Greg Trombley's page

I am looking to replace some lost players for my pathfinder game. We play every other saturday from about 2pm to 10pm at my home in Midland Michigan.
I tend to run adventure paths and like to do a mix of role playing and combat. The group consists of myself, my wife, and my friend. We are all in our 30's and my friend and I are seasoned gamers.
I am only looking for gamers who can commit to a game, though the ocasional absense is ok. All experience levels welcome.

Thanks

Greg

Im not sure if im in the proper location or not. Im not looking for players for an online game but rather a in house game. My current group has lost several player and Im looking for one or two players to replace them. If this isn't the right place to look for players could you please direct me to one.
I live in Midland Michigan and the game is run out of my basement. I need one or two players who can commit on a fairly regular basis for my game every other Saturday held between 2 pm and 10 pm. The group tries to play a good mix of role play and combat.
Im not looking for anyone who has already ran / read the adventure paths as I almost exclusively run those. Our next scedueled path is likely to be the carrior crown.
Anyone interested please let me know. And if you have any suggestions as to where I could locate players please let me know.

Thank you for your time,

Greg

Where is a good place to go when looking for new players. I live in Midland Michigan .

Where is a good place to go when looking for new players. I live in Midland Michigan .

One thing might be to give the big bad a powerful artifact that grants more power the longer someone has possession of it. If the players know this it may hasten their efforts.

One thing to keep in mind, a +5 weapon bypasses DR silver, cold iron, adamantine, and alignment.

Please use the pages to add to the adventure. I only use an adventure path to run a campain. As a result those stats are never used.
Stats in a module however I would ask that you continue to print them because I will often use those adventures for one shots and convention games.

Greg

Chaotic Neutral is not the problem it's the player. No matter what you play you need to remember it is not the "insert your name"'s game. The game involves all the players and the GM. Does a CN character act unusual? Sure. Might the character cause some trouble from time to time? Some times. But that is the key, some times. If you are acting up and players are complaining and rolling their eyes. Your doing something wrong.
I've played CN plenty of times. No one ever complains about my characters. I got a lot of laughes from my halfling sorcerer with a pention for kids toys. In particular a boxing nun puppet. I got a lot of laughs with the character but never distracted form the game.

Ring of Ram or Immovable Rod

As a DM I find in fights you simply need to play an encounter to your players strengths and not try to outsmart them.
For example I was running an adventure where one of the opponents was a high level sorcerer. The group consisted of a Barbarian, a Ranger / Barbarian, a Rogue, and a Fighter. The sorcerer had the option to cast Levitate while she was invisible then simply concentrate on Will save spells. This would have ended the game with each player not able to do much of anything. Instead I cast several different spells some of which targeting their strong saves. I also kept the opponent on the ground so they had a chance to locate and attack her. In the end one of the players was polymorphed into a cat and the others were nearly killed but they survived and realy enjoyed themselfs.

The crossbow actually has some of its own advantages.
There is no penalty to wielding a crossbow when your Strength is less than 10. Most rangers are going to have a Strength higher than 10 anyway but if effected by poison, disease, or some other Strength draining or damageing effect you'll wish you had waisted a feat on rapid reload.
Also you can dual wield light crossbows.

I don't know if this makes them equal but pretty close?

I perfer the change. For the most part a target of equal level takes enough damage to kill it, with the exception of a warrior type character that has a Con boosting item and even then only maybe. Anyone else is tost.
Not to mention the climactic battle against the BBEG might last more than a single round. However a BBEG attacking you with the spell has a good chance of killing you.
The change actually allows a major fight to be significant.

(Bangs fist on table) We want new classes! We want new classes!

Well I surrvied my first two game sessions without any problems. I believe the god of trickery is on my side.

All of the other characters have been introduced. A half-orc barbarian, a half-orc cleric of Pharasma, a human paladin of sarenrae, an elven wizard, a human elemental sorcerer, and me a human paladin of asmodeus. After my chosen patron was made clear everyone preceded to make their knowledge religion rolls. 5, 5, 8 not a single double digit. However one of the NPC's rolled a little higher and informed one of the players to "keep an eye on me".

So far it's been fun not only playing the paladin but playing such a dim wit.

Sadly though it looks like we will be taking a month break being that my wife's, two of my friend's, and my birthday are all in the week of the next game session that one will most likely be missed. And the game session after that my friends and I are doing our anual non-hunting cabin trip (Cabin Con). Should be a lot of fun but yet another game session will be missed.

I'm favor the new system over 3.5's. It is much easier than the old one just divide the XP for the monster by the number of players. Although I will probally not allow XP awards for encounters that are going to be way to easy. Otherwise you might have an awful lot of evil wizards fireballing towns for their next level. (2,000 people X 100 xp each = 200,000 xp.)

