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What a great story!

I would argue this would be a great guide for people like me who are struggling playing a wizard for the first time. Not only was it fun to read but your story offered TREMENDOUS insight into playing a wizard.

Would you mind posting your character sheet?

The two of you could always just play a simpler game like checkers and call it chess.

How has this topic gone on for so long with no reference to Belkar Bitterleaf from the webcomic Order of the Stick?

TriOmegaZero wrote:

I'd go with a combination of opposed Int, Bluff/Sense Motive, and BAB checks.

I'd tend to agree with this except I'd replace BAB with CMB vs. CMD. Since that mechanic is specifically named Combat Maneuver Bonus and Defense, I think it would play well into a person's ability to read the "combat" of a chess board. I think I'd run a range of 3-5 checks under each of the headings, and whichever player won the most of those checks would win the match. I also think using all three mechanics provides a pretty equal playing field, all things considered.

This is my logic with an mind based CMB/CMD.

CMB = BAB + Int
CMD = 10 + BAB + Int + Wis

A successful bluff check adds +2 to your CMB for the round +1 per 5 you beat the DC. Unsuccessful bluffs give a culmulative +2 bonus to the DC.

Perhaps grappling effects could come into play but this gets complicated. I'd just stick to a best of 3-5 series like mendedwall suggests.

Perhaps you can do a sort of mind-based combat maneuver where your CMB is your BAB + Int and your CMD is 10 + BAB + Int + Wis.

A successful bluff check could give you a bonus to your CMB.

You should talk to your DM about appropriate levels of description of the enemies you are facing. You should be able to tell the difference between a half-pig and full pig. Different skin color, facial features, and smell. Especially if the full pig is the big bad. What self-respecting cheif doesn't have some sort of long braids, tattoos, or other decorations? At the very least you should know the one barking out orders is the one you have to worry about. This isn't the case for all enemies though. I can't tell the difference between a gelantious cube and one with class levels.

What level were you guys? A barbarian may rage as a free action but not as an immediate. I would have had your character basically make a will-save or voluntarily rage on the death of the first minion. Talk about an adrenaline rush but I digress.

Does the trap necessarily have to be disabled?

A simple, "Guys don't look at the pool." should work.

I'm a little bit confused by what you're saying.

What I understand is that you are a half orc barbarian who wasn't raging who 1 hit killed a minion. Then the main boss moved in to take you one on one and your party ignored him and focused on minions. Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I can tell it sounds like lack of teamwork.

Just curious, did your chracter rage? Did you remember half-orcs ferocity? Did he call out for support from his companions?

Charisma is fairly important but keep in mind as a dwarf you can take the Steel-soul feat. This brings your hardy racial bonus on saves to +4.
Being a paladin means when you're immune to fear and diseases the only saves you'll be making are pretty much ones where your hardy bonus comes into play.

What I'm getting at is that your damage and spells may be affected negatively but defensively with a decent con you'll be able to withstand almost anything that comes your way.

It looks like your DM read a little bit too much of Killer DM's campaign journals and got that "blood for the blood-god" itch and boy is that an itch you want to scratch.

In all seriousness, you two are friends in real life. I suggest you talk to him about the style of game he wants vs the style of gaming you want and compromise.

Now I don't know the circumstances of the situations you brought up but it is reasonable to CdG a character in the middle of combat. Monsters get hungry, you know. Sometimes an enemy does it to prove a point. To quell his own doubts about his worthless life. He knows he exists solely as XP for you and sometimes if he can take one of you down with him he will die with a smile on his face. Also death-loving intelligent baddies get off to snuffing the life force out of things with a pulse. These types give a whole new meaning to delivering a finishing blow.

Sometimes the only thing you can do is make sure you are playing tactically smart and not the one to blame for some of the deaths as well. For example, a player in my group is on his 9th or 10th character because he gets his character killed almost every combat doing dumb things like charging headfirst into a group of trolls as a monk or trying to swim across a raging river when you are a gnome bard with zero ranks in swim and a str score of 10. This kid's deaths almost equal the total number of sessions we have had. We try to coach the poor lad but he keeps making the same mistakes over and over.

I've used this character's deaths as an important aspect to my characters roleplaying. He keeps himself further away from his new travelling companions because he doesn't expect them to last long. Are your deaths affecting your companions?

Introducing new companions is also more and more tedious for the DM who wants to mantain a sort of continuous story without having to resort to you stumble upon character X traveling alone in your direction.

As you know, if you are playing lightly armored characters who are sticking there necks out doing a lot of damage or contributing the fight in major ways you are going to be noticed and you are going to have to have an answer to the attention of everyone who wants to see you dead. (As a PC this number is MUCH MUCH higher than the people who want to see you alive)

Being a PC is dangerous business and sometimes the roc is going to grab someone on his dive and the only thing you can hope for is that he doesn't pick you. That being said, your character deaths are too high for this to be the case of simple bad luck.

In conclusion, talk to him but make sure you are doing your best to be a smart player. See what the other players think?

I think you should approach the problem with the mindset of "What would my character do?" instead of "What would a chaotic neutral aligned character be justified in doing?"

It seems like your character has a strong background and a flavorful concept. Use this to help you come up with a decision you like the most.
Chaotic neutral is, perhaps, the easiest alignment to justify doing anything with but I still consider constraining your character's actions to the alignment you wrote on your sheet a little bit of a bad habit but what do I know.

As a druid, you don't have to care about the workers. It isn't like you share a mystical bond with the Interplanar Worker's Rights League. However you do share a tie with nature and thereby obligated to make sure the mining operation is being done in a reasonable way. I use the nebulous term reasonable because it is up to you to determine what is reasonable.

What is reasonable could range from is enforcing the mitigation of environmental impact to making sure you get your fair share of the profits.

As a bard, doing nothing is pretty boring, don't you think? It is hard to tell a story or write an epic ballad about nothing! You're sitting on a great story of the underdog and as you know everyone loves a good story where the underdog wins!

Hope I helped!

but with the APG you can take the Teleport School and swap it out for the Shift power

I am playing the Teleportation School Variant. Between Shift and the Dimensional Steps power next level I will be a master of mobility. Shift has already saved me from a few attempted grapples and swim checks.

Our campaign is very combat and story heavy, but our refusal to help the evil pharaoh (and me avoiding conscription into his army) keeps us away from the few major cities in the desert. We do get some downtime when we are dealing with nomads but we are limited in trading goods. For the time being I imagine I am basically limited to crafting wands and scribing scrolls

Leaving spell slots open is a brilliant idea and something I never thought of! Especially for utility out of combat spells (levitate, knock, etc)

Web is difficult to cast in the desert because of the limited anchor points but it has come in handy in at least 1 fight.

So far I have compilied a list of spells I am going to be research. If there are others available I will certainly get those as well but this list represents the spells that you all reccommended me and spells I think would be very valuable.

