Katya's page

My party (6) skipped the Halflight Path entirely using a wand of fly they’d recovered earlier in the AP and the alchemist’s wings (discovery). They also made a b-line for the Ardoc house without meeting the augers thanks to the side quest from Magnimar.

So far, they’ve steamrollered the garden (tendriculous didn’t hold up against bombs and a power attack vital strike from the raging bloodrager) and the lurker above almost ate the alchemist, but it died before the PC went unconscious.

They’re a pretty devastating crew but they’re having a lot of fun so far!

Annnnnd it didn't matter.

The party used the Staff of Heaven and Earth they found in the wyvern cave to disperse the fog effects then activated their flying abilities and swarmed poor ol' Mokmurian (or Lady Marian as they had come to call him, because that was easier to remember). He was grappled and pinned in 2 or 3 rounds and CdGed in the 4th round.

That was the 13th fight in the party's adventuring day and they're still up for more. I think I may need to make serious edits to the last 2 books of this AP.

The paladin traded his smite ability for an ability that cuts damage from his smite target in half unless said target attacks the paladin. It'll be hilarious because it only works within 20'

I missed the goggles!

My party does not have FoM. Monk (drunken quiggon something or other with grapple focus), black blade hexcrafter magus, UMD TWF rogue and a holy defender paladin.

This could be much more interesting than I had expected...

Hey gang,

I'm going over the Mokmurian battle and I'm trying to figure out how he's supposed to use many of his abilities after casting solid fog? Am I missing something? As I see it, once solid fog goes off he won't be able to hit the party with much more than slow and fireball before he runs out of visible targets in the fog.

Thanks guys but I think I was a little unclear (apologies):

Monk charges a giant.
The giant makes his AoO when the monk is 10' away.
The giant misses.
Question: can the monk use Snapping Turtle Clutch on the giant since the giant's reach is 10' even if the monk only has a reach of 5'?
Assuming he can - the monk's grapple goes off, the giant is pulled 5' to an adjacent square as per grapple rules and both gain the grappled condition.
Question 2: Can the dwarf now complete his charge with an unarmed strike?

The monk has argued that he can do the grapple despite not having reach to his opponent since he is moving towards the target and could this be seen as tackling the target. I've ruled it okay in the past but it seems sort of sketchy when I think about it.

Okay,

I have a player who is a grappling monk and we got into an argument over Snapping Turtle Clutch. We resolved the big issues with it but I have a lingering question about the interaction of this feat with a charge. Here's the scenario:

Monk charges a giant.
Giant takes his AoO at 10ft range.
Monk uses STC to grapple and succeeds.

Question: does the monk's charge complete and allow him to make a melee attack before his turn ends or is he done and unable to make a second grapple?

Okay,

I have a player who is a grappling monk and we got into an argument over Snapping Turtle Clutch. We resolved the big issues with it but I have a lingering question about the interaction of this feat with a charge. Here's the scenario:

Monk charges a giant.
Giant takes his AoO at 10ft range.
Monk uses STC to grapple and succeeds.

Question: does the monk's charge complete and allow him to make a melee attack before his turn ends or is he done and unable to make a second grapple?

My party wizard was an elf necromancer on the run from a witch hunter. His spell selection brought out some of the spells I haven't seen many wizards use and we actually encountered a surprising number of undead by the end of the third book (when we stopped playing) so his abilities got a lot of use.

I've actually just told my party in Rise of the Runelords to adjust themselves to WBL 10 since they just hit it and I was feeling like they were behind the curve.

Worst. Mistake. Ever. Where they were once walking through encounters, they are now skipping - nay - flying (literally, celestial armour and flying boots everywhere!). I think the APs actually work better if the PCs are behind the curve then when they are on it.

I had Shaylis Vinder replace her sister as the us intended victim of the Alderney ghastly in chapter 2. One of my players had developed a relationship with her and her death was the best way to really hook them into the mystery. I also played out all of the haunts in the Foxglove manor before allowing for a save from the PCs as it helped to build the mystery and the tragedy of the family.

