Fletch's page

I've been away from RPGs in general for a while, but had to come back when I heard there were SF2e test rules available to try out.

Out the gate, let me say flipping through it put a big smile on my face.

I'd heard SF2 was being designed to be compatible with Pathfinder 2e and I'm very happy to see how true that is. I have a very specific taste in Pathfinder, and that taste is the "Proficiency Without Level" optional rule. I'm glad to see SF2 structured in a way that allows that rule to be used here too.

Almost as important, I have a very specific taste in Starfinder, and that taste is as a "D&D in space" game rather than its own, stand-alone game. Dwarves and wizards in space more than Ysoki and Solarians in space, if you get my meaning. I'm stoked to see that Pathfinder races and classes can seemingly be ported in without any modification. Or, I guess more accurately, the sci-fi skills, feats and equipment can be used by Pathfinder characters.

But the biggest smile came when I saw the first feat listed: "Additional Spoons." Spoon theory is such a niche thing that my wife says about her condition that it's like the game was calling out to us specifically. I mean, I had to explain what feats were to her, but we got there eventually. Footnote to that, after I told her about it, she showed me an image where apparently the new approach to "out of spoons" is to say you're "out of spell slots," so we've really come full circle.

Anyways, really excited to see SF2 compatibility with my favorite parts of PF2.

All I know about medieval warfare comes from Braveheart and Warhammer, so I'm assuming battles are supposed to include some archers and some cavalry and so on.

In PF2's warfare rules, how does that appear?

If I recruit a cavalry army, fer instance, is that saying *some* of them are on horses while the rest are infantry, or are all of them on horse and I'm supposed to fill in the foot ranks with a separate, infantry army?

Basically, how many armies am I attacking with to get my assumed "unit of infantry, unit of cavalry, unit of archers" battle? Just one army with all the upgrades, or multiple specialist armies?

Now, I've never played 2nd edition and just kind of browse the rules out of curiosity. I'm curious if actual play matches how I read it.

Some characters get to use Shield Block to reduce damage by a shield's hardness, but the shield also takes that damage. On paper, that seems to incentivise blocking only low-damage attacks, like a kobold with a dagger. It doesn't seem worth losing your shield just for 5pts off damage from an ogre.

Is that the intent? Shield Block is to slap aside small attacks rather than a last ditch reflex to hide from a troll claw?

At least that's how I read it. How does it play at the table?

I'm kind of a fogey and have the hardest time navigating Paizo's website. I'm really interested in this re-release of Kingmaker, but literally cannot find where it's for sale or even if it's for sale or if there's a pdf.

Would somebody take pity on an old man and link me to the store where I can buy a pdf of this or if there's a placeholder for its future release. Or even just update me on its current status and where I'd go at some future date to buy it?

Thanks guys. I really loved the original AP and am very excited to see how it's approached for the 2nd edition.

I'm still very new to Pathfinder 2nd Ed, but I've noticed that the 6-part APs released for 2nd Ed go all the way up to level 20, while the first edition APs seemed to wrap up around level 15-ish.

I don't have a lot of high-level experience in any edition, but I'm curious what approach 2nd Ed took to high-level play that made them so confident in making adventures to max level.

What caused the previous edition to shy away from the upper teens that the current version doesn't have to worry about?

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to Pathfinder 2e until now, but now that I'm looking at it, I'm curious if there's been any statements about updating some of the 1e campaign rules.

Like, I know there's a 2e version of Kingmaker coming, do we know if that's simply using/ updating the old kingdom and mass combat rules, or if those are getting a larger overhaul like the PF rules themselves did?

I'm also interested in hearing about any announcements or rumors about things like the technology guide and ship combat in case anyone wants to adapt Iron Gods or Skull & Shackles.

Thanks, all.

I've been away from Pathfinder for a while, probably having dipped out somewhere around Giantslayer (to the point where I get kind of confused about the two simultaneous Cheliax rebellion APs).

But now that I'm Path-curious again, I've noticed a lot of storylines have happened that are now part of an evolving timeline for the setting, and the part that I feel like I most missed out on was all the Runelords.

Feel free to use spoiler blocks, but could somebody catch me up on how, when and where the Rune Lords were encountered?

