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A simple a fast combat one is Vanara Rogue (Makeshift Scrapper), take Surprise weapon trait, and multiclass with Core Monk (Of the empty hand). First feat is disposable weapon, then splintering weapon. Carry a lot of improvised fragile weapons, get improved disarm fast. Then hit all the things with all of the other things and make everything bleed as you confirm crits while doing sneak damage. Online level 3 with so many feats to spare after 6th.
Quick, easy, cheap, highly mobile with vanara climb, great for intrigue games, and fun to be totally not Jackie Chan.

As per usual, Goblins are the best!
Goblin Racial Feat: Roll With It. On a high dex goblin with max acrobatics, makes them deadly melee dodge tanks. Hit the Goblin? It rolls away, bounces off a wall, then charges back with boots of haste and fleet relatively unharmed. Hilarious and awesomely broken with a Scout Rogue.

Well Prepared Halfing feat is also just thematically fun for a packrat, couple with Helpful, another Halfling feat, and Lucky, you become the best sidekick ever.

The Vishkanya has another really thematic feat: Sleep Venom. On a multi attacking build (Like a shuriken storm ninja) you can easily get the target to guarantee to fail at least once, for zero cost other than downtime and daily uses. Hella powerful on an intrigue character that absolutely HAS to put down that target or fail.

I actually built a character around this very concern.

Slings: Free to buy, weightless, can throw bullets or stones (turn a 1d2 x2 at 10ft stone to a 1d3x2 at 50ft projectile. DC5 to craft (Under alternate crafting rules), bullets just need clay and time and a DC5/10 check to craft for survival animal hunting ammo.
Can be used as cordage, knotted together as a simple rope, or for traps.
A normal sling can be between 1 and 3ft long when folded, or 2-6ft when at length and be 1 single piece of cordage/leather. Technically you could have 50 of them stashed all over your character as strapping.

Sawback mod, hollow pommel mod, Brass Dagger: Light, simple, cheap, impervious to corrosion. Can be used as a simple woodworking tool (therefore DC5 under alternate crafting rules, to make quarterstaves, wood spikes, clubs/wood hammer, or simple slings and ropes from plant fibre). Plus it is also a knife for regular survival uses. I am sure for a higher DC you could craft fishing spears, shovels, bows/crossbows, arrows, furniture, etc.

Travelling tea kettle/adamantine kettle: Container, boiling vessel, hammer, inefficient oil/wick lamp or dry tinder holder.

Bonus Mentions:

Machete: Obvious for its use as a weapon/knife/axe/+1 survival, sawback mod to get it to count as a simple woodworking tool as well. Heck hollow pommel it to hold a potion of endure elements/bandages/tinder/candle/etc.

Bill: Literally a farming tool made weapon, great for harvesting fruits, branches, or clearing brush at reach.

Net/Bola/Boomerang: Hunting tools, and net to hold supplies.

Halfling sling staff: All the advantages of a sling, plus a club and walking staff.

Rope dart: Rope and retrievable hunting implement, also has a metal spike for log splitting/climbing.

If this is the very same Toolkit cantrip that's mentioned over here...

then by a very strict, more rigid interpretation by any hypothetical GM, it seems to only allow for a +2 on just any crafting skill only.

On the other hand, if said hypothetical GM allows or is willing to "homebrew" something similar to the Magic Trick feat, that Toolkit spell might be bolstered to allow for something similar to the Umbral Gear Rogue Talent. A possible prerequisite feat might be something along the lines of Create Wondrous Items or mebbe Illusory Mastery? ;)

The Spell does say any known tool into your free hand (So obviously limited to single hand sized items), and the craft bonus is on a new sentence, implying you make a tool to perform a task, and also crafting is a bonus.

Just a quick question, is the Spell Toolkit from Kobold press (Cantrip, summon any tool to complete a specific task, +2 to craft).
Is it specifically only for tools used for the craft skill? or are we assuming we can summon a grappling hook/drill/glass cutter/ladder/hammer/piton/crowbar/stretcher/etc?

Both are useful for gear light characters, but one is much better than the other.

I did something like this. I involved a mischievous demigod who enchanted the otherwise mundane prizes.
I would suggest some alchemical "Candies" of dubious quality. When consumed (1d6-1 rounds), grant an alchemical stat bonus (1d6-for stat or base it off fixed stat per flavour), (1dx-2) bonus for 10 minutes.

High risk, high reward, stacks with most existing bonuses, consumable, and potentially cursed? (eat too many and something bad can happen).

I theory built a fun Bolt-Ace/5 - Hunter/x character.

Human, for the bonus feats.
Rapid reload, precise shot, rapid shot, etc.

Light MWK crossbow (Underwater), upgrade later to heavy when you get free action reloads.

Hunter gets you a pet to defend you from rushes, or a permanent aspect to boost your skills/stats (Like darkvision, swim/climb bonuses, etc). And spells like gravity bow, abundant ammunition, and entangle.
Focus DEX and just enough WIS to cast spells, everything else is gravy.

With this and a few rounds of prep you can fire 1d8/1d10 adamantine silver blanch bolts infinitely as 2d6/2d8+DEX shots (19-20/x4), and use grit to target touch for strong targets. Lay out limited AOE debuffs to help with nimble targets, or buff your pet.
Vital strike/Deadly aim for even more devastating single target shots (4d6/4d8+DEX+4 Deadly Aim), which let you position easily to keep enemies out of cover.

Plot ideas:
The right hand of THE crime boss has been captured and turned evidence to the state. A corrupt guard killed him in his cell, but a message jug (Warded against teleportation and scrying, so it must be walked out), was captured with everything he said. The local authorities are compromised, so the local lord has the trusted party deliver the jug to the King and his authority.
The crime lord wants the jug destroyed, lesser lords want the jug captured for the blackmail material in it. Some guards will be on the payroll of one or the other side, and some will be loyal to the King. The party must pass 1 Town, through the capital city, and to the castle beyond. It will take 2-4 days journey. ideally below level 7 for the party.

In the sandbar shallows is a great ship graveyard, long since picked apart by scavengers and left to rot. Almost 200 ships are precariously crammed atop one another, then one night another ship joins the pile, and mysterious lights and voices are heard in the darkest moonless nights. The locals are scared, the fish have left and the animals refuse to come out of their pens. The local guards who went to investigate never returned, now it is the party's tun to investigate.

Something is taking the poor from the city streets, the guards do not care, but a local priestess does and has hired the party to help the poor. And just in time, for a local lord's child has also gone missing and the priestess believes they are taken in to the sewers, but the guards don't believe her on this. Low level adventure; crawling hands, zombies, exoskeleton cockroaches, rats, and a low level dhampir necromancer with a pair of templated skeleton champions (1 archer, 1 swordsman).

Party is tasked with guarding a dig site. One night a valuable artifact is stolen, then the next night another. An investigation reveals no one in camp stole them. On the third night a sickness begins to spread (Minor curse). The party is tasked with searching when a thief is spotted stealing another artifact, it is a stealthy Orc with longstrider potions. Orcs and their evil witch are divided on how to defend their holy site (being ravaged by the wealthy archaeologist leader who had previously hired mercenaries to remove them from the site so he could loot it). Some of the Orcs just want peace, some want war.

