Creamsteak's page

I'm not sure how you can define some things as use and not other things as use. Arrows and bolts specifically say they can be "used" in that way, if you want to get pedantic.

"A crossbow bolt used as a melee weapon is treated as a light improvised weapon (–4 penalty on attack rolls) and deals damage as a dagger of its size (crit ×2)."

The current character, with all feats right now using arrows, supposing I have everything correct, would be making six attacks at +17/+17/+17/+17/+12/+12 for 1d4 + 8 (rage strength) + 1 trait + 1 point-blank. Throwing weapons are expensive, whereas ammunition is not. The advantage would mostly be in terms of being able to cheaply get throwing weapons he would be proficient in. The upkeep cost would be pretty high, as he would burn through ammunition, but it's more versatile and cheaper than getting six enchanted throwing weapons (not to mention he's not proficient with anything except greatclubs).

Adding +1 to hit and damage and 1d6 fire damage to six attacks would definitely be a bit of a swing in damage.

Arrows specifically have a line about being used as improvised melee weapons dealing damage as a dagger. I assume arrows are destroyed on hit.

Improvised weapons can't be weapon focused and I don't believe they can be enchanted as weapons by the rules as written. I could be wrong on that.

Ammunition, however, can obviously be enchanted.

The question that follows for me is obvious, would ammunition used as an improvised weapons benefit from it's enhancement bonus (and other enchantment modifiers, flaming, etc)?

Would a special material arrow used in this way pierce damage reduction of that type?

This comes up because I'm working on a feral gnasher goblin, and it seems like giving him a quiver of enchanted adamantine ammunition would be one of the most efficient ways to deal with a lot of inherent problems with improvised weapons. Or maybe that doesn't work at all. I believe my GM will back the rules as written unless the rules as written are obviously breaking the game.

I also find it highly amusing to imagine a feral "hunchback" (bag of holding/magic quiver under a cloak) goblin scurrying around on all fours and throwing random objects at opponents. I'm investigating the options.

I'm working on a Pathfinder E6 replacement for my now dead half-orc Barbarian. The main problem I ran into was that he was always targetted over the more heavily armored Paladin, so I saw some other equipment and feats I could take to make his replacement a thrower.

My basic rules questions are thus:

What should the damage be on using a generic sledge as a throwing weapon? I believe it's 2d6 for the goblin because of his improvised weapons mastery lets him treat an improvised weapon as one size larger and a note I've seen that a sledge is treated as an improvised earth breaker (which would be d10 for small, 2d6 for medium).

So, besides amunition being extremely limited because you can only carry so many, even with a haversack, does this work? I'm expecting that hasted, and using all feats, rage powers, rage, etc he would be throwing at +16/+16/+16/+11 with a 20 ft. range increment (belt) and dealing 2d6+16.

If I move to the square "all" the sledges landed in last round, can I just start throwing them off the ground at another enemy? This is sort of my current plan for keeping up. Melee if necessary, but generally throw hammers at something till it's dead then move to that space to use those hammers again.

I'm also interested in taking my next feats in two-weapon fighting and improved two-weapon fighting and similar, and basically carrying around a full kitchen set in the haversack of random objects to throw. This seems to be an even more confusing issue than the throwing things with two hands. I think it would be fun, and obviously would decrease attack bonuses even further, but it seems possible to me.

And if I grapple without being considered grappled, and I take the necessary feats to not provoke when attacking, can I grapple an opponent and still throw things?

Stat block provided below.