Correct me if I am wrong though, but much like food and drink, as long as they are free and someone is offering you them, take them!

I am essentially making a blaster wizard who's blasts sacrifice as little effectiveness as possible to gain battlefield controlling aspects.

I will keep this build as pure pathfinder as possible and I also must admit I am unfamiliar with the intricacies of higher level pathfinder play. What I am familiar with is the early level difficulties of a wizard. I planned this build so far to make him as effective as possible as he blossoms into arcane domination later on in his career.

As long as you are capable of reducing a metamagic cost to 0, the traint, Magical lineage[Magic Missile], is keeping your toppling magic missles at level 1 (+1(toppling)-1(Lineage)=0). Thus a dazing toppling magic missile would be a 2nd level spell (1+1-1=1).

We have lots of options for your 5th level feat. (Your wizard bonus feat is spoken for, however). In my first post I talked about how you can use this spot to fit the campaign you are in and your DMs style. Things you are fighting have spell resistance? Take spell penetration. Need higher DCs? Take Greater Spell Focus. Tired of going 2nd? Take Improved Initiative. And so on. This also means that your feats at higher levels are also more flexible.

This flexibility would lead perfectly into words of power-infused force fun like Adam suggests. I haven't put enough time into learning the words of power parts of UM but if you can combine force + energy attacks to let you trip and entangle.. well that is just awesome!

Metamagic rods are definitely an option. Focused Metamagic Rods and Disruptive Metamagic Rods both would be effective tools in your arsenal.

I was hoping the people here who are more knowledgeable than me will hear my ideas and see the nuggets of win burried in my posts and help turn this ok-controller and blaster into a powerhouse.

Dazing spell would be excellent for the trip missiles! Good call.

Feats:
1.)Toppling Spell
Wiz) Spell Focus(Evocation)
Human)Varisian Tattoo (Evocation)
3.)Spell Specialization (Magic Missile)
5.)Dazing spell
Wiz)Rime Spell
6.)Spell Specialization Change to [Manyjaws/Fireball]
7.)Improved Initiative
8.)Spell Specialization Change to [????]
9) Spell Penetration or GSF(Evo)
10.)Wiz)Selective Spell, Quicken Spell, burning spell
11.) GSF(Evo), Spell Pen, or Greater Spell Pen

What should I change my spell specialization to at levels 6 and 8?

If you are allowed Manyjaws from the spell compendium I would definitely take that at as your specialization at level 6. 9d6 for 3 rounds divided on your enemies as you see fit.

If you are not allowed to take Manyjaws, then I suggest you specialize in fireball. Remaining specialized in scorching ray will get you no benefit. Your caster level at level 6 would be 9 which is not enough to get you your third ray. Specializing in fireball at least will grant you an extra 2d6 in damage. Your regular trip rockets, dazing trip rockets, entangling frost rays, and admixtured fireballs (not to mention buff/utility/control spells like haste and summon monster) will leave you with plenty of options when combat happens.

At level 7 you have toppling manyjaws which basically means you have 10d6 force damage for 3 rounds that you can divy up on a wide number of foes or just focus on a single foe.

At level 8 you could re-specialize in scorching ray netting you a third entangling ray or if you want to continue with force spells, resilient sphere.

At level 10 you can have quickened toppling missiles, selective entangling fireballs, burning acid fireballs or entangling ball lightning in addition to your default control/summon spells.

Magical Lineage Reduces the Metamagic "level" of one spell by 1 thus a toppling magic missile's spell level is: 1 + 1 (Toppling) - 1(Magical Lineage) = 1.

At level 1, my caster level for magic missile is 3.

1(base) + 1(talent) + 1(tattoo)

At level 3, spell specialization comes into play making my CL 5 (aka 3 missiles).

Perhaps I should quote the sources I am using. Maybe that will help clarify. It seemed others have been throwing these feats and stuff around in other threads I didn't have to.

Since everyone was so helpful with my current character in another thread of mine I thought I'd ask everyone for some advice with how I can get some battlefield controlling elements into blasting in a new character. I know blasting is frowned upon because you are God and is below you, but entertain me.

The goal is to make a playable blaster from 1-20 who not does not sacrifice damage for battlefield control because he doesn't have to. I looked over psionic hamster's missile mage and other's suggestions and this is what I got so far:

Human Wizard(PFS Variant, Admixture Specialist Variant)[traits: Magical Lineage (Magic Missile), Precocious Spellcaster (Magic Missile)]
Familiar (Greensting Scorpion)
forbidden schools: Necromancy,Divination

Feats:
1.)Toppling Spell
Wiz) Spell Focus(Evocation)
Human)Varisian Tattoo (Evocation)
3.)Spell Specialization (Magic Missile)
5.)PBS, GSF(Evo) or Spell Penetration
Wiz)Rime Spell
7.)GSF(Evo), Spell Pen, Selective Spell, or Greater Spell Pen

Notes:

At level 1, you are casting Toppling Magic Missiles that can trip 2 targets (at 3+INT) for fun. Of course you also have color spray, grease and sleep if you wanted to do something other than what your magical lineage dictates.

At level 3 you are casting your Toppling Magic Missiles at CL-7 (4 bolts!)

At level 4 you switch your spell specialization to Scorching Ray. This kicks your Glorious trip rockets down to CL-6 (3 missiles :< ) but you gain a dual-ray scorching ray. Being able to do 8d6 at level 4 in whatever type of elemental damage you want is pretty impressive.

At level 5 you gain rime spell. Now you are doing 4d6 damage and entangle for 2 rounds. You also have 4 trip rockets. Your feats open up here letting you get what your DM is throwing at you. Need higher DCs? GSF. Spell Resistance? Spell Pen. and of course... PBS for scorching ray fun.

At level 6 you switch your spell specialization to (?????)
Note: In my original plan I was going with the 3.5 spell Manyjaws (and eventually toppling manyjaws) Anyone have any thoughts what I should replace it with? I suppose Fireball could work as a place holder. (9d6 in any element of your choice).

At level 7 you have Entangling Cold Fireballs in addition to all 4th level fun spells.

I have no idea what else I can put into this later on from level 7.

I think it is important to stress that this guys is basically has all the abilities of a controller but also happens to hit pretty darn hard.

Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?

Mathwei, you are my man! Things like that are why I wanted to play a wizard in the first place. I really am letting my character down by not familiarizing myself with all the spells out there. I think that is something guides should warn you about. You really should do the research into spells yourself too. You are required to be prepared for anything and everything. At once. Treantmonk's blue spells can't cover everything.

The biggest regret I made with this character was the spending of my money. I totally misjudged and underestimated the effectiveness of consumables and how I could have spent money on scrolls and wands and buying spells to add to my spellbook. I had like 6k at level 5 and I basically spent most of it on bracers of armor, ring of protection and I think an amulet of natural armor (I don't have the sheet on me).

