Firest's page

338. The Erotic Adventures of the Great Enchanter Nowis - Ostensibly a book of rather unpleasant erotica, this crudely printed and amateurishly illustrated volume details the actions of the titular wizard, Nowis as he uses compulsion spells to force a succession of young women to perform sexual acts with strangers, family members, and animals. The book is derided even by it's intended audience of perverts for it's repetitiveness and crudity.

Disturbingly however, a knowledgeable person who reads the book quickly discovers that underneath the perverse subject matter and banal writing the author displays a intimate practical knowledge of how to use enchantment spells to compel obedience from individuals. A person who can stomach spending a week studying the book gains a +1 bonus to saving throws vs. mind effecting spells. Additionally, a spellcaster with Spell Focus: Enchantment also gains a +1 to the DC of his mind effecting spells.

Interesting. Really nerdy, but interesting. :)

It is kind of nice to see some good gods for tieflings and androids though.

Where to begin?

The Man with the Iron Fists is supposed to be a throwback to the classic Shaw Brothers movies of the 70s and 80s, and in some ways it succeeds. Oddly historically inaccurate setting? Check. Incomprehensible plot? Check. Weird martial arts and weapons? Check. Ridiculous hair and a villain with ludicrously absurd eyebrows? Check and check.

So we're good right? Grab your popcorn, turn off your brain, and embrace the lunacy! What more could you want?

Well, how about a script editor to start?

See, there's just too much going on. There's something like six stories being told here, and the one that's supposed to be the main story is the least interesting.

Now, you might be saying that, "it's a martial arts film, the plot doesn’t matter." But as an example of how muddled the story is, there's a point about halfway through the movie where you sit through an extended flashback that explains how an escaped slave from the American South (RZA, channeling Denzel Washington at his dullest) became a blacksmith in Northern China, and it wasn't until about the middle of this badly overlong flashback that I realized that the blacksmith was supposed to be the main character of the film! That's how badly overshadowed the alleged main character and his narrative is by every other character in the film, from Russell Crowe to several of the background characters. And Crowe is obviously just phoning in his performance.

That's not to say there wasn't entertainment here. Lucy Liu steals every scene she's in, and David Bautista badly made me want to watch a film about his character, but neither of them is on screen enough to stave off the boredom.

Then we get to the fighting.

It's a martial arts film. More than that, it's a deliberate attempt to recapture the feel of the great old Shaw Brothers kung-fu epics of the drive-thru movie era. You have a bunch of actual martial artist and actors with extensive experience playing in martial arts movies being choreographed by the legendary Corey Yuen! The scenes they filmed must have been brilliant! Masterpieces of martial arts and wirework!

Then they were edited together by a bunch of Americans.

Yes, once again a possible masterpiece of action choreography becomes a seizure-inducing mess of quick cuts, close-ups, figures in shadow, and….

G++#!*nit, how f@#king hard is this? There's a reason Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and even f@#king Jean-Claude Van Damme films are considered martial arts classics, it's because you can F@#KING SEE THE FIGHTS!

But noooooo, not here in America, not anymore. Here in America we want to not see what's happening. We want to see a perfectly executed fight scene be turned into something resembling a student film on youTube. We want to see how many epileptics we can discover in the theater!

Damnit, I'm sick of writing about this. Just wait and rent it, that's the bottom line.

I suspect that "bigger room" is going to be the defining theme of this thread, and it would be great if Paizo can afford it, but beyond that I'm hard pressed to see where there is much room for improvement beyond some minor details.

Sound proofing would be nice, but I suspect that it would be to expensive to do, even if (or especially if) it was something the Convention Center had to do.

More pizazz in the booth perhaps? While it was in a prime location and there was a great selection of merchandise it wasn't as eye-catching as others (like Privateer Press' booth) and I had a hard time seeing it from other parts of the hall.

I would ask that Paizo ratchet back on the number of buttons given away, as I found it impossible to get to the booth soon enough every morning to get that days button.

Very sad. Borders always had a great selection and much better coffee than either B&N or Books-a-Million. But their late, half-assed entry into the internet and e-books market doomed them.

IMO its there own fault. Seemed everytime I would go into my local Borders the whole place was rearranged. hard to go in, get what you want and get out when you have to keep looking around for stuff.

I have a friend that worked for them and asked Him about it. He said the upper management kept making the stores do that when the local managers would get alot of complaints about it. Looks to me the upper managment did'nt care what the customers wanted.

Yeah, that's another thing. There really has been a 'rearranging chairs on the Titanic' feel to the place these last few years.

Have you checked out c873788's Guide to Witches yet?

After everyone is eaten, you are digested last.

How did this become a discussion about stuff entirely unrelated to Words of Power?

I think because there's not a lot to say about Words of Power.

It's there. A DM or player can use it if they want. But it's to free form to use in either Society play or an Adventure Path and there's no indication that Paizo is going to do much more to support it.

The "historical" Friar Tuck is described as a monk who was thrown out of his monastery for disrespect for authority and is known for his love of alcohol and fine food, so the Drunken Monk archetype might work better.

Just an FYI, because it doesn't make it clear in the SRD, but poisonous frogs excrete their poison through their skin, making handling them fairly dangerous even though captive specimens loose much of their toxicity.

If you're going to have one as a familiar I'd stock up on gloves and antitoxin.

