Fraust's page

Depends on the table and circumstances. In my games, I'm ok GMing with kiddie gloves on for a while, while people new to the system learn, and I have a general house rule where the first four or so levels of any game, you can make adjustments to your character, switch out feats, change classes, whatever, but after that things are more locked in, and it falls under the Retraining rules, which may or may not be practical depending on the campaign.

That said, as a GM, I only hold hands for so long. If ten sessions into the game I'm still explaining how to figure out your bonuses to hit, chances are good you're not going to be playing in the game very much longer. I don't say this to sound elitist, but simply because I don't have the time. By that point, the player either isn't willing to put for the effort, or isn't able, so they need to find another game. I have a daughter, and work 7 days a week, so my time is very precious to me, and I won't waste it, or let someone else waste it.

Other GMs are not like me though, and are perfectly fine to have people with next to no understanding of the game, and they all have a marvelous time playing together.

Also, I notice a lot of people are saying they avoid Save or Die spells, which is understandable. However, do you allow the PCs to use them? If the PC necromancer or witch is wailing like a banshee, shouldn't it be okay for the NPCs to do the same? Just curious how people are balancing that.

Much like Chengar...the short answer is I don't limit PCs access to them due to it not being a direct comparison.

I think it was Angry GM who originated the idea, and I'm pretty sure the idea was for fourth ed, but there is a game hack that sets specific NPCs/monsters up as boss monsters, with three stages of existence. The short of it is you, as the GM, make the creature into three creatures as far as their stat block is concerned...though in the fiction of the game world they are still the same creature. Once one stat block is dead, something happens and the second stage/stat block is used.

I use this in encounters that are particularly important to the campaign, so a single save or die spell will only kill one stage/stat block. As far as run of the mill creatures/npcs, I'm not invested in them enough to care if they get ganked by a single roll.

"Not a troub jaka." Mayze caught herself slipping into cant out of habit. Not far off from common the dialect was used mostly to obscure the details from those not familiar with its nuances, particularly the authorities, or jaka. At the prompt of a search she opens her travel coat (a series of sewn together leather scraps in the vague form of a trench coat) wide exposing a weapon belt with sword and daggers and more than a little skin. She twirls around once and says, "No bangers here lad, just blades and a poker." with a thumb she gestures to the unstrung bow and quiver on her back.
If there's no traditional thieve's cant in this setting I'd like to just assume Mayze has a fairly unusual way of speaking. If you're familiar with real world linguistics I'd call it a psuedo pigeon. She doesn't actually speak any languages beyond Elf and Common, but she uses a smattering of other words she's picked up from various people she's met, mostly not even knowing what language it is.

"Any word on where a dusty lass might find a nip'a real food?" She asks the guard on the way through, more trying to make conversation than anything. "Ain't ate but dried jerk and hard tack for days n days now."

Doing it with roll20 now, did it with d20 pro previously. Honestly one issue I have is the maps are too small. Most of the groups I've played in since I started playing RPGs back in second ed D&D days avoided one inch grids like the plague. Any attempt at actually using ranged weapons/spells becomes a joke.

Before the days of VTTs we used graph paper, often taped together to cover larger areas. I remember coming across a three foot wide roll of graph paper (the real tiny grid too) at an archaeological firm I worked at and begging my boss to sell me one.

I've seen Ironbriar as Tsuto's father so many times I actually forgot that wasn't cannon. That would be the case in my game too ;)

Ironbriar as Nualia's baby daddy is interesting, but I think I'll go a different route. I'm going to leave it largely up in the air, or as "generic NPC dude" for right now, and see if I can't connect it to a PC background later on as people give me more of their histories.

On the subject of Nualia...I'm considering running with an idea...Having Nualia be noticeably prego as of the group encountering her. I haven't fleshed the idea out very much as I'm dealing with half the players being fairly new to me so I'm not sure how they'll react...but the more I noodle it around the more I like it. I'm very curious to see what the party does when they come up against a pregnant woman who hits like a freight train.