I have to admit I came into this "thinking aww yeah I read the guides I have prepared all the right spells let's do this!" Relying on my diminuitive (relatively) spell selection and spells per day to carry myself and my party members to victory. Big mistake.

A wand of silent image, mage armor, shield, and/or magic missle, scrolls of see invisibility, dispel magic, knock, potion of levitate, gaseous form (aka: protection from tpk), and a few tanglefoot bags could totally have gone a long way it seems. Some of that uselessness comes from my spell preparation. I would have some "just in case" spells like feather fall prepared when a potion or wand is a much better idea.

So what spells do you get away with not preparing and just rely on a scroll or wand?
I know it depends on what's next that day, but why would one prepare mage armor over having a wand of it?

I have a lot to look over before next session!

Second what on earth are you doing as a self respecting god wizard casting scorching ray and fireball? You have 4th level spells, you want to auto win, drop a black tentacles on their heads.

Like I said earlier, I have not had the chance to gain my choice of 4th level spells yet. The only ones I have were traded for with a pyromaniac who went by the name of firebeard.

Interestingly enough you would mention that spell because I was reading in a thread just this morning how people have mixed feelings about black tentacles.

Some think of it as too good to pass up and others discover it lackluster at best. Considering most of our combats are outside in the desert instead of in enclosed dungeons I have a feeling that I won't be getting much mileage out of that spell (unless I combine it with wall of fire and other battlefield controls and basically force enemies to choose between a fire, the blender that is my groups melee front line or penetrated by tentacles in holes you never knew you had.

Hogarth is right. Doing a little bit of damage after you watch your CC spell's effectiveness fizzle out helps your ego.

Thank you for everyone's quick responses!

I understand that I don't necessarily do damage and I know that what I am doing is crowd control(CC) and making sure the fights are as easy as they can be. I love the idea of supporting that melee enthusiast crowd that I tag along with on my pursuit of ultimate power. My problem is that when things make their saves against my CC abilities I end up not contributing anything to my party members. I go from God to well I tried... have fun guys! Its pretty disappointing when that happens.

A few sessions ago I finally got to level 7 and was able to cast 4th level spells. Beforehand I just had them taking up space in my spellbook so I do feel like I can get a little bit better at spell combinations.

Summoning is something that definitely has caught my attention. Instead of doing damage and combat maneuvers via metamagic... I could just summon monsters to do these same exact things for me. Plus I can remain invisible! Hey that fits my conjurer God concept rather nicely. Thanks for that.

Perhaps I can ask my DM if I can get SF(Conjuration) instead of Scribe Scroll like in pathfinder society play and swap out focused spell for augment summoning. My logic for disruptive spell was using it as an anti-caster weapon and likewise focused spell was going to be used for that spell that just HAS to hit. Rods make more sense for these but we are rather item starved in the desert. Also I can see how summons like a direwolf can do damage and combat maneuvers and make good anti-caster spells. Plus I don't have to worry about savingthrows or peircing spell resistances.

Fireshielding one of the fighters definitely sounds like a good idea. I also like the idea of combining wall of fire and stinking cloud. I think I'll try out spiked pit (even though it has a material component) and see if I like that a little bit more than stinking cloud.

Hello,

Now I'm not very experienced when it comes to tabletop RPGs and this is my first ever arcane caster, but every guide and topic I've read seems to suggest that I am playing a wizard effectively. I disagree.

To get to the point, I basically feel I am not getting the desired effects of playing a God-like wizard that I want. (My wizard is both a Treantmonk's Battlefield Controller "God" and a character with a a slight superiority complex.) I'm expecting 2-3 spell combination auto-win a fight style wizardy and all I end up doing is making some glittery orcs puke. :/

To provide a bit of background, I play in a weekly desert campaign (APL is currently 7.5). I play an infernal teifling conjurer with an ego and taste for finer things in life. (unlike the filthy demonic teifling magus peasant that keeps following him around.) Asides from the new magus player, we also have a summoner, a fighter, and a stalwart defender that bring the pain up front. Our last member is a cleric who is typically working triple overtime making sure these 4 still have their precious bodily fluids. (I constantly remind him he can conserve resources by simply not healing the magus >:D )

We have had our share of fights with undead, orcs, trolls and we recently have been dealing with a sect of rust-monster riding barbarians. I mention this because I feel that humanoids and giants will continue to be what we are forced to face and will help with spell choice decision making. Also fire resistant creatures and monsters are common.

All paizo material is allowed as well as some 3.5 stuff (spell compendium for instance is ok). The only houserule my DM has is that death effect spells are 3.5 death effect spells.

We are about to get to a library where I can finally find and scribe some decent level 4 spells down. Prior to, I have been making do with borrowing a spellbook of a dwarven pyromaniac. The reason I'm coming to you all now is that since UM came out I have a good chance of being able to "re-train" and tweak my character a little bit as far as feats and spells go to accommodate new source material at this time as well.

My feats are Toughness, Improved Initiatve, Disruptive Spell, Focused Spell, and Sudden Maximize

Every major combat so far has been a derivative of this forumla:

What happens when I follow this formula:

Out of character, I feel like I'm doing things right. The more experienced members of the group who are helping me have never once said I was doing something especially stupid, but nonetheless I am disappointed at my wizard not auto-winning fights or playing up to my percieved potential. I also know I will only get better when I have more and more spells but I thought I would be contributing more than what I am doing now.

As far as improving goes, I'm looking over UM and I really think I should go for more evocation focused play. Toppling magic missles, toppling many jaws, disruptive many jaws, and hydrolic pushing mounted barbarians off their rust monsters seems more of what I am looking for.. but perhaps I'm wrong and could just be doing more with what I have already.

Thank you for reading and I hope a few of you are nice enough to help me out.

1.)Have fun. There is no right or wrong way to play. The best thing you can do is play a style that everyone likes.

1.a)You may have to be the one who starts the roleplaying ball.

If you are having trouble encouraging roleplaying, typically don't let your players get away with saying, "I'm going to ask the shopkeeper for a longsword.. how much does it cost so I can mark it off on my sheet?"

Tell them they arrive at what appears to be a small runty shop with an anvil on the door. The character is bombarded with the smell of coal soot and hot iron and its very dark. A small, charred, beardless, one eyed dwarf stops hammering away at the forge, eyes you up and down in an intimidating manner, and says, "this ain't no pansy elf art gallery better get to speakin' your business or leavin' me be."

You'll figure out when its appropriate to have roleplaying and when its ok to just deduct the gold and pencil in a trinket. Just keep in mind that some of the best game memories and running jokes are made from simple in-character actions.

2.)You're the DM. You will are responsible for knowing every single rule for everything all the time. That being said.. this is impossible so just rule as fair and just as you can. Rule as things happen and don't waste too much time looking things up. Make sure you rule consisitently and fairly to everyone. No favorites.

