Kayland's page

So we made characters last night to begin a Council of Thieves campaign...and needing a little healing with some utility I thought a Witch would be fun to try out as I've never played one before. So I figured I'd give everyone my current stats, minor build info etc and ask for advice on what if anything I should change up (we're not playing for a week or two yet so I have tweak time) as well as solicit advice on how to build it up in the future. We rolled stats...and I crushed it, heh. I had 2 17s...and put the second into charisma. I know it's not optimal but it made sense for my character background. I took the Infernal Bastard and Child of Infamy Traits from CoT and a greensting scorpion familiar for a +4 initiative but I might change that to the small dino variety with the same bonus for fun.

Tiefling Witch
Patron: Time

Str: 11
Dex: 15
Con: 15
Int: 19
Wis: 14
Cha: 15

Skills - Intimidate, knowledge history, knowledge planes, perception, perform act (was recommended and fits with the background), spellcraft. (Should I switch out intimidate for use magic device? Additionally I took the 1 hp rather than 1 skill at level one due to wanting to make it past first level).

Feat wise...I think I'm starting with Extra Hex and taking Cackle and Evil Eye. I don't want to take slumber...as I hear that can be a bit too much and being this is run by a first time GM I didn't want to wreck things and make them boring. I don't know where to go in the future on feats though...except for split hex at 10 most likely.

My main problems are this...I don't really know how witches work well in combat and I'm scared to death about having to be within 30 feet with a 12 AC. I'm guessing mage armor is a must because of this. Does anyone have some good advice on spell selections as well as future feats, skill advice, future build help etc? I'm guessing when I enter combat the first things I'm going to want to do is hit the biggest guy with an evil eye and start cackling and at that point layer on various spells etc? Is there a limit to the number of times I can hex...I didn't see one...or a limit to the number of hexes I can put on someone? Can I evil eye someone more than once for different effects(Ac, Saves, Etc...I know you can double down on one)?

More than anything I want the character to be fun for everyone including myself (one of the reasons I think I'm avoiding the slumber hex) and not necessarily trying to figure out how to make the baddest thing walking. My patron btw I took because it sounded interesting...plus the whole haste thing but I don't know enough about patrons to really get how that works atm.

All advice is welcome.

So...yea...party starting throwing some wonky curveballs and I don't know what to do about. After finishing the Skinsaw murders in Rise of the Runelords...my resident alchemist and wizard decided it would be a good idea to animate Xanesha(a lamia matriarch). Looking at the rules...I couldn't believe what I was reading...and neither could they.

As a now eighth level character they both can run around with 32 HD of undead? An animated zombie Xanesha is apparently a 14 HD creature for goodness sakes! What am I missing? I am a singular game session away from these two running around with giant ogre zombies as minions! 64HD of giant undead? Gimme a break...they'll just sick them on every combat and sit back and have a picnic. There has to be something I'm missing out on here.

Putting pressure about "evil acts" isn't working. They have a ranger in the party who has a favorite enemy of undead...but he's not willing to rock the boat because he figures, and rightly so, that roleplaying it the way it should be done would wind up dissolving the game. They're already talking about how they're just going to chain up their zombies outside of town so nobody sees them to avoid being routed out of Sandpoint and Turtleback Ferry. This just seems like an egregious wrecking of rules to me. I don't understand how a singular level 8 character can walk around with a coterie of that is essentially a CR 10 encounter?

So...yea...party starting throwing some wonky curveballs and I don't know what to do about. After finishing the Skinsaw murders...my resident alchemist and wizard decided it would be a good idea to animate Xanesha. Looking at the rules...I couldn't believe what I was reading...and neither could they.

As a now eighth level character they both can run around with 32 HD of undead? An animated zombie Xanesha is apparently a 14 HD creature for goodness sakes! What am I missing? I am a singular game session away from these two running around with giant ogre zombies as minions! 64HD of giant undead? Gimme a break...they'll just sick them on every combat and sit back and have a picnic. There has to be something I'm missing out on here.

