Dukal's page

I am about to start playing a character in a new game starting at 12th level with a 20 point stat buy, and our DM has given us a lot of options. Pretty much anything published by Paizo is fair game, and this includes any races in the ARG. I have a long history of play wizards, but rarely get to play at high level. A Hell Knight Enforcer will work well with the themes of the campaign, but should also be a little different and keep me interested. I was hoping for some advice as to how to build one.

My basic plan was to go Tiefling Wizard 5, Fighter 1, Hell Knight 6, probably focusing my feats either on summoning or blasting. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

I am running the AP, and my group is having a blast. We just got done with Book 2, and my party has a little bit of downtime. However, they are not much into 7th level in terms of XP, due to a number of character deaths and such. Are their any modules that would fit well as filler for this AP?

Buri, this has come up a couple times before, and the answer is always that creating and printing all the maps for an AP to scale would be extremely expensive. The flip maps go for $13 each, and are only two maps. There are dozens of maps in each AP, so a whole collection of the maps would cost considerable more than the AP itself.

However, if you look closely at a few of the flip maps and map packs, they seem to be pretty close to some of the maps in certain APs. You might be able to piece together at least some of whatt you are looking for.

Thanks everyone for the great advice. General Villain, you have really made this so much easier. I plan on using Nyarlathotep as both the Black Pharaoh and the Haunter in the dark, since those are the aspects specifically listed in Faiths of Corruption. I settled on him since he was the Outer God who actually has magic as one of his domains. Thanks for all the help. Great community here.

I am starting to plan a new game for my Pathfinder group, and hope to set in in Golarion. The basic premise is that Nyarlathotep, the Outer God most associated with magic, will be seeking to corrupt Nethys, his followers, and all manner of magical items to allow the Outer Gods to more directly influence the Material Plane. I was wondering if there was a list of all the official Paizo monsters or other bad guys associated with the Cthulu mythos. Also, I am just now starting to read up on this stuff, so any advice or thoughts would be great.

The basic plot would be that Nyarlathotep or his agents have somehow subdued Nethys, and are trying to break his mind and force him to serve the Outer Gods. The resulting wild changes in magic and influx of cult activity quickly become noticeable, and the party must try and rescue a god. Thanks.

I love playing other games without an alignment system, and a lot of my best role-playing experiences have been in those games. However, the idea of good, evil, law and chaos are not just a part of the system but a significant part of the rules as well. It would be incredibly difficult to change that.

I agree with dwayne, that you need to know your table. I also think that you can run difficult role-playing encounters without putting players in situations where they cannot really win, since there are a lot of different ways to view whatever course of action they choose.

As the DM for my group, I do like to have moral questions and situations for my players to be in. However, there are some things that I avoid simply because you can drive yourself and your players crazy trying to figure them out. The alignment system has always had a lot of issues and different interpretations, and so I like to try and have situations that are difficult but not clear-cut. I would probably not have my players find a group of goblin babies after killing all of the combative adults because it puts the group in a situation that is almost impossible to resolve due to the alignment system. However, I would totally have adult goblin prisoners and see where they take it. There is a big difference between killing adults who recently threatened you (though it may still be evil) and murdering children, regardless of their races.

Name of PC: Mako'a
Race/Class/Level" Half-orc barbarian 5
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Hold Person
Story: The party bravely fought their way up the Seven's Sawmill, and came face to face with Justice Ironbriar and his henchmen. The barbarian charged in, utterly destroying one of the foul murderer's. Ironbriar cast Hold Person, and one of the cultist sang the praise of Norgberger as he coup de graced the raging half-orc.

I like the enslavement idea, Virtue. That would work out pretty well, I think. Commoner, I am going to discuss starting from 1st level with my group, as I really like the first couple of volumes, but I don't want to force them to abandon their characters. The new players have gotten pretty attached to their characters, as this is their first time ever really playing.

That certainly seems to be the case, but I thought it might be best if the Beast is killed as the party arrives in the city. Otherwise, they will want to deal with the trial if it is captured, or to hunt it down if it has escaped, and I would rather just have them move on to Ascanor Lodge.