3.) Players do unexpected things. Sometimes things will take them MUCH longer than you anticipate and other things will take MUCH shorter amounts. Example: It took my group of players about 45 minutes to an hour to figure out how to jump over a simple 10ft chasm.

4.)Write and track things in combat. Don't rely on just your head. Keep track of durations with tally marks, HPs, and most importantly: combat order.

5.)Speaking of combat, with 6 people combat encounters can last 30 minutes to an hour in real life.

6.) If you haven't already gotten them, Paizo sells awesome washable dry-erase mats. Buy a few of these and a set of dry-erase markers and it will do wonders for visualizing combats.

Best of luck! Hope I helped.

I'm still in the first book with my group (first time players + sandboxyness + busy schedules = slow games) but with all this supposed future let-down of finding the place I'm contemplating adding something to do with viperwall in varisia into the mix.

A lot of my player's characters hail from varisia and I think it would help tie in the characters a bit to the world, offer character development hooks, and give me a chance to flex my new but growing DM muscles.

I also am making the gorilla king actually be King Louie from the jungle book. Only this King Louie discovered fire and is a barbarian/fire oracle/rage prophet.

Last night's session we had four players (Piper, Saldlon, Dierdre, and Olivia). Things had a late start. I was pretty busy and didn't have a lot prepped. I also realized that after the dice were cast, I was not prepared for the rules for this kind of fight. I had to house rule negating charm person, entanglement effects, and grappling/carrying away a PC all unexpectedly tonight.

We started the session leveling up Saldlon and Olivia. With our group not at full strength, I went ahead and rolled for the afternoon's random encounter dice. If that failed to produce a combat, I figured we'd spend the evening roleplaying and get some more in-character development going.

Probability decided tonight would not be a casual roleplay filled evening. 2 cannibal scouts, were in the area (by now Yarzoth has made it to at least the cannibal camp and they know others are on the island.) Piper and Dierdre hear movement near the viper nettles and they cautiously get into defensive positions. Piper starts playing his flute anticipating a fight. The cannibals proceed to stealth and stalk up on the group after the first note of Piper's flute-only version of Eye of the Tiger started playing. Piper rushes forwards and sees two tan, scarred and tattooed (with pentagrams) humans with broken scimitars and a javelins on their backs. At this point, I tell Piper to roll initiative. Piper and the two cannibals will have a round before the rest of the group catches up. Piper wins initiative and screams for help. He stands his ground and successfully charms the bigger looking barbarian.

Well the non-charmed cannibal decides killing Piper would be a waste of delicious halfling flesh so he proceeds to grapple and carry Piper away.
A few grapple checks and attack of opportunities later, Piper is firmly in the grasp of the raging cannibal (who now has a dagger lodged into his clavicle).

The charmed barbarian, seeing his two friends fighting, at first is unsure what to do. He is compelled to help both his old bud Grug-grug the skinlicker, and his new buddy Piper. That is until he saw Piper lodge a dagger into his his friend (causing a new will-save). Unfortunately he fails again and just rushes up to them both confused about what to do.

I now asked everyone for initiative, I discussed how each round is basically 6 seconds long and as soon as you heard the cry for help you only had time to draw your weapons/arm your slings at that point. We were all ok with that ruling.

Dierdre went first and proceeded to land a bullet square on the head of the barbarian firmly holding the squiggling halfling trail ration.

This time the charmed barbarian successfully broke free of his charm and in guttural chelaxian, tells Grug-grug to take him back to camp. He'll hold off the others.

Everyone else basically makes full-round movements to get into position and rescue Piper. Grug-Grug moves at half his speed as far as he can bringing this halfling with him, while Piper's former cannibal friend draws his scimitar, moves to cover Grug-Grug and rages.

Dierdre casts entangle centered near Piper. (Side note: Good god entangle's range and size is crazy.) The way entangle reads, I had to make a ruling about whether or not it affects allies. As DM, I ruled that the moment it is cast, any foe caught in the AoE gets tangling vines and grass trying to grab them. Allies are safe. However, from then on, for the duration of the spell, any friend or foe moving in the entangled area has to make reflex saves or get entangled. The whole fight turns into a mess as almost everyone is entangled from the initial cast or entering the entangling area.

A max-damage alchemist bomb burns away a lot of skin on Piper's former barbarian friend and destroys some of the entangling vines around him. (I know they are magic and will re-grow next round). Balor breaks free of his entangling and proceeds to move in to maul the guy into the negatives. Grug-grug is stuck and makes no progress carrying this halfling through magical vines and back to camp.

Here is where we ended the night as Olivia's player had to get up early.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

This encounter really wasn't planned and 4 level 2 PCs should be able to take a 2 CR 1/2 barbarians so I went with it. I know I made so many mistakes tonight and I felt bad, but at least my players don't know the actual rules to call me out on my mistakes. I tried to make as fair of rulings as possible.

My rulings for charm person follow that the other barbarian would not harm his friend Grug-Grug just because Piper is now your friend, too. Instead of attacking either party, he just got confused as he saw his two good friends duke it out. Since no attacks were directed on him the spell didn't automatically break. That being said, seeing his friend Grug-Grug start getting attacked made him try to snap out of the spell.

As far as entangle goes, This spell causes tall grass, weeds, and other plants to wrap around foes in the area of effect or those that enter the area. The last part of that makes this spell confusing. Affecting both allies and enemies as well as just enemies both make logical sense. I went to the internet for a decision and saw several posts about entangle hitting allies and went with that as my decision.

Grappling and moving someone also confused me. I decided that Grug-grug had to make a grapple to keep holding Piper at the start of his turn and then Piper gets an escape artist check at the end of Grug-grug's movement.

I probably could have looked up some rulings, but that takes away time from the game and we were already late starting etc and decided to get as much pathfinder in as possible instead of rules checking. Everyone still had fun, so I guess I did ok.

Absolutely. I like how everyone is a shade of gray. As far as the AC go, I like to think my Aspis Consortium is kind of like the East India Company from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

I think I am going to take my time when they are in Eleder.

The notes they find from Yarzoth and the walls of the temple will be hard to decipher since no one in the party knows Aklo and no one has knowledge history or linguistics. I will have to tread lightly, but I will describe that the they decipher and deduce that this stuff is referring to the mythical undiscovered Saventh-Yhi but not much more than that. My thoughts on the matter is that Saldlon won't know what the text is about, but he will know the importance of this knowledge and what is at stake. He will be aware that this is the kind of research any scholar would dream of having. It can be his master thesis material. It will take some time to decipher correctly.

During this downtime while the notes are being deciphered, I'll have the different factions come in contact with the PCs and ask/demand alliances/sharing of information. This will also give me a chance to introduce some player character development.

Saldlon has a contact in Eleder. In fact, meeting him was one of the reasons why Saldlon was going to Sargava in the first place. Belegion of the Tome is a high-class wizard from the academy and I'm planning on using him as a "trustworthy" contact to decipher the notes.
I'm considering Belegion also being a weak-link and selling out some of his notes to the Aspis Consortium and/or other groups.