From my travel charts, one for each ranger terrain:

Sea(boat):
Sailing DC20 to change scouting roll by 5. Crafting on a small boat counts as distracted. Crafting on a large ship has no penalties except in storms.
Common threats: Crab swarms (CR4) hidden among seaweed floats, Sharks in water (CR2), Desperate seabird swarm (raven swarm, CR3), Barnacles (Treat as trap +10 (1d4/x20), 1 bleed on crit).
0-5 Cloudy night and day, lose navigation point (lose 1 day getting back on track if they cannot pass navigation DC 12/15 check).
6-11 Pass by a mass of floating trash (Mundane loot or food as per appraise rolls if PC's can pass perception check).
12-17 Large School of fish follow your boat for a few hours (chance to fish if they have the tools and can pass survival to bait and cook).
18-24 Rough waters (Possible ship damage, delays, knocked overboard, etc).
25-30 Pass a familiar ocean rock formation, Pass DC to find a current that increases travel by 1 day (gain 2 days travel today).
31-36 Pass a natural ocean funnel, see pretty fish.
37-42 Pass a deserted island. 1D4: 1: resource rich island is Guarded by gillmen. 2: deserted. 3: Signs of lost treasure (DC25). 4: Hostile locals/boars.
43-48 Find rats on board (Players rolls for quantity) PC's have limited time to find before they breed (swarms)
49-54 Uneventful, sunny day, easy progress on crafting/training.
55-60 Disease outbreak (pass disease DC to not get sick).
61-66 Trading vessel travelling the opposite way (Diplomacy captain to stop and trade).
67-72 Pirate Vessel travelling the opposite way (Sail or fight, but decide quickly).
73-78 Crewmate celebrates a birthday, eat pancakes from ship stores (no food cost this day)
79-84 Pass a familiar landmark seen as lucky by the crew, get drunk with the captain (DC25 to politely decline).
85-90 Rigging/oars/rowers break/mutiny - fix, fight or diplomacy (or lose 2 days doing nothing as it resolves itself?)
91-96 rainstorm. 1d4 - 1:Food damaged lose 20% supply. 2:Ship damaged. 3:Crew members lost/injured. 4:Refill water barrels.
97-99 Sea monster, air monster flyby attack.
exactly 91: 1d8: 1:Stowaways discovered. 2:Ghost Pirate ship rises from the depths. 3:Tropical island. 4:Mermaid/Gillman raid/toll. 5:Crewman steals from the party. 6: Invited to a high stakes gambling game 7: Giant squid attack (CR9). 8: Kelpie (CR4) Lure (1d4+1 Kelpies) against crewmen and party.

Candlerod/Sunrod are non-magical, so any Darkness spell suppresses it. But, can't be Dispelled if that's what you mean about "can't be anti-magicked".

Shard Gel vs Caltrops... there are advantages for each. If you have time to prep a defensive location regular caltrops are better, but in the heat of battle Shard Gel is likely more useful. If you have time to prep a defense, Bear Traps are heavy, but really cheap and effective at low levels.

I mean they can be used inside antimagic fields, underwater, and can not be dispelled with the dispel effect. Darkness is still a threat, but so is the light cantrip so its a wash there. I think they are fantastic "oh no" gear, as a lot of parties rely soley on light cantrips and never bother with torches.

For a longer set up time, caltrops are better for their duration and cost. For a quick access bandolier kit I think shard gel is more relevant. They have the advantage of being able to be thrown, which is nice.

We have used bear traps in the past, but the weight, need for a solid anchor and long set up makes them just not as useful in all settings. Plus my mad bomber alchemist usually had low STR, so weight is generally a concern. Mr.Hyde builds may differ. They are very effective at low levels though (especially against the party!).

Your rogue might appreciate you having some smoke pellets on you as well. Throw it at their feet to grant them concealment to stealth from to set up a sneak attack.

Surprised no one has mentioned Tanglefoot bags, GM's hate em, players hate to get hit by them. Might fall more in the everyday use item than in the special tool kit though.

I would add:
-Candlerod: 1gp for enough light to read a scroll by, without adding too much light for enemies to find you by. Can be lit as a standard action. 12hr, 1lb. cant be anti-magicked or doused
-Sunrod: 2gp for a torch for 6hrs that can come on as a standard action and cant be anti-magicked or doused.
-Holy Water: 25gp to combat incorporeal undead, or DR resistant foes.
-Snapleaf: 750gp, but gives you invisibility and emergency featherfall. Can be pinned to the kit.
Shard Gel: Emergency caltrops if you need to fall back or slow down an escaping foe.
-Tindertwig: 1d2 rounds of light and ignition for lighting a torch or oil. Could probably just be in a pocket instead of taking up a slot.
-Powder: Early game item made from crushed chalk, help reveal a square with an invisible creature in it, use it to aid in climbing, etc. Can be replaced very quickly though.

Splash weapon: Something to combat swarms and regeneration, Acid, Alchemist fire, etc. Even one can make the difference between life and death in the right circumstances (get them off the wizard enough for them to AOE spell the rest). Acid is my favorite for having multiple uses (melt locks, stop some regeneration's, power component for the wizard, fewer resistant foes), and is cheap.

Bonus: Masterwork Brass Dagger. It is immune to all corrosion and lacks the fragile condition. Excellent thematic alchemists backup weapon as copper instruments were frequently used when working with the mild acids of medieval alchemy.

I am thinking of putting together a Sarkoris Adventure for a homebrew game, and hoping for some help. It seems like a fantastically chaotic land where arcane casters will have to show restraint in public. The lost kingdoms primer has some information, but the realm is lacking in a lot of details. Mostly we know they were a celtic/slavic/gaulish/scandinavian blend of culture and tech; aka - Kellid, hated Arcane magics, and worshiped a massive divine pantheon.

This is just in the planning stages, but what I am wondering is what would stationary Kellid cities, run by Druids, and summoners, and witches look like? What kinds of homes would they have? (longhouses? Communal forts? Permanent yurts? European style country homes?)
How could massive cities be so perfectly balanced with nature enough to appease Druids?

What would the primary ambient foes of the Sarkoris people be? Fey? Plants? Abominations? Demons? Megafauna? I am thinking Fey and fauna are most likely, but I am not entirely certain.

What are some unique cultural quirks that would set them apart from nomadic or tech mad Kellids?

The government seems to have been mostly a formality, with individual clan heads running things as they saw fit. So how did they have an army unified enough to defend their borders? Was there a shared law, or was it just on a district by district basis?

Mostly curious on peoples thoughts and examples as there are zero adventures set in pre-worldwound Sarkoris, and little to base an adventure on. Thanks!

Well Goblin Alchemist [Grenadier]/Gunslinger [Musket Master] 5 seems the obvious choice.

Hard head, big teeth. For a melee option between shots. Bouncy race trait for extra survive-ability with roll with it (up is a legal direction).
Alchemist favoured class bonus is nice for small fire resistance bonuses. Gunslinger is also nice for a small crit boost.

Take grenadier to be able to apply alchemists fire as a move action for all that extra static damage.
Max DEX, then INT, everything else is a dump.