Another place you might want to look is in the Monsternomicon. The Cephalyx are basically Mind Flayers with a leather and medical fetish.

Will any copies be available at Gen-Con?

WhipShire wrote:

Cheapy wrote:

The issue to me is that there seems to be a difference between just killing a monster or bandit, and making them your friend...then killing them.

Perhaps I'm alone in this thinking.

I know the original intent of your question is about morality but it seems to me if he is charmed their are many ways out of that situation that does not require killing said charmed NPC.

Like... Hey my new friend lets go down to the local law enforcement office or look at these lovely ropes/shackles I bet they would look great on you this time of year... Hey lets go skinny dipping in that great muddy... you first Taa dah naked NPC... just my 2 cents...

would that mean sleeping with a charmed NPC more or less evil than killing them ;)

Oddly enough, the only time I've ever seen the charm spell used that way in a D&D property is in the unusually awful Temple of Elemental Evil novelization from 2001.

Possibly the worst novel ever published by WotC (certainly the worst I've ever actually read), it's especially notable and egregious that the subplot of the evil cult leader using Charm Person to control his kidnapped teenage sex slaves is the most well written part of the book. :(

Ravingdork wrote:

She was an antisocial scientist.

But also a seductress. She frequently sweet talks people, even before laying down any charm or suggestions. She does it pretty damn well for someone who is "antisocial," too. I make a third motion for higher Cha. It just fits.

Agreed, Ivy's mind control and poison abilities are almost as defining a characteristic as her plant abilities. To the point that sometimes her MC powers overshadow her plant abilities.

I'd suggest making her mechanically a Dryad who's removed her tree dependency.

There's a PrC in the old Complete Mage book that allows this. Blood Mage I think.

I've really come to hate Elves always being stuck in the woods.

Why not put them in Italy, Greece, and Constantinople? Make them the squabbling heirs and former rulers of the classical world, as well as current rulers of the church?

I'm looking at making a Monk of the Empty Hand for Society play and had a few questions about the archetype.

First, the rules state that anything the monk uses as a weapon is considered either a hammer, club, quarterstaff, or shuriken. And while that is fairly comprehensive, it doesn't seem to address how a MotEH would use a whip, chain, scarf, or fire hose.

Logically, I would think that they would all be considered whips, but do the rules say that anywhere?

Second, largely for RP reasons (and the Cleanliness Vow) I'm thinking of concentrating on ranged combat with shuriken. Treatmonk treats this option as experimental, not going very far with it, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for making it work.

Sounds like a good campaign to use the Kingmaker kingdom building rules.

New magic item...
.
.
.
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Elven Earrings of Flight

Aura moderate transmutation

Slot Ears, wearer must be an elf

Description
These earrings appear to be ordinary earrings shaped like feathers. On command, they let an elf fly, without having to maintain concentration, as if affected by a fly spell by flapping their ears like a hummingbirds. He can fly three per times day for up to 5 minutes per flight.

Given the time Elves have to waste learning obscure skills, I suspect many could wiggle their ears (if they desired to). I put a lot of effort into into it when I was 9 or so.

More seriously, ears (particularly prominent ones) are often part of the body-language of animals. Elves, having larger ears, might have evolved them similarly. This might substitute for eye-rolling and other ocular body language impossible with a monochrome eye.

"Don't you dare flick your ears at me young elf!"

And if the DM is still going after your PC's spellbooks, I'd suggest being a Witch and taking a small familiar that doesn't leave your person.

A snake coiled around your arm, a centipede that lives in your cloak, a spider that makes it's home in your hat, or a toad that squats on your head. ("What's with the toad on your head?" "What toad?")

That way your familiar can't be targeted directly and is covered by any defensive spells you cast.

Of course, you're going to get a reputation as the creepy guy with bugs crawling all over him. But then, that's why they invented the spell Vomit Swarm isn't it? :D

p.s. I don't know much about metal, and altough I always tought they wear long wild beards, I can't think of a single metaller with a beard ...

Rob Zombie.

Make it a gunpowder-powered engine...just don't forget to have your players make a save vs. deafness.

Fun fact, Red Sonya is almost completely a creation of Marvel comics. Robert E.Howard did write a character called "Red Sonja", but she was a gun-totting swashbuckler in Renaissance Europe who fought against the Ottomans.

So a Fighter/Gunslinger might be more appropriate. :)

carborundum wrote:

I can get a Galaxy Tab 10.1v through my phone provider with a nice deal - or I can save up for FOUR MONTHS(!) and get the Galaxy Tab 10.1 - not the 'v' version.

I'm vaguely sure the 10.1v has no USB connection, but if I can insert an SD (or MicroSD) then I'll be happy too.

Anyone in the know who can advise?

Last I saw the 10.1 does NOT have an SD card (micro or otherwise). Its part of the reason I opted for the Iconia A500.

How does it handle Flash?

DR 10/magic and silver, so load up on those silver and/or enchanted bullets.

Just got an Acer Iconia A500. Absolutely loved it.

I've been looking seriously at one of those, for the full USB slot if nothing else.

How does it handle pulling PDFs, pics, and other files off a USB stick?

It sounds like you're already running with the character, but you might want to consider making him a Low Templar.

Vow of the Third Person: The monk must speak in the third person in all forms of communication. A monk with this vow increases his ki pool by 1 point for every 5 monk levels.

