isn't even aware he's in any danger if the PC's don't try to actively hurt him. At this point he's indifferent, and diplomacizing him is at it's easiest, but after the PC's first few words, he's immediately furious at the fact that people have broken into his territory and flails wildly, despite a lack of equipment, making sure to cleave and power attack as much as possible. This room is favorable for this, actually, as there's only enough room inside for Bolgar and 5 other creatures.

In the next room, which has no door to it, is Bolgar's large suit of Scrapyard Armor, worth about 280 gold, if only in raw material. It weighs just short of 300 pounds. Also in this room, and vastly more important, is the second lever to bring down the local bridge safely. This lever also has the words "Right, not left" etched in it in giant. This alludes to the fact that the lever on the right on the ground level in the facility brings down the bridge safely, though, it tells that just as well.

A2 - The Facility - Down here at the facility itself are destroyed cranes, torn apart railroad tracks, and a boarded up cave with a sign that says "Yep" on front, carved in giant. (See A3). The most important thing in the facility, which covers about 80 feet in length, and about 25 feet in width on the nearby cliff edge (A dangerous place to be bull rushed, as the fall is well over 80 feet), is the 2 levers near the raised, iron bridge.

Now, the bridge is something that can be traversed rather simply. More agile characters can climb to the top, barring a 12 climb check, made simple by the multitude of holes in it from something playing target practice (Bolgar. One of the Javelins he couldn't retrieve is actually still in the top of the bridge, and makes a very easy portion to hold onto.). A daring player can handle the 20 foot fall by making a 5 acrobatics check to land on the other side of the otherwise 20 foot jump, by jumping off the top of the bridge.

Option B is to traverse the ravine beneath the bridge, which currently has a small stream 20 feet below leading to a point much later, though, it's a 15 climb to traverse the wall down. Or a 30 foot fall. This area actually dries up quickly, and has 2 rust monsters more than just a little bit hungry. These rust monsters will also climb up almost immediately if the bridge is lowered and start to eat it as well.

Recap on Bridge
Round 1 - Bridge lowering
Round 2 - Bridged lowering
Round 3 - Rust monsters appear on side of bridge after scaling cliff
Round 4 - Bolgar makes prescence known
Round 5 - Bolgar running, Rust monsters eating
Round 6 - Bolgar starts chucking Javelins
Round 7 - Javelins and Eating
Round 8 - Bridge buckles Bolgar arrives rust monsters and anyone on bridge fall 30 feet.
------------------------

Barring that, the lever on the ground actually has 2 levers. The shorter left lever has, written in dwarven, "Emergency Drop" which will immediately drop the bridge, though the restraints will snap (Noticeable by Knowledge: Engineering 18 check) and have a chance to just break it. Fortunately, for the more agile, the bridge' main beam stays true, and allows someone to traverse it with a 14 acrobatics. The reflex to not fall off due to a failed acrobatics check is 12, otherwise they fall 30 feet. The second lever reads "Control room inquiry" which, if pulled, alarms the nearby control room, thus waking up Olgar who will come inspect what's going on.

A3 - The Cave - Despite being boarded up, the PC's will likely have their curiosities get the better of them. The cave here is wide enough at the opening, but it seems as though someone (Bolgar) got lazy with the opening of it. This cave is actually the *reason* the mine was abandoned, as inside, is a Gemhide troll. (A variant on the Rock troll that, surprisingly, has rather valuable gem-like growths coming out of it's back. It also has +2 natural armor as a result of these hard protrusions.)

This troll is mindless, and for the most part, simply stays in it's corner well hidden. On the way inside there are plenty of dead rust monsters strewn across the floor. Players will have to squeeze for about 15 feet before the room opens up. In this room is actually a rather decent-sized bit of Onyx, a rare gem, in the side of a wall. The gem itself is worth 450 gold, if only because of it's sheer size. The gem serves to punish the greedy, or those that were blackmailed by Rodrick, earlier.

Starving Gemhide Troll CR 5

Spoiler:

Gemhide Troll CR 5
XP 2500
Variant Troll, Rock
CE Large Humanoid (earth, giant)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +5
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 20, touch 9, flat-footed 20 (+2 armor, -1 size, +9 natural)
hp 63 (7d8+28); regeneration 5 (acid or sonic)
Fort +9, Ref +2, Will +2
Weakness sunlight petrification
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee Bite (Troll, Rock) +8 (1d8+4/x2) and
Claw x2 (Troll, Rock) +9 x2 (1d6+4/x2) and
Rend x2 (Troll, Rock) +8 x2 (1d6+6/x2) and
Unarmed strike +8 (1d4+4/x2)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 19, Dex 10, Con 18, Int 3, Wis 7, Cha 4
Base Atk +5; CMB +10; CMD 20
Feats Intimidating Prowess, Iron Will, Power Attack -2/+4, Weapon Focus (Claw)
Skills Climb +8, Fly -2, Intimidate +6, Perception +5, Stealth -4
Languages Giant
Other Gear You have no money!
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Regeneration 5 (Acid or Sonic) Heal HP quickly and cannot die.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ feet by sense of smell.
Sunlight Petrification (Ex) A rock troll that is exposed to natural sunlight is staggered and must make a DC 20 Fortitude save each round to resist permanently turning to stone. A stone to flesh spell (or similar effect) restores a petrified rock troll, but if it remains expose
--------------------
Side Note: The rock troll here (As it's original color) is suffering from strength and con loss, as constant hunger has significantly hurt it. This makes the fight a lot less ridiculous. If you hadn't noticed before, the same troll has no fast-healing, unless it manages to eat a player, or one of their companions.
--------------------

Completing this area allows the players to stay on the pass for about 2 more hours before it completely ends and leads into a cave that goes deeper into the side of the mountain. This area is not lit, and is the reason that every fight that takes place in here, save for the one against the wyrmling himself, is treated as higher Cr.

As the players travel, they should take the time to note that on the way, 1 single Hollow Dwarf is picking away mindlessly at a wall. If they're carrying the Onyx, it should attack, but otherwise it pays them no mind. It will attack if bothered, however.

B2 - The Deep Cave - One of the first things your players should notice upon entering this area is the consistent sounds of pickaxes on stone. Players capable of seeing can easily see 5 level 2 hollowed dwarves, all of whom are shadows of their former selves. Their beards are all solid white and covered in dust, their eyes are milky white, and they're 2 shades from being undead. The effects they're currently under have rendered them mindless, though, not berserk. All of the dwarves here are subject to compulsion spells that bypass their mindless quality.

The Dwarves actively seek items worth more than 80 gold in raw materials. The dwarves, eerily enough, will turn to look at the PC's as they come down. They'll each make separate appraisal checks. This is the moment where it's very bad to be carrying the Onyx stone mentioned previously, as any dwarf worth anything will immediately notice it for what it is.

These mindless hooligans have a special ability known as "Smiteful Greed" which may as well be titled "Smite that guy with Valuebles." If a Hollow dwarf sees that you're carrying something of value, it activates this ability and gains a +3 to it's attack rolls, damage rolls, and a -1 to it's armor class.

Hollow dwarves are immune to the effects of restoration, and may only be rendered sentient by a lesser wish or higher. Miracle works just as well.

