Grivenger's page

The grikkitogs are very dangerous. I’m also interested to hear how they played out for others. Based on their range of effect, I extended the eyes and mouths into the hallway once triggered, and it almost caused a TPK.

That's what's currently happening to me, haha. I also decided to use them based on their range of effect and assumed that the whole area is connected ground. I had eyes and maws open up on the walls. They know in which general area they are, but their Seek actions haven't been helpful. I allowed them to strike the creature whenever it had immobilized someone.

Ultimately, they are 1 monk, 3 spellcasters and a cleric. Perhaps an AoE should've been lobbed somewhere in the area. I realised to late that the intent of the adventure was to not trigger them until after the group enters their cavern.

You can delete/ignore this thread. I received an email that the issue was corrected.

Thanks!

I've also sent an email to the Paizo Customer Service, so I hope it's okay that I also make a thread for extra visibility.

When I placed an order, I made the mistake of purchasing physical books instead of their PDFs. Is it possible to adjust the order to the PDF versions so that I get refunded for the surplus payment for the physical versions and shipping? If not, please cancel this order so that I can place a new order correctly.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thanks! That'll help me figure out how I can run the exploration bit.

As I read through Life's Long Shadows, I'm wondering if I'm missing something. Are the players meant to use the map on the gazetteer as they explore the surrounding areas of Kerrick? I can't quite figure out if it contains too much information, or the right amount of information for the area.

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No need to apologise! Your wall of text is helpful, and you have great ideas. Your insight helps my own approach I'm planning.

After sitting down with this book last weekend, I like most of what's here, but I think I'll be redoing all of chapter 4.

This just doesn't evoke anything I wanted from the Celestial Menagerie. It feels very dungeon-y in the Heavenly Gallery Gauntlet, and I'm confident my players will just want to crash through the wall at the far side when they find out Dusklight is waiting at the end. But even if they don't, I don't think a variety hour funhouse dungeon crawl does the CM and Dusklight justice. My PC's are in Book 1 Chap 2, and she's already been built up as a big bad that imo needs a more cinematic fight.

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Have you managed to work out how you're going to approach this? I'm intrigued by your idea and want to do something similar.

In chapter 3, in the lower Moonstone Halls, PCs encounter Sarshellix and her Triceratops. How has anyone else run this fight? Does the adventure intend for the GM to use Mounted Combat rules for the Xulgath Mage and their dinosaur, or is the Xulgath meant to slip off the beast?

The gencon stream had even less details than that product description above. It was basically "hey, next year we will have this book about magic with 2 new classes, that's all folks!".

That's a shame. I'll be counting down the months.

A special section within the volume—the Book of Unlimited Magic—presents new methods of spellcasting, with elementalism, geomancy, shadow magic, rune magic, and even pervasive magic to give every place and creature in your game a magical spin!

Do we have any idea on what this could entail? Any hints dropped by Paizo? Very exciting! What part of which Gencon video do I need to watch?

Having played with many game systems now (ADD, 3.5, 5th, Dungeon World, Genesys, Sentinels table-top, etc..), my brain has had experience compartimentalizing the different rules systems. I very much encourage folks to try different systems. This can serve two purposes. 1, you find a system that fits how you like to play. 2, you are further reincforced on your preferred game system having tried others.

Yeah, I'd like to properly try as many systems as I can, whether by GMing or playing. As a group, we're a bit tied to 5e. A side-effect is that I appreciate many of the individual systems within rulesets. I'm quite fond of the BRP advancement with improving skills, for example.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I guess it's mostly a matter of becoming more accustomed to the system and how to incorporate its ideas while unlearning the stuff I've learned from 5e.

if no one is doing a Search activity i would just describe what's in plain sight.

if something needs a Perception check to be noticed it means it's hidden, so that would take a dedicated Search to be found.*

Keep in mind though that at any point the players can simply stop their march and switch around what they are doing, so if they end up in an interesting room and decide to search it, you're still in exploration mode.

In short, exploration mode is just a tool when the "order of acting" is irrelevant.

It's there so the one "stealthing" doesn't have to roll 10000 stelth checks in between when he starts stealthing and when something can potentially see him. The searcher doesn't have to roll Perception after every single move, and the one doing the investigation to not have to roll Recall knowledges on every piece of stone they come across.

