Gaurwaith's page

Maglin continues coughing at the cigar until it becomes plain that his efforts to distract Dalkk are in vain. He extinguishes it very carefully and watches in silence, hands limp at his sides.

"Dalkk, what about my behavior has ever indicated that I have even a single iota of respect for anything related to you?" Maglin clearly isn't serious, but his words aren't particularly jovial either.

"Could you bring me one of those cigars? I've always wondered how they taste." This time, he's deadly serious.

A good theme song should be distinctive and easily recognizable. It should also be fairly simple and easy to remember, the sort of thing you can play over in your head.

Personally, I don't really understand the lyrics in most songs.

Based on those two factors, I think this song is a good candidate.

I think it fits well with bard. At first, it's easily recognizable as that song that plays in the background at comedic moments in movies. But then it keeps going, building slowly and steadily, until it becomes almost anxious. You realize the bard is more than they seemed at first, someone with a deep personality and a lot going on beneath the surface. It keeps going, still using the same old patterns to grow in new ways, and you realize that beneath the veneer and the charming comedy of the bard is actually the scariest thing in the room.

Also, I feel obligated to suggest this song for cleric. Johnny Cash's singing is a bit like a spoken poem, which makes it easy for me to understand. I also think it's a quite distinctive style. I like this song in particular because it makes being religious seem like the most badass thing ever. It's not, "horay, I get to go to heaven!" It's, "no grave is strong enough to hold me down. Death itself will bow before me."

I like this one for skald. I'd die happy if I died a foolish death charging against hopeless odds as long as that song was playing.

There are some classes, like wizard, that don't really have much of a flavor component. I chose a theme song for a wizard once, and it was based on their backstory and personality. They could've been a barbarian and it would've still been fine.

This was mentioned briefly earlier on, but I'd like to expand upon the point that "nature" is a fairly arbitrary concept.

When white settlers reached the northwestern united states, they assumed the region was totally natural, and untouched by civilization. In fact, Native Americans had been living there for some time, and regulated the land in interesting ways. But that didn't fit the understanding of nature and civilization at the time.

Who is more in touch with nature, a farmer who grows corn all day or a man who goes hiking regularly? The farmer spends most of their time carefully regulating an environment for the benefit of humans, so you might argue that they do not really interact with a naturally occurring environment. Or maybe, because they mostly interact with plants and animals, they are automatically in touch with nature. The hiker probably has a good appreciation of what a forest is like, and likely regularly interacts with an environment that doesn't show a lot of human influence. But then, the hiker also probably doesn't have any close connection between their livelihood and the natural world, and maybe he has a desk job. Neither the farmer nor the hiker are likely to be able to survive if they were suddenly transported back in time ten thousand years to a remote area of the world. But is that really the best way to assess who is the person more in touch with nature?

Let's make another comparison. A member of a tribe that has remained mostly out of contact with the rest of the world, deep in a tropical jungle. He spends a lot of his time worrying about how to hunt animals, and most of his possessions are things that he made for himself. The other person is a heart surgeon who spends most of her time worrying about heart surgery. She interacts with a huge range of humans from a wide variety of backgrounds, uses expensive, complex machines that are designed by humans, and eats food that typically travels more than a thousand miles to get to her. But she also spends most of her disposable income maintaining a stretch of forest which humans never interact with. One is clearly doing more for nature, while another interacts more with the natural world. Different people will make different judgments about their comparative level of connection with nature.

Some questions. Does being a hunter make you more in touch with nature? Can you appreciate nature in Central Park, New York? Are there any really untouched virgin forests which show no human influence? How is human influence on two forests categorized? Could you compare different tracts of two forests and state that one is less influenced by humans when both are extremely complicated environments with tons of factors you are incapable of adequately studying? Does being a vegetarian make you more or less in touch with nature? How does that compare to being a vegan?

If in the real world I decide not to ride in a car, not to eat meat, or not to wear metal objects, none of those things influence how in touch I am with nature, because being in touch with nature is something that we define in a subjective way.

