I need to cancel my Adventure Path subscription please.
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I would like to cancel my Pathfinder Campaign Setting and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game subscriptions. Thank you
I would like to cancel my subscriptions to Pathfinder Companion and Pathfinder Modules. Thanks. Guthwulf
I would like to cancel my subscriptions to Pathfinder Companion and Pathfinder Modules. Thanks. Guthwulf
I need to cancel my Pathfinder subscription.
I would like to cancel all of my subscriptions except for the Pathfinder Adventure Paths line.
I'm running my 79th session this Tuesday, and they just started the 5th book. My players are really enjoying the game.
I think I should clarify something. I think the word "cheat" is having different conatations for different people. I equate cheating to someone who breaks the rules, with or without intent. So someone that actively breaks the rules is still cheating just like someone that accidentally gave themselve a +6 str item instead of a +2. They are still breaking the rules (can you tell I have a lawful personality). My biggest gripe with all of this is the ambiguity in the Season 0 mods allowing HUGE swings in difficulty. Now the GM did stat the centipede up correctly by the beastiary's rules, but he did not know he should have used the 3.5 versions. I tried to tell him this through emails and the only reason I did not just drop it was I did not feel it was right to burden the other players at the table to spend 5,450 gp for this mistake, since my character had no gp at that time. I read the boards daily since I have GM'd multiple games a week for years now. Perhaps it is because I GM and read the boards so much that I realized a CR 2 monster doing 2d6+10 is way out of the ballpark for the norm. I had been planning to start GM'ing up at the store once my finals were done for the semester. I also never mentioned who my GM was, he did that on his own. I am personally very happy with the retirement of Season 0 mods as I now see the confusion they can bring to the game table. I also concurr with Andrew that there should be some mention of how to handle Season 0 mods in the actual PDF and not just leave it up to the GMs to read the FAQs. Lastly, my wizard has 13 con, and 17 hit points. He was planning to put a point into con right after that game since he would have hit level 4.
Paizo did a crappy job for conversions of most vermin in the beastiary. They took an approach where the stat'd one monster and then told everyone to do their own conversions for the rest of the monsters. This has made some seriously different CR'd creatures. The original 3.5 Huge monster had a bite +5 (2d6+4 plus poison [DC 14]). When you make the conversion to pathfinder it now has a bite +10 (2d6+10 plus poison [DC 17]), which is basically a 100% increase in attack and damage. Atleast WotC realized this would imbalance certain CRs and did not give them the full +8 str +4 con and other bonuses associated with leveling in size to keep the aspect of damage potential and CR in line with other CRs of the same level. I was also very annoyed because the GM specically emailed me to come join his table this night in which I had originally not thought of coming to play at. When I arrived he said he was going to use a GM screen specially so he did not kill anyone. Then he killed my character. Then he uses ramped up NPCs from outside the original intent of the module. I feel like I was ambushed in this regard. I had been playing this game with the spirit of intent of the game. I now see it has nothing to do with having fun, but how min/maxed you can make your character. Again, this is not "fun" in my opinion. And as for GMs being able to alter the mobs in a standardized gaming format I still see as cheating. If I made my characters by any other rules than the ones given, I would be called a cheater, how is it different for GMs? Also, the module specially says "Huge Monstrous Centipedes (3) CR 2
I have no problem playing in Pathfinder Society were my character can be killed. What I do not like is spending months enjoying my character, to have a GM use monsters outside of the written module and kill me. That is not fun.
The huge centipede you are refering to is also CR 3, not the CR 2 they were supposed to be. That changes things by a lot. The module was written using 3.5 rules, are supposed to use the Monster manual from 3.5 using changes for CMB and CMD, the GM should not be making his own homebrew changes to the game. It is no longer a standardized league at that point. I also asked him what did he roll, and said he rolled d8's instead of D6s, he rerolled 13 from 4d6 and added 20 damage. I am just rather annoyed at this whole things and I have serious doubts if I would ever want to play again. One bad DM and you're character for months is gone.