5 Hollow Dwarves - Cr 4 Encounter

Spoiler:

Hollow Dwarf CR 1/2
XP 200
Dwarf Expert 2
CN Medium Humanoid (dwarf)
Init -1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception -1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 12, touch 9, flat-footed 12 (+3 armor, -1 Dex)
hp 14 (2d8+4)
Fort +1, Ref -1, Will +2; +2 vs. poison, spells, and spell-like abilities
Defensive Abilities defensive training
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee Heavy pick +5 (1d6+6/x4) and
Unarmed strike +5 (1d3+4/x2)
Special Attacks hatred
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 18, Dex 8, Con 12, Int 1, Wis 8, Cha 8
Base Atk +1; CMB +5; CMD 14 (14 vs. Bull Rush, 14 vs. Trip)
Feats Skill Focus (Appraise)
Skills Acrobatics -2 (-6 jump), Appraise +8 (+10 to determine the price of nonmagic items with precious metals or gemstones), Climb +7, Escape Artist -2, Fly -2, Perception -1 (+1 to notice unusual stonework, such as traps and hidden doors in stone walls or floors), Ride -2, Stealth -2, Swim +3
Languages Common, Dwarven
SQ greed, hardy, slow and steady, stability, stonecunning +2
Other Gear Studded leather armor, Heavy pick, You have no money!
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Defensive Training +4 Gain a dodge bonus to AC vs monsters of the Giant subtype.
Greed +2 to Appraise checks to determine the price of nonmagical goods that contain precious metals or gemstones.
Hardy +2 Gain a racial bonus to saves vs Poison, Spells and Spell-Like effects.
Hatred +1 Gain a racial bonus to attacks vs Goblinoids/Orcs.
Slow and Steady Your base speed is never modified by encumbrance.
Stability +4 Gain bonus to CMD vs bull rush/trip while standing on ground.
Stonecunning +2 +2 bonus to Perception vs unusual stonework. Free check within 10 feet.
Smiting Greed +3 to Attack and Damage rolls, -1 to AC.
Avarice +6 profane bonus to appraise checks.
-------------------
Tactics
-------------------
Hollow Dwarves attack only for the prospect of easy worth. If a hollow dwarf notes a lack of valuebles, it doesn't attack, but if it does, they attack ferociously. If one hollow Dwarf attacks, they all do.

Hollow Dwarves fight to the death.

B3 - The Smithy - The first thing to make note of in the smithy is that the red Wyrmling has notably made a bed of coals in the furnace, enjoying it's new garnered fire immunity. This actually hides it from the players, as it lounges in the flames.

Unfortunately, the Wyrmling possesses plenty of magical items to make the trip worth coming for, namely a Ring of Protection +1, A iron wand with 14 charges of Alarm left, and a Evoker's spellbook, which it has taken a mighty interest in. The tools the blacksmith want are scattered around the room, but a DC 19 search will reveal every single one of them, as every single one is masterwork and worth 300 gold each by itself.

If a player comes by to investigate the burning furnace, he will most likely be subject to the wyrmling's breathe attack, as it doesn't take kindly to interruptions or intrusions upon it's territory. After doing this, it will climb to the top of the furnace and diplomacize the players, if possible.

A perception check will reveal that he didn't just fly up top like he could have, and instead climbed. 12 perception.

Part of the reason the wyrmling doesn't just outright attempt to kill the players is because it's right wing is wounded, as, someone can around earlier in the week and harmed him. This means he's all up for diplomacy, and revealing a little more about the plot behind Hazrit.

The red wyrmling will bargain, provided you have the giant piece of Onyx. While he's happy to have all these worthwhile tools, he claims that they're not impressive, and that it would prefer a single more pricey piece to add to it's collection. A sense motive of 18 reveals that the dragon is not, in fact, bargaining, but rather, worried.

Calling the wyrmling's bluff causes it to reveal that occasionally a rather cruel, subserviant human comes to the area frequently to gather the tax. The dragon will also reveal that it was this same human that hurt his wing. He describes the human as "A rather atrocious, scaled woman." Knowledge checks will reveal that that sounds more like a Vishkanya, to which the dragon will just laugh and say "You all look the same." She apparently is only interested in gems, and not tools, despite their worth.

Trading the Onyx here will set the players back on gold, award them 200 experience each, but ensure that all 6 people (including the dragon) live happily ever after. The players will most likely be hurt by this point, unless they decide to rest on the way there.

Talking more and more to the dragon will reveal plenty about the subplot behind Hazrit, namely that a mighty Wyrm has taken over the entire mountain range and frequently scours other dragon's hordes. The wyrmling is fortunate, as the Vishkanya lady seems to dislike killing younger dragons.

If the players can somehow dispel the alarms on the way there, and not aggrivate the dwarves on the way down, the dragon will actually be in the process of entering the furnace as you open the door to the room. This gives the more sneaky players the option of locking the furnace door, giving plenty good of a bargaining chip.

There's nothing to stop the players from just picking up the equipment at this point and walking out, leaving the dragon there, but the dragon has more than enough strength to open the bars with a 20 roll, which it will most likely take. If the players do this and attempt to flee, the Wyrmling will not care about it's wing as it will be too furious with the previous incident. Despite having a +6 on fly checks as a result, the dragon will still attempt a passing fire breath on the players in the open cliff side. After this, it lands, and fights to the death.

Another, slightly more odd option is to give the dragon a healing potion, which will immediately up it's attitude 1 step above indifferent. 2 if the player has a silver tongue. It will still want to trade the 4 tools for the Onyx, but it will only want the onyx, instead of equal value. This would garner a plenty strong ally in the future, but, he would still need bribed. The Wyrmling's name is Gargigect.

The Great Wyrmling Gargigect - Cr 7

Spoiler:

Gargigect CR 7
XP 3200
Advanced Dragon, Red, Wyrmling
CE Small Dragon (fire)
Init +8; Senses blindsense, darkvision 120 ft., dragon senses, low-light vision; Perception +12
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 23, touch 15, flat-footed 19 (+4 Dex, +1 size, +8 natural)
hp 73 (7d12+28)
Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +9
Immune fire, paralysis, sleep
Weakness vulnerability to cold
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 40 ft., flight (150 feet, average)
Melee Bite (Advanced Dragon, Red, Wyrmling) +13 (1d6+7/x2) and
Claw x2 (Advanced Dragon, Red, Wyrmling) +13 x2 (1d4+5/x2) and
Unarmed strike +13/+8 (1d2+5/x2)
Special Attacks breath weapon (20-ft. cone, 2d10 fire, every 1d4 rounds.
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 21, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 14, Wis 15, Cha 14
Base Atk +7; CMB +11; CMD 25 (29 vs. Trip)
Feats Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack -2/+4, Vital Strike
Skills Acrobatics +4 (+8 jump), Appraise +12, Bluff +12, Climb +11, Fly +16 (+6 due to broken wing), Intimidate +12, Perception +12, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +18, Use Magic Device +9
Languages Draconic
Other Gear Wand of Alarm (14 charges) Ring of Protection +1, Evoker's spellbook, +1 Longsword, 1 broken suit of full plate, a small crown with missing inlaid gems, 3 small rubies worth 300 total gold, and a small diamond worth 215. 78 gold pieces lie scattered about the room, but a neat pile of 382 silver pieces are in the corner.
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Blindsense (60 feet) (Ex) Sense things and creatures without seeing them.
Breath Weapon (20-ft. cone, 2d10 fire, every 1d4 rounds, Ref half) (DC 17) Using a breath weapon is a standard action. A dragon can use its breath weapon once every 1d4 rounds, even if it possesses more than one breath weapon. A breath weapon always starts at an intersection adjacent to the dragon and extends in a direction
Darkvision (120 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Dragon Senses (Ex) See four times as well as a human in dim light and twice as well in normal light.
Flight (150 feet, Average) You can fly!
Immunity to Fire You are immune to fire damage.
Immunity to Paralysis You are immune to paralysis.
Immunity to Sleep You are immune to sleep effects.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Vital Strike Standard action: x2 weapon damage dice.
Vulnerability to Cold You are vulnerable (+50% damage) to Cold damage.
--------------------
Special note: Gargigect is a truly wonderful red wyrmling, gene wise. He's got the Advanced Template, making him much more strong than a small wyrmling should be, and given the chance to grow, would be a wonderful tyrant among red dragons. He is fond of taking out squishier characters first, or those with access to range, but he'll likely do his best to flee when brought just below a 1/3rd of his health as a result of his inability to fly well. He will most likely harbor a grudge and arrive at an inopportune time, later.
--------------------

What do you guys think? It's the first quest my PC's are going on and it's made from scratch. They're all level 2, but rolled rather well. Suggestion would be great.