Hey gang. I've been away from Pathfinder for a while since I've been without a gaming group and focused most of my RPG reading time on nostalgic vintage and OSR games. However, I've recently read some reviews of PF2 that made it sound appealing, so I started scrolling through the PF2 SRD to get a better impression.

Obviously the SRD is not the best place to absorb the rules, just spot-reading concepts that interest me before scraping together the 15 bucks for the PDF or maybe waiting for the new Beginner Box.

As far as I can tell, it looks like D20 adopted 5e and tried to raise it as Mama-4e would've wanted. And I mean that in a good way, because there's a lot of elements to those games I like.

Fer instance, I've never liked paladins and rangers as spell-casting classes (I know it goes back to AD&D, I didn't like it then either), so I'm glad to see them lose the spells and replace them with thematic abilities.

There's a couple points I'm already squinting at, though. Now, this is obviously unplayed and just a reading, but 3 actions per round seems like a lot. In addition to making a far more mobile game than I'm used to (that's a lot of PCs and monsters moving around the map), It seems like everyone having multiple attacks would take up a lot of time. Has that been the actual play experience?

Also, the Gygaxian Naturalist in me doesn't dig that skill checks increase with level and not just training. Like, if you spent a bunch of skill increases to become a legendary...uhh...carpenter, you shouldn't be out-carpentered by a guy with minimal training who has just killed a lot of ogres. Is that a realistic interpretation? Are there mechanics that reign that in, or is your city's legendary dwarven armorsmith always going to be outclassed by the Sandpoint apprentice who learned smithing from slaying a dragon?

My only other struggle so far is remembering that 'ancestry' means 'race.' I get the move to a more acceptable term (I remember old talks of why there was no "Ultimate Race Guide" for 1e), but I'm a fogey and we don't change quickly.

Next up I'll try skimming equipment, because the idea of "bulk" for encumbrance appeals to me (a similar approach is used in my favorite OSR game, ACKS), and spellcasting, because the idea of advancing spells through higher level memorization rather than just default level bonuses sounded smart when I heard 5e was doing it.

I just had a chance to flip through a random copy of 'D20 Past' and was a bit inspired by the sections on the Age of Exploration and Pulp Adventures. They got me wondering how 'Skull & Shackles' might play in the Caribbean Islands of 18th century Earth, fer instance, or playing 'Mummy's Mask' in a 1930s Egypt.

Any thoughts on how you would change these APs (if at all) for a more Earth-y setting or other APs that could fit into an Age of Sail, Steampunk Victorian, or pulp '30s Earth?

This has eluded me for years, and I figure it's finally time to ask.

Why is Mokmurian trying to get to Runeforge?

The whole raid on Sandpoint is just so he can find the guy who can tell him how to get in, right? But ultimately it just shows the PCs where they can find weapons to kill his master. What did Mok hope to gain that so disastrously backfired on him?

It's probably in the text somewhere, but I'm being pretty thick about it. You may have to explain it to me like I'm 5.

Looking at Paizo's APs in a more piecemeal approach, what parts of AP volumes stand out to you as being the high points of the line?

Fer instance, my Second Darkness library consists solely of Volume 2 because that tower collapse scene sounded so awesome in reviews that I just had to have it. Likewise, Sixfold Trial is the only part of Council of Thieves I have just for Pett's murder play.

But I've really fallen behind in my AP awareness, so I'm wondering what scenes, dungeons, mini-games or other elements appeared in some of the later APs which really stand out as being worth getting on their own.

I'm interested in adding a little survival management to 'Racing to Ruin,' and crunched a few numbers on what was required in the food/water department.

Skipping the math, it comes out to about 300 pounds of food and water just to get to Kalabuto where they can presumably resupply for the second leg.

When you ran 'Racing to Ruin,' did you enforce any kind of consumables tracking? Did you assume water was freely available on the overland trip (which drops the burden down to 18 pounds of food)?

Overthinking Portion:
The Survival skill allows a character to feed the party with a DC 18(-ish) check if they cut their travel speed by half. I'm assuming this won't be on the table considering the "race" portion of the adventure.