The Feats:
Goblin Gunslinger to use medium fire lance without penalty.
Roll With It to get out of danger when struck (or when a lance explodes in your face).
Burn!Burn!Burn! for instant extra damage from fire based weapons.
Flame heart for extra damage on bombs.
Rapid reload to get it down to a usable firing rate.

Discoveries:
Explosive bombs, for more boom!
Rocket bomb to eventually replace the lance, or at least supplement it.
Explosive missile, make that one infused shot count.
Elemental mutagen for even more resistance, and a stacking bonus to roll with it acrobatics checks.
Scrap bomb for when things are fire immune.

Equipment:
Asbestos clothing, because a burning Goblin is fine, as long as it isn't also naked.
Fire lance [masterwork as soon as you can].
Spare Fire lance, just in case [lower priority].
Cold iron javelins.
Silver weapon blanch for the cold iron javelins.
Alchemical fireworks, which can be applied as a splash weapon [Yay].
All the alchemists fire, and maybe some acid for alternate damage type.
Lantern Staff for melee that deals fire damage.
Oil, lots of lamp oil.
Alchemists crafting Kit, save the cost of making your own black powder and splash weapons.

You should be able to do a tremendous amount of damage a round, and be nearly impossible to hit, and if they do close and hit, you bounce away for almost no damage anyways then shoot them as they close again.

-Dancing enchantment.
-Create, and then hand it to a construct or Undead follower.
-Permanent Shrink item, then flying familiar drop it on an enemies head.
-Bulls Strength and weild it dressed as a barbarian (Complete with AM BARBARIAN stupidity effects). Then surprise everyone with your INT and spellcasting.

Question: Could a gloomblade conjure a slingstaff?
Technically it is a single weapon with both melee and thrown (Ranged) properties. I ask because no one seems to have an answer on most rules interactions regarding the slingstaff (The only cool thing about halfling combat styles).

Also would a spiked shield or armour spikes count for this ability as well? A shield is not a weapon, but it becomes one when made spiked or bashing.

I would love to see a festival focused adventure, lots of lore about Deity festivals but no actual events. And with so many races and so many Deities there is plenty of options for connected one shots. Plus it would allow profession/Perform to become suddenly mechanically and RP valued skills.
Save the (Farming Deity) harvest festival from the blight, Save the beautiful artwork from the greedy baron for (Artwork Deity) day, Meditation day is interrupted for the Monks of (Martial prowess Deity) by noisy Harpies/Strix/etc on the mountain top, Escort the best brandy from the Halfling farming community to the big city for (Drinking Deity) festival (So they can win best brew and gain prestige and tourism for the struggling town) but watch for rivals and their tricks. So many possibilities... I might have to write a few myself.

I have some advice, combine tables of benign, good, and hostile encounters to share one dice set. I did an Oregon trail system on these boards based on the ranger terrains chart.
I suggest placing your hostile encounters on a d100 spread (1-5% each), friendly encounters (either 5-10% or 1-5% each), then have neutral events or skill check events fill the gaps.
neutral events include inclement weather events, interesting terrain features (that can be creatively used by players for various bonuses to skill checks - such as a tall spire that helps with tracking herds, a canyon that can increase foraging for rare ingredients).
Good events can be strong foraging areas (bonus to survival gathering checks), secure camp sights, traders, hidden ruins for traditional adventuring (skeletons guarding an old shrine, goblins camping in an abandoned fort, a pig hiding in a lost crypt) that can be bypassed or used.
Bad could be traps, disease, pest animals raiding stores (raccoons are nice at nights), hostile humanoids, poison foods, flash weather events, hostile animals, and general gear misfortune (broken straps and wheel requiring stopping and repairing, loss of ammo forcing resupply or crafting, etc).
A second d100 can determine if events occur at all.
Maybe have a set table with increasing chances of rolling the encounter d100 based on past events or lack of past events. That way they can go potentially days without being harassed and get comfortable with the hunting/tracking/survivaling/exploring and encounters become rarer and more stressful. But they will eventually hit an encounter as the table will throw the odds in favour of a hit.
Then when an event occurs, drop one step down again.
So: Day 1- 10% chance of event, 2-20%, 3-30%, 4-40%=Event, 5=30%, 6=40% etc.

Your everyday allergy event could be rolled into this dice, anything at a flat 10% or less = encounter plus allergy. Kindof a critical failure day.

At preset points you can set fixed encounter chances, or set the odds really high, such as staying near a killing field too long and attracting scavengers.

And I love the idea of a 1% chance wild table with elements alien to the terrain. This could be a sudden gargantuan creature running amok, a crazed underdark citizen suddenly in the light, a friendly caravan, a spell duel between wizards, a double rainbow or a dragon flyby. This makes the world seem a lot more complex.

For disease/poison/traps always allow for a survival check to avoid before they have to make saves, reward good skill management because nothing sucks more than a survival expert druid with +20 check sleeping on poison ivy over night.

You have a few nested percentages, you could divide these into their own encounters. Such as snakes (give them 5 slots normal, 1 slot the rare encounter).

Then just switch between the pre and post kill tables for your second dice. If the butchering takes 1 day per animal and they kill 5 animals, that's 5 day and 5 night encounters potentially.

I would honestly love this more for staves, gain 1d6+1 (or 1d4+1 or whatever) charges of the lowest level daily. Instead of having to manually recharge with 1 slot per day. It would allow users to still recharge higher spells for expended slots, but at a reasonably useful rate for their exorbitant cost.

And it would also mean users wouldn't be afraid to USE staves more often. Which has all kinds of other caster benefits, which in turn benefit the party (fewer 15 minute adventuring days, less 10 day downtime vacations, a reason to pick up craft Staff).

Wands are pretty cheap, costs would have to increase to balance this feature. And I really like knowing the spell will be there for the user (they are after all UMD item of choice for non-Slotted classes who are generally more gold dependent than castors).
I also Kind of like the idea of expended wands all over Golaron like empty shell casings (Or a Tediore gun from borderlands 2).

Well it is a fantastic control spell you can:
1) Use it to extinguish even large fire sources, giving a party or PC with darkvision an advantage against light dependent enemies.
2) Use it as a can't miss distraction. Get all the guards into the courtyard while your catfolk rogue climbs the far outer wall.
3) Blindness, so much blindness, if you can't think of a good use for blinding a 120ft cube of enemies you aren't trying hard enough (Hint: Sneak attacks, Escape, Re-stealth).
4) Stop the caster/Archers/Gunslinger/Siege operators/ranged anything from hitting your party effectively either because they are in smoke, or the smoke cube is in the way.
5) Use it as a can't miss signal, nothing says our Sorcerer is that way like a 20ft explosion of fireworks.
6) use it as a debuff vs melee foes, have the archer fire a burning arrow at or near a foe, and use them as the center of a hard to beat save or suck effect plus total concealment (or blindness). You both can use arrows and this spell at long ranges (Spell: 400ft +40ft/level Longbow 100ft+10 increments).
7) REALLY piss off the neighbours when they tell you to shut down your backyard bonfire, just remind the party the blindness and tingling is temporary.
8) Ever see a horde of Darkelves who liked seeing a torch? One little display and suddenly they will remember why they stay in the dark away from the oh so painful light.
9) Show up those pesky Gnome and Halfling partiers, Snapdragon fireworks and mundanely crafted fireworks pale compared to a once a day cube of light at 400+40ft/level in the sky (Assisted with a readied action and a rangers burning longbow).
10) Look to the saves: WILL or FORT, WILL vs martials and animals, FORT vs casters. And to the debuffs: 1d4+1 Blinded gives NO DEX, -2AC, -4STR/DEX Skills (Like say climbing or swimming), all opponents are considered concealed (50% miss on top of perception penalties) which means hello sneaks, and DC acrobatics to make a move action or fall prone (Hello Prone penalties and AOO's). And then you could choose persistent smoke with -4 STR AND -4 DEX PLUS concealment even vs darkvision in a limited area, PLUS leaving the smoke doesn't negate these penalties immediately. It is tricky to use because it is so terrifyingly effective.

