Jim.DiGriz's page

I've been GMing Curse of the Crimson Throne for a group of 5 players and they just completed Escape from Old Korvosa at 7th level. I haven't been using XP, I just tell them to level up when I see them starting to have a bit too much trouble with the encounters (which I adjust somewhat to account for the switch from 3.5 to Pathfinder).

I was a bit concerned about how they would fare in the Vivified Labyrinth being somewhat behind the expected level, but they easily defeated the darksphynx and wisely avoided fighting Vimanda (who'd had to abandon her Vencarlo disguise as they'd already rescued him) or Bahor, settling instead for just saving Vencarlo and Neolandus and leaving town. Actually the escape was a bit more complicated than I've indicated; Vimanda tricked the party into teleporting themselves into the cells in the torture chamber but they quickly escaped, killed the Beatific One and freed the Seneschal from the rack.

(As an aside: a neat thing happened while they were boarding the barge to leave the Arkonas' dungeon. The giant reefclaw attacked and badly wounded one of the PCs, but Majenko the pseudodragon--whom one of the characters had taken as a cohort--attacked it and got a crit with his stinger, and it rolled a natural 1 on its poison save and sank unconscious back under the surface, ending the fight in round one!)

Anyway, the campaign is on hiatus now while one of the other players runs us through the first two chapters of Kingmaker, but I'll be resuming CotCT in a few months with the start of History of Ashes. I get the impression that even though they'll be 8th level by that point it might not be enough as 10th level seems to be the accepted starting point for that chapter. I'd like to find something to run them through to get them to at least 9th level before starting the chapter, and I'm looking for suggestions. I know the module "Seven Swords of Sin" is set in Kaer Maga, which would be a logical location for my side quest. Would it be a good choice, or is there something better I could use?

Our group has reached the end of the first chapter of Legacy of Fire and the GM informs us we will have enough down time to hop a caravan to Katapesh, do a bit of shopping, and return to Kelmarane before the action resumes.

My sorcerer has about 4200 gp available to spend, and after looking over the available items I've pretty much concluded that my best bet is to grab a Handy Haversack and a bunch of utility scrolls and perhaps a few potions and call it a day. Are there any better options that I'm overlooking? If not, what spell scrolls would you consider "must haves" for this campaign and/or level of play? I already have some ideas on this but would appreciate input as there are no doubt some things I'm overlooking. Subject to GM review I can use pretty much any Paizo material.

A few details on the character and the items he currently has:

Male Sylph Sorcerer 5 (Djinni bloodline; GM's houserule gives Sylphs with this bloodline the same "virtual" +2 Cha for sorcerer spellcasting and bloodline abilities as they would get for the Elemental (air) bloodline)
CG Medium Outsider (native)

Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 5):
0 (at will) Acid Splash, Read Magic, Message, Detect Magic, Prestidigitation (DC 16), Breeze
1 (8/day) Shocking Grasp, Mage Armor, Burning Hands (DC 17), Enlarge Person (DC 17), Burning Disarm (DC 17)
2 (6/day) Invisibility, Veil of Ash (DC 18), Staggering Fall (DC 18)

Magic Items:
Cloak of Resistance +1
Headband of Alluring Charisma +2
Ring of Protection +1
Slippers of Spider Climbing
Chime of Opening (2 charges)
Wand of Bull's Strength (4 charges)
Wand of Open/Close (11 charges)
Scroll of Clairaudience/Clairvoyance
Scroll of Comprehend Languages
Scroll of See Invisibility
Potion of Cure Light Wounds
Potion of Lesser Restoration

Thanks in advance!

The Scarred Witch Doctor archetype loses its 1st level hex. Does this mean that the character technically doesn't have the Hex class feature yet at 1st level, and so can't take the Extra Hex feat to make up for it?

I'm asking because the penultimate update of Hero Lab failed to deduct the hex when I built my character. I spotted the error but thought I could correct for it by simply entering an adjustment to reduce my total feats by 1 and explain it as representing the use of the feat to take Extra Hex, thereby restoring the balance as it were. Now, the latest update to HL has fixed the archetype to work properly (ironically, it was I that reported the bug to them). When I opened the character file today I got an error message telling me I had selected too many hexes, and when I removed the negative feat adjustment and tried to select Extra Hex, Hero Lab informed me that I don't meet the prerequisites for the feat. I fear it is probably correct in that, but I figured I might as well pose the question here.

Assuming the program is accurate and I don't qualify for the Extra Hex feat what should I do about it? I've already played the character and nobody including the GM caught the error. Should I just point it out to him and ask for a mulligan, since we're probably pretty close to attaining 2nd level anyway?

Edit: typed "feat" when I meant "hex".

The header says "Fortitude partial (see text)" but the text refers to will saves only.

Hope this isn't a repeat question but I tried searching for it and came up empty. Also, I don't have the Rival Guide but both d20pfsrd.com and Hero Lab show the same thing.

