Red Mantis Assassin

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Name: Boddyknock the Gnome
Race: Gnome
Class: Warlock 2
Adventure: Howl of the Carrion King
Where: main cathedral of the monastery

When the group tried to parley with the pugwampis, things went sideways and Boddyknock decided to try and take cover among the pews rather than retreating with the rest of his party. A few arrows later, and he died before help could arrive.

As a note, that is one huuuuuuuge monastery.

(I'm running the adventure path using D&D 5e rules)


pg 434 of the core rules covers who's on shift. By it's guidelines, and given a 12 man force, it looks like there'd be 4 guards on duty at any particular time, with 3 out patroling, and 1 on watch somewhere.


My own theory is that the Kreegs have actually just moved out. Tired of being bossed around by Barl, the family picks up and heads out to take over a new base of operations. They leave behind a few ogres to help out Barl and his crazy plan, but for the most part, the Kreegs are just happy to be out from under his thumb, I think.

I think Barl's plan to overflow and bring down the dam isn't a bad one. It's an old dam, and if it were to give way after a season of heavy rains, well, them's the breaks. Nothing there to attract the attentions of a band of annoying heroes who might be a monkey wrench in things.

Too bad about the Kreeg's screwing things up taking the keep, huh?


In my game, the PCs managed to parlay with the redcaps (after the party dwarf ranger got roshambo'd a few times in a dark tunnel) and recruit them as temporary allies. This let them use the tunnels as a rest & recuperate location once. The next time, the forgefiend rampaged through the redcap tunnels looking for the party... who had decided to instead rest up in the troll-ambush cave area. So in the end, things didn't turn out too well for the redcaps.


Well, that is Valkyrie, so her having a big sword isn't completely out of line.


Surely I'm not the only one who, upon reading the thread title, though this was going to be a discussion about how the "broken" condition in Pathfinder (pg 565) had a problem?


Moment of awesome from this week's session, from under Sandpoint. Facing The Scribbler and his demon ally, most of the party (monk, cleric/paladin, ranger) have moved up to hand-to-hand range with the demon, while the universalist wizard hung far back and tried dismissal.

The Scribbler, using his free action summons brings in a barghest and two shadow mastiffs, dropping them around the wizard, and finishes up with a quickened spiritual weapon to complete the encirclement, before moving up to engage the ranger in melee.

The wizard survives the first round of strikes thanks to false life. He then calls "broken arrow" and trusting to his resist fire 30, drops a fireball on himself. A bad roll means he doesn't quite drop the creatures, so using his sihedron rune, he pulls another false life on himself.

Another round of attacks leaves him hurt, but up, so he drops an empowered fireball on himself... this one takes out the shadow mastiffs and the barghest. Of course, the spiritual weapon drops him the round after, and the party (having dealt with the demon and driven off The Scribbler) barely manage to drag the wounded wizard to safety.


Having just finished up Fortress, my party is back in Sandpoint and pondering what to do about the "demon in the basement".

The party wizard, armed with Mokmurian's spellbooks and drifting towards evil, is intending to research in the Library which I hope to use as a hook to get them on the way to the Runeforge. The rest of the group is pretty much going to pursue some romance and personal projects, as I try to reconnect them with the Sandpoint setting before flinging them off to the Runeforge.

It's actually kind of nice to be finally in the 5th book, as we're just ending our 2nd year on the AP.


My own take is that Lamashtu is actually a driving force in the adventure and is manipulating events to lead to Karzoug's downfall. It is the actions of so many of her agents that first put the heroes on the trail to defeating the Runelord, and her agents that give up the secrets of how to defeat him.

Without Lamashtu, the Runelord succeeds in his plan to return, after all.


On page 2, in the big text at the top...

"If a weapon description says it is 'treated as' another weapon, a character lacking the appropriate exotic weapon proficiency can still use it as if it were the other kind of weapon and feats such as weapon focus still apply, as do abilities requiring a certain weapon."

It goes on to basically say that you can wield a butterfly knife as a dagger (though without the free action open/close, I think).


5 people marked this as FAQ candidate. Answered in the errata.

In the Adventurer's Armory, there are three new weapons that seem useful for monks. However, I'm not 100% sure they are, and I'm looking for some clarity.

Brass Knuckles are listed on the chart as an unarmed attack doing 1d3/x2. In the text, however, it says they let you deal lethal damage with unarmed attacks. My thinking is that when weilded by a monk, the monk would get to do his Monk Unarmed Damage instead of the 1d3 (which is the normal unarmed damage for a non-monk). In other words, the brass knuckles merely modify unarmed damage, turning it lethal, rather than doing damage themselves?

Cestus are listed as light melee weapons doing 1d4/19-20/x2 and count as monk weapons. Again, in the text, it says that your unarmed attacks deal "normal" (aka lethal) damage. Does the cestus damage replace the monk's unarmed damage? Since it's listed as a light melee weapon, I suspect not.