As far as the catching up, gaining a lower level cost less xp than gaining a higher level. Therefore you will gain levels faster and catch up. The difference is now you will never be able to completely catch up. This is a good thing in my oppionion because it means there is a negative aspect of missing game sessions.

I use to go to a local game store for years. I never purchased anything online due to fear of fraud or identity theft. I put up with a lot of crap. When a new store came into town I started going there. Of corse that owner had to loose his mind and snap infront of several customers. So he closed his doors and I had to go back.

I eventually started using the internet to purchase all my gaming materials. If a new local game store ever moved in I wouldn't hesitate to shop there. I like the atmosphere of a game store much more than the anomous clicking online.

If you want to help, then please send me an email to my gmail account using my name at the top of this post.

There are several areas I could use help in speeding up the work. For anyone who wants to help, I have a large list of websites containing public domain art/paintings that can be used for card artwork. The grunt work of the project, so to speak, is finding appropriate artwork for each spell in the PRD. If you see a piece of artwork that you think is appropriate for some other class ability/feat/character action, then also flag it and identify what you think it would be appropriate for.

If you have access to Photoshop, then I have the templates and I can make them available to you so there will be multiple people working on generating the cards. We can coordinate and share our results so there isn't any duplication of work.

Finally, if someone feels like tracking down some quality fantasy artwork (in colour please) that is not restricted from being used in cards like this, I would be happy to take suggestions.

Also, while I am starting with the spells in the PRD, I'd like to at least cover the spells that show up in Gods and Magic, and the other various Paizo works, along with other popular sources that people are likely to use; licenses permitting of course.

Credit will of course be given for any work done.

I will try to locate some art that could be used.

You played for half a session so the DM must have talked to you about your character before allowing it in the game...what was the result of that conversation? How's he going to DM your character into the game?

We talked about the character and it was given the ok before I even started this thread. It didn't take much convincing. I gave him the base concept of a paladin that worshiped Asmodeus. Then explained several ways I thought this could happen. I also told his it was ultimately his choice and I would accept any decision he made. My only requirement was the character was in fact a pinical of good type person who was just taught at a very early age that Asmodeus was a good god.

He was very clear that due to this it was very likely people from both sides of the aile would be after me. He was also clear that my character might have to go through atonement or retrain as a fighter or other class.

I think in the end it was an easy sell because I let him make the decision as to where the power comes from and because the final BBEG in his last epic campain and it is still fresh in there mind who also happened to be Asmodeus.

Thank you for all your efforts. The cards look great can't wait for the PDF.

Magic: Spell Points

I have tried to use a spell point system several times and the only thing I found worked is limit the number of points available in a given encounter. Use a point system but limit the number of points available in a combat encounter to 1/3 your maximum. This limits the amount of high level spells used in a single encounter.

Hope this helps.

1) What's your favorite experience level?

2) Why is that your favorite experience level?

3) What's your favorite adventure, and what level was it for? Why is it your favorite adventure?

1- Levels 1-8

2- I find these are the best for me mainly because you don't deal with as many uber spells. Teleport is not available so travel from one location to the next is not just a snap of the fingers. Death is also a much more real threat without a high level cleric nearby. Though my view might be because I have yet to play in a campain that took a character past that level bracket.

3- My favorite adventure was a short Dungeon adventure I believe was called the Swan Street Slicer. It was a blast to run because the players suspected everybody and ran around with their heads cut off trying to find who was responsible. I'm not sure but I think it was a 1st level adventure.

This saturday we had our first day of gaming with my paladin. Unfortunately I had a very bad allergy attack and was unable to commit fully to playing the character. I was so worn out I had to lie down and rest half way into the game. Hopefully the next game goes better.

Now that you posted it here, I can imagine they're going to sell about 5,000 more than they expected.

ok I can understand that idea, because we try to play like that, its more important the concept and to have fun than the RW or the mechanics...

that of course is why we play only with mature people (r people we consider mature...). As I said, great concept, I can identify with the desire playing something different and fun. Have fun in that chronicle, and tell us how it goes.

Our first game is this Saturday. I will let everyone who is interested in how it goes, and if he lives through the first game.

I would like to bring up the reasons I gave for the paladin recieving his powers were just that, ideas. I gave my DM several ideas as to the source of the power. The only thing I didn't waver on was the character backstory (what the character knows). I trust my DM to ultimately decide where the power comes from and what the implications might be. I want to be as surprised about where the power comes from as the other players will be when they find out my characters religous choice. Our DM is very creative and I can't imagine I could even guess what's in store.

Thank you for your input even if you hated the idea.

Please refrain from stating RAW. I could care less since it is not a Pathfinder society game and the DM is the only law.