Whenever I think of pregnancy I think of pickles and vomiting (long story), which leads me to another idea I'd love feedback on. Recently I came across Numenera, and while I don't like how wishy washy some of the rules are, I love a lot of the concepts in there...one of which is Intrusions.

For anyone who doesn't know, in Numeria the GM can perform an Intrusion every so often, giving a PC two experience points (one has to be given to another PC, because koomby yahh...) and complicates their situation. Maybe their energy sword's battery goes dead, maybe they trigger a trap and fall through the floor into an unexplored party of the complex...stuff like that. The PC can either take the experience and deal with the situation, or turn it down and spend a point of experience to cancel the Intrusion.

The reason this relates to throwing up and pickles is the Pickle Thieves of Thistletop. I've been trying to come up with various themed Intrusions for my group when they hit Thistletop, and one is one of the Pickle Thief goblins blowing chunks at a PCs feet, causing a Acrobatics check or fall prone. I know I have one other Intrusion I came up with but can't recall off hand and I'm away from my notes. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

back to Rycross...I really like the idea of Ironbriar going super nutty and will definitely use that. I'm planning on having the PCs meet up with him before book two if anyone from Thistletop is taken hostage. There will be a trial and some interaction and we'll see what all happens. Depending on how things go with my Slayer PC there might even be a recruitment.

Liking the idea of the murder investigation too...might have to play around with that.

Athos...if you want to share the write up for Irionbriar as a Cult Leader I'd take a look. I forgot all about that archetype actually.

I'm definitely keeping Nualia as a Bloodrager though. My group as an aassimar Sorcerer, so I like the idea of having a villainous aassimar Bloodrager. Would have been even better if their bloodlines had matched up, but it wasn't meant to be. When I first saw the character I think she was the Devil bloodline, but before we started she was switched to Primal Fire...was going to play with the devil/demon thing (Nualia is Abyssal) but oh well.

Up next, or at least up soon, the goblin thread...and the recap of the actual session...I promise :)

That's all I have for right now. Still working up Lyrie as a Mesmerist and need to start on Tsuto. Orik and Bruthazmus are both done but I'll but them in the next post too.

Some length into the second book of my group's Wrath game we hit a bit of a snafu, and our GM needs some time off to finagle real life stuff. Real life stuff is dumb...On the upside, he's still good to play and the rest of the group is still wanting to kick in doors and kill people, er monsters...

So I'm going to be revisiting Rise of the Runelords. If by chance any of my players find themselves here, be aware there are going to be all the spoilers...so if that matters to you, stop reading. I'm not one to care, though if I see an abundance of coincidentally perfect tactics, almost as if you knew just what spells were prepared, feats were chose, and potions were bought...there might be a conversation...involving a hammer...and a rubber chicken. And I don't lube the chicken.

I digress...

So I'm picking up where my previous Rise game ended. A party of adventurers saved Sandpoint from a goblin raid, and discovered someone, likely not a goblin, has been organizing the little green psychopaths.

The previous group of adventurers went off into the wilds after finding tracks in the Sandpoint bone yard...and promptly disappeared. The events of that particular quest, those that happened in the actual game, are not going to be what really happened...and all those characters are currently MIA (the restart will begin a few days after the first party left, maybe not quite a full week).

The new party has been hired by the fine folks of Sandpoint to likewise go off into the big scary wilds...and hopefully figure out A) What is going on with the goblins, and B) What happened to the previous adventuring types.

That all being the case, I had the new batch of players (oddly the GM of our Wrath game was a player in my original Rise game, though he's using a different character this go around) make 4th level characters, and I'll be buffing up things at Thistletop.

Speaking of Thistletop...