So I was playing Pathfinder Society Scenario #14: The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch last Monday night, when my GM goes "crit". I think ok, I'm going to be unconscious, but I'll live through this. Then he goes, take 33 damage. Well I'm a 3rd level wizard playing in a 3-4 campaign. I say, "I'm dead" and begin packing up my things to leave. So I get home and being a bit frustrated with this I buy the module and look up what exactly killed me. It turns out it was a huge centipede. Well I've GM'd for a long time, and I could not imagine a giant centipede criting for this much. I pull out my monster manual and see the huge centipede does 2d6+4 damage. Well this could do as much as 32 damage, but only on all 6's. (I also do not know what the GM rolled because it was behind a GM screen in which he told me he used so he did not kill anyone). I then send him an email inquiring about what killed my character. He said he used the Pathfinder SRD for the stats but had toned them down from what they were originally. I go to the site, and it says "This is fan created". The huge centipede on this site did bite +10 (2d6+15 plus poison[DC17] as a CR 2. What am I supposed to do? The GM has told me the other players are willing to spend the money to raise me, but I think is absurd to make the other people I play with pay because the GM didn't follow the rules. So now, the character I have been enjoying and playing for months is dead, because the GM decided to tinker with the rules. I think I'm going to give up Pathfinder Society now.
Well this particular mission ended my wizard's promising career. A critical hit from a huge centipede for 33 damage against a level 3 wizard with 17 hp spells the end for him. I enjoyed Pathfinder Society for a while, but I do not think I can continue with something that leads to such an abrupt end when I do not think there was anything I could do to stop the outcome.
So I was thinking about how hit points fade away from spells like Bear's Endurance and rage effect. They are not temporary, and thus do not go away first, but how do you handle the disappearence of the added con bonus? If I have a level 3 fighter with 28 hit points and no damage (28/28).
If it's the former case, it seems like high level barbarians would be extremely rare, for if they ever fall unconscious while raging they will die instantly as they stop raging and lose their con bonuses.
My players ended up in Ravenmoor last night, and were completely miff'd at not being able to get a room in the inn. I have a feeling they are going to want to return soon (to sow a little chaos), and I was wondering if any GMs came up with any plots with this particular town in their campaigns.
Well since Ogrekin is a template, you can just lower their classes as you see fit, thus keeping the same look and feel.
Any more advice?
I am not sure if this will help you, but I have been increasing the books level ranges so that they will be 19th or 20th level by the end of the campaign. I created a random encounter table for traveling to the Kodar Mountains. 20% chance for encounter each day
d% roll.....EL.......Encounter Description
In my campaign I'll be starting this book at around 16th-17th level for my PCs, so these might be stronger than you need.
The fame points are much like Honor points since they are awarded for doing heroic and honorable acts, such as saving a town, or defeating a powerful evil foe. I plan on roleplaying the act of getting a gift from their fame/honor as part of saving/helping the town and surrounding area.
First off, this is a work in progress. I have been wanting to add a system into RotR for my players to feel like they are loved more in the campaign world. I figured I could award story points (fame points) when they accomplished something big. So what can you use these points for?
For every 5 fame points you have you get a -1 fame penalty to Disguise in that city/town. For every 10 fame points you have, you get a 10% discount on items you buy within the city/area, up to a maximum of 20% off in that city/town. For every 20 fame points you have, you get a 10% discount on items you sell within the city/area, up to a maximum of 20% off in that city/town. You can also trade in 5 fame points for a free item up to the max gold limit within the city. The larger the city, the harder it is to get fame points for your actions. Examples of Fame Point awards from Rise of the Runelords
Spoiler:
Stopped the goblin attack on the festival +5 Sandpoint / +1 Magnimar Cleared out the Glassworks +2 Sandpoint Cleared out Thistletop +4 Sandpoint / +1 Magnimar Stopped the Undead Attacks +3 Sandpoint / +1 Magnimar Stopped the Skinsaw Man +4 Sandpoint / +1 Magnimar Stopped the Brothers of Seven +2 Magnimar Stopped Xanesha +1 Sandpoint / +3 Magnimar Stopped the Grauls +3 Turtleback Ferry Cleared out Fort Rannick +1 Magnimar / +5 Turtleback Ferry Saved the Dam +1 Sandpoint / +1 Magnimar / +8 Turtleback Ferry Defeated Barl Breakbones +1 Magnimar / +5 Turtleback Ferry Stopped the Giant attack on Sandpoint +7 Sandpoint / +1 Magnimar Stopped Mokmurian +1 Sandpoint / +2 Magnimar / +2 Turtleback Ferry My reasoning for how I came up with the points was based on how heroic the scene seemed. While defeating a goblin raid might be impressive, I would award more for saving a town from a dragon because it would be even more heroic. How I actually assign points is one of my biggest concerns. I guess in the end I should try to figure out how much possible fame I would want my PCs to be able to earn and then break it down. I would also gave less fame for events that were important to a town, but happened very far away. The killing of a BBEG hundreds of miles from the town, while in fact their most impressive feat, would give them some of the smallest rewards since it was so far away from most of the settlements. As far as the "buying" of items. I plan on it being done more through roleplay than just giving the PCs an item. Also, the reason they lose fame points for doing this is others see them as using their clout to get what they want and decreases their fame slightly. I tried to make the rewards worthwhile for those that want to be famous to keep them, but also to allow greedy characters to be just that. Using their "heroic" victories to garner items from would be impressed people of the town. My main reason for coming up with this system is to actually encourage more roleplay from my PCs. I know it looks very mechanical and perhaps a lot like faction in video games these days, but I am still curious to see how it comes out. Also, as far as the rewards for turning in their fame points is not all that overpowered. Spoiler:
Reward for Sandpoints is maxed at 1,000 gp.
