Elucidarian's page

I had the same problem and emailed Customer Service. Hoping to get it worked out soon. (Thanks to all the hard-working people at Paizo and Goblinworks for fixing these things!)

Alright, just testing since it doesn't show up in past posts.

Still waiting on my pledge management email. Are Paizo's series of tubes clogged up?

One idea I will probably never use is the idea where the minds of the PCs switch bodies (e.g. because of a curse). I simply see no way how to simulate this within the rules and still keep the adventure exciting and at a fast pace. Having to deal with a lot of new rules usually slows down the adventure too much. But then again, who knows...

I just had this idea 10 minutes and went a-searching the messageboards. Surprisingly, not much discussion of it.

I was thinking that I would time the moment of transfer with the end of a session, collect the character sheets (as I always do, in case someone is absent next time), and follow a few guidelines for making the new sheets.

I wouldn't create the new sheets before the game with the switch, because which PCs wind up involved in the switch might be random (it should be more fun that way).

ABILITIES
The abilities would be the first thing to work with. Intelligence and Wisdom would swap. Strength and Constitution would stay the same. Dex and Charisma I think should be split to an average, as they are, more than the others, a mix of physical and non-physical factors.

SKILLS
The same rules would apply to skill ranks, moving, keeping and splitting the total based on the applicable ability. The number of ranks gained would be retained, however, so each new character sheet would have to add or subtract based on the old character's

FEATS
The deciding factor is, again, how much the feat is based on the PC's knowledge versus their physical make-up.

GEAR
All gear, at least initially, would stay with the body, unless it had a magical enhancement that would follow the mind.

I'm sure there are more considerations, but this would require enough work already and it might be best to make a judgement call as concerns arise.

Oh, I'm also making it a seasonal foray. The player of the kingdom's ruler determined they might have to postpone the island encounter into the next chapter because they want to have a proper ship for traversing the lakes.

Later, discussion about the region's climate led us to the realization that the lakes might likely freeze over in the coldest months. Potential boating mishaps averted! But, since we've been setting each book's events and encounters during the warmer months, those adventures have yet to incur the chillier environmental hazards. Winter is coming, to Kingmaker.

Without going overboard planning ahead, I'm adding this detail:

Kn. Engineering DC 20 or Perception DC 35, to notice that the tower is only the upper portion of a buried structure.

If they don't surmise it themselves, I would inform the players that uncovering the structure would be a massive undertaking (especially given the water table of the island; the lake would first need to be drained, although they might not realize that until the excavation site fills with seepage beginning 10-15 ft. down).

The enormity of the task, if they chose to attempt it, would give me plenty of time to determine first the required BP and potentially negative events affecting Kingdom Building (the AP will advance without the PCs if they allow it). Secondly, I would go about devising the exact nature and layout of the buried structure. It would likely involve an ancient battle site, whereupon great magic was used to upheave the very ground beneath and surrounding the structure.

Oh, but it would be fun watching the players wade through the logistics of such an project, like hiring skilled archaeologists, lest the laborers succumb to inadequate digging methods. >:D

calibration of the sequined megaphone array, powered

Today Jon Brazer Enterprises updated the PDF of their Book of the River Nations: Complete Player's Reference for Kingdom Building.

From the email I received:

"... second printing incorporates the errata from the first printing and clarifies a few points of confusion."

Anyone discover yet what errata and points these are, exactly?

I had no luck in a quick search and don't have the time to make a page by page comparison.

Also, make sure to check out the Kingmaker City Map Toolkit a buddy of mine put together (with approvals by by Lisa Stevens, Vic Wertz, and Dale McCoy Jr!).

Oh, and I'd like to make a shout out to the excel Kingdom file in the archives: Kingdom & City Sheet.

I've found this file to be incredibly useful in the building phase. I'm sure most people have found it already, but just in case, I recommend it.

xorial wrote:

read that as well....it goes with a rumor I was hearing that Hasbro is trying to do something with Paizo.

Oh, oh, oh...please tell! Hopefully they will pay me enough money to buy that island in the Caribbean that I have been eyeing. Should only cost $100 million or so. :)

-Lisa

You can't build a proper island fortress for less than $250 million these days. Better hold out for a better offer.

Very spiffy and useful, to boot. A fine example of the proactive response to "Gee, wouldn't it be nice ..."

Thanks for the info, Reaperbryan.

This is so much a more complex question with a harder answer than it sounds.

...

Stag Lord might be a year too late for a lot of you. But somebody out there is just about to begin Kingmaker, and that GM will be happy.

I'm sure your customers would love (hint, hint) to see a page with just a rough time line for releases. At least the order in which they'll come out, if not actual dates. Is that feasible?

I would really like to purchase Vordakai, Cyclops Lich, but only if I can get by the time my players reach Kingmaker Part 3. They're about to begin Part 2.

Wouldn't you sell more AP minis if players could get them by the time the the correlating AP issue is shipped?

Why are the AP minis coming out so late?

Is it because the minis line is still relatively new and yet to be streamlined? Do you wait until you know if a character is well-received before its commissioned?