Aaaad we have a new leader on the board! :D

OK DMs!

One of my characters, a magus, wants to go into the Bladebound archetype from the Ultimate Magic. It's on page 47 if you want to look it up. I'll wait . . .

Ok glad you're back. Basically it gives the magus a legendary weapon that grows with the magus. The thing is, it's very clearly expressed that the blade is more of a companion than a servant, it's conscious, and stuff.

So what I'm looking for here is any inspiration we can together come up with for how this blade finds its way into the magus' hand. Is it something the professor has in his house? Is it a treasure in the prison? Is it for sale, ultra-cheap in the scroll shop? Given the thinking-sentient-blade there could be some cool connections with the 4th module having to do with Cthuhlu-like otherworldly stuff - could we foreshadow that?

Recall that Bladebounds get their blade at level 3. So I have about a level to line this story up and make it happen.

Ideas?
Thanks!

There are a couple of other threads on the Bladebound, and the most common comparison people seem to be drawing is to the Zanpakutō from the Bleach manga/anime. That is to say that the blades are powerful spirits the characters summon, and are bound to, that take the physical form of weapons.

Awesome idea!

You might want to look into either the half-ogre or half-giant. The half-ogre gives +4 to strength and the half-giant is treated as one size larger when grappling, bull rushing, etc...

The h-o can be found on the Pathfinder SRD and the h-g is in Dreamscarred Press' Psionics Unleashed.

Have you checked out c873788's Guide to Witches?

You could go the Battlestar Galactica route and have Baldur be the leader of a group of refugees fleeing from the utter destruction of their home world/plane.

When they arrive at their "promised land" they might not be inclined to listen to anyone saying "we were here first".

I would caution you not to go crazy with the familiar as a combatant. Replacing one is really expensive and imposes a significant hardship, not to mention costing you all the spells you've pumped into it through scrolls and whatnot. The best familiars are the ones that don't get noticed, not the ones that can scrap next to the witch.

+1

As a Witch, using your familiar in combat is sort of like a Wizard using his spellbooks as melee weapons.

In fact, it's worse. A Wizard can have multiple copies of their spellbooks as backups.

While I'm as starved for new Oracle content as anyone I think your player could get what he needs by using the Wasting curse.

Just replace "Your body is slowly rotting away" with "Your body has one or more open, bleeding wounds".

Just that it's historically appropriate as well. "Doc" wasn't just a nickname, Holliday actually was a doctor. A dentist to be accurate.

You might want to see if you can do anything with an Oracle with the wasting curse, as that would probably represent his lifelong illness better.

Both are good options mechanically, so what it's going to come down to is your character concept.

Take the magic cat if you want a familiar that will either play into the traditional image of a competent, mysterious mage or fade into the background if your PC is trying to be subtle.

Take the half pseudo-dragon/half butterfly if your PC is trying to look FABULOUSSSS!!!

KaeYoss wrote:

Firest wrote:

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

Yes, but where will we get a turkey baster at this time of night?

Why, Turkey Baster World, of course!

It's right next door to Spatula City!

YES!!

Big chains like those, they don't care about getting RPG books right at street date. The delays are all most likely caused by them only ordering a giant order from the distributor once a month or so. It didn't make it into this month's order, so it'll happen on the next one.

I could be wrong, but it happens to just about every RPG book around release. People make the same complaints about the 40k RPG books from FFG as well. I'm fairly certain it isn't Paizo or the distributor's fault, but the way the big chains order books.

However it happens it's good news for the FLGS. When I picked up my copy the manager mentioned that I'd gotten the last copy and that it had just flown of the shelf.

When I told him that Borders and B&N wouldn't be getting UM in store or shipping it until July 12th he was surprised and pleased.

My suggestion would be to take the Fox familiar, call it a young wolf, and then take the wolf later as an improved familiar.

Firest wrote:

Foghammer wrote:

Jiraiya22 wrote:

Including atmosphere, the Earth is about 15 trillion cubic feet. As a 20th level caster you can make 400 10 ft cubes with the Greater Create Demiplane spell, so 40,000 cubic feet per cast. It will take 3.8 billion casts to equal the volume of the Earth and its atmosphere. To cast that many permanency spells at 22,500 gp per cast it will cost 87 trillion gold pieces, plus 2 trillion gold for the cost of forked metal rods which are the material component for the Create Demiplane spells, so you will need 89 trillion gold pieces. One gold piece is 9 ounces, so you need 800 trillion ounces of gold, which is about 880 million american short tons of gold.

So for the low low price of a 1.5 billion square foot block of gold you can have Earth.

I was bored, I'm done now.

That covers materials, what about labor costs?

Just offer free t-shirts, everyone will show up to help.

Wow Pinkey and the Brain?

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

I agree that it's an awesome flavor thing, but I also agree that it's not necessarily 20th level in power. How often do people actually get that high in games? I'd love to see this sort of cool thematic stuff that can be done in a game that people can actually play in. It's not that much more powerful than a cool mount. I can see it being a Major Hex, and toning the abilities down a bit.

Or a lesser version being a Major Hex, then getting better as your PC levels.

It's not just Borders though, I checked with Barnes&Nobles and they're getting Ultimate Magic on July 12 as well.

So I just went ahead and bought it at my FLGS.

Fine, fine! You've convinced me. You can have a scimitar.

But you're still not playing a Drow!