62) War orphans are running about begging travellers for any scraps or spare coins.
A) These orphans are at every town the PC's pass, they have a long journey, and little time to survival forage, and there are a lot more towns to pass...
B) These orphans are halfling scammers, and they have taken something valuable (but not too vital to a class) from a PC and buggered off, is it worth the hours of searching or days of black market hunting to get back?
C) These orphans are in every town, literally the same ones running through back routes to stay ahead of the press of people clogging the roads these days, and it looks like they are pushing the slower/weaker/more desperate children out of the way to get their pieces (Under the supervision of a big thug boss man who cares little for the actually starving war orphans). (But they are still children).
D) This is a war between races, and these innocent children belong to the other side, as more wounded return with tales of horror, as resources are stretched ever thinner, will these orphans remain as welcome as they are now (not very)?

63) A soldier dies before the PC's, raving about the dead not leaving him be. Now the PC's can't sleep with all the clanking of ghostly armor as the dead (Friends, compatriots, slain foes) stand around the party under the glow of the moon. What curse is this? How long would it take to research the solution, right the wrong, or have a cleric cast remove curse and leave the ghosts to their wanderings?

64) A few towns (And columns) have been ravaged, the party finds the source, 3 dozen cages opened with delayed charges... and the town nearby is undefended. These beasts are uncontrolled, deadly, and very very hungry.

65) The PC's are given a flag by a local commander, and ushered into a column of clerics and aid workers. Both sides abide by the flag standard group and will not harm them. Fighting stops when the column passes through a melee. But fighting to either side does not (With all the gruesome horrors a GM can come up with). To intervene is to void the standards protection, to do nothing, well, there is a bigger picture to worry about.

66) Some MP's stop the party and ask about bodies, not the fresh ones dead on the field, the ones in the caskets and shallow graves that aren't there anymore...

67) Camp followers mistake the party for high ranking officers and have a fun night. Come morning the PC's possessions have been gone through and anything remotely map/note/message like is gone. They were spies sent to gather intel from the opposing army. And they were spotted heading towards the friendly command post a few days away with fresh horses (Paid for by the PC's generous donations of course).

I had my players roll on an Oregon trail style overworld travel table, they rolled something random, so I gave them a hunting opportunity: A cow, except it was a Major Image permanencied. They naturally took it (Failing multiple rolls to dibelieve) as a new immortal mascot.

A cloak of the Hedge Wizard lets you cast prestidigitation as an at will, plus a cantrip and 1/day level 1 arcane spell. More than enough to add some juice to your tricks AND detect as magic. Lets even a barbarian pass as a first level wizard for a while.

...So aside from the mirror image discussion...

Well, explosive runes (And all symbols and runes) must be willingly read to activate. So (One of my friends did this), A bipedal Eidelon melee specialist can hold a scroll with the runes on it.
If things get bad or its health is really low, IT reads the runes, going out in a burst of destruction. If it can grapple a big baddie, its chances of reflexing away become that much more slim.

Stone tell to speak to a mountain range to discover where things have dug out caves in it, for tracking monsters. I am not 100% sure what constitutes a stone, but any unbroken unit of rock should qualify. Ive seen it used twice, once to see if a cobblestone had been walked on recently by a large army, and the second to find this vampire cave. Creative use by the player I will admit.

If the players know "A" threat is coming, then they should be on guard and an assassin in the night would be acceptable.
If the party believes they have no enemies right now, they might never suspect they are a target and then it become GM vs Players and the GM being a dick with an out of nowhere ambush.
Remember that you know more about NPC motivations and actions than your players ever could, and implied threats are not necessarily threats to the PC's, even not so subtle hints can be misconstrued.

That being said, a single assassin in the dark should never be a single turn death for a player, maybe the third night attack in a row, yes.
I would suggest some kind of extension to the attack.

Poison designed to weaken and hurt but not kill (Employers desired the party to suffer first for their sleight).
Maybe ranged attacks from the shadows for good single sneak attack damage, and this is kept up nightly to exhaust them.
Maybe have the assassin attack in broad daylight, pretending to be a beggar (opposed disguise checks), then strikes with poisoned blades as part of a surprise round. Attempting to hit everyone with a prepared (non fatal) poisoned blade at least once.
Maybe a failed trap, a bad batch of poison (as suggested above), or choosing an inopportune time to strike to add fear to the party (Maybe a drunken/salesman NPC keeps them up with minor annoyances).
Maybe have a very cheap assassin attack once, poorly, then once they find the note with the orders, send a much better one.

These seem like pretty neat fantasy creatures, very medieval in theme. I love the auras, too few fey have something fun like that at these levels.

I think some variants for animals might be interesting, one with discarded bones, collars, sticks, or maybe even the remains of missing pets. A little morbid, but if it is a friendly fey that seeks companionship it could be pretty neat, I could even see it as an improved familiar possibly.

This does not address more primitive based cultures as well. A creature made of sharpening stones, digging tools, beads, fishing hooks, and similar lost "primitive" tools for the jungles or islands in the inner sea.

A jewel and coin based one mentioned above also sounds interesting, I could see a party of PC's hunting it down for the obvious value in its component parts (or protecting one from treasure hunters).

A love one could be quite mischievous, made from lost hair locks, lockets, ribbons, favors (perfume scented fabric square), preserved flowers, and wedding rings. A fey that wants EVERYONE in love, casting an aura of unnatural lust, with SLA's of charm person, suggestion, and ventriloquism (flirting).

Also there appears to be a module spell known as Apparent master for constructs, but yours seems less offensive in nature, I Like it a little better for these creatures.

Let other players play their characters. Too many times I have heard of players saying " A(n) [Alignment] character wouldn't do that", "Most Dwarves would never...", "Your Cleric worships (Deity), and (Deity) fluff text says they would not support that action, as cleric you probably wouldn't go against (deity)", "You are [Class] this isn't part of your role in the party let the [optimized for that role class] handle this alone".
unless that character is actively hindering the party, let them be. Sometimes the Barbarian has something relevant to say in a diplomacy event, maybe the Wizard wants to conserve spells and feels its a good time to actually USE their knife for something, maybe their Gnome is trying to take life seriously for once. Just because you wouldn't play a character that way, doesn't mean they must.