So far our new batch of heroes consists of ...an aassimar sorcerer, I forget the bloodline. This is the Wrath GM's character, and was actually made for my Night Below/Kingmaker/Second Darkness mash up...An elvin hunter and dwarf cleric, two characters played by one dude. I'm pretty sure the elvin hunter is locked in, not so sure about the dwarf cleric though. I know he wanted some type of healer...A human Medium I made to playtest that one of my fellow players from the Wrath game took a liking to...A halfling Archaeologist I made and have used in a number of games that the daughter of the guy playing the Medium took a shining to...A Monk that is basically a name swap and level adjustment of the Monk the wife of the guy playing my Medium played in Wrath. Least that was the plan last I heard...And finally an elvin Slayer (bounty hunter) I made for a friend that wasn't in the Wrath game who asked me to work him up something rangerlike. This character is going to have some connections with the gunslinger who worked as a bounty hunter that was involved with my previous Rise game.

I'll have a separate post detailing the PCs too, though that'll be down the road a little more as I'm still waiting on specs for a few. So...next post will detail Nualia and crew...then we'll have a goblin extravaganza...and after that details on our new heroes.

First session is scheduled for this coming sunday, so hopefully I'll have an after action report at some point early that week.

4th level isn't overly elite in my opinion. I was actually just writing up various types of criminal elements, and they cap out at either CR or level (can't remember) 9 in my game.

I see criminals/bandits of CR 1-3 as fairly basic, standard types who harass civilians and are mostly the lazy/quick cash kind of bandit most people think of.

4-6 would be where we start seeing career criminals, either leaders of large bands of the above, or groups of traveling marauders who know how to pick targets. They likely won't trouble themselves with some farmer hauling some vegetables around, but will chase down messengers/couriers or traveling aristocrats and the like. They generally have at least something of a plan, and aren't taking on targets of opportunity, but will have eyes and ears in local communities to help pick out the right people to squeeze.

For 7-9 we're talking men and women who see crime as a way of life and not just a means to an end. They have likely stolen enough to retire multiple times over, but either blow through it as fast as it comes in, or have no intent on retiring. They aren't just good at doing what they do, they genuinely enjoy doing it. These are the masterminds behind thieves guilds and the like, or at least the upper end of the ranking.

It's pure luck based, and not exactly something quick...but forever ago I read a DarkSun book that had a casino, and learned the following game. Used it in game before not long after reading the book, but haven't messed with it since (other than playing for pennies at house parties...

x number of players each have a set of dice (d4, d6, you know the drill). Each round everyone puts coin into two pots, a game pot, and a turn pot, with the amount equal to the die used that turn. The first turn everyone rolls a d4 (so 4 coins from each player is in each pot) and the person who rolls the highest gets the turn pot. You mark down your totals, and the game pot stays. Next turn, roll a d6 and do it all again (so the game pot now has 4 times x and 6 times x). After the d20 is rolled and that turn pot is given out, the scores for all the rounds are totaled, and whoever has the highest there gets the game pot.

The real gambling aspect takes place between the players in the rounds, as they bet with eachother on who will win the round, though all the times we played it we never actually did any of that.

It doesn't work so well as a true casino game as is, being there is no benefit to the house. One fix for that is having the round go to the house unless the players get a specific score. For example, if you had enough players, you could say 1 less than the die max, so if no one scores at least a 3 in the first round, the turn pot goes to the house. You'd have to adjust it as the turns go up, but you get the idea.

There is also the issue of ties in the first couple rounds. I think the most I played this with was six or seven people...and the first two rounds saw the turn pot splitting upwards of four ways.

I concur with the floating head...pretty big jump from what I'm talking about to classless.

It also has enough additional rules and subsystems that I don't think it's out of line for people to consider it a separate system. Yes, technically it's a variant player's handbook...one that diverges heavily from said player's handbook, which Pathfinder also diverges from in it's own way.

You're dangerously close to making the Rogue class worth a crap there pal...I think you better just cool it...

On a serious note I rather like the idea, might have to kick that around for a little bit.