Putting pressure about "evil acts" isn't working. They have a ranger in the party who has a favorite enemy of undead...but he's not willing to rock the boat because he figures, and rightly so, that roleplaying it the way it should be done would wind up dissolving the game. They're already talking about how they're just going to chain up their zombies outside of town so nobody sees them to avoid being routed out of Sandpoint and Turtleback Ferry. This just seems like an egregious wrecking of rules to me. I don't understand how a singular level 8 character can walk around with a coterie of that is essentially a CR 10 encounter?

So, I'm running a Rise of the Runelords campaign for some friends and one of my players is playing a gnomish bard. They're just now level 8 and they're about to head off and start the Hook Mountain Massacre but they have time and some funds to gear up in Magnimar before I kick everything off.

Now my friend loves gaming but she isn't the most self aware in making characters, nor is she or I ultra familiar with everything that Pathfinder has to offer from an equipment and gearing standpoint. Basically I want to find some things to help her be more viable in combat scenarios. Currently she buffs the party in combat with her songs and then offers little else outside the occasionally lucky spell...even then most of her spells are of the buff variety (which is fine...Heroism and the like).

She currently has a +1 bow but nothing else outside of some armor and knickknacks but nothing substantial or that takes up an EQ slot. I'm thinking the best thing would be some wands to help her as on the exceptionally rare occasion she hits with her bow (a +7 or 8 to hit isn't lighting the world on fire when opponent ACs are climbing into the solid mid 20's) she's only doing a straight up d4 damage. So I'm hoping the community can help me come up with some equipment ideas to help her out. She is maxed in Use Magical Device with a 20 Cha and I believe a 16 Dex for her 2 main stats.

ANY suggestions across any and every slot would be wonderfully helpful. Basically the most bang for your buck items to help her across any and all areas would be of great benefit...even suggestions on future purchases as well. Currently my best guess is she's sitting on 4-5K to spend at this point, but prepping with the future in mind would also be of great help. Thank you all.

So...I'm trying to come up with a good comprehensible list of the very best Apps and software people use for their various Pathfinder games (or as long as anyone doesn't get too cranky...any RPG game you play). When I say that...I mean everything from Character sheet generators, to the use of hero labs, to Mapping app software, dice apps, treasure generators etc, etc.

Free vs Pay programs/Apps do not matter to me. Basically I would like to set up a fully functioning multi-media setup for our games that I can share across google docs and other means with my gaming group so that any and all of us can use the materials to not only craft our own Pathfinder games from a GM perspective, but also from a player character perspective as well. So I'm truly looking for anything from complete interactive character sheets, to KingMaker Kingdom building tools, to random monster generators and anything and everything in between.

If anyone would like to give a shout out to their favorite bits of software (again..free or otherwise) or heck maybe even things you've created yourself...I would love to see them. Please give a rundown on anything you might use...and what specifically you use them for. Thank you all ahead of time :)

So...one of my gaming groups recently learned that we're going to be playing Council of Thieves. I was hoping that people who have played it before might be able to supply a SPOILER FREE run down on what types of classes and races (or combos there of) would be most beneficial or enjoyable. Not to mention any specific personality traits or characteristics that would lend itself well to this particular AP.

Subsequently...any key things that should be avoided would also be of great benefit. For instance if an Elven Paladin of Sarenrae just would NOT fit at all...please by all means let us know. Additionally...if an Inquisitor of Bob <---- fake god, would be a great thing to blend into the story...awesome, please let us know.

I'm asking this because where most of us have been gaming for a long time...our old GM sadly passed away. Now...off more than a year away...all of us have decided to get back together to game again and one of us finally decided to jump into the GM chair. Since he has never really GM'd before...we would all like to make this as smooth as possible for him (and us) by being able to craft characters that will easily be able to blend into the AP's story.

We're all well established gamers as well as a few of us being excellent roleplayers as well (aka...not just dice tossers) so if anyone even has a recommendation for personalities and motivations that would be particularly hilarious or fun...shout those out too...I'm sure we can be convinced to even give write-ups about it all for people's enjoyment.

I thank everyone ahead of time for any help. To additionally clarify...all classes/races I do believe are viable out of any official Paizo publication...so don't feel like it needs to be limited to something out of the core book. All we ask...is please keep the recommendations spoiler free! (Recommending a Paladin of Bob who specializes in smite is spoiler free...giving an explanation on exactly why it's recommended - because of evil doers susceptible to smite in book 2...would not be). Thank you again!