Hama wrote:

That "just lava" Is the reason we have atmosphere, because the mass of the entire earth gives it enough gravity to keep the air around it. Also, a hollow planet would be cold. Very cold. And mos probably a barren, frozen wasteland, with nothing to keep it warm on the inside.

There you go mixing hard science and fantasy gaming again.

It's a world in which gods, demons, magic, and people with pointy ears abound. A wizard can literally create something from nothing with the snap of his or her fingers. Joebob The Mighty Left Hand Of Croom, God of Drunken Brawls, can hold up the Sacred Tankard and shout out "CROOOOOOOOOOOOM ON YA!" and whollop a Dragon for a skintillion points of damage and later go out carousing with the Dragon's (now deep into her cups) dearly lamenting pixie girlfriend.

No one in a fantasy game worries about "atmosphere" - they ask "Is there air?" The molten core of the world doesn't keep it warm, that's what the SUN does! Or, if not the sun, the warmth of the Creator Gods! If the world is hollow, it's hollow! Hidden civilizations! Dinosaurs! A sun that never moves! Travis Morgan, The Warlord of Skartaris, striking out from Shamballah The Golden to bring freedom and unity to the entirety of the hidden world!

Or is that Mike Grell and DC comics? I can never remember.

My point being that while the catgirl population is clearly out of control, there's no need to slaughter millions of them by bringing hard science into a conversation about creating a world using fantastic magical power. ;)

Plus, not only can you greatly reduce the weight of material needed by making the world completely hollow, but you can also stick a sun on the inside of the sphere as well and double your living space.

Or, if you left it lightless what kind of ecology could you create in a black void the size of a planet? Shadow corrupted air elementals? Huge schools of Beholders? Cities of Mind Flayers built on huge, floating monsters?

According to a few anime/manga I've seen (Sayuki in particular) if you kill a thousand demons, or people with demon blood in them, you become a demon yourself.

Jiraiya22 wrote:

Including atmosphere, the Earth is about 15 trillion cubic feet. As a 20th level caster you can make 400 10 ft cubes with the Greater Create Demiplane spell, so 40,000 cubic feet per cast. It will take 3.8 billion casts to equal the volume of the Earth and its atmosphere. To cast that many permanency spells at 22,500 gp per cast it will cost 87 trillion gold pieces, plus 2 trillion gold for the cost of forked metal rods which are the material component for the Create Demiplane spells, so you will need 89 trillion gold pieces. One gold piece is 9 ounces, so you need 800 trillion ounces of gold, which is about 880 million american short tons of gold.

So for the low low price of a 1.5 billion square foot block of gold you can have Earth.

I was bored, I'm done now.

That covers materials, what about labor costs?

Just offer free t-shirts, everyone will show up to help.

Int as a dump stat?

"Look out, our foe's foul undead have escaped his control! They're running wild and attacking him!"

No, I've played second darkness, the battles in the ruins against the drow bring some memories back. The surface elven skirmish groups spread out, did their own thing, had trouble backing each-other and the pcs up, violence was dispersed and not concentrated. There was no cav, there were no heavy or medium infantry, or heavy polearm barbs or fighters to kill monsters quickly, there were no notable leaders leading the attacks to bravely drive the drow back and finish it quickly. It was piece by piece, and all over the place, with one troop type on the high elf side.

And if they were so fantastic, why are the pcs needed, and why have the drow been having victories and putting the surface elves under pressure? That the way the elves fight and what their capabilities and tactics are is quite predictable really works against them.

You can't really use the Elves fighting against the Drow as an example of how the Elven military would act in a major war.

Remember, the war against the Drow is a secret. The forces deployed against them aren't the best forces the Elves have available, they're the forces the Winter Council believes they can trust, intimidate, or make disappear in order to keep the secret of the Drow's existence.

As a result you have a group of individuals chosen either on the basis of their ideological purity or because they're expendable to the Council, rather than their ability as soldiers (and note I said soldiers, not fighters. There's a difference!) or to work together as a team in battle.

I concur with Mistress. Wizards can, so witches should be able to.

I was hoping this thread was about role playing that "communion." My male witch gets his first play time tomorrow. His familiar is a scorpion. He is flavored as a."voodoo witch" so I intend to make that communion as creepy as possible.

Any suggestions?

I'm not sure if there are any scorpions that do this, but there are several types of creatures that carry their young on their backs.

So every morning your PC's familiar has a fresh batch of baby scorpions on it's back, one per spell, and the PC has to eat them one at a time.

This will be our discussion thread.

This will be our gameplay thread.

This will be our gameplay thread.

This is the discussion thread.

I'm starting a new game of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game the Dragon's Demand for play by post. This will be specifically geared for those that are new to PBP. If anyone is interested, I have 2 open seats (2 players have already expressed interest. Post in this thread in the next 48 hours if interested. Priority for those new to PBP. I'll select randomly if more than 2 people are interested.

This will be our discussion thread.

This is the play by post thread for my Tyrant of the Harrow game.

Paizo is hosting a silent auction as part of GenCon online. It runs for about 4 more hours after I'm making this post. One item in particular might interest regular readers of this forum:

PACS #1: Custom character written by Keith Richmond, sanctioned for PACS play. Exclusive rights to play for 1 year.
https://discordapp.com/channels/697962502650069073/738563967835963452/73955 0123528552599

(cross posted in both card game general forum and here since it seemed relevant in both places).