The group of 5 level 2's are rather strong for their rolls, which was surprising, and so I was thinking of being a bit more rough. This quest takes into account their personalities, collectively.

I was wondering, from a player's perspective, which of these encounters looks the most dangerous, and which one's need spiced up? The Wyrmling is meant to be the head-honcho of the encounter, but diplomacy might fix that. The Troll is certainly the bruiser of the bunch, and could very easily knock a character unconscious as soon as they walked in. The paladin is prone to taking total defense as soon as she sees a creature.


There were... Whispers. Hushed tones, melodramatic voices. "I don't want to go!" some of them... some of them screamed. It was silent and loud, sometimes too loud. Confusion encircled pure consciousness.

The woman seized up, suddenly, vomiting an atrocity that made the onlookers wince, and some to look away in terror. It happened, and whatever it was, it was certainly part of her. It was a... remarkable thing. It was black, and putrid, to say the least. Writhing on the floor, connected by disproportional bits of black flesh, a dark hand with white finger nails.

The hand seemed to fade in and out of existence, defying common sense. It flicked a finger, suddenly, raising up from the collapsed body of the woman who'd sought it out. She drooled, flat on the floor, her lower face being the only visible portion of her head through the bandages.

The hand flexed and everyone knew that it was close. Everyone knew that this was the moment where newcomers would arrive to be useful or useless. Heroes or casual conversation. Loved, or shunned. Whichever it is, they would simply "be".

The hand lurched, breaking through the recently made runes like some kind of fish tank. The souls fled, unconscious, but aware. This was unnatural! A physical and metaphysical being. Something that existed as incorporeal and corporeal, something... Wrong... yet necessary.

5 were picked this time, a... healthy amount, to say the least. Usually it was merely one, or two, but... never five. The hand lurched! A great grasp, plucking them from the sphere. The soul's tails hanged from the hands, attempting to flee feverishly. They hadn't been separated long enough to gain understanding of their surroundings, merely reduced to wandering ethereal instinct.

Capable of doing nothing, the hand pulsed, pulling the souls into it's clutch, taking the nights and then- snuffing them out. In it's grasp, it squeezed with all of it's might.

The arm began to fade, but it's job had been done. The souls had been pulverized, simply a strange white levitating dust in it's palm. As it ceased to exist, it flailed towards the rune-covered floor, throwing the remains.

No sound was heard as the matter hit the wall of force en-laden into the opening. The arm writhed one final time, inaudibly, as it winked out of reality, gone once more. The remaining souls fled as the runes collapsed, to head to Pharasma's boneyard and their respective afterlives, free at last.

On the floor laid 5 separated pinnacles of existence, 5 lights. The remains of a broken soul, surrounded in it's own essence and incapable of flight.

From the upper part of the room, a cold and dark, hollow cylinder with masterfully carved stone walls, came... something...

... and then it started. The music, a piano. Sad, though... hopeful. Miserable, really, it started and came from the upper regions of the tall, tall tower.

Small white "essence", the only word anyone could really find to explain it physically, trickled from the roof. Marginally white, it fell slowly, sprinkling the remains where they lay. It danced whimsically around the onlookers, whom now were getting up and walking away to their respective areas. A man sat on the stairs, watching particularly close, still interested.

"Who is it this time... by the graces, don't be anyone I know." His voice rusty, and a bit melancholy.

Slowly but surely, the features became clearer and less transparent. He heaved a sigh of relief, not recognizing anyone, but still didn't envy them. How could he? He was already here...

... ...Here in the Nexus.

In a haze, the first of the party members wake up. It's gentle, though, odd, to say the least.

Bromen Spellbane:

Your blood ran cold as you opened your eyes. A high-hanging roof, and a brilliant chandelier that slowly but surely became less hazy. The light was brightest at it, but it was cold... very cold. Your head, weak, rolled to the left to see the body of another person and, even stranger, the land beneath you wasn't there. Suspended, you'd seen nothing like it.

Your hearing suddenly returned and the first thing you heard as you gained the ability to move slightly is;

"~ey. Hey! Wake up, c'mon now. Dam she's a mess... It wasn't a comforting voice, but he wasn't in a hurry or anything.

Your eyes suddenly flicker back to reality and your vision returns entirely to see a man directly above you, sitting on the side of the stairs.

"Yeah, that's it, listen. I wouldn't recommend trying to move too quick, you might fall apart, well, not that you can... Just give it a minute."

A quick assessment of your body reveals the inability to feel your hands or legs.

Just as soon as you realize this a man appears from nowhere in a white cloud, leaping to his feet and fleeing at full speed toward the other side of the room toward a wall with his eyes closed.

Bannon:

The demon's claws and fangs pierced your shields with remarkable ease, and then again, and then again. The creature squealed in victory as it left you, bleeding on the ground and conscious waning, to find another.

Unable to speak with your lungs punctured and throat ripped out, you slowly trickled into the one thing you always hoped to avoid. Death. It was slow and cold, but eventually, it went numb and then... nothing.

Your eyes flickered open, hazy, noticing the brilliant chandelier far, far away. It seemed to hang lightly as white essence danced around it. Your eyesight returned to normal shortly, though, you couldn't speak. It's a bit of a blur, of course, until a sharp pain runs through you and you yell out in pain, signaling your ability to speak once more.

Eyes darting around the room, you see a man roughly 10 feet away talking to someone? You're not sure, you can't see who it is for a short, red-haired well-armored woman. Your head resets itself, intensively weak. After a quick assessment you realize you can actually move your arms and legs, which considering your recent encounter, isn't all that bad.

On the other side of you a man's eyes are filled with blood as he stands back up, head wound-healing at unbelievable pace, he stands up and flees screaming towards the other end of the room.

Tera Flinders:

Slinking against the wall, you're happy. Leaning against the wall is both comforting and incredibly painful as a Schir's halberd is rammed through your torso and the entire left portion of your abdomen is in something dead's stomach. In the haze, they left you for dead, but you're certain that 2 of the creatures that assaulted you are dead.

Kind of like you.

There were no pearly gates in your final moments, and there were no life flashbacks, nor pain. It just simply sort of... faded to black.

opening your eyes you see a chandelier, though, only out of 1 eye. You're not sure about the condition of the other one, but opening it is completely out of the question.

Attempting to move, you can't hear anything at all, and to make matters worse, only 1 leg and arm are accessible, both on the same side. Feeling of your chest, you feel a vacancy made by the recent halberd, but no pain. You hear nothing at the moment, and touching your ears reveals them to be what you're certain is bone, though, skin is slowly covering it again and you have absolutely no idea what's going on.

Though weak, you're capable of talking, and the wound on your side seems to have healed entirely.

Roman Tsarko:

The death from the seeker was... unpleasant. The axe-head didn't completely kill you, but, that wasn't the worst of it. As you laid there with your grin, it's lecherous right hand reached down and covered your face and the awful, awful pain of the fingers snaking into your mouth and eye sockets was... unsavory to say the least. Suddenly with a snap, you nearly shove your arms down, blinded.

Though the pain is immediately over, the fear of that experience is fresh on your mind and you've stood back up and ran a good 15 feet, fortunately not running into anything.

Hana Miyahara:

The cold never had time to sink in as you're conscience faded out of existence. A cold numb, and a short glimpse of the dragon flying away as you suffocated and died a truly miserable death are all you know, but, for some reason, your eyes open slowly to the sight of a chandelier.

The vision is hazy, and you hear a man talking to someone, though you're too rigid to turn your head.

Your eyes, just as soon as they'd been hazy, became clear and your body warms slowly, though you're still shivering. Looking up you see a man stand up, screaming, as he runs off into the distance. The sight is certainly scary, to say the least, as you're incapable of moving and he'd had blood in his eyes and forehead.