The biggest change I've made so far is with Turtleback Ferry. My party died after rescuing Fort Rannick. They had reached TF after the flash flood and had fended off Black Magga but not before the paladin died under her blows. I gave the party the option to return to Magnimar to have him resurrected (1 month in-game time) and also told them the locals suggested that they instead travel to the Whitewillow to seek the aid of a nymph (Myriana) who had helped them before. Lastly, I presented them with a rumour of a coven of witches living somewhere in the nearby mountains... Of course they sought out the witches. They found their way to the Clanhold and we're smote upon the peak by an onslaught of ogres. It should be noted that the grapple-build monk killed 8 ogres on his own before he was felled by Barl's magic missiles and a lucky AoO.

So I broke the dam, flooded Turtleback Ferry and had the PCs res'd as servants to the hags. I had Lamatar lead them to Whitewillow where they fought Myriana and then agreed to help her restore Lamatar. That freed them from the Hags and they returned to finish the Clanhold.

We're now 1/2 way through the raid at the start of chapter 4 and I'm regretting not having altered it. My party is literally and figuratively flying through the raid and has dealt decisively with each ogre group that's arisen. Our next session begins with them reaching the Old Light at the same time as Teraktinus and his two giants.

I allow most magic items to automatically resize to their owners so that the PCs can choose to use or sell the item as they see fit. My party's Rogue took the dagger and has been using it as a throwing weapon / off-hand weapon ever since. It wasn't a huge problem given the amount of wealth the party's been able to accumulate.

O.O I love these ideas!

So after reading through these posts and sorting through suggestions from friends, I think I've settled on:

- A thieves guild which is run by a cult dedicated to a hydra. The party begins to discover the cult's deeper mysteries as townsfolk start to get sick from eating bad eggs. Some of the patients die as juvenile hydras burst from their bodies (think Alien).

- An Illithid that toys with the party at several stages during the campaign before finally forcing a full confrontation when the party breaks up his slaver-driven food train.

- A cabal of mimics that operate an shipping and smuggling ring. The mimics take legitimate and illegitimate cargo, swap themselves in for the goods, then collect money on delivery. Once the cabal has been paid, the "goods" vanish. The party is tipped off after a series of grisly murders in the docks and warehouse district and a rare and powerful artefact fails to arrive at a local museum.

- A set out outlaying villages are gripped in what seems to be an series of unseasonal winter storms and sightings of a white dragon have piqued the PCs interest. They come to discover that the winter storms are being caused by a group of secretive druids in an effort to protect the villages from what is actually an albino red dragon.

- The feud between two temples spills over into the streets of the PCs' city as the head clerics of each faction begin to summon outsiders to do their fighting. The city is gripped by a blood war between a horde of demons and an army of devils.

Lots of great ideas, thanks guys!

I had another friend suggest a Gold Dragon. Since they are almost always LG, it could be an interesting twist to the game when its revealed that the benevolent quest giver has actually be using the party the whole time.

Other suggestions in a similar vein were:

- an albino red dragon that is mistaken for a white dragon
- two warring beholders who lead a thieves guild and a temple. The players get caught up in what appears to be a divine battle against a group of sinners, but what is actually a battle of egos.

hmmm, Umber Hulks...

I'm in the very early stages of campaign planning and I'm soliciting ideas for baddies. I want to get outside of my own box here so I'm asking for what people like to fight / like to throw at their own players.

Please limit responses to 1 sentence, no stories or background required.

I've yet to get a party high enough to use Dominate, but if I did, I'd have the player play their PC. Unless there's something specific and tactics-realted that the dominator is hoping to achieve, there's no reason why the player can't continue to run the character on the field.

I do the same thing if I kill a single player mid-dungeon. If the party wants to keep going before they look for resurrection options then I give the dead PC stats for one of the monsters in the next combat and let them run it as they wish.

Last time I did that everyone had a tonne of fun *and* TPK'd themselves. It was glorious.

It cuts down on the mental work for the GM. If I have a player running a handful of grunts then I can more effectively run the BBEG caster who has very specific instructions, plus it keeps everyone at the table actively engaged in the game. I wouldn't recommend it with a group of strangers or with a group that you know will intentionally skew NPC actions in favour of the remaining party - but among friends who understand there's no hard feelings about the game, it can be fun.

