Jericho Graves's page

This is why when I play trolls, I mess with the formula a bit. One time instead of regeneration, they actually spewed negative energy from their wounds as a cleric's channel of the same CR. To stop the AOE effect the troll would have to be hit with force effects.

Nothing stops you from changing things on the fly like that.

This also helps to prevent metagaming when what they are facing, is nowhere in the book.

I will agree some of the grit (especially the distrust of half-orcs) is missing in this adventure. But many details were spent elsewhere, such as the actual events, skill checks, and leads needed to start the adventure as well as many situations of "If player group 1 does action B then result C, if action F then result L"

The Doomkitten also had a point that right now, Paizo has taken a few early and very public steps into promoting "gaming for everyone" through NPCs and plotlines, which has already upset a large number of very narrow-minded individuals. If they then somehow persecuted these stories to any gritty/realistic degree they could get backlash from a different group or groups. In some cases, bad press is just bad press.

Finally, it's far too easy to explain a few of the issues in Trunau. After all, the rape issue was the first thing that my own players thought of on their own, no less without me, or the adventure saying a word, and all them grew pale faces. I literally thought I might have to stop the game as it made people uncomfortable. As soon as I explained what a hopeknife was for, everyone suddenly understood the half-orc population of their own accord. Sometimes the GM doesn't have to fill in the lines. You say you don't see grit, I say it's all between the lines and easy to pick up on... if you look for it. If you don't look for it, yes, it's a very black and white, high-fantasy-esque adventure with explosions, orc slaying, and a giant.

Update: There will be no posting by the GM on Saturday OR Sunday this week in reverence of a friend who passed away.

Jericho Graves wrote:

For right now, yes, because I can't afford a composite bow lol.

Well, you could carry a shortbow, and upgrade later. If you can't afford a shortbow, then use a Sling. Both are cheap options that increase your range.

A sling's range is no different than an atlatl, with the exception I can pick up the atlatl dart after it's used, saving money. My GM has us track ammo, rations, weight, etc.

Because you treat an atlatl dart as a javelin if you throw it without the atlatl itself, the GM says I can pick up the ammunition after firing as it's not destroyed. Plus, I think the chakram and atlatl give me a bit of "character" and difference from the common builds or cookie cutter equipment lists.

For right now, yes, because I can't afford a composite bow lol.

I think the houserule is quite reasonable, considering it's only ten feet of chain.

The Gm has also given me the ability to use either end at reach as a two-handed weapon.

And yes I can TWF with it.

Another thing about my playstyle is that I never put all my eggs into one basket. I might have a favored weapon but I tend to carry a variety of tools at all times because I'm from the days of old dungeon crawls.

My current weapon loadout:

Kusarigama
Longsword
Cestus (worn)
Chakram x10
Atlatl (atlatl darts x5)
Club
Dagger x2

Jericho Graves wrote:

Darksol the Painbringer wrote:

I'm glad optimization is not something relevant; I'd rather not have to comb through all the Intelligence-based Fighter stuff right now...

Break Guard is a nice feat that you can get right away, which allows you to make an attack with your other weapon on a successful Disarm as a Swift Action. The problem then stems with how you would pull it off with a Kusarigama, which has a varying range of attacks; one has Reach, and the other is in Melee. This makes TWF seem almost impossible, unless you take a 5-foot step between your iterative sets, but then that can invalidate the usefulness of this feat unless you hit with your final iterative on one of your attacks. (Even then, later down the road you'd rather use your Swift Actions for Know Thy Enemy.)

With that said, I would not bother with TWF unless the GM allows you to use both the Ball and Sickle on adjacent enemies. As much fun as TWF is, you wouldn't be able to pull it off effectively when you have a weapon that has two means of attack, and both means of attack cannot be done.

Additionally, one would rule that you can't TWF with the Kusarigama, because it's technically one weapon, and as it's not a Double weapon, this means you would need another weapon to make it work.

Long story short: Ditch the idea of TWF. You can't pull it off with a single Kusarigama unless the GM says it's a Double weapon, because by the rules, unless a Two-Handed Weapon has the Double property, you can't TWF with it, because then you delve into the "hands" territory, and by RAI, it's not legal.

In our copy of Ultimate Equipment, it is listed as a double weapon. One rule our GM has, is if you don't have a physical copy of a book, it probably isn't a rule at her table. So we can't use sources like PDFs, updated errata, or the SRD. In fact, if I wanted Fury's Fall I'd have

...

