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Mild spoiler for Iron Gods I'm playing with the idea of running Iron Gods but the start point is a bit abrupt. I want to have something where the party travels to Numeria and is introduced to Torch before the flame goes out Are there any interesting PFS scenarios that could give the framework for this kind of mini adventure? It doesn't have to end in Torch since I can easily alter it to fit. I don't care so much about edition
Hey friends, I'm preparing a home game campaign and I'm thinking the best approach will be to string together a series of PFS scenarios since they play smoothly in a single session with a contained story (mostly). I ran events for a local lodge back in PFS1e and kinda fell in love with the scenarios If you were building a campaign of scenarios, what would you include? I'm looking mostly at 1e PFS scenarios because I already have a bunch but also because they're cheaper. I'd love to have a somewhat cohesive narrative if possible. I would also love to have a handful of scenarios for the party to choose from at any given time. Free RPG Day adventures are good to go too. Back when I was running the lodge I ran Master of the Fallen Fortress about a billion times. My big draw here over the slew of adventures and APs I have is the benefit of essentially being a series of one-shots I'm considering starting with First Steps since I'm familiar with them and they seem a good introduction but maybe not, I don't know...
Hey friends, I'm preparing a home game campaign and I'm thinking the best approach will be to string together a series of PFS scenarios since they play smoothly in a single session with a contained story (mostly). I ran events for a local lodge back in PFS1e and kinda fell in love with the scenarios If you were building a campaign of scenarios, what would you include? Edition is irrelevant. I'd love to have a somewhat cohesive narrative if possible. I would also love to have a handful of scenarios for the party to choose from at any given time. Free RPG Day adventures are good to go too. Back when I was running the lodge I ran Master of the Fallen Fortress about a billion times I'm considering starting with First Steps since I'm familiar with them and they seem a good introduction but maybe not, I don't know...
I know this is more of a science question but my Google-fu isn't quite answering the question to my needs and it really is game related, I swear. So I'm whipping up a new game setting that is based sort of on the Galilean moons of Jupiter. It's four small worlds orbiting a gas giant planet. The worlds are smaller than a typical Earth-sized fantasy setting with two that are roughly the same surface area as our moon and two about twice the surface area, about the size of Mercury. So, basically, worlds similar to the Galilean moons. Anyway, I am trying to determine how big the planet will appear in the sky over these worlds. I've done a fair amount of research and gotten lots of data on the subject, but I am failing at translating that to something simple I can relate to my players. So some help from you fine, smart folks would be much appreciated. The unit of measurement I am using both out of game and in game is a yardstick. If the ruler is held at arm's length how big does the object appear in the sky? I checked and Earth's moon looks to be roughly 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Since my worlds all orbit their host planet at roughly the same distance as the Galilean moons, how big would Jupiter appear from the surface of each?
The question is in the title. So a question for the FGG folks, do you guys have any plans to update and re-release Bard's Gate? I'm thinking in the same vein as Stoneheart Valley, Rappan Athuk, Lost City of Barakus, etc.? It seems logical to do so with it being a fairly central location to the Lost Lands and I'm surprised it hasn't been done yet. So will we be seeing it any time soon?
So let me first give a bit of context and explanation to what I mean in my topic. Also, this thread will have spoilers so consider yourself warned. I have now in my grubby, little nerd mits hard copies of Stoneheart Valley, Rappan Athuk, and Slumbering Tsar. (Parenthetical Aside: Holy eff are those books massive. I mean seriously, RA and ST are beasts.) I decided to add these to a borrowed copy of Bard's Gate for an epic campaign and, just because the I am a sadist, I added Glades of Death at the last minute (PF updates of these books, especially BG would be fantastic). I adapted this mega campaign to my homebrew world, mostly so I could ignore the geography explained in the books and give my players something familiar. The changes mostly just boil down to a couple of name changes and new overland maps rearranging where things are located to fit my new geography. I then went with a slow XP progression and cut my player's loose. If anyone else is considering a mega campaign such as this I'm happy to discuss the details of such a game. Also, I would love to pick the brains of anyone else who has tied these products together. That's the point here. :D ---- So, first question/advice request. My party has cruised through Wizard's Amulet and are nearly done dealing with the orc threat in Crucible of Freya. I don't know if they are going to head for the shrines next or explore Bard's Gate for a bit. They may get a wild fancy and head down to Rappan Athuk for some swift death, er, I mean adventure... yeah, adventure... I'm curious what folks have done for plot hooks or delve quests etc. SVs Crucible section has a great part with tons of little adventures to incorporate the presented material and I have been making good use of it. The Abysthor section however, only has a couple paragraphs saying GMs should whip some stuff like that up and then just kind of moves on. RA is kind of the same from what I remember when I read it for a campaign a few years ago (I haven't had the opportunity yet to dive into the tome in earnest). I can go through and come up with things but I decided to tap the collective and see what trickles out. So what have folks used as plot hooks and quests in these books?
So I am trying to figure out the square miles of my homebrew game world map but I drew it on hex paper and now I'm not sure how many square miles it is. I did a search online to find a conversion but all I could really find was an old forum thread that offered up a bunch of mathematical formulae for determining the area of a hex and debate to their accuracy for game purposes with no real answer. Can anyone here help a brother out? If I can get an answer than hopefully other folks wandering about the interwebs with just such a problem will be able to find an answer as well. What I am looking for is a simple means of calculating hex miles to square miles. If I have x number of hexes, each y number of miles across, my map is z number of square miles. That sort of thing, but a formulae that isn't too complicated and involving figuring the area based on the length of the sides and so on and so on geometry. Something the non mathies will be able to do. If a website with a calculator or such exists that would be great too. The map I made for my homebrew world is 1,178 hexes large with each hex representing miles. How many square miles is my map?