The last item is a Rope Gauntlet, an exotic light melee weapon doing 1d4/x2, not listed as a monk weapon, and also apparently converting unarmed nonlethal to lethal damage. Again, I wonder if a monk could instead do his monk unarmed damage with these?

The last two, being listed as melee weapons, I'm thinking probably can't substitute monk unarmed, but brass knuckles could, I think. Which would be a nice way to give a monk some access to magical weaponry without screwing his damage and/or flurry.


Quote:
build a "mobile hut" big enough for three medium PCs

It's wonderful to see that the A-Team lives on in a younger generation. Did they paint the hut black with a red stripe?


In my campaign, Orik read the writing on the wall around when the PCs had dropped Ripnugget and took off. I had him stop by Sandpoint, basically to tell the PCs that he was taking off and to let them know that Nualia had a plan - up to that point, the PCs hadn't figured out there was a "countdown clock" at work so were being pretty relaxed. Instead of fighting Orik, one of the PCs gave him a horse and some coin and told him to get out of Sandpoint.

Later, he ended up being my way to hook the players into the Fort Rannick plot. Orik had joined up with the Black Arrows and started a regular correspondence with the PC who'd given him the horse. When his last letter refered to seeing the sihedron rune tatoo on a Turtleback Ferry villager and then the letters stopped, the PCs decided to head off to Fort Rannick on their own to investigate.

Now, having helped Orik retake Fort Rannick, I'm expecting him to become the leader of a new corps of Black Arrows.


I call this the peanut butter jar principle. You know how sometimes you've got a jar, and you reef on it and reef on it and nothing moves and its frustrating and you hand it off to someone else and *pop* it opens with just a twist?


Left as a template, the ogre-kin help make it seem like your average Ogre isn't much concerned about what it mates with and suggests that Ogre's are surprisingly fecund. I think it increases the sense of weirdness and disgust they'll invoke.


This is what I came up with for Mammy. Figured she had to know something about the dead (thus the religion) and was probably pretty good at guessing what was valuable. Not 100% sure on all the math, since I was doing this kind of quick for play.

Spoiler:

Mammy Graul CR 8
4,800 XP
Female ogrekin human wizard (necromancer) 8
CE Medium humanoid (giant)
Init -3; Senses low-light vision, life sight; Perception +0
DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 7, flat-footed 11
(+6 natural, -3 Dex, +4 armor)
hp 75 (8d6+32+13 false life)
Fort +6, Ref -1, Will +6
OFFENSE
Spd 30 ft.
Melee mwk quarterstaff +10 (1d6+7)
SA channel energy 5/day (DC14), grave touch,
Spells Prepared (CL8, +9 touch, +1 ranged touch)
4th - bestow curse (DC18), contagion (DC18), dimension door
3rd - displacement, fly, summon monster III, vampiric touch
2nd - blindness/deafness (DC16), false life, ghoul touch (DC16), mirror image, summon monster II
1st - chill touch (DC15), grease (DC13), mage armor, ray of enfeeblement (DC13), reduce person (DC13), true strike
0 - mage hand, message, detect magic, touch of fatigue (DC14)
Prohibitted Schools abjuration, enchantment
STATISTICS
Str 20+5, Dex 4-3, Con 19+4, Int 15+2, Wis 10+0, Cha 10+0
Base Atk +4; CMB +9; CMD 16 (26 with Grease)
Feats Command Undead, Craft Wand, Craft Wonderous Item, Spell Focus (necromancy), Greater Spell Focus (necromancy)
Wizard Bonus Feats Scribe Scroll, Brew Potion
Skills Appraise +13, Fly +8, Knowledge (arcana) +13, Knowledge (religion) +13, Spellcraft +13
Languages Common, Giant, Abbysal
SQ deformities, power over undead, life sight
Gear potion of cure moderate wounds, scroll of animate dead, wand of magic missile (CL3, 2 missiles, 44 charges), wand of ray of enfeeblement (DC13, 28 charges), wand of vampire touch (2D6, 33 charges), belt of mighty constitution +2, 2 varisian idols (+2hp per HD if used), amulet (25gp)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Mammy's Deformities (Ex) Mammy's thick layers of blubber increase her natural armor bonus to +6. However, being hideously overweight penalizes her -4 Dex.
Power over Undead (Su) Received Command Undead as a free feat. Can channel to Command, 5 times/day, DC14 to resist.
Grave touch (Sp) As standard action make melee touch attack that causes living creature to become shaken for 4 rounds. Shaken becomes frightened for 1 round if less than 8HD/levels. Can touch 5 times/day.
Arcane Bond Bonded to amulet.