You have no physical ability to move your legs, but your arms have thawed out rather fine and your eyesight slowly unblurs, giving you a clear look of your surroundings.


Check on in, ladies and gents, we're starting this instant.

Oh and Gameplay will be open shortly.


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Her hands fell silently on the runes... she waded them through, rippling the nonexistent waters beckoning something. Souls trickled out of the water, as if raining upward to the roof. She couldn't see, but... she could feel. Oh could she feel. So many to choose, so few of merit. So few to make a difference. Decisions, Decisions.

She convulsed, falling forward and placing both hands firmly on something that didn't exist, or did it? No one knew, but she, she did. The Keeper, as she was called, wafted her arms around the runes, causing them to dance with the souls. It was a beautiful sight everyone had become accustomed to when she went into her trances...

The souls danced against the pale yellow intricacies of the magic that not even the local wizard understood. It was something that shouldn't have been possible, but, still was. For it to simply exist beckoned common sense into the abyss carefully, waiting, as if to unmake reality.

Her fingers touched the rings, the runes, the souls. Quickly, she parted her hands, fingers, dancing in a trance. No one dared interrupt her, as even the starkest of minds were fogged by the impossibilities that she wrought like iron.

Souls grew, souls fled, souls stopped moving. All recently deceased, she was looking for someone, persons, something. A new impossibility, someone, or persons, to defy inevitability, the end. All at once her dance ceased, and everyone knew what that meant. The souls stopped, and her decision had to be made. A lovely batch, full of possibility.

The souls stopped, the runes had encircled all of them, trapping them on their way to purgatory, or at least, that's what everyone believed. They wanted to believe it. Was that wrong? Who knows, she knew. They knew. She embraced herself in a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. She wasn't there, for now, as she'd lost herself.

Finally, she stopped, though shivering. She looked into the rune trap in awe, as she'd realized that in this, was possibility, inevitability... An inevitable end to the inevitable. A stop. Something. Her hands reached out, ready to pluck a soul as if from a tree that defied reason... she might pick more than one. Who was to know? She knew. She already knew.

Welcome! To Duboris's "Dirge for the Future" Adventure Path interest thread!

Happy to have ya. Alright, so, nit and grit first;

Character Creation:

Starting level: 2
Starting gold: 800.

One small thing about starting gold. If you can't have it on your person, don't bother grabbing it, because you're going to have to die in your backstory, so, spend this on equipped equipment, or atleast make sure your backpack is big enough to have all of it. None of that "My character has 4 backpacks to hold all of his alchemical things" either, that's just silly.

Oh, and after you're done buying, set your gold to *half* of what it's actually supposed to be. It gets converted into *something* which will be explained as the story progresses.

Stats: 4d6 - Lowest roll - Roll 7 times - Remove lowest of 7
Looks like this
4d6 ⇒ (6, 4, 2, 5) = 17 - 3 = 17
4d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 5, 4) = 17 - 3 = 14
4d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 3, 2) = 7 - 2 = 16
4d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 6, 5) = 15 - 1 = 11
4d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 2, 4) = 12 - 1 = 11
4d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 3, 2) = 11 - 2 = 11 - removed
4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 2, 1) = 7 - 1 = 12

Simple, no? (Not really) Moving on!

Background: IN YOUR CHARACTER'S BACKSTORY, HE/SHE HAS TO DIE

Crap's important.

There are 6 remaining provinces that haven't completely been overtaken by a insta-kill black mist, and these are the places your characters, *ahem* have recently bit the big one in.
Yep, you start the game dead, but, you're not a ghost. The souls mentioned in the flavor text at the top? You guys. You have no knowledge of the place you're going to, who the lady doing the macarenah is, or anything. You've simply died recently in one of the six Providences.

Pretty much all of the usual Golarion places have been purged of all life, unlife, and Conway Twitty, so, while your characters would have knowledge of these places, they've pretty much been wiped off the face of the planet.

In that light, here's this:

The Forgotten Marsh, Agristrad: Is a giant bog, all of which is rather vile and terrible. It's the home of a massive cult who worships the all-saint's mother Ciebel. While the cult isn't the whole population, it makes up most of it, and those that aren't in the cult are actually hunted down and converted. If not converted, they're strung up and killed rather grizzly by the cultists. Blood-sucking creatures, vile poisonous oozes, mad cultists, and abominations of unlife are frequent enemies. The cultists and non-cultists alike live on wooden floorboards, all of which is for the most part dry-rotted and unsafe, but it works.

The Kingdom of Hazrit: Is a mountainous ravine, known primarily for it's ungodly cliffs. The mountains almost climb directly straight into the air, but the mines are rich in gemstones. Inside the mountains are mindless Dwarfs, still hammering away at the prospect of gemstones. There's a rather dark presence in the place, however, and no one's sure where the "ruler" of the area is even at, or if there is even one. Treacherous falls, impossible climbs, mindless dwarves, angry earth elementals and later, red dragons and volcanic creatures are what to expect. The lower area of the mountains house the remains of the dwarven race, and they're barely getting by.

The Chilling Pass of Argosal: In the far north, in the coldest mountains known to anyone, is a passage. Once used as the most dangerous trade route in the world, it was the fastest, and coldest, and claimed more lives and luggage than any other. A castle, made of ice, is among the mountains. The castle is huge, easily making up an entire mountain, as if carved from it itself.
Argosal is a lich, though no one's sure if he's the reason for the unnatural cold, or the murders of the transports, or both. He's very capable, and since his ascension into the Castle and lichhood long, long ago, the undead and ravenous creatures of cold plague the pass and the nearby ice flows. Ice elementals, Cold constructs, spirits, and icy abominations are what you'll see here. Any number of races lives nearby in the icey village of Windigo Sanctuary.

The Fallen Fortifications of Nibreltar: Roughly 300 years ago, a hideous chasm erupted apart not 100 miles near the neighboring kingdom of Nibreltar. A font of daemons, and devils alike both erupted from it, and if they weren't fighting each other, they were fighting the kingdom's troops who attempted to stave them off. Recently, the entire kingdom was purged of life as demons and devils alike drowned the kingdom in their ranks, killing everyone. Very little is known about the kingdom beyond it's history, which it only now, is. A fallen Metropolis.

The Black Prison of Zeltos: Far to the west of the neighboring city of Barbaranaka lies the prison of Zeltos. An enigma, but the undisputable warden of a prison with the worst criminals to ever exist. As suddle as cannon fire, Zeltos rules the prison with an immaculate, twisted personality. Experiments on prisoners is a common thing, and necromantic abominations and enigmas are common sights. Strange, cloaked creatures lurk the expanse of the rather cumbersome prison, making sure that everyone stays in their respective cells. Most of the cells aren't even locked, yet, no one tries to escape.
The nearby City of Barbaranaka lives in fear of the prison and it's warden, as envoys frequently come to steal people away in the night.

The Dukedom of Gibraltar, the Mad: Plenty of people in the Nexus are from the Dukedom, as of late. In his recently acquired and unexpected madness, Gibraltar has been sending people into the fog to die for unknown reasons. Not exactly sending them, so much as it is throwing them into the occasional abyss here and there. The dukedom was, and still really is, the only (kind of) safe haven in the known world at the moment. It is the only place where plenty of living, loving people reside, although not happily. The guards of the Dukedom have become eerie, and dark. New constructs in the military are massive, part biological weapons of destruction. Mere infractions of the law are death sentences for the commoners that starve in the outskirts while the nobles grow fat on whatever it is they've got their hands on.

Restricted Races:
Aww, don't give me that. Very few AP's have these, and it makes total sense that genocide has definitely happened to a few unfortunate races. So here's the ones that got gibbed!

Drow = Kind of hard to survive an all-consuming fog of death when you're stuck in caves.
Orc = *almost* wiped out, but restricted in character creation.

And that's literally all. For the end of days, this thing's been pretty docile to the VERY FEW that are still around. Fortunately everyone's pretty much miserable.. so...