I would like to ask thoughs who seem to want to beat it into everyones head that playing a character like this would most likely result in the character loosing all faith (and paladin abilities), be force to change his god, or become something similar to a Blackguard. My questioin is - And? What is the problem with this. If done right this could give the DM material for an entire campain or material for a new one after the current one is over. If things go bad I may have to hand over the character to be placed in the NPC pile. If that is what happens so be it. I love to make character and ingrain them in the campain but I more enjoy helping to make a great stroy.

If I wanted to make a carbon copy paladin I could. This was an idea of mine to make a paladin with more complexity. As it stands I am the only player allowed to make an evil aligned character in our group. (A group that usually plays good characters) This is because dispite how odd or extream my characters tend to be I make sure to share the spotlight and play them according to the concept and alignment. Alignment is more than two letters in a box to me. I once even played a LE assassian in a group of all good characters. At one point we even had a paladin. (Thank you ring of undetectable alignment). It wasn't revieled until near the end of the campain at which point the character became an NPC working against the group.

I simply enjoy playing complex characters that have a lot of story building quality.

Greg Trombley wrote:

I always woundered why this was. I can understand why clerics of Zon-kuthon and other Gods residing in the Shadow Plane channel negative energy, but why do evil gods residing in the Outer Sphere, which appears to be closer connected to the Positive Energy Plane as apposed to the Negative Energy Plane. And considering both the Positive Energy Plane and the Negative Energy Plane are not considered to have no alignment. Why is it then all evil clerics channel negative energy and good clerics channel positive energy?

I had started a thread over 1 year ago about this and gained much support. I did a lot of research and here are the results.

Positive and negative energy are just 2 forms of the 6 types of energy. The damaging effects of negative energy are no more evil than the burning effects of fire.

Negative Planar Energy
- energy drawn from the Negative Energy Plane
- Negative Energy Plane:
- Described as: "A needy, greed plane, sucking the life out of anything that is vulnerable." ('Manual of the Planes')
- the above is the plane's "nature". Its nature to damage life is no more evil than the burning effects of fire. Its simply the plane's "nature".
- creatures residing here are neutral in alignment (consistent in both 'Manual of the Planes', and 'The Great Beyond').
- 'The Great Beyond' further clarifies this plane's "nature" by stating: "... neither it nor its destructive energies are evil."

Positive Planar Energy
- energy drawn from the Positive Energy Plane
- Positive Energy Plane:
- Described as: "A continual furnace of creation, a domain of brilliance beyond the ability of mortal eyes to comprehend." ('Manual of the Planes')
- the above is the plane's "nature". It should be noted that mortals that stay too long in this plane absorb so much positive energy that they immolate. This death from positive energy effects is no more "evil" than a death from negative energy effects.
- 'The Great Beyond' notes that this plane is "......

Thankyou for such an informative answer.

One thing I would suggest is coming up with a full explanation as to where his beliefs came from. This paladin is pretty unobservant and dimwitted to come up with an entire belief system on his own. Especially one so off kilter to the original. That said, a cleric/rogue of some sort that has been fleecing your family for years, might make for a good start, or whatever. Just have fun with it, but having that will help everyone else by not instantly taking them out of the setting. Otherwise, there isn't any reason it couldn't be done. At least not by the rules, strictly read.

As I had stated in a previous post his father, and only parental figure from age 4 to 20 (The character is now 20) was quite insane. I'm not sure the exact name of illness but he simply sees the world the same as everyone else does except one part that he completely distorts. His father has pounded this belief into his son's head for years. And due to rural living and seeing very few if anyone else he has grown to believe this to be true.

I am just curious on how the Hellknights fit into your character's world view.

He has no memory of cheliax (left when he was 4) and grew up in rural Varisia he goes with what he was taught. The Hellknights are the highest order of Asmodeuse's Paladins. Only if he becomes an exceptional Paladin can he hope of joining their ranks.

I never could explain this either and often house rule away the component.

Because it's in their nature to harm, destroy, corrupt, and blight. Negative energy does all those things. Positive energy heals and protects -- so why on Earth would an evil god want to do things that are contrary to evil?

Evil gods to provide their clerics with the ability to heal the sick and dying. Cure wounds spells, cure disease, heal, etc. Why on earth would they not want to. Like I mentioned those that choose to live in the Shadow Plane makes sense. But for gods like Asmodeus channeling positive energy can draw in more followers. Not to mention the Outer Planes where some evil gods reside are closer connected to the Positive energy plane as apposed to Negative energy plane.

And as far as evil gods wanting to harm, destroy, etc. why is it then neutral clerics can choose either negative or positive energy? Neutral gods nature is not to harm, destroy, etc. but they can channel negative energy.

Just to help those who think Im playing a Paladin following Asmodeus as he truly is below is part of his faith and what he believes Asmodeus represents.