Not all skills are created equal. Having 10 free ranks in Profession (book binder) isn't even close to equal to having 2 free ranks in something like Perception or Stealth, for example.

I think Bardic Knowledge is fine personally.

I make characters meant to be worthwhile additions to the party. Being super good at one small niche thing normally doesn't help, but at the same time I look at what a lot of people consider "well rounded" and think "lamed gimp" is what they ended up with.

On the back story issue...most of the characters I've had over the years that ended up with the most depth started off the most shallow. Seems like when I go out of my way to put up a good backstory for a character, more often than not the campaign comes to a grinding halt two to three sessions in, or the GM (that was so adamant about knowing every farging detail before the game began) never introduces an opportunity for any of it to be relevant.

And yes...people optimized as long as I've been playing, which has been since second edition.

Mechanically? Yes, I think the majority of the weapons in the game are so over the top under powered as to be nearly worthless.

I normally run 1 out of three or so goblins has a bow unless there's a compelling reason to give more of them ranged weapons. A lot of the time though, after a hit a bow armed goblin will spend the next round cheering or taunting the long shanks or the like. If it's a crit the nearest goblin to the one who did the critting will try to steal the "obviously magic" bow, causing them both to lose next turn.

This isn't to sound snide or argumentative, but why are you playing Pathfinder J Gal? Pretty sure there are several 1st ed D&D style games out right now, and most that I've seen are fairly cheap/free.

This standard D&D setting...I don't know how to break this to you, but things changed. (ok, here I'm going to sound a little snide) Why don't you go look to see what the current "standard" D&D setting is like right now. Beyond that, this isn't D&D, this is Pathfinder...and Golarion, the core Pathfinder setting, has half orcs, it has goblins, and damphir (much to my annoyance, but I solve that by not playing them), and tieflings and cat folk and assimars and all sorts of other things.

As for player choice...*shrugs*...I don't know what to tell you, I'm a power gamer, so the only things I play are humans and the occasional elf. As a GM I regularly see tieflings, assimars, fetchlings, and tengu, and recently had my first catfolk player. Each game there was only 1-2 of the above races, out of anywhere from 4-8 players...so, no...it's not really a problem over here.

Having played 3rd ed games where there wasn't a player in sight that didn't have at least two templates and there were no races that didn't have an adjustment...I've felt the way you do...but I'd like to think I didn't try to sound quite so superior about the fact that that just wasn't my scene. Don't like the game your playing? Don't play...

What you probably shouldn't do, is get online and tell people what is and isn't Pathfinder. As much as I occasionally butt heads with the developers over disagreements on design, the game is theirs. Unless your name is Jason "Crane Wing" Bulmahn you don't really get to say what is and isn't Pathfinder...well, least not without sounding...silly.

The dispersal of skill points. Actually, skills in general. Profession (tavern wench) should not use the same resource as perception in my opinion.

Trap feats. You shouldn't design a game mechanic with purposely bad options to reward people with a higher system mastery in my opinion.

The magic item issue...or rather not having an official option for doing low/no magic campaigns.

When I very first ran RotR we got to the first "scarecrow" encounter in our last session. The party came upon an abandoned house (I don't remember, but I think I had switched some stuff around from the module as written, but it largely doesn't matter) and half the party was inside the house investigating things...amongst the other half was our group's barbarian. He apparently got bored and started walking around...came upon a scarecrow, and just before I could tell him to make a Perception check to notice it was breathing/hear faint moaning (I knew it was a living person, but I don't remember if it was one that had ghoul fever or not) he told me he was going to walk up to it and whack it in half with his axe. I asked him if he was sure, and he said yep...he'd jog on up there and smash that ****er. I had him roll to hit, and everyone laughed, chanting ONE ONE ONE...he hit with a possible crit. I told him to confirm, and there was some debate as to being able to crit an object. I told him to just go ahead and humor me, so he proceeds to crit. And I had him roll damage. He does, and it wasn't max but it was high. So I tell him he gets a good swing, connects with the scarecrow, feels significantly more resistance than he expected, but gets the axe blade clear through the thing...showering him with blood. The player was absolutely mortified.