Hello all, I am prepping a massive sandbox set to start next month and so I seeded it with a ton of different bits of adventure material I had in my kind of absurdly large collection. Don't judge, I've been collecting the damn things for over 20 years. :P Anyway, the game will be run in 5e, which is obviously, a completely different system to previous editions. It might look similar, but it really is quite different. So I have adventure material not just from 5e but also from AD&D and 2E, 3E/3.5, Pathfinder, and 4E. I have drawn from some other games such as Warhammer FRP and Call of Cthulhu but those require a completely different attitude toward conversion. So what I am looking to do is be able to make some quick and dirty conversions at the table. It doesn't need to be pretty, it just needs to work. When I can I am just going to pull the same monster from the Monster Manual but that's not always an option. Have any of you done this? I did some searching online and found a few things that talked about 3.5/PF conversions on the fly, but nothing else really. I just need to know quick ways to adjust HP, attacks, abilities, stats, and save DCs for different editions. Saving Throws and Skills/Proficiencies are pretty straightforward. I've run enough 5e at this point to understand the system pretty well, of course, it's a pretty light system.
I am preparing to run Carrion Hill for a Halloween party. I need to be able to complete it in about 8 hours. Is this possible or will it need to be shortened? If so, what are the best ways to shorten it? A couple of years ago I ran Feast of Ravenmoor for the same people and a Halloween gaming party was so much fun and I really want to do it again. Feast plays really quick and every time I've run it's come in somewhere around 7 hours. I really hope Hill can be made to match. We don't use minis so our play is considerably faster because of that, but I'd like to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
I'm looking for a hex sheet like the one provided in the Kingmaker Player's Guide without all the KM graphics on it. I looked through all the community use and PRD stuff but I can't seem to find a generic sheet anywhere. I could have sworn I saw one once upon a time, but I'll be damned if I can find it. Is there a generic sheet available or am I just going to have to use the KM hex sheet? I am building a homebrew sandbox and drew my original map using the graph generator on incompetech.com, which is where I usually get all my graph paper, but the way it generates hexes makes it so I'm having a really hard time lining up sheets of big hexes to make a different scale version of my large map without it looking clunky and awkward.
I am looking for AP installments that can stand on their own as solid adventures or adventure sites for a homebrew sandbox campaign I am planning. I asked elsewhere for suggestions in general, but then I got to thinking that the AP line has some great bits that could work inside or outside their existing framework. The game is set in a temperate region that borders an arid wasteland area. It is rooted in low to mid fantasy medieval akin to Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. The narrative backbone of the campaign is a decoupled Age of Worms though we will not explicitly be playing that campaign, it is just the big plot that will be running depending on where the party goes and what they do. The world is a dark and gritty one with a healthy dose of Lovecraftian horror in the mix. The idea is to sprinkle the map with locations to explore and hooks to uncover that will create a decent sandbox campaign. What AP installments might work on their own as sites or plots that I could plug into the world and let the party interact with?
With 5th Edition just dawning it seemed like a good time to take a look back at the history of Dungeon Magazine. The magazine has had several eras and milestones with different editions, publishers, and editors (most notably here being it's time under the stewardship of Paizo). I know this forum has started to die, but I am hoping for some great input because the internet really needs a good list of the creme de la creme of Dungeon. In issue #116 a list of the top 10 Dungeon adventures was compiled but the magazine put out more than a hundred issues following that list. The list presented the following adventures as the top 10 (here listed by issue number): 1: Into the Fire (AD&D)
Issue #150, the last of Paizo's run, contained a countdown of the 10 best villains and locations. Including those adventures adds the following (again listed by issue order with repeats from above removed): 10: Threshold of Evil (AD&D)
Issue #200 also includes a list of notable adventures along with it's index but there are too many to list easily here. So what I am proposing is a fan-created 'Best Of' list. I am thinking of organizing the list based on 'era' which will roughly accompany the edition changes with #1-#81 the AD&D and AD&D 2E era, #82-#154 being the 3E and 3.5 era, and most recently, #155-#221 the 4E era with a top ten for each. I may organize differently based on what sort of response I get; such as by level or somesuch. There are, as of last count, 221 issues of Dungeon Magazine to choose from. So, what are some of your favorites?
I'm creating a sandbox campaign that I have described as 'Gygaxian D&D with lots of Lovecraft and some post-apocalyptic Mad Maxian influence for good measure.' I'm working with an area of temperate climate and varying geography including mountains, swamps, lots of forest, arid wasteland, ocean, etc. I plan on setting the characters loose in the setting and letting them explore with most of the adventuring being site-based over story-based. I usually write out stories and link them together into arcs for my games but that's not how I'm structuring this campaign. I've got a good handle on the setting and even a couple of things they can do at low level, I need more however. What I am looking for is a number of suggestions of your favorite adventures, big and small I can plug into the setting. I have a few in mind but I'd love to hear what you suggest. The adventure/module/site/plot/whatever can be any edition of any system. I am happy to convert anything to this game so feel free to suggest anything. I have a large collection of old Dungeon Magazines so don't discount that as a source. I also have a handful of PFS scenarios from when I was running weekly games so those can work too. The only restrictions I can really think of would be setting. It's temperate and low to mid fantasy medieval (think Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones) so arctic, tropical, Asian, or Egyptian themes are probably out without some work. There are enough thick forests to make tropical work sometimes but that depends on the product. I plan on plugging in a modified Rappan Athuk on an island off the coast as well as the Lost Mine of Phandelver from the 5e Stater Set. I will also find a home for Feast of Ravenmoor, Dragon's Demand, and Red Hand of Doom since they are great modules though I have players that have already experienced them, some quite recently. So what are some of your favorites?
I know we will have an answer to this question in about a month, but I thought some wild speculation would be fun. As a PFS event coordinator I keep up on all of the PFS related blog posts and yesterday they posted this little tidbit. Now the PFS and AP lines have different developers but they still tend to remain fairly intermingled, which got me speculating. Three Dragon Empires races are being added to the list of always available races, which seems odd considering PFS has been pretty Inner Sea focused for the last couple of seasons and even went so far as to dissolve the Tian Xia based faction. This got me thinking that perhaps PFS is planning on following the AP line back to the far side of the world and we will get the wuxai-themed AP the line so desperately deserves. Now, I know my logic doesn't work as well since the AP being announced would coincide with the start of Season 7 of PFS and that Season 6 is following Iron Gods in its early scenarios and will likely tie into Giantslayer at least a little bit. However, it would be great to see a return to Tian Xia and perhaps getting these characters into the mix now is a means of paving the way for next season and the AP tie-in. What is your wild speculation about the next AP?