I've started doing Tarantino-esque "cut-scenes" to reveal the backstory for some of the villains in the AP, just because there's some great info in there that the PCs will never learn otherwise. It's also helped give some dimension to the foes as the players beat them down.


The animal companion can also do Aid Another as its attack action, granting either a +2 AC or +2 to hit against the target. Might be handy, sometimes.


The GM Screen seems made of material designed to stop a fast moving die and is very sturdy. I'm also pleased to see it has the common status effects details and all the charts for the skills on it. Not sure I like that its so tall - my recent experience has shown that tall screens get in the way lately, what with all the miniatures and movement on the maps.

Looking forward to trying it out in actual play come my next session.


I'm running a game with a monk in it, and what I've found from behind my DM screen is that the monk is a game changer. It's not every encounter, but maybe 1 in 3 that he'll bust out some kind of manuever or attack or move that completely throws off my bad guys plans.

Maybe he'll grapple a caster, or stun someone, or trip them. Maybe he'll tumble past a bunch of defenders and suddenly put a previously safe enemy into the front line. Sometimes he'll jump into the middle of a bunch of badguys and turn into an unhittable target with total defense and ki points, sucking up attacks that probably could go elsewhere.

It's always just one die roll away from turning my encounter on its head and generally taking something that was a big threat and turning it into a simple encounter.

I find it both frustrating ("I mean, come on... that was supposed to be a tough fight!") and exciting ("I had no idea how you guys were going to survive that."), and think that's what the monk brings to the table.


My group also ended up doing the grapple and drown method for defeat. Monk did a crazy jump up to grab her, rolled well, and it was over quickly. But before that, she was a most vexing foe.

Spoiler:

They skipped the greater barghest, managing to close the door on him once they realized what he was.

Xanesha is far overpowered. I handwaved a bit, had her fight them for a little bit then flee the city, realizing the jig was up. Going to have her turn up later, likely during the Fortress of the Stone Giants.

My two deaths so far - the fighter died fighting the dread ghoul dire bat in the cave under Foxglove manor when he was paralyzed and fell to the bottom of the well and drowned; the monk died when Crowfood caught him flatfooted and stuck him with two power attack blows of the ogre hook.

Death is just a bad roll away everywhere in Rise of the Runelords.


DeathQuaker wrote:
In my gameworld.

So in your world, give the Goblin Dog darkvision? Problem solved.


I think I'd handle it something like this.

Pilum (Martial Weapon, Ranged)
Cost: 3gp Weight: 2lbs
Dmg (S): 1d4 Dmg (M): 1d6 Critical: x2
Range: 20ft
Type: P
Special: If thrown at a target with a shield and the attack misses by no more than the shield bonus of the target, the target's shield acquires the broken status.

Basically, a javelin that requires training to use, is more expensive and has a shorter range, but has a chance to take a shield out.


Name of PC: Valak
Class/Level: Monk 7
Adventure: The Hooksaw Massacre
Catalyst: Sneaking up on the Graul Barn well out in advance of the party.
Story: The party (Valak the monk, Voldemon the wizard, Dolgunn the ranger, and Lymka the bard) along with Kipp the bear and Shalelu followed Rukus' tracks back the Graul homestead. After taking a moment to study the ground, they decide to approach the barn first. Valak says he'll sneak out alone, sticking the edge of the woods, while the rest of the party (being heavy on ranged weapons) hangs back to shoot anything that reveals itself. Lymka offers to cast invisibility on the monk, but Valak waves the offer off, saying that being seen is part of the plan. Dolgunn opts to sneak after the monk, but being a dwarf, falls behind and opens a sizeable (30') gap between the two of them. The rest of the party is back about 110'.

Valak manages a 19 Stealth, which the hiding Crowfood is easily able to see through with his Perception. In turn, Crowfood's 21 Stealth defeats everyone except Dolgunn's perception check... so we go to a surprise round. Crowfood opts to charge out of the edge of the cornfield and reaches Valak with his 40' move ... Valak is caught flatfooted, and ends up taking a power attack two-handed ogre hook swing upside the head. The concealment miss check fails, so Valak takes all the damage. Dolgunn fires at Crowfood to little effect.

Round 1... and Valak blows his initiative roll, going after Crowfood. Crowfood promptly socks another power attack two-handed swing with the ogre hook that Valak can't avoid, and Valak drops having been dropped to -15 hp, below his 13 Con score.

Crowfood doesn't last long against the ranged firepower dropped on him in the next couple rounds, but the damage is done. The group continues exploring the barn (the Valak player taking the role of Shalelu), drops the three ogrekin by the still pretty quick with a fireball and then battle Biggin to save the Black Arrows. They opt to pull out, using Burning Hands to set Biggin's funnel web on fire (which I then ruled passed to the still, causing a Michael Bay cool explosion of the barn). The party pulled out at that point, taking Valak's body with them to Raise Dead on it.