Restricted Classes:
Summoner and all Third Party. You know why.

Restricted Spells:

Fabricate
Mage's Dysjunction
Raise Dead (still works, just not on PC's. You'll learn why.)
Reincarnation (Same as above)

How will the game be played?:

Combat will be entirely Theatrical, though maps of some places will be made apparent, if only so you know exactly where you are. These will not be battle maps, of course, merely, maps of the places.

The Campaign is heavily based on decision making, as with most campaigns, although the options for some quests that you may go on may be crushing.

Conversations with NPC's will be lengthy, and there's a veritable cast you can meet almost immediately. Don't expect combat for a while.

Play-by-Post, because I have no life and can keep tabs on these at all times :3

What I'm looking for:

I'm going to be background checking the wazoo out of people. Also I just learned that Wazoo is an actual word, apparently. Moving on, I'll be looking for post frequency, quality, etc, etc.

All alignments are allowed. All of them

Get cracking' gentleman and ladies!


“The Aether” - Apothecary Marco

“The Aether is the Nexus's plaything. Whimsical, multicolored mist that dances around conduits of it. It is simply the form of someone's life force. Aether, while in the Nexus, dances visibly around it's vessel, the player and NPC's. There is a lot to be learned, and already known about the Aether, but, let's leave that to the most studied, shall we?”

“The Vessels” - Apothecary Marco

“Aether takes many forms. For us in the Nexus, that form is, well, us. It clings to our soul, or rather, engulfs it. It seems to use that to take up our latent forms, which, for us, is our form just before our untimely demise. The Aether makes up our form, and the rest? It just sort of dances around us. It's easy to see through, that is, if it actually got in our faces. No, Aether seems to just dance far above us in some form of circular motion in the top of the Nexus. As we walk out, it joins us, turning translucent on the physical plain.”
“A little bit of the Aether, though, clings to us even if it can't solidify, and this gains a color! An interesting fact. For me, it was a brown, though, I'm not exactly sure what that means. All the more reason to study!”
“Aether seems to be related to... something. I'm not quite sure, but I do have a perfect example! 2 new arrivals came in today, and they are the same color! This is wonderful. I'll just study them in secret till I learn what their differences and things are.”
“Funny thing about these 2. While I'm not one to point fun, they're aura's color is... pink. The closest I can come to a conclusion is that they're simply lovers. It would seem that the Aether's color coincides with a person's deepest personality traits. Lovely!”
“A new person came today... This is one of those few rare cases that were brought in not by the keepers, but, one of our own. Sebastian was out looking for his trinkets again, and he found this tall, foreboding fellow. His Aether is black. I don't even need to study him to know that that doesn't bode well for anyone, but, physical harm is impossible in the Nexus. I can breathe easy with that.”

“The Aether and Invulnerability” - Apothecary Marco

“Struck gold today. Very happy to learn this, as it allows me to be more astute with my studies and brewing. I'm invincible! Or rather, untouchable. Wasn't watching where I was going today as I was lost in thought as to why the newcomers were both pink, and I accidentally walked through Bagrin! Literally, too. My conscious stayed as it was and I merely kept walking through him. It was astounding! We both sort of... Disintegrated as we walked, and then regained ourselves a few seconds later.
Bagrin kept on walking, as I'm sure it hadn't been his first time with that, but me! I was astonished!”
“Can't touch a single other person. Now, that's not a bad thing, mind you, but it looks like the magic distance is 1 inch away before things start to come apart. Weapons especially. Rodrick was nice enough to try and stab me in the face when I told him I didn't know what weapons did as Aether. He cut me off on did. He laughed heartily, but... who does that?”

“The Aether and Magic” - Apothecary Marco

“So the Aether disintegration thing brought up a lovely question. How am I standing on these stones? I've gotten significantly better as a wizard these last few days, so I decided to cast one of my newer spells, Arcane sight. Oh my word... just... the things you see. I was blinded in one eye from the amount of magic, and I had to immediately cease the spell, but... everything. I know these floors are merely barriers. They have illusions, and the colors of the Aether in here is just... I won't be casting that again. It was a waste of a spell In my book, but, just 1 casting of it taught me so much so quickly. It might have been worth an eye.”
“Keeper Argus apparently realized what I'd done. He asked me to do it again, and I said it was dangerous. He assured me otherwise. Casting it again, he had placed a nonmagical aura on just about everything. The Aether isn't enough to hurt my eyes, but there's nothing magical about it. However, it is very beautiful to look at.”

“The Aether and the Soul” - Apothecary Marco

“Once again, Bagrin died today. I asked him what it was like, and if it had any detrimental effects. It was about this time I learned that we weren't as invincible as I'd hoped. He'd attempted to reach the Duke's quarters, again, and apparently some... monstrosity of a beast stopped him from doing so. Anyways, I learned that the Aether can't handle the fatal harm of it's vessel, and actually escapes into nearby vessels upon death.”
“A Vessel is anything that contains Copious amounts of resealed Aether, which, at the moment is anyone in the Nexus, and that's all. Regular, living creatures and people, if there are any people, can't gain it. Bagrin once died defending someone from the Nexus, Rodrick or Sebastian, I believe. Maybe the new healer? Not sure, but, part of his Aether joined her, and well, she got stronger? I'm not sure how to put it. She said it was as if all of her teachings had accelerated, or, massive amounts of insight befell her. Needless to say, the Aether apparently augments our abilities and accelerates our learning processes. Perhaps we gain it over time? I wonder how much I have...”
“The loss of Aether is a substantially awful thing, as, in my desire to learn what it was like, I... kind of got killed. Yes, it was in the Chilling pass of Argosol. Mind you I wasn't actually trying to die, no, I was simply looking for ingredients to put towards potions. It just so happened that I'd happened to run into one of that damned Lich's vicious sentries.
Anyways, upon death I... lost something. Potion ideas, knowledge, skill, prowess, everything. I lost experience, for lack of a better word. The Aether apparently is experience given form, and, well, if you lose all of the things you've ever done, well... poof.”

“The Aether and Equipment” - Apothecary Marco

“The blacksmith, Arcus, has apparently learned how to do something rather remarkable. He can shape a person's Aether, if they're willing. Now, this is something I've only seen him do, but apparently it's rather easy once you get the hang of it.”
“A weapon composed of Aether, when separated from a tangible source of a person's Aether, will disperse immediately, provided that person is dead. The Aether from this weapon will then cling to nearby conduits, effectively giving them experience.”

Alright, fancy wordings and NPC dialogue aside, here's the short and skinny of my problem.

This "Aether" stuff is the currency in my next game, and it's basically the conversion of a player's experience into pretty much everything. It can be used for pretty much dam well everything.

So let's look at something: Level 2: 2120 experience total. You want a full plate, and that costs 1500 gold, or rather, 1500 Aether. That's enough to not only set you back to level 1, but set you over 1400 exp from level 2.

Therein lies the problem, for me. I want to make Aether hurt the experience bar, but I don't want it to devastate the experience bar. I thought about giving more "Experience" for all of these things, but, that might make it far too easy to level.

The way my tiny brain sees it, is I either make monsters give tons more experience despite their level and keep all of the items as they are, or, by percentiles, cut down the amount of gold (Aether) stuff will cost. Care to help a guy out? Also, this "Apothecary Marco" is a guy who's been in this "Nexus" for a very long time, and has pretty much devoted himself to the study of the whimsical stuff.

One of the suggestions has been to simply give them, in extra experience, what they would have all gotten in gold. Suggestions?


So, my players recently found my personal favorite home-brewed cursed item. "The Dread Gauntlet"

Now, this gauntlet is pretty damned awful if you don't take all of it's curses, considering. Fortunately, the team's rogue has an abysmal will-save, so, he's afflicted.

Right, so here we go.