If they cashed them all in, by the end of the 4th book, they would have an extra 30,000 gp each in items. I do not think this will schew things to far off base. I also do not think every PC will cash in all or even most of their fame points. I believe they will enjoy the perks of having them. I have also considered adding in encounters based off their fame and making them easier or more difficult based on what there's are. In the end, I want this to be something the PCs can enjoy, and understand how much the citizens of the area are honoring them. Any suggestions or thoughts on this system?
Any suggestions?
Also, as far as the rewards for turning in their fame points is not all that overpowered. Reward for Sandpoints is maxed at 1,000 gp.
If they cashed them all in, by the end of the 4th book, they would have an extra 30,000 gp each in items. I do not think this will schew things to far off base. I also do not think every PC will cash in all or even most of their fame points. I believe they will enjoy the perks of having them. I have also considered adding in encounters based off their fame and making them easier or more difficult based on what there's are. In the end, I want this to be something the PCs can enjoy, and understand how much the citizens of the area are honoring them.
My reasoning for how I came up with the points was based on how heroic the scene seemed. While defeating the goblin raid was impressive, I awarded more for saving Sandpoint from the giants and dragon because it was even more heroic. How I actually assign points is one of my biggest concerns. I guess in the end I should try to figure out how much possible fame I would want my PCs to be able to earn and then break it down. I also gave less fame for events that were important to a town, but happened very far away. The killing of Mokmorian, while in fact their most impressive feat, gave them some of the smallest rewards since it was so far away from most of the settlements. As far as the "buying" of items. I plan on it being done more through roleplay than just giving the PCs an item. Also, the reason they lose fame points for doing this is others see them as using their clout to get what they want and decreases their fame slightly. I tried to make the rewards worthwhile for those that want to be famous to keep them, but also to allow greedy characters to be just that. Using their "heroic" victories to garner items from would be impressed people of the town. My main reason for coming up with this system is to actually encourage more roleplay from my PCs. I know it looks very mechanical and perhaps a lot like faction in video games these days, but I am still curious to see how it comes out.
Any suggestions, or does no one really like this concept?
I'm starting to think I'm too lenient on my players. I've only had 6 deaths in the last 65 game sessions of Rise of the Runelords. About to start book 5, so I'll probably get a few more soon.
Spoilers included in this thread. First off, this is a work in progress. I have been wanting to add a system into RotR for my players to feel like they are loved more in the campaign world. I figured I could award story points (fame points) when they accomplished something big. So what can you use these points for?
For every 5 fame points you have you get a -1 fame penalty to Disguise in that city/town. For every 10 fame points you have, you get a 10% discount on items you buy within the city/area, up to a maximum of 20% off in that city/town. For every 20 fame points you have, you get a 10% discount on items you sell within the city/area, up to a maximum of 20% off in that city/town. You can also "sell"/ turn in 5 fame points for a free item up to the max gold limit within the city. The larger the city, the harder it is to get fame points for your actions. Milestones Stopped the goblin attack on the festival
Cleared out the Glassworks
Cleared out Thistletop
Stopped the Undead Attacks
Stopped the Skinsaw Man
Stopped the Brothers of Seven
Stopped Xanesha
Stopped the Grauls
Cleared out Fort Rannick
Saved the Dam
Defeated Barl Breakbones
Stopped the Giant attack on Sandpoint
Stopped Mokmurian
So by the end of the 4th book, the heroes if they have survived it all have the following standings (also assuming they haven't bought anything) +28 Sandpoint
What are your suggestions to improve or add to this system?