I don't know if nature is subjective on Golarion. On Golarion, gods definitively exist. It seems fair to compare the subjective aspects of morality with the subjective aspects of nature (although I'm not a philosopher), and we know that on Golarion evil is a thing that can be defined. I've always wondered about the implications of druid's metal armor, because it seems to suggest that there is some objective definition of what nature is and what being in touch with nature means on Golarion. Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, this is a key part of the core rules. If I want to make a homebrew world where interaction with nature and an exploration of what "nature" means to the players, I have to change the core rules, because I detest their implication that nature is somehow an objective thing that all druids are naturally more in touch with.

If I ever ran a campaign, I'd want to do away with the alignment system. I'd probably have to ban paladins. If I ever ran a campaign focused around civilization and the way humans interact with nature, exploring themes about what is and is not subjectively "natural", I'd want to do away with the implications of some of the druid rules text. I wouldn't have to ban druids, because the bit about metal armor is much less central to the class than alignment related rules are to paladins, but I'd change the rules. I'd change the rules to do away with their implications in game.

If I ever played in PFS, those rules and their implications would exist. When I play in other people's games, they exist. In games I'm a part of, nature is a thing, and wearing metal armor seems to me to be a thing that makes one less in touch with nature. I don't like that.

A little further reading.

Leonard cowers in fear, not moving at all. He watches Seamus's antics from his peripheral vision, then notices his hands are shaking. Quickly, he hides them behind his back so that no one can notice his movement.

After a minute

Leonard walks upstairs, picking up Angiliath. What just happened? Nothing to worry about, he mutters to himself, heading back downstairs.

Seamus, let me take a look at your throat. He eyes it closely, yup, I think I've seen this before. You didn't inhale a spider...

...you inhaled it's eggs.

Cultists

Leonard, seeing the dagger, watches the man stab at his chest, dagger harmlessly landing on his chain shirt, which is now quite visible. Um, you're supposed to aim for the fleshy bits, he stabs with Angiliath, like that.

Brand
Concentration DC 15: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33

Attack + bardic performance - spell combat-dex drain: 1d20 + 10 + 2 - 2 - 1 ⇒ (15) + 10 + 2 - 2 - 1 = 24
Damage + bardic performance-dex drain: 1d6 + 6 + 2 - 1 ⇒ (2) + 6 + 2 - 1 = 9

Attack + bardic performance - spell combat-dex drain: 1d20 + 10 + 2 - 2 - 1 ⇒ (15) + 10 + 2 - 2 - 1 = 24
Damage + bardic performance-dex drain: 1d6 + 6 + 2 - 1 ⇒ (5) + 6 + 2 - 1 = 12

Maglin collects himself, then runs forward again, through the unsettling doorway, past Dalkk, all the way forward. He pats Cain on the shoulder with a shaky hand, tegere io albar, an almost invisible barrier springing into place around him.

Protection from evil. +2 to defensive stats.

Maglin looks terrified, but he still comments wrly to Dalkk, 'tis not irony, for the club's of bone and not metal.

Dueling already favours nobles, because they can afford to pay people to teach them how to fight.

Most people don't want to die.

Good and evil are things on golarion. A balor is evil because it is a balor, not because of what it does. Outsiders in general have a set alignment which is prescriptive.

Characters, on the other hand, have descriptive alignments, which best describe the character's actions without forcing them to do things a particular way.

Still, good and evil are things. A person on golarion has alignment, it is a possession.

I'd be inclined to say that you'd have an evil alignment if you cast raise dead a lot, but you could still have personality traits that make you a functional and well adapted member of society who mostly benefits others. The gods might hate you, but your friends probably wouldn't.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Percival freezes when he hears the stone, then quickly turns around. Tindertwig, Kael, get it out. Come here.

He races back to the opening, sound below growing louder. He fumbles with his pack, fingers sticking, desperately searching. Got it. He pulls out a flask of lantern oil.

Round 2

Percival pours about half the oil out in a ring around the hole, hands shaking slightly despite himself. Okay, light it.

Standing up, he steps back, preparing to throw his remaining half bottle of oil.

Wouldn't that be 9 damage since the general rule is to round down?

His bone scraping the rats off, Leonard has no trouble casting brand and attacking again. Unfortunately, he's not used to fighting opponents this small and this close to him, and he doesn't do much.

Casting brand.
Concentration DC 20: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 32

Attack- spell combat: 1d20 + 10 - 2 ⇒ (2) + 10 - 2 = 10
Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Attack- spell combat: 1d20 + 10 - 2 ⇒ (2) + 10 - 2 = 10
Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Bludgeoning is more effective?