Or in the case of one friend, they were playing a Changeling witch disguised as a rogue, the PLAYER meta-knowledged based on brief description; their race, class, familiar, and likely spell selections. Which destroyed their story, tensions, and several GM/player story hooks, and Player/player intrigues.

Don't mess with other players stuff. Same player (as a witch who's familiar is basically the entire class), sent their animal companion against his familiar and did damage (almost a fatal crit), and was confused when the player was angry he almost cost him his entire class (the entire party combined did not have enough gold to recover even half the spells that would have been lost).

Or a rogue stealing the Wizards bonded item for a lark, per RAW, that Wizard is crippled (Bonded items removed for any reason are "lost" and must be replaced after 1 week). Same goes for stealing anything vital to a character.

Try not to step on other players toes, ask what their strategies are and where they would like to be on the field. Maybe maxing Initiative and blocking the door with your tower shield sucks for the Ninja that wanted to invisibly enter and gain flanking first. Maybe the Barbarian wanted to bullrush the foe off the cliff, but the Wizard cast black tentacles first, forcing them to stand idly by.

GM's, if a player cannot explain an action, let them roll and YOU describe the actions. Sometimes the character knows the answer that the player may not.

Unusual locations, behaviors, or morality issues could increase difficulty.
I really liked the Elder scrolls assassins quests, they had bonuses for making some look like accidents, or leaving bodies in certain places (or disappear forever), for sending messages (or planting false evidence against another), or making the player doubt their mission.

-The mentioned ship captain either on his ship full of wake and sleeping crew (unalert generally), or in the local tavern that is never quiet and full of prying eyes (maybe with a prostitute sleeping beside him who cannot be woken/killed).
-Maybe they are an elf, they never sleep but take meditative walks around town (crossing patrol routes).
-A Vanara merchant who has a hammock on the ceiling and climbs 15ft to get up to bed (easily), but is not easily reached for coup de grace (need climb, fly, or a ranged shot).
-A drunken Barbarian famous for his alcoholism who never sleeps in the same bed twice (seduce?, poison drink, challenge to a fight, etc).
-A paranoid Fetchling underling who traverses to the shadow plane during the day, so he must be slain awake (Lure, follow, traverse planes).
-A single catfolk mother with her several cubs around her constantly who lives in a rundown cabin on some prized land (hence the reason for assassination) (this one can be very sad if the family is as loving and as poor as possible).
-A prisoner who is threatening to talk once the magistrate arrives in town (Magistrate or the prisoner must be assassinated).
-One guard who has accrued a large gambling debt and knows he is likely marked so sleeps in the barracks among trusted guards and never patrols alone (Disguise as a guard, preemptively remove partner, sneak into barracks).
-Twins, one of which will inherit the land, the other of which will not, their younger sister wants ONE dead not the other (choose the correct one or receive nothing) (Need intel gathering).
-Huge home with many servants, a pittance of guards, and you must kill the wife while avoiding the husband and his staff, but he is working late nights against the client and few know the house layout (Sam Fisher style pattern checking and possibly divination/mirror tools).
-Kill a poaching ranger and his animal companion, they live in a cave outside of town with pit traps, snares, bear traps, tar paper, and bait animal cages (trap avoidance, scent avoidance).
-A lazy halfling bard who lives in a community hall and performs regularly in public with her recorder, client wants a public death.
-A dock overseer who sleeps in a mini fortress with 4 loyal guards (Thugs), a single heavy door in and out (guarded externally whenever he is home). He does daily walks along the pier, does regular shakedowns, and handles employee payments/cash counts in his tower (poison money, kill on dock, hide in tower, fight way through door).
- A famous wizard who lives in a fine manor, with an imp familiar running around, and a trove of scrolls/books/precious gems that contain sepia snake symbol spells on them, various symbols of x, or are in mimic chests. The Wizard has 5 beds, 4 of which are alarmed traps with an illusion inside.

-Conditions help as well - Make it look like an accident, leave no clue that they are dead (hide/destroy/animate and walk the body out of town), mutilate the corpse to leave a message, kill and retrieve a special object/document, kill using a special means (poison, arrow, enchanted blade, etc), make certain they die in public, return a particular body part.

For the Alchemist in particular, give them a workshop basement to descend into with; jars, contained oozes, plenty of glowing reagents, half living body parts, a blast crater room, gases, bubbling liquids inside a fragile stand, mysterious noises that can startle the assassin, and a sand timer that wakes him hourly to move reagents around the tubes as part of some creation (so the assassin must be quick or wait). The house, the basement, and the workshop should all have locks.

At starting level, and the barest minimum -
Class kit, has many useful items and are well designed.
Pickpockets upgrade for my starting clothes (+2 to conceal items).
Candles and at least a few tindertwig for those moments I need to read a scroll, or set a fire.
A candlerod or 5 for emergency low light. (seriously, they are 1gp for 12hrs of light that wont give you away as easily).
Oil, extra rope, 1 extra set of clothing (pickpockets for hidden pouches).
At least 1 extra dagger (Cant tell how many times this has saved a character, or a favorite weapon).
Pitons/iron spike, so many uses for them
Acid flask for swarms/DR.
Spring loaded Wrist sheath for my dagger/emergency wand.
Extra sack/bag/pouch.
Waterproof bag for scrolls/books/maps.
Pen, ink and paper for notes/maps/copying information.
Chalk for marking, blinding, finding invisible, drawing, extra grip, etc.
Extra Waterskin in case we find some other valuable liquid we want to take with us.
And then the already mentioned air crystals, antitox/plague for the party, a party wand of healing, and then it really depends on campaign after that.

I am will Voss, if you want truly historic and realistic campaign, there is not going to be much conflict, traditionally fights on coastal North America were through disease or small raids of settlers stealing the wealthy natives goods, or natives performing honour rituals against settlers.
Killings were small scale and relatively uncommon, natural deaths were far more common, or settlers wandering into the wilds and vanishing.

Disease, insect swarms, terraforming the lands, defections of settlers to native camps, wild animals, and prospecting/trade were the biggest events in the earliest days.
Alliance building could be a fun event, allowing their colony to survive the unfamiliar winters and crop seasons, surviving disasters and shortages, foraging for new sources of foods in the wilds, or negotiating material trade between colonies and natives (Money was of little value initially).

I made a one shot that fit into existing campaigns. It was a Halloween/Fall themed event.
A carnival comes to town, and with it comes Sheogorath, the demi god of madness and chaos. The party plays carnival games (Various penalized skill checks), for prizes, enjoy drinks that apply random prestidigitation effects on people, and participate in some demigod influenced pranks (mostly messing with hypocritical or corrupt priests of other gods, such as painting a priest of Erastils crops black, and stealing his many hundreds of animal trophies), or replacing a priestesses of Iomedaes "steel bar" (metal painted balsa wood, used to show the mighty strength of a divinely infused righteous blade), with a real steel bar (Thus being less impressive when the blade bounces off), and of course, enjoying making them accidentally cheat in the great cheese race (Catch a rolling wheel of cheese as it moves down a hill before their competitors do).

166. A giant or an ogre is seen walking the other way on a deserted road, he is dragging a massive sack and a greatclub behind him. He appears bloodied and exhausted, he pays the party no mind. If provoked he drops his sack and runs. Bonus points for creative use of whats in the bag.