Define "become"...I played a campaign in second edition where I died near or just over 20 times and wasn't the pc with the highest death toll. This isn't anything remotely new.

Slayer...I'll likely have screen shots of digital maps if you're interested in those. Going to be a while out yet, but I'm looking to build up a file of pics from important fights anyway.

Actually you're the bad guy for not talking him out of playing a monk...I mean hell, what's next, you'll let someone play a rogue?

DrDeth...has nothing to do with being an introvert in my opinion, and everything to do with not being able to run the character they wrote up. If someone isn't there to engage they're a problem in my opinion.

Improper doesn't exactly translate into wrong. If I hammer a nail in with the butt of a screw driver I'm using the screwdriver improperly, but not exactly wrongly, as the job is still getting done. I think using a live fish would be more along the wrong spectrum.

I'm of the opinion that any time someone uses the idea that something in a game would never happen in a "real street fight" there's really little point to listen to anything else they have to say. Thanks for reading.

Because Harley is the coolest thing to ever grace the pages of a comic book :) and hyena have good taste

Also, thanks for the heads up on the drawn weapon thing Grimmy. Had an npc get butchered not to long ago in a game I was running due to that.

Maybe it wasn't all that against your nature after all :)

Kobold Cleaver...Sorry if I came across sounding like BBEG was alone. I don't believe in unsupported bad guys, be they lieutenants or not. As for point value...sure, me as the GM is well within my rights to give the fighter whatever stats I like, and any spell like ability I like, or billions of gold worth of resources. Personally I prefer a more consistent game. An NPC might have a higher point buy than the party, but it likely isn't going to be much higher. Anything else I'm going to want some sort of story justification. Why is this army following this person? Where did they get the wealth they have? In the game world, I can't fathom a fighter ever amounting to much of anything, short of GM fiat.

Kydeem...I was going under the assumption, from the original post, we were talking end of a campaign type person. In the case of lieutenants, I absolutely agree that fighters have worth there. A bodyguard the party has to fight before they make it to the final encounter, the thug enforcer the thieve's guild's guildmaster sends out to rough up particularly troublesome goody-two-shoes. That sort of thing.

The anti party idea has merit, though in my own personal opinion it seems a little forced that it's a fighter at the heart of the group.

As for fantasy literature...I think that's a dangerous road to go down personally. For one, a lot of fantasy fighters don't compare with Pathfinder fighters all that well, short of just being able to put stats however one likes. Also, on the idea of promotion through ability, I think there's just as many examples where someone earns a promotion through that, and is shown to be a bad choice because all they know how to do is kill/fight. The old Dark Sun novels were a great example in my opinion. Rikus the gladiator was scary good in a fight...but once he found himself in a position of even leading troops into battle he fell apart because all he knew how to do was hit things. He even had the charm to get people to follow him...they just followed him to their deaths because his military strategy was "get in there and kick ass!"

Malwing...I'm thoroughly in the camp of fighters-are-a-bad-class, but I don't agree that the reason fighters make bad BBEGs makes them bad PCs. Fighters make bad party leaders for the same reasons they make bad BBEGs. It's one thing for a group (big or small) to have bruisers there to dish out punishment, but it's quite another for a group to be lead by a bruiser.

You know you're going to get a tenth level wizard right?

Taku...I'm in the same boat. I use a couple big hitters and a slew of mooks in most of my encounters, don't have anything against ranged weapons or spells, and don't mind my players being good at the things they try to be good at...so when I first saw the Crane Wing feat my first thought was "eh, that's almost worth spending a feat on."

When I saw all the complaining I was completely baffled...didn't really hit me that people were serious about having issues with it until the errata thing hit.

I think this highlights a slew of issues that have very little to do with the feat itself.