Janderhoff remains the only city in Varisia not to have a sourcebook or article (unless you count Urglin).

Aside from the 1-page description in Varisia-Birthplace of Legend, what city sourcebook would you recommend I use for Janderhoff in a Varisia sandbox?

I'm in a pirate-y mood again and am casting my eye back over Skull & Shackles. One of the things I'm looking at is to apply some granularity to the crew and ship roles rather than just handwaving their impact.

I have some familiarity with kindgom building and mass combat from Kingmaker (and the more recent Ultimate Campaign Guide), and I'm looking to lightly adapt those rules to the running of a pirate ship.

The ideas are still vague, but I wanted to sound them off the boards in hopes of getting some feedback from those of you with more experience than eye, or with just a different perspective. Or in some cases maybe just a point in the right direction if a rule already exists which I missed.

Here are some key points I'm aiming for (spoiler tagged to manage space):

Those are the areas where I wish to add some complexity. Any insights, counter-arguments, or suggestions?

I'll admit, I'm more familiar with kingdom building and mass combat than with the pirating rules (I've never used the latter in play), so if there are already rules addressing some of these points, or I've misunderstood what the rules say, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks, all.

In Pathfinder mass combat rules, is it assumed that one army will have a variety of different units in it, or that separate armies work together to create a battalion?

Fer instance, when I think of a medieval battle, I imagine rows of archers firing into the enemy while the infantry surges forth, and a well-timed cavalry charge coming in from the sides.

Now, in PF terms, is this A) one, 200-person army with the the 'mount' and 'ranged weapon' resources? or B) is this better represented by maybe a 100-man army, a 50-man army with 'ranged weapons', and another 50-man army with 'mounts'?

Based on some good, past experiences with hexploration in Karameikos' 8-mile hex map, I started wondering if maybe Kingmaker's 12-mile hexes were a little too big.

And because 6 divides into 12 easier, I Photoshopped a 6-mile hex overlay onto the Stolen Lands to create a more granular hexploration experience. Ultimately, this would make for more decision making, slightly more than one encounter per day to keep tension up, and more opportunities for PCs to get lost in the trackless wilderness.

The basic math was easy. It now takes half the time to cross a hex, and 1/4 the time to explore one. The party now gets 25xp per fully explored hex, and so on.

But now my mental exercise is to the "What else will it screw up?" part. Kingdom building hinges on the 12-mile hex. I could just say "it's 6 instead of 12" and let everything run as charted, only with smaller kingdoms (or slower growth).

Or I could prorate things proportionately. It'd take 2 weeks to prep a forest hex rather than 2 months. PCs could then prep two of them per month-long kingdom turn. Or four hills hexes per turn. But then would farm hexes only decrease consumption by 1/2 a BP?

Or maybe I just return to the 12-mile hex for kingdom building, so that the 6-mile map only comes into play when exploring and clearing.

As mental exercises go, what are y'all's thoughts?

Since Pathfinder was intended to be backward compatible with all my 3.5e adventures, is it ever worth the time to update monster stats to Pathfinder RPG?

If it's a monster straight from the Bestiary (like a chimera or giant eagles), it's easy to grab the current stats.

If it's a custom monster or classed monster, though, is it worth redoing the math to allow for the slight upping for the power level of PCs?

Now, it seems easy enough to do with low-CR monsters/NPCs, but also the numbers don't seem too far off to make it necessary. At mid- to high-CRs, though, it seems like the math gets off more and more, making it more necessary to adapt and yet more difficult to do.

What's experience say about playing 3.5 adventures with Pathfinder?

What's the intent behind the inescapable paranoia spores dusting all the vaults? It reads like it'd be more frustrating than fun. What am I missing?

Don't tell anybody, but for as much as I like Paizo's APs, I don't care much for Golarion.

What I do like is Eberron, and I've been keeping an eye on what APs work best in that setting. I'm not opposed to fudging the setting a bit to taste, though, and with that in mind, these are how I'd adapt some of Paizo APs to fit in Eberron:

(some spoilers involved)

I think those are the only four I'm considering. Carrion Crown or Council of Thieves might work, but I don't know enough about either of them to really say for sure. Second Darkness, Legacy of Fire and Jade Regent are too Golarion-specific to want to even try adapting to another world.