167. A man wearing ragged nobles clothes approaches the party and offers a silver amulet for free (prestidigitation effect on it), he pressures them to take it off his hands (he believes it is cursed and he can't seem to throw it away, maybe giving it away will transfer the curse). If accepted he will run away jubilant (and if the pc's are suspicious and discard it, it returns to them in every loot). If they refuse, he doggedly pursues them stealthily attempting to slight of hand it onto them.

168. A platinum piece lies on the road, just beneath a tree. It is unmovable (or an illusion), as they attempt to take it, a voice giggles at them from the branches above. If they harass the voice, it throws a vial of brewed reek and runs off (invisible).

Iron Spike already has 101 Uses .
But Spellcraft and some ordinary ink, draw a rune of x on your door, in front of your sleeping area, etc. Sentient foes will be suspicious at least, and maybe waste surprise on some verbal cantrips to detect or dispel a spell that doesn't exist!
Make threats with almost revealed sheets of fake runes, threaten to reveal or read them! (Easy discounts for the discerning murder hobo).

Plus, ink as camouflage, aid in making your Elf look like a Drow (wow, racist much), glowing ink and some fireworks to make Goblins worship you (who needs Magic eh?). Ink to change your scent, or blind a foe (better than sand as it doesn't easily wash off). Pour some on your hands to make them sticky (+ resist sunder? + to climb?).
All for the low low price of (free if you are brave enough to steal from your WIzard) 8gp an ounce, cheaper than scrolls.
Also, ruin your wizards scroll by splashing ink on them (hello new toon).

I am not quite sure what you are seeking here. If you want a table that shows all possible responses to any given event... I don't think excel has enough cells. players can do anything they can roll for, if a rogue snatched my coin purse, my rangers pet would bite and trip him, or he might find himself with a facefull of my wizards fireball, my ninja might stealth and steal everything of value he has on him before he makes it to the end of the street. And of course my bard would charm him, take her back to his place, then he would sleep while I ransacked his home =p

It seems what you need more is cards for NPC's, with saves, defenses, personality quirks, and physical identifiers more. That way you may respond to anything the players do, instead of railroading them into specific responses for non-story dependent events (I assume).

This site - NPC List - is a good resource for pre-generated NPC's with all their stats and equipment, as well as some tactical considerations, easy enough to modify for your games needs.

Conflict drives stories, an all magic team with the annoying magicless ranger that the party has to takes turns supporting. The idea of savage vs civilized works as well, in the city a Druid sticks out, and his companion might be a healthy source of trouble (Hey! your lizard ate my chickens! pay me for them or I'm calling the guards!)
Meanwhile in the forest, the wizard and cleric might be lost as to what is edible, or not solid ground (mud and traps!).

Balanced is boring too, half the fun for a party is overcoming challenges the GM puts down, challenges usually chosen after the parties weaknesses. By having a sub optimal party, it will be easier (as a writer) to include challenges as there will be more (and varied) options to choose from for any particular scenario.

Sounds like a fun project.

Prestidigitation is useful for cleaning, entertaining, and creating basic tools.
Charm animal, handy for ranchers and hunters alike.
Create water, create water.
Identify, useful for merchants.
Detect poison, everyone could use this in a land without refrigeration.
Mending, cheap repairs.
Resistance, great for healers helping with disease and poison.
Light, at high levels a replacement for street lamps.
Any battle cantrip for basic hunting/guard duty.

Alarm, and peacebond. Handy for town guards on patrol.
Air bubble, if someone needs to dive for clams, or gather sunken treasure.
Mount, no reason it can;t be attached to a plow, or used by couriers.
Infernal healing, for healers.
Summon monster, coupled with handle animal, useful for short term assistance (hunting, clearing pests, scouting, guarding, etc).
unseen servant, really handy around the house.
Comprehend languages, for trade and negotiations in a trade town.
Sleep vs those having trouble sleeping naturally.
Floating disc for moving resources around the town/farm.
Silent image, ventriloquism, great for artists and entertainers.
Restore/decompose corpse for mortuary workers.
Ant haul on the dock workers.
Crafters fortune on craftsmen.
Polypurpose Panacea, snapdragon fireworks, for tavern owners/entertainers.
Feather fall for construction workers.
Longarm, Reduce/Enlarge person for everyday help reaching objects up high, or down low.
Youthful appearance for vanity salons.

And that is just the 0-1's, almost every spell can be used in some way productively (burning hands for forge work, etc).

The list is long and full of potential, and finding out creative uses is half the fun.

This sounds like a lot of fun to run, great idea.

For me, the terror of zombies comes from their inevitability. To that end I suggest a rolling horde hot on the PC's tail, maybe: 1d6 (zombies) - 1d4 (killed by NPC's) + 1d6/per round PC's fight or make noise - # killed by PC's + # of civilians not helped by the PC's = Advancing horde. let the PC's catch glimpses of the wall of zombies advancing from behind (at 1 move/round delayed 1d6 rounds), slow but inevitable, and making fighting/helping/hiding/backtracking have a running timer.

Also, dead end ally's forcing backtracks, temporary barriers to smash climb or detour past, shortcuts through ruined buildings (with grasping hands that can hold but not damage), barriers of fire (to leap over, go around, extinguish, or tank through), hiding spots of crates and carriages (+10 stealth to move past zombies), choking smoke from numerous fires that blurs vision and forces PC's to hold breaths, piles of bodies to acrobatics through (or hide among for +20 stealth vs zombies at a penalty of +10DC to diplomacy the living), a "safe area" that the watch (or a wealthy merchants manor filled with guards) has set up that can allow the PC's a moment to breathe and heal (good stories have highs AND lows to increase tensions), and of course completely empty and silent alleys filled with low fog. Maybe even have some enterprising burglars or thugs holding a bottleneck (20% chance they already have a victim present), these intelligent enemies can trip, steal from or try to kill the PC's making lots of noise and delaying them (as well as providing loot if they are running low on supplies). Frightened animals (mad with fear, or noisy at the PC's thus attracting zombies). Civilians seeing PC's and asking for help with trapped family/turned or turning family/lost pets/property. Maybe a church filled with people, and a mob of zombies bashing their way in (do they stop to help or hope the doors hold?). if you really want to be mean have a section with a ruined well/broken bridge/open sewer that forces a swim check, where zombies might be waiting at the bottom, or not.

A d100 table with 30% "rest" options, 30% neutral options, and 40% zombie options might let you fit more events in, including non-events.

I played a Neutral Evil Ninja Gunslinger in an Evil campaign where ALL the players were evil with the unified goal of helping bring about the apocalypse. Unfortunately we had no unified goal directing us besides destroy everything so the game derailed after a short while.
The "God" Imposed a fatal penalty for PVP, paralysis for harming another character, and instant death effect death for killing. When the party was all evil and this was clearly laid out that PVP would not be allowed we had a decent time killing and setting up evil plots.

The trouble is when Evil is not unified in the group, and many players choose to play paladins because another player is evil, or play evil simply because another player is a paladin. These players give evil a bad name and tend to run their characters antagonistically (or defensively) towards their fellows, rather than in a coercive, cooperative manor.

Lawful and neutral tend to be manageable, but it is highly dependent on the group.