I'm really starting to think you have not read about the weapon yourself. Even on the PRD it's listed as a double weapon. Which means it is a double weapon. There's nothing here to state. Secondly, in our hard copy of the book, it's a double weapon. Again, I have to repeat. In our sources it's a double weapon. I don't know why you keep bringing this up after I already answered it. In the rules and RAW you keep talking about, it is a double weapon. The rules confusion comes from the Reach quality on most of the messageboards I've read.

Yes, it was not point buy, and as I already had a 16 Dex and 16 Str, I figured I might as well sure up my con a little at least.

Also I did not realize that weapon training for chain weapons was a thing. Thank you for pointing that out :).

Since I'm really trying to make a more control based character, I wanted to ask the forum's opinion on Combat Patrol?

I'm glad optimization is not something relevant; I'd rather not have to comb through all the Intelligence-based Fighter stuff right now...

Break Guard is a nice feat that you can get right away, which allows you to make an attack with your other weapon on a successful Disarm as a Swift Action. The problem then stems with how you would pull it off with a Kusarigama, which has a varying range of attacks; one has Reach, and the other is in Melee. This makes TWF seem almost impossible, unless you take a 5-foot step between your iterative sets, but then that can invalidate the usefulness of this feat unless you hit with your final iterative on one of your attacks. (Even then, later down the road you'd rather use your Swift Actions for Know Thy Enemy.)

With that said, I would not bother with TWF unless the GM allows you to use both the Ball and Sickle on adjacent enemies. As much fun as TWF is, you wouldn't be able to pull it off effectively when you have a weapon that has two means of attack, and both means of attack cannot be done.

Additionally, one would rule that you can't TWF with the Kusarigama, because it's technically one weapon, and as it's not a Double weapon, this means you would need another weapon to make it work.

Long story short: Ditch the idea of TWF. You can't pull it off with a single Kusarigama unless the GM says it's a Double weapon, because by the rules, unless a Two-Handed Weapon has the Double property, you can't TWF with it, because then you delve into the "hands" territory, and by RAI, it's not legal.

In our copy of Ultimate Equipment, it is listed as a double weapon. One rule our GM has, is if you don't have a physical copy of a book, it probably isn't a rule at her table. So we can't use sources like PDFs, updated errata, or the SRD. In fact, if I wanted Fury's Fall I'd have to go find a physical copy of the cheliax book.

She won't let me use the ball end adjacently, however. But this I know, which is why I'm not going too deep into two weapon fighting. Mostly I'd be using it to attack someone at reach and adjacent at the same should the situation present itself.

But yes, in our version of Ultimate Equipment the Kusarigama is listed as double, monk, reach, trip, grapple, disarm

Her houserule simply clarifies which end has which quality. (She's actually pretty sure our copy is a misprint, as the Kusarigama is listed on the PRD as ONLY, double, monk, reach, trip, grapple, no Disarm quality.)

Stuff

That's alot to take in. I'll look into a few of the feats you suggested. I've never heard of viscious stomp, or fury's fall, or punishing kick at all.

I'm not looking to multiclass or eke every point of damage possible out of my weapon to be honest. But thank you for the suggestions.

Well, alas I admit I'm not 100% knowledgeable with feat trees. So I was asking more about if there were any cool things to do with disarm or trip. Grapple is something I realized I can't afford feat wise even with fighter bonus feats.

We rolled a pool with 5 sets of dice (there are 4 players, the DM rolled a set) then took turns picking from the pool of numbers. It was 3d6, however.

Hmm, I'll have to ask my GM if Martial Master is legal, I think the only book she said she didn't want at her table was the advanced class guide, so I'll have to see. But interesting idea.

Okay, so I haven't actually played in a while. I've been the Game Master for quite a few years, but not a player.

That said, I've got the chance to play in Council of Thieves.
I want to play a fighter. I enjoy fighters, I enjoy the minimum of working parts in a class. I'm not changing my class, so please don't suggest it. I am taking the Lore Warden archetype.

I want my character to focus on the kusarigama, because it seems fun. By RAW, the kusarigama is quite the confusing weapon, but my GM has houseruled it.

Kama end - 5 ft reach, Trip, 1d6, Slashing
Ball end - Reach, Disarm, 1d3, Bludgeoning
Both Ends - Grapple

This, admittedly, is a houserule concerning the weapon, so I don't need discussions on how it works, how it's supposed to work, or RAW.