How about y'all? Any other Eberron fans have any thoughts or past successes in adapting Paizo's APs to that world?

While paging through my Beginner's Box and looking at the basic four classes, I wondered at adding in some of the other classes from the full game.

Then I wondered why I would want to do that. Aren't the other classes just variations on the core four? Isn't a ranger just a fighter who chooses two-weapon fighting or archery feats? Isn't a druid just a cleric of a nature deity (or more nebulous "nature" as a concept)? Add in multi-classing, and isn't a bard just a rogue who takes wizard levels? Isn't a paladin just a fighter with some cleric?

(Of course I mean these all conceptually, not mechanically. CLEARLY there's a difference between a bard and a rogue/wizard.)

So to you all, I wonder aloud, why do you play a druid rather than a nature-worshiping cleric? Why play a barbarian rather than a fighter with a great big axe?

The book "Varisia - Birthplace of Legend" has a concept in it I've quite taken to: Roles. These are culture-based template-y things which direct a player toward a number of feats or archetypes to flavor his character to match Varisian-inspired concepts like Shoanti Thundercallers or Korvosan Black Sable Marines.

This is the first book I've encountered these in, but my Pathfinder library is pretty small. Are there any other books this concept has been used in?

I was quite a bit not impressed with S&S when it first came out and stopped buying them half way through. However, recent time playing Pirate101 has inspired me to give the series a second look.

Before I get started, any advice from those of you with some S&S experience to tell me some of the high points I should be looking for or ideas for getting past some of the troublesome spots which cost my interest the first time through?

I was thinking that some APs, such as Serpent's Skull or Skull & Shackles, would thematically benefit from non-armor based AC mechanics like the defense bonus described here.

Unfortunately my searches through Ultimate Combat and the PFSRD don't turn up anything like that.

Is there a reason such an option is not presented in PFRPG? No beef to just add it from the D20SRD, but I'm curious if there was a reason it wasn't presented as a variant option along with DR or piecemeal armor?

I'm considering repurposing JR's caravan rules to use as an expedition in the Serpent's Skull adventure, Racing to Ruin.

In effect, I'll ditch the wagon aspect (or maybe replace them with units like mule trains or porters) and focus more on the caravan roles such as cook or guard. The idea is that, during the months-long trek across the jungle in that adventure, the NPC management, "day jobs", unrest/morale and resource management will give the players something to do beside "we walk for another day."

However, I've no experience with Jade Regent. Aside from the rules as provided in the Player's Guide, is there additional content in the AP volumes which makes the caravan's presence more enjoyable? In other words, should I plan on adding caravan-themed encounters to justify all the traits like defense and mobility?

Any insights from JR players on the best way to use the caravan rules in an expedition type setting?

Just idle curiosity here, but have your PC pirates taken specific positions in your pirate crew?

One PC gets to be the captain, right? What about the rest? Is one of them the 1st officer or in charge of the siege equipment, or are they just general layabouts on the ship waiting for caves to explore or monsters to slay?

I had a good read-thru of Wormwood Mutiny and have an idea for how this AP can be used for good PCs or players who are less interested in the evils of piracy.

Since the whole Path leads aims toward Captain Harrigan being a secret spy for Cheliax, could the PC's take on that role themselves and play the slightly gooder agents pretending to be pirates in order to work their way into the inner circle of the Shackles? At the end of book 1, the newly-promoted pirate captain PC is approached by an agent of Cheliax with their plan. Meanwhile, Harrigan goes back to being a regular old vicious pirate who serves as the chief opposition to the PC's rise.

Thoughts?

Just for my curious mind, how would the game change if magic spells just had a flat effect regardless of caster level? Fer instance, just like a sword does 1d8 forever and always, a fireball would do 5d6 forever and always. Or cure light wounds would cure 1d8 forever and always.

Would that underpower the spellcasting classes?

I know one of the intents behind Pathfinder was to be backward compatible with 3.5 stuff, does that hold true?

I'm rarin' to run Age of Worms for my local Pathfinder-lovin' gaming group, but don't feel like converting 20 levels of adventures to official PF status.

