I too, am having a very difficult time processing an order. It seems to be stuck in some kind of loop. I was wanting to purchase everything in my cart using the may14 promo and cant get through. What are my options?
Until this issue gets fixed, we can submit the order from our side of the system. Would you like the physical items set to ship now, or moved to your sidecart to ship with your May subscription? Just let me know, and I'll get things finished up.
Thanks!
Sharaya
Sharaya
Thank you for all your hard work. Currently I have 8 items in my Shopping Cart - they should all be physical items:
Shopping Cart
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods Hardcover (PFRPG)$ 39.99
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Demons Revisited (PFRPG)$ 19.99
Advanced Races #6: Kobolds (PFRPG) Print/PDF Bundle $ 9.99
Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding PDF $ 12.99
Pathfinder Battles—Legends of Golarion: Fire Demon (Balor)$ 16.00
Pathfinder Battles—Legends of Golarion: Serpent Demon (Marilith)$ 10.00
Pathfinder Battles—Wrath of the Righteous: Aponavicious $ 20.00
Pathfinder Battles—Wrath of the Righteous: Khorramzadah $ 20.00
Subtotal (8 items) $148.96
Order Discount - $13.60
If you could push this from your side that would be great. Thank you again!
I too, am having a very difficult time processing an order. It seems to be stuck in some kind of loop. I was wanting to purchase everything in my cart using the may14 promo and cant get through. What are my options?
I think this is a great idea and look forward to it very much. If a Golarion Bestiary featured extended info and longer write-ups, something like the entries in the APs I would be even more on board.
I for one would also like to see something along the lines of "Dinosaurs Revisited" but perhaps this could also address it. I am by no means a dino-fan boy, in fact far from it. For whatever reason I have always had this weird hang-up about using dinosaurs in my games - not sure why, just have. I guess they seem too anachronistic. Maybe its the armchair scientist in me.
I would love to see some type of article or Bestiary extended entry that spoke to the "in-game" reasons/rationale dinosaurs are present as opposed to being extinct or vastly evolved like the mammals and avians and whatnot. I would HATE to see a cop out of "its magic" or "its the GM's choice" or what-have-you.
Thank you very much for this thread. I have no requests as of now, but I REALLY appreciate all the hard work you are doing. I grab all of the monsters you make and store them on the ol' hard drive in my monsters folder. You have saved me a tremendous amount of time as a GM. I just wanted to say thanks.
...Not sure if any of you managed to pick up the d20 version, but I was too late into IK to have much of an opportunity. So, such a tome would easily be adaptable to another game system...
The IK World Guides were hands down the highest quality 3rd Party stuff put out during the d20 craze. Absolutely phenomenal work. I heartily recommend getting your hands on them if you are a fan of the setting. IMHO they are easily worth cover + 50-75%. Also, the monsternomicons are splendid as well.
I was just catching up on this thread and while reading a bit back about the Art Books and their not selling; I had an idea.
Say for instance you were to publish a 96 page book featuring full page art from various Paizo/Pathfinder sources, do you think it would sell better if perhaps you were to give Pathfinder stats for the focus of the picture itself, maybe on the facing page?
For instance: If one of the plates was Karzoug from the cover of the GMG, the facing page might have his stat-up as an NPC, or some detail about that blue dragon, or even just a bit about a handful of the magic items in the pic.
@Epic Meepo - I just want to say that what you are doing here is very cool of you. It is clear you have tremendous passion for the game - I have managed to find use of almost everything you have posted. I do have a request.
A while back I made a model for a creature out of various Tyranid bits and a lot of gray stuff. I would love to see you stat it up. It doesn't have to have anything about it that makes it a Tyranid. I would post a pic, but honestlly, I have no idea how. So I will describe it.
The mini I made is big, so the monster should be huge. The creature is about 30 ft. long with large bat-like wings measuring 40-50 feet across. It possesses a heavily armored carapace with various spiky parts.
It has two pair of arm-like appendages. The formost of which resemble chitinous arms similar to a mantis that each end in a blade or scythe-like weapon.
The second of arms end in overly large crab-like pincers.
The lower half of the creature is a strong merfolk-like tail also tipped with a symmetric set of tail blades.
When I built the model I used the Old One-Eye head from the Tyranid Carnifex.
I am thinking this creature is both aquatic and aerial in nature. As far as powers/breath-weapons/magic etc., go crazy with it. A high CR of 15 - 20 would be essential.
If you could do something with this that would be way cool. If not, well then, thanks anyway. I absolutely will be following this thread!
Okay...I don't know if you can use this, but here is what I have. I claim no credit for this, but I saw your post and it got me to thinking and after a few minutes of searching I found a document on my hard drive called 12 swords that I got somewhere a long time back.
I honestly do not remember where I got any of this from, I just know I cut and snipped it from somewhere.
Further, I may just be wasting your time; having never read the books that these are based on, I don't even know if I am in the right ball-park or how "true" these are to the source.
Like I said, the names are the same as some of the ones mentioned in posts above, so hopefully it is of some use to you.
Anyway...here ya go...
Twelve Swords of Power
Coinspinner
Coinspinner has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a chaotic keen weapon. Further, Coinspinner gives its possessor a +4 luck bonus to all actions. In addition, anyone facing the wielder of Coinspinner suffers a -4 penalty to all actions. In combat, Coinspinner’s wielder gains the benefit of the Dodge, Mobility and Spring Attack Feats.