Either my search-fu is weak or there is not one on the forum. I am looking for a consolidated document containing all of the adversaries stat blocks. Most of the APs have something like this in the forums but I wasn't able to find one for Serpent's Skull. Has anyone made one or know where I could find one?
I am preparing this campaign and was wondering about how long most groups spent exploring Smuggler's Shiv. I went ahead and determined weather and random encounters for four weeks but wasn't sure if I should plan on them hanging around a lot longer than that. With the bit about hunting out encounters compared to the number I rolled it seems like the party may be in for a stay longer than I prepared. I understand that it all depends on how aggressively the party explores the island and when they run into certain encounters and areas. How many days did your group stick around?
So I was thinking character concepts and party roles and wahatnot and got to thinking about trying to combine two of the most powerful fighter options, the two-handed sword fighter and the longbow archer. Building this character would require a TON of feats, so there is that, and with the high feat tax wouldn't be quite as good as a fighter solely focused on one or the other but I think it could work. So here is my challenge: 20 point buy, no archetypes I would go human for the extra feat. I'd try to stay in light or medium armor to keep dex up, probably something like mithril chainmail once it can be afforded and a chain shirt before that. Weapon group choices are pretty obvious though I think I would focus on blades first. The biggest feat tax would be the Weapon Focus/Specialization feats for both weapons. Point Blank Shot and the Rapid Shot feats are a must for massive ranged damage by 6th level. Power Attack and Cleave are all important for the sword damage. Dodge and Toughness, if they could be fit in there might be really good to account for the lighter armor, though taking them may not be possible. How would you build this character?
I am looking for a quality module in the 3-5ish range that has a play time of around 8 hours. Where I run PFS games we have been forced to change our times from a five hour block to a three hour block. This has put the kaibosh on continuing to run Season 5 as we have been so the alternative we have come up with is to run a PFS sanctioned module that we can break up into roughly two and a half hour blocks. We have four more PFS days to fill with this module before we take a hiatus and my business partner and I open the doors of our brick and mortar store. Once that happens, we are going back to PFS with Season 6. I originally thought of doing Feast of Ravenmoor because I love that module and already own a copy but it really doesn't have enough material to fill the requisite number of sessions. I looked at Carrion Hill but I don't know how long that runs and if it will do the trick. What do you guys think?
I bought all of Serpent's Skull back during the Golem Sale because I had my eye on it for a while and just couldn't pass up the opportunity at $36 for the whole AP. Well, coming up in the next moth or two I will get to dive in to running it finally and I'm really excited. I really enjoy tinkering with published adventures and when I say 'tinkering' I mean mutilating sometimes beyond recognition. So here is my question to those who have experience running this AP. I am considering converting the campaign over to AD&D 2E because as much as I love Pathfinder I prefer more rules light game systems for longer campaigns. How difficult might this campaign be? I am curious about encounters and special rules considerations and whatnot and how accessible the same monsters and whatnot are in 2E materials. I have a pretty extensive 2E game collection from the 90s when it was my game of choice so lack of access to the books isn't a huge concern. I thought it might be fun to try this conversion but it it's going to mean creating a ton of custom monster stat blocks than I'll just run it in Pathfinder and deal with the heavier rules system. On a similar thought, how difficult is it to convert monster stats over from Pathfinder to 2E?
Have you recently chosen to switch your Pathfinder game over to 2E but didn't know what to do with the Summoner in your party? Well, have no fear because the AD&D 2nd Edition Summoner is here!
A Summoner is a spell caster of the Wizard group. They follow the experience and proficencies table for classes of the group. Characters cannot multi-class with the Summoner. Ability Requirements: Intelligence 12, Constitution 15, Charisma 9
Spells: Summoner have access to spells on the Wizard spell list. They prepare their spells from spell books, just like Mages. Spell Specialty: A Summoner has become adept at casting spells from the Conjuration and Summoning spell schools, gaining the ability to memorize one extra spell from those schools per day. This focus on Conjuration and Summoning spells prevents a Summoner from learning spells of the Divination and Invocation schools. Eidolon: A Summoner creates a deep bond with an other planar creature and has the ability to summon the creature as if casting a spell with the casting time of 9. This is considered a spell for the purposes of Imitative and spell failure. The eidolon is granted at 1st level and evolves, increases in size and power as the Summoner gains every four levels (4th, 8th, 12, 16th, and 20th). Spells per Day:
Level 1 - 1st: 1 Level 2 - 1st: 1 Level 3 - 1st: 1 Level 4 - 1st: 1 Level 5 - 1st: 2 Level 6 - 1st: 2; 2nd: 1 Level 7 - 1st: 2; 2nd: 1 Level 8 - 1st: 2; 2nd: 2 Level 9 - 1st: 3; 2nd: 2; 3rd: 1 Level 10 - 1st: 3; 2nd: 2; 3rd: 1 Level 11 - 1st: 3; 2nd: 3; 3rd: 2 Level 12 - 1st: 4; 2nd: 3; 3rd: 2 Level 13 - 1st: 4; 2nd: 4; 3rd: 3; 4th: 1 Level 14 - 1st: 4; 2nd: 4; 3rd: 3; 4th: 1 Level 15 - 1st: 4; 2nd: 4; 3rd: 3; 4th: 1 Level 16 - 1st: 5; 2nd: 4; 3rd: 3; 4th: 2; 5th: 1 Level 17 - 1st: 5; 2nd: 4; 3rd: 3; 4th: 2; 5th: 1 Level 18 - 1st: 5; 2nd: 4; 3rd: 3; 4th: 2; 5th: 2; 6th: 1 Level 19 - 1st: 5; 2nd: 5; 3rd: 4; 4th: 3; 5th: 2; 6th: 1 Level 20 - 1st: 5; 2nd: 5; 3rd: 4; 4th: 3; 5th: 3; 6th: 2 Eidolon:
Level 1 Int: Semi (2-4) AC: 7 Mv: 12 HD 1+1 THAC0 19 Att: 1 Dmg: 1d4 Size: S (3') XP: 35 Level 4
Level 8
Level 12
Level 16
Level 20
Enjoy!