60) A dark but moonlit night on the edge of a foggy and foreboding forest. It's time to camp, and to set a watch. As the fire wanes, shadows grow taller and eerier, and the inescapable nighttime chill makes it impossible to get warm. The grassess hiss, bending and writhing in the wind. Was that the sound of someone in the woods? Sticks crack, cries are heard, and there is a faint glow far off.

The party is roused, having a few rounds to prepare. It sounds like a mob is charging headlong through the woods. Suddenly, an old hobgoblin woman bursts through the underbrush, carrying a wailing bundle in her arms. "Please! You have to help me, they'll take my baby! Please!" Turns out nothing's black and white, and sometimes the boogeyman is a racist mob armed with torches and pitchforks. As the party gives way, she races forward, tossing the young one in the fire.

Nothing's black and white, until it is.

When the mob catches up, they make sure she pays. The wind picks up, carrying her cries far into the night, and the clouds follow after, covering up the moon. It is afraid to illuminate what happens that night. The villagers are angry at the adventurers who didn't save the child, but aren't suicidal enough to try to kill them. Instead, they offer a deal: help us with a local monster, or we'll send word ahead to the baron that there are adventurers in his lands who could help him get ahead in the power struggles of the land. The PCs might be able to outrun the villagers, assuming they're willing to steal their horses, but if they don't, well, they'll have a major delay to contend with.

I would grab the rope, if I could. I would save myself, because there are too many people who would miss me being gone.

Will save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

But sometimes, sometimes it's nice to fall. I wouldn't want to get hurt, but if I could just...let go...

Will save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

That would be very nice. Just let go and float on the wind, drifting from place to place. Can't hurt anyone that way.

Will save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10

That's nonsense. You're just afraid that you won't be able to help people, that you won't be strong enough. But their suffering is great.

Will save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10

MY suffering is great. I have lived a long, hard, slow life, and I will NOT see it end until the memory if Diamond Lake is hazy and dim in the past. I am not strong enough now, but one day, one day soon, I will be.

Will save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

Percival snaps back into motion, pulling on the rope and standing erect once again. He pants softly, looking resolved. Yeah, a little trap like that, no way it'd stop me for too long. He lies down to mitigate the effects of the wind, bracing one foot against his piton while he waits for Chaetris to work her way back. Want me to lower you, or would you rather try climbing? I promise I won't let you down, he chuckles, well, I'll let you down, but in a good way.

Like I let down Will?

Perhaps crazy, but certainly in control, and on our side. Maglin is twenty feet behind a gigantic dwarf, and well out of range of any danger, but his careful eyes and studious consideration of the circumstances seem somehow much more at ease than they would have been yesterday. He is beginning to learn the ways of the dungeon, and to be comfortable in a fight, so long as the foes are far enough away.

Just waiting on Cain, right?

Cain currently has my prepared infusion of long arm. Can Simon retrieve it from him as a move action then drink it as a standard?

Also, even with long arm, won't he still have 10' reach, which is not enough to reach around a 10'' dwarf?

Wait...there wasn't...no...

Definitely no room for interpretation there. I'm just talking about rubbing grease all over the short, stubby...dwarf. *Makes a decision not to wink*

45.1) Bonus points if the PCs do some sort of quest to help out the villagers the first time they see it, and feel good about themselves. Perhaps they get back a dowry and help a young couple get happily married. Maybe they deal with a local goblin or kobold problem. Something quick that makes the villagers happy and lets the PCs learn some names.

46) A well off looking girl of about twenty approaches the PCs and begs them to take her with them. She's been married off into a very unhappy situation, with a tyrant of a stepmother and an alcoholic husband. This was all well and good, the world isn't all roses and honey, but she's just learned that she's pregnant, and doesn't want to have a child in this situation.

If the PCs do help her, she proves to be quite able bodied and helpful. She slows them down a bit, and they'll probably wish they had that extra time because someone else later down the road will need help and they won't be able to provide it, but not too much, and she's got other family in the nearest city.

If they don't help her, they find her a few months later traveling with a hooded cloak and a bruised face, no longer pregnant.