They good thing about my players is that since they are new, they pretty much just want to have fun and explore the game. They are pretty invested in their characters, so I think having their characters be hired and perform this service for the Pathfinder Society should be enough. Vrood will have controlled the Beast and committed the theft, along with the murder of Professor Lorrimor.. I think I will have the trial over and the Beast being put to death as the party arrives, with only Daramid suspecting that there was someone else pulling the strings. She had no proof at trial, and so could not help save the Beast but she can maybe avenge her old friend's murder.

Hey folks, I am going to be taking over as DM for a group of players soon, and I am planning on running the Carrion Crown AP. I have three new players, one mildly experienced player, and one very experienced player in my group. The mildly experience player actually had us run through Crypt of the Everflame, Mask of the Living God, and City of Golden Death to introduce all of the new players to Pathfinder, but now it is my turn to take over. I plan on letting them use the same characters since they have grown pretty attached, and try to keep things moving to higher levels.

In Mask of the Living God and City of Golden Death, the party was hired by an agent of the Pathfinder Society to investigate the Cult of the Living God and foil their plans. I plan on making a similar request, asking the party to travel to Lepidstadt and meet with Professor Petros Lorrimor, a Pathfinder agent, about the recent activities of a cult he was investigating. Upon arriving, they will find that the professor was recently murdered by the Beast of Lepidtstat during a break in. The party is directed to speak with Judge Embreth Daramid, who oversaw the trial of the beast. Daramid will be the party's benefactor in this case, asking the party to track down the missing statue and avenge Lorrimor's murder. She gives the party Lorrimor's journal, which shows he tracked a group of cultists from Ravengro to Lepidstadt, and suspects they are gathering reagents for a foul purpose. Sadly, Ravengro has recently been overrun by a sudden and terrible army of ghostly prisoners, so the party can only try and track the cultists. Daramid's contacts indicate that the cultists traveled through the Shudderwood and may have stopped at Ascanor Lodge.

I was hoping that this plot would allow my players to experience ths really neat AP without missing to much from the first two books. Thanks for any and all advice.

Thanks for the prompt responses. You answers are what I had assumed would be correct, but I wanted to run it by the good folks here. Thanks.

I am preparing to DM a new game, and have a question about the Gunslingers deeds. I am unsure whether a gunslinger may use multiple deeds on the same attack, barring an obvious conflict in the types of actions used to make the attack. For example, may a Gunslinger using a pistol use Deadeye to target an enemy's touch AC from 40 fee away, and then use Targeting: Legs to knock the enemy prone while still doing damage, without a CMB vs. CMD check or save?

Also, I saw in another thread where Mr. James Jacobs has suggested that the Targeting Deed should require a roll against CMD or a save, depending on where you are targeting. I was wondering if there has been any further clarification, as I could find none in the FAQ for Ultimate Combat. Thanks, and happy gaming.

Hey folks, this is my first time posting a campaign log, but I really like the idea of getting input and feedback to help my DMing get better and my game stronger. I am running in a homebrew setting that one of my current players developed and ran in previously. He asked if I could run a game several decades prior to his previous one, and to help flesh out his world. I am running in his world, but stealing a lot of idea from previous Paizo adventures (specifically Shackled City and City of Thieves). So far, we have had a blast. The party has only had two sessions, but a lot of fun so far.

The basic plot is that years ago, the king of Cauldron was betrayed and killed by his son during a grueling war with the monstrous forces from northern mountains. However, the prince was never crowned, as a devil with a contract for his soul would have taken over the entire kingdom. The prince disappeared, and the devil was bound by an order of magi, but few remember the tale. Now, decades later, something stirs in the norther mountains as the prince seeks a way to reclaim his throne without paying the promised price.

The Party - The Steel Weasels Adventuring Guild (I would post character names, but I can't remember them as I am posting from work)
Ninja, Human - Level 5
Magus (Bladebound), Human - Level 5
Wizard (Conjuration), Human - Level 5
Cleric (Calistra), Halfling - Level 5
Fighter (Two-handed), Dwarf - Level 5
Ranger/Wizard, Elf - Level 4/1

The players developed a back-story where they have worked together as an adventuring group for several months, and know each other well.

The first session started, of course, with everyone in a tavern. The tavern, the Empty Hill Tavern in the city of Itho, was built into the side of a hill, over the ruins of the old slave gallows. The party had a great time drinking and carousing with the locals, until a necromantic shaman showed up and ruined the evening. The shaman was the last survivor of a barbarian tribe the party had worked into their back-story, and was denied his revenge after a pretty fierce battle.