Dragonslicer
Dragonslicer has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a keen bane (dragon) weapon. Further, Dragonslicer is only magically effective against dragons. Against anything else, it acts as a +3 weapon. Dragonslicer can cut any dragon's scales with virtually no effort. When used against a dragon, Dragonslicer tends to aim itself toward the heart. Dragonslicer will kill any dragon whose flesh it bites. When used against dragons it has no attack bonus, but if the sword hits, the dragon dies. Removing the sword from the dragon's body requires a Strength check (DC 20).
Caster Level: 20th (artifact); Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, keen edge, limited wish, power word kill, summon monster I; +3 bonus
Farslayer
Farslayer has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a keen weapon. Further, to be used magically, Farslayer’s wielder must have a target in mind. Then, when the wielder grasps this sword by its hilt, spins in a circle, and says, "For thy heart, for thy hear, who hast wronged me!" It will streak off a few feet, in a rainbow of light, then disappear. It reappears by the named enemy and pierces its heart, killing it. (In case of a demon lord or lich, the physical object housing the life Soulcutter of the creature). There is no armor or magic can stop Farslayer, only Soulcutter can stop this Sword (Farslayer would be destroyed). The sword lays in the enemies heart, until someone finds it and draws it out.
Caster Level: 20th (artifact); Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, discern location, fly, keen edge, power word kill, teleport without error, wail of the banshee; +3 bonus
Mindsword
The Mindsword has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a keen weapon. Further, Mindsword brings all intelligent beings within a 200 yard radius under complete control of its user. Any command issued by Mindsword's user will be followed by anyone under its control, including suicide or anything else. Anyone under its control will totally worship and love Mindsword's controller. Anyone under its control cannot lie to Mindsword's user and will defend them with their life.
Mindsword's control is ineffective against anyone under the influence of Doomgiver. Doomgiver can be used to make all people under the Mindsword's control and its user to give up on everything and forget about being under Mindsword's control. Mindsword's blade is poisoned and anyone infected with this poison cannot be totally healed without Woundhealer. A Reflex save (DC 15) is permitted, to avoid being poisoned.
All intelligent, semi and up, creatures who see this sword drawn, become the faithful servants of the wielder. They remain faithful until the wielder loses the blade or they handle one of the other Swords and make a save. Possessing one of the other Twelve allows the person a Willpower save (DC 20) not to be controlled by the Mindsword. If the Mindsword and its wielder are out of sight the save is at +4. Creatures under the power of the Mindsword will follow any command given by the wielder, even suicidal instructions, with no hesitation.
Sightblinder
Sightblinder has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a keen weapon. Further, Sightblinder makes its user be seen as a admired/ loved or hated person to anyone they approach; depending on who and what they are thinking of (the wielder may change from a father to a wife, if the viewer's thoughts change). Usually groups see the wielder as the same person. The image the wielder takes cannot be chosen, it may or may not appear to be wearing a sword (or even a Sword if others see him as a person who should be wearing one, and will mimic the sounds of the other sword as well). The person Sightblinder makes its user appear to be totally indistinguishable from the real person. Sightblinder can take the image of a person that is dead in their last live form.
Sightblinder also enhances all of its users perceptions. The wielder of Sightblinder receives +20 to all Search and Spot checks, and +10 to all Sense Motive checks and +10 Listen checks. In addition, the wielder can see through all illusions, magical or otherwise. and acts as a true seeing spell when drawn. Upon command the wielder of Sightblinder may become invisible to anyone within sight, and will also be protected by a screen spell. Thus, Sightblinder can be used to deliver a treacherous blow. Sightblinder can see through Mindsword's overpowering, but is ineffective against Coinspinner, Vengeance, Soulcutter, and cannot elude Wayfinder.
Stonecutter
Stonecutter has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a keen bane (elemental earth) weapon. Further, the wielder can slices through rock and stone, literally, as a hot knife would through butter. In fact, Stonecutter can cut through any substance with no problem. When it cuts, it makes perfectly smooth cuts. Even if it's point is rested on stone, it will begin to cut it, with its own weight. Stonecutter may be used to tunnel through stone at a rate of 3ft. (this is assuming there is someone to remove the debris, or that the tunneler is going up, letting the debris fall below). The tunnel would be about four feet in diameter. Stonecutter has no real combat bonuses in addition to the standard benefits of a Sword, unless fighting creatures made of stone. Then Stonecutter adds +2d6 points to damage. On a critical, the Sword will destroy the monster.
Caster Level: 20th (artifact); Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, disintegrate, keen edge, stone shape, summon monster I; +3 bonus
Townsaver
Townsaver has a +4 enhancement bonus and functions as a keen, flaming burst, speed, weapon. Further, the wielder cannot be controlled by another. Townsaver is only magically useful in a settled community. When used this way, it is very similar to Soulcutter. It fights by itself and will not stop until the battle is over. It does not protect its user during the battle. It destroys anything it comes in contact with (except any other Power) and keeps its user alive no matter how injured he/she is. Townsaver burns the air and is red hot when used magically. Townsaver is somewhat similar to Soulcutter, in its effects on opponents in combat. For every person who attacks the wielder (armed or unarmed), if they are within melee range) the sword will attack them. A highly skilled fighter may be able to control the Sword. If he can make a successful Willpower save (DC 20). Then the wielder can control the sword but does it give an attack for each attacking opponent. If controlled, Townsaver bestows the wielder with the Power attack, Cleave, Great Cleave and Sunder Feats.
The disadvantage of Townsaver is that it does not protect the wielder as does the Soulcutter. If Townsaver is controlling the wielder he gains no Armor Class bonus for Dexterity.
After the battle, if its user is injured bad enough, Townsaver will stop keeping them alive and let them die peacefully.