Thanks in advance.

How to the Shoanti feel about half-orcs? Do they accept them? Cast them out? Abandon them at birth? A player in a CotCT game I'll be starting soon is considering a half-orc barbarian and I'm trying to answer her questions on possible origins for her character.

Hey all,

I'm preparing to start running a CotCT campaign using PRPG rules sometime in the next two months (whenever the group's current campaign ends, which the GM estimates will be in 4-8 sessions). I have some GMing experience, mostly short campaigns and one-shots but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to handle running a full campaign with the help of a published AP and the helpful folks on this forum.

In this thread I'm not looking for general game-mastering tips but rather advice on dealing with one specific issue: our group has eight members, so I'm going to have to adapt this AP for a party of seven PCs.

Now this isn't quite as bad as it might seem (or perhaps it's just bad in a different way, depending on your PoV) because we almost never have a full table. Several players have work issues that cause them to miss about one game in four, so it's fairly common to have only four or five players at the table for any given session (if fewer than four can show up we usually cancel or play board games instead). Not an ideal situation, but it is what it is.

On top of the attendance issue, there's one player who is a total non-contributor in nine out of ten situations due to his penchant for building (unintentionally) de-optimized characters and making incomprehensible role-playing decisions--when he manages to draw his attention away from the WoW game he's playing on his laptop, that is. Previous GMs have dealt with this by ignoring his character when designing encounters and that seemed to work pretty well.

The rest of the players are pretty skilled veteran role-players and build solid characters able to contribute meaningfully in both combat and social encounters. Actually one of them--the wife of one of the veterans--is more interested in combat than RP but at least her characters are competent fighters, thanks to the help her husband gives her with character building and tactics. She seems to have fun and doesn't detract from the group's power level or anyone else's enjoyment of the game, so it's all good.

What this boils down to is that I can expect to have 4 to 5 players in most sessions, three of whom will role-play and four of whom will contribute to combat. Sometimes I'll have six and occasionally I'll have all seven. Our usual practice is to keep the characters of the missing players with the group but not have them participate unless absolutely necessary, otherwise it's assumed they're doing something useful "off-stage" during combat encounters. It takes some willed suspension of disbelief but it works for us.

So, how would you prepare to deal with this situation? I have a few ideas of my own but I'd like to hear what others think. Splitting the group or uninviting someone are not options, BTW.

Thanks in advance!

Hey all,

I'm going to be playing a Lion Shaman in an upcoming Serpent's Skull campaign. He's going to focus on melee combat, with spellcasting as a secondary function. I've read Treantmonk's "Spirit of the Beast" guide and taken some suggestions from it, although I simply can't bring myself to dump Int below 10. Working with a 15 point build meant I had to compromise on stats, but I'm pretty comfortable with what I've settled on.

What I'm looking for here is advice on future feat selections. My current plan is to take Power Attack at 3rd level and Natural Spell at 7th. The rest is a blank slate, although I'd like to fit Weapon Focus (claw) in at some point if possible. The Improved Overrun>>Charge Through chain looks promising for a "pounce druid" and I'm leaning that way. I've also considered dropping Eye for Talent to get my bonus feat back and taking Improved Unarmed Strike, followed by Improved Grapple and eventually Greater Grapple to gain maximum advantage from Grab later on. Seems like a pretty heavy up-front investment, though.

Here's what I've got so far:

I'm about to start a Lion Shaman character in an upcoming Serpent's Skull campaign. Purely for RP/flavor purposes I'd like to come up with a feline creature that would be appropriate for SNA I (of course I'll run it by my DM first, that goes without saying).

I've tried starting with an ordinary cat and adding 1 hd plus the giant creature and advanced creature templates, but although the resulting "wildcat" theoretically has the correct CR of 1 it appears overpowered compared to, say, the riding dog. Any suggestions on how to adjust this to be more balanced?

Subject says it all. My character attacked someone protected by fire shield and missed, but the DM ruled that I took damage from the spell. I think the wording indicates it only damages attackers who hit and do damage. Who's right?

Do humans still get an additional skill rank at first level? It's easy to assume that they do since they always have in 3.X, but the text doesn't specifically say so. It says only "Humans gain one additional skill rank whenever they gain a level".

If they are in fact meant to get it at first level, perhaps the text should read "Humans receive a bonus skill rank at 1st level and gain another bonus rank each time they gain a level"

Just wondering why the feat deck is stacked so heavily against the finesse fighter. In order to be effective, s/he has to take both Weapon Finesse and Agile Maneuvers (I realize this isn't a change from Alpha 1.1, but don't recall seeing a good explanation).

Why not just allow Weapon Finesse to apply to both attacks and CMB? If that seems too generous, how about at least letting all combatants resist combat maneuvers with either Str or Dex?