The Five Point Star: Represents the five aspects a paladin should be a beakon of.
-The Great Negotiator: Arguments and conflicts should be solved by discussion and compromise when ever possible and one should never weasel out of an agreement.
-The Hand of Justice: Criminals should be punished and when the local judicial system fails to do so one should seek to smite the wicked.
-The Seeker of Truth: Always seek to find the truth of things and to never lie even if it might endanger oneself.
-The Selfless One: The strong should always be willing to do what is necessary for the greater good even laying ones life on the line.
-The Creator All: One should strive to create or nourish life such as taking up a craft or tending to a garden.

Colors of Asmodeus
-Black: This represents the façade the Great One must put on. It also represents the cruelness of fate in making him a fiend.
-Red: Represents the blood he sheds for others.

What Asmodeus has done for humanity:
-With the help of the other gods constructed the whole of the multivirse.
-Used all of his power to imprison Rovagug and in doing so save the world.
-When the gods needed one of their own to stay in Hell to make sure the wicked were punished and to keep the devils in line, Asmodeus volunteered because he thought no others could handle the harshness of hell.
-Created the ninth level of hell so that he could keep himself away from the fiends in the other layers because he dispised them.

The philosophy of Asmodeus is “The strong shall protect the weak”.

Asmodeus is often referred to as “The Lonely One”.

It could work with any other class but the paladin. The paladin knows the difference between right and wrong and lives by high ethical and moral standings thus he gains his powers.

He is ethical and moral upholding his Lawful Good alinment. His faith is a perversion of the real faith of Asmodeus. He practices a faith with a mix of Iomedae and Sarenrae. He just believes this is the true path of Asmodeus.

Also he was born in Cheliax and lived there until the age of 4. Having completely forgoten his home country he believes it to be a land of justice and good. Should his travels ever take him there things could get very difficult.

I always woundered why this was. I can understand why clerics of Zon-kuthon and other Gods residing in the Shadow Plane channel negative energy, but why do evil gods residing in the Outer Sphere, which appears to be closer connected to the Positive Energy Plane as apposed to the Negative Energy Plane. And considering both the Positive Energy Plane and the Negative Energy Plane are not considered to have no alignment. Why is it then all evil clerics channel negative energy and good clerics channel positive energy?

The idea is she hopes it will. like an individual that buys a lottery ticket because its at 350 million dollars. It might be 1 in several billion chance but it doesn't stop them from trying. What is Sarenrae realy out if it doesn't work. One less paladin (dollar) spreading her good word. Im not saying paladins grow on trees but my guss is she has some to spare. Besides how often would such a situation come up.
Not to mention it could be any god powering the paladin and any number of reasons for doing so. Lamashtu could have driven the paladis father insane just to provide her with an unusual way to screw with Asmodeus.
Asmodeus could be doing it himself in hopes of curbing those the paladin helps twards his faith. It's true thoses individuals would be praying to him for false reasons but from what I understand Asmodeus is a little vain.

The character is not crazy. Very dense yes (7 Intelligence, 7 Wisdom). He stays with his faith because he believes it to be true. Others of Asmodeuse's faith that he encounters are mislead or choose to pervert the faith and he must smite them down with his patrons true might!
He is driven by his faith which was pounded into him from age 4 to 20 (human), which is how old he is now (1st level), and like I was explaining his actual patron could be Sarenrae trying to redeem Asmodeus. Im not saying Asmodeus will change, fat chance, just that she is hoping it will.

I was woundering what everyone thinks of my character concept for a Paladin of Asmodeus. The idea is my character lost his mother at a very early age. This left him to be raised by his father who was loosing his mind. He was raised to believe Asmodeus is a Lawful Good God all about self-sacrifice and protecting the weak. The idea was either Asmodeus was allowing him to do this for reasons unknown or Sarenrae is encourging this in the hopes the paladin might provide some inspiration for Asmodeus to change his ways and turn good.

Let me know what you think.

Greg

I found that working with the DM to shrink the list can help a great deal. The following is one I have used in the past and it works very well to make the favored enemy ability see more use.

Aberation (This would include some Monstrous Humanoids)
Beasts (This includes Animals, Dragons, Magical Beasts, and Vermin)
Celestial (This basicly makes up all good Outsiders)
Construct (This would include Oozes and some Plants)
Elemental (This makes up all Outsiders with an Elemental type)
Fey (This would include Giants and some Plants)
Fiend (This would include all Evil Outsiders)
Humanoid (This would make up all Humanoids, no subtypes)
Outsider (This would include all Outsiders that are not in the Celestial, Elemental, or Fiend catigories)
Undead (Remains Unchanged)

This provides you with 10 different favored enemy choices instead of 32. You will now be much more likely to make use of the ability and some choices that almost never see the light of day now might get used. (I'm talking to you Oozes and Vermin.)