"The Dread Chest" The dread chest is the chest that these items are found in, for the most part. Originally all 4 pieces of the dread attire are in the same room, but are split up among the ruins of Exodus and are sickeningly evil. The only piece of equipment in the dread chest is left up to a roll.

The chart looks like this.
1d100
1-49 Gauntlet
50-79 Wand
80-89 Bastard Sword
90-100 Dread plate.

The following effects come into play if the user fails the will-save of 17.

[O] The player is no longer capable of being healed by positive energy, and instead, is healed by negative energy. The player automatically fails the saves to resist channeled positive energy.

"The Dread Gauntlet" The sickeningly evil gauntlet of a long-dead Lich known for slaying his enemies in close combat and slowly gaining numbers as the fights continued.

The following effects come into play if the user fails the will-save of 16

[O] Upon coming within 30 feet of an dead, the gloves cast a darker form of "Animate dead" on them. This spell deals 2d6 negative damage to yourself, as well as drains 1 constitution.

[O] Constitution drain does not affect you if negative energy heals you

[O] The undead summoned by this form of Animate dead resurrect as Zombies with equal hit dice to their prior forms at maximum health

[O] The undead reanimated in this form are automatically hostile to the wearer of the gauntlet, but are subject to command undead.

[O] The glove gives the wearer a touch attack which deals 2d6 damage. This touch attack is active at all times, and cannot be stopped via covering of the glove. The glove only delivers the touch attack if it comes within 1 inch of flesh. This can be used 5 times a day. A charge is restored for every undead that is raised.

"The Dread Wand" The wand of the Lich, used to command his raised dead.
The following effects come into play if the player touches the wand and fails the will save of 18

[O] The "Command Undead" charges on this wand, when used, automatically take control of the undead raised by the gauntlet. The wand cannot command undead that haven't been raised this way.

[O] Slowly but surely the wand drains 1 constitution every week. This constitution drain is permanent and actually does apply through the gauntlet's immunity to it. When the wielder reaches 0 con from this effect, he becomes a lich, and the wand is his phylactery.

[O] The wand has 46 charges of Command Undead.

"The Dread Blade" The weapon of choice for the lich, made of pure negative energy.

[O] The Dread Blade is a Large Bastard sword.

[O] The blade functions as a sword of brilliant energy, save that it is almost the exact opposite in it's effects. Instead of casting light as a torch for 20 feet, it lowers the light level by 1 while active. It still ignores armor.

[O] The blade converts all damage done with it as the source, into negative damage. This includes sneak attack damage, or any form of bonus. Channel smite in the hands of a good cleric would do negative damage. Being on fire would make the fire unholy. Etc, etc. This cannot be turned off.

[O] The blade deals a bonus 2d6 Negative energy damage if swung using the gauntlet, otherwise it deals the damage to the player himself as well.

[O] The blade must always be drawn for combat. Any attempts to draw another weapon is folly, and there is no will save to resist this affect. The blade will always be drawn instead of the desired weapon, unless the desired weapon is the blade itself.

[O] Anything killed by the sword arises as a full-health, Friendly Juju zombie if wished. If the players are unaware of this ability, it does it automatically the first time. The undead will obey orders and lasts until destroyed. There can only be 3 servants to the sword at any point in time, no matter how individually strong.

"The Dread Plate" Favored armor of the lich, and ironically, his prison. This full plate is intelligent, and houses the soul of the Lich himself in a twist of cruel irony.
If donned, the armor forces a will save of 26, otherwise the wearer is under the effects of "Dominate Person" until knocked unconscious.

[O] The Lich in the armor is Cr 17. He is a Two-handed Fighter 3, Undead Lord of Zenrad 13.

[O] The armor is a Phylactery, and donning it requires a Fort save of 18 to not instantly die. If a player fails this save, his body turns to dust, and immediately reforms into the surprisingly fleshy, well-looking Lich "Ordanus" who's first order of business is to return to his work in the dark continent.

[O] The armor, provided you resist the domination and the dieing, is intelligent with the Lich's mind, who is very knowledgeable of religion and history, as well as dungeons and engineering. Provided you make him friendly, he can explain certain things.

[O] The armor cannot be removed, not even for sleep.

[O] The armor gives a +4 competence bonus to stealth checks for being solid black.

[O] All souls that are released from their earthly bindings within 300 feet must make a DC 22 will save, or be trapped inside the armor. This is why the lich is here.

[O] The most dominant wisdom in the armor is what personality takes it over, and of all of them, the Lich is the wisest.

[O] Focusing deeply on the armor provokes a 18 will save to not be dominated, but making the save allows the wearer to enter a plane of existence that the Lich and all of the souls are on. Everyone is ethereal and lacks equipment. The use of magic of any kind is impossible while here.

[O] Raising a dead person returns his soul to his body. Killing him releases it once again. This process can be repeated until the soul goes in the armor.

[O] Casting True Resurrection on the armor resurrects the primary intelligence, in this case, the Lich. This shunts the wielder of the armor, and all of the "Dread" equipment, into another place as the body comes back into fruition and the black metals warp and tear off to resume their place in their master's arsenal. This deals 3d6 Negative energy damage and 3d6 slashing damage for every dread equipment moving away.

If a player or npc or anything is wearing one of these items, the morning after they must make a will save of 8. If they fail, they can hear the dark calling of the other pieces of equipment and know their general direction. Failing the save acts as a dominate person spell, and immediately forces the wearer to start walking at a rate of their regular speed towards the nearest piece.

This DC raises by 1 every day. Making the save tells the character the general location, but doesn't dominate them. It comes in the form of whispers, and actually starts shouting the closer they get.


Alright, so, first thing's first. The world doesn't even have an actual name yet, and there's plenty of stuff to flesh out and I'd personally love it if you guys could help me.

Now, I'm not saying that anything's going to have a major impact, to be honest, but, I'm short on NPC's, and I pretty much only have a few stand-in's for the most part. Some of the one's you'll see on this page in a short few moments are merely just names.

Now then, right, this is an adventure path with a rather surprising bit of underlying story. With that let's examine a few key points before this thing starts up.

[o] The players have all been resurrected at the start of the campaign, 1 at a time, and given ample time between resurrected players to get their bearings before another one springs out.

[o] The campaign will have a hub, known as the Nexus, where they will go to 1 of 7 areas to seek creatures of power and further the plot.

[o] The NPC's and PC's alike will be unable to harm each other whilst in the Nexus.

[o] Any alignment is allowed, so long as the player was known well. This is potentially dangerous, but the players will have not known each other at all.

[o] Starting level is 2. Not too important, but hey, someone might be interested in this in the future.

[o] Campaign is to be primarily play-by-post, and have a maximum of just 3 people. Players will frequently fill in the 4th person with other "Hero" NPC's played by yours truly.

[o] The campaign setting is not in Golarion, and therefore, is lacking plenty, plenty in the character creation department. So much so that the only playable race is Human. I already know that that's bad, but for the sake of this, let's try not to argue against that, shall we? It's the only restriction. Well... except, y'know... for...

[o] No Summoner.

Alrighty then, onto the best bits.

First off, I want to introduce the lot of you to the hub's layout itself. Aaaand here it is:

The Nexus:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8385/8675515693_2c0224c0a9_b.jpg

Alrighty then, let's talk plot development.

Each of these little characters you see, for the most part, are rich with story. Bagrin, Savee, Rodrick, and Sebastian are a handful of the more story-related, and driving characters.

That being said, not all these characters like each other, and are from different worlds, though, the only worlds to be from are the ones presented in the 7 potential gates.

Important stuff related to the story

[o] Fog. Fog is super important to the story. If you see a bank of fog, walking into it drains you slowly of your life force. This is the thing that has encroached the worlds and needs driven back, as well as the cause of death of millions.

[o] The world is ending, really, but the whole point of the campaign is to drive off the evil lords of the various worlds who've been harvesting the life force of the people who've died to the fog.