Only the second death so far, but one marred by us later (that is a few days later) discovering a number of things done somewhat wrong (Valak hadn't added the Amulet of Natural Armor +1 he had into his flat-footed AC, which would have caused one of the ogre hook hits to miss, and I forgot that the concealment of the undergrowth prevents sneak attack damage). On the bright side, my players have a new appreciation for the danger they're facing and a strong desire to return to the Graul farm for some revenge.


As I understand it...

Creature establishes a grapple.

The next round, it maintains the grapple and chooses the option to do damage. It then gets to do its bite damage AND the rake damage. As long as it can maintain the grapple, it can continue to choose to do damage and thus the bite + rake.

In other words, don't let a lion knock you down and grapple you.


Skylancer4 wrote:
Zurai wrote:
For trolls, just do the coup de grace with a torch or flaming sword.
Wrong, the loss of regen doesn't come up until the round after the damage was inflicted. Anything that happens that same round won't "count".

Unless the coup de grace with the torch or flaming sword did enough damage to drive the troll to negative hit points sufficient so that it would die without regeneration... because at the start of its turn, thanks to having taken damage the from fire in the previous round, its regeneration turns off and it now dies.

As I understand it, anyway.


My solution to the Shadowmist problem was that the goblins used ropes to raise and lower a rowboat down the backside of Thistletop. There's a rowboat depicted on the map, and Tsuto and his goblins buddies used one to get to the smugglers entrance for their attack on the Glassworks. I figured the goblins used it as a way to get the bigger stuff up to their stockade.

In my game, they basically had Shadowmist lashed into the boat, then hauled up the back of Thisteltop.


My thoughts...

Spoiler:

Having just wrapped up Skinsaw Murders, I'll caution that you look hard at Xanesha and your party before you toss them into the blender that she is. Fully buffed, she'll likely tear up a party without breaking a sweat.

For my part, I had her take off after the party barely whittled her down to under 100 hps... figured her plan had been blown, so no percentage in hanging around. I'll have her turn up later.

I'd also suggest thinking about some way to get the PCs off to Hook Mountain other than the obviousness of having the Lord-Mayor hired them to go. In my case, the PCs let Orik go, so I had him end up with the Black Arrows in Fort Rannick. They're heading up that way to investigate ... his last letter mentioned the sihedron tatoos he'd seen on villagers, and then the letters stopped.

Feels more organic, and less like I'm railroading them. Particularly with the other story threads out there for them to explore (like the barghest in Thistletop, the haunted Foxglove Manor, etc.)

To tie them to Sandpoint, I also had Ameiko give them the Glassworks ... with her father dead and most of the staff killed, there's no one left to do the unique glass that made it important. Now it's their HQ, with an alchemy lab and forge and trophy room.


Kaelas Rilyntlar wrote:
How far behind was your group lagging? I was thinking of adding in some of my own stuff and if the party is falling behind, that would be an excellent excuse to do it.

They're just hitting 6th level as we're heading into the last encounters of Skinsaw Murders, which is where they should be from what I can tell. If I was using Medium progression still, they'd be just going into 5th level (and be far too underpowered to even look at Xanesha, I think).

With medium progression, there's definitely room for adding in stuff.


I think for the APs, fast is the suggested speed. I started mine out with medium, and they did start to lag behind the recommended levels for the adventure a little. Switched over to fast, and so far they're more in line.


In fact, I am currently running RoRL with Pathfinder pretty much as is, and having a great time with it.


My main complaint is the CMD.

See, I've been running Rise of the Runelords with the beta rules, and haven't had to do any real conversion work. I just take the 3.5 numbers and run with them, as is.

But now the CMD is gonna mean I have to go in and do the math for everything!

That's just annoying.


My first PC death happened last night.

Name of PC: Vaxielle
Class/Level: Fighter 4
The Skinsaw Murders, The Misgivings.

The party had investigated the servants quarters and the ranger had spotted the opening down in the well. The same ranger also decided to take a shot at the carrion crows, which triggered the carrion swarms. The party decides to flee down the well and into the opening, managing to get a rope tied and dropped down before the crows swarm.

Vaxielle is the first down the well, and after some difficulty ends up in the cave and ends up fighting the dire ghoul bat. He's battered down to single digit hit points in short order, so flees back to the well with the ghoul bat in pursuit. This leads to a tight quarters fight in the well between the bat and everyone else in the party. The cleric pulses off some channeling, keeping Vaxielle barely alive in the water...

... but it was all over when Vaxielle made an attempt to grapple the bat, got bit on the way in and end up paralyzed. He started sinking to the bottom of the well. The party did manage to destroy the dire ghoul bat (the cleric resorted to using the big Cure spells to destroy it) and the monk did his best to try and rescue Vaxielle but blew his own swim rolls and was barely able to escape drowning himself.