47) A man with a club foot wasn't conscripted. He says he was wounded it in an accident splitting wood a few years back, and neither side is desperate enough to start recruiting cripples. So the soldiers left, and left him behind. Despite his hurt, he's still one of the most able bodied individuals in the town, and folk young and old look to him as a leader. He's taken to wearing a sword, and is a true patriot. It's still early enough that the war is popular.

Well, it's popular with everyone but the soldiers. They've just been smashed in a decisive battle which killed about half of them. The lone survivor of the company which set out from the company has just returned, with a broken arm and a gash on his head, to find closed doors and cold shoulders. His only family are dead, and the rest are shunning him as a deserter, which he is.

Things have escalated between the cripple and the injured man, and it looks like they're about to come to blows. The rest of the town looks on with bated breath.

48) An isolated homestead, it's about big enough for one family. The only son is in the process of robbing his sobbing parents, who are loading up their only cart to which is attatched their only horse.

The father is giving the son his blessing, saying, "Live, son, prosper and be happy. My greatest hope is that you will surpass me in every way, taking everything I have to give you and building yourself a happy life." The son keeps screaming at him to shut up, becoming increasingly shrill, until finally he accidentally smacks the horse, causing it to start running suddenly. This breaks his mother's foot, causing her to shriek, and sends the horse running in the wrong direction, right into a pothole, which breaks its leg and flips the cart.

If the PCs still haven't acted, the father approaches the son cautiously, intending to help him.

The son refuses help, though he's obviously hurt, and keeps threatening his father with a sword even though he's clearly on the verge of unconsciousness, and his father could probably easily take it from him. If the PCs do nothing, he will gather a random assortment of goods from the back of the cart and stumble towards the woods, bleeding profusely from his head and waving his sword futilely at his father, who will follow along patiently. His mother, however, now enraged by her broken foot, will hobble after him screaming and in a rage.

If the PCs still do nothing, the mother will draw a dagger from his belt and try to stab the son, who holds out his sword to stop her. She is undaunted, and charges straight onto it, impaling herself. Stepping back in shock, the son drops the sword and looks at his father, who in turn draws his own dagger and murders the son he was just giving his blessing. He will then try to kill himself.

Also, their dinner is burnt.

#38 is my favorite so far. I've been having trouble making a purely good encounter that leaves the PCs with a good taste in their mouth, and this one does that literally and metaphorically. It's important to include good things as well as bad, because humans are social creatures with strong motivations to act for the greater good. The first world war is way way way more interesting because of the christmas truces than it ever could be as a world where everything is horrible for no reason.

Also the inn could eventually be destroyed. Though I like to think it wouldn't be, and the local bandits and villagers would set aside their differences here. A flower blooming in a field of mud has to actually be a flower, not just more mud.

pally's are LG which means in any one scenario over half of your options are removed for decision making. Lets use the pally and barb, so you beat the bad guy and your options are take a bribe and let him go. Kill him, he cant be redeemed. or turn him into the police. Well you have one option because of the pally, because all other options are "wrong."

If the world were more immersively real, it wouldn't be so clear what is right and wrong. Adventures might present you with a set of choices, some of which are "good", and some of which are "bad", designed to appeal to different classes, but real dilemmas are often more complicated. What if the fellow is really evil and deserves to die? What if he's likely to escape prison, or could still do bad things from within a cell? What if he's a son and father and brother, and if he goes to jail it will place additional strain on his family? What if he has no family but is taking care of his grandparents, and there's a famine on, so they'll die if he goes to prison?

What if instead of a generic bad guy who exists so you can beat him and feel good about having overcome an encounter, it's a real person with actual motives that make sense? What if those motives require actual understanding in order to make a moral decision?

Suddenly playing a paladin doesn't take away options, it forces you to be engaged with the story because the gameplay and story are integrated.You're genuinely concerned about acting in accordance with the moral values of your character, and have to write a real person for whom those motivations make sense.