Animal Shaman don't get the ability to wild shape until lvl 6. When they do, if they choose anything other than their animal, they are treated as being lvl 4. If they choose their animal, they are treated as level 8.

Adjust appropriately as the class levels.

You cannot wild shape at level 2 or level 4, regardless of which animal you choose.

I've dubbed the kingdom "Erastia" since our DM played up a lot of Erastil influences for our ever faithful ranger, but the party has yet to officially agree to the name after over a year of adventuring in it (real time, our game is a little slow right now).

The capital was built on the old Stag Lord's fort and is name Staghelm. Oleg's continues to be Oleg's Trading Post. To my knowledge we have yet to establish any other permanent holdings, though we did name the graveyard Katya's Rest after my own Oracle who fell in battle with a wandering Shambling Mound.

I agree with the above. The world is polytheistic so you can't treat individuals as only having faith in one deity. I tend to treat Pathfinder religions like the Roman faith. You give gifts and service to the deity that fits the occasion rather than blindly following a single faith. The Romans didn't dedicate themselves to single faiths, rather they made offerings to sea deities for security of their ships, to deities of travel and commerce when launching caravans and to deities of war when going into battle.

The only time I think it's a bigger issue is when clerics and paladins come into the mix. Those classes have faith woven into their make up. Clerics dedicate themselves to the worship of a single deity, often with the goal to increase that worship and to see their deity's wishes come true. In this case it looks like the player has decided to be fully dedicated to Abadar as a cleric. I think his reverence to Asmodeus is simply acknowledging that he may not be as out of line as other faiths would have their followers believe.

When I did my Scarred Orc Witch Doctor I built him as a kind of arcane cleric. I took the White Witch archetype to add in some healing, the Elemental patron for a bit of damage and then cherry picked spells that looked fun. We were slogging through a series of battles with trolls at the time so the fireballs and burning hands came in handy. I was also able to buff myself up with spells and the Nat Armour bonus from SWD in the event something closed to melee to buy myself time. I even managed to deal some decent hits with my axe despite being a ½-BAB class (Orc STR is awesome!) which really surpassed my DM.

The character eventually died from being beaten by a mind controlled party member - but his short life was a lot of fun.

If I were to rebuild him, I'd probably keep the same concept, but go for the Fortune Hex and Cackle instead of Evil Eye. Healing Hex is a staple IMO and while I like Fly, I should have put it off longer.

I know Barbarian gets pushed a lot since the builds synch nicely, but I think any dips out of witch mean you have to give up too much from the lost caster / class levels.

I'm playing Carrion Crown right now actually with a group, it is fun!

Non-standard party design is pretty much my group's modes operandi. The RotRL team was grapple monk, shielding paladin, magus and UMD // TWF rogue.

thanks Atheral. I haven't looked at much from either of those so I'll have to hunt them down. Jade Regent is a semi-sequal to Runelords, isn't it? Doesn't Ameiko Kijitsu play a role in that one?

Is Reign of Winter one of the newer APs?

Katya was the trap master of a small band of thieves before a misfired trap nearly took her life. Her lover Dimitrius through himself in front of the bolt, taking the arrow in her stead and died in her arms. Soon after Katya's body began to rot and whither, and though she had once been able to charm anyone that met her, she now found herself rebutted at every turn. She soon learned that she had the ability to heal the wounded and sick with a touch and that if she did so, her own withering increased but, if she used those same powers to harm the undead, the rot vanished almost entirely. She dedicated her life to hunting down and destroying the undead, happy to give the life she should have lost in service to the new cause. When she died, two years later, in the middle of the Stolen Lands, she died peacefully, knowing that she had served her patron well.

Okay, so I picked up the RotRL anniversary edition, leafed through it and loved it enough to get 3 groups going at various times over the past year and a half. One ran into scheduling issues 3 chapters into the first book, another TPK'd on the front door step of Hook Mountain in book 3 and the last just TPK'd on the trapped bridge in the fourth chapter of book 1. As a DM I really want to keep running an AP and my players are all interested in continuing, but I don't have the heart to delve back into RotRL (both TPK groups wish to pick up where they died with new characters).