I recently ran Destiny of the Sands Part I and applied the chronicle sheet to one of my characters. The party that played through it didn't have and Sczarni characters, but my PC is. Now the group didn't fulfill the Sczarni faction mission and, obviously, didn't get the boon. However, when filling out the sheet to apply it to my character do I gain the Sczarni boon or not?
I just ran this scenario today and it was a lot of fun. However, some shared prep probably couldn't hurt. One big thing that happened at all three tables running this today, including my own, is the party arrived in Eto without having asked where to find Torch. I strongly recommend that GMs share this information with the party automatically instead of waiting for them to ask. The scenario has a lot of options for the party to approach from odd directions both figuratively and literally. What other pitfalls might be avoided with some advanced prep time?
I just bought Destiny of the Sands I: A Bitter Bargain and read the bit about Grandmaster Torch at the beginning. I knew that the Shadow Lodge stopped being a faction but I don't know any of the details. The most recent scenarios that we have run at my local lodge were from Season 3 while Torch was still a faction leader. Some of my players even met him back in First Steps and liked him. So can anyone give me some details on his betrayal so I can weave them into the game next weekend?
The title may seem strange but here is what I mean: I want to know what you think of The Slumbering Tsar Saga including its strengths and weaknesses. Based on this I will decide if it is a good purchase for my group and I or not. Here is some backstory: I love the idea of a 'first edition feel' because I had some great fun back in 1/2E and for this reason picked up Rappan Athuk. However, it didn't scratch that itch and we all quickly got bored with the megadungeon. The encounters were exciting and interesting but the lack of story lead it to be just a series of fights with nothing to tie it all together. A few days ago I had the opportunity to thumb through a couple of the installments of Slumbering Tsar and it looks like the design is a collection of interesting adventuring locations with little connecting them. While this may be interesting for a time it may grow boring and the campaign may fizzle out. So here are my questions: Is the campaign more than a series of unconnected (aside from geography) adventuring locations? How long does it take to play compared to Paizo APs (Paizo APs take about 150-200 hours to complete)? Given the opinions of Rappan Athuk above, do you think this would be a good fit and worth the hefty price (the ST bundle ends up being about the same price as a Paizo AP)?
I am starting Wrath of the Righteous this weekend and decided to create a prequel adventure that takes place in Kenabres before the fall of the city. I feel this will get the party a little invested in the city so it's destruction has a bit more weight and make the rapid level progression of the first book feel a little more even. The story I settled on is pretty simple and straightforward while establishing and foreshadowing future events and characters. I chose to take the confrontation of Staunton Vhane out of Irabeth's backstory and let the players have the honor of uncovering his betrayal. The story is simply that Anevia was undercover in a group of local thugs on a mission for Trendelev rooting out cultists when she went missing. The party is tasked to find her and rescue her. She was captured by Vhane and his lackeys because she was close to uncovering him. The party traipses around the city a bit before finally confronting the gang and rescuing Anevia. They then confront Vhane and battle him as he mucks about in the Kite before he escapes astride his wasp mount. The part I need help with is some simple and arrogant tactics that Vhane can use to quickly overwhelm the party but not kill them. I am wanting to establish him as a bonafide badass who thinks so little of the party that he doesn't even bother to kill them. Much to his detriment later when they come a-hunting.
...except there is. Back in the very early days of third edition, smack dab in the middle of the switch from second edition, Wizards of the Coast released a little known adaptation of the Diablo II game in a pair of products called Diablerie (the rules) and To Hell and Back (the campaign). There was also a previous conversion book for AD&D 2E called Awakening that focused on the rules but remains pretty obscure. After the release of these conversions WotC also released a web enhancement called The Secret Cow Level which was an a adaptation of Diablo II's infamous easter egg. Now, I'm not convinced anyone actually ever played the D2 version of D&D, and thus the web enhancement probably only ever got downloaded and skimmed for a chuckle from diehard fans of both D2 and D&D before being promptly forgotten and then deleted to save space on those old 1MB hard drives we had back in 2000. Well, it turns out I still have my download after all these years and my first thought was 'wow this is crappy I bet no one ever played this,' which was quickly followed by 'I should waste a few precious hours of my life converting this to Pathfinder.' And now I share it with you. Hell Bovine CR 7 – XP 3,200:
LE Large magical beast Init +2; Senses darkvision 60ft, low-light vision; Perception +14 ------------ Defense ------------ AC 15, touch 7, flat-footed 17; (+8 natural, -1 size, -2 Dex) hp 82 (11d10+22) Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +3 DR 10/- ------------ Offense ------------ Speed 20 ft. Melee poleaxe +15 (1d10+3/x3) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with poleaxe) Special trample (ex) ------------ Statistics ------------ Str 17, Dex 6, Con 15, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 6 Base Atk +11; CMB +14; CMD 22 Feats Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (poleaxe), Weapon Proficiency (martial) Skills Perception +14 Languages Infernal ------------ Ecology ------------ Environment Hell and the occasional slaughterhouse Organization herd (10-1000) Treasure standard The web enhancement is archived on Wizards of the Coast's website and can be found if your Google-fu is strong (read: mediocre). The document also details two special characters, the leaders of the herds, King Cow (Ranger 5) and Grief Ripper the Wraith (Wizard 4), which I may return to and convert. If you download the document be warned, there is an unending stream of painful, cow-related puns. You will also likely ask yourself why someone back then would have wasted their time creating the document, then wonder, perhaps more strongly, why someone 13 years later would waste even more time converting it before finally realizing that the most precious time wasted was actually your own. To recoup on that lost time, you might as well throw some of these nasties at your party to keep them on their toes.