Will there be a Goblin Cavalier on a Goblin Dog?

If they can bend the rules this far, I think that's entirely reasonable.

Don't forget the 80s movie that glorified DnD: E.T. The Extraterrestrial.

Why does that scene always get overlooked?

Hey, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH7pABfm1HQ

This dragon doesn't need to waste its time fighting them, really.

Is this swamp its home, because then it might just be irritated at being intruded upon. Being evil and hungry, it might enjoy playing with its food. Have it eat just one would-be hero, and mire the rest in the muck by overturning the boardwalk.

Alternatively, could the PCs have been mistaken or tricked in believing what they see before them? Is it really as powerful? Is it really a dragon? It wouldn't be the first time some danger was exaggerated in its description. Perhaps there's even a magical element involved, such as illusion.

Based on my test-run, I see Alchemists as having undergone a conditioning which allows them to convert otherwise inert or poisonous concoctions into magical effects. Their own magical reserves are the catalyst for these effects, which could be counted off like a spell caster's mental spell slots.

Let them create as many mutagens as they like, considering they put the time and money into them, but limit their frequency of use based on internal capacities. Make the Infuse discovery inherent and without arbitrary drawbacks. Level could determine how many times an Alchemist can imbibe a mutagen until he either receives no effect, or begins to suffer penalties from overuse.

Maintaining the selfish nature of their abilities is fine, but they should be easier to employ.

I just looked at the tengu last night and they are the perfect fit for my current campaign. I needed an interesting encounter for a group of PCs pressed into slave-mining an adamantine mine, finally escaping by digging where a resident ghost indicated escape by caverns was possible. Problem is, the caverns led them up to the surface of a rocky, forested plateau with no obvious way down (effectively, an island in the air).

I had not planned past that point, so went looking in the Bestiary Appendix 10 Monsters by Terrain (boy, do I love those appendices) for a suitable encounter. Seeing the unfamiliar tengu, I read them over and immediately fell in love with their potential. Now, I've got it in my head that their uber-secret martial monastery exists right down the rocky plateau path from our party's position. Reason for choosing the site? Well, it is isolated, but it also sports a rare tengu delicacy: gemfruit trees, otherwise known as "blech berries" by most humanoids (tengu would only be protecting the whereabouts of such groves from other tengu).

The tengu will not treat trespassers lightly, but have sense enough to recognize their weaponless, grubbily-clothed intruders for something other than intentional invaders. The PCs actions will determine the outcome of this encounter, and I will relish it however it manifests.

Perception and acrobatics are now way way way to must have.

I'm new to the concept, but the Stormwind fallacy seems applicable to a majority of these forum posts.

Those skills are only must-have by players worried their PC might not survive to some state of success without them. I've got a character in one of the games I'm running who has consistent bad luck with Perception and Acrobatics both. He is also becoming the most enjoyed character by the players because of his frequent mishaps.

His accidents, however, have not rendered him ineffectual. He remains a reliable member of the party whose other abilities make him invaluable. The amalgamation of these skills is one example of Pathfinder making it easier to min/max, I'll confess, but not necessary.

Pathfinder continues the tradition of allowing gamers to choose how to play: For fun or power, dependent on the role or the roll.

This one of those (unending, it seems) cases where it's not the destination, but the journey. If all you're concerned with is that number in the level box of your character sheet, you shouldn't be playing a "Role Playing Game." Levels, lives and kills are of utmost importance in FPS arcades, not here. If anything, let your character nurture a two-dimensional obsession for notches on his scabbard.

It makes complete sense that 20th level spell casters are going to have an advantage over their non-spell-dependent counterparts. You might have a fighter that can best any creature on the planet in physical combat, while shrugging off magic-based physical harm (fire, lightning, acid, etc.) But unless he's got friends in mystical places, when said melee master is flung into another dimension by a 100 pound nerd with a wand, he ain't coming back. Poof. Gone.

But, wait, Mr. Uber-Mage. How exactly did you reach such heights of power? Get any help along the way? Did a friendly paladin keep you from getting devoured by hell-spawn when that celestial summoning went wrong? Barbarian hold up the granite block trap from crushing you in that ancient tomb? When your quest for that absolutely essential lost scroll of incantations for planar movement found the party transported into a magical textbook of chronicled events where the only escape was to enact each story as it happened, would you ever have made it without the bard's expansive historical knowledge?

A good GM knows how to run a game according to PCs' strengths and dispositions. Do the new bards really need to be slapped around quite so much as I've seen on the boards? No. The real ultimate power a player should concern him or herself with is the GM. If you feel your character is letting you down, that is the person you should be talking to.

[edited and reposted from the "Ranger Spells seem a bit light?" thread]

full-casters are still the kings of the hill in high-level combat.

This one of those (unending, it seems) cases where it's not the destination, but the journey. If all you're concerned with is that number in the level box of your character sheet, you shouldn't be playing a "Role Playing Game." Levels, lives and kills are of utmost importance in FPS arcades, not here. If anything, let your character nurture a two-dimensional obsession for notches on his scabbard.