[o] Inter-PC communications as well as friendliness between players is something that requires lots and lots of dialogue, and lots and lots of differentiating opinions between players and NPC's alike. Important things happen in the nexus.

[o] NPC's can sometimes be found in their respective worlds, or other worlds, actually, and they have their reasons for being there.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what do you guys think, eh? I need help constructing this.


Alright, so... I'm currently running a completely scratch-made Adventure path for my players, of whom there are 4. All of them recently hit level 7, and, for the most part, they've pretty much breezed through everything I've thrown at them to date.

Prior to "The Tower of Law" which is going to be an important learning curve for them, there was a character that the PC's met. It was a Divine Guardian of a Lawful Neutral Deity, whom happens to be a paragon of all law.

Anyways, they entered, she said they couldn't pass deeper into the tomb, and, being the neutral/good party they were, they rolled their sense motives and all that, and she checked out, so they left. Kudos to them, they stopped themselves from being cursed.

On another note, they came back to the village, whom told them of an eerie tower in the distance that's clouded in a raging sandstorm.

Aaaand here's what's at the top of that tower, waiting for them.

Aiur Hadiding:

Aiur CR 7+2
XP 3200
Female Windigian Fighter (Archer) 8
N Medium Monstrous Humanoid (air)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 20, touch 16, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +5 Dex, +1 deflection)
hp 67 (8d10+8)
Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +1
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft., flight (40 feet, poor)
Melee Javelin of lightning +5/+5/+0 (1d6+10/x2) and
Unarmed strike +9/+4 (1d3+3/x2)
Ranged +2 Composite longbow (Str +3) +13/+13/+8 (1d8+13/x3)
Special Attacks sky sentinel (1/day)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 16, Dex 21, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 13
Base Atk +8; CMB +11; CMD 27
Feats Combat Reflexes (6 AoO/round), Deadly Aim -3/+6, Improved Initiative, Manyshot, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Skill Focus (Fly), Snap Shot, Weapon Focus (Longbow)
Skills Fly +15, Perception +9
Languages Common, Windigian
SQ trick shots (trick shot: disarm, trick shot: feint)
Other Gear +1 Studded leather armor, +2 Composite longbow (Str +3), Javelin of lightning (3), Belt of incredible dexterity +2, Bracers of armor +2, Efficient quiver (empty), Ring of feather falling, Ring of protection +1, You have no money!
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Combat Reflexes (6 AoO/round) Can make extra attacks of opportunity/rd, and even when flat-footed.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Deadly Aim -3/+6 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Flight (40 feet, Poor) You can fly!
Manyshot You can shoot two arrows as the first attack of a full attack action.
Point Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Rapid Shot You get an extra attack with ranged weapons. Each attack is at -2.
Ring of feather falling Feather fall activates if you fall more than 5 ft.
Sky Sentinel +1 to attack/+2 to AC (1/day) (Ex) Gain bonus to att/AC vs flying foes. Foes gain no bonus for high ground, +2 Perception vs flying.
Snap Shot Threaten squares within 5 feet of you when wielding a ranged weapon
Trick Shot: Disarm Disarm with a bow at 30' and -4 CMB.
Trick Shot: Feint Feint with a bow at 30' and -4 CMB.

Bardin Bolsheb:

Bardin CR 7+2
XP 3200
Male Belian Fighter 8
CN Medium Monstrous Humanoid
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception -1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 26, touch 10, flat-footed 26 (+10 armor, +4 shield, +2 natural)
hp 99 (8d10+40)
Fort +9, Ref +2, Will +1 (+4 vs. fear)
Defensive Abilities bravery +4, fortification 25%
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee Heavy Shield Bash +13/+8 (1d4+5/x2) and
+2 Cold Iron Bastard sword +17/+12 (1d10+10/19-20/x2) and
Claw x2 (Claws) +8 x2 (1d4+2/x2) and
Gauntlet (from Armor) +13/+8 (1d3+5/x2) and
Unarmed strike +13/+8 (1d3+5/x2)
Special Attacks weapon training abilities (heavy blades +1)
Spell-Like Abilities Spell-Like Ability, Lesser (Fire Breath) (1/day)
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 20, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 12
Base Atk +8; CMB +13 (+17 Bull Rushing); CMD 24 (26 vs. Bull Rush)
Feats Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard sword), Furious Focus, Greater Bull Rush, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack -3/+6, Step Up, Toughness +8, Weapon Focus (Bastard sword), Weapon Specialization (Bastard sword)
Skills Acrobatics -3, Climb +9, Escape Artist -3, Fly -3, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (engineering) +8, Ride -3, Stealth -3, Swim +9, Use Magic Device +5
Languages Belian, Common, Windigian
SQ fortification (light)
Combat Gear Scroll of Feather Fall (CL 12); Other Gear +1 Fortification (light) Full plate, +2 Heavy steel shield, +2 Cold Iron Bastard sword, Amulet of natural armor +2, Minotaur belt, Sash of the war champion, You have no money!
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Bravery +4 (Ex) +4 to Will save vs. Fear
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Fortification (light) 25% chance to ignore critical hit/sneak attack.
Fortification 25% You have a chance to negate critical hits on attacks.
Greater Bull Rush When bull rushing, foe's movement provokes AoO from your allies.
Improved Bull Rush You don't provoke attacks of opportunity when bull rushing.
Minotaur belt Ignore difficult terrain when charging, overrunning, bull rushing, or trampling a foe.
Power Attack -3/+6 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Sash of the war champion This bright red strip of cloth, stitched with images of a cheering crowd throwing garlands toward a chariot, fits across the wearer’s shoulders and then diagonally down his chest to reach his opposite hip. The wearer treats his fighter level as 4 higher than normal for the purpose of the armor training and bravery class features.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, cat’s grace, remove fear; Cost 2,000 gp
Step Up When a foe makes a 5 ft step away from you, you can move 5 ft to follow them.
Weapon Training (Blades, Heavy) +1 (Ex) +1 Attack, Damage, CMB, CMD with Heavy Blades

At the top of this tower are these 2.

This is the problem I'm having. They have a Stealth rogue, a Ranger focused on a Longbow with a wolf who just hit level 4, a Monk who's unarmed, and a grappler, as well as a Sorceror/Cleric who's on his way to being a Theurge.

The Sorc has Windwall, the monk grapples the first ground target he sees, the ranger hangs back with the sorcerer and pegs things while the thief flanks.

How do you guys see this going? The enemies I've got here are the only 2 present, and neither summon things. They're part of a syndicate that wants to see the gods of the campaign back in their place on the celestial plane, as they're currently ruling their respective domains.

Anyways, this is a pretty well-kept secret, so they're on their way to that tower. The 2 Divine guardians in the tower have been detained by the time they get to the top, hence the reason both of these people are going to be at 75% of their respective hp's, as the guardians weren't pushovers. (One is actually stabilized 2 floors down and would make a great ally in the fight.)

The main person that concerns me is the ranger, as she could easily, as a full-attack, kill the sorcerer provided he doesn't cast wind wall. The other fighter is tanky enough to handle it the punishment he's going to get.

Suggestions?

Also, they'll be on a rather ornate roof, with heavy winds (moderate, nothing particularly amazing. Just enough to bother both the rangers.)

There will be no railing on any of the sides, so bull-rushing will be potentially lethal. As an escape mechanism, both of them are more than willing to jump off the tower to escape, as they had the plans to do that regardless. (Hence the featherfall ring and scroll)


The sound of rain beat the rickety wooden roof of the shoddy roadside inn. Water poured off of the building as it came down. A man, 6'6, walks outside to look down the road, putting his hands under the water falling off the roof and washing his face.

He returns inside to the silence of no customers, empty seats, and depression. The inn is falling apart, barely on it's last legs, but is the last building before Carrion Hill. He stands at the bar, washing broken glasses with a stern expression on his face. Rain beats him down, just like it does everything else.