And so ended the career of Vaxielle, veteran of the assaults on the Catacombs of Wrath and Thistletop.


I've been running Rise of the Runelords, using Pathfinder Beta and without doing much of any conversion at all, and it's being going well. I went with the racial hit points options, which gave the PCs just enough of a cushion that I haven't had to fudge any of the damage rolls.

Anyway, the party consists of a Shoanti Monk, a Dwarf Ranger (with musket and revolver), a Chelaxian Fighter and a Chelaxian Cleric of Abadar. They were initially driven out of the thorny patch of Thistletop by Gogmurt, but a return match didn't go as well for the goblin druid. We picked up last session with the party preparing to assault the main stockade. Little did I know it was going to be the Monk Show all night...

Spoiler:

Now, discussion prior to this session had the party planning to send the monk across first, then have the dwarf and fighter cross, and lastly the cleric. In other words, they were going to avoid the "3 medium creature" trap. As well, I'd had it start raining (I roll up weather in advance, so the Ranger can use his Survival skill), so the goblins commandos in the tower were facing a -4 penalty to ranged fire. Aside from having the 4 goblins and goblin dogs hiding in the thorny underbrush near the stockade front doors, I figured the PCs had this beat.

Come play time, though, the plan apparently went out the window. The monk started across, the ranger came out after him and then the fighter as well. At which point the bridge collapsed! The monk and ranger make their saves, but the fighter plunges into the surging sea below.

The Monk makes an Acrobatics roll, flips up onto the remaining rope and is able to balance his way most of the way across. Better yet, the commandos roll a hit with an arrow - but he deflects that away. The ranger tries to use Climb to hand over hand it, but he blows the roll and joins the fighter in the surf below. The cleric also tries to hand to hand, and makes it part of the way out, but then blows his rolls and falls into the ocean.

So now the monk is all alone on the top of Thistletop. The goblins and goblin dogs spring out of the undergrowth and attack. Somehow, despite being nicked and whittled for 1 or 2 points at a hit, the Monk manages to slowly kill each goblin dog first, then each goblin. The goblins all end up with broken dog slicers, they're fumbling, they're falling on the ground when their dogs are killed... the monk uses Fighting Defensively and his kama to good effect, as well.

Down in the water, the dwarf gets to the rocky edge of the island, while the fighter (nearly drowning in the process) and the cleric pull themselves up onto the sandy shore. The dwarf opts to start trying to make his way around the island, looking for a hidden way up in the stone. The cleric and fighter doff their armor (scale and chain mail) and proceed to try and climb the cliff wall.

Meanwhile, the monk now jumps up to the top of the stockade wall and heads over to the commando tower. He pulls out his hammer and starts trying to dismantle the tower! The commandos grab their horsechoppers and try to head down to stop him, leading to a rooftop chase. Eventually, the monk ends up over by the rowboat (at the north end of the map). At this point, I rule that the goblins pull the boat (and whatever else they loot... like horses) up from below using long ropes secured to the stockade wall.

The monk kicks this rope down, intending to use it as a last resort escape ... only the dwarf ranger happens to be where it ends up. Now the ranger is climbing up to the top of Thistletop! Meanwhile, the fighter and cleric are having a tough time getting up the cliff - the fighter having fallen a few times now.

The monk now starts tossing Erylium's +1 returning dagger at the goblin commandos, which is pretty deadly, since the monk has a Str 16, and does 5-6 damage with each hit. As we ended the session, the commandos are retreating back from the roof edge, wounded and scared.

It wasn't intentional, but I think we ended up using every Monk special ability or skill he had. Given that the previous few sessions, he'd been feeling second class compared to the Ranger (who kicked goblin butt with the Favored enemy bonuses) and the Fighter (who rocks a falchion and Overhand chop), this was an unexpectedly cool session.

Of course, I have no idea how they're going to get the cleric and fighter across to the top of Thistletop, considering they're trapped on the mainland, 80' below...

I'm really loving running Rise of the Runelords, and doubly enjoying the Pathfinder Beta rules. It's got just enough tweaks that it flows better than I remember 3.5 doing when I was running Shackled City.


I'm using medium as well, and the PCs are getting close to 3rd going into the Thistletop Stockade (I expect they'll level to 3rd before heading into the lower level). If I was using fast, they'd be 3rd already and, I suspect, be finding this last bit too easy.

It is mentioned in the Beta rules, p299, that existing adventures assume a fast xp path. I'll have to see if I still agree with that as they go into Skinsaw. I'm finding the Pathfinder characters to be somewhat more survivable at the lower levels.

Also, I'm running the adventure pretty much straight from the book (the most conversion I've done is to convert Listen/Spot into Perception and to use the pathfinder version of feats and spells). It's working pretty well, so far.


For my part, this is what I've come up with...