Clayton Sage, one of Deirdre's contacts will also be in town. He was long ago friends with Relius' father (both ex-adventurers) who went to his Relius' father's funeral. He was in town for a few days before leaving back to Varisia on the boat, Queen of the Ice Age. I'm not sure what I want to do with him but he'll be there. Maybe he can inform them a bit more about Azlanti culture, etc.

Brick Goresmith is the uncle to a contact of Olondir's. He is the brother to a merchant that Olondir knows. He lives in Eleder and if things are roleplayed well, Olondir and his group can get 5% off non-magical swords/armor etc.

[Unnamed Cleric NPC] will be the contact for Oren. This guy is in with the Sargavan Government and pretty good friends with Jask. He is a member of the OAR. Helping this guy will enable the party to get away with a little more shenanigans in the city.. especially if they piss off the government and withhold info about Saventh-yhi. (jail, fines, red-tape, other delay-tactics so the government gets there first).

Eva is one of Relius' Contacts. Eva is the female gunslinger that Relius lost the competition to. She will make a casual appearance in the inn/tavern the party is staying at. She knows nothing about Saventh-yhi but it would be cool to involve her and get Relius-centric roleplaying (he is a kinda passive player when it comes to roleplaying).

Sir Tomas is Piper's major contact in Eleder. Sir Tomas is surprised to see Piper and is glad he made it. I am positive this will be a great experience for Piper since the player loves roleplaying and I think this might bestow a sort of benefit like the NPCs on the shiv.. i'm thinking a bonus to fear checks.

Racing to ruin is quite a far ways away so this is all subject to change. I have plenty of time to include all the factions and think of fun adventures in the city before the "amazing race" part kicks in. I hope to finish Smuggler's Shiv before the start of summer.

Modern Corporations is exactly what I meant by Walmart. Ethically bankrupt but financially savvy. I'll play up ishirou's private-contractorishness instead of being in debt. I like that idea.

I could have Jask be in back in good standings.. perhaps a friend of his that is in power with the government is a friend of Oren's from the Order of Aesthetic Remedies (see below).

Last night I recieved Saldlon's and Oren's backstories.

Sparknotes versions:

Saldlon hails from Egorian, Cheliax where he studied at the academy of magical arts. He recieved highest honors and the title "of the vial." He hopes to find secrets and knowledge so he may write his masterpiece thesis. He is uncaring to the morality of good and evil, takes diddly from anyone deemed below his intellect, and loves his new tri-corner hat and red, black, and gold scarf.

Oren was adopted by a goblin shaman recluse somewhere.. probably the sodden lands. He was encouraged to be more civilized than his kin and with the help of the Order of Aesthetic Remedies. (He describes them a traveling band of clerics). He has a strong sense of goodness, he dislikes the use of physical weaponry (preferring magical ends), and also has a strong dislike of dogs.

We won't be playing until either thursday or friday, so I have plenty of time to think about how I can incorporate these backstories.

Class for now. I'll think about this more today.

Using the NPCs is a great idea, and so is making every group morally ambiguous, but I'm having trouble associating these individuals with their respective groups. I could very well be mistaken, but these are the NPCs and how they relate to their faction:

Aerys - Pirates - This one, given some work, can go pretty smoothly. There is no reason for her, in the books, for her not to be a pirate. Especially if she gets promises of gaining her own ship. The pirates are ruthless and efficient, but believe the loot you find is yours and want the least amount as a commission tax.

Jask - Gubbermint - The dude was going to go to prison. I doubt he wants to help them now. Blackmail/coercion seems the only way. These guys are bumbling jerks who are the type that make the natives sign away their rights to basically everything but their loincloths with a single signature.

Sasha- Red Mantis - IIRC, she doesn't want to be a Red-Mantis and was basically exiled by her mom. I really have a hard time finding the plus side of working with them and making Sasha the Red-Mantis flavored Jask.

Gelik - Pathfinders - Awesome. This one seems the most viable. They help out Gelik, they get in good standing with them. Perhaps I can play up the pathfinders unsavory parts like how they aren't hostile to the natives, but will lie/cheat/steal to get some pretty new artifacts. Pathfinders themselves are pretty dispensable too.

Ishirou - Aspis - Now he is in debt with them. Ok. He will probably be working with them to payback his debts, but to make the Aspis appealing, they are almost a militaristic Walmart. Unethical? Yeah. Lowest prices and access to anything you could ever want to buy? Yeah. I'll be sure to bribe, donate, and monetarily assuage the PCs all courtesy of the AC. They do expect their favors to be repaid, of course. They also want the biggest commission rate/tax than other groups. Oh and if you don't help them you'll become a skeleton that moves boxes and boxes of feather tokens in a warehouse in Cheliax.

I'm gonna re-read the factions and the standings each NPC has and try to come up with some ideas.

When I was a player, I always casually enjoyed trying to stat characters in movies as PCs and use bits of this for inspiration for my own PCs. As a DM I casually enjoy trying to storyboard the movies I see and books I read and use bits of this for the campaigns I run.

Inspiration comes randomly.

For example:

I saw Queens of the Stone Age in concert and my friend caught the guitar pick. My girlfriend told me that she'd love that thing..to hold something someone famous held.. but she'd probably lose it. I agreed with her but also added that not only would she lose the pick, but she would be so heartbroken she'd write a song about it and become famous and she too will throw a pick into the audience and perpetuate the cycle.

I smiled and realized my joke is funny inspiration for a cursed magic item the bard in my campaign will find. (A V-neck guitar that you become obsessed with and after you become fully attached to it, it ceases giving you any of its magical benefits and attempts to find new a new musician, leaving it previous owner heartbroken.)

(Solid Advice)

Thanks good sir! Next combat I'm definitely having someone keep track of whose turn it is. I find the bard and/or the alchemist great for starting roleplaying. I have been told by one of my players that roleplaying is a lot of fun but it is just so awkward to do. Having people who aren't as afraid leading the way and just being in a mental state of comfort to do this sort of thing are the best things I know that contribute to roleplaying. The player also said that a little bit of fayleaf in real life helped calm his/her nerves a bit about roleplaying and get "into it". I personally do not endorse that claim regardless of validity.

Good stuff, fun to read. (things about rules I should have known)

:D thank you and thank everyone for reading! It is my pleasure to document my group's exploits into tabletop roleplaying.

I was aware that incorporeality has changed since 3.5, but when I read over that section I must have associated the 50% reduced damage with miss chance and got mixed up in the heat of battle. I admit I made the mistake.