I'm statting up an encounter for one of my games involving a Satyr in a forest. I plan on the encounter being more whimsical than combat oriented, but if I know my players they are going to get bored with his antics after a time. I wanted to place a boon upon him from a fey god or goddess, in that who ever should do a killing blow would be cursed with bad luck. Mechanics wise, I think this would be during a moment of great need, the player cursed would be forced to reroll a save or attack that was successful, and taking the second result even if it is better. My problem is, I cannot seem to find any gods or goddesses in the Pathfinder pantheon that fits this kind of role. Any suggestions?
You can raise the DC of the scroll by essentially making a higher level spell and adding the heighten spell feat to it. A heightened fireball to 7th level, would have a DC 20 (10 + spell level 7 + ability mod from 17 (+3)). But it would also cost the same as a 7th level scroll. It's not optimal, but at least its an alternative.
I am currently trying to extend my RotR campaign so that the characters will be as close to 20 as I can get them. I have been bumping up the encounters so the books go further. Currently we are at the end of Fortress of the Stone Giants and they are all close to being level 13. My goal is to try to have Sins of the Saviors take them well into level 15 and possibily 16 before starting Spires of Xin-Shalast. My question is has anyone dropped in more encounters into Runeforge? I've already decided to try and add more relavent encounters into the different areas to flesh them out more. But I am hoping there are already some ideas out there.
I know in the book there is nothing on encounters for the PCs traveling to Runeforge in Book 5 Sins of the Savior, but I was wondering if any GMs out there came up with anything interesting. It seems like a long way to travel without some events going on.
Yeah, I do find it rather annoying that any spellcaster can possibly discover a magical trap because they keep detect magic running indefinitely.
So I recently came across a trap in one of the APs in which if anyone entered a room, a nasty magical trap would go off. Fortunately, the rogue was being cautious at the time, and made the DC 33 perception check to notice the trap. Now, in the rules it says a rogue can disarm magical traps. My question is how do they do this? What are the techniques in shutting down a magical trap to a room? What if the lever is inside the room? I was wondering if there were any handy PF books on styles of traps for more flavor? In the end I just told the player, yeah you can try to disable the trap and he did so without entering the room. I do not want to make it harder for the rogues in the party, but I would like to understand more of how magical traps tend to work in general and proper ways (flavorful) of disarming them.
I was listening to one of my players talking about one of the PFS games he was able to play in, and he brought up an interesting point. Apparently, there is a rule that magic cannot go outside of the range of the spell. In regards to a summoned monster that is close range 25ft + 5ft/2 levels. So at level one, if I summon a dog 20 feet away, and then it moves 10ft away, does it vanish outside of the confines of short spell range?
I left Giants as Giants and not Humanoid (Giant). My reasoning is that they seem more primordial than humanoid. Frost, Fire, Earth, Storm, Cloud, etc. And I felt they fell outside of Humanoid limitations. The only one that I might have justified falling into Humanoid(Giant) would be ogres.
Aren't there devices surrounding the World Wound that keep all of those hungry, destructive, teleporting at will Demons contained?
I am starting to think that my players are just really slow. We have been playing Rise of the Runelords for almost two years now and next Tuesday will be our 61st game session. We are almost through the 4th book in the series. I was wondering how many sessions do most people take to play through the different Adventure Paths?
My last campaign the GM would just decide when to level us and never told us how much experience we had. I remember at one point he said we wouldn't level again until we went into the big bad evil castle and no amount of side quests would level us. So the group decided to just drop all the side quests and went straight to the castle. When a GM dangles large carrots like that, people tend to go for them. I would have preferred xp in that we still would have felt like we were accomplishing tasks without having to search for the "sweet spot", aka the predetermined leveling spot.
Well, my question is when a PC dies and decides not to raise dead / reincarnate, but create a new character. At what level do you let the new PC join as? Their previous level?
What about spellcasting monsters such as Lamias that have other effects when they touch? I had a Lamia cleric of Lamashtu 11 casting Slay Living spells that also drained 1d4 wisdom with the touch attack.
Can a spell casting caster with spring attack, more forward, cast a touch spell (a melee attack), and then move away?
So in regards to the Glitterdust, does the same hold true for undead, except they atleast have a better will save?
I had a few questions concerning golems. First, if my PCs cast detect magic at say a Stone Golem, does it radiate magic? And second, can a golem be blinded? One of my players tried this last game using Glitterdust(a will save) and I could not find anything that disproved this would work, but it just didn't feel right. This same question in regards to undead too.