Caster Level: 20th (artifact); Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, disintegrate, finger of death, fireball, haste, keen edge, mind blank, shield; +4 bonus
Wayfinder
Wayfinder has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a keen weapon. Further, Wayfinder answers any "where" and "which way" and "which one" type questions the wielder asks of it, by moving its tip in the direction of the intended goal. Wayfinder might not always take its owner the safest direction, unless its owner specifies to do so. It can seek out anything except Soulcutter or its user. Wayfinder can find a person shielded by Sightblinder. If asked for the greatest treasure, it does nothing, indicating that it, Wayfinder, is the greatest treasure since it can find most anything.
Woundhealer
Woundhealer has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a holy, bane (undead), keen, good ghost touch weapon. Further, Woundhealer will heal any living thing as a heal spell immediately, then regenerate lost body parts. The target intending to be healed must be cut or stabbed with Woundhealer, and as such Woundhealer does not cause any pain or blood and can be left inside the body for any length of time with no negative effects. Woundhealer can protect its user against anything causing any kind of harm including any of the other Swords of Power.
If used against undead beings, Woundhealer will instantly destroy them. Against non-organic beings it merely acts as a +3 weapon.
Shieldbreaker
Shieldbreaker has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a lawful keen defending weapon. Further, should someone attack the wielder they too will be hit with the same damage upon which they hit dealt the wielder of Shieldbreaker. In addition, Shieldbreaker acts a spell turning spell and over powers the spell.
When held, anyone speaking to Shieldbreaker's user cannot lie, they can only tell the truth. Nor can Shieldbreaker’s wielder lie either.
Soulcutter
Soulcutter has a +5 enhancement bonus and functions as a defending, vorpal, speed weapon. Further, the wielder is protected from all spells and attacks, spells are merely turned back at their casters. Melee or ranged attacks shall be blocked no matter what the source is, and the assaulting weapon shall be destroyed.
The only thing that can affect, Soulcutter is Woundhealer at which point. Woundhealer will protect its wielder from Soulcutter’s deadly force. Furthermore, The wielder of Soulcutter cannot wield Doomgiver, at the same time and is not protected from self-inflicted wounds. If Soulcutter is swung at an unarmed person, it will pass through their body without harming them at all. Therefore, an unarmed opponent may defeat the wielder of Soulcutter unless he throws it down .
The other disadvantage to Soulcutter is that the sword increases it's strength by drawing from the wielder, for every ten rounds of combat it reduces the wielder's Strength by one. (i.e. One Strength per minute). The wielder is not affected by this loss until all combat is done and the magic of the Sword no longer supports him. If the wielder is below one point of Strength, he will be comatose until he reaches 1 point; regaining one point a day. After this he will regain 3 points per day for total rest, or 1 point a day for resting and traveling (riding only).
Caster Level: 20th (artifact); Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, alarm, circle of death, deafness, disintegrate, gaseous form, haste, keen edge, ray of enfeeblement, shield, spell turning, wish; +5 bonus
Doomgiver
Doomgiver has a +3 enhancement bonus and functions as a keen weapon. Further, Doomgiver creates thoughts of absolute hopelessness in all within 200 yards radius of the drawn sword. The wielder is also effected by the Sword. All within the radius of effect sink to the ground, so hopeless that they can do nothing but stare at the ground. Carrying another Sword will allow the wielder a Willpower save (DC 20). Once the Sword is sheathed, anyone affected will slowly regain their normal world-view and recover in 10d6 minutes. The wielder of Doomgiver, ages one year for every two minutes of use. The wielder cannot return the blade to its sheath unless he also carries another Power and makes a successful Willpower save, when Doomgiver is drawn.
Doomgiver is ineffective against Soulcutter, Shieldbreaker and Woundhealer's users. Doomgiver completely snuffs out the Mindsword's effects.
Caster Level: 20th (artifact); Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, insanity, keen edge, mind fog, symbol (hopelessness), wish; +3 bonus
James, typically my 'questions' to you are more suggestions or what-not but I know of no other easy way to bring things to your attention as I stumble across the web.
Anyway, do you think "La Herencia Valdemar I and II" are movies you would like to see, or have seen?
If you aren't aware of them, let me assure you, they are delicious.
This URL is for a YouTube trailer of the second film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjKKptsL33I&feature=share
The two films are really one complete movie broken into more manageable halves.
James, as a fellow Cthulhu fan I wanted to get your quick take on something. My players and I have all been playing together for about 10 or 12 years and with other groups at least a decade each before that. We are all very well versed in various game systems - especially CoC. Recently, I have taken to running shorter campaigns for my weekly Pathfinder game and something that has cropped up is each of my players has had, or will soon have, a campaign wherein their character is the "star". In talks with one of my players recently about his upcoming campaign he asked me to put together for him an actual Cthulhu game, but do it with Pathfinder rules and set it in our Fantasy World (which is a mash-up of Greyhawk 1000 years post the published setting with Golarion on the West coast).
My question for you is this: what "classic" CoC games/campaigns do you think would work best as a conversion?
My gut is telling me to try and do something with the Masks of N. But since you are such a fan, and I have noticed over the course of this thread my and your tastes in these types of things runs strangely parallel, I figured I might see if you were interested in sounding off.
I have about a year before the campaign is set to run, so I have plenty of time for the conversion work so level of effort isn't an issue. Here is the kicker, the player in question, while very familiar with CoC has had very limited access to some of the classic modules. He was in a At the Mountains of Madness game that fell apart and I know he played in a game that was a highly modified Kingsport run.
If I were to do it, I think I would start by finding a version of him in the d20 Star Wars books and attempt to "convert" where possible. Also, you might be able to get away with some type of template. Not sure which though. But that might be a way to avoid dipping into various classes.