I really, really like the flavor of the Harrower...and we tend to play games that are a healthy mix of both roleplaying and combat so there won't be any issue bringing in actually cards etc. to enhance the flavor of what is going on. The problem I'm having...is how to make one that's actually useful and can carry his/her weight.

A lot of the people I play with tend to lean to a lot of the more powerful builds and archetypes...2hander Barbs, gravity bow rangers, dragon blooded combat sorc's...you get the idea. Where I understand building a Harrower up to anywhere near those guys might be impossible...I simply do not want to be a buff pony cheering Rah Rah! any time combat occurs.

I'm hoping someone here has some experience in this and might be able to suggest build ideas based on several class options to maximize effectiveness in combat to pair with the great RP opportunities that the Harrower possesses outside of combat. The Harrower sounds like a blast to me...although they seem to be limited in what they get class wise after level 5 or 6...so I'm open to partial builds and ideas as well. I welcome any insight someone might be able to give.

I am aware of the two mini-expansion items coming out for Harrower in may...the new companion and deck...and am greatly looking forward to them. I would like to be able to start forming the character in my mind first however with ideas presented here than half to wait an additional 2 months before he formulating possible plans.

thank you all in advance.

Hello everyone. I've recently started to run a group of friends through Rise of the Runelords and I was thinking of something to do for a level or so between Burnt Offerings and the Skinsaw Murders to help with the level gap. I was thinking about having Father Zantus send them on an errand of some sort to Windsong Abbey. Has anyone used the Abbey at all in their games? I've heard that it actually comes into effect in the Shattered Star campaign...however, it appears that takes place years after ROTRL and what is going on there probably hasn't occurred yet. I also don't want to take away from that adventure path as you never know when or if we might run some more.

I have time...currently they just finished off Elyrium...although they haven't finished off all of Wrath yet (Korvovus? spelling...is still left to go). All in all it will probably be 3-4 more sessions before they finish burnt offerings as well as an undoubted break in there as well as we tend to play 2 games simultaneously with 3-4 weeks on one then the other to allow the GM's to refresh.

I know others have ran various modules in between...the prominent ones escape me but I know one involves a run in Magnimar, and the other up near Wolf's run. However, I want to keep things more localized and I figured a 2 day trip up to the Abbey for Father Zantus and a minor "mystery" there could help tie in nicely with The Skinsaw Murders. Just wondering over all if anyone has used the Abbey and might have some ideas plus maps etc that could work in nicely. Thank you all in advance.

Well...don't really know what to say about this. Oddly enough when I decided to log in today and vote...what do you know...my item was actually in the first pairing. I'm still wondering if that was an oddly designed trick?

Anyway, I was disappointed to see the formatting changed in my description section. On submission it had a couple of small paragraph breakups, however, on screen it showed as one block of text. I guess I'm just hoping people won't roll their eyes at a text block. Oh well. Best of luck to everyone...as a first time entrant and voter I must say it's an enjoyable process to read through everyone's submissions...even if a fair amount leave me shaking my head heh.

Thank you for the fun, Paizo.

Ok, I'm curious just how big these inns are and how many rooms they have. Now Sandpoint is a town of roughly 1200 people...a decent sized place for the most part. The Swallowtail festival is a big time event...merchants would easily be coming from Magnimar if not farther to hock their wares during the festival.

With the large intake in population from people outside the city plus the merchants etc...how can these two establishments possibly have enough space to hold everyone new to town for the festival? Now I realize I have a tendency to over think things way too much...but it just seems like when my PC's get to town (all but one will be arriving the morning of the festival) there will not be a place available for them to stay.

Now because they'll be helping out the town via the events that happen to start the module...I'm sure allowances can be made. However, one would think that more permanent housing (aka an actual room as opposed to a common room type cot) could not be had until the following day at the earliest when some of the people undoubtedly decide to leave Sandpoint to head back to their actual homes.

Does anyone have a size/room chart for the inns? Has anyone come up with any ideas regarding the possibility of rooms not being available?

