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Idle curiosity had me looking up the lengthiest casting times for a non-ritual spell. A few spells have a 24 hour casting time, such as awaken, hallow, and unhallow.

What does this mean? I think any caster that can pull that off deserves a medal at the very least. To cast a spell, you have to make a minimal concentration check each round. Even if taking ten in perfectly pleasant conditions, you would have to be superhuman to do so past ten hours.

To skip sleeping, eating, or drinking isn't bad for heroic PCs; at least for a mere day. To skip restroom breaks though, that is inhuman. So for all those casters that manage to pull off those full day casting times, congrats! Maybe next time you will wait a few levels and cast wish or miracle instead, that way you can do the same thing in a single round.

Fun fact - scrying takes an hour to cast and only lasts a minute per caster level. Talk about a lot of effort for a brief glimpse. It reminds me of the early internet days when you would take hours to download a picture from an old modem connection.

Any other thoughts?

So what would your characters have as a resolution for the New Year?
(Serious or humorous replies welcomed)

For example - Brogain the cleric resolves not to convert every one of his spells for spontaneous curing anymore.

I was thinking of making a new setting as a free pdf. It is not a project that I would place any deadlines on, as I will work on it solo as much as possible. It will be full of typos and imbalances, yet I hope it is something everyone will enjoy.

Please let me know if anyone would be interested in something like a 60 page PDF of this in 12 months or so?

Several components of this homebrew setting -
1 - There is no common tongue, only seven regional languages would be widely known by PC races. Everyone receives their native regional language for free.

2 - The common PC races will be present (dwarf, elf, human, half-elf, half-orc, Halfling, gnome) though slightly altered. Variant Orcs and Kobolds will also be PC races.

3 - It is not totally human-centric. All playable PC races mix in the major world powers, yet different world powers view different races as the "upper class".

Now - for a sample of the variant Orc and Kobold races:

Variant Orcs:
(8 RP)
Humanoid (orc),
Medium, 30 ft. base speed
+4 Str -2 Int +2 Wis -2 Cha
Languages: (Variant world) Native language
Bonus Int languages: ancient Orc, any other major world language
(planar travel) Common, Orc
Bonus Int languages - Dwarven, Giant, Gnoll, Undercommon, and Goblin
Darkvision 60 Ft.
Weapon Familiarity: proficient with Greataxes and Falchions, treat any weapon with “orc” in the name as a martial weapon
(Note - No light sensitivity, no Ferocity)

Variant Kobolds
(8 RP)
Humanoid (reptilian),
small size, 20 ft. base speed
Ability Scores
-2 Str +2 Dex +2 Cha
Languages: (Variant world) Native language
Bonus Int languages: Draconic, any other major world language
(planar travel) Common, Draconic
Bonus Int languages - Dwarven, Elven, Halfling, Undercommon, and gnomish
Skill bonuses:
+2 craft stone & metal items, +2 appraise stone & metal items
+2 stealth
Natural armor (+1 natural AC)
Darkvision 60 ft.
(Note - Does not have light sensitivity)

This is more of a fluff and world building thought experiment.

with Pathfinder's magic system, some of our historical and fantasy assumptions seem a bit off without some fluff explanation. Some explanations are better than others.

One thing that bugs me is the creation of a fluff explanation for large wooden cargo ships. Skull and Shackles needs large wood ships to work, yet it seems that looking at our history the cost and time was a massive investment to build these things (months of round the clock labor from hundreds of people). High level magic could replace this with teleport circles and such, since such a massive cost and so many people are required in the alternative.

Yet without wood cargo ships, there are no cool naval and piracy on the high seas campaigns. Maybe exploration, yet that is about it.

I have tackled castles before (ones built with labor would place magical protections on them similar to Forbiddance - placed into key bricks in a castle. Ones that appear through deck of many things or wishes lack such fancy protections, though could be added). In such a scenario castles become relevant again, yet I have problems justifying large wooden ships. Any thoughts?

Drawing upon inspiration from Roger Zelazny's Amber, here is a sort of an alternate way for prepared arcane casting to work - hanging spells.

The assumption is that a spell takes a prepared arcane caster too long to simply cast a spell from beginning to finish on the spot. A shortcut is to prepare the spell in advance, while leaving out a few key gestures, components, thoughts, and / or words to complete it once needed. The result is that the casting time for a prepared spell is the same as the rulebooks (standard action, usually, sometimes more, sometimes less. Depends on what the rules say). This also leaves flexibility in that someone could hold a slot open and attempt to cast a spell in full later on. Such a casting requires ten times the normal casting time (a swift spell becomes five rounds, a standard action becomes ten rounds, a full round action is the same, etc.).

This is only a preliminary thought, and has not taken the Arcanist into account yet. Spontaneous casters have their spells "burned" into them, and only need to use the "hanging" part to complete their casting.

Essentially this is the same as it always was, except that spells aren't forgotten as much as they are no longer prepared. The fluff has changed, not so much the mechanics of it.

Any thoughts or opinions?

There is a thread out there that asked about the unspeakable presence of Cthulhu. The question was answered, yet the thread was derailed with how a particular tactic with explosive runes could one-shot Cthulhu as written in Beastiary 4.

This thread is meant to be more on-topic rather than see any more derailed pages full of cannot, can to, type of discussions in a thread that has answered the base question (yes, Cthulhu's unspeakable presence is meant to provoke a will save each round).

My two cents, the tactic is risky yet can work if nothing derails the plan so long as Cthulhu has the stats that was stated in Bestiary 4.

I can't blame Paizo, because stating Cthulhu just sounds fun. They did cover all the bases in the stats that literature has covered, yet the written works on Cthulhu were more hints than a comprehensive guide on his abilities.

If it has stats, you can kill it.

GM fiat means that you can ignore the stats and make Cthulhu how you want (maybe as a 20th level mythic full caster?). Neither here nor there.

On a tangent, just read a third party supplement for D&D 3.5 from Fast Forward Press that listed a "Dire Wizard".

As it was a generic map type supplement, there were no stats or explanation on how one would become a Dire Wizard. The idea of a wizard with the Dire Animal template strikes my funny bone a bit.

Thoughts anyone?

Interjecting an opinion.

Whatever other changes they made to the Tarrasque in Inner Sea Gods, changing it from a neutral alignment actually made it vulnerable and easier for PCs to handle.

Not saying if that's good are bad, just saying that now you can get aligned weapons to smack it with. (When it was neutral, it didn't care if your weapon was holy / unholy / axiomatic / chaotic).

If PCs are high enough level that facing it with proper equipment may be an option, they can usually afford to craft or buy aligned weaponry.

Mythic Adventure Rules are less than a year old, yet I find a few of the older Adventure Paths scream of the need to retcon some Mythic Adventure material into it.

Potentially, you can use Mythic Adventure material in any adventure path. I am taking about ones that almost demand it due to the nature of the big bad at the end.

Legacy of Fire could certainly use it on part/book 6.
Serpent Skull could use it on part/book 6.

Which adventure Paths do you think Mythic Adventure material is justified for use?

(Try to avoid stating why if it's a spoiler, just drop which part/book may require it).