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but the above suggestion isn't quite what I had in mind. It's just an encounter with a moral component, and not too specific to a warzone. More importantly, and the reason I say this, is that all of these encounters are meant to be for PCs who are doing something else. They aren't soldiers or hired guards, they're adventurers. Even more, they're adventurers who already have a quest, and who are making a very real decision about if they even have the capacity to accept new quests as they pass through the area. This makes a much more real and full world, where the PCs aren't the only ones solving problems, and in fact very clearly don't have the capacity to do lots of things they wish they could. They can't stay and help the villagers repair their wall, but someone else will, because there are other real people in the world who are working to better themselves. Instead of the PCs struggling against the evils of a world, it's the PCs existing in a world that has different sides already engaged in different struggles, which the PCs are only a small part of. This gives much more agency to the NPCs, which I think creates a more immersive experience.

Again, I don't want this to come across as hostile, thank you for posting what really is a very interesting and hooking encounter, even if it doesn't align exactly with what I wanted from this thread. I'm just taking this opportunity to clarify the circumstances which I want the 101 encounters in this thread to conform to, and this isn't meant as a personal attack in any way. I hope to see more contributions from you in the future.

20) The horses were spooked by something in the night. They're long gone by now, probably eaten by whatever foul creature scared them in the first place. It's slow going by foot, but the PCs manage to reach the next village by nightfall...only to find that there are no horses for sale. Increasingly lucrative offers to buy the only four in town are turned down, the villagers citing the facts that they can't sow their crops without the animals, can't go to market since the nearby towns were all wiped out, and can't eat gold.

Of course, it would be easy to take the horses by force.

9) Terrible, stark, nightmarish: Dark Rock Tower. It was the site of the most recent battle, but one the fighting was over neither side could hold a garrison there. The piled corpses were left to rot, and the wounded to scream all through the night. Now a fell light can be seen glinting in the windows, and the roof seems to have been repaired. Woe to any who stay out after dark...

The PCs are in a big hurry through a ravaged war zone, probably doing something involving saving the world. How can we make them wish they had time to stop and help the inhabitants?

1) A woman with a bruised face accosts the PCs as they settle in for the night, telling them that her drunken husband has taken their kids and run off to god knows where. It'll take all day to track him down, and everyone in the village is scared to venture far.

2) A group of bandits has taken control of the area. Their tax collector is in the process of beating an old man when the PCs arrive, but he begs them not to help. If they did, it would only provoke the rest, who are hiding somewhere in the hills and will take several days to deal with fully.

3) There's a murderer in the hamlet. Bodies are found at the end of every week, and it looks like they've been tortured before being killed. There aren't any professional government authorities around to help, and none of the locals have the capacity to solve the crime.

Oh dear, Maglin says softly as the bag appears. He reaches out a hand powerlessly, mouth open wide, but no words come. A moment later, the lady is gone.

Maglin turns silently and approaches Cain, stopping a few feet away. Cain, this is Maglin, follow me. Maglin touches him on the shoulder gently, leading him after Simon.

He stands sullenly beside Simon, looking at the ground. Occasionally he looks up at Cain and Dalkk, but there is nothing Maglin can do to help.

After they stop

Are you all right? That bag seemed to be quite deadly, I'm glad nothing worse happened to either of you, and I'm also glad that she did not detonate it while we were all leaving that small tunnel, which I think would have been much more damaging. However, I feel that I contributed to an attitude of trusting towards her. I think we should have been more thorough before allowing a potential foe to take advantage of us like that, more specifically, I think we should have searched her and bound her arms despite her protests. Maglin looks around at the others for a moment, hoping they agree.

I will remember this incident with perfect clarity for the rest of my life, but we cannot let the mistakes we made here cause an unhelpful negative mindset. It is imperative that our spirits are not let down. We will learn from this.

Any comments? Maglin pauses to look around at the others.

After any comments.

Thulian, we need to search you and get a better understanding of your condition and history. You seemed quite confused when we first met you, and after Vuzi's magic it was as though another spell had been broken. Do you know if that was the case? Perhaps you were under the control of another spellcaster, or the creature who slew you? How exactly did your expedition fare? What are your current capabilities, as far as you understand them? How long have you been down here, and were you locked in that room the whole time?

Last of all, Vuzu, how long will your spell last?

Maglin will repeat any of his questions patiently and methodically until they've all been addressed.

Link to the first Thulian post.

Will respond to the fluffy RP later.

As they near the graveyard, Maglin touches his eyes. Conspectu, he utters firmly, and they turn a soft blue color.

In general you can assume the first thing I'll do is detect magic. Empty room? Detect magic. Chest that might be trapped? Detect magic. Closed door? Detect magic.