As for switching in between the two modes, that's when initiative is rolled basically. If players move close enough to enemies that they could be potentially spotted, then it's initiative.
If in a social activity time and order suddenly become relevant, then you roll initiative for a social encounter.
If unlocking that door suddenly becomes time sensitive (example: guards are approaching/patroling) then it's initiative.
and etc

The "grab an edge" is more cut and dry, it even says that the -30ft calculation is for "distance dropped already"

that's more for very long drops that could potentially grant additional rolls or that there's no edge until after the drop has started.

If there's an edge right when the fall starts and the players critical succeed on the first try the...

Thanks for reaffirming some ideas I had. For some reason, I just started to doubt the way I interpreted the Grab an Edge reaction. You also helped in making the Exploration Mode a bit more clear for me. I think I just need to gain a bit more experience running the game and just refresh my knowledge every week until it gets a bit closer to second nature.

The previous session, I ended up a bit frustrated with myself. I love what the system offers, but I struggle with remembering all of the rules or I forget some sub-rules that I thought I had in the bag a session or two ago. With some rules, I worry about my interpretation of them.

My biggest stumbling block is trying to figure out how to incorporate Exploration mode properly. Two players tend to stay in the Avoid Notice activity, which is fine. Still, it makes me wonder whether I can allow a Perception roll to players (or in secret as Search dictates) when they reach a room that's bereft of enemies without anyone using the Search activity?

How do you, or how does your GM switch between Exploration and Encounter modes?

A rule example I have, regarding interpretation, is the Grab an Edge action. For example, if the floor beneath the players collapes or gives way, they get a reaction to use the Grab an Edge action.

The critical success allows you to succeed without a free hand (you use your weapon to halt the fall), but it also says that you take fall damage and treat the fall as if it were 30 feet shorter. How do I interpret that correctly?

If the drop would be 50 feet (so 25 bludgeoning damage), the ground gives way and you succeed on your Grab an Edge reaction, you manage to grab a hold before you start to actually fall, do you not? Or do I still give them damage? So on a critical success, they'd take 10 damage?

Is part of the wording to deal with a free fall before there's an available edge or handhold?

I'm experiencing the same problem as the user above. I've been getting the internal server error 500 on the main page for over a week now, but only on FireFox. I've deleted the cookies but that hasn't solved the issue for me.

My FireFox version is 82.0.2 (64-bits)

Personally, I'm running a converted Dragon's Heist and the players are level 4 without striking runes. They're dealing with enemies quite quickly.

I think it's dependent on party make-up, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Look to future battles and enemy HP to figure out of battles will start to drag without them.

The bear and the player had a previous bonding experience. If there was any trust, it was likely broken by wearing Fortunato's Cloak. I'd resolve this by having the player win the bear's trust back or if the player acts a bit more afraid, I'd even let the bear slowly approach for reconciliation. Consider it a subplot, perhaps.

I'm not sure what exact approach to take. It really depends on the PC

I'm looking forward to what kind of adventure Legendary Games has crafted. Still reading through the Lost Lands book for inspiration formy own homebrew world.

Still, thanks for the conversions you've made. They look neat. Are you working on any other monsters?

Thanks for the map and the write-up! This will be very helpful when I'll run Extinction Curse. Did you use that map generator tool and adjust it yourself? I never seem to get results I'm happy with.

Rysky's post

Rysky, would you mind to share your own insights? Although, I don't agree entirely with Zapp's statement, the inclusion of an alignment wheel does seem to strengthen the idea that you're encouraged to solve problems violently against evil denizens. It's not something I agree with and I try to avoid clear moral divides of good & evil.

Is this the case, throughout? Likely not, but I do think it happens often in Fantasy adventures for Pathfinder and/or Dungeons and Dragons.

Do you have some examples for the sake of my own education?

Enderrin, I like your conversions quite a bit. Is there a particular reason why you went for a set confusion timer on the Umber Hulk, rather than the various successes and failures a save can cause?

For my campaign, I'm considering adapting a number of D&D enemies such as the Gazer, Beholder and an in-setting analogue to the Mindflayer to the 3-action system.

The Gazer, for example, has two random attacks decided by a d4. If I'm to incorporate I gazer, I think my best bet is the following:

[two-actions] Ray of Frost (functions as the spell)

[one-action] Fear Ray (functions as the Fear spell)

[one-action] Telekinetic Ray (perhaps an adjusted Telekinetic manoeuvre)

Critical Succes: You push your opponent 20 feet away
Success: You push your opponent 10 feet away
Failure: You fail to push your opponent
Critical Failure: Rather than pushing your opponent away, you accidentally pull the opponent 10 feet towards you.

This way I guess it only has the ability to either fire off 2 debuffs or 1 attack and 1 debuff.