IMO;
Lawful evil means you follow a code of conduct, this code merely has no morals on actions taken to fulfill this goal. Wanton chaos and murder interferes with goals and codes and so is avoided, loyalty before ethics, goals before personal beliefs.

Neutral Evil is inwardly focused on personal goals, or the goals of their immediate group. They do not care about large scale consequences, and so only the immediate effects on them are of concern to them.

Chaotic Evil is wild, selfish, and likely anti establishment. Any attempts to control them, or impose direction on them, are actively, and often violently opposed. Strictly speaking, not a character that can be in any sort of group whatsoever, and thus not an alignment that can be played by players.

I have found this site to be a useful resource in explaining alignment dynamics => Alignments Explained

Stupid constructs are deadly without solid party tactics, but a smart party can troll the nonliving heck out of a golem lacking a ranged response.

49) Curse of the gluttonous, the victim must consume twice the normal amount of food or become sickened until the next meal, if there is a more expensive meal available when they are eating, they must eat 4 times as much of the lower value food, or eat twice as much of the more expensive meal or become sickened.

50) Curse of sundering, whenever the victim strikes with a wooden haft weapon there is a chance that it dries and fractures on impact halving the damage dealt and sundering the weapon (or doing sunder damage of the weapon to magical weapons) 20% chance.

51) Curse of wandering knowledge, a victims knowledge check is made using a randomly selected bonus from the list instead of the intended (linguistics included). If the victim rolls for a KNOW they are not trained it, it counts as not trained for their intended check (eg, victim has +4 KNOW Arcane, rolls on table for arcane check, lands on nobility which is untrained, counts as untrained for arcane).

52) Curse of toad skin, victim must keep their skin moist or damp or risk it splitting and dealing 1d6 nonlethal damage that cannot heal until the skin is hydrated again. Skin must be watered hourly.

53) Curse of mules burden, all items carried and used by the victim count as weighing twice as much as normal, this does not affect the item, merely the effects of weight on the victim. If the victim reduces their load below medium, they take on the aspects of a mule and reduce all charisma checks by -4 until they regain a medium load or greater.

Well any "Thing" can receive the animated object spell, you could easily find some creative uses.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/animatedObject.html
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/animateObjects.html

Perhaps some industrious evil kobolds are enamored with the old factory and various factions are squabbling over the old machines (for war weapons, making god statues, to sell for profit on the surface, etc).
They have booby trapped (literally) the factory (pile of toys released from ceiling hatch, tripwire causes two large toys to fly in from the side ala star wars 6, rough terrain floor from moving toys, a locked door with the key hidden in some other type of toys, some of which have been trapped). Different tribes could have different sections of the factory and wear gear associated with that section. (The clubbers, the small round object slingers, the "armoured" tanks, and the slippery biters). They could even be willing to help for "sacred texts (wink)" and machine operation manuals/spare parts which were locked in safes before the fall.

Perhaps an old wizard explorer (pervert) who knew the legends tracked this place down and then became trapped, s/he built a kingdom of "Devices" and fiercely protects their "realm" by attacking (throwing objects as per throw anything), then scurrying away. A lvl 3 wizard with small animal familiar (rubber armor to increase ac =p ), and summons would be good.

TL,DR: As requested the encounter tables I have made up for "Oregon Trailing" in Sandbox games. I modify monsters/DC's as I go, so please consider these tables as works in progress. Any advice on improving them is appreciated.

Each day a new player is selected as "Scout". They roll a d100 for the days (or morning/evening) event. The "Scout" MAY roll a survival/KNOW check to modify the d100 roll by up to +or- 5-10 after the d100 is rolled, but before the results are revealed. I have a standing exactly 100 as drawing from a wild table separate from the terrains.

I started a sandbox adventure with an overarching plot that the players could pick up and drop. I had several "Set Pieces" That activated when players entered specific points, these were xp and WBL generator points.
Between these points I set up an Oregon trail style tables.
Each "terrain" (as listed under ranger) had its OWN unique table. I split each table into thirds, 1/3 was beneficial (gain time, foraging opportunity, merchants, hidden treasure, etc), 1/3 was neutral (weather clears, interesting sights, nice campsite, etc), and 1/3 were detrimental (Bandits, disease, traps, get lost, bad weather, etc). The tables were randomized so no two terrains were the same (90 was free food for one, disease check for another). Each morning a new player would be "scout", they could roll survival to gain a 5-10 point modification on the d100 roll for the entire party for that day. Each terrain had their own "survival check" for this (easy on a highway, hard on a featureless dessert).
I set the DC's and encounter CR's to be fairly low. I also set general bonuses and penalties to each table (in desert -10 survival to find food, in plains +5 to know direction).
I also set a 1% value that if landed exactly on would trigger a second smaller table (d6 usually) of something outlandish and wild.

It is a lot of work ahead of time, but, coupled with a list of npc names (20 or so for quick access), a list of NPC characteristics (scars, clothes, beards/hair colour, mood, race, etc), a list of loot hooks (exchange gold reward for sale-able items like art, or trade goods), and cards with monster stats hidden and ready I could whip up an appropriate encounter in less than a minute that felt like it belonged in a fleshed out world I was making up as we went.
I also did "boss events" for when the players rolled bandits 3 days in a row (this must be bandit territory =p).

It looked like this:
Player 1: "I roll scouting for today." (d92- Contact disease). "Oh last time we got 90's we had to make a DC15 check vs disease, I roll survival" (beats DC13 survival). "I subtract 5 from the d100 (d87 - Hidden trail).
Me (GM): "Ok scout, roll perception".
Player 2: "I cast Heightened awareness on the scout before he leaves"
Player 1: Beats the DC to notice the hidden path.
Me (GM): "As you scout ahead you notice a deliberately concealed path, (Survival/Knowledge) to see if it might cut a days travel from your journey.
Player 1: Passes DC, realizes this is a likely safe path and returns to the party. "I found a shortcut someone hid".
Party: "Go", "It's a trap!", "Are you sure?", "Good, I want to get to the city fast", "etc".
Party takes the shortcut, camps for the night. Next morning it is another players turn to be the scout.
Player 3: I roll for today's scouting...

By "Oregon trailing" travel between plot points becomes world building, each player gets a chance to "lead" and make decisions (with all reward and consequence that entails). And travel becomes interesting and a chance to use undervalued skills. It also gives the party a chance to get creative with solutions (bandits in the way? we go around).
This system breaks down once players gain access to high level spells, but that is generally a long way away.
I can provide some table ideas if you would like.

I did not see this, but it is a story told at my table; a very powerful rogue, who despite low HP, managed to be quite fast and deadly in combat. So, after the rogue and his invisible wizard buddy infiltrate the castle, steal some valuable documents, and assassinate a few guards they are forced to run for it.
The wizard casts invisibility, and the rogue heads for the fifth story window, then charges and leaps out (great acrobatics to gain maximum distance). The rogue then asks for feather fall from the Wizard... who did not prepare it for that day...

Long story short, crit fails to land (even with a reroll), and a hand full of alchemists fire make for an unhappy rogue player and a Wizard that never failed to prepare feather fall again.

Moral of the story, rogues should wear snapleafs, and wizards should always have feather fall prepared.