Finally, I have the following stats.

STR - 16
DEX - 16
CON - 12
INT - 13
WIS - 10
CHA - 11

Feats
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (kusarigama)
Combat Reflexes
Two-Weapon Fighting

Race
Human, with +2 in CON (already included in the stats above)

Now, I'm not trying to optimize, I'm just trying to play something I find fun. So if anyone has suggestions on unique feat lines I can go, that'd be great. The only ones I've got lined up for sure are Improved Disarm and Improved Trip.

Relevant Houserules:

Kneeling: The character is kneeling on the ground. A kneeling attacker has a –2 penalty on melee attack rolls and can use a ranged weapon with a +2 untyped bonus to attack. A kneeling defender gains a +2 bonus to Armor Class against ranged attacks, but takes a –2 penalty to AC against melee attacks. Standing up is a move-equivalent action that provokes an attack of opportunity.

Prone: The character is lying on the ground. A prone attacker has a –4 penalty on melee attack rolls and cannot use a ranged weapon except for firearms or crossbows, which receive a +4 untyped bonus to attack. A prone defender gains a +4 bonus to Armor Class against ranged attacks, but takes a –4 penalty to AC against melee attacks. Standing up is a move-equivalent action that provokes an attack of opportunity.

Flanking: A creature is considered flanked when two or more creatures are flanking it as per CRB rules, however, flanking is now a condition and all attacks against that foe (including ranged) receive the +2 flanking bonus as long as it remains flanked. This also allows certain feats and class abilities to trigger, even if the triggering character isn't directly flanking the opponent. (Rogue Sneak Attack, for example)

I'm posting these, because normally I just adjudicate them secretly "behind the screen" so to speak, but I haven't done a PBP in a while and forgot I need a certain level of transparency with my houserulings. These are the only three outside of Hero Points, however. Everything else is going to be played as closely to rules as presented and common sense allow.

Okay guys. Rules update. Due to low rolls, I'm allowing Hero Points.

These hero points are explained on page 322 of the Advanced Player's Guide. The only thing you cannot use the hero points for is "Act Out of Turn" as we use block initiative.

Everyone has 2 hero points.

If you decide you do not want to use this rule subset, you may instead gain a bonus feat.

Thanks. I know I can be a worrywort sometimes. Paizo is the first time I've actually ever used electronic payments :)

Hmm. No word... should I assume I did something wrong when I updated my payment method? I'm legitimately worried.

I received an email stating there was a problem with my payment method. I believe I updated my payment method properly, but I wish confirm I did it correctly.

I altered my payment method this morning.

Ultimately people are very unpredictable and predictable at the same time. So for me, I always create my party in one of two ways. 1: I create it based on my already active player's characters. In which case the leader of the party is the leader the players follow.

2: I create a standard group of Cleric, Rogue, Wizard, Fighter, with the rogue playing the "face."

Once this is done, any actions taken by the party are usually dictated by the Rogue or the leader. With a full write-up of this character. I then play it out like Shadowrun: Returns, with the main character performing most interactions, but able to ask other characters to do specific checks or actions. This severely limits the risk of "meta-gaming" as I only have one character's mind to really care about. The other characters are treated as cohorts or hirelings.

Edit: It's not a perfect system, as a good party will come up with different ideas and bounce them off of each other, but it's the best way I can come up with to do this.

I don't have one but was thinking the same thing. The problem is I'm not good at making spreadsheets (at all) and I'm a bit of a procrastinator. I wasn't even going to worry about until we got to that point in the story.

I pretty much allowed every half-race of human except Fetchling.
I allowed strix with the clipped-wings trait, and added a Fly 3 Ranks pre-requisite to the feat that negates the trait.
I also allowed a few DSP Psionic races, and all of the CRB races.
(Elan, Half-Giant)

I know this might be a bit late, but my houserules were designed with my number of players in mind.

Gestalt
We rolled for stats in order 4d6 (drop the lowest)
For starting gold we used the combined average of both parent classes
I allowed nearly all the half-human races, including a few races from DSP's Ultimate Psionics.
I allowed Strix, though everyone has to take the wing-clipped alternate racial trait and the "Stretched Wings" feat that negates the trait is minimum level 3 (I added a pre-requisite of Fly 3 Ranks)
Oh, I allowed Ultimate Psionics classes and options (this goes back to me having psionics sort of invade Golarion before Occult Adventures came out)

For another houserule I'm thinking of implementing (following occult adventures psychic magic) is seperating classes like Druid, Ranger, Bard, Witch, and shaman into "Primal" or "World Magic" this is just a thought experiment at this point, however.

