After two cross-country moves, I lost my gaming groups and my gaming groove there for a while. I'm finally settled in enough to start up a new group and I'm in the middle of designing my first campaign in almost three years.
The concept I'm going with (and am very excited about) is: Warehouse 13, set in Eberron, with Pathfinder rules. The Regents would be the Committee of Twelve, their stated purpose to collect dangerous artifacts left over from the War before they can be used by one country or another to shatter the Treaty of Thronehold, or worse. This is the stuff too dangerous to even tinker with. The Warehouse will be housed within Thronehold (which is why House Deneith still has guards at the abandoned castle). The PCs will be dragonmarked agents.
I am so out of the loop though, I can't remember what resources I used before to adapt Pathfinder rules for Eberron. If anyone can point me in the right direction, particularly for matching up the pantheons for clerics, that would be swell.
Ya'll must have read my mind in changing the dates this year. I was not looking forward to bringing a 2-month old along again. A 3-month old is way easier ;-). It seems the family tradition of each new child going to PaizoCon before his/her first birthday shall continue...
Body Bludgeon is a rage power that lets you use a pinned opponent smaller than you as a two-handed weapon that deals bludgeoning damage both to the "weapon" and to the target you're hitting with the weapon.
That's probably the weirdest of the rage powers.
Spell Sunder seems cool -- let's you use a combat maneuver check to suppress or even dispel an ongoing spell effect.
A lot of rage powers building off of core rule book and APG powers, such as raging leaper, raging swimmer, groundbeaker, etc...
Archaeologist loses bardic performance entirely but becomes lucky and rogue-ey. Bonuses to Disable Device, Perception in exchange for versatile performance. Trap sense. Trades well-versed for uncanny dodge. Gets evasion and rogue talents.
EDIT: Oh yeah, and at 6th level, he can take 10 on Disable Device even if endangered or distracted. That's a biggy...
Scanning the new feats...Dimensional Savant is jawdroppingly amazing! It takes three feats, abundant step/dimension door and BAB 9 to get there, but even the journey is quite sweet :).
Spoiler:
While using the Dimensional Dervish feat, you provide flanking from all squares you attack from. Flanking starts from the moment you make an attack until the start of your next turn. You can effectively flank with yourself and with multiple allies when using this feat.
Yeesh, people, what happened to friendly board answers? Take a breath, please.
I also have reservations about purchasing Pathfinder RPG books for my pre-teen niece, and with a three-year old daughter in my house I have to be very careful about putting my books high on a shelf -- not to mention that I can't use some of them when she's in the room. It won't stop me from using (and loving) PFRPG products, but it is a problem I didn't have with any of my 3.5e books.
I am looking forward to the Beginner Box coming out, since I happily noticed that Merisiel has more skin covered than usual.
I really enjoyed this scenario, and getting to play it at Alex's table was a highlight of PaizoCon for both me and my husband. Granted, I'm a bit partial to any scenario that lets me break out my "I am the Lady Scatha, an Overdutchess of Taldor!" card, but even without that advantage it would have been a memorable scenario.
We were playing a very mixed range table and elected to play mid-tier, so it was only my barbarian who took an empowered schocking grasp to the face (well, rear, as she was in fact facing an illusion of Chalfon) rather than the whole group facing a fireball. The magus was a challenge, but nothing a power-attacking barbarian with Step Up couldn't handle. A tripping wolf was handy to have around too. It was a real pleasure to take down that smirking scumball.
Haven't watched the final episode yet, though having read the books I have a fair idea of what happens. Ned's untimely death was a shock to me the first time I read it, but that isn't the scene I have to skip over every time I re-read book 1. What bothers me more than any other event in the series thus far:
Spoiler:
The death of Dany's baby. I don't know how much of Dany's vision of her son they go into in the show, if any, but that whole scene is the cruelest by far written by GRRM. And the fact that the witch really was everything bad the Dothraki warned she was...a brilliant but terrible twist. In my opinion, this is the strongest argument we are given that in this story, doing something good out of pure intentions can go very, very badly for you.
Holy hell cows, I missed a lot! Got stuck in the Atlanta airport overnight with a baby and toddler, ya'll. With one diaper, a dead phone battery, and no laptop. Still recovering, but I will catch up and try to figure out what Raeli is up to as soon as I get the kiddos to bed.