Grr Chuck-Chuck
Male Goblin Barbarian (Feral Gnasher) 6
N Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9
Defense
AC 23, touch 16, flat-footed 19 (+6 armor, +4 Dex, +1 size, +1 natural, +1 deflection)
hp 65 (6d12+18)
Fort +9, Ref +8, Will +4
Defensive Abilities uncanny dodge
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +7 (1d6+2 plus grab) and
improvised sledgehammer +14/+9 (2d6+8/19-20)
Special Attacks grab (Medium), rage (16 rounds/day), rage powers (inspire ferocity, reckless abandon)
Statistics
Str 20, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 5
Base Atk +6; CMB +10 (+14 grapple); CMD 25
Feats Deadly Aim, Improvised Weapon Mastery, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Raging Hurler, Rapid Shot, Throw Anything, Two-Handed Thrower
Traits dockside brawler, surprise weapon
Skills Acrobatics +12, Climb +13, Perception +9, Stealth +16
Languages Goblin
SQ impromptu armament, lockjaw, tireless rage
Other Gear +2 chain shirt, improvised sledgehammer, amulet of natural armor +1, belt of mighty hurling (lesser), cloak of resistance +2, handy haversack, ring of protection +1, sledge (9)
Special Abilities
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Deadly Aim -2/+4 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Grab: Bite (Medium) (Ex) You can start a grapple as a free action if you hit with the designated weapon.
Impromptu Armament (Ex) Can pick up an unattended object you can wield in one hand as free action.
Improved Lockjaw (Ex) You are not grappled when grappling with your bite attack.
Improvised Weapon Mastery Proficient with all improvised weapons, increase their damage category 1 step, and grant them a threat range of 19-20.
Inspire Ferocity (+/-2, 1 rounds) (Ex) Move action: grant your Reckless Abandon ability to allies within 30'
Point-Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Precise Shot You don't get -4 to hit when shooting or throwing into melee.
Quick Draw Draw weapon as a free action (or move if hidden weapon). Throw at full rate of attacks.
Rage (16 rounds/day) (Ex) +4 Str, +4 Con, +2 to Will saves, -2 to AC when enraged.
Raging Hurler Throw a two-handed weapon as a standard action
Rapid Shot You get an extra attack with ranged weapons. Each attack is at -2.
Reckless Abandon (+/-2) (Ex) Trade AC penalty for to hit bonus while raging.
Surprise Weapon You are skilled at fighting with objects not traditionally considered weapons. Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on attack rolls with improvised weapons.
Throw Anything Proficient with improvised ranged weapons. +1 to hit with thrown splash weapons.
Two-Handed Thrower Gain Str bonus when using two hands to throw a one or two-handed weapon
Uncanny Dodge (Ex) Retain Dex bonus to AC when flat-footed.

Most of the time, this feat and the explanations I've read for it seem fairly clear cut. If someone has a weapon or natural attack of any kind (including gauntlets for most medium or heavier armors), they are considered armed. My question primarily deals with archers.

Is a humanoid NPC holding just a longbow/shortbow/crossbow/sling considered armed? What if they have no ammunition to use the weapon?
If not, what about if they have an arrow in one hand (as an improvised melee weapon)?

I also assume wearing a (non-spiked) buckler is not armed (can't be used for shield bash), but other shields count as armed.

I would imagine if I was in a one shot adventure, I'd be really daring, and assume I could escape or handle the first NPCs that are aggressive to me. Unfortunately that's not the case in Wormwood Mutiny, the players really have to wait a lot and bide there time. I think this is a great adventure for a one shot, but I would do some heavy mods, and yeah, definitely get rid of a lot of the NPCs, too many distractions for players who don't need the investment in a oneshot.

I was definitely going to make it more open-ended in that department. I might still make the captain himself overwhelmingly intimidating in some way, but I'd definitely cut or downsize some of the other higher level NPCs. Having the first mate actually be the toughest guy other than the captain should flow reasonably well, while still letting the captain be the ominous mostly-background monster that puts the fear into everyone else. It's still risky, I've seen people who will challenge anything, and I can't necessarily know what to expect from players. But maybe that can act as a lesson to learn. I might have to adjust on the fly if necessity demands.