Paizo is hosting a silent auction as part of GenCon online. It runs for about 4 more hours after I'm making this post. One item in particular might interest regular readers of this forum:

PACS #1: Custom character written by Keith Richmond, sanctioned for PACS play. Exclusive rights to play for 1 year.
https://discordapp.com/channels/697962502650069073/738563967835963452/73955 0123528552599

The page https://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/adventures never fully loads. The banner and footer of the page load, but I just get the spinning wheel. I've let it run for as long as 5 minutes.

This page is linked from the header bar menu Pathfinder > Roleplaying Game > Adventures and also by clicking the box for Adventure Paths on the subscriptions page.

I'm guessing there might be sooooo much data in the db for the page that the transfer takes a long time, but it looks like it takes too long to be useful.

Many thought it would never happen. But the day long hoped for has come to pass:
Proof!

This will be the discussion thread.

This will be the gameplay thread.

Shannon Appelcline posted a case study of PACG on his blog today. You an read it here.

As a reminder, Shannon also wrote a series of blog posts in Paizo's blog about strategy for PACG. You can find those here.

Who is going to PAX Unplugged this year? I am. There aren't any scheduled events for PACG in the society room, but there will be a table set aside for PACG. I'd like to make use of that table. So, I'm wondering who is going, and for which days? Is anyone interested in getting together and running some scenarios? If so, I'd like to try and plan out which ones.

So let me know if you are going and what you'd like to try and do.

As part of RetroCon, we will be running The Cosmic Captive ACG Special. We are looking for people interested in being Box Runners. We don't know how many tables we will have, and won't until we get player signups, so at this point we are just looking interest. We'll let you know later whether or not we have a table for you.

The event will run approximately 1/4/18 to 3/8/19.

If interested, please fill out this form.

Note: This is just a signup for Box Runners. Player signups will be at a later date.

For more on RetroCon, go here.

I made this post in a gameplay thread, as the overseer of the event:
My post

It was a pretty standard post. But something about it "broke" the display of that post and seemingly the ones below it. The "header" part of the post isn't formatted properly and wraps across multiple lines. I made the exact same post on multiple threads, so I don't think it was my post. But I'm not sure what it was.

This will be our discussion thread.

This will be our gameplay thread.

This will be our discussion thread.

This will be our Gameplay thread.

I had a wishlist (really a list) of all the iconic character blogs. I'd added details such as which source book they'd appeared in, which miniatures products and pawns products they were in, which adventure card game products they were in as well as their class, race, etc. I just noticed today the list is empty.

http://paizo.com/people/Hawkmoon269/wishlists/v5748l939kwtj

Any idea what happened to it? Is it recoverable?

Thanks.

Assault on Absalom is now available for sale. Does it include the card game portion? If not, can that portion be made available?

It also might be good if the description mentioned that there was a card game portion for anyone looking to run the event.

Hello! I'm going to be using this thread to sort of publicize the rewards and prizes won as part of the Play By Post Lodge (Flaxseed On Deck).

In general, when we run or are part of play by post events, Paizo gives us some "rewards" for use in the adventure card guild. On the RPG side, these are called "Boons" but "boons" is something else in the card game. These can be applied to characters and can give all kinds of thing: a bonus deck upgrade, a feat, let you include a card in your class deck, act as a power, really all kinds of stuff.

Paizo is also gracious enough to give us gift certificates to give away as part of our events.

And lastly, we have a list of physical prizes we are going to give away. The initial batch of these (and by far most of them) came from the generosity of Steve Geddes. So, right now let me publicly thank him: Thanks Steve! Your generosity is most appreciated.

You can find a list of the physical products we have is available here. We plan to try to cover shipping costs for physical products, but as we price them we might need to work with the recipient about that.

You've probably read that excellent blog post about making the most of character unlocks in organized play.

I was curious how many possible "different" characters I could play in organized play.

Before I go any farther, let me define some terms that I'm using.

"Base Deck" - When I use this word I mean product that is the initial starting point for the character you are building your character deck from. It can be a class deck, an ultimate add-on deck, or a character deck. It can't be a Base Set or Character Add-On Deck that is part of an adventure path. And I broadly put these in two categories: Ultimate Decks and Class Deck. Ultimate Decks are the 5 ultimate add-on decks. Class Decks are all the others (class deck, character decks). There are 27 of these right now.

"Character" - By this I mean a unique character card. So, for example, Ezren from the Class Deck (CD Ezren), Ezren from Rise of the Runelords (RotR Ezren) and Ezren from Mummy's Mask (MM Ezren) are 3 different characters. Where the character comes from, I'm calling the "Source".

Next, I made up terms for how you got to play which characters with which base deck. There are 3 ways. These are the names I called them.

"Open"- I used this to mean all the characters that come in the base deck product.

"Class Match" - I used this to mean the characters that are in a Base Set or Character Add-on Deck from an adventure path which you can play in any base deck that has a character from the same class.

"Unlock" - I used this to mean the character/base deck combinations you can unlock as rewards during organized play.

"Promo" - This is for the 5 promo goblin characters that can be played with either Goblins Fight! or Goblins Burn!

Ok. Now, one last thing. How different is different enough? I made a few rules for this first run.