Thanks for posting that rundown, Feral! Just one correction on round 3:
Spoiler:
We thought it was a solar. Then we thought it was a werewolf disguised as a solar. Discovered it was actually a rakshasa disguised as a werewolf disguised as a solar...about a moment before we killed the poor sucker anyway.
Fortunately for Lady Scatha, none of that deceptery mattered, as she uses the same strategy for all...furious earthbreaker to the face! ;-)
You Only Die Twice, tier 7-8 (playing up with pre-gen Merisiel and only four players)
GM: Taylor (sorry, forgot to write down your last name!), 2nd time GMing for the Society, did a great job dealing with some really complicated stuff!
Steven: Merisiel (playing up the chaotic, for better or worse…mostly worse…100 hp damage worse)
Randy: Zelarn, gnome sorcerer 6 (undead bloodline!)
Jon: Anak, human ranger 6 (archer, favored enemy: undead!)
Me: Lady Scatha, human bar(d)barian 8 (uh…undead are fun to bash?)
The important point is…with Merisiel and Lady Scatha, undead has never looked so good. And Geb will never be the same.
Encounter 1::
“Why are we hiding in the shrubs, you ask? Didn’t want to get in your way, morgh master! Of course we’ll join the Geb Army.”
Encounter 2::
Lagging behind our morgh master and his press gang, we sit back and witness the destruction wreaked by the Pharasma cleric and his comrades. Oh, and Merisiel sees an unprotected back so we join and finish off a few wights on our own. I don’t think the Geb army will be asking us back anytime soon. Except no one saw us switch sides and all. Have a nice chat with the fine followers of Pharasma and wish them well. Go to an undead bar in town (much OOC discussion as to what that might entrail…er, entail). Off to Urgathoa’s temple we go.
Encounter 3::
Turns out rocks don’t have to fall to kill you all. You can just go up and touch them these days. Merisiel obliterated (though, as we later realize, not really). We skirt the elf’s body and the rock pile with extreme caution.
Encounter 4::
Wow, you’ve looked better, ex-fellow-Pathfinder! Now I squish you. 71 hit points, baby. On an AoO. Yeah. Rock on, Taldor goddess of destruction!
Encounter 5::
Oh crap. Bad vision of entire remaining party being digested. Shortly before gnome sorcerer is about to live out said vision, we discover that Merisiel isn’t really dead (and reset to the beginning of this encounter). Wow, Merisiel, needed your beauty sleep, huh? Nice to see you again!
Judicious use of invisibility and flying…snag book, skedaddle back to Absalom. Have fun romping around in Geb, big worm things with many sharp teeth!
Good times!
Played The Midnight Mauler this morning with VC Jason Roedar. Will get up my notes later, as I need to go stand in line for the banquet! :)
Grand Melee. Played the 8-9 level table run by Kyle Baird. We all fought for the glory of Taldor, and much glory did we bring! Not quite enough to take the field (by 14 points), but it was an excellent showing and a great time. The cleric made the ultimate sacrifice (buh-bye 10 points) and Lady Scatha was taken down to -20 hit points...yep, that's not a typo. Fortunately she didn't quite cross over thanks to the short walking spiked armor that I'm told housed a gnome (and judging by the purple hair wildly poking out the top, I'm inclined to believe this story).
Amazing. Boons.
Enjoyed the bubbly courtesy of Alex aka Branding Opportunity.
Time to rest up for The Midnight Mauler and You Only Die Twice! :)
Played through The Dalsine Affair with my Taldor bar(d)barian this afternoon -- what a fun surprise that the author himself was running it! Really enjoyed the style of play in Branding Opportunity's game. Lady Scatha got to demonstrate her patented style of interrogation to great effect, and it was a blast to be able to throw around her nobility a bit there at the end. Looking forward to the Grand Melee...just a little over an hour now! :)
I have a level 5 summoner and a level 4 alchemist, my level 7 character will be bumped to 8th on the previous days game. Have an assortment of level 2s and 3s also (I hate applying GM credit to 4th level+ characters).
Both your level 4 and 5 would be able to contribute at tier 6-7 w/o too much to worry about. Pick whichever you'd enjoy most in Ustalav!