Ok, I'm almost finished with completely reading Sins of the Savior..however, I've realized that I can't recall anywhere where the PCs were supposed to be tipped off to runeforged weapons, their purpose, how to make them etc. Where did I go wrong in my reading? I would think that it would occur back with the Stone Giants...however, I can't recall anything there at all except for a brief message mentioning it along with the traitor under Sandpoint.

This is obviously way too important of a plot point to just flub...so can someone please point me to where I could have bypassed it?

Hello everyone. I'm about to run a Pathfinder campaign...and one player has graciously agreed to play the party's healer/buffer. I'm curious what everyone's favorite class is to fulfill this role and the reasoning behind it. The person who agreed to play is an amateur gamer, though she's been playing with us for years now, she's still very much an amateur at heart.

I've looked through the options of cleric, bard, paladin, oracle, inquisitor and witch...and all seem to have their drawbacks and their boons so to speak. The party right now is going to be running with a Barbarian, ranger, wizard and an additional yet to be named besides the one I've been referring to...so needless to say she'll be it for healing/buffing for the most part.

The oracle sounds fun and entertaining, however, if you do not select some of the more damaging mysteries like flame...i don't see why you wouldn't just select a cleric. Witch seems to be a good option as an anti-buffer and honestly the bard seems most versatile outside the cleric in the healer/buffer dual role. I'd like to hear everyone's stance...reasons...fun options they've done and tried etc. And if it matters...I limited races to only core.

Thanks in advance.

I'm starting a Pathfinder game and I'm going to run Rise of the Rune Lords. However, none of my group has ever played in the Pathfinder world before. Does anyone have any suggestions on what and how much information to tell them? You can literally get completely and utterly lost in the amount of information that is out there. I neither want to deny them any information that they may want....nor bore them with tedious volumes of information.

I have a question regarding language. I'm new to Pathfinder, though not RPGs in general and have been reading up in the core book and some supplements to run a game. I'm currently reading an AP where it talks about things being written in Minkai....but that's not a language according to anything I can find. Are they substituting that for Tien? Below is a list of languages I snagged from another thread (apologies and thank yous to the original poster). Is this still a complete (for the most part) list....or has there been updates?

Common(Taldane) from Taldor
Hallit from the realm of the Mammoth Lords
Kellish from the Great Padisha Empire
Osiriani from Osirion
Polyglot from the Mwangi area
Shadowtoung from Nidal
Shoanti from the Shoanti barbarians
Skald from the Land of the Linnorm Kings
Tien spoken by the Tian people
Varisian spoken by the Varisians
Vudrani spoken by the Vudrans
Chelaxian from Chelliax <--essentially the same as Common, just named differet...like American English vs England English.

REGIONAL DIALECTS OF HUMAN LANGUAGES
Many areas have their own distinctive dialects. Some of the most recognizable are described below.

* Korvosan (Common): The slight blend of Varisian, Shoanti, and Common, along with isolation from imperial Cheliax, caused Korvosa to develop a unique slang.
*Korvosa also uses Chelaxian amongst the Upper Class and Nobles as they want to be part of Cheliax again.
* Riddleport Slang (Common): The heavy influence of Varisian, Skald, and Shoanti have warped the language of Taldane into one with double meanings, more than twenty words for "prostitute," and made Riddleportians careful of their accent if working a con or acting as spies.
* Lupine Common (Common): The language of the nigh-extinct wolfmen of the extreme north, Lupin has influenced Common where the barking, howling people can be found. This mix, almost exclusively used by the lupins, uses many Common words, but has such a growling, guttural quality that a stuffy Taldan would find it unrecognizable.[citation needed]
* Dark Azlanti (Azlanti): The bastardized language of Azlanti in the Darklands is used by servants of the aboleths and refugees from Ancient Azlant.