1. A lot of the combos come from combining a class deck and ultimate deck. I decided to not count the decision to not combine the two as a separate possibility, mostly because someone that did combine two of them could choose to only take cards from one and have essentially the same character as someone that did combine two of them.

2. I didn't consider cohorts (yet). You can get even more combinations when you factor in cohort possibilities. I'd like to do that eventually, but I haven't done it yet.

3. It could be argued that the iconic heroes promos and the season adventure path loot card rewards are also a differentiation. I haven't factored that in.

So. That's the basis. Here are the numbers:

143 - The number of characters you can play.
169 - The number of charter/base deck combos you can make (93 open, 49 class match, 22 unlock, and 5 promo)
977 - The number of different combinations from combining class deck and ultimate decks (575 open, 267 class match, 110 unlock, and 25 promo).

That is a lot of characters. If you factor in just roles, you are talking 1,953 (Aric/Red Raven doesn't require you to choose between 2 role cards).

When I have more time, I'll try to factor in the cohorts.

What does all this meaning? Well, there are a lot of options. (Assuming my math is correct.) But ultimately, it means nothing. It was just interesting to me and I thought I'd share.

It looks like the first adventure of season 5 of the adventure card guild was released to venture officers yesterday, but when I try to open it I get a message that there is an error. I've tried with multiple PDF programs and all have failed to open it.

This isn't exactly a PACG thing, but there is a nice little Humble Bundle right now about puzzle and game design and it includes 5 books my Mike Selinker and a 20% discount on puzzle books at Lone Shark. I figured there might be a few interested people in the PACG demographic.

Humble Bundle Link

Currently, seasons 1 and 3 each have what I would refer to as a "capstone" scenario. These scenarios are great. They act as a sort of "adventure 7" and often have some extreme challenge at great reward. I hope we continue to see them in the future, including for season 4. Plus, so far at least, they have been free.

However, the requirement to be eligible to play in them is pretty strict.

To play this scenario, characters must have gained the reward from the Season of Plundered Tombs Adventure Path.

And the season 1 scenario says something similar. The requirement is that you have essentially won every scenario in the adventure path. The same requirement for receiving the adventure path reward.

The strict nature of this requirement means there are a few "types" of situations where a character would not be eligible.

(1) A character dies and the player starts a new character. This can happen at any point. There are ways to build a high tier character. But once you decide to do this, you are rendering yourself no longer eligible for the capstone.

(2) A player joins late. This is happening in a group I'm running the box for in pbp. One of the players joined in 3-2A. The other 3 had completed all fo 3-1. The new player created a new tier 1 character to join them.

(3) A player misses a session or two. Similar to #2, but this player starts at the beginning but life gets in the way once or twice and they miss a few scenario.

The issue I have here is that in all these cases the ineligible player will have been there for most (or even all in #1) the scenarios, but if the rest want to run the capstone, they'll just have to sit back in watch. That is what makes this different from missing out on the adventure path reward. If another player has a card you don't... well big deal. That happens all the time anyway. Sure that reward card is neat and cool, but not having it doesn't separate you from your fellow players. But eligibility for the capstone does separate you. They will have to ask you not to play if they want to play.

So, I'd suggest a change in the eligibility requirements. I've discussed this with some others and here are some suggestions we came up with. Keep in mind, these requirements are printed on the scenario itself, not in the guide, so changing them isn't a change to the way OP works:

1. Earn the adventure 6 reward and win X number of scenarios in the adventure path. (We say X because the number might change. In a 30 scenario path, maybe it is 15.)

2. Earn the adventure rewards for the last 2 adventures of the adventure path.

3. Tier up following X times in this adventure path. (This lets people use the catch up of tiering up early and still get to tier 6 to be play. It would need to be low enough to cover the character death situation.)

I wouldn't mind hearing other suggestions too. But in general, I'd like something that still means you spent a lot of time in the adventure path, but not penalize those situations I mentioned. At the same time, I wouldn't want it to be easy to abuse the requirement so that one character could play multiple capstones.* For that reason, maybe requiring the adventure 6 reward would be a good requirement.

*This is partly protected by the fact that your character can only earn a single adventure 6 reward, since the guide says that once you win your 4th scenario at tier 6, you can only continue playing in one adventure 6 that you have already started.

Hi. This post has an email address in it. I've made note of it for use for the game, so could you please delete that from the post so it isn't publicly available? Thanks.

Welcome. Please introduce yourself here. Gameplay begins 7/9/18.

ADVENTURE 4-4: RELIC IN THE WASTES
Thanks to you, the world seems a safer place, with Muhlia al-Jakri captured and bound for Absalom to answer for her crimes. However, each night is less restful than the last. You have ongoing nightmares from your time controlled by the vampire Stavros Nightcrescent, and you have become increasingly concerned about a dangerous artifact mentioned in the notes you recovered from al-Jakri. Known as the Atramentous Eye, the orb is said to feed off the life energy of those nearby, granting its wielder enhanced magical power. Hoping to keep others from tracking the orb magically, al-Jakri stowed it deep in the Spellscar Desert, a desolate wilderness in the magically scoured Mana Wastes across the sea. With al-Jakri defeated, it’s only a matter of time before one of her old allies— either Nightcrescent or the fiend Koth’Vaul—decides to take the orb for himself

Few are willing to brave the Mana Wastes, where the ancient archmages Geb and Nex once battled so ferociously that they left the land devastated. Arcane storms ravage the landscape, and even magic is known to function unpredictably, sometimes manifesting with greater power and other times escaping its user’s control entirely. For all this, the Pathfinder Society has one friend who’s not only willing to travel to the Mana Wastes; he’s eager for the opportunity. The geniekin Ashasar awaits you in the metropolis of Quantium far to the southwest, ready to guide you into the forbidding wasteland.