Spoiler:
The 4 goblins and goblin dogs patrolling outside hide themselves in the bushes next to the stockade door. They'll try and come out of hiding to attack anyone reaching the doors.

The pickle thief goblins are ready to toss javelins down on anyone at the doors. Once they're out of javelins, they'll run down to the trophy room to join the goblins there (the group from the barracks). On the other tower, the goblin commandos are set to shoot their bows at anyone crossing the bridge and at the doors. Once they're out of arrows, or the doors are open, they'll move down to join the fight in the trophy room. The last element is that one of the goblins in the trophy room will be ready to open the door to the exercise yard, letting in the goblin dogs there.

Ripnugget and his people will be set up in the throne room, as described in the module. Meanwhile, in the dungeon below, the henchmen are together and ready, while Nualia continues to try and figure out how to free the barghest.

Basically, this should let me divide the struggle for the stockade into 3 fights - at the door, in the trophy room, in the throne room. If the party pulls back before the throne room and gives Nualia a day or so, she'll call in goblins from one of the other local tribes to refill the defenses.


Using CMB 15.


Just ran the Erylium encounter with the Pathfinder Beta rules - it was a tough one. Three PCs (Monk, Cleric, Fighter) accidentally bee-lined straight to her and it was on...

Spoiler:
The monk was first in, carrying the torch, so was the focus of the sinspawn and the initial summon monsters (fiendish spiders). He took a beating, but kept on ticking. The fighter drew most of Elyrium's spells, but managed to save against bane, cause fear, and shatter. With the spiders and the sinspawn downed, the party tried poking her with a long spear, throwing shuriken at her, and firing a light crossbow.

Amazingly, the long spear managed a hit and established how hard she'd be to hurt. Meanwhile, she was missing with her dagger and opted to risk flying in close to drop an inflict moderate wounds on the hurt fighter. Of course, he made his save and she rolled minimum damage.

But having closed, the monk moved in and managed to get a grapple on her before she could turn invisible and get away. It was over pretty fast after that - even her hideous spittle was no deterent. They tied her in ropes, and finished her off.

The only think that kept the party up was the extra hit points from the Pathfinder Beta rules and the fact that I'm running the adventure as written (no more than the barest minimum of adjustments of the NPCs). An excellent, tough encounter that I enjoyed running and I think my players enjoyed beating.


I've tried searching for a post on the topic, and looked through the Campaign Setting a few times now...

What does ammunition cost for firearms? And what would the DC be to make it with Craft (gunsmithing)?


Taliesin Hoyle wrote:
I am glad you found it useful. Seriously, if even one person finds this marvellous resource because of these four threads, I have done what I set out to do.

Found it, and found it very useful. Thanks.


Local game stores here (Victoria, BC) have a good stock of Paizo product, be it the Pathfinder issues, the modules, the cards, battle mats... prominently displayed beside the 4e material, even.


Congratulations on a number of well-deserved wins. A year ago, I wasn't reading Dungeon or Dragon, and wasn't buying any 3.5 related materials at all. Then I saw Pathfinder #1 and, honestly, picked it up for the cover - Wayne Reynold's art intrigued me and I was curious about the contents.

And here we are a year later, and I'm subscribed all over the place and have a growing collection of excellent material. The production quality of Paizo products is top-notch in all areas, and I'm enthusiastic about supporting you guys for another year of excellence.

Thanks.


I liked a lot of the gnome stuff - the idea that they become more colorful the more they experience is cool. Also that the Gnome language is a kind of Esperanto mish-mosh of other languages makes me grin.

I love the Mammoth Lords tribes kidnap giant babies to raise them as their tribal mascots.

I like that the Ulfen have added extra letters to their language just to have more letter than the old Taldane language. And that Draconic is a root language for everyone else.

I like that there's a section on trade, technology, the climate, time and distance. I also love the many sidebars that are rich with details that help make the place feel real and organic.

I also like that we have firearms, but that most places don't use them - the exception being the Duchy that is in a no-magic zone. That one picture we had with the guys with rifles and all is now explained.

The little class-substitution features are also nice for world-building.


This book really rocks. There's a ton of good bits in here, that spark my imagination and make me want to run a game in the setting. Fantastic work all around.


My own suspicion is that the 10' pole Guild is almost as powerful as the 50' rope Guild.

"Allo, allo... just 'ow long a piece of wood is it you're carryin' there, guv'? Wouldn't be an 8' piece off a ladder, now would it? Can't be 'aving that. And you there... is that a 20' length o' rope? Oh, now we're just gonna 'ave to talk 'bout that, aren't we..."


That kind of jumping should allow the monk to do the kind of stuff you see in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (and umpteen other wuxia films), so seems entirely appropriate to me.


Patrick Curtin wrote:
Way back in the early Eighties I was given a Xeroxed book of old D&D (White box?) supplimental rules

I suspect that this is/was Arduin.