Aside from calculating the occasional CMD when needed, is there anything inherently disruptive about having PF characters fighting 3.5 monsters?

I could probably be convinced to convert those monsters with class levels to PF classes, but I'd just as soon rather leave as is and go with the given feat selections/spell lists/etc. from the previous edition.

Any thoughts?

I've long wanted to combine several APs into a series of epic quests for the same party of characters, but am faced with the obvious difficulty of how to challenge PCs with something as simple as a shipwreck after they've become powerful enough to defeat a Runelord.

Is E6 the answer? On the surface it looks like it allows the PCs to become more skilled without gaining access to too-powerful magics or abilities. If that's the case, I can imagine scaling up the challenges on Smuggler's Shiv without having to worry too much about PCs having easy access to teleport spells which would negate the hazards entirely.

Is this feasible? I'm not opposed to having to put a lot of work into this. I'm not planning on converting every encounter of every book, only the real set-piece encounters or those which really add to the AP's story.

What I'm really looking for is if the E6 model, combined with Pathfinder's monster scaling rules, allows for a 15th level adventure to be pared down to challenge 6th level characters even if they have a bunch of feats and skills.

What's more, am I underestimating the power of an experienced E6 character and would they really not be challenged by a 1st level encounter even if the monsters and traps were bumped up.

Anybody else looking forward to S&S as an opportunity for some Spelljamming or maybe even conversion to a science fiction space setting?

I'm definitely going to be looking at this with an eye to making the seas into ether, islands into asteroids, and the Eye of Abendego into a black hole.

Seems feasible from the basic description, and I've been looking for a good space fantasy AP for longer than there have been APs.

Just wanted to make an AAAARRRRGGGHH! post upon my discovery that the musketeer option for cavaliers (as seen here) is not allowed in PFS play.

I'd happened across the archetype by accident the other day, and it inspired me to immediately make one and race to my nearest PFS game.

Sure engouh, the musketeer is specifically barred from Society play, so I needed to come make a frowny face to the only people I know who might sympathize.

:(

Now, I don't have a complete run of all the APs, but I do have some individual issues which are clearly my favorites. For those of you who have a more complete collection than I do, which ones (or parts of ones) do you think are the absolute best each series has to offer?

Fer instance:

RotRL: Burnt Offerings is one of my all-time favorites. I really like the first half of Skinsaw Murders, but Burnt Offerings is great from beginning to end.

CotCT: Unlike seemingly everyone else, I actually really like History of Ashes. Of the entire AP (one of my favorites as a whole), it's this book which provides the most consistent entertainment throughout.

SD: Meanwhile, I think I'll get a lot of agreement on Children of the Void being the top performer.

KM: Sound of a Thousand Screams is a great finale to a good campaign. Not only does it provide a great conclusion to the AP, but can be run just as well as a stand-alone.

As an added bonus, you might notice each of these are in a different level range, so there's the potential for an ideal campaign which goes Burnt Offerings --> Children of the Void --> ? --> A History of Ash --> ? --> Sound of a Thousand Screams.

Guess I need to find a favorite Chapters 3 and 5 to complete my Best of the Best AP.

I've sleuthed it out.

Paizo is clearly flipping through their old TSR library for AP inspirations and having done homages to Al-Qadim (Legacy of Fire), Birthright (Kingmaker), Ravenloft (Carrion Crown), and Oriental Adventures (Jade Regent), their next AP is obvious:

Spelljammer!

Some may point out that Planescape or Maztica are viable options too, but I submit that neither of them benefit from this -clicky- coming out the same month as that next AP begins.

The announcement of a collected edition and kinda sequel to Rise of the Runelords had me flipping back through my copies of the original series and an idea popped into my head.

Hook Mountain Massacre has always seemed entirely out of left field because it sent the PCs so far way from where they started and then shuffled them back to Sandpoint again for the start of Fortress.

What if, instead of roping them back to Sandpoint, the PCs followed up on clues available at the end of Hook Mountain and tracked the stone giant and his arms deal back to Jorgenfist directly? I mean, it's right there (relatively speaking) next to Hook Mountain and Ft. Rannik.