Any suggestions for another AP to try out? My one group (group A) also doubles with Kingmaker and part of us also play Carrion Crown. I'm not a huge fan of CC and I don't think my other group (group B) would like Kingmaker's sandbox approach for the first 2 books. What else can people recommend that has a mix of good RP and dungeon crawling?

Oh, Serpent's Skull is also out as 2 of group A's players have done the first book of that adventure.

Both groups liked Sandpoint and the overall pacing of RotRL. Group B is fairly new to Pathfinder as a whole but not to D&D, but I'm sure they'd still appreciate something that was good for beginners but also puts a new twist on the genre - they really liked the goblins for example.

Group A is all veterans so if anyone can think of any APs that present something really unusual, that would be cool.

Has anyone done the Shattered Star? I read a bit about it and it seemed like a good start, especially since both groups are familiar with Varisia. I don't have access to the Magnimar splat book though so that could be a problem?

Sorry, what's the clarification / loophole? Don't you still need lvl 2 arcane and divine spells to qualify?

As a DM the thing that convinces me to attack a "tank" is the lack of a better target. Whether that's through party positioning, ease of access (lower AC or bonuses on the monster's side to hit the tanking PC) or some other factor it doesn't matter.

My group has a holy defender paladin that I largely ignored for about 5 levels. He was ridiculously difficult to hit, could heal himself and was often positioned in a way that made him easy to avoid. Now he regularly uses 2 abilities that make him a threat: he gives his shield bonus (+6) to all allies and he can reduce all damage done by 1 enemy by half if that target hits anyone but him. So now it's very hard to hit his allies and even if I do, it 'a barely worth the effort. So now I focus everything on him.

Feats like the Step Up chain can also help since it makes you more annoying and sticky.

Actually, that sounds like an idea. The party brought the Paladin's body with them since the original intent had been for the "witches" to res him.

Okay, so my group made it though Burnt Offerings and Skinsaw Murders without too many issues. Two died to the Skinsaw Cultists but they were easily raised by a cleric of Desna tending the temple of Desna in Magnimar. Since then however they have wiped during the Hook Mountain Massacre.

The group had cleared the ogres from Fort Rannick when the keen eyed elf magus spotted a dark form in the flood waters cascading down from the partially burst dam. The party raced with all haste to Turtleback Ferry, saved the town and (mostly) survived the encounter with Black Magga.

But their paladin died.

My party prefers cannon reasons for things to happen so a simple "never mind he's not dead" hand waving woundn't do. I did a little research between sessions and presented them with 3 options:

- return to Magnimar and seek help from the same cleric of Desna as had helped them before
- listen to the superstitious villagers and seek out the fey woman in the forest that might be able to help them as she had demonstrated powers beyond the local cleric of Erastil before
- venture into the mountains where rumours held that a cabal of witches lived and practiced strange arts.

The party, being adventurers, took the third option. They failed to find the ogre tracks leading north and climbed Hook Mountain arriving at the Clanhold with no expectation of what was coming.

The rogue was bull rushed from the cliff side and died from the fall; the magus died on the end of an ogre hook just inside the entrance and their grappling, giant-hating dwarf monk waded through about 12 ogres before he was finally dropped by the stone giant sorcerer running the whole show.

After that we took a break, but now the group wants to get back into the campaign. My problem is, I can't find a legitimate crunch method of bringing the players back from the dead. Any suggestions would be most welcome!

Foxglove Manor was the best session I have ever run and it received rave reviews. I had a party of 3 - Dwarf Grapple Monk, Human Rogue and an Elf Magus. My group strongly favours RP and I loved the rich story of the manor so instead of tipping them off about checks and saves, I had each haunt trigger as they came into the room. I'd pre-selected which haunts would be keyed to which characters based on their stories and backgrounds and only asked for the affected individual to make a save once the story was clear - ie: in the ballroom the player had to make a Will save only after being swept into a dance with a ghost that slowly deteriorated over the course of the dance ala Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Most of my party made the saves every time, but when they didn't they got hit hard - so hard in fact that I let the Revenant and Aldern fight it out without PC involvement.

Personally, I always sacrifice rules and game crunch for story and this time it paid off in spades.

I've had 3 parties do RotRL, the latest being last night. The first party caught Erylium last and were ranged heavy. The Bard managed to land a Hideous Laughter on her that brought her down, then the party beat her to death with melee attacks.

The second party backdoored the mod and did Erylium first. They enlarged their grappling dwarf monk who promptly snatched her up in 2 hands and forced her to make multiple concentration checks to get off any spells. She eventually got free with a lucky Hold Person but it didn't take them long to finish her off from there.

Last night the party backdoored the mod and had the Druid entangle most of the cathedral. The Sinspawn were stuck for about 12 rounds and pegged of with ranged. Erylium stayed out of range until she had to come in close to use Summon Monster II (hellhound) and the rest of her abilities. She managed to paralyze the fighter who took some dmg from the hell hound but their oracle enlarged herself and kept swinging for Erylium with ops. She eventually backed off, summoned another Sinspawn and when the opportunity arose, she bolted for the door with invisibility. The party was miffed she got away, but after 15 rounds of combat, it was my fastest option for ending the fight. They didn't have much of a chance of piercing her DR or keeping up with her healing and it was alread 6 hours in to the session.

We wrapped after that but the silver lining I gave the party is that she's out there and out of spells. They intend to give chase next session. I've already decided that she's going to run for the wand in her meditation room and link up with Koruvus and her Zombie flock for round 2.

My players killed Tsuto in combat without any witnesses. While the LG paladin may have had an issue with it, he's playing a "humourless" worshiper of Iomedae and believes in destroying evil whatever the cost.

I think the suggestions to focus on Thistletop as redemption, but keeping a level of suspicion around the party is a good one. I especially like focusing on the barbarian priestess in chapter 2. She's a great fit for that arm of the adventure and maybe some of the players will be willing to believe it too.

We don't have the funds for much in the way of magical items so we're pretty much at the mercy of the mod - that being said when we started up again we were allowed to build new 7th level characters so we're each outfitted with armour, weapons and the like. We can probably start channeling funds into spell-boosting items.

I don't summon much - that's more the Wizard's deal since he did pick up a Rod of Extend - but I played with it a bit more in our last session. I'm thinking I might look at doing it more, but the Sacred Summons feat is pretty much out. I don't worship a deity and if I did, the way my RP is going it'd probably be Pharasma, whose neutrality doesn't lend itself well to getting a Standard Action summoned creature.

Alignment wise I'm NG and staunchly against Undead. When we started I was an Oracle of Life dedicated to erasing Undead from existence and the Wizard was a Necromancer. We had several philosophical disagreements.

I'm leaning towards a druid or doing more summons as a cleric. I find that my biggest issue is action economy when there isn't healing to be done. With poor physical stats and a limited selection of battle-ready spells that don't buff my personal attacks, I don't have much to do. A pet or cohort would give me more to do at the table as a player.

We reduced back to Core as an experiment. We'd played another campaign during the hiatus (break was due to DM fatigue) and tried focusing on using materials that were available only at the time the AP was published. It went rather well and we decided to give it a go when we came back to Kingmaker. Lately there's been some push from the players to expand so the DM is considering going to Core race / class but non-core for other options beyond those.

My other issue could be that I have a stat array of Str 9, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 11, Wis 20, Cha 14 after racial / lvl and item bonuses. (Human lvl 7 with +2 wis item). I'm not great at much beyond casting, though part of that was in response to needing better spells.

I've been playing in a Kingmaker campaign for over a year now and the group has been pretty steady in its advancement. We're relatively balanced:
-Switch Hitter Ranger and Elk Companion
-THW Fighter w/ Adamantine Greatsword
-Universalist Wizard
-myself, an idealist Cleric (dedicated to the kingdom's ideals rather than a specific deity and staunchly agnostic) with the Nobility and Protection domains.

The party is just back from a hiatus and we were allowed to rebuild ourselves a little since we made a decision to go Core Rulebook-only for character options. I had been an Oracle of Life so my current Cleric build made the most sense. Trouble is, I'm bored out of my mind, especially with the Ranger and Fighter laying waste to everything they meet and a Wizard whose spell list seems to outstrip mine in most combat scenarios.

The saving grace of the character is that I've yet to get a failed save on my Calm Emotions casts which usually buy the party a few rounds during those "Oh Sh*t we're dead" moments, and my Channel Energy feature is the only healing source.

But that's still boring. I'm thinking I'd like to rebuild to something a little more versatile than just a healbot with the occasional party buff, but I'm short on ideas.

tl;dr: Cleric healbot role is running thin in Kingmaker campaign, alternative class suggestions needed.

It looks like the cleric set is broken, any chance they can get reuploaded?

Okay, so I've been dancing around a character concept for a Kingmaker game. I'm really keen to tie my character in with the Fey that have been rather prominent in the campaign lately. I'm mostly toying with Enlarge / Reduce Person + Permanency combos to alter base races but I'm wondering if it would be worth it. I haven't sorted out what class I'd like to go with, but I'm thinking I might be either an archery Ranger or a ranged Myrmidarch Magus. My preliminary concepts are:

1) Fey-cursed Human: A human who tormented the Fey one time too many is permanently reduced to small size as a punishment. He has to see the world from the "Fey's perspective" in order to atone for his crimes. The mechanics of this character are the same for something of a human with genetic dwarfism (base Human race + Reduce Person)

- I'm wondering if the +2 Dex from the Reduce Person would be too OP given the floating stat from the human.

2) "Half - Gnome / Halfing / Svirfneblin": Since half-races of these smaller guys don't exist as such, I thought it might be fun to enlarge one of them to medium size.

- My problem is, as a ranged character, the -2 Dex and +2 Str wouldn't be great, especially since I'd also lose the racial +1 Atl / +1 AC bonuses. Are the other racial bonuses and abilities on these little guys enough to carry them as medium sized races?

The character is starting at level 6 so my intention was to pay for the costs of the spells out of my Above Level 1 starting wealth but if anyone has any suggestions using the ARG I'm open to hearing them.

I play an atheist oracle in a Kingmaker campaign right now. Though the DM and I have worked out that her powers are granted by Pharasma, there's nothing that says I have to follow any of her teachings – which I usually don't. The only thing that tends to keep my character in line is the threat of the Curse which has led to some fun RP moments.

I'm wondering how often I can use Familiar Form per day. The duration is clear but can I use the hex multiple times per day each with a level-minutes durations? Can I use it in 1-minute intervals with a maximum of level-miutes?

At 8th level, a beast-bonded witch may take the shape of her familiar (or a giant version of her familiar or a similar kind of animal) as if using beast shape II. For example, a witch with a rat familiar can turn into a Tiny rat, Small dire rat, or a larger rodent; one with a cat familiar can turn into a Tiny cat or a Large feline such as a tiger or lion; one with a monkey familiar can turn into a Tiny monkey or a Large gorilla, and so on. The witch can remain in animal form for a number of minutes per day equal to her level. This ability replaces the witch's 8th-level hex.

If you aid another, you normally grant a +2 bonus to whatever it is you help with. I believe the trait would boost that to +3 total. The same occurs if someone else aids you.

You don't get a bonus on your check to aid because the trigger for the +1 bonus is succeeding on your attempt to aid another.

Favoured Terrain is completely removed. At each level you would get a new terrain, you instead choose a new form of Shifter's Blessing.

At 8th level and again every five levels thereafter, the ranger may select an additional form for his shifter's blessing and may use this ability one additional time per day. This is not a polymorph ability; a ranger with shifter's blessing in one of his shifted forms can be affected by a polymorph ability and retain his bonus and traits gained by the class feature. This ability replaces favored terrain.

Since you get a boost to Shifter's Blessing at each level you would normally gain a boost to the Favoured Terrain, you lose the latter ability entirely.

Thanks guys, didn't know that about Supernaturals ^.^'

So the Orc Scarred Witch Doctor gains the Scarshield ability in place of the 1st-level Hex normally gained by a Witch. There is no action listed to activate the ability. Is it a Standard Action to activate it as per the Hex rules? Or is it something difference since it's not explicitly identified as a "hex"?

At 1st level, a scarred witch doctor learns how to harden her mutilated skin, gaining an enhancement bonus to her natural armor bonus equal to 1/2 her class level (minimum +1). She can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to her class level. These minutes do not need to be consecutive but she must spend them in 1-minute increments. This ability replaces the witch’s 1st-level hex.

Unless otherwise noted, using a hex is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity.