Hidersine's page

I'm not a DM (boo! hiss!) but I am subject to a rather cruel one. A few years back we did an ancient Greek campaign (inspired by Homer and the great New Argonauts book). The climax of nearly a year's worth of the highest order of epic gaming saw the PC's enter a large circular room, the entrance being magically sealed behind us...

Pah, that could have been worse; Your GM could have set it up with 4 grooves, and told you that one of the party must give their life for the others to continue. Then once all the party members were in a groove, have the 5th one spirited away to godhood for being noble enough to let his party members take the places (unless of course you murdered him beforehand where he would just be dead) and then have the rest of you incinerated by the hot room.

My own interpretation of what the OP mentioned would be that, the paladin should refuse all the pacts offered. While i agree that it would be realistic to punish someone who follows such a restrictive moral code with death or forced atonement, it perhaps would have been better for the devil to thank them for letting him free (while laughing internally that they didn't get the chance to squeeze him/her for stuff), assure them that the cultists are definetly evil (bait for the pally-hound), hint that there may be a reward (rest of party bait), point out where the cultists are, possibly leaving a pregnant pause to leave space for a pc to inquire about a reward, then leave quietly. This encourages the party to hunt the cultists down without infringing on the pally's code.

This IMO fits with what a Erinyes would conceivably do, as it has the two fold advantage of a: revenge against the cultist, B: establishs contact with the party, C: establishs the do stuff with devils for $$$ mentality which is easy to exploit.

Also IMO, the "sign your soul away or people die" thing should not come up with one exception; something is going to kill said people and the contract-maker offers as a third party to intervene in exchange.

I would agree, Blackwing, that the best way to play the corruption of your characters is to start small, thing they were going to do anyway then things which are small and on the way then small favours and so on grdually getting bigger...

Also If you finish them blackguard workings could you send them my way, I would love to see them.

Thanks alot to everyone for their advice, I think i have got a pretty good handle on what to pick now; going for most of the accessory item that Helic mentioned but dropping the mithral and getting a +2 sword instead, as well as the stat boosting items.

Thanks alot Helic and Aelryinth for your sound advice.

Not sure about the augment stone as I don't know what will be in said dungeon.

The mithril armour is definetely a good idea as with endurance, I can sleep in my armour with no penalty (I think) which is useful.

Thanks again for your advice.

EDIT: To Varthanna, the GM is far more forgiving on the paladin code than I am. :D

I'm a fairly new player to pathfinder and D&D as a whole, but I'm picking it up pretty well. One aspect that confounds me though is equipment selection, particurily magical items. In the current campaign I'm playing in that has never been a problem as frankly the DM has been pretty stingy with the loot. But recently we've come into a surprising lump sum (~28k gp per player) with the prospect of a trek through a desert followed by a dungeon crawl to reclaim a campaign maguffin (magic tentacle).

I play a lvl 8 paladin 6/cavilier 2, having picked the weapon divine bond with a fairly even spread on my stats (all 12 save for str [14], con [14] and cha [16]). The feats I've picked have served me reasonably well (endurance, diehard, mounted combat, power attack and leadership) and my skills are geared towards social interactions (diplomacy, sense motive, small bluff, small amount of perform), animal care (riding, handling) or generic usefulness (perception, swim, basic knowledges etc).

I have a lot of the mundane equipment (tent, blankets, light rations etc) and I've got a good set of full plate and a heavy shield

I'm really looking for advice on what kinda of equipment, especially of the magical nature, that would be useful to buy. My personal thoughts were of some kinda of magical armour to accompany my current +1 longsword (my only magical item).