The level 6 is an archer ranger, the level 7 is a barbarian. Looking forward to the game!! (And excited that it looks like we'll get to player the higher tier!)
Also, for concept of the character, I would like to go the route of an inquisitive oddly enough. Sorta like Johna Hex actually...something of a dislikable fellow who solves crimes by talking to the dead and using some pretty dark magic.
Character concept sounds fun, several other character's have mysteries haunting their pasts you would be well equipped to help solve as details come to light.
Raeli would certainly be interested in allying with someone with this skill set! :)
I could easily fit in with the Twelve. Mayhaps a mostly mage group may work. Would Korth be a good place to start? Should I be Dragonmarked as well? (House Cannith? Of Korth I am.)
I would love to play around in Korth. Haven't played in that part of Eberron much, and it would be a nice change of pace from Sharn, actually. Though I'm fine kicking things off anywhere.
Husband and kiddos are off to visit the in-laws tomorrow, so I'll have some time to really work on writing up Raeli's story to this point, and polish off her mechanics. It would be nice to know who the final members in her party are, so I can try to weave in some ties to them. I'm having trouble seeing how she would fit in directly with the Twelve, but I may just need a fresh creative moment :). Maybe they need a good tracker? She does earn money as a free agent tracker/guide, seeing how taking down Thuranni doesn't really pay well (and requires a lot of resources).
my character's main goal is to rebuild TheTwelve and make it the most powerful magical organization in Eberron. He also will seek to unify all the Houses more, including working on repairing the rift between the Shadow Houses.
Oh man. It could be really interesting to play alongside this character.
1) Party size: Looks like this is already decided, but I also agree that 4-5 is best. I've actually run a PbP game for three years (still ongoing) with 9 players in it, and it almost always ends up playing like two games running alongside each other with occasional intermingling. Works great for that group, but I wouldn't recommend it for running your first PbP game.
2) Group-splitting: I'm giving purely selfish input here. It would be great fun for Raeli to play alongside a shifter and an elf, especially a dragonmarked elf. She'd be quite nervous about the shifter finding something "off" about her, and nervous about the elf seeing her dragonmark. Not to mention either extremely jealous of (or suspicious of) the dragonmarked elf.
I'm still writing up my background, so I haven't had a chance to delve into any of the other submitted characters yet. Once I finish Raeli, I'll look for ties with everyone else.
3) I don't need to know how long or high the game will go. Just keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't die prematurely from the myriad possible deadly diseases PbP games acquire.
I have a list of clear-cut goals for Raeli written up. I'll get them up here ASAP. :)
Okay, I rolled randomly on an Eberron reincarnate list and came up with shifter for her current body. She's previously been a halfling and half-orc.
I'm focusing my druid's build on casting, with some mounted archery thrown in. High Wis, High Dex, mid Strength, better-than-average Charisma.
Build so far: Ranger 1/Druid 5, with the Pack Lord and Reincarnated Druid archetypes. Her horse will be a 3rd-level animal companion, her hound a 2nd-level animal companion. Next level she'll gain empathic link with her animal companions, then I'll be taking levels in Shadow Hunter and improving her dragonmark and archery.
I don't plan on her being much of a healer, though she can obviously use wands and scrolls to help in that department. :)
I'll get her alias and character sheet up later today.
EDIT: Ah, just saw an elven archer in the mix. Maybe I'll take weapon finesse and go more secondary melee rather than archer...
On the reincarnation side how would you like to handle this concept? When she is reincarnated does she keep reappearing in a specific location(place she died or druid grove maybe?) or just some random place in the world? If, gods forbid, you were to die in game how would this play out? Is there a wait time before she comes back which gives her companions time to resurrect her?
Here's the relevant section from the Reincarnated Druid archetype (from Ultimate Magic):
Many Lives: If she is killed, she may automatically reincarnate (as the spell) 1 day later. She appears in a safe location within 1 mile of her previous body. At will for the next 7 days, she can sense the presence of her remains as if using locate object as a spell-like ability. If she is killed during these 7 days, she remains dead and does not reincarnate. This ability does not function if slain by a death effect. She cannot be raised from the dead or resurrected.