He walks slowly behind the others, approaching the gravestones to the northwest warily. Come on, let's see these side buildings first. Maybe they've got something interesting in them, maybe not, but we'll be better off knowing for sure. Maglin bravely takes a single step forward before stopping in his tracks. I shouldn't lead the way.

I talk to myself a lot. When designing characters who are not humans, I'll often say things like:

"...but he's still a human, well, technically he's an elf, but elves are just humans with some weird extra bits like long lives, so he's still a human, basically. I'm going to think about him as a human is the point...anyway, he's still a human, so..."

This goes for any race, not just elves.

What about a setting where everyone is a murderhobo?

Let's see...where to begin...

We should have the setting be a weird mashup. It's a land of perpetual winter, to build tension, ruled over by an evil queen. I guess we can then add some creatures from greek mythology, but we'll have them dress like englishmen, and carry umbrellas and such like. Wouldn't want to try to get resonance or anything.

Yes, yes, good, good. Now we need to add some talking animals. Hmm...I guess we should just pick any old animals that are active in the winter. And because most animals hate the winter, they animals are the good guys, so it's like, nature and talking animals versus the evil queen.

Ooh, why not have the evil queen's nazi police force be some talking animals she made friends with?

And uh...then we can add in some things that are reminiscent of real world religion. A christmas character who celebrates the birth of Jesus would be nice. Ooh, speaking of Jesus, we can make him another character, but we'll disguise him as an animal. Always wondered what it must have been like for Jesus to celebrate his own birthday...

What else do we need? I guess we can add some more random elements, like, for example, there are from time to time pieces of modern technology just out in the open, but we won't ever acknowledge them as being out of place, will we? Because it's a fantasy, it doesn't have to make sense. We can also mix in, like, just stuck in there in the same world as a streetlamp, some ancient pagan imagery, like, for example, sacrificial tables or something. And we can make weird magic with rules that we make up as plot devices, so that if, say, one of our good guys gets killed we can just resurrect them using "deeper magic". Basically we just want to jumble things up a lot and jam in whatever we just had a dream about.

Can anyone think of a good name for our setting? I'm honestly at this point thinking that everything is so out of place that we should just pick a bunch of random nouns and that'll about do it.

102) You find your GM's favorite alias has been used to post on this thread.

IS

Imposter! Get him!

102) "Who's ready to use my new system for tracking the edge damage on your weapons?"

Apparently Hugo Dyson quite literally said "Oh f---" when Tolkien was reading drafts of Lord of the Rings.

102) "After defeating the dragon you continue down the hall to his hoard, where you find endless piles of copper coins gleaming at you."

102) Your group of level one adventurers falls into a "Pit of 102 Housecats"

I'd go ahead and bot. We're not getting anywhere by waiting, and if you bot, then in the future the people botted will most likely be more enthusiastic.

Thanks guys. I didn't talk a lot about the various different problems with pathfinder's representation of spears. I would say that the feat which makes the area around you difficult terrain should probably not have prerequisites, and in general I think if pathfinder treated threatened squares as difficult terrain the combat would be a touch more realistic.

Carrying a spear and another small weapon was done, lots of reenactors like to do that, and it is possible, although somewhat difficult, to draw a dagger after a swordsman has passed your point but before they hit you, so that you have some chance there. Pathfinder lets you do this with a move action, which I think is fine, but there is a fairly high chance of fumbling the draw. If I were changing pathfinder, I'd make it so that

1) two handed weapons can't be sheathed

2) drawing a different type of weapon was a swift or move action, depending on the weapon (dagger might be swift, rapier might be move). Rolling a D20 + BaB against a DC of 5 makes it a longer action.

This post addresses real life combat.

Below I have linked numerous videos from the AHF (Academy of Historics Fencing), a group which does extensive full contact unarmored sparring with blunt weapons of great variety. We see below spears used one and two handed, in melee and individual combat. The people fighting are usually fairly well trained in what they are doing (so they people using spears know how to use a spear, the people with a longsword know how to use a longsword, ect). In many of the videos they switch roles, with one person using the spear for a few exchanges and then using whatever sword is being used. This is to correct for differences in skill. They are not simulating armored combat, which works somewhat differently. However, for much of history similar core principles apply, namely, don't let your opponent hit you, as they might be able to hit a gap in your armor.