NON HUMAN
Draconian
Aboleth
Giant
Boggard
Druidic
Dwarven
Elven
Goblin(Bugbear, Hobgoblin)
Gnoll
Halfling
Orc
Strix
Sylvan

DARKLANDS
Aklo (aboleth, serpentfolk, derro etc.)
Canto (banging on cave walls)
Dark Folk (Dark Creepers and Stalkers)
Drow Sign Language
Gug (Grotesque Giants)
Necril (Ghouls)
Orvian (Vault Keepers)
Sakvroth (sign language of the underdark)
Undercommon

DEAD LANGUAGES
Ancient Osiriani
Azlanti(Ancient Azlanti)
Jistka
Tekritanin
Thassilonian

LANGUAGES OF THE GREAT BEYOND
Abyssal (Demons of the Abyss)
Aguan (Water Elementals)
Auran (Air Elementals)
Celestial (Angellic Hosts)
Ignan (Fire Elementals)
Infernal (Devils of the Hells)
Terran (Earth Elementals)

Ok, so I'm planning on running Rise of the RuneLords for my gaming group starting in a month or so probably, however, I have a few questions that I'm hoping some of you can help answer. There may be a few spoilerish things mentioned...so a warning now to gamers planning on playing. Unfortunately I have no idea how to use the spoiler button.

One of my immediate questions is in regard to the awarding of XP and leveling. My plan is to level the group in accordance with the recommendation of where to level them in the guide of the Anniversary Edition. However, after completely reading through Burnt Offerings it feels like it's leveling extremely fast. I agree with where it says to up the characters to second level...they go through quite a few scenarios to get to that point, including a bevy of additional roleplay opportunities and minor side quests, however, it is after that that it feels a bit rushed to me.

If I had to place them at third level...I'd almost do it after the taking down of a certain goblin chieftain...yet it recommends to do it well before then. Has anyone else felt that the leveling is a bit too fast paced based solely on the AP content? (I tend to prefer to award xp and leveling based on the feel and pace of the game rather than true xp based on a per monster killed basis).

Another question I have is about magic items and the purchase there of. I believe I read that the town has an 800gp limit...which of course severely limits the possible items to be bought to potions and a low level wand or two. However, if this is supposed to go to fourth level it seems like a standard character should have a magic weapon and armor potentially by that point. Am I wrong in that assumption? How have some of you dealt with this in past if I may ask for advice on the subject?

My final question deals with my particular party of players. I'm the real roleplayer of the group...so with me GM'ing...it might be hard to lengthen sessions and to flush things out with nice and fun roleplay opportunities. I'm curious if anyone can point me to some nice threads or critiques on how to perhaps bring in more roleplay moments outside the Boar Hunt and the enthralled daughter as well as perhaps some nice side custom side quests to add to the AP that could alleviate my leveling fears.

As a whole, several members of the group tend to the kill move on kill joy of things without me there to force our regular GM into roleplay. So I'd like to be able to toss in some interesting optional stuff just in case I can't get them to slow the pace of play with their own desire to roleplay. Sorry for the length, and thank you ahead of time for all helpful answers.

So...my first post ever so hello message board world. I've been gaming for over 30 years now, however, I'm very new to Pathfinder as a whole. After doing some research I've decided to run the Rise of the Runelords AP for my friends on our weekly game night.

I've picked up both the new updated edition as well as each old individual 3.5 OGL versions. What I'm curious about is Golarion as a whole. I own the Pathfinder base book, a couple of the Beastiarys and the Campaign Setting Guide to the Inner Sea. Reading people's posts on these boards it just seems like the background knowledge and information for this world is incredibly huge...however I can't recall gaining such knowledge through reading the core book.

Now I've read through limited amounts of the Inner Sea campaign setting at the moment, however, I've noticed that that won't completely fill in the world knowledge. For instance it seems like the Jade Regent AP takes place on a continent not even covered in that guide, yet it's the only one I've really been able to find.

So here's my real question in which I'm hoping you all can help. What supplements would you suggest to help fill in my knowledge so that I can help bring in the world view as a whole into my running of Rise of the Runelords? I've read through the first 2 AP books already for it and where I find the content to be excellent...there's always roleplay moments and flair that I think would be fun to throw in that's not contained within those books.

Where's the best place to learn about the Pathfinder Society, world views, etc that I can bring in to add additional elements to NPCs etc? Is that Campaing Setting for the Inner Sea more than sufficient if I completely read it? If not, what else exists that you all would suggest to help fill my knowledge of Golarion. For instance I see talks about people excited about APs being created for Numeria etc...yet how did you all learn about Numeria to be so excited? Sorry for the long post, and thank you all in advance.