I limited this kind of thing by doing a house rule on orisons and cantrips. I liked the whole 3 + ability modifier per day so I made them that way. I have never really liked unlimiited resources. So my casters still have roughly (6 to 8) castings of each cantrip or orison per day. Now I know this does not help anyone still using RAW. But I felt there were quite a few too useful spells to have at will that seemed to break immersion for my games.
Well I think for each DM's group things will always be different. Best I can do is to tell you some of the changes I did with my group.
Setup: I had several NPCs survive the PCs from earlier fights. Namely: Lucrecia (which I have added a few rogue and sorc levels to bring her to a CR 13).
I decided I wanted more roaming encounters at the fortress so I set Teraktenus up with 4 stone giants to roam outside of the walls tracking what has been killing off several groups of stone giant hunters. Longtooth pretty much sticks to the mountains looking for large animals to roast and take back to his lair to snack on. The PCs do not have much to worry about from him unless they get real frisky. I turned Zinderhall from the Valisganderr clan into a Half Fiend Stone Giant Fighter 1 (a pretty nasty upgrade) and coupled him with a Cyclops Oracle 11 (CR 11) and had them roaming the lower level of Jorgenfist. I also had another roaming group for the lowest level. Mokmurian after learning of an incursion from humanoid adventurers decide to use his Lamia's worship of Lamashtu to summon forth Demons to help hunt down the intruders. I made this group to be 1 Hezrou, 2-3 Babaus, 4-6 Dretches. (Planar Binding from Mokmurian and Lesser Planar Ally from the Lamias) Mokmurian uses spells such as prying eyes to find the PCs and then uses scrying and divination spells to command his minions to ambush or attack them. I'm still debating if Mokmurian would be too egotistical to make appearances during fights via teleportation spells, buff (haste, mass stat buffs, etc), his minions and leave. I currently feel he wouldn't do these kind of actions, but perhaps when he starts to feel more desperate these kinds of ambushes would be more plauseable or maybe not.
I would suggest that Mokmurian find the tunnel maze an annoyance and has the lamia's seal it shut with a stone shape. It'll be pretty difficult for the PCs to find the spot were this occured since they are coming from a maze with many deadends. Mokmurian also has most spells of 7th or lower. He could prepare some different spells to aid him. I had him use Planar Binding to summon a 12 HD demon to help guard or roam locations he felt were vulnerable after the first PC invasion. Other spells such as Prying Eyes can be fun. 1d4 + 1/level floating eyes searching for the wearabouts of PCs can be fun. Give them a perception roll to notice them before they slip away to tell Mokmurian. Mokmurian is a 14th level wizard with an ancient library at his disposal, not to mention being fairly intelligent. As the DM you should not let these go to waste and have him just sitting there waiting for a minion to say, "They are here boss".
I had never really thought about it before, but if a wizard casts fireball and has it detonate in the middle of all the monsters. But the wizard's line of sight passes through his own fighter and enemies before getting the optimal location. My question is two parts, is there some kind of check to see if the wizard accidentally hits the fighter in the back with the fireball. And second, can an enemy choose to jump in front of a fireball, thus having it explode earlier than the wizard expected and having it blow back into their own party?
My group for Rise of the Runelords is about to have their 52nd game session and they just reached the fortress in the 4th book. I have not even added any side adventures other than random encounters when they travel. My players do get easily side tracked during our sessions and role play all sorts of things. So in the end, it really seems to come down to each individual group of players to see how long a module or adventure can take.
I was under the impression that wands only went up to 4th level, even with metamagic added to it. Therefore, a wand of empowered fireballs(5th level) is not even possible to create.
Anyone?
So in my recent Rise of the Runelords campaign, the wizard in my group that I am DM'ing for decided to cast Spectral Hand. He had a wand of vampiric touch and thought this would be the best way to deliver the attacks. He proceeded to send the spectral hand at the target (a raging barbarian ogre with a magic weapon). After I looked at the spell I concluded that the ogre would get an attack of opportunty on the spectral hand as it moved into his space to deliver the touch attack. The hand has 1d4 hit points and 22 + int bonus of the caster, in this case 28. I rolled a 28 on the attack, and then rolled the 50% miss chance to see if I hit the incorporeal hand, which I did. After this all occured my wizard player was very put off feeling that the spell is useless. Did I DM this wrong? I could not figure out the reason for giving the spectral hand such high ac and other defenses if not for it provoking as it moved into threatened areas. Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.
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