I am a frequent poster to the various epic threads and I even hesitated to respond to this one as I largely feel that just about everything I need to say has been said...several times. But...
My current campaign just hit epic a few weeks back.
I do not feel that the game 'breaks down' so much at 17th level as it just starts requiring a good size larger dedication of time on the DMs part. Thankfully I married a wonderful woman, that while not a gamer, she supports my gaming habits. In other words, she doesn't whine and moan when I spend upwards of 4 - 6 hours one night a week doing game prep.
At this point in the game, the bulk of that prep is done making encounters. On a good night I can get through one. And THAT is a GOOD night. Personally I don't want a full blown epic book as much as I just want a book of monsters and unique NPCs with CRs running in the range of 20 - 30.
As for rules, how we did it was this. Every core class has a hard END at 20th level. So, if you max a single class out, your 21st level has to be a new class. Everything continues to stack just as if you were multiclassing at ANY level. No one can ever get more than 4 iterative attacks, but EVENTUALLY everyone can.
In regards to spell casting the rules are pretty much there if you bend your vision of it a bit. We just continue on as if there were 10th level spells and higher. Want to know the guidelines for one of these spells? Add a metamagic feat to a 9th level spell and go from there.
It isn't perfect but it works for now.
We also have a hard level cap of 36th. The reason being that the first campaign I ran in this setting about ended when the characters were 36th level.
Since the onset of d20 this current campaign marks the third one that has reached epic. My first epic campaign lasted about 6 years and since then, the average campaign lasts anywhere from a year to three years.
Katerek, dude, that's nice. A bit higher CR than I'm looking for, like I said, but I'd love to see more of what you had. Email's johonoknat@yahoo.com. I have a friend of mine's pdf of the Phryigian, a race which are his take on the Tyranid/Xenomorph type race, his CR's go from 3-20, which is nice, but they don't have any assassin types that I've seen, then again, not had much time to look through thoroughly.
Thank you both though, and if anyone else has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
I just sent you that .doc file I did. The CRs are all over the place but hopefully you can get some use out of it. I put a lot of time into it.
Before the PFRPG came out I made myself a document based on the various Tyranid models I had. The I had was to take Tyranids and blend them thematically with the Slivers from the M:tG universe and work in a whole storyline for my game. Well, it worked sort of, but during play test it just proved too complicated the way I had done it and I never got back to refining the idea.
Ultimately I did about 20 or so pages of work on it and it has sat gathering digital dust ever since. If you are interested let me know and maybe I can email you what I did, or post it in sections, or whatever. If not, I will not be offended by any means.
In the mean time, here is one of the stabs I took at the Lictor for 3.5. Mine came in at CR 16 (though I suspect even that is subjective); hopefully you can get some ideas from it.
LICTORS
Lictors rove ahead of Tyranid ground swarms seeking out pockets of enemy resistance to be eradicated and native life forms to be absorbed. Lictors are often referred to as Spooks or Mantis Stalkers because of their unnerving behavioural patterns and combat techniques. Lictors are intelligent and possess highly developed sensory organs so they can see, smell, hear and taste their prey long before it becomes aware of their presence. Lictors are highly adapted to survival in hostile environments as an apex predator. Stalking Lictors exude a pheromone trail which draws other Tyranid creatures in their wake. A larger concentration of prey stimulates a stronger pheromone response and brings a larger group of trailing Tyranids.
LICTOR CR 16
Large Magical Beast (Tyranid)
HD: 9D10+54 HP: 103
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40ft.
Synaptic Range: 300ft.
BAB: +9 ; Grap +21 (+9 BAB, +4 Str., +4 Large Size, +2 Multi-Limbed, +2 Flesh Hooks)
Attack Actions:
+13 melee (1d10+4, heavy bone-claw), or
+12 ranged (3d4, fleshhooks), or
Full Attack Action:
+13/+13 melee (1d10+4, two heavy bone-claws) and +9/+9 melee (1d8+4 two claws [POISONOUS]), or +8/+8/+8/+8/+8/+8 touch (1d4, six feeder tendrils [ABILITY DRAIN])
+12/+7 ranged (3d4, fleshhooks)
Reach - 10ft
Armor Class: 14, touch 12, flat-footed 9 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +2 Natural Armor)
Damage Resistance: 5/ -
Saves: Fort +12, Ref +6, Will +6
AL: Neutral Evil
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 16, Con 23, Int 17, Wis 16, Cha 21
Skills: Climb +15, Hide +20, Listen +20, Move Silently +20, Spot +20, Survival +12.
Feats: Improved Grapple, Improved Multi-Attack, Multi-Attack, Stealthy.
Special Qualities:
Feeder Tendrils (Ex): Lictor feeder tentacles are tipped with sharpened bony plates and are used to lobotomize victims so that the Lictor can absorb their genetic data by consuming their brains. Once a Lictor draws a pinned opponent into their square it can attempt to engage the opponent with its feeder tendrils. These touch attacks do not draw an attack of opportunity. Every succesfull hit drains 1pt. from each of the victims ability scores. Lost ability scores return at the rate of one per day.
Flesh Hooks (Ex): The two flesh hooks are the most unusual of the Lictor weapons. They are formed out of carbon-based chitin with a razor edge and are attached to lengths of exceptionally tough muscle fiber situated between the ribs. The hooks extend up to 30 ft. and allow Lictors to snare their victims from a distance. These hooks can grapple a target and move him towards the Lictor at a rate of 15 feet per round. Anyone caught in these flesh hooks is affected by the Lictor’s invisibility and disappears from sight. If both flesh hooks hit then the Lictor gets a +2 circumstantial bonus on grapple checks.