I really had no idea that channel energy worked that way. I was operating under the assumption that channel energy was a simple burst of either positive or negative energy that affects everyone in the area. This is why I thought (one of the reasons at least) any intelligent ghost worth his ectoplasm would want to take down the cleric first. I try to balance my game between keeping the momentum going and keeping it as RAW as possible. This is one of those times where if I knew what you told me now, I would have totally used what you said about how channeling works. In fact, I have made a note of it and will remind myself for future channelings. So thank you very much!

(I'm in the process of texting Leo now and letting him know how Oren's prayers to Nethys helped out quite a bit and not to rely on his channels healing living things AND hurting undead at the same time in the future.)

I have been giving some thought about character backstories and how they fit into the story.

• I like that Deirdre and Relius share that their mother's left. To tie this back into the main plot, I'm considering Relius' mom be an agent for the Pathfinders and Dierdre's mom be with the Red-Mantis. Dierdre's mom did/is currently doing something concerning Viperwall, while Relius' mom is currently researching some strange supernatural phenomena with a certain specific professor up in Ustalav. Relius will hear about her mom's work if they talk to Gelik/the pathfinders soon or in the next book, but Deirdre's trail to find her mom will grow cold for a while. (I'm talking she won't know that fact until like book 5 or 6).
  
• Piper's hero, Tomas, will be with the pathfinders. He is a quintesential heroic cavalier and could even be with Eando.
  
• I'm thinking Saldlon is going to be blackmailed/coerced by the Aspis Consortium somehow and for something. (Ideas?)

  Other than that, I'm still coming up with ideas for the others. Also,
  I still don't have Saldlon's*, Oren's or Olivia's backstories.

(Dan described some stuff during roleplaying... mainly how Saldlon grew up in cheliax and attended an academy. He wrote a few papers and is looking for new ingredients for his bombs.)

Also, I really want to have the faction/intrigue/power struggle in my game for the next book. When I pitched both adventure paths, I got a lot of positive remarks for Serpent's Skull and wanting competing factions and intrigue.

I'm looking for ways to play up and maintain the factions are vying for power/influence amongst the PCs, but at the same time not split the party and have the party lose their togetherness. Anyone have any thoughts or advice about connecting the PCs to the story/adding factions and intrigue to my game?

I agree with calagnar.

Maximizing perform and utilizing versatile performance is your best option. Instead of worrying about maximizing several skills, you can really focus on one. The icing on the cake is that a high perform check also gets you money and a reputation.

Thanks! So my maths was right. I also realized I totally messed up where the Brine Demon was supposed to be. I thought d3 was the brine demon for some reason... whatever. I'll replace G with another shipwreck.

We played last night. Once again it was a full house! Everyone came and many brought food and drinks for everyone.

I had the group tell me their typical marching order, night-watch patterns and then finally tallied up EXP. After totaling EXP for everyone, I talked about poisons, diseases and the rules to cure them (since 3/7 of them have some sort of ability damage). We also went over marching orders and typical night watches.

This was important because tonight, Captain Kinkarian came looking for his amulet! I had him show up around midnight (end of 2nd watch, beginning of third). He bursts through Saldlon's bag spilling its contents and demands to speak to the leader of this pack of mutinous, scurvy dogs. (He assumes anything breathing and 2 legs to be mutinous and/or scurvy dog).

Saldlon proceeds to talk to Captain K and I have the sleeping party members do perceptions to wake up. He isn't being convinced these guys aren't traitorous scum since they have a goblin with them and breathe. Also, they refuse to tell him about his amulet. Things were about to take a turn for the worst, but then he saw Dierdre. I described how his visible heart started beating faster and how his one eye opened up and he seemed to smile! Such began the mistaken identity game.

Captain K wanted none of this nonsense about her not being his lost lover or perhaps her granddaughter (which as of right now seems like a pretty awesome character story line for later). He rushes over there to give her a hug and a kiss but she stops him saying it will kill her if he tries (technically true) and if you come any closer I'll destroy your amulet. She dangles the closed amulet but it is never opened.

Confused and suddenly held hostage, Captain K begins to really turn anger. He is convinced his love has been put under some spell and screams for the death of her captors. Playing Captain K as chaotic neutral and me not wanting the party to fight an incorporeal undead pirate captian, I rolled a d20 and asked for high or low. (whatever they chose, if false, he would attack). As the dice would have it, there would be combat.

He drew his sword and impaled Saldlon, who retaliated with a cure light wounds spell (after he saw Olondir's hammer have no affect on his incorporeal body). Relius shot a bullet through his head to no effect. Oren is one of the few who knew about undead and let everyone know ghosts can only be harmed by magical things and even that is iffy. Oren prayed aloud and channeled energy. Saldlon was healed, but the ghost was unaffected (50% miss chance). The captain had his next target. He cursed the goblin scum and said how he's going to skewer his little green body like a pepper. Dierdre intelligently held onto the idea that diplomacy is still an option and she finally opens the locket and yells if you love her you'll stop fighting!

Everyone in character and out froze when she said this at the table. The ghostly being dropped his sword (The sword rematerialized in its scabbard) and sighed and a happy sigh as he gazed at the picture of his long lost love. He walked closer, uninterrupted, and held his locket. He wept with joy as he looked at his love's face. Soon he phased away leaving the now empty locket.

Afterwards, they rested and prepared for the next days journey. They continued south to the treasure spot and find some berries. They got to a small clearing on a hill (right below C2 near the nettles) and had them roll perception checks. Saldlon saw a boat and campsite docked to the right and Piper saw some large rocks moving on the beach. (Actually giant crabs).

They proceeded to check out Yarzouth's landing and it definitely rekindled their anger for the captain who left them to die. Saldlon is currently wearing the captain's hat and a scarf. He proceded to tell everyone in character how you were NOBODY unless you had an awesome scarf back in the academy. (I was impressed at his roleplaying throughout tonight... always being in character and stuff). Before they knew it was the captain's/ieana's ship, Oren and Relius thought it could be survivor's from their own ship (something I should work on incorporating).

They also spotted a trail leaving the camp heading further south!
They quickly followed it and brought them near the patch of berries they were looking for. Viper nettles were no big deal for Dierdre who just woodland strode her way to get them. They considered following the path but they lacked supplies. They are going to explore the treasure area and then return to camp and hopefully catch up to them.

This is where we stopped for the evening.

Next in-line for the group is the yellow musk creeper and its 6 zombies (crew members from the Anne), the treasure pit, the party's first encounter with cannibals, more sightings of the RMD, and a few shipwrecks.

I really like, as someone on the boards suggested, a shipwreck that zaps whoever touches it into some alternate time when the ship is under attack by pirates and such and if the party fails in repelling the pirates, they zap back and find new skeletons among the other dead crews... the same number as PCs. It would be a hell of a lot of work managing all the NPC crews and enemies but it will be well worth it and a break from all this jungle business.

I'm really liking this idea that Aeshemara and Diedre are related and one of her character background goals is to discover who her mother is.
Anyone have any cool ideas to help me out?