Okay, the concept that kept me from falling to sleep last night is an elf from the Paelion family, reincarnated druid, dragonmarked. Probably mixing in some levels of the Shadow Hunter prestige class from Dragonmarked. She was killed by the Thuranni assassins, woke up the next day in a different body. She doesn't know why, but she's died twice since then and the same thing happened. She has since come to accept it as a gift towards revenge against House Thuranni -- it is her personal mission to undermine the activities of the House, and kill the individual Thuranni who actually carried out the murder of her family. She remembers them, but they don't know her, at least not in this body.
She'll be more of a tracking, hunting focus than "protect the nature"-type druid. I'd like for her to have a Valenar warhorse as an animal companion, if you don't mind the slight improvement over the standard horse companion.
I'll post later with more details. How would you like me to pick her current reincarnated body? Just select one, roll it myself, have you roll it? :)
I'm interested! An Eberron campaign with Pathfinder rules...yep, I can't resist that! I'm open to filling any role. I'll look over the other concepts and get an idea or two up tomorrow :).
Oh, and having just unraveled The Dalsine Affair earlier this evening, I must advise, Scatha, to be certain to bring a competent healer with you.
Most excellent advice! Be assured that I long ago reached the conclusion that I must be able to rely on myself in matters of healing, and a season spent studying both magical and performing arts at the Conservatory in Oppara remedied my earlier lack.
Until the Melee,
Your fellow Lady Pathfinder,
Overdutchess Scatha, bar(d)barian
Lady Scatha's dance card is quite full for PaizoCon:
Friday afternoon: The Dalsine Affair
Friday night: Grand Melee
Saturday am: The Midnight Mauler
Saturday pm: You Only Die Twice
Sunday am: The Mantis's Prey
She sends her regards for a fellow Lady and kindred adventuring spirit, along with her hope that they may seen meet and fight side-by-side, whether intrigue or earthbreakers are the weapon of the day.
Sincerely,
Elora, social secretary to the Overdutchess
I haven't had the opportunity to play my 7th-level Overdutchess of Taldor PC since last year's PaizoCon, and The Dalsine Affair is first on my schedule this year. So. Very. Excited. :)
I'll be going laptop-style too. Tried to bring the books, but it would have been an entire extra suitcase. Couldn't justify spending (at least) $70 round trip, when I have them all in pdf form. I plan on having windows open to each pdf I might need and then putting lappy into sleep mode until I need to reference something.
This will be interesting with 6th and 7th level characters. Here's hoping that the other 4 don't show up with level ones! And actually, if you've got level 1's or 2's that you would be willing to play, you should bring thoses as well, or be okay with running at tier 3-4 if we get a wide mix of levels. Your choice really.
We both have level 2s we can play if necessary. My 7th level only gets to see action at PaizoCon anymore, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for a high-level table!
I just snagged the last seat in the Friday noon Midnight Mauler game. I was trying for Kyle's Saturday game but it was full.
:(
Keep watching it. If the people signed up for it find out who's the GM, they'll likely give up their seats. ;-)
Wait a minute...that'd be my 7th level bard-barian and my husband's 6th level ranger in the Saturday morning Midnight Mauler. Are you saying I should actually stat up my 2nd level GM-credit PC for the remainder of the Con?
Having accumulated a shelf full of excellent adventure paths collecting dust while waiting for the stars to align so I can run one (or better yet, play in one!), I haven't been tempted to buy a new one for some time. This image makes me want to buy Ashes at Dawn NOW. Gorgeous, inspiring, scary! Love everything about it, including the perfectly creepy jack-o-lantern
My biggest personal complaint about the book so far is that geisha sucks.
I was really disappointed by the geisha as well. I don't mind the 10-minute requirement for the tea ceremony, but the effect should last for much, much longer. And spending 4 rounds of bardic music for each creature affected seems unnecessarily costly. Bummer.
"The Unrelenting Embrace"...awesome. And then you hit me with the bit about him turning enemies into vampire spawn and staking them out for the morning sun. What?! I'm awake and paying attention now, despite only being halfway through my morning mocha. That is just a beautifully wicked tactic, and screams "villain". In fact, I'm now dreaming of capturing an important NPC, vampire spawning him, and watching the party try to rescue the NPC before he's toast.
I actually love the conflicting aspects of Karuuk Soulrender -- the desire for aristocracy versus the brutal pugilist.