Hive Mind (Ex): The Tyranid race has a single cohesive mind, as if it were all one entity, and the mind of this racial being is called the Tyranid hive mind. If one is aware of a particular danger they all are. If one in the group is not flat-footed none of them are. No tyranid in the mind is considered flanked unless all of them are. Lictors have a synapse range of 300 feet.
Immune to Psychology (Ex): These Tyranids are immune to all fear effects. Any hive mind creature within the synapse range of one of these creatures is also immune to fear effects.
Immune to Disease and Poison (Ex): All Tyranids are immune to all natural diseases and poisons.
Invisibility (Su): Lictors are covered with tiny chameleonic scales which shift their color and texture to match the creatures surroundings. These make Lictors exceedingly difficult to spot except at very close range. The Lictors chameleonic scales affect it as if it were under the effects of a permanent invisibility spell. Whenever it attacks it becomes visible for one full round. Maintaining grapples do not count as attack actions for the Lictor, but initiating one (either by approaching or through flesh hooks) does.
Multi-limbed (Ex): All tyranids of have six or more limbs, normally four fore-limbs and two legs but not always. In the case of many forelimbs tyranids can multi-weapon fight in the same manner as humans can two-weapon fight.
Poison (Ex): Lictor poison acts as a powerful paralytic agent. Any one struck by a Lictor’s claw attack must make a Fortitude save DC 18 or become paralyzed for 1d4 rounds.
Scent (Ex): The Lictor’s scent range is extended to 200 feet.
Skills (Ex): The Lictor has a +8 racial bonus on Listen, Spot, Hide and Move Silently checks.
Synaptic Senses (Su): All Tyranids within the synaptic range of a Lictor can smell, hear, taste, see, and otherwise sense everything that the Lictor can. This grants all Tyranids an additional +8 to Listen and Spot checks. Bonuses from other Lictors stack.
Alright I will look into it in more detail. If someone knows of a good way to host it so that people can access it post the info here. This will probably only take me a week, or two, at the most. I don't work Thursday - I may do it then.
What (if any) would be the issues with a fan doing something like this? If someone else wanted to host it I would gladly make the map and update it every so often. I buy every module that comes out anyway and I am fairly handy with maps, plus I love doing them.
Would the issue be in using the Paizo Map itself and pasting new tags onto it? Would it make a difference if it was a map of golarion that I redrew as part of my homebrew - cause if that would be cool, then I could just use it.
Also, and this isn't a question; I figured you would appreciate it, I wanted to share a CoC experience with you.
My group is composed of basically a bunch of dedicated gamemasters and within our group each of us has his specialty. For instance, the guy that runs our Pendragon game has a degree in Arthurian Mythology and teaches English Lit at a nearby University. Our Tolkien guy can literally quote the Silmarillion from memory, etc.
Our dedicated Call of Cthulhu guy has a couple of psychology based degrees, is multilingual, well-traveled, and intimately familiar with the works of HPL and other Mythos authors. Recently, whenever one of our PCs would fail a Sanity Check he would hand us each a "Symptom Card". Cards he had specially made which featured a detailed description of various symptoms.
As the game progresses he occasionally takes an audit of our symptoms, then (and this is the best part) uses the DSM-IV to diagnose our insanities (if any).
This has had a profound impact on our game and I thought it was a stroke of genius. As a fan of CoC, and as someone who appreciates clever game-fu, I thought you would get a kick out of it.
With the anniversary of this essential series of Pulp awesomeness being next year wouldn't it be a GREAT time to do an AP that explores some conveniently similarly themed area near Golarion? I dunno, say, Akiton the Red perhaps?
Also, there is going to be a Jon Carter movie next summer.
How much effort do you put into your Homebrew setting? Do you write your own Companion and/or Players' Guides, Glossographies, and Classes? Do you draw your own maps?
Do you have your own creation stories? What is your DM philosophy when it comes to what to include in your game?
This is why I ask...
Over the years I have taken great pains to write my own creation story and basically my own 'fluff' heavy players' guide. It isn't even remotely entirely original - I make no bones about lifting, borrowing, and blatantly 'ripping off' other settings, worlds, pieces of fiction, real-world mythology, etc. Im not trying to get published - Im trying to have fun with my friends.
It occurred to me that there may very well be other GMs out there that do the same and as such, they would be a great resource for data-mining. And as such, they may also be interested in exchanges of ideas for the express purpose of hijacking another's work for their own gain.
What about drow associated creatures? I've been working on a CR 20 aspect/avatar of Lolth that i've been working on for the conclusion to a Queen of Spiders campaign, basically just a half-fiend drider with 10 levels of cleric and possibly some minor divine abilities.
You know what? That would be AWESOME! I was literally just sitting here looking at my Aspect of Lloth mini wondering if I couldn't do something cool with her. Would you mind posting?
(Honestly, I'm pretty tired of hearing about Amazon and their "stated release date" hijinks. I wish everybody just realized that if they care about getting gaming books close to the release date, they really shouldn't order from Amazon.)
+1!
Is the discount REALLY that significant? Shoot...the whole reason I DONT have any Paizo subscriptions is so I can get it from my FLGS and support them! I usually buy a .pdf from Paizo anyway at a later date.
In fact, I bet you that if I HAD bought all my gaming books from Amazon I would have exactly SQUAT to show for it now. Ten or twenty bucks used to mean a heck of a lot more when lunch at Wendy's was still under $5.
I like how it's based on mobility. It gets pretty much all of the movement-based skills (except Fly), it's primary special ability is extra damage and protection if you're mobile, and it's secondary abilities are ways to enhance movement.