Technically you can have an eidelon, a familiar, and an animal companion, the issue with that is each will be 1/3 the level the character is at, mechanically this means it is far inferior to have 3 animal buddies than 1 full class animal buddy. Also, the player still needs to command/heal/summon/buff these allies, mechanically multiple minions in this way is VERY weak, and can lead to dead animal companions fairly quickly.

It is plausible that a glass potion could be broken in this way, potions and scrolls are very delicate, and many non-PFS GM's hand wave AOE destruction of them on an affected character, otherwise no one would carry them at the ready.

An easy solution would be to use CRB - IRON VIALS, they have hardness and are smaller than a dagger, so they should fit AND survive. It doesn't answer the question, but it does get around the issue.

Guardianlord wrote:

I do an Oregon trail, table, a different one for every terrain. Each day a player rolls d100 (with bonuses or penalties depending on skills), and I set in motion the days encounter, 1/3 are bad (monsters, storms, rigging fails, leaks etc), 1/3 are good (school of fish, strong winds, resupply island, clear navigation points, etc), and 1/3 neutral (normal day, interesting sight, other ship on the horizon, shipwrecks, etc).

That's awesome! I especially like the part about being stranded or big storms changing the course of the ship.

Do you have your tables handy? Do you mind sharing them?

I do not have one for the ocean, only rivers. I might be able to make a quick one. I will let you set the DC's for your party. I suggest low numbers, these are interesting events not full challenges, it should be possible to overcome. I let my players roll a survival check (on land) to add up to 10 to the d100. It is funny because since one player is rolling (we call them the days scout) they get the blame and the praise. And each player gets a chance to roll, so the blame and praise get spread around.

0-5 Cloudy night and day, lose navigation point (lose 1 day getting back on track if they cannot pass navigation DC check).
6-11 Pass by a mass of floating trash (Mundane loot or food as per appraise rolls if PC's can pass perception check).
12-17 Large School of fish follow your boat for a few hours (chance to fish if they have the tools and can pass survival to bait and cook).
18-24 Rough sea storm (Possible ship damage, delays, knocked overboard, etc).
25-30 Pass a familiar ocean rock formation, Pass DC to find a current that increases travel by 1 day (gain 2 days travel today).
31-36 Pass a natural ocean funnel, see pretty fish.
37-42 Pass a deserted island.
43-48 Find rats on board (Players rolls for quantity) PC's have limited time to find before they breed (swarms)
49-54 Uneventful, sunny day.
55-60 Disease outbreak (pass disease DC to not get sick).
61-66 Trading vessel traveling the opposite way (Diplomacy captain to stop and trade?)
67-72 Pirate Vessel traveling the opposite way (Sail or fight).
73-78 Crewmate celebrates a birthday, eat pancakes from ship stores (no food cost this day)
79-84 Pass a familiar landmark seen as lucky by the crew, get drunk with the captain.
85-90 Rigging/oars/rowers break/mutiny - fix, fight or diplomacy (or lose 2 days doing nothing as it resolves itself?)
91-96 rainstorm. 1d4 - 1:Food damaged lose 20%. 2:Ship damaged. 3:Crewmembers lost/injured. 4:Refill water barrels.
97-99 Sea monster, air monster attack.

Choose a value, if the dice lands precisely on that value then have a second crazy table to draw from (Pirate nest, stowaways, secret island people, sunken haunted treasure ship, mutiny, etc).

This is just a rough list, I am sure you can come up with something better.

Clerics and Wizards (Necromancers more so) seem to be some of the best villains. They are able to tailor their spells to directly combat the PC's, they have access to crafting (for minion items), and the magical MacGuffins to put them in a place of evil power. It is possible that a barbarian chief could rise to the top of the evil plot, but it requires a messier, less subtle path that can take away from the mystique of more intellectual villains, and make them easy to spot by the PC's. Full caster villains can also use magics to escape to fight again, martials have a harder time surviving.

Brutes make fine lieutenants, tanks for holding the PC's back while the main cleric or wizard monologues and mocks from safety.
Rogues are a rare possible exception, while not powerful themselves, their CHA abilities can make them deadly political foes, pitting a neutral leader against the party who may have no idea who the true villain is. They are great for intrigue and subterfuge.

That said, there is something truly terrifying about a monstrous humanoid Magus who lures the PC's fighter in for a good old bash fest, only to hit him with a dazing, persistent ray of enfeeblement. Then hit the caster with a disruptive acid arrow.

In short, I love any villain that makes the party think, mystery can help make a decent character exceptional, and solving the mystery as well as vanquishing a foe make the victory all that much sweeter.

Summon monster, as I see it, is a wizard creating an ectoplasmic shell. This shell is then filled with part of the spirit of that creature, and part of the spirit of the wizard.
This connection means the spirit can do most of the things the master monster can (some powers are not available), and the summon can know who is a threat to the one it is bonded to and who it should listen to.
When a summon dies, it evaporates almost instantly and the "spirit fragment" returns to its native plane, but since it was such a small piece it was never really missed at all.

Monsters and difficulty will really depend on your party classes and numbers, adjust as needed.

Party arrives at an old inn, owner ushers them inside. It is just the owner, and one dark brooding guest. He says his food shipment is coming at first light, but the beds are ready. He says there are plenty of fruit trees and abundant game outside. Ranger goes to forage (bam, trap, taken by necromancer).
Party goes to bed, when they awake they find the place is in shambles (years old), the owner is missing, their coins are behind the counter...
Maybe a caster can summon forth he tortured ghost forced to aid the necromancer, unable to pass on...

This is a trap set up by a necromancer for collecting travellers. He wants to do magical experiments. Track to his lair (a ghost town overgrown over the years), have zombies/skeletons (unbound) in various houses as un-living traps. They can find his "home" an old antiques shop (with basement), it is infested with vermin (swarms maybe?).
They can listen through thin walls as the necromancer argues with an older female (cliche!), he explains how he is merely causing excruciating pain to the ranger, but not "Damaging the vessel", merely "Softening up his spirit".
Basement can have a maze of rooms (ruined by roots?), some corpses on chains, cages with zombies and dead animals (disease checks?), and jump scares as they open storage closets/dead end rooms.

Final fight is a necromancer and his (wait for it) deceased mother! He desires to bring her back, but he has failed so far at putting her into a new vessel (she is driving him crazy!). He divides his attention (and minions) between defending his new vessel, and defending her corpse, (destroying her ends the voices and releases him? or makes him snap completely and get reckless?). Fight ends, rescue ranger, grateful spirits tell how they were slaughtered by the mother, had her hanged, then he went insane and killed the few remaining. Now the spirits can rest (yay).

Ross Byers wrote:

Westphalian_Musketeer wrote:

GM says (to an evil cleric): "Is your skeleton still with you?"

GM means: "There is a high level paladin coming up, and you're not going to be able to bluff that the skeleton is just a remarkably thin human."

Always buy a hat of disguise for your undead/demonic minions.

Problem.

Disguise Self wrote:

You cannot change your creature type (although you can appear as another subtype).

Exactly. Go from deadly Formerly- Orc Skeleton Champion to a formerly- harmless medium bunny skeleton.