Millennia ago, the phenomenally powerful archmage Nex founded the kingdom that still bears his name. In its capital Quantium, magical innovation is the most popular industry. As you disembark after a pleasant voyage south along the Garundi coast, you marvel at the sights. Conjurers run errands with bound genies in tow. Transmuters coax lumps of metal into intricate works of art. Impossibly delicate architecture towers above the plazas. Multi-tiered fountains dance with playful water elementals. And over the roofs of one district, you can see the hulking form of an immense golem patrolling the city’s perimeter.

“You would not wish to pick a fight with that one,” comments a geniekin as he approaches, his eyes roiling with energy like thunderclouds. He floats atop a small cushion of mist and descends to stand near you, patting a tiny air elemental that alights nearby. “Welcome to Quantium, Pathfinders. I am Ashasar, Liaison to the Seat of Balance and corrector of elemental irregularities. I understand that you seek a vile artifact within the Spellscar Desert, and I wish to see that realm with my own eyes to determine if my allies and I might quell its curse. When shall we depart?”

COMPLETE THESE SCENARIOS IN ANY ORDER:
4-4A: Wasteland Diplomacy
4-3B: It’s Looking Like Rain
4-3C: Riddles of Ruin
4-3D: A Killer Conundrum
4-3E: The Spellscar Showdown

DURING THIS ADVENTURE

• The scourge die is 1d8.
  
• When creating the blessings deck, replace 1 blessing with the favor Concordance’s Favor.
  
• If the result of your check to acquire or defeat a card that has the Acid, Cold, Electricity, Elemental, or Fire trait exceeds the difficulty by 6 or more, suffer a scourge; otherwise, if you succeed at the check, you may banish a displayed card that has the Curse trait.

Welcome. I'm getting things setup, but we should be ready to roll on time. Gameplay starts on 7/9/18.

4-1: CHASING YELLOW SAILS
Still recovering from the fierce battle for Absalom, the Pathfinder Society was appalled to hear reports that a former ally—onetime faction leader Pasha Muhlia al-Jakri—helped coordinate the betrayal and subsequent two-pronged attack that had threatened the city. Though citizens, soldiers, and Pathfinders alike rose up to thwart the foul plot, the assassin al-Jakri managed a narrow escape. Not only is the Pathfinder Society embarrassed to have trusted a betrayer for so many years, but it is horrified that she used Society connections to nearly bring Absalom to its knees. Uncertain whether she may possess other secrets or allies, the Pathfinder Society desperately needs to track down and capture al-Jakri before she can hatch any other sinister plots. You have been set the task of bringing her to justice.

After some preliminary investigation, it becomes clear that most of al-Jakri’s lieutenants perished in the battle. There is one who was seen escaping, however: a Keleshite man named Satyar Siddique. He was last seen boarding a ship that was then intercepted by a large galley bearing the infamous yellow sails of an Okeno slaving ship. Siddique is now undoubtedly being ferried to Stonespine Island off the coast of Katapesh to be auctioned off at Okeno’s notorious Fleshfairs—markets where slaves of all races and nationalities are sold like chattel. If the Society wants any chance of stopping anything al-Jakri may be setting in motion, you must track down Siddique and convince him to share what he knows. Every moment you delay brings him a greater risk of being traded, tortured, or killed by slavers who are unaware how valuable he is.

Venture-Captain Roderus of the Winding Road Lodge, one of the Pathfinder Society’s local headquarters in Katapesh, has done all he can to equip you for your mission and warn you of the cruel gnolls that are seen as villains elsewhere yet are welcome in Okeno. You’ll cross to Stonespine Island on a merchant ship, and from there you must keep a low profile to avoid unwanted attention. Into the Yellow City of Okeno you must go, with hopes you will not fall to a slaver’s noose.

COMPLETE THESE SCENARIOS IN ANY ORDER:
4-1A: Amid the Yellow City
4-1B: Imposters in the Compound
4-1C: Unfettered Frenzy
4-1D: Trouble Following Directions
4-1E: Seaward!

DURING THIS ADVENTURE

• The scourge die is 1d4+1.
  
• When creating the blessings deck, replace 1 blessing with the support card Liberty’s Edge Favor.
  
• If the result of your first check to defeat of your turn exceeds the difficulty by 7 or more, shuffle a monster from the box into your location deck.

REWARDS
Each player unlocks the ability to play Crowe from the Wrath of the Righteous Character Add-On Deck using the Magus Class Deck.

This group has just finished adventure 1 and is about to start adventure 2. We have 3 players and are looking for up to 3 more. The current party is:

Estra
Skizza
Qualzar

We'll be playing a tier 2 scenario, so your character will need to be within 1 tier of that.

I will set a time of 24 hours for interested players to post in the thread, then I'll randomly select 3 of them. Recruitment closes at 6/13/18 10:30 PM EDT.