This villain actually screams "Kelsier" from Mistborn to me, more than Robin Hood. That's a good thing, since Kelsier rocks the house as one of my favorite fantasy characters. But it also sets a very high standard for the Gentleman Knave to match up to, and I'm just not sure if he makes it. I think the "merciful unless his secret is threatened" bit hits me wrong -- I'd prefer it if, as a villain, he was a bit more sinister. Kelsier without a shred of conscience.
He might be evil if he won, took over, and started promoting anarchy. But he doesn't seem to be doing anybody (innocent) much damage now, or for quite some time to come.
I agree that going more into detail about what he is doing NOW rather than focusing on his backstory would have been a good move.
But, I can immediately think of ways to use The Deacon to wreak pain and havoc -- I mean really, do you think innocents don't get burned when a country is brought down (even an evil country)?
I think one of Cody's strengths as a designer is his subtlety; you just need to take a little time, close your eyes and lean back in your chair for a minute, to see the spark in this submission. Too many submissions in years past, especially villains and monsters, are gonzo-cool ideas that really wouldn't be that interesting in play from a PCs perspective.
I was really happy to see someone put a "houndsman" archetype out there! First archetype I've looked at this round, but I am definitely giving it a vote. I think this was really, really well done. Cavalier was a surprise, but I can see it. Well done!
With finances as tight as they are, I seriously doubt we'll be pulling a trip to Greece. Especially since my wife already booked us on a cruise/resort vacation with all our kids and some extended family in March. Thankfully, we've set aside funds for that well in advance. Plus, most of it's free since we're going to listen to their timeshare spiel. It's the price of admission. :-)
I can empathize, with our house still on the market back in Washington. Greece is only an option because my husband's travel expenses and all of our food would be paid for, thanks to a conference he's attending. Still might not be an option, hence plan B (driving trip).
Neil Spicer wrote:
That would be my neck of the woods. Let me know if you drive through Charlotte.
If we don't make it up there this year, we certainly will next fall. Rather keen on the idea of renting a cabin in the mountains up there and catching the turning of the leaves.
Thank you in advance for the feedback. I sincerely appreciate this opportunity to learn and develop better design skills.
Here it is:
Gloves of Dragonfly Eyes Aura faint divination and evocation; CL 3rd
Slot hands; Price 1800 gp; Weight --
Description
These pale gloves are embroidered with azure thread in the outline of five dragonflies on each hand. Faceted obsidian stones are set as the eyes of each dragonfly, and as a free action the wearer can use one pair of eyes as an extra material component while casting an illusion spell of the glamer or figment subschool. At any time during the duration of the spell, the caster may point at a target and mentally will the gloves to activate (requiring a move action). The eyeless dragonfly immediately unravels and reforms in flight, carried by magical force to the intended target as per the magic missile spell. Rather than damaging the target, however, the dragonfly alights and allows the target to discern the illusion just as if a successful Will save had been made.
Should anyone other than the spellcaster don the gloves after a set of eyes is consumed but before the dragonfly is triggered, the gloves immediately activate with the new wearer as the target.
The gloves can only be attuned to one spell at a time; attempts to use a second pair of eyes fail until the earlier spell ends. When all ten dragonflies have been expended, the gloves serve merely as plain adornments for the hands.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, magic missile, see invisibility; Cost 900 gp
Swamp Druid and Abraham Spalding: Yes, that's true, and as someone who worked hard on designing an item for submission and hoped beyond hope to be in the top 32, the possibility of being cheated out of a spot clearly bothers me. But there is no way a cheater is going to win the Big Prize, or even come close to the top 4. And that reassures me. Complaining about one person being cheated out of one spot in the top 32 just isn't a worthy investment of time, in my opinion.
I'll leave cosmic discussions of cheaters and imperfect worlds for another time, and another thread. :)
You know, Eric, I think even in the worst-case version of the scenario you (vaguely) describe, it's not really worth making a fuss over. If a contestant rode into the top 32 off someone else's design talent, their own lack of talent is going to show up in subsequent rounds. Who's to say that one of the top 32 items wasn't designed by someone's buddy in a home game? It'll all fall out right in the end -- as they say, cheaters never win.
Danny Lundy, you have an excellent point there I hadn't even considered. What invisible combatant wouldn't gladly pay for their resident party healer to have these gloves?