As for obscure, how many people have played Ysgarth?


The adventure seems to be of the same mold as the 4e rules. It's pared down to the bare minimum needed to get the players engaged in the excitement of tactical battle. All the 'boring' bits are excised so all you're left with is the good stuff.

It's also nicely set up for use as a pickup game, where you can throw a party of whatever characters people happen to have against the challenges.

This seems in keeping with the 4e design philosophy, which is to elminate all the boring stuff that was unfun in earlier editons, like empty rooms or NPCs to talk to that aren't immediately relevant to the encounters.

To their credit, though, this does put the onus on the DM to do worldbuilding and to fill in and add to the adventure as presented in the same way we used to back in the days of Keep on the Borderlands and all. Though I'm not sure how that works with their goal of minimizing DM workloads.


I sometimes wonder how much of the Pathfinder "bashing" is an attempt to make someone feel better about adopting 4e. It seems to go hand in hand with claiming that 3.x is broken, unplayable and unfun. Having a product like Pathfinder RPG, which suggests that 3.x may be fun, that other people are having fun with it, and that with some tweaks, it could be even more fun, may threaten some peoples' sense of themselves.

A lot of the 4e "bashing" seems motivated from the same place (or, for that matter, bashing just about any entertainment other people enjoy that you do not). It's almost a matter of self-protection to claim that something you don't enjoy is inherently worthless and, by extension, those who manage to find something enjoyable about it are themselves worthless... because to admit otherwise would be to admit that you might be wrong.

Since Paizo has stepped up as the most visible target, they're getting most of this effect... but I've seen similar anger directed Chris Pramas (and Green Ronin) for not joining with the "4e is perfect" wave, too.


I'm also a growing fan of the Journal. Originally, I saw them as wasted space, but lately I've found them to be just a terrific source of atmosphere and world-building. They're an excellent way to get across the feel of the setting and have been an inspiration. The mix of action-adventure, swords & sorcery and urban crime has really pointed out to me the pulp-foundation of the Golarion world... which has only made me more of a fan.

I've found myself lately wondering if the Journal will ever be collected as a single volume.

Full Name

Pyotr the Unwelcome

Race

Half-Orc

Classes/Levels

Redeemer 2

Stats:
HP 8/22; AC 19, T 10, FF 19; CMD 16; F +7, R +2, W +4 (+1 vs. fear); Init +0

Gender

Male

Size

6' 4"

Age

17

Alignment

LG

Deity

Iomedae

Location

Vigil

Languages

Common, Orc, Varisian

Occupation

Caravan Guard

About Pyotr

Character Sheet:
Pyotr the Unwelcome
Male half-orc redeemer 2
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +1 (+2 to find hidden objects)
------------------------------------------
DEFENSE
------------------------------------------
AC 19 [21], touch 10, flat-footed 19 [21] (+9 armor, [+2 shield])
hp 22 (2d10 + 4)
Fort +7, Ref +2, Will +4 (+1 vs. fear)
------------------------------------------
OFFENSE
------------------------------------------
Speed 20 ft.
Melee glaive
Melee greatsword +6 (2d6 + 6/19-20) or power attack +5 (2d6 + 9/19-20)
Melee lance +6 (1d8 + 6/x3) or power attack +5 (1d8 + 9/x3)
Melee longsword +6 (1d8 + 4/19-20) or power attack +5 (1d8 + 6/19-20)
Melee warhammer +6 (1d8 + 6/x3) or power attack +5 (1d8 + 9/x3)
Special Attacks merciful smite (1/day), lay on hands (3/day)
------------------------------------------
STATISTICS
------------------------------------------
Str 18, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 14
Base Atk +2; CMB +6; CMD 16
Feats Power Attack
Skills Appraise +3, Diplomacy +7(2) (+2 vs. monstrous creatures), Knowledge (Religion) +6(2), Perception +1, Ride +4, Sense Motive +4(2), Survival +4
Languages Common, Orc, Varisian
SQ aura of good, divine grace, monstrous rapport
Traits outcast (half-orc), sword of Vigil
Gear masterwork full plate (-gauntlet), enameled gauntlet (currently not in inventory), heavy metal shield, glaive, greatsword, helm of valorous courage, lance, longsword, warhammer
Additional Gear backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, cold weather outfit, travelers outfit, silver bell (holy symbol), tent, 1 beggars diamond (100 gp), 77 gp 11 sp 9cp
Party Loot holy water (4), scale mail
weight 92.5 lbs. (light load)
Hero Points 1

Alternate Racial Traits
Bestial The orc blood of some half-orcs manifests in the form of particularly prominent orc features, exacerbating their bestial appearances but improving their already keen senses. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks. This racial trait replaces orc ferocity.
Scavenger Some half-orcs eke out a living picking over the garbage heaps of society, and must learn to separate rare finds from the inevitable dross. Half-orcs with this racial trait receive a +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks and on Perception checks to find hidden objects (including traps and secret doors), determine whether food is spoiled, or identify a potion by taste. This racial trait replaces the intimidating trait.