Has anyone attempted to adapt the Beholder? Would you account for the many eye abilities by giving a beholder more attacks per action or just a myriad of attacking/debuffing options?

@BPorter,

You've hit a few nails on their head, I reckon. In hindsight, I should've set expectations rather than wait for the session to hit and give them the new manor. You've offered a lot of advice that'll leave me thinking. Especially the out-of-game check-ins! It's something I intended, but I've been apprehensive about bombarding my players with questions outside of the established play-time.

Perhaps sandbox was an overstatement. There's an overall arch the players are supposed to follow, but the second part was supposed to be more about getting familiar with nearby NPCs and the city's factions next to fixing up the tavern.

@The Gleeful Grognard,

Busted! You're absolutely correct. I'm using the Waterdeep Dragonheist's framework as an overall narrative but dressed in my own world's coat.

@Ascalaphus

I don't know why I considered asking the players beforehand what their plan was next session based on parameters I could offer them. It also echoes BPorters advice on zooming lens and time.

@Kennethray

It seems so obvious, but I often find it hard to combine different players ' goals. This is something I have to practice. It's really clever to have them indirectly further the goals of the rest of the group.

All in all, everyone chipped in with fantastic advice and I can't express how grateful I am. If I manage to incorporate some ideas that fit my playstyle best, I'm sure my sessions will experience an improvement.

Castilliano, Wheldrake your advice has been fantastic too. I should leave myself more time to prepare sessions in advance.

Looking back at a recent session, I realised that I struggle with guiding a group through a sandbox environment. The campaign is an urban adventure. After they rescued someone from abduction by one of the operating gangs in the region, they got some time to freely explore the city, with some minor quests to get to know the immediate neighbours.

The biggest hook, I thought (I was wrong) was that they received a deed to a manor that they could renovate into a functioning tavern. Good for generating income, I thought. Not sure if they are going for the bait.

The things I struggle with are structure: how to keep things moving forward while engaging all players and their separate choices, and time progression: when do you zoom out from the action and how do you keep track of time?

What are some of your approaches when giving the players free reign in a sandbox environment?

Actual plots won't be, but any relevant monsters, spells, feats, archetypes etc will be. Basically if it's part of the story itself, it won't be there, but if it's a mechanical thing it will.

That's good to know! I'll have to keep an eye on Archives of Nethys for extra additions.

If you're not going to run it, yeah, a few items, a couple archetypes, and a nice pile of some monsters--all of which are on Nethys, so you shouldn't need to feel it necessary to buy.

The only stuff you will be missing out on from not buying the AP itself are some gazetteer stuff. If you're in a homebrew world, those won't do much for you though. Frankly, if you never plan to run it, I wouldn't put the cash down on it. That's a lot of money for some minor mechanical additions. It is, however, a pretty fun campaign (not that I'm not stoked for the next two, which have brilliant synopses).

Thanks for your response! I'll take a look at the Archives of Nethys. I thought that AP related stuff wouldn't be covered there.

As a GM, I tend to run campaigns in my own world. I have only used the Bestiary and the CRB. I'm wondering if I've made a mistake by not getting the first Adventure Path for Second Edition. The second Adventure Path, Extinction Curse, seems like a fantastic adventure if the synopses are to be believed. I'm seriously considering running that campaign next in my own setting.

What kind of extras am I missing out on without Age of Ashes. I understand that the Adventure Paths add new creatures and items. Is this all I'm missing without purchasing Age of Ashes?

The modularity of Pathfinder Second Edition will likely make it easier to include homebrew inventions.

I'd like to challenge myself with developing homebrew ideas when the second edition is officially released. To prepare myself, I'd like to able to mimic the Feat formatting the book currently uses.

Does anyone know how to imitate the Feat blocks? My best bet is most likely InDesign; I'm still learning the basics and could use some pointers.

I understand that this might not be the right forums for it. If this belongs in a different forum, just delete it!

If you've got Dynamic Lighting on Roll20, its pretty simple really.

Set the dwarf's token to 60ft of full light, no dim light start, and don't check the "all players see light" option.

Ask the human and elf players what their most common light source is. Assuming Lanterns/Torches/etc. are meant to shed dim light out to double their bright light range, just input that as normal. 40ft light, dim light starts at 20ft for torches or Light spell, check "all players see light".

Humans take a penalty (flat check dc5) to hit anything in dim light ("Ctrl+L" to check a token's line of sight as the GM). Elves don't need to take that penalty, but can't actually see any further - in 1e you'd give them the Sight Multiplier x2 modifier on their token.