It's just a lot more fun to tumble past an ogre, jump over a chasm, balance on a ledge, and hit the bugbear shaman with your hand axe before swinging from the chandelier and landing behind the ogre to grant your ally a flanking bonus than to stand in front of the ogre and hit it couple of times.
Though I cant speak much to the mechanics of the class, in a campaign I ran one of my players was playing a scout and he said that he loved it, but that he wouldn't want to play it in a game that didn't use figs with terrain/battle maps.
If you're talking about the Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich version of Godzilla... ...
Yup that's the one.
So...wow. Fair enough. For the most part I think I actually agree with every point you made, though I don't think I had ever actually thought of about 13 of them before. The breathing fire thing and the jurassic park vs madison square garden thing were always the big two on my list. Now that you have pointed those other things out, I am probably going to re-watch it with an eye towards them, and if I know me, I will hate it as well.
Thanks!
This has me jonesing for Super 8. It looks like it could be really neat, though I know almost nothing about it.
I saw Thor last week, definitely some good Jotunheim love there! And seriously, see Trollhunter as soon as you are able! ;)
Also, I cannot remember if I asked you already, but have you seen the trailer for Orcs! yet? That looks delicious.
I'd love to see your cut and paste spells. As for digging up the other work you did, I'll let you decide. I'm open to any help I can get, but I'm not forcing anybody. If this thread catches on a bit, I'm hoping it can not only help us but also other campaigns. And even if Paizo goes a completely different direction than where we go, I'm sure they would like seeing what the community is trying out in the meantime.
Here's what I had from that old campaign. Bear in mind these were done under the auspices of 3.0 so duration tweaking should be expected should one choose to 'convert' them.
Armor of God:
Armor of God
Conjuration (Creation) [Force]
Level: 10
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Target: Creature Touched
Duration: 24 hours (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
You grant the creature touched with a +26 natural armor bonus to Armor Class. This is an intangible protection that entails no armor check penalty, arcane spell failure chance, or speed reduction. Incorporeal creatures can’t bypass this armor they way they can ignore normal armor.
Divine Mettle:
Divine Mettle
Abjuration
Level: 12
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Target: Touched creature
Duration: 24 hours
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
By channeling powerful divine energies through the touched creature, you grant them Damage Reduction 25/- to all standard damage (bludgeoning, piercing and slashing). This spell does not protect from energy damage.
Epic Heal:
Epic Heal
Conjuration (Healing)
Level: 11
Components: V, S, and DF
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Yes (harmless; see text)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
This spell completely cures all diseases, blindness, deafness, hit point damage, and both temporary and permanent ability damage. It also neutralizes poisons, offsets feeblemindedness and cures mental disorders caused by spells or injury to the brain. It dispels all magical effects penalizing the character’s abilities, including the effects caused by spells. This spell also dispels all negative levels afflicting the target if the levels were lost within the last 20 weeks. Against undead, the influx of positive energy causes the loss of all but 1d4 hit points if the undead fails a Fortitude saving throw.
Epic Teleportation:
Epic Teleportation
Transmutation [Teleportation]
Level: 10
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Touch
Target: You and touched objects or other touched willing creatures weighing up to 1300 lbs.
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: None
This spell takes you instantly to a designated destination, regardless of distance or planar boundaries, using the Ethereal Plane as a travel medium. You must have at least a reliable description of the place to which you are transporting. If you attempt to use this spell with insufficient or misleading information, you disappear and simply reappear in your original location.
Hellspy:
Hellspy
Divination
Level: 11
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: See text
Effect: Magical sensor
Duration: 300 minutes
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: None
With the exception of the above changes, this spell is identical to Raspail’s All-Seeing Eye (see below) except it is specially designed to send the sensor into Hell.
Raspail's All-Seeing Eye:
Raspail’s all-Seeing Eye
Divination
Level: 10
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: See text
Effect: Magical sensor
Duration: 80 minutes
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: None
This spell creates an invisible, mobile (speed 30) sensor that can see and hear what is happening at some distant location. The sensor is similar to that created by a scrying spell, and it may be dispelled. Distance is not a factor, but the locale must be known – a place familiar to you or an obvious one (such as behind a door, around a corner, or in a grove of trees). Lead sheeting or magical protection (such as an antimagic field, mind blank, or nondetection) blocks the spell, and you sense that the spell is so blocked. Magically enhanced senses, such as true seeing, will work through the sensor. You can also cast any spell from the sensor whose range is touch or greater. However, you must maintain line of effect to the sensor at all times. If your line of effect is obstructed, the spell ends. The range of the sensor’s sight is 120 feet.
Raspail's Irritation Inhibiter:
Raspail’s Irritation Inhibiter
Abjuration
Level: 10
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 24 hours
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: None
This spell grants immunity to certain spells by nullifying them. The spells this spell nullifies are Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, Harm, Imprisonment and Annihilation. You take 11d6 backlash damage when casting this spell
You Have Only Yourself to Blame:
You Have Only Yourself to Blame
Abjuration
Level: 10
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 12 hours or until expended
Melee attacks directed at you rebound on the original attacker. The reflected attack rebounds on the attacker using the same attack roll. This spell ends after 12 hours, or after 8 attacks have been reflected. You decide which attacks before damage is rolled.
You ain't kidding. If I don't take out the druid in one round, I'm not taking him out at all. And, frankly, if I don't take out the entire party all at the same time, I might as well not have taken any of them out.