It looks like I will be traveling to Austin, TX in June. I potentially will be there on a Thursday night, which, it seems, is when card guild games are played at the Dragon's Lair store. Anyone on the forums familiar with the location and the activity there? I'd like to stop in and play if it works out. Wondering what season might be in swing then and an idea of what tier would be best.

Thanks.

PAX Unplugged 2018 tickets are on sale. I plan to attend. Anyone else? I know Paizo has says they plan to be there and I'm sure there will be an organized play presence there. I'm hoping to get more involved and offer perhaps a bit more of the card guild if possible. Last year we end up just kind of doing pickup games. I'm hoping for a bit more this year.

Outpost I wrapped up a few weeks ago, though I think many of the tables have stuck together afterwards to complete the adventure they were working on (if not the whole adventure path!). This was the first major undertaking for card guild play by post of this scale. So, if you were involved in someway, please share your stories here.

Thanks so much Shannon. It has been enlightening.

On this page there is a link for "Resources and Free Downloads". The URL points to http://paizo.com/pfsacg/resources. But that page doesn't seem to exist and instead you end up at the homepage. It looks like it should now point to http://paizo.com/pathfinder/cardgame/downloads.

When you play Season of the Goblins (even with a non-Goblin Class Deck character), some of the rewards allow you to make permanent additions to your Goblins Fight! and Goblins Burn! class deck for all of your future characters who use them.

In order to keep track of those cards, I've made these little aids. In case anyone else would find them helpful, I'm sharing them here.

Goblin Deck Additions

Let me know if anyone sees any problems.

This is where discussion goes.

This is the gameplay thread for HMM's ACG Fun Time! The goal is to get Hilary to enjoy the adventure card game. She thinks the goal is just to get her 2 ACG scenarios for her Scarab Sages Faction Journal Card. Shhh... don't tell her the truth!

Today was some HawkCon. I've completely lost track of the numbering. But it was commented that we've been doing this every other month for 3 years now. So, that is pretty sweet.

Today, our 3 tables continued through Season of Plundered Tombs. There were many moments of excitement. Both the other tables played 3-4E: The Army Awakens without every seeing the Behemoth Golem in the blessings deck thanks to some Sun Falcons (our table saw him once thanks to 2d4 resulting in a 7 then a 8).

And I heard tell that Uliah got to examine the entire siege deck during 3-5B: Guardians of Ruin and only came out with 3 scourges on him. And if it hadn't been for one card, they wouldn't have had to shuffle the siege deck and would have known every card's position.

At our table of Raheli, Zadim, and Balazar, we had some chicanery of our own during the same scenario. We realized that with the group we had and the cards we taken from traders, we could approach a Defensive Stance scenario in a completely different way from the conventional wisdom. We had at first spread out to cover as many locations (3 of the 4) as possible to protect those valuable boons. But then it dawned on us: "We don't need to spread out as long as we can make sure we never take any damage." How might one do that you ask? Well, a few things.

1. Hadden Hoppert gave Raheli Safety Bubble. The perfect card for a siege deck scenario. We put it up as soon as we could.

2. Zadim could add to our combat checks like crazy to make sure we never failed a check to defeat a monster and therefore never suffered combat damage for doing so.

3. Balazar could protect everyone by banishing monsters to reduce damage of characters at his location (by the monster's adventure deck+1).

We had the added bonuse of Balazar taking Elemental Treaty from on of the earlier scenario "swap" rewards. We decided to camp out Garden of Ossumentals so Raheli could be even more potent when bludgeoning.

Sure, a Sandstorm got in the blessings deck thanks to a Living Sandstorm, but after it temporarily split us up we quickly regrouped.

With so many monsters to defeat an fill Balazar's hand, Zadim having Tetisurah to reload his hand on his own turn after ensuring our checks on our turns, Raheli having Mass Cure and just generally rocking her checks thanks to Steal Soul (which she drew in her starting hand), there were few things that could stand in our way.

With that combination, no check was too hard. We nearly waltzed through the siege deck. I commented how the only risk was something that would deal us damage that couldn't be reduced. We did run into a Cenovath Swarm along the way, but Balazar had no allies in hand at the time and so it dealt him 0 mental damage that could not be reduced.

The only other hurdles were an Insanity Mist that ended up displayed at our location (Safety Bubble and Elemental Treaty let us just ignore that) and a Sky Pharaoh's Curse that probably wouldn't have been a big deal, but we threw some resources at it to make sure Rahlie defeated it.

And that is how you turn a siege deck into a "local heroes" kind of scenario. We ended up not losing a single boon from a location deck. With the bonus upgrade, Balazar and Raheli each got a spell 5 and a spell 4, while Zadim got 2 weapon 5s.

We continue again in 2 months. Come out and join us if you are ever in the Bel Air, MD area.

I've just noticed the Paizo blog doesn't seem to have tags anymore. Is this intentional? If so, I hope you'll reconsider. I find the tags very useful. If it isn't intentional... well, I guess consider this a report that they are missing.

Best sale ever!

With Play by Post starting to take off for the Adventure Card Guild, I was checking the available avatars to see which Adventure Card Game characters had their image available for aliases. I noticed quite a few don't. So, I'd like to request that the Adventure Card Game character images be made available for use as avatars, particularly to help with Play by Post.

I know you are super busy and I know there are lots of factors that go into avatar image creation. But if it was possible, it would be great. Thanks so much.

This is where discussion will happen.

This is where gameplay will happen.