There is so much wrong with society play it's not even funny, the game being dictated by people not even at the table? Yeah, thanks but no.

The designers really don't have a solid idea of of balancing the game. The consensus really does seem to be that the feat isn't that big of an issue until you couple it with MoMS. So we make the feat terrible and call it good? No sorry, this is bad design.

A lot of GMs really don't know what the hell they're doing. If you can't figure out how a work around for a feat that cancels one melee attack per turn, walk away from the screen. You don't deserve to run a game.

My own opinion is that that is a nice concept in theory, but in practice leads to more problems then it solves. Mostly in the realm of Intelligence and Wisdom. One big redflag for me as a player, is when a GM drones on about how they wont accept well thoughtout ideas from PCs with low mental stats. The subject of real world smarts is incredibly subjective, most "intelligence tests" show a noticeable bias towards cultural leanings far more than they do toward any sort of mental aptitude. Least the ones I've studied have been shown to. I agree that someone with a six int and six wis probably shouldn't be coming up with a SWAT team style tactical assessment of how to raid a dungeon, but at the same time I'd rather play the damn game than argue over what a character is and isn't allowed to think.

Real world likability is, in my own opinion, even more subjective than mental ability. Traits that make one person charming or interesting to one person make them utterly annoying to another. Traits that one finds endearing in a person will be the things that drive the one person up the wall three months later. Can we accurately depict that in a game? I'm sure it's possible to do a better job than is currently able, but I don't sit down at a game table to play Sitcom the RPG.

At my own table, the attributes are a measure of the mechanical abilities of the character. Intelligence measures what bonuses you get on specific skills as well as how many skills you get, number of languages, and so on...Charisma measures specific skill bonuses and so on...ect ect...nothing more.

Jason. No clue what happened with the name thing other than I am a twit. Sorry about that.

I get that you guys are fed p with the martial vs caster thing, but I think a good portion of your players are fed up with the problem and its continued existence. That may or may not be important to you, I'd have thought it was.

James...when someone brings up a point in a discussion you don't particularly want to deal with (martial vs caster) do you really think it fair to brush it off with "let's stay on topic"? There seems to be more than a few of your customers who think it is on topic.

Also, the rules of pathfinder are now being subject to the limits of pfs? Sorry but that is particularly lame in my opinion. Society is an add on, something else, not part of the core game. Least, that's the impression I got. If that's not the case can we have an organized petition to have society play disbanded? Because I gotta be honest, I want no part of that business.

You guys have a really nice product, and have a history of listening to your fans. But there's some issues here and it would be greatly appreciated if they were addressed instead of blown off.

You and I run different worlds mate ;) I would put it at every group of villages semi close to eachother have a wisewoman/healer type, with more than half of them being adepts and the remaining being a mix between witch, oracle, and cleric. So in my world maybe one out of twenty villages has a witch.

Archmic...you honestly believe your argument doesn't have holes?

The game rules are guidelines and absolutely open to interpretation. You're right, in a way, in your head the thing works the way you think it does, and that's great. It sounds like you're the only one here who is open to that interpretation, so why continue to argue?

I think anyone who would get on here and say it's not personal preference at all, is...um...an idiot? I guess would be the best way to put it...

That said, I think Rise of the Runelord is a good campaign for having a mix of roleplay as well as combat. There's a variety of terrain to explore, and a variety of creatures to encounter, including several well done retakes on old favorites.

I think switching casting to Charisma instead of switching ferver to Wisdom is the better choice, largely for thematic purposes. The idea of them being imposing and inspiring, acting as leadership in the fight and the glue that keeps a group together outside of the fight, makes the class appealing. The idea of them being a wise holy warrior makes me question the conceptual difference between them and clerics.

Regardless of what the designers do, it'll be among my rules at home.

I think if one of my players essentially told me "no I don't, nice try though" I'd wave good bye to them. "I thought paladins were immune to that?" is one thing, but the other, is another.

