Kharis2000's page

Just reached the Ghostlight Marsh in Chapter 2 with the following party:

Male Human Kineticist (fire) 4
Female Tiefling Rogue 4
Female Kitsune Shaman 4
Male Dwarven Warpriest (Torag) 4
Male Half-Elven Fighter 1/Ranger 3

Observations thus far:

The ranger's favored enemy bonus on orcs has been really well-used.

Amusingly, the rogue's player, who based the character on he idea of a Korvosan Watch member in pursuit of a fugitive, has tried to arrest for proper trial every named bad guy she could. It only worked once, but the idea of a rogue trying to arrest all these folks has tickled the heck out of us.

The warpriest (first time for the class in our group) has worked out well so far swapping from healer to melee fighter.

The shaman (first time for the class in our group), especially once they got their second spirit, has been one of the best combat healing management characters we've seen.

The kineticist (also the first time for the class in the group) has been really effective thus far, provided he can stay out of melee range.

Hands down my favorite map and location of the round, Garrick!

Take a look at Pathways #49 (free product from Rite Publishing) - there's an article in it that covers a way to Pathfinder-represent a sentai team that merges to form a giant robot.

Your biggest issue from a design perspective is going to be how to manage the balance between firearms and magic. Paizo's existing system is designed for flintlock/wheellock level firearms, and doesn't scale well with the harder hitting, faster shooting, further ranging firearms technology available in a world like Shadowrun. Whether you use Rogue Genius' system from Anachronistic Adventurers, one of the other systems available from other designers, or brew your own, given the prevalence of firearms in the setting, that's going to be the make-or-break point for your conversion.

Your biggest point in that balance is going to be the decision for how magic scales power-wise versus firearms. Do you try and keep them equally balanced? Tilt in the favor of firearms? That single design choice is going to set the tone for your whole conversion.

My players went with 'Roma' - the first letter of each character's first name: Raj, Osric, Mere, Althais

Reign of Winter definitely. Council of Thieves as a second choice.

After that, it gets a bit thin. While I'd like to see material for Legacy of Fire, I don't know that the economics of producing Pathfinder material for a 3.5 AP are there. Same for Crimson Throne.

Rogue Genius Games Shadow Assassin and Shadow Warrior

I just bumped you to 2,350, so with 29 days to go, I think you're in good shape, Alexander

I'd like to see some expansion on material that you already have, Steve. More racial options for some of the races you've introduced, maybe some new archetypes or that take advantage of the Advanced Class Guide's expansion of classes, that sort of thing.

Louis, I like the revision to the Arcane Essence ability, but the last part: "Objects that are imbued disintegrate in to dust and the time effect of this ability" probably needs some refining beyond the 'not versus objects carried or worn' that you wisely put in. I can think of too many ways to use that in a fashion that you obviously don't intend to remove objects.

Examples: construct familiars (still objects, even if animated. I'd suggest adding 'inanimate' as a requirement to correct this, and to avoid arguments about whether they count as magical or not, as some forms of constructs might have a low enough hardness to qualify and/or not be explicitly magical, such as clockworks);or door locks (I'd suggest clarifying that the animated object can't be a component of something else to avoid this).

This expansion is very solid, and has a good deal to interest for players and GMs working their way through the Jade Regent adventure path.

The shadow warrior, follow up class to the shadow assassin, it coming soon. I talk about the delays that pushed this product back by 4 years, and tease the cover, at my blog.

I've had very good success with a Shadow Assassin as the party NPC in my Kingmaker game (really the only complaint I've found is that I wish there was twice/three times as much support material for it than there is), Owen, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what you have put together for this!

I successfully placed an order (at least in the sense that the system agrees that I have, in fact ordered something), but it appears that my existing store credit, while subtracted from my account, may not have been applied based on the total for the order, #3164124.

It's hard to tell from the receipt, which does list the available store credit, but doesn't show where it's been applied. The total looks correct for the purchase price plus shipping, just without the store credit applied. (This may, in fact correct itself when the order comes off 'pending' but I thought I'd mention it since it seemed unusual.

Thanks for the updates, guys.

Bump

Purely a rules-related question here.

When assigning a monster mythic status, the rules for doing so are unclear on whether or not the standard mythic tier abilities are also granted to the creature.

So, yes or no?

Thanks in advance!

They don't get an actual error message. What happens is that, whether they log in using their Paizo ID and password, or the Paizo ID, password, and my code, they cannot log into the session I have created and am inviting them to.

The message they get is: "Paizo Game Space is currently in private testing. We'll email you an invite when it's ready."