Yeah, druids under the old 3.5 really became monotonous at times didn't they? I for one, and I am pretty sure I am in a minority here, WELCOMED the Pathfinder changes to ye olde Master of Many Forms.
gbonehead wrote:
I've found that I have to design encounters more by feel than by any sort of CR - and unless an encounter is designed to specifically target one or more weaknesses of the party (which is a very unrealistic thing to do - i.e. something that almost never happens) then it's a challenge for me to challenge the party.
Same here! and that is one thing that always bothered me. As a funny aside however... the one combat that my players talk about the most from our first campaign that went epic wasn't even an epic encounter! They were walking across the countryside and they got jumped by 30 some odd gnolls looking to yamaha some travelers. At first the players thought I had slapped a ton of class levels on some gnolls so they totally cowboyed them. After it was all done they were laughing about it and I was like "Gnolls only counted four of you. They didn't know you were epic."
gbonehead wrote:
I agree, but with the caveat that cosmic is its own thing. When you're playing characters up to even the mid-30s, you're still somewhat in the realm of normality. You still worry about mage's disjunction, and dying from damage, and dying period.
Once you've got that third Automatic Quicken and once you're ignoring material...
Oh absolutely. In fact, in our home game we now play with a hard cap of 36th level. Once a character would reach 37th level he is pretty much seen as a quasi-deity and politely escorted off the material plane by those FAR more powerful than he.
gbonehead wrote:
1. The sheltered vitality spell, which makes all ability damage/drain irrelevant.
2. The Close Quarters Fighting feat and it's ability to turn any grapple into a disaster of die rolling.
3. That INSANELY STUPID Iron Heart Surge maneuver from Tome of Battle, which makes virtually all effects irrelevant.
To a lesser extent the absolute nature of freedom of movement bothers me, and kelpstrands is a ridiculous spell, but those I can deal with. The three above? Ridiculous.
I agree on ALL THREE accounts. That g-d Iron Heart Surge maneuver ended up earning a BANNED stamp from me, I damn near got rid of the whole book as 'legal' - it was just such a headache!
The only other thing I would add, and this is a one-off was I had an insanely optimized PC that was a Healer/Ancestral Shugenja combo/thingy that through the merits of mischievous die rolls on random treasure charts ended up becoming a walking weapon of mass destruction once she hit the low 30s. Thankfully her player was less prone to displays of machismo (what with being a girl and all), therefor it didn't come up as often as it could have.
OK, I threw these up really quickly so they are nothing special.Most have the same sets of gear. If you can tell me a little more about what some of the others are like classes and such for Karshite Fighter,Drow Spiderguard, Drow enforcer, drow adventurer,drow blademaster, and the drow arcane guard, I might be able top come up with something for them as well.
** spoiler omitted **...
Wow Bigkilla, this is MUCH appreciated! My two-year old daughter is in the last phases of a late teething AND she is hyper-daddy-clingy right now. Any spare minute I get from work is typically going to her right now, thank you SO MUCH, this saves me tremendous amounts of time!
Originally here is what I was gonna do with the others had my schedule not gotten so wonky.
If you want to play around with these, that would be WAY cool. I am not married to any of the level distributions, that's just as far as my notes got me. I hadn't gotten into any of the mechanics of it yet to see how feasible it was or if there needed to be adjustments. Also, I was going to look at some templates to see if there were any that might be spicy.
Like I said before though, you are doing ME the favor here, so go crazy and do what you want.
I've recently said this, on this thread even, but Trollhunter really is a fantastic little flick. I loved the version I saw (Netherlands with Subtitles) though I am looking forward to seeing the domestic version to see if it is any different. I have heard it is being remade by Hollywood.
Splice was far more cerebral than I thought it would be. It definitely kept me guessing, and for any movie to do that takes some work.
Now a question.
James would you care to expound on your views of the Godzilla remake? I am not looking to attack your viewpoint or anything ignorant like that; just curious what you didn't like about it. I have seen it several times and thought it was a decent little 're-imagining"; to be fair though, it HAS been a few years...
...I'd like to see if any of the Pathfinder community has some interesting ideas for mythic spells (...
Drumlord
My experience with 3.x epic was similar to yours. Our first attempt was to develop some type of algorithm related to the end DC using the epic seeds to determine level - this was fine at first, but it eventually broke down because the core mechanics of the epic spell seeds are not solid enough to handle scrutiny.
The next thing I did was to apply as many metamagic feats to existing 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells as a I could and recorded the results. Using these parameters I was able to establish a guideline of what 10th level through 15th level spells would 'look like'. Once that was done, I just kept that as a reference for making higher level spells.
I also drew from pre-existing material. In the 2nd Ed rules set there was a boxed set for the Forgotten Realms that dealt with 10th+ level spells, I think it was the Netheril one. During this process I managed to convert several of those spells.
It worked out really well for the most part. Unfortunately none of my work is digitized, this was back before I committed everything to PC. If I can find the old notebook I will see about transcribing some of it if you are interested. I do, however, have some of the spells in a cut-n-paste format if you are interested.
I've wanted to do a guidebook to high-level play as long as I've wanted to do a post-20th level book; combining them into one book is actually a REALLY good idea.
Having ran as many long-term campaigns as I have over the years I can honestly say that in a Tome of Mythic Proportions a treatment of the 15th - 20th level play would be very useful. If for no other reason than planning. If you are running am organic campaign where the characters start low, or even 1st level, that is heading towards the mythic levels I have found it very useful to start the planning process for those adventures while the PCs are in the 15th-20th range.
Granted there is bountiful support already for this range of play, yet there is more to it than CR 16+ monsters. You just have to approach adventure design from a whole different angle - and it takes more time.
A great example of this is the recent high-level module "The Witchwar Legacy". It really is a terrific example of how to structure a high-level module.