I reserved ten society number over a year ago but they didn't get used until today when we ran out of reserved numbers and I realized I had some that hadn't been used yet. However, now that I am trying to report our event today, one of those numbers is linking to an account. I double checked the number on both the tracking sheet and the .pdf that has the numbers on it to be sure I was typing it correctly. Do they expire since they weren't used or is there something else going on? I can probably get these guys new numbers but if I don't have to I'd prefer that.
Obviously there is a wardstone in Kenabres, and Castles of the Inner Sea states there is one in Icerift Castle. One can assume there is one in Nerosyan, though I'm not finding any reference to one there. I also assume that there is one in Star Keep, but since it seems to be nothing more than a marking on the map of Mendev in the Inner Sea World Guide I have no basis for that assumption. So, are there other wardstones? Perhaps in Numeria or Ustalav? It seems illogical that the tide of the Worldwound would only be bulwarked in Mendev since the demonic hordes, like Hitler and the Maginot Line, could just go around.
I know it's much too far out to know who will be included for the iconics in this AP but I wanted to share mys wishlist. Amiri - Since she is kellid and this AP takes place in the barbarian lands I think she is a natural fit. Plus, I'm always happy with more Amiri artwork... Lirianne - An AP with super science seems like a great place for Lirianne to make her first AP appearance. After those two the choices are less obvious. Ezren - We haven't seen him for a while and his evocation magic vs giant robots would make for some neat art. Lem - We also haven't seen Lem for a while in the APs and while he isn't my first choice for a skill monkey, Merisiel has more AP credits to her name than anyone else. The party is pretty well balanced with melee, range, arcane, and skill. Plus Lem can supplement healing when Amiri gets beat up tanking her way through encounters. What would you consider a good lineup for Iron Gods?
I co-run a PFS lodge that has gained a respectable attendance. A frequent player and I were discussing goblins last night and I mentioned that certain PFS boons existed that allowed players to make characters for unconventional races such as goblins. I assumed the boon for goblins was in We Be Goblins! but I was mistaken. So now I ask, where can I get these race boons to doll out to the folks that come out to our PFS events? Are they only in certain scenarios or are they convention only or limited time boons like Ascendance Day last month?
My Friday gamers have made a request for a narratively driven sandbox game. However, I really want to run Rise of the Runelords since it's such a classic. Now, I'm not married to the idea yet but I have been considering it, just as I have been considering a wide-open Varisia-based game where the party can just go wherever they like. So how could I go about making this campaign a sandbox in the style of Kingmaker?
I have just started a local PFS Lodge for the game store I recently opened (we launch our first event in less than a week) and I want to purchase a season of PFS to keep us in scenarios for a while. Now however, I don't know which season to purchase. I'm leaning toward 4 because it's pretty centrally located in Varisia and that might help in the establishment of PFS locally, plus I can tout the great Varisia: Birthplace of Legends as a companion. According to the reviews all of the seasons are pretty well reviewed with only a handful of scenarios with low ratings. Season 0 is the only one with a bunch of retired scenarios but I feel like we will get more bang for our buck out of PFRPG scenarios over OGL scenarios. So what is the best season in your opinion?
I am going to be starting a wide-open sandbox campaign soon where I will be simply cutting the characters loose in Varisia and will employ the various APs and PFS Season 4 as a backbone for plot hooks and adventure sites. With the release of Mythic Realms and the inclusion of stats for the Olipeaunt of Janderlay I want to meld mythic into the game, however, I don't want to take control over when the party gains the tiers so I considered implementing this alternate system. Experience Level Characters are limited to 20 character levels and 10 mythic tiers as normal but now also track Experience Level, which is determined by their total earned experience points. Whenever a character earns enough experience points to advance in Experience Level they may choose to apply it to either a Character Level or a Mythic Tier. Experience Levels are earned at the same rate as character levels listed in the Core Rulebook. Supplement the progression chart with the following, post-20, experience point requirements. Slow Experience Progression
Medium Experience Progression
Fast Experience Progression
Considerations According to Mythic Adventures one mythic tier does not equal in power to one character level but I felt that offering two tiers in exchange for a single level did not feel like the right approach so I left it as a rough equivalent. Also, with the game changing super-heroism of mythic I will be restricting the purchase of mythic tiers until characters obtain 10 character levels, keeping it appropriately super-heroic.
A new organized play group has just been formed in the Lewiston/Auburn area and is open and free for anyone wanting to come join the fun. We will be meeting at the Lewiston and Auburn Public Libraries. Our first meeting is on Saturday September 28th from noon to 5 at the Lewiston Public Library in the Gene Cature Room. For more information please visit us at www.facebook.com/TheGameLair
Varisia seems to be THE place when it comes to Paizo developer love and so it has some very rich support. I am putting together a campaign for my old college friends that will be a Varisia game. The backbone of the game will be a Rise of the Runelords/Shattered Star mashup but I want to use the slow XP track and let the players go wherever and do whatever they like. They will be based in Sandpoint since that seems thematically appropriate. What I am trying to do right now is generate a comprehensive list of Varisia material to mine for campaign content. Primarily I am looking for GM-focused material to have a plethora of things to throw at the party as well as be able to react if the group wants to go off on a tangent and not follow the established plot, such as maybe seek out and explore Hollow Mountain instead of the whole broken artifact nonsense. Here is a list of everything Varisia as far as I can tell. Any assistance in making the list more complete would be greatly appreciated. Adventure Paths:
Player's Guides:
Player Companion:
Campaign Setting:
Modules:
I'm prepping a campaign right now that is kind of just a Varisia game but will be built on a backbone of Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star with plenty of other bits thrown in there as well. I will be having the characters use the slow XP track and plan on scaling the AP installments up or down as needed. Ultimately the scaling shouldn't require moving the CRs up or down more than one or two at any given time. Anyway, my concern comes in the distribution of wealth. I was originally planning on just leaving it alone so I didn't have to do a bunch of extra bookkeeping by reconfiguring all the distributed wealth. But then I got concerned that it may blow the curve a tad too much. If it means that they will have the effective wealth of a party a level higher or so that's not a big deal but if it is considerably more extreme I may need to dial it back. If the excess wealth is just kind of there to be spent on a big estate and servants than that's not an issue. Has anyone else tried this and discovered significant issues?
I searched around and read the class guides and whatnot but nothing really worked for my character build, unless I was missing something. So my character is, as the title states, a Dex-based Two-Weapon Fighter. He is the party leader and moral compass, being basically a Paladin with the class abilities of a Fighter. Also, he was modeled originally on an Apache warrior but that was before he got ported over to Pathfinder and Golarion. Now he is an Andoran Eagle Knight, however, he still fights tomahawks (throwing axes) and has war clubs as backup weapons. The idea is to keep him light an mobile while still keeping him formidable with a primary weapon that is both melee and ranged. The other big thing I am trying to achieve with this build is to have him work great in stages. He is being made for Second Darkness (no spoilers please) and I want to maximize him for the level ranges of each adventure (1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-14, and 15-16). This way if we quit out after a certain adventure I won't be left without some cool ability. With all of the options I have found myself starved for feats in the low levels but with nothing to take at higher levels. I am concerned that while he may start out strong he will get weaker and less effective as time goes on. I have had this problem with characters in the past and it sucks. So here is the build: Aaron Proudheart - Human Fighter
The big problems with this build is the low AC early on and the reliance on other feats. With the idea of getting some cool new ability at the beginning of each chapter works okay for the first half but then kind of falls apart. Also the inclusion of Dodge/Antagonize is a tough choice. He needs an AC boost, though it may be a little late in the game when it comes around, but with his high Diplomacy Antagonize will keep foes off the squishies and give the rogues the opportunity to flank. Plus, he's kind of the selfless defender type who would be drawing enemies to him anyway. Hit points are also a concern with his lower Con score and I thought of including Toughness in there but didn't know where. I can always swap his Str and Con but I wanted a higher damage output. His DPR is based on landing his multiple attacks so Str seemed important. I looked at the TWF archetypes but nothing grabbed me. I need the Armor Training to wear decent armor and keep his AC up. I could really use some help here through each chapter.
Most APs seem specifically designed for play by characters of any alignment. Skull & Shackles had a distinct lean against lawful; good characters and paladins specifically, making it rather problematic on a several occasions. This path seems to be almost the exact opposite, making it the paladin path almost. When I run this (and I will be running this) I want to be aware of any issues that may arise from the 'oh no evil characters, that's fine I'll just play chaotic neutral with evil tendencies' type of players. It's not a big deal for me to impose a ruling that allows only good characters and I don't see my players having any kind of real issue with that aside from a token complaint that is quickly forgotten. I have no problem going so far as telling all my players to make paladins with heavy use of archetypes. lol
I was looking at the level/tiers in the product descriptions and noticed this path shoots well past the levels normally included in an AP. Given my recent campaigning for more high-level material from Paizo I am more than a little excited. However, the existing product descriptions only include the first 5 chapters so I am wondering if someone can tell me what level/tier characters should attain during this path. Given the levels/tiers of the first five chapters I am assuming level 20/tier 10. If this is the case I am going to set money aside now for a subscription.
->This<- thread was recently posted in General Discussion forum discussing the lack of material for high-level games. In the conversation James Jacobs said this: But one way to help us make the decision to print more high level stuff (something I want to do!) would be to let us know. So who do we talk to about getting some support for high-level play? I have made my arguments and thrown out numbers in the past so I will not repeat them here but this seems to be a major lacking area in the Pathfinder brand. Please, Paizo, let's do something about this. ---- Now, before anyone has a knee-jerk reaction please read-on. This topic is not an attack on the developers in any way. There has been some support in the Roleplaying Game line for high-level play in high-level threats and whatnot, but from what I can tell that is about where it ends. Also, there are several factors involved in why Paizo runs the Modules line the way they do and I do not intend to excessively criticize business practices I am not privy to. Third party groups have tried to fill the void and certainly no offense to third party groups but quality is spotty unless you know just where to go and then, options still remain limited. Also, this topic is not a place to yell that high-level play is wrongbadfun because those arguments are irrelevant. Everyone has their own preferences and I enjoy all three tiers of play equally. The arguments have been made already so let's focus on my point above.
As the title suggests, I am attempting a conversion of the Seeds of Sehan campaign arc presented in Dungeon Magazine in issues 145-147. This seems like it should be a simple task of applying the details presented in the PFRPG Conversion Guide, however, I have heard tell that the guide does not always scale appropriately for the increased power of Pathfinder characters. I'd hate for the group to sit down to play and steamroll the encounters. I will be applying the conversion guide to the encounters but any help from those of you versed in 3.x to Pathfinder conversions would be greatly appreciated. -- For a little backstory, about four or five years ago when we were all on the fence about whether 4E was for us or not a member of my college gaming group was snatching up as many 3.5 books as he could get his hands on and would frequently bring them onto campus in milk crates to then pour over. Another member of the group came to us one day with a copy of Monster Manual II open before him and proceeded to tell us about one of the stranger monsters he had found, the Yak Folk. Here was an anthromorphic yak that could control genies and possess people. It seemed so strange to us. About a week later, while looking at the large number of Dungeon back issues I had obtained I discovered Seeds of Sehan, or as we began calling it 'The Yak Folk Campaign.' I mentioned it to the group and we all sat down to play it. With the interference of classes and other RL issues we never got much past the first installment. Flash forward 5-ish years and we are the old college gaming group is getting back together. This is the first time many of us have seen each other in quite some time but thanks to the miracle of Facebook we have kept in touch. After many years, we are returning to Exag...