"No customers again, today... I see..." He says with a sigh that just seems to carry a part of his soul out of his body. Suddenly, to his surprise, the door behind him swings open. He isn't surprised, and he doesn't turn around. Weird folk always do come through here.

With his back to the door, and a grim shadow cast over him, he speaks. "Be right with you...

And so our story begins...


Welcome to the discussion thread, boys.
Get cozey, check in, and definitely keep an eye on this, as I'm incorporating maps into the pbp to keep things simple and organized.

Sound off >:3


Hey there Paizo forums! Duboris here. Now, I've dabbled in a little bit of play by post here and there, and it was all to start DMing the games. I'm currently involved in plenty of play by posts. 4, technically, with 3 pending.

Now with that being said, I figured I'd start myself off easy with a module. What one better than Carrion Hill? Fear! Intrigue! And your usual encounter with eldritch horror~

Those ancients who first ruled Carrion Hill raised great
basalt towers and dug vast chambers to hold their lore in
enormous libraries of carved stone tablets and timeless,
magically preserved tomes. The Varisians, seeing much to
remind them of the magic and libraries of Thassilon, were
quick to destroy these blasphemous repositories when they
found them, yet they were just as quick to build over those
ruins. In their haste to do so, most of the hidden chambers
of the Old Cults were missed. The location of one such
ancient site is known today as the Sunless Grove, all that
remains of the site at which the spawn of Yog-Sothoth was
banished so long ago.
Exploration of the underground labyrinths below
Carrion Hill has long drawn adventurers in search of
hidden treasure, yet the dangers below are not insignificant.
Recently, one such foolish group stumbled into the
Sunless Grove only to swiftly succumb to the ghosts of the
place. Just one of the adventurers, a fighter,
escaped death and returned to the streets above, yet he did
so without his sanity. He swiftly fell into the care of one
Waldur Crove, the warden of Carrion Hill’s oldest asylum.
And with this event, Carrion Hill unknowingly enabled
what could well become its latest doom.
The Pc's find themselves entering a race against the clock,
steeped deep within macabre horror, and a sense of crushing
despair.

Now, there are tons of reasons an adventurer could be interested in coming to the hill. He/She (Hereby referred to as He because I'm lazy and this thing needs done, which is odd, considering I'm writing a run-on sentence about it.) could be interested in middenstone, a unique material exported only by the Hill. Alternatively, they could be sent on business. The only requirement is that the PC's have to be on their way to the hill, specifically. As for reasoning, your characters will have definitely heard of "Strange events" occurring, but as for what in particular, you'll learn at the inn from the manliest bartender ever

(They'll be meeting in a tavern just a few hours away from the entrance.)

Allowed Books:
The books allowed are:
Core Rulebook (derp)
Ultimate Magic
Ultimate Combat
Advanced Player's Guide
Ultimate Equipment
Adventurer's Armory

Illegal Classes:
Lol you expected something to actually be here.
You were right
No Ninja or Samurai, or any class that isn't listed in the mentioned books. Guns are also not present, so gunslingers are out as well. I don't have anything against them, of course, but they don't fit the setting[/b]

Character Creation:
For starters, 20 point buy. No modifications, it's just that simple.
Level 5! Enjoy that attribute point.

There's absolutely zero homebrew, if anyone's curious. I'm a bit of a by-the-book DM and I STALK my loved topics. I will be there to reply back to inquisitions from PC's 80% of the time, and would very much prefer at least 3 posts a day.

I live in the eastern tip of, and this is going to be hilarious mostly because of the mental images, Kentucky. So align your times accordingly.

Combat will be done entirely through the posts, and I know how that sounds, but trust me, it works.

ALRIGHT! Now, if anyone has any questions, or wants to dot for interest:
Now's the dam time! Invitations are open, and aren't showing any signs of closing till the end of the week, unless we get like 20 or 30 dots of interest, I might close it early just to sift through you all.

I prefer avid posters with good track records, just as well, I'll be looking for a good thing to read when this is all over, so come at me with your best bits of role-play, because this campaign is going to literally drown in it.

I'm free for questions.


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So, there is a character I've conducted through plenty of play by posts in different forms. I've put him through plenty of trials, and have had him show up as a bit of an ally/enemy in various situations in my own self-ran campaigns.

With that being said, I have no idea what alignment he is, as he teeters between Neutral Evil and Chaotic Evil

The problem I have with him, is that as he teeters on this little proper imbalance, I believe he might actually be Chaotically Evil. Now, there's a problem with that, as, even with this fact other players seem to find him... bearable. That's the only reason I suspect that he's not CE, but then again, I think he might still be.

Fact 1: In the case of Religion, he is stupendously religious. He worships the Chaotic Evil deity Zura, Demon lord, and Vampire queen. Worshiped primarily by Cannibals, Vampires, and Succubi.

Fact 2: He is not a Cannibal, and actually dislikes the idea of feasting on the flesh of a fellow human being, or humanoid.

Fact 3: He doesn't like people that aren't religious at all, such as Atheists. He has a strong belief in his faith and it's teachings and believes that people with no faith have no reason for being, and as such, considers them expendable if necessary as "They're not going to go anywhere."

Fact 4: The character respects the values of his allies, in any form, and typically avoids getting in the way of those values. It doesn't effect him, as he worships primarily alone, and even then, only in places that support his lifestyle.

Fact 5: The character heavily respects those that respect his personal views, even if they don't necessarily agree with them. This does not apply to Atheists.

Fact 6: The character in questions frequently doesn't consider his own safety until he knows he could definitely die. (If he had 100 health, he wouldn't retreat till he had 15) Even then, if he has typically enjoyed an equal exchange of blows, he will continue to fight. (This explains the Diehard and Endurance feats)

Fact 7: The character will not harm women, unless given permission to do so, or unless that woman harms another more beautiful/likable woman. Zuran faith teaches that women are temples to Zura, and he respects them as religious figures and sex idols alike.

Fact 8: The character believes that women are ranked via beauty, and is remarkably blunt about the fact unless he knows that insulting the looks of a woman would inconvenience him significantly.

Fact 9: Despite the fact that women are temples in his religion, he tends to avoid flirting with those that are good aligned, as he knows that they would use him with no reward in mind. He much prefers those of CN alignment or any evil.

Fact 10: In the case of any task involving saving a woman, all objectives take a back seat, provided that the main task could assist in the rescue.

Fact 11: The character in question is Sadistic, typically enjoying slicing enemies to ribbons with a scythe. He takes great joy in this, seeing it as partial blood offerings to his deity. He is extremely open about his sadism, but speaks lightly of it outside of combat, simply saying "He enjoys fighting too much."

Fact 12: The character is also Masochistic, taking pleasure in pain. When saner men would fall over and be unconcious, he would simply fall into a state of pure bliss as the blood trickled off of every gaping wound on his person. He also considers this open worship of his deity.

Fact 13: Outside of combat, and with no women in the area, the character is extremely polite, though words things involving human nature rather morbidly. After all, we're all just balls of temptation, aren't we?

Fact 14: He avoids inter-group conflict with a passion. He is a charmer in the group that acts as a wonderful face, but occasionally his rumors can catch up to him and cause questions. He does, of course, agree to the truthfulness of every single one of them. He usually dismisses the questions with :
"You don't see me questioning any of you about your personal experiences with the beast of 2 backs, do you?"

Fact 15: If at any point a woman falls in combat for any reason in the presence of him, he flies into a fit of carnal fury, properly, and gruesomely taking glorious painful revenge on anyone who may have had a part in it. (Even if she wasn't pretty)

Fact 16: He has a soft spot for Succubi, as they were the prime speakers of his church.

Alright so that's all of that. Any questions to properly narrow down his alignment would be great, but, as far as I can tell, he's NE or CN.
With all of his rules involving women he might even be a LE worshipper of a CN deity, but, the laws might just mean he's NE instead.

Help me out?

Oh and the Character's name is "Dimitri Mavis"