Zurai's quote is technically correct. It makes complete sense that 20th level spell casters are going to have an advantage over their non-spell-dependent counterparts. You might have a fighter that can best any creature on the planet in physical combat, while shrugging off magic-based physical harm (fire, lightning, acid, etc.) But unless he's got friends in mystical places, when said melee master is flung into another dimension by a 100 pound nerd with a wand, he ain't coming back. Poof. Gone.

But, wait, Mr. Uber-Mage. How exactly did you reach such heights of power? Get any help along the way? Did a friendly paladin keep you from getting devoured by hell-spawn when that celestial summoning went wrong? Barbarian hold up the granite block trap from crushing you in that ancient tomb? When your quest for that absolutely essential lost book of incantations for planar movement had you traversing dangerous, creature-infested terrain, didn't the ranger save the entire party's butts time and again?

A good GM knows how to run a game according to PCs' strengths and dispositions. Do the new bards really need to be slapped around quite so much as I've seen on the boards? No. The real ultimate power a player should concern him or herself with is the GM. If you feel your character is letting you down, that is the person you should be talking to.

"There is too much. Let me sum up."

(2005-08-24)

The group began this night with a rather mindless companion (devoid of a player to control his actions) in Jaccob (or J’khob, or what-have-you), the Impoverished and Ineffectual (no one to glorify him, either). Moving westward, away from the carnage of their latest encounter, the characters come to a slight distension on the northern tip of Lake Formouth. At this point a storm system has come into full effect, and a downpour is making visibility and movement more difficult. Attempting to move the party across the inlet, they realize Jaccob has not accompanied them. Crossing back again they find his magically lighted stick lying on the ground.
Searching the area for their missing member, Lyssiah discovers a dead orc, its left arm mangled. Traveling north past the corpse, they encounter the giant Balterg, the destroyer of an entire orc camp. Speaking of a road being open again, he makes the assertion that Lyssiah must be on her way back now that the way is clear. The party has no idea what he’s talking about.
At this time a celestial being intervenes and requests the completion of a questionnaire, the results to indicate which member of the party (Hadagoria) would be best suited to teaching a foreigner the ways of the material world. Enter: Liibu the Cleric. She is a human, accidentally born into the celestial plane, harbored there until this moment when she could return to her world of origin. After introductions, the new group moves southwest, again in search of the wizard, Haddy receiving a much-desired giant ride.

(2005-09-15)

Returning to the town whose Mayor they previously relieved of a treasure chest salvaged (with the PCs’ aid) from a sinking vessel caught on route from Hersden in a devastating storm, only Lyssiah seems to have purpose in their destination. The barbarian and gnome have less concern for destination than they do for circumstances as they arise. Balterg realizes it would be best to take his leave. The cleric, Liibu, after a moment’s murmuring skyward, vanishes in the same misty light and mysterious fashion as she had appeared only the day before. The lost wizard, JaCob of Many Spells (as in ways to spell his name), is returned to group when they arrive in town. He apparently had slipped into the lake’s undercurrent and awoke some distance south along the shoreline.
Denied lodging at the inn in which they once stayed, they quickly find the Secret Stallion and arrange a night’s stay (all but the wizard whose dead man’s pockets were woefully empty). Also making their way to the inn is a group of hunters, protectively escorted by the elven fighter, Lanthin. He shortly thereafter makes acquaintance with Lyssiah and the other PCs.
It takes little time before the citizens of Monepelia make note of and decide to act upon the PCs’ arrival. The local constable and several conscripted men are sent to order the party out of town. After a parlay between Lyssiah and the constable, an agreement is struck to allow them a night’s stay and chaperoned supply run that evening. After that time, they are not to be allowed return.

Caught up as a suspected accomplice to the party, Lanthin is also expected to leave. Since it was his intention to do so, and his route coincidentally matches that of his new associates, he decides to join them in their trek to the Westlost Woods. He also recognizes the practicality of safety in numbers. The hunters he traveled with were fleeing an influx of hobgoblin banditry in the forest. Lanthin expects to rejoin a group of elven archer sent from the north to apprehend or exterminate the marauding goblinoids.
The new group of travelers eventually reaches the lodge skirting the woods, the following day reaching the elven company. A battle had ended not long before their arrival, funerary ceremonies taking place for fallen elves and a large fire for the many slain hobgoblins. After meeting with the elven leaders, the PCs are offered 5000 gp to take up the hunt for the few remaining bandits who escaped the melee, including the chief criminal, Khurbok.

Following the forest trails as best able, the group battles the pin-spewing Needlefolk, creatures they were warned of by the elves' cleric. The plant-like humanoids focus especially on Lyssiah and Lanthin in their attack. Other dangers were intimated by the elves, part of their reason for requesting the PCs’ involvement. What more might threaten them?

(previous installment by the player of Lyssiah, elven rogue here: http://www.geocities.com/tneir.geo/battle_of_hursden.htm)