In post-20 Mythic play there seems to be a similar 'boundary' around 30th or thereabouts. It is around there that things like magic item budget and whatnot become largely irrelevant and the scope of the campaign really goes cosmic. A PC that has been played from first level to the 30s that is also highly optimized is an amazing thing to behold.
In high-level play (15-20) the CR mechanic begins to lose its core integrity (mathematically speaking) depending upon how optimized the PCs are. It also can vary widely from one encounter to another. In mythic play (20-30) it really gets slippery. The PCs can fairly regularly handle encounters equal to their level + 7 or 8 in CR. In cosmic play (30+) CR = to EL+10 isn't unheard of.
My point?
A book in three sections: High, Mythic, Cosmic might be a nice way to address this. Combine it with monsters, stats on gods, magic items, and whatnot and you probably have a very handy tool.
If Paizo announced tomorrow: "Hey, we're stepping in and not only reworking level 21+, but we're recommending some changes to the game from 15th+" (or even 13th+)
My response would be: "Hells Yeah."
Everyone gets hung up on the 20th level ceiling. We shouldn't lose site of the big picture — all of the higher levels need a little design help.
Even though this has been discussed a thousand times...AND...James has said, at best, we are more than a year off on something like this...YES PLEASE!
I cannot stress my desire for this enough. I can personally vouch for at least 5 sales of such a book - as me and all my players would get it. Plus, I would buy the digital version.
Well if you are in the mood and want to help I am looking for an oversized party of elite drow with a fat budget each of which are about cr20.
the pcs are el 27-29 and HIGHLY efficient. they are magic item tight.
they are getting ready to do a fetch mission and the premise is these drow are there first after the same item. also the drow are on a secondary kill mission set to take out a nascent demon-lord that clocks in around cr28 or so that the pcs do not know about.
I would like to know your point-of-view regarding NPC/PC class demographic numbers and the cities stat-blocks.
One of the things I enjoyed about the city stat blocks in 3.0/3.5 was the inclusion of how many of each class resided in the community. The extrapolation of this data and seeing how it applied was always a fun aspect for me.
In Pathfinder that seems to have largely fallen by the wayside. This of course is by no means such an essential thing to me that it detracts from the game - but I am just curious.
As I understand it, it is going to be released in the states at some wider level sometime this year. I have also heard some scuttlebutt about a possible American remake - for which I have nothing but fear.
Once you have seen it I would love to 'hear' your comments.
"Let Me In" and "Ring" are both American remakes of foreign movies that were, in my opinion, better than the originals.
Not everything goes the way of the American remake of "The Vanishing."
I haven't seen "Let me in" due to an infestation of toddlers in my home, and I had actually forgotten about "Ring". You make a very valid point though.
Speaking of Japanese horror...have you read Uzumaki? I am not one for manga/anime typically, but that one really wowed me.
* Aboleth
* Derro
* Illithids [Thinking about using Serpent Folk]
* Svirfneblin
* Kuo-Toa
* Ixzan (Evil Manta Rays with powerful magic) [Are they in the Books i cant find them, if not i need a good supplement]
* Rockseers (Good Aligned Underground Elves) [I know they aren't converted BUT im sure i can come up with something]
* Tanar'ri & Baatezu
So those are the factions (plus sub factions on the side) i need to think about what to use for subs for the Illithids, Ixzan, and Rock seers.
Also i need to figure out where i can set the campaign im thinking the river kingdoms or maybe in Varisia... but input would be helpful.
Anyway, thats what im starting with, hopefully i can get some ideas from the wonderful and amazing people here on the Paizo boards.
Having successfully ran this boxed set back in the day from start to finish, I have a few ideas for you.
For Illithids sub them out with the Intellect Devourers. The Paizo treatment of these guys really fits nicely with NB and the overall theme meshes well.
Kuo-Toa can pretty easily be replaced with Skum.
For my money, if I were to do it over, I would replace the svirfneblin with Mongrelmen. While the two aren't really comparable, their role in the over all story could really be made all the more interesting.
The first thing that comes to mind for the Ixzan is a Cloaker. To get the magical abilities you would just need to apply class levels and for the vampiric ones a template.
When I ran NB I completely took the Rockseer elves out of it. At the time I didn't want yet another race based on terrain - its one of my pet peeves. So I just made them dwarves and when I needed them to walk through earth I said they were druids. YMMV
As for where in Golarion to set it, I think you're best bet is River Kingdoms. Haranshire can easily fit just about anywhere in that area.
One thing I remember from running this beast is the treasure. It is absolutely LOADED with $$$. You may want to seriously consider rebuilding every horde from scratch - unless that sort of thing doesn't bother you.
Also, speaking of treasure and subs, depending on what - if any - monster subs you use Finslayer becomes a VERY interesting weapon build.
Have you seen The Trollhunter? Its a Norwegian movie. If so, what are your thoughts?
I don't have the web-fu necessary to post a link to the IMDB site or I would do that here.
I've not seen it yet, but I've been hoping to get a chance to see it since I first heard about it in the middle of last year. It's in one of my favorite genres of movie: the found footage genre. I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing it, and I hope it's playing at the Seattle International Film Festival in a month or so...
I got to see the international version just the other day...it is fantastic. I won't ruin anything for you, though, no worries there. Based on other comments by you I am pretty sure your taste in movies runs strangely parallel with my own so I think you will truly appreciate it. As for its genre - you nailed it, its got a real Blair Witch vibe to it.
As I understand it, it is going to be released in the states at some wider level sometime this year. I have also heard some scuttlebutt about a possible American remake - for which I have nothing but fear.
Once you have seen it I would love to 'hear' your comments.