I'm just going to comment that I have seen this complexity prove an issue for me as a GM and for my players who look to me for rules clarifications. At least 3 of my 4 players have an aversion for forums and message boards.

This issue of complexity, however, is greatly increased by our combat standards. That is, each player including the GM, only has 30 seconds to state their actions or they lose their turn. The only time this 30 second timing is changed for the GM is in the case of special events, such as terrain features changing. (Battle on the side of volcano and a new lava flow begins.)

Huh, never thought about a new contract.... interesting. And actually, two of my players are doing the LG "stand against unlawful tyranny" thing. With the end of goal of just getting rid of Barzillai personally, rather than getting rid of Thrune itself. Very interesting mindsets I don't want to punish, you know?

So, I've read over In Hell's Bright Shadow, and I've come upon an interesting character that I just love.

And I read a certain part of her NPC profile. Now what I'm having trouble with, and what I want to do are:

I'm not too terribly creative during seasonal changes due to hayfever and sinus infections, heh heh ^^;

Speaking on closing threads and such, how do you do that? Someone rather snarkily asked me to change my campaign's thread title and I'm not sure how/if I can do that...

Again, you would think there would be a sticky forum for these kinds of questions.

I don't know if this is the right place to put this, but.

Should that actually read:

I allow retraining with a huuuuuge caveat. I require my players to track where feats came from, either level or class feature, and when they got the feat.

If you want to retrain the feat, it HAS to be one you could have gotten at the level of, or with the class feature at that point in time. So you can't trade Dodge for Blinding Critical, but you can trade Dodge for Toughness.

My players have agreed that this completely makes sense, and it doesn't take much to put a little parenthesis next to the feat saying what level or class feature granted it, and when.

We had some trouble with a new player who came into our group using the RAW form of retraining attempting to powergame instead of following a natural flow of character progression. Eventually, he left amicably with no hard feelings as our play-styles did not match in the slightest, and he realized that when I refused to up challenges for his character.

As far as HP retraining, I actually upped it to 2 hp instead of just 1 because we do roll for HP.

On the blog concerning the convention it was run at, it seemed more to me that the module was just being released early, and for free for 4 and 5 star GMs of PFS. But that eventually it would be up for purchase. You just might have to wait a while, maybe even after con season is over.

I am impressed. However, it might be wise to not presume everyone can do this so fluently. I'd wager you're the minority in that respect.

At the same time, it wasn't wise to assume that I wouldn't involve the players who were captured in this way. If not during the normal game night as hired muscle to help find their characters, then during a side session telling the same story. As I play mostly online now, schedules are not nearly as tight as face to face games.

Because the soul knows the alignment and patron diety of whatever caster is trying or raise or reincarnate him and can refuse the spell.

That would be the case normally, yes. If it wasn't for the fact that our last game this happened in happened in Cheliax where most temples would have been devoted to Asmodeus anyway. And the villain in question was LE.... which fits Asmodeus.... so the player assumed their spell had been paid for.

But, again in response to Jiggy. The reason I can do that kind of plotline easily is because my players never beleived in "don't split the party." if they come into a dungeon with two paths, they split up to cover more ground. Using message, telepathy, and other powers they can attain to stay in constant communication. So me being able to run two different stories in the same session has become second nature to me. Especially when I can run up to four completely separate combats on a regular basis anyway.

Oh reincarnation is great fun. Especially when you have a stereo-typically racist elven paladin reincarnated into a Half Orc body.

The characters are conscious, moving around. I mean, that's part of being enslaved. I would probably give them a chance to begin trying to get other slaves to start thinking about escape. And sort of GM fiat the "slave rebellion" to around the time the party finds the locations of their captured friends.

Here's the thing about character death and resurrection that no one has mentioned. If let's say, two characters die and manage to beat the BBEG at the end, who's to say a minion in the shadows didn't get even a lock of hair from the heroes' bodies and escape?

Then, before the party is able to bring their friends back from the dead, the real villain, the master of the last BBEG just reincarnates/true rez's the heroes, and pushes them through a portal to hell to sell as slaves.