Just like the title suggests, I am looking to convert the Summoner over to 2nd Edition. I would like to do this as simply and straightforwardly as possible. If there is a simple wizard kit or something along those lines that will do the trick that would be great. I'd rather not have some complicated custom class if I can avoid it. I considered just using a specialist mage with an animal companion but that doesn't really capture the eidolon very well. The reason I'm asking is I am planning on springing a surprise on my Pathfinder group by taking their character sheets and showing up the following session and letting them all know we are rolling the game back 20 years and hand them their characters in 2nd Edition. We will play a few sessions and really get the nostalgia kick. I want to remember what it was like to play the game back then and learn if it is only fuzzy nostalgia that makes me remember the old rules so fondly or if they really were pretty solid. Well, everything except THAC0, that is still counter-intuitive. The group consists of a Paladin, Bard, Druid, Cleric, Summoner, Rogue, and Gunslinger. All of the classes except the Summoner and Gunslinger convert over smoothly. The Gunslinger I just rebuilt as a Thief with a musket. I'm not sure what to do with the Summoner, however.
I was reading the product discussion for Dragon's Demand and there was a lot of reaction and discussion about the new format. It got me to thinking and I wanted to pose a question/offer a suggestion to the developers and community. Preamble
This shift makes good business sense for a number of reasons. As a former editor and publisher myself I know that it is far easier to produce a quarterly product than it is to produce a monthly or bi-monthly product. Also larger adventures sell better to the casual consumer and most publishers know that casual sales are where the money is. Subscribers are already fans and require little effort, while casual consumers require advertising and exciting and alluring products, etc. Question
The quarterly release means less adventures per year, obviously, and the concern over higher level adventures has been raised a few times. I am interested in knowing if this has been addressed by the developers. I understand that the new format is still very new so it may not have been considered yet. There has been some community concern already about the lack of high-level adventure material. With less adventures per year the potential for there to be even less support for high-level play is very much a concern. This being said, I fully understand that high-level adventures take more design and development time and do not sell as well as lower level adventures and thus do not make as much short-term business sense to produce. Suggestion
Rather than a random and unexpected release format (content-wise not release dates), formula works for a reason and I offer this as a potential approach. With four adventures released per year and GenCon being a major event I am going to assume an August-November-February-May release schedule (though this is pretty irrelevant to my suggestion). I would suggest two low level adventures every year, perhaps when the APs launch in August and January, and one mid-level and high-level adventure on the off releases. This will allow semi-casual buyers the predictability to know that at a certain time an adventure in the level range they prefer will be released and they can head on over to their local store or favorite online retailer and grab a copy. This will also also allow for the community to have the kind of adventures they want, alleviating the lack of high-level support the Pathfinder line has currently. Postamble
If this format were to be adopted, or something similar with a wide array of level and play style support I would consider getting a Modules subscription instead of the grabbing one here and there as they strike my fancy. I am sure many agree though, admittedly, we may be in the minority. What do you think?
I have a group who has recently decided they want to play some short sessions on the side while we take a break from the World of Darkness game I have been running and I got to thinking that PFS scenarios are designed for quick, fun sessions, plus a $4 price tag is hard to beat. My players aren't interested in doing the game as PFS play, despite the fact that I tried to talk them into it. Using the scenarios as just adventure material is appealing to me but I am concerned that the methods for wealth distribution may become problematic. The party will be collecting loot like a normal group of adventurers and not making use of scenario sheets like PFS characters. Is there a special way I should handle distribution of treasure if I make use of PFS scenarios? I plan on handing out XP like PFS at a rate of one per adventure, so that isn't a concerns for me. Are there other concerns or pitfalls I should take into consideration? If all else fails I can just run the adventures I already own, but this idea seems appealing to me.
I am looking for some good places to put firearms and firearm-based treasure in Rappan Athuk. One of my players decided to play a gunslinger (musket master) and thus he has started with a firearm. I am looking for input on places/NPCs where I can place firearms or related gear within the adventure itself. Shops are obvious but I want him to be able to make use of the cool treasure that can be had from delving. Now, that being said, I am running in Golarion so firearms are rare-ish and I like the idea of having ancient treasures in the depths of the dungeon but there is no reason to believe that delving gunslingers haven't gone inside and died. Or perhaps notable NPCs carry guns. The Cloister seems a logical place to insert some guns and perhaps firearms and fireworks amid the goblins in the Abandoned Bastion. What do you guys think? If I could get some input akin to the adding firearms sidebars in Skull & Shackles that would be great.
I will be running Rappan Athuk soon and I want to introduce campaign specific traits in the same vein as the traits in the AP Player's Guides. I haven't yet started down the path of designing some so I wanted to ask the community at large for input. I want to have one that is based around dungeon delving and grants darkvision but that's as far as I've gotten so far. The guides seem to offer about six to ten traits so I'd like to have about that many too. Any ideas?
I am looking for some advice and discussion about handling quests, delves, missions, excursions, raids, whatever you want to call them using a megadungeon as a setting. Some explanatory text. I have been asked very nicely to run a game alternating with the Skull and Shackles game I am currently playing. I have decided to accept the request and want to do a sandbox style game centered around exploration and quest-based adventuring. When this group is given room to stretch their legs and go about things their own way they seem to thrive. So this leads me to a couple of options: Kingmaker or Rappan Athuk. I have spent the last few days reading a lot of reviews and product discussions and I am pretty convinced that Kingmaker will be fun no matter what, so discussion of that product is kind of moot. Rappan Athuk seems generally well received and I am hopeful about that product. Both fill the need for me so I am really torn about which I want to run. Kingmaker offers the added element of kingdom building and universally positive reviews while Rappan Athuk has more adventure material for half the price tag ($40 for Rappan Athuk versus $84 for Kingmaker) plus it has the charm and nostalgia value of an old school megadungeon. I will be posing the question about which the group would like to play but if they chose Kingmaker that in no means invalidates this discussion. The purpose of this post is twofold. I am looking for advice for my game but I am also hoping to provide needed advice for the community at large. Normally I am not a fan of dungeons when they lean towards more than a dozen or so rooms. Now, I know what you're thinking, why would I want to run a megadungeon if I dislike running dungeons? The reason I don't like dungeons is the grind of moving room by room and door by door in an endless stream of Perception rolls. I hope to offset that by introducing a complex far too large to approach in such a manner and the introduction of targeted delves where the group goes in for a specific purpose and then leaves. This should transform the megadungeon from a place to be explored and searched by the square foot and becomes a dangerous location for adventuring. I have done a fair amount of searching online for input and ideas on delves into a megadungeon and all I have found are a plethora of articles about this approach being how megadungeons should be run but almost nothing about ways to pull it off. ...and now we discuss. So what are your thoughts on the megadungeon as a sandbox style quest based campaign? How would you approach the introduction of quests? What sorts of things would you have players do and how would you get them to the locations? If I end up running Rappan Athuk it will be from levels 3-20 (as opposed to Kingmaker's 1-17) so advice for all level ranges are appreciated and encouraged.