I have four to six players coming over for a six hour one-shot on a weekday, none of them having played any RPGs before. I'm thinking of running a modified and cut down version of the Wormwood Mutiny as a possibility. I'd likely cut some of the days out of the initial journey, and wrap the game up with a (likely) mutiny onboard the Man's Promise. I may also cut the total named NPCs the characters see down a little, but add a little more intrigue where possible.

This is mostly a group of "fantasy fiction" enthusiast friends of mine that heard I run great games and wanted to play "D&D" despite my inquiries if they might prefer a better game for a first experience/one-shot. I think this particular adventure/path seemed likely to work for certain purposes, though it is a bit linear/railroad compared to most one-shots. I think I can wing that part though to make it more interesting as a set-piece game.

Any thoughts/opinions on this?

I have a Roleplaying Game, Adventure Path, and Campaign Setting subscription. I love them all, but I'd like to cancel them going forward.

Thanks.

As awesome as they are, I don't think I'll be able to subscribe. :P

Like another user, I had a subscription order of Giant's Revisited that appears to have been replaced with a copy of the module No Response From Deepmar.

I'd still like to get a hard-cover copy of the Giant's Revisited book when possible.

To be blunt why should the players establish more than their capital city? From a gamist point of view it´s not very effective unless you have already so much income that you want more cities to build more buildings each month.

From an RP view it's far easier to protect 1 city than 10.

A minor advantage might be that it seems you can move your "capital" around (summer court vs. winter court, or just to whatever location is most convenient at the moment).

Creamsteak wrote:

... why does the kingdom get such a large amount of capital ...

Short version: BP =/= gold. "BP" isn't actually a spendable resource... it's the general capability of a country's economic system to produce new things.

Capital is not necessarily gold either. Capital in this context is the ability to produce goods and services. Maybe I should say capital + labor in this context, but it's still irrelevant to my query.

Upon first reading the "Sell Valuable Items" step, I thought these were steps in which characters in the party could sell loot they had acquired in order to bolster their own economy. I'm actually a bit surprised that it refers to selling the items randomly generated in specific shops. This strikes me as an odd mechanic for generating revenue for the kingdom, and I don't totally understand it.

In terms of verisimilitude, why does the kingdom get such a large amount of capital from an independent shop selling goods?

My second question would be... will the game still work if I entirely remove this mechanic? It doesn't work for me at the moment. I was also potentially planning on increasing the amount of economy generated by mines and other structures built on resources to compensate if it's necessary.

Pholtus wrote:

Just wondering. There isn't anything new in this printing then what was covered in the PDF versions right?

I never saw the PDF versions, so I can't comment with 100% accuracy, but my recollection is that this is a straight print edition of what was in the two PDFs. The intro from Monte is different, but otherwise, I believe it is the same.

-Lisa

Any chance we will see a pdf version of the complete book? Or at least the two pdfs on Paizo's website? The website they are selling the pdfs through is giving me problems just getting signed in.

#18.

The squid can be beaten with some cunning play though. This is a spoiler, but with some clever play there's a way around.

I like room 10, for that. It's hard, but clever play can get one around it. Also note that as another spoiler...

Room 13 can be incredibly damaging or really easy. I've seen both so-far. It's a cool idea, but random.

Room 10, however, seems rediculously lethal. Those raptors just seem overwhelming for their given CR.

I'm a bit late to the party here.

I just finished the 1st floor of the module. I was running it with the pre-gens at the back of the book. This was a one-off adventure I ran because some of my players didn't make it to the session tonight. Out of curiosity, which room won the "killing the most PCs" in the Gencon delve?

Some general thoughts on the first floor...

Room 3: Needs cake. When I ran the room without cake, everyone assumed it was a trap and walked away. When I ran the room WITH cake, it worked much better.

Room 10: I'm fairly convinced that the raptors are above the scale of the party in the book. Even given the circumstance of the room, they seem vastly more powerful than CR 7. The goblins seem tolerable though. This encounter has killed 2 different parties so far. I think, for comparison, the grey render was a push-over. I'd rather fight 2 renders and the goblins than the double raptors.