The mumification process is just cooking up enough meth to effectively bathe in.

Here is a player's guide I wrote for my Falcon's Hollow/Age of Worms campaign a while back.

I like the magus as a good solid litmus test for other gamers. When meeting someone new who's familiar with Pathfinder I'll bring up the magus (and summoner and alchemist) and see what they have to say. The people who are leary, cite examples, and don't say anything about banning it I'll deal with. People who have the "yeah, it's a garbage class that's broken crap blah blah blah" I just wrap up the conversation and make sure not to game with them. I'm not going to say anyone is right or wrong, but if a GM can't handle a magus (or summoner or alchemist) character then I don't think we would have that much fun gaming together.

Asking that the GM play by the same rules the players are playing by is hardly "restricting GM authority." Except for house rules agreed upon at the beginning of a campaign, it is assumed that everyone is playing the same game, with the same rules.

This doesn't hold true in my game, nor just about any game I play in. The GM creates the rules. If the players don't like that, they are free to leave the game or comment on them. I don't think players should play in games thay are not having fun with, and houserule/rule interpretation/whatever is not relevant.

If I'm understanding the situation, I would assume the GM made a mistake about everyone acting at once. The one encounter isn't enough to get me complaining though, but it seems to have got you going. Talk to your GM if it bugs you. What does it matter what I/anyone here think? Life isn't democratic man.

I'm going to second the poster who mentioned time and hands and there beeing way too much of one in the other...If this is what gets you riled up and makes you need to vent...the world is going to be a very scary place...

In the interest of friendly discussion, I dissagree with the sleep/color spray "tactic" being defined as cheese. To me cheese is taking advantage of a rule loop hole, which is highly subjective I know. An example of cheese to me...years ago we got a misprinted shadowrun rulebook, where the second to highest priority in money was one million neuyen, and the highest priorety was six hundred thousand. We all took priority B in resources and started off with one million bucks (we were all thirteen...)

To me, the sleep/color spray thing is boring (as boring as "I hit it with my axe" which is why I normally don't play fighter types, and when I do they're switch hitters).

An example of cheese in Pathfinder? I honestly can't come up with one off the top of my head. Not that I think the game is perfectly balanced, I just haven't come accross anything yet that I see as overly cheesey.

god I miss the days when people had a sense of humor...

Alright gentlemen, this is the area for out of character discussion in all it's form. Here I will post some houserules I'm going to implement, as well as put some observations about the game as things progress.

Anyway, as you guys get set up, sound off here and let me know where your at...also, feel free to talk here and intertwine character backgrounds.

House Rule
In the interest of getting people enough skills to make deep characters, I'm trying out something a little new. First off, all classes that have 2 skill points per level now have 4. Second, intelligence penalties don't apply to the number of skill points you get per level (if you have a skill based off int, it will still suffer the penalty when you add up what the total modifier is).

I actually ran Nualia as a summoner...using her eidolon as a giant three eyed hyena. I was hoping to keep up with the Lamashtu theme, though it wasn't appreciated.

Was thinking of statting up Aldern as a cavalier...and Ironbriar as a bone oracle.

Depending on how blood thirsty your party is, there is the option of transporting captured prisoners to Magnimar for trial. Half of my group escorted Tsuto there and were going to be introduced to Ironbriar (Ironbriar is a villian they will encounter in the second book, though he is a justice in the Magnimar court system). Never got to run the session though.

Depending on how things go with the goblins of thistletop I could see them sending a lone sneaky messanger into Sandpoint to inform the party they need their help...and then send them on a mission to slay a competing goblin tribe/ogre clan/troll.

There's the whole Sandpoint Devil thing too. I didn't do a good job of it the first time I ran Burnt Offerings, but next time I plan on making a small death cult type senario, where a small group of folk in Sandpoint are sacrificing animals to the SD in order to keep it happy and not killing them. As time goes on the sacrifices need to consist of more and more, subsiquently becoming harder and harder to explain away.