I don't expect anyone to watch all of these, but if you watch one or two of different types you can get a sense of what real spear combat is like. They go until one solid hit has been delivered, which realistically will be incapacitating and deadly to an unarmored opponent, and for roughly a single exchange after that (one tempo, which means one attack from the person who got hit), this simulates what is called an afterblow. Getting hit is not always instantly lethal, and it is very common in historical accounts of melee combat for a person to get hit and continue fighting for a short time, often resulting in double kills.

One handed spear usage, spear & shield vs sword and shield. The swords are quite similar to viking style swords, although viking swords might have favored close range draw cuts more, based on extrapolation from the shape of the pommel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni-h8SH1yUw&t=90s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHkW0rCoe_A

Melee combat, spears used one handed, spears and shields vs swords and shields. Swords outnumber spears close to 2:1 and odds are fairly even.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UybEdUDdxM

Two handed spear usage. Spear vs longsword, no shields.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdHrz_PZQEY&t=3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK32P7qnDuE

Two handed spear usage. Spear vs sabre, no shields.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3KRJl9zNMg

Spear vs sidesword (essentially a broadsword, a one handed cut and thrust medium length sword with good hand protection).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywhEV26Uaqs

A person well trained in short sword fighting going against a spear for the first time. No shields.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhgO7cEZnns&t=115s

In all of the videos, the spear seems to be quite dominant. I think this fairly conclusively shows that in unarmored combat between two people where one uses a spear as a primary weapon and the other uses a sword, the spear user has a distinct advantage. Furthermore, we can extrapolate that in many scenarios where armor provides imperfect coverage, such as a mail hauberk which leaves the arms, face, and legs exposed, a similar conclusion could be reached.

The dominance of spears is not represented in pathfinder. I think that a one handed spear with reach would not be at all unreasonable in terms of realism, although pathfinder is increadibly crude in the way it treats reach. Using a nine foot spear in tandem with a shield is not particularly difficult after moderate training, and was widespread.

Against really good armor, the spear becomes less dominant. However, a sword is also ineffective against armor the large majority of the time. Against good plate armor, for instance, one would want to use a pole arm, like a poleaxe, to try to trip the opponent and also to bypass the armor by stabbing in gaps. There is also bludgeoning potential, hence most poleaxes have large hammers, which can be used to hurt opponents by striking bony areas, particularly the head. When fighting an armored opponent with a sword, it is a good idea to try to thrust into gaps in the armor, trip the opponent, and grapple with them. It can be effective to hold a sword backwards and strike with the pommel and crossguard, this is called a murder stroke, because it is ussually done on an opponent who is unable to respond. There are examples of spiked pommels and crossguards for this purpose.

In general, the main advantage of a sword is that it is small enough to be sheathed. This means that it can be carried about in day to day life without disrupting activities. Sheathing an eight foot spear is not particularly practical. Throughout much of historical Europe, there were often laws about who could carry a sword, typically it was the nobility who could carry a sword, and in general swords are associated with nobility because of this (and other factors, which I will not detail). This is a big part of the reason why they are seen as heroic. The other major factor in making swords heroic is that they are more present in civilian life, thus the tales which are constructed about heroes and designed to resonate with civilians tend to mention swords more than they should, although to be clear many heroic tales do mention spears.

The sheathing advantage of a sword is also why it would be carried by an adventurer. If the adventurer was planning on going into a dungeon where they knew they were going to be fighting, they might carry a spear, but otherwise as they went about their daily life they would most likely have a sword. The sword they would use would be dependant on what was available, which would depend on what was effective.

Different weapons are good for different things. Consider: a rapier is an excellent weapon for unarmed combat between two civilians. It has long reach, good hand protection, enough weight to parry, and both cutting and thrusting power. It is probably the best one handed sword in an unarmored duel with no offhand weapon. But if one is expecting to go up against armored opponents, a longsword is probably a better sidearm, because it will have more leverage and a more robust thrust, good for getting through padding which will be present in the gaps one will thrust into.

Pathfinder does not represent most of this. Movies do not represent most of this. I don't get a bonus for using a warhammer against an armored opponent, indeed, a warhammer is just as good as a sabre against someone in full plate.

Also, one other thing I noticed in this thread is that someone mentioned that the primary weapon of a samurai was a spear. Considering the design of samurai armor, as well as the opinions of individuals more knowledgeable on that topic than I am, I feel safe saying that the primary weapon of a samurai was not a spear. It was a bow. The spear was the primary melee weapon, though, with smaller sheathed weapons being used as weapons of last resort and in civilian contexts. Generally archers don't get to have spears because you can't sheath a spear. You can't really sheath a greatsword either.

I've updated the map by changing the rivers, and revised the timeline somewhat to take this into consideration.

I have still yet to decide what I wish to do about the origin of the Coldspar mountains.

Greetings, Paizo messageboards.

I've been working on a homebrew campaign setting, and have arrived at a stage where I am interested in some feedback. I am doing this so that in a few months when I start running a game, players will not look at me and say something like: "I study geography for a living, and there really can't be mountains there." Or "I am a historian who specializes in looking at great migrations, and I can tell you that there's no way that those people could've moved so far so quickly." I can easily deal with my mountain ranges being in the wrong places, but it's definitely better if I am made aware of that before I show potential players what I've worked on, and before they begin to create their backgrounds which depend on the mountains being where they are.

Additionally I would like people to ask questions they have about the setting. I have not yet written anything about magic and the gods, but they both exist. Magic functions pretty much exactly as it does on Golarion, and there are gods, but I have not yet clearly defined my pantheon and its history, so I would like you to refrain from asking questions about those topics unless you feel that you have to. A good question would be something like: "I see that you keep saying nations are at war with each other, could you try to make it clearer how these wars play out and what they are like."

I am not very good at naming things. Many of my names were chosen by using the first letter of a bunch of words, or by mashing to words together (e.g. Varig=very big). Not all of my cities have names yet. I will name cities after the aliases of people who are helpful. Please let me know if you hate any of the names, and I will try to change them.

Here is a link to a timeline of the history, which also has some more specific questions about geography.

Here is a link to my working map.

Tomorbataar whips out his handy four poster bed, setting it on the ground and fluffing the sheets before getting into bed. He then gets out of bed, remembering that the staff is still in his mouth. Tomorbataar places it delicately in the bed, resting its head on the pillow, and then curls up at the foot below it.

Waking up, Tomorbataar discovers that the staff has fallen, and picks it up quickly and nervously. After a quick inspection he places it back on the bed. Yes, but such magic would do us bad, since then we wouldn't feel the need to eat, and we'd starve. Best to catch some more prey. Saying this, Tomorbataar looks for a smooth rock, placing the staff on the rock, then lifting the bed back onto the body. It really is impressive how he lifts it, taught muscles straining, without thinking to ask for help.

Tomorbataar votes to go hunting.

Survival: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wafhDIMU6w

After conducting some research, it seems that it's fairly standard to use bold for speech and italics for thoughts.

There's a number of interesting things going on here, and while it's interesting to debate if sorcerers or wizards are more effective, I think it's more important to first define the way that fighting works.

TheAlicornSage, you've suggested that armies would use loose formation similar to modern armies. I disagree. Let us consider that the majority of fighting is still rather difficult, that is, a single soldier with limited spellcasting and some medieval weapons cannot cause massive damage to a group of soldiers in the same way that a one with a machine gun could. The simple principle that greater concentration of forces wins holds true, and it seems that spellcasting is more in line early muskets or cannons, thus it seems that Napoleonic tactics are the closest historic parallel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_tactics , specifically https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_(formation) , and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volley_fire

It should also be noted that direct battle would remain the decisive factor. Once anybody can pick up a gun and kill a trained soldier, the nature of warfare changes to favor taking ground over killing enemies. However, as you have pointed out, it is the nobles and those with money and time to train at magic who would be the soldiers, and this means that armies are small and decisive conflict in the field remains a common occurrence. Thus the nature of warfare is not to march, set up FOBs, and attempt to project control over territories and their untrained populace, it is instead to defeat opposing armies which are the only real force able to contest power.

In short, it seems that what we end up looking at are decisive battles between relatively small armies (tens of thousands instead of hundreds or millions) with Napoleonic era tactics.

Feel free to explain why I'm wrong, if you do indeed think that I am wrong.