Also, I'm thinking about ways to include things about the Anne on the Shiv for Relius and Oren. Yhat is other than the actual wreck of the ship. I'm thinking most of the ship became cannibal food, diomorphodon food, snake food, crab food, bacteria food, and/or RMD food, but possibly a few survivors were among the crew.

I'm thinking the party might rescue some survivors who are being hunted and/or trapped by cannibals soon.

I know this thread is a done deal, but I just was thinking about a fun alternative to the gorilla king's stats as in the book.

After seeing this youtube video of a disney classic, I was thinking about editing the gorilla king/heir to be a beefed up King Louie from the Jungle Book.

I don't have him statted out yet.. but conceptually, I'm thinking Ol' King Louie finally got his wish and learned the secret to make fire...through various demonic rituals! King Louie became OBSESSED with flame and a master of destruction.

I'm thinking Dire Ape(Orangutan) Barbarian/Oracle of Flame/Rage Prophet.

Tactically, start with fireballs and other fire spells, then rage and trample/over-run like how Ernest imagined as best he can with fire-elemental totem powers.

He loves dance, song, fire, destruction, forbidden knowledge(especially concerning "man-magics" that make him more powerful), lavish meals, and sacrifice (with fire, obviously).

If you are doing this, it is morally required that King Louie calls any gnome or halfling in the party a "man-cub".

I'm also thinking about the location of conflict is enchanted with a permanent aura of "irresistable dance" that affects both sides.

Regardless of whether or not it is the king or a heir, I think this would make quite a memorable encounter.

Writing down effects, initiative order and other things is essential for combat. It is sometimes difficult to remember what is a move action and what is a standard action, etc. All my ranged characters get hissy at me when they have to take wait a round to attack again as they move and re-arm their sling or crossbow.

Do you guys allow perception checks as free actions when, for example, spotting a snake you saw slither into some foilage? or is that a move or standard action to really see it?

Also, regarding EXP, the group consists of 3 level 2's and 4 level 1's and thusly has an APL of 3. They just encountered 4 CR2 snakes (effective CR of 6). Going by the table, they get 400 exp a piece for that fight? That seems pretty darn high for how easy it was for them...

Did I do this correctly? Is it is viewed as "ok" to reduce the XP gained from an encounter if it was very easily overcome?

Fay-leaf induced logical reasoning (that no one but Olondir and Piper understand) dictated that Piper should get buried up to his neck in a small pit in the early morning. At the time there was much laughs around the table and I let it happen. I informed Olondir that to bury the halfling, it will require attack roles and skillchecks etc... but then Piper chipped up and said it was his idea for this.. so I let this happen willingly. He also wanted to inspire courage for no apparent reason while buried.

Everyone else woke up and helped the halfling out of his pit.. everyone scratching their heads and deciding its best to not know why.

The party had breakfast and waited for the hottest part of the day to recede and adventure in the late afternoon to the X on their map. They figured it would take about 2 days. In addition, they hope to find some of these viper nettles for Aerys.

They traveled for a while and got to the clearing that Orin and Relius spotted the RMD and the half-part of a goat. At this time, 4 poisonous snakes attacked.

It was difficult to keep track of 7 people and 4 snakes, combat wise. In addition, I had to explain on the fly tactical combat to the new comers, the different actions (move/standard etc) and explain how reloading a heavy crossbow takes longer than a light crossbow, perception checks for who saw the snakes hiding in the different jungle brush, etc. The combat went off very well for the group. Only Saldlon and Dierdre got bit and are poisoned.

The party worked very well together, with bless and inspire courage helping everyone, but Olivia really shined with sleeping 2 out of 4 of the snakes. I forgot to attribute the 1d6 dex damage she got from being diseased.. but she still did great. I was concerned of her morale for combat after getting diseased and basically being useless against the zombies, so I'm glad she did well.

Dierdre, although poisoned, talked to one of the sleeping snakes and got some info about the location of viper nettles. The snake exchanged this information of the prickly berry patches for its life. Crafty, crafty snake.

We called it a night after combat. I'll begin next session with the diseases, poisons, and experience for the snake fight. Next session will also be the first time they get a visit from the captain of the brine demon, discovery of viper nettles, and the treasure pit.

Lurking as well.

I was accepted! :3

I'll be creating Flute later tonight. I was thinking of playing him as a support character to the damage dealers.

I look forward to playing with everyone here in my first PbP experience on these boards.

Just to clarify- EST = eastern standard time (GMT -4).

Appreciate the info Karma.

I located several RPG groups in the SJ area on Meetup. Some 3.5, some 4E based, but most were flexible.

Have you been to Redcap's Corner?

Personally I have not as it is a bit out of the way, but i know my DM got his APG from there.

The one I have been to is Natural 20 for some dice. That store is located in Haddon township which is probably closer for you.

Good luck in finding a group!

Flute

Not sure if the thread is dead, BUT...

I'm looking for a Pathfinder RPG group. I've played D&D is most forms for several years, and recently made the jump to Pathfinder.

I live in the South Jersey area, and I'm more then willing to travel for solid game play. I'm looking for a group with the same criteria.

If I missed the boat, and you still need players I'd be happy to sit in one day/night with an NPC.

Meetup.com has a few philly/south jersey dnd groups. perhaps one of those could help. I would know because I recently joined one. :D

And/Or

Perhaps you should head down to redcaps in center city (a FLGS) and ask whomever is working if they know about any local groups looking for one more player or whatnot.. or perhaps see about starting your own group.

Redcaps and Natural 20 are the only local gaming stores I know of in the area.

There is a Cave Druid Variant though, if that helps.

Thanks for the suggestion but I see Flute as a more generic druid than an underground focused druid.

Sure, Flute feels home in the underground burrows of Janderhoff, but his attunement with the natural world is more generalized than just a strong tie to the subterranian natural world. (Especially since he was taught the druidic arts above ground by his Shoanti mentor).

I wanted to just have the an earth flavor aspect to a more general druid and I just think the underground druid takes things a bit further than what I want with Flute and his dwarven earth-themed druid concept.

Thanks for your advice though!

I couldn't find anything on it either in the book when I was thinking of the concept.

I'll just take the regular ol' earth domain instead.

Hello,

I would like to submit Flute, the dwarven druid. I hope my newbishnesh on these boards doesn't count against me.

I am on EST.

Name: Flute Earthstriker
Race: Dwarf (with Craftsman and Stonesinger racial options)
Class: Druid (domain: Cave (earth subdomain))

Traits:
Boarded in Varisia (magnimar)
Goldsniffer +2 Perception to find gold or gems.

What about actual African Music?

I was thinking vuvuzelas... :)

But it depends in part on how often the alternate characters are played, and how closely the alternate "campaign" mirrors the real adventure path.