So the PCs come across this fotress of stone giants surrounded by a gathering army, infiltrate their way in, and defeat the badguy inside. As he's defeated, though, Mokmurian (or maybe even Karzoug himself?) laughs at the PCs because he knows they're already too late. He already has a unit of giants marching on Sandpoint. Now they have to race back to where they started to stave of the assault described in the first chapter of the book.

Heck, you could even have part of the attack lead directly to the collapsing of the ground which leads to the Scribbler's lair in Sins of the Saviors.

Some thoughts:

* Would defending their hometown be satisfying enough that it wouldn't be anticlimactic to do it *after* defeating the leader of the giants?

* I guess by then the PCs would be level 12 instead of the level 10 the siege of Sandpoint assumes. Advice?

* When would the PCs get a chance to research in the library at Jorgenfist to learn some of the plot background to figure out what's going on? Do they even need to?

* High-level PCs can move pretty quickly when they want to, but can I assume they'll be able to get back to Sandpoint ahead of the giants who have already left?

I just wanted to get that off my chest. The existance of a mutli-national organization of professional adventurers bugs the heck out of me. It makes the PCs' adventures seem common and reduces them to the role of errand-boys to the more experienced, famous and successfull Pathfinders.

I suppose it's pointless to rail against something so integral to the game system that they named it after them, but I've been wanting to say it for a while.

That's all, really. I'm hoping either enough people chime in here with enthusiastic support of the Pathfinder Society to change my mind -OR- other people who share my distaste join me in a public confession.

Or both.

To skip to the point, does anybody have any insights or theories on how kingdom building would go if none of the buildings produced magic items for the PCs to buy or convert to Build Points?

Basically, I'm part of that subsect of D&D gamers who doesn't like turning something fantastic like magical items into a common enterprise, and I don't like seeing them just popping up on the city market as if the local hedge wizard thought one of his fellow townsfolk would be in need of a flaming battle axe.

My instinct, then, is to just declare buildings don't produce magic items as described in the kingdom building rules and leave it up to PCs to craft their own, consign someone to do it for them, or even quest for ones they've heard legends about.

Because I've heard from a few people who've played Kingmaker that the magic item rules make for a windfall of build points, I feel it would even be beneficial to the game to remove that Easy Street option.

Any thoughts?

Out of curiosity, are there any backstories behind why different regions of the Stollen Lands are named as they are? The Narlmarches I can kind of guess at, assuming it's a mutated name referring to the forest's gnarled branches and a 'march' being a region of land.

But what about the Kamelands or the Tors of Levenies? Were those named after anybody or for any specific reason?

Alternately, does anybody have any good history they want to make up for this?

The missus treated me to an early Christmas present of a new Nook Color and it's dreamy.

I tested out its built-in pdf reader by loading up a Pathfinder book and it works nearly perfectly. I had no trouble transferring the file from my laptop to the Nook via the included USB cable. At full page the text is a little small, but I can zoom in to a comfortable size and the touchy-slidey screen makes it pretty smooth to just move the page down as I read each column. There are some challenges come map time, not only because it's a little extra work to fit the map into the now-zoomed page (I either have to glide around different sections of the map OR zoom back out again, look at the map, then zoom back in to read), but also because there's no easy way to flip back to the map as I read each room.

Aside from that extra complication, the only actual glitch I've found is that some of the sidebars are blackened out. I'm specifically reading Children of the Void (Second Darkness #2) and all the sidebars so far are illegible. The background image is reproduced in a sort of dark, negative image over which the black text is unreadable.

So there you go. I'd been doing some reading on eReaders recently and thought I'd return with a report of how mine's been treating me in the world of reading Paizo pdf products.

One of the design goals shared by both Pathfinder and D&D4e was to give players more options for their characters, giving them neat tricks and abilities at each level.

As a potential conversation topic, do you think this is a shift in player goals as far as RPGs go?

My old 2e gaming memories are kind of faded, but I don't remember being as oriented toward gaining new abilities as I was interested in engaging in new encounters. In effect, the adventure itself was the purpose behind gaming. Now it seems like the purpose is to level up your character. The reward is the new power, not the gaming experience.