I had the pleasure of finally getting to run Feast of Ravenmoor and it was a blast. I wanted to give a hearty 'huzzah' to Mr. Hodge for the evening of enjoyment that was had by all. I ran it as a Halloween party and yes, I know it's nerdy that we sat around gaming as a Halloween party. I also know that it was two months ago but I use NaNoWriMo and a new job as the excuse for not coming on here sooner, but I assure you, the game was still lots of fun. The remainder of the post contains mad spoilers. I've had the module for a while and have wanted to run it for some time now. I was starting a World of Darkness game and jumped on the excuse to run this adventure. It got updated to a modern, non fantasy setting, but that didn't diminish any of the adventure. I placed the setting in a small Maine town during a Halloween/Harvest festival. The party attended and took place in a number of games and even enjoyed wrestling the greased pig. The only encounters that were changed were the stirge fight at the beginning and the mutation of the pig. The lost pet became a dog but the party still helped the boy find Applesauce, who had slipped down an embankment and got stuck. The feast became an old fashioned Maine style bean supper, or bean suppah as we say here in Maine. The party was shouting 'CULT!' after they were in town for only a few minutes and I considered them having a few beers with Keigler at his house and then go home, just to mess with them. Ultimately the cultists attacked them at the farm and the party ran off through the old corn maze, which had the requisite maniac, and through to the ritual on the hill where they confronted Keigler, and dropped him with a rifle shot to the head only moments after he finished monologing. They were quite surprised when the giant, demonic mosquito burst out of him and attacked. Ultimately, it was awesome and we all enjoyed playing it.
So you know how it has been said numerous times that a Paladin was the toughest class to play in this AP? Well, guess what I ended up playing... It wasn't by design. I didn't sit there and go 'oh, we're playing Skull & Shackles? I'll be the pain in the ass that plays the paladin in the campaign where paladins don't mesh real well.' I'm not that guy. We started a completely different campaign based in the American southwest in the 1850s only as a Pathfinder-style fantasy setting. For various reasons I ended up making a paladin who was a cowboy, sporting cowboy wisdom and following the cowboy code (Gene Autry style!). Well, the GM decided to roll our characters back and reboot the game and start on the Wormwood after a rough night in Port Peril. So I ended up being a paladin on a pirate ship. It's been an interesting challenge so far and I have become 'a dangerous man to be keepin' company wit'' what with all the kicking in the captain's door and demanding he return to Port Peril to face justice for his crimes that I have been doing. Okay, I only did that once and I got a poisoned dart in the chest from which I am still recovering, but you get the point. So far we've got quite the mutiny stirring on board the Wormwood and a band of cut-throats rallying under the banner of the Andoran (I'm Andoran now) cowboy, even if they don't understand what I'm talking about most of the time. Has anyone else had the interesting experience of playing a paladin or running a group containing on in this campaign? We've just finished part one of the Wormwood Mutiny so no spoilers please.
I'm looking for some basic advice on ability/feat choices for a paladin I am currently playing. I haven't played a pally since 2nd Ed so I'm a little rusty. That Sorcerer 8/Paladin 2/Eldrich Knight 10 I played in 3.5 doesn't count. The game is RP heavy and we don't need optimized characters and I don't want to blow the power curve but I still like to get the most out of a character concept. This is also the first Pathfinder character I have actually played since I am usually behind the screen. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. -- First Level The concept is a light and fast two-weapon fighter. The game is a homebrew with an 'old west' feel so I made a gunslinger meets Apache warrior type. He is already in play and working quite nicely (when the dice cooperate) at first level. The game meets for a limited time weekly and we're using slow progression so I'd like to optimize for each tier of play to maximize fun; low 1-7, mid 8-13, high 14-20. We are using the Core Rulebook only. Aaron Proudheart, Human Paladin of Erastil. Str 14, Dex 15 (13+2), Con 14, Int 5, Wis 15, Cha 16
I outfitted him with throwing axes to serve as melee and ranged weapons as well as studded leather to keep him light and fast. With those stats clearly any optimization based on skills is right out. Feats
So far this build has been working nicely with the exception of a sub-optimal AC (14) but I can improve that later with feats and magic. -- Low Level
I'm a little torn on how to maximize his concept. I want to keep him a solid fast and light dual wielder but I need to improve that AC. Tentatively I have chosen the following abilities/feats: 3. Quick Draw
I really want to take Dodge but that increase to speed that comes with Quick Draw is important. I'd also like to make use of Weapon Finesse early on but that may have to wait. I'm also not sure how useful Divine Bond is going to be since we have so far been outdoors and I bothered to purchase a mule as a mount (he's sensitive so be careful you don't hurt his feelings). -- Mid level
I'm really not sure what to do here to keep the concept as solid as it is at first level. The abilities/feats to stay light and fast don't seem to remain easy choices. However, magic will factor in at this point with a ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, and magic weapons and armor. My choices right now are:
I'd love to get Cleave, Power Attack, and Weapon Focus but I'm not sure how to make it work. -- High Level
At this point I'm pretty lost to keep him straight pally. Here is what I chose as of right now: 15. Improved Vital Strike
-- Any thoughts?
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