My goal was to have this side campaign occur before, timeline wise, the current campaign. I want this fun side-campaign to already have an ending... (IE: the colony is founded) and when it comes time for the players in the real campaign actually start seeing how the effects of the fun downtime campaign has influenced this campaign (in a minor way).

I was thinking something along the lines of this:

• the STAP group may come across a petrified version of their "alternate" character,

• a massive t-rex corpse, slain in the "alternate" campaign still rests where it was fallen, only now is home to an advanced, half-fiend rhagodessa who is using its rib-cage, vegetation and decaying tissue as its lair.

• An "alternate" character's magical sword is found and used by someone in the STAP campaign

• An "alternate" character resides among the olman who they could possibly meet.

Basically I want to give my group of tenderfoots the idea of a living world where their consequences matter but not over-shadow the savage tide game.

Neutral Clerics and Undead
....
Even if a cleric is neutral, channeling positive energy is a good act and channeling negative energy is evil.

I know this is from the 3.5 PHB and not pathfinder but I don't see how channeling negative energy as a cleric in the pathfinder setting wouldn't be an evil act in light of this ruling.

This ruling would also explain why evil gods would channel negative energy.

I'm liking the idea that these characters are alternate Jade Ravens. Since it will be played only when we're not all here, it would be relatively easy to just say so-and-so was "reassigned" and here is replacement X (etc).

Thanks for everyone's suggestions! Especially Bellona. There are a ton of adventures posted for me to read up on and find one I like.

Hello,

I have 4 first time players in my savage tide game. They are battling through Kraken's Cove and loving the story so far.

My problem is scheduling the times we play. We all want to play more, I want DM more, but none of us want to continue on in the game unless everyone is there. It is usually only one of us who has plans and cannot make the DnD game, leaving the 3 other players and myself waiting until the next possible time to play and continue the story. The players and I don't want someone to miss out on any developments as they hunt down that scoundrel Vanthus.

So I was thinking about running another campaign for whoever can make it and it be related to the Savage Tide campaign now. Unfortunately I'm having trouble thinking of ideas for a campaign. I wanted to maybe do something involving the adventures of Lavinia's parents and the founding of their colony (which they know because of someone in the party knowing sylvan when in the vault), but I don't want to reveal too much of the horror or surprise of future Savage Tide developments. Any ideas or helpful advice would be much appreciated!

I'm a big fan of utilizing intimidate and dazzling display on melee types.

Actually, a barbarian is prolly the better choice (if you take that howl rage feature where shaken opponents become frightened).

Sure, you spend a full round action doing this, but in exchange every creature in a 30ft radius of you is shaken for about 4 or 5 rounds.

From here you can either do the fun trip/disarm routes or just focus on doing damage from here.

Firstly, I'm a first time DM for a bunch of first time players (as well as new to the forums). This was my first ever PC death.

What an experience.

Note: We play a mix of 3.5/Pathfinder and one of the rules is that you die at -10.

Name: Davii, Female Half Elf
Class/Level: Bard 3
Catalyst: Ripclaw

The party stealthily entered Kraken's Cove and decided the hanging silk room would be safer than the right corridor which led to louder chopping noise.

The hanging silks and lack of lighting made it extremely difficult for the group to see what was going on. Davii let out a dancing lights and sent it out as far as it could go. It weaved around the hanging silks illuminating the room temporarily as it passed. Meanwhile, Ripclaw stalked the right side of the room awaiting its prey.

The group sees 5 huge hanging silks as well as a strange yellowish puss/slime on some. They hug the wall across the room from Ripclaw but fail to notice Ripclaw's stealthy cut-off/ambush. Almost out of the room, Ripclaw pokes his head through the silk between the dwarven barbarian and Davii, shreiks and pounces the bard.

The bard instantly dropped to -6. (the first time any PC went into the negatives). The player was so scared. He nervously paced around the room as the fight unfolded. He looked so nervous and scared since this is the first time the party, (let alone himself!) ever REALLY got close to death.

Anyways, the fight goes on, the dwarf gets enlarged and ends up critting Ripclaw sending him from 5hp to over -60. (first time the dwarf ever critted).

Everyone was filled with elation at the death of this "God of Death" the party fought. (They couldn't believe this thing was as powerful as it was until after I showed them its stat block.) Everyone was happy to defeat the velociraptor. The dwarf couldn't believe he obliterated the thing. Everyone was overjoyed....until the rogue realized and looked at me and I nodded... the room went silent (except for the Dwarf Fortress music playing in the background). The acidic death throw.

I rolled Ripclaw's explosion. I rolled in the open and the explosion did 4 damage. Enough to kill Davi.

The dude was upset to say the least. He ripped his character sheet and stormed upstairs and we all could hear the door to his room slam.

Now he is unsure if he even wants to continue playing... saying things like..."Why would I want to get ressurected? Just so I can die again?" and "Why adventure if you'll probably die?"

I think the rest of the group knew the answer but none, including me, spoke a word.

I don't want to derail the thread but is this reaction normal? I mean the dude is a pretty emotional issue with some personal problems.. but to see this investment into a character/the story itself......... intense.

psionichamster-

WOW! Thanks so much for your insightful ideas.

I'll be sure to include a psionic hamster somewhere in the mournland. (perhaps a god-king to a vault)

I probably won't use the brotherhood/enclave or other factions of fallout but for the other humanoids you certainly hit the nail on the head.

I was thinking of especially utilizing Huecuvas (is that how you spell them?). I think would make good radioactive ghouls (i'll just tweak their disease to be radiation)

To keep up with the horror/survival aspects I will probably rule that healing magic will be subject to wild-magic rules underground while mainting healing magic does not work above ground at all. That being said, I may also include variants of goodberries that heal for more than a typical goodberry.(Perhaps these uberberries are addicting? >:D)

Destroyed combat machines sparsely resting in the wasteland sounds like a great idea. I'm thinking crashed Airships and just find/reskin a sunken ship map for the airship crashed in the wastes. (complete with radioactive crabs)

Robots are also great, like you said, because of warforged. I'll gladly use something akin to an adjusted warforged warlock for a blaster-bot, and warforged titans/customized smaller robots for other tasks. (I am definitely thinking of just using the stats for animated furniture for small customized hunting robots)

I also can't wait to utilize horrific illusions.(think 3 little girls crying over a doll on the ground with their backs towards the party. As the party ventures closer and the party tries to assuage the frightened children, the girls stop crying and 3 giant centipedes burst out of the shells of what the party thought were lost/scared children)

I am considering putting Oleg's outside of the mournland somewhere at the 3-way -intersection of the River Cyre (south of Ft. zombie). This way I can keep the first few NPC interractions out of the mists and gradually lead into this survival/horror Kingmaker.

Once the party has to find a way across the river and deal with whatever lies in the mists/bandits... then I will kick up the horrors and emphasize the merciless place that is the Mournland.

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and ideas. I am really liking being able to bounce ideas off of people and hear what more experienced gamers have to say about my campaign idea!