At the end of a game session, are you more likely to fondly remember an awesome encounter (those orcs swinging across the lava pit on pendulums were insane!) OR how awesome your character was (my vault feet combined with my new springing sandals had me bouncing all over the place!)?

There's a bit of flavor I'm wanting to inject into my game and I wouldn't mind some feedback on the idea. Basically I'm looking at making spellcasting a bit more intricate and have my game's magic users be less of the "dodging thru battle hurling lightning bolts" and more of the "arcane gestures and incantations" experience. In other words, I'm looking for a higher risk to go along with the already high rewards of spells.

Basically, I want to remove the 'casting defensively' ability from the game. If you cast a spell in melee, your enemies will get an opportunity attack. The casting requirements are just too complicated to perform while ducking or weaving. The concentration skill would remain to avoid having your spell disrupted if damaged while casting.

Now, where I'm waffling on is exactly how much to screw over my spellcasters. 'No defensive casting' is little more than a flavor change. I'm considering going one step farther and having spellcasters actually be flat-footed. I might be open to the idea of allowing a concentration check to avoid being flat-footed, but I'm kind of fond of the idea of making spell casting a bit more vulnerable. Wizards and sorcerers would have to stay clear of battle or even have bodyguards during combat while clerics, paladins and such would really have to think deeply about when and where to cast their spells.

Any thoughts?

What decides whether a worshipper of Gozreh, fer instance, is a cleric or a druid? Does the follower make some sort of distinction in the way he views the god?

Can someone tell the difference between a cleric of Gozreh and a druid of Gozreh? Do they focus on different aspects of the god or interpret his aspects differently?

Adobe reader is a free program that allows me to read all the pdfs I buy online.

However, the files here also come zipped and I'm surprised that isn't based on some free unzipping program that would allow me to read them without having to purchase another program.

So far I've gotten by with reinstalling the 45-day trial of Winzip every six weeks, but that can't be the right way.

Any recommendations for unzipping software I should be using?

So far my only interaction with Lovecraft and Cthulhu was through a couple Call of Cthulhu RPG sessions in the 90s and Ash's quest to retrieve the Necronomicon. Frankly, I don't really get it.

If I were to try to educate myself a bit on what all the hubub was about, what book would you recommend I read first? Does Lovecraft write in any sort of chronology that I should make an effort to get his first novel or something early on? In case my thread title is misleading, I'm not actually looking for an encyclopedia of Elder Horrors, but rather trying to make an attempt to experience the stories that seem to have half the gaming world so frenzied.

Thanks all.

I've had to leave behind my gaming group in Washington when I relocated to San Diego. Looking at the awesomeness of the upcoming Kingmaker campaign, I realized this is a bad time to be without a gaming group.

So I thought I'd test the waters and see if there was anybody in the San Diego area interested in putting together a long-term, bi-weekly gaming group for the sake of Making some Kings when the books start dropping in February?

I'm more than willing to run the game (being one of those oddball gamers who actually really likes to DM), but I'm living on a ship these days and don't have a place to offer to meet up at.

In hopes of finding a good fit for my gaming style, I'll warn y'all that I'm more impressed by the player than the character. I'd rather game with a well-played human fighter than a "look at me" dazzle-fiend half-drow chain dervish warlock. Basically, my enjoyment of the game comes from the human interaction, not the Wowee! factor of how awesome you think your character is.

Does that make sense?

Anybody like that in the area?

Can someone point me to where I can change my mailing address? Do I have to change it as part of an order or can I just update?

With my vague understanding of how Paizo subscriptions work, I have until the release of the Pathfinder Bestiary to subscribe to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and get a free pdf with the print version of the main book.

Is that the ticking clock I'm under to scrape together the scratch to get my rulebook and pdf?

How close does a paladin's alignment have to be to his god's?

I was looking at ol' Cayden Cailean and thinking that his "brave adventurer" schtick would be a good hook for a paladin until you factor in that whole "chaotic" business.

Assuming I could come up with a way to roleplay a lawful character following a chaotic god, would this fly mechanically? Are paladins held by any sort of "one-step" rule for alignment?