The second session got the players introduced to the city. They traveled a round a good deal, sold some items from the previous session, and then were invited to a merchants house who hired them to retrieve some items that were taken from a caravan. The party set out the next day, and the session ended after a random encounter dire board almost killed two party members. Everyone seemed to half a blast.

Thanks for reading, and for any ideas or input that you may have. I hope I can keep this going. Happy gaming!

I do not have a set number of levels in either Ranger or Rogue. My inclination was to go Ranger 2/Rogue 3 as you suggest, and use a two-weapon fighting build to try and maximize my sneak attack.

Hello all - My DM is looking at restarting a game we played a while back, and we are going to convert to Pathfinder. I am somewhat familiar with the system, but I would like some help with a build. My character was an elven Ranger (ranged) before dying at the end of the game, but will be brought back to life in the body of a drow due to some interesting plot-line issues. My character will still be himself, but will also have some of the memories and skills of the drow, who was a Rogue/Assassin. I would appreciate suggestions for a Ranger/Rogue at 5th level, with an eye towards going into Assassin. Either a ranged or a melee build is fine. The limitations are that I must use the Core Rulebook only, and of course the drow stats from the Bestiary. Assume standard WBL, and a 20 point stat buy. Thanks for any suggestions, and I hope you find epic loot and XP bonuses in your next game.

It would be appreciated.

dbell11 @ utk.edu

Thanks for the input Steven. I think I will get a lot of use out of those resource you mentioned. They will be awesome for player handouts and such.

Hello everyone. I am a first time poster, after cruising the boards for a while, and thought I might get some help from the community for my upcoming Age of Worms campaign. I will be running the entire adventure in a homebrew setting similar in feel to an early Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms, so the tone should fit well with the adventure. Any advice related to running the campaign is appreciated, though I have a few specific issues that I am hoping for help with.

First, I intend to convert the adventure to Pathfinder. After being a long-time 3.5 player and DM, I have played in and run a few short adventures in the system and really enjoy the way Paizo put the rules together. Of course, converting everything will be somewhat time consuming and any shortcuts will be appreciated. For a large portion of the traps and monsters, I will simply use the Pathfinder versions in the Core Rules. For the unique monster and such, I had intended to use the Advanced Creature Simple Template to keep their CR at the current level. Does anyone have any notes on their conversions that they would not mind sharing, or any suggestions regarding substitute monsters? Thanks.

Second, I am running the adventure with 6 players, rather than the recommended 4. Obviously I will need to beef up the encounters, and I have planned on using the Pathfinder rules to add monsters so that the XP and CR is appropriate. If anyone has dealt with this issue, I would appreciate any notes or suggestions you have regarding it.

Third, I believe that the adventure uses the Fast Experience track, which was standard for 3.5. I would like to use the Medium Experience track, so that I can throw in some side-quests that will provided role-playing opportunities. While the adventures themselves are excellent and will create a great role-playing environment, I believe that some side-quests will really enhance the player's connections to their characters and the home-brew world that I am placing the adventure any. This will probably create some issues in the earlier adventures where the players are expected to level halfway through the adventure, but I believe I can deal with that through manipulation of the later encounters. Since I am converting everything anyway, this probably would not generate to much extra work. If anyone has done something similar I would love to hear how it worked out.

I am sure I will have more questions going forward, but that is it for now. My apologies for such a long post. Thanks for your help, and happy gaming.

For me, there are two basic things I need to have fun as a DM. The first is a good group of players. I have a great group, and most of us have been playing together for years. Of the seven players that rotate in and out, only two ever cause any problems at all, and three others have DMed for the group regularly. Having players that want to make fun characters is really important, as well as having people that understand that as the DM you are working with them so that everyone can have a good time. If you don't play with people that you get along with, you aren't going to have a great time running.

The second thing I need is a story that I want to tell. I don't want to run a game just to DM - want to tell a story. If you have a story you want to tell, and you want your players to be involved in, then you will enjoy putting in the effort to run. The complexity of the rules and such does not mean as much as the right group of people and the right story to tell.

I guess some Scorpion decided the follow the Moto around, after looking that Ninja class.