Background:
A twisted piece of rusted iron tore through the skin on the back of his hand. Pyotr let out a whimpering grumble as he cradled his damaged extremity. He sucked the wound, praying that the injury would not become infected, as he cast aside the jagged shrapnel. He wrapped a dirty strip of linen around the wound. He could not wait for it to heal, not if he wished to eat tonight. Using his uninjured hand, he continued picking through the fetid remains of the nearby town’s midden heap. Under a pile of moth-eaten cloth and moldy barrel staves he uncovered a pile of rancid, maggoty offal. He retched. The smell was agonizing.

The linen around his hand was soaked through with blood as he meandered down the hill of refuse carrying a few brown apple cores, a rind of stale bread, and some unidentifiable chunk of meat, not yet fully rotten. It was an uncommon feast.

There was shouting coming from the town. That was familiar. They were coming to drive him off again. They were always coming to drive him off. This time he could see torches and hear dogs. He reeked of midden and offal. He would never escape them.

Pyotr ran. He ran until his hands shook and his breath was coming in ragged gulps. He ran until his vision blurred and his legs burned in agony. He ran until he could run no further. Then he crawled. Then he wept.

When his vision cleared, he was staring into the leveled spears of a half-dozen Knights of Lastwall. Their splendid mounts pawed and chafed at the rank smell of the filthy half-orc. The knight-captain gave him a bitter smile. “And, just who might you be…?”

“Stop!” the chaplain shouted. “He’s just a child!”

The knight-captain spat, “Just an orc.”

…..

Pyotr strained to hear the whispered argument that the chaplain and the knight-captain were having. He could only catch bits and pieces. But, it was clear, the knight-captain was angry.

….five years ago….finest acolyte I have ever trained….more deserving than half….

….hasn’t earned….his heritage alone….no company wants….

….stronger than any two….proven…..

….cannot walk the streets….carry a weapon?....had no right….the Precentors Martial…

….made their decision.

The chaplain, his mentor for the last five years he had spent as a ward of the temple, was beaming down at him, while the knight-captain stared daggers. He did not trouble to lower his voice any longer. “The Precentors Martial, in their wisdom, may give him the ‘marks’, as they choose. Know this, orc, branding your paws will not make you any less an animal. And you will never, never be a Knight of Lastwall.”

Mount:
Torshen’s Hammer
N Large animal
Init +4; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
DEFENSE
AC 19, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+5 Armor, +3 Dex, +2 natural, -1 size)
hp 19 (2d8+10)
Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +1 (+2 vs. fear)
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +6 (1d4+6) and 2 hooves +1 (1d6+3)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
STATISTICS
Str 20, Dex 18, Con 21, Int 6, Wis 17, Cha 11
Base Atk +1; CMB +7; CMD 21 (25 vs. trip)
Feats Endurance, Run
Skills Perception +8
SQ Vigilant Destrier (+1 atk and dmg, +2 save vs. fear), Obedient (+2 to Ride checks), Unstoppable Speed (Unaffected by Medium or Heavy Barding)
Gear bridle w/silver bells (4), military saddle, scale mail barding
Weight 90 lbs.

Helm of Valorous Courage:
Aura Moderate enchantment CL 7th
Slot head Price 6, 000 gp Weight 3 lbs

A conical open helm made from fine steel, with small cheekguards and a nasal to protect the face. The frontispiece is a sunburst worked from gold, the horizontal beams extended to rest over the brows of the wearer. Iomedae’s sword runs behind the sun, the stylised blade emerging to form the noseguard. Discs of engraved silver on each cheek depict fanciful lionesses rearing on their hind legs.

When worn by a paladin who follows Iomedae, the helm of valorous courage manifests its full power: the paladin’s aura of courage extends to all allies within 30 feet rather than the usual 10 feet area. Furthermore, once per day the paladin can bestow a valorous blessing to all allies within his aura of courage: a +1 divine bonus to attack rolls that lasts for 1 round per paladin level possessed.

Paladins that do not have access to the aura of courage ability and paladins who do not worship Iomedae can still benefit from the valorous blessing, but they alone receive the benefits.

Creatures of lawful good alignment who are not paladins gain +4 divine bonus to saves versus fear effects when wearing the helm of valorous courage. This power functions irrespective of the god the wearer worships.

Creatures of any other alignment receive no benefit from using the helm of valorous courage. Evil creatures experience a persistent and wearisome headache when wearing the helm, but this is no more than an annoyance without any implications on game mechanics.

Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, bless, remove fear Cost 3, 000 gp