5ft of vision would RAW only be appropriate for a human trying to dungeon crawl with a candle for illumination. If the human has no light source at all, giving them a 5ft radius of dim light is a kindness, but technically not necessary.

If you're paying Roll20 the big bucks and have access to the API, I highly recommend the "Torch" script - I can click a button to instantly snuff my PCs light sources when Deeper Darkness hits them, and I can restore their visibility with another separate macro to standard Torch illumination or do any number of other cool things.

Thanks for the explanation. I might consider paying the big bucks for Roll20, but currently we're going to run through Under the Pale Mountain's Shadow.

This has helped me a lot to figure out the distances of vision and how to incorporate those in Roll20.

I understand that the system deals with different steps depending on the situation. I'm running the Lost Star in Roll20, so I was wondering how to deal with the vision.

Is there a GM that ran it with using the vision options of Roll20? How did you do it for the humans, and those with low-light vision? As an example, this is what I've done for the Dwarf with dark vision:

A total vision of 120 feet so he can peer quite far into the corridors as long as LoS isn't broken.

For the Humans, I went with very little vision. Basically one Grid.

The playtest core rulebook of PF2e will have all the info similar to the core rulebook of PF1e. So yeah, you can use that for your homebrew campaign.

It's the feedback part that will not be supported during the playtest.

The Feedback is linked, and mostly limited, to Doomsday Dawn and the scenarios for PFS, as far as we know.
There was talk of a 'general feedback'-survey regarding PF2e and how it plays, but the devs are mostly interested in all of us playing Doomsday Dawn, as that likely has built in benchmarks for the rules.
These just will not likely relate to anything in your homebrew campaign.

Additionally, if your homebrew is 'Low fantasy' or 'Steampunk fantasy' or any other flavor, that doesn't quite match Golarion, that would further screw with the playtest-data the devs want to aquire.

Thanks for your response. I'll use the 'engine' of the RPG, but it isn't set in the exact same world as Golorian but with a lot of approximations if particular rules require a particular Golarian aspect. Homebrew was maybe the wrong word.

And, of course, we'll play Doomsday Dawn, but due to the hectic schedules of my group it'll most likely not be possible to participate in all the focus-testing.

With the Playtest looming in the short distance, I'm wondering what the possibilities will be.

I was under the assumption that the Playtest would allow you to use it for homebrew campaigns. Perhaps, I'm wrong and the Playtest will miss a few important features, such as leveling. Is there any new information that I've missed?

Or will it be an entire year of focused testing with similar advetures such as Doomsday Dawn?

I'm fairly interested in joining a PbP to get some daily 'fiction-writing' going, but with all the expressed interest so far I was wondering if it is still worthwhile for me to submit a Barbarian character to apply for this Kingmaker PbP.

Ah, I see there might already be a Barbarian for this group.

If it acts like a credit card, it will work. I use a debit card for my account here in fact.

You have two choices.

1. Use your debit card from your bank that's linked to your checking account.

2. Get a pre-paid credit card.

Unfortunately, I don't think we have the same type of debit cards as other countries. At least, I could never get it to work as a debit card in the past, and haven't really attempted since. I'll have to do some research on that.

Will have to look for prepaid credit cards then.

Yes, I do have a bank account, it is linked to my Paypal account too. I just don't think I can apply for a Credit card as a student when I do not have a real steady income.

(Slightly OT at this point: Is Pathfinder great to play with 3 Player and 1 GM?)

Thanks for the quick reply Beckett. Yes, there is one hobbystore I can check out, and perhaps thebookdepository.co.uk is an option for books.

Too bad about the virtual credit cards. Hopefully someone does know.

Hello everyone,

As a Dutch person really interested in the Pathfinder Roleplaying game, there are a few questions that I hope you guys can answer.

1. Is Pathfinder playable with the addition of DnD Dungeon Tiles? Dungeon Tiles are easier to find in my city, and I wonder if they can cause too many incompatibility issue with the combat.

2. Unfortunately, I do not have access to a creditcard. I am a student and due to a different payment system used in stores and online in the Netherlands, there aren't any incentives to acquire a credit card.

So my question therefore is, can you purchase stuff on Paizo with those prepaid virtual creditcards? And if so, which one? The FAQ states that you can through the Paypal creditcard, but that is also not an option for my country (at least when I checked last.)

And lastly, when I start making my Google Doc for the campaign setting, may I use pictures in the Pathfinder books as long as it is for a closed circle?