Now the heroes who survived make it to a temple, contact a cleric, give over the money. Only to be told "Your comrades are not dead. They are living, and we do not know where."

Bum Bum BUUUUUUUUUM. Now you have an involved rescue mission to deal with. It's not just a case of "why doesn't the king come back?" It's also a case of "Why doesn't the villain raise his enemies and entrap them to keep them from being able to directly attack him."

Cool, thanks for the answer. :) I had originally subscribed for Issue 100's article, then my wife realized the next AP would be an "EEEVIL" campaign, so we're probably at least subscribing for the next year.

So being a first time subscriber, I wanted to know how the PDF would show up. Will I get an email and it will just be in my downloads, or will I need to follow a link, just curious?

I will do this as a DM to make sure challenges are right where I want them at a base level. Then if the players have creative answers, or get completely stumped even with the most obvious of clues, it is their own group dynamics and personalities that cause ease of victory or hard defeat.

I play through everything first with an NPC party solo.

I haven't, but then, I was under the assumption that the date was an estimate and not a hardcoded answer.

It really depends on the players and campaigns. I've had great players in the past who either refused to come back with reincarnation/raise dead. Or players who in-character would claim that raising souls from the afterlife would cheat them of their final reward.

It really depends on a few factors.

That's touching, friend. :)

I myself do not play in a homebrew world, as my group plays in golarion now. But we do have some mysterious things in place. Such as an ancient airship made completely of adamantine that had living wooden men on it. (warforged from eberron), and a man who constantly cursed about gods who don't exist kicking him out (dragonlance).

With quite a few of the tech guide, ultimate combat vehicle rules, and some conversions, my party has slowly been steering towards a spelljammer story to visit all my old campaigns.

I do this all the time. Sometimes I give skill ranks for free if someone rolls natural 20s twice or three times in a row, to signify a sudden burst of insight and epiphany.

E.G.

PC decides to spend a year between adventures working for his blacksmith brother, he can take armor, weapon, or blacksmithing and add a rank.

PC rolls three Knowledge Planes checks during an adventure and actually gets a natural 20 on the dice, he earns a skill rank in Knowledge Planes for a deeper understanding he never had before.

For my group, it's because there will only be three members of my group and gestalt will give them a bit of survivability.

Well, my alias is Bard of the Age (the name I wanted to DM under due to my writing style) So yeah, you guys can just close that one ^^;

2 Deaths

Banson Rochester. 6th level human male monk. A heroic end.

Banson and crew were in a castle and fighting off undead hordes after being led into a trap. As the group tried to escape they were cornered by flesh golems in the main courtyard, and the inner gate was being lowered. Banson rushed forward with his great speed and for 5 rounds held that gate open with a line of amazing strength checks (3 nat 20s, and 2 19s). He gave his comrades enough time to move past him while fighting off undead, but the damage from the falling gate and the flesh golems catching up to him and striking finished him off.

Albert Legrange. 1st level Alchemist human male. A not so heroic end.

After contracting filth fever from tracking a criminal in the sewers, he was then removed from this world by a pair of extremely lucky dire rats. (crits on both bites).

and we have a Clarity

For me, it was because I'm a complete newbie on these boards when it comes to PBP and was under a false assumption that I needed one to add players to my campaign. As in without it, they couldn't post.

So eh, my bad for now. I'll remember it in the future, however.

Edit: You'd think there would be a sticky post in these boards on how the technical side of PBPs work, rather the one that explains proper posting etiquette.

Okay so everyone booped but Sage, I'll have to get her to boop tonight

Race Information Update:

All CRB Races.
Tiefling, Aasimar, Fetchling, Oread, Sylph, Ifrit, Suli, Undine, Tengu

Strix with the following adjustment:

Wing-Clipped: The flight of wing-clipped strix is weaker than normal, whether from deformity or injury. Their fly speed is 20 feet (poor) instead of the normal fly speed, and they must make a DC 30 Fly check to fly upward. Ostracized by their tribes and forced to deal with other races, these strix compensate for their weakness by gaining a +2 racial bonus on Bluff, Climb, and Diplomacy checks.

The reasoning for this will become story evident very shortly. For the Stretched Wing feat, add the pre-requisite of 3 ranks in fly.

3rd Party Races Allowed: Half-Giant*, Maenad*, Elan*
*from Dreamscarred Press' Ultimate Psionics