Note that, I am the only one with a beta access code; they do not have access codes. If that's the issue, then there's nothing to be done about it, although it does kinda make testing it difficult if so.

I am either doing somethign horribly wrong, or there is a bug issue I need to report. [I'm leaning towards 'horribly wrong' since no one else seems to have this issue]

In beta test I have a room created, populated with token, have the fog of war set up and initiative programmed for my encounters.

Problem is, I cannot get any players joined in. I send the url as indicated, they log in using a combination of Firefox and Chrome, all have Paizo ID's - and none of them can successfully log in, either with or without the invitation code.

What, pray tell have I done wrong?

Thanks, guys!

Christina - the only one of the crew I've worked with - is awesome, and if the other talent is only half as good as she is, then this is going to be great.

Looking forward to you ladies bringing the pain! =)

When I ran this, everyone missed the rolls to spot anything and they actually triggered the dread cyclopses at the same time they triggered the trap. The druid's tiger animal companion, the paladin, and the paladin's assassin (family obligation by NPC) moved to melee the undead and had the eel land on paladin; the druid and the sorcerer started working on bars, and the ranger (a gnome) got off one shot before realizing that at 2 feet of rise a round, she needed to get to high ground now and climbed the bars. As melee ensues, the druid and sorcerer realize they're ot strong enough to bend the bars, so the druid wildshapes into a giant ape and gets one bar bent in three tries (very bad rolls). By then, the paladin was underwater with her assassin buddy-breathing for her thanks to water breathing, and the tiger was meleeing the last cyclops. The druid (back at normal size), sorcerer, and ranger escape through the one-bar hole, and realize that the room is still filling. One round later, the wounded paladin is shoved out right as the druid's player realizes that his tiger is too big to fit through the hole and has his character enter angst meltdown in horror. The paladin's assassin turns around, swims back, and returns two rounds later to say "She <tiger> didn't drown."

The party all were on a butt-whooping tear for the bad guy at that point.

I'm GMing LoF now, and from that perspective, the two largest issues that I'm seeing are:

1) The lack of healing power with this party composition. The fire-based immunity or virtual immunity of bad guys may be irritating and hard to deal with, but by the time you're really to that point, they should have seen the writing on the wall and started to make plans accordingly, but with a paladin as their primary healing source, you're going to have to ensure that there are a *lot* of healing wands, potions, and the like available (many more than the modules themselves do) to get the party to that point.

2) The careful monitoring you're going to need to do in order to adjust encounters in the module series so that they don't wind up being overbalanced for a party with this balance.

A,D

Hope fervently that your opponent hasn't mastered the (thankfully) rare variant: 'Hentai Tentacles'?

Look in Kobold Quarterly #19 at the 'White Necromancer' Base Class presented there. It sounds a lot like what your guy is after.

Welcome back, Nick. As with a raft of other people, I'd rather see RC in some format (hell, even without the art) than have my preorder back.

Hope things continue to work out for you and that you never lose 'that gaming feeling' again. =)

I'm looking forward to this, Louis.

Once again, I had time at work, so my players got this in their e-mail today:

Kingmaker Season Three!

<cue dramatic announcer voice>

“In a world where 'high adventure' doesn’t have anything to do with altitude – or drugs – three years have now passed, and the burgeoning kingdom of Roma is slowly growing… and now new challenges and adventures await the kingdom’s founders!”

<cut to rapidly flashing image montage>

A group of lightly-armored centaurs sweep over a rise in a well-trained unit, bows already firing, sending a wave of arrows into the camera as they let loose an ululating cry.

A small Erastilian wedding ceremony in a grove of trees, the bride garbed in green and brown, her face swathed in a veil. As the camera approaches, she turns and reaches gloved hands up to unfasten her concealing veil.

A fog-shrouded swamp with shadowy shapes moving through it, dim torchlight dancing around them, and, a moment later, another shadowy shape following the torch-bearers.

Howell Talbot slams his hands into a stone wall again and again, bloodying fingers and breaking bone, his head bowed and face bandaged, as he screams silently.

A pretty woman with green skin and rose petals for hair sits on a throne, and smiles as the camera approaches like a supplicant, each step making it more plain that thorns emerge from her skin to pierce the dress she wears.

A lethal beak snaps at the camera, which pulls back to reveal a richly-colored axebeak, several arrows protruding through its feathers, with one foot on a still-thrashing human figure. The axebeak lowers its head, beak agape, as the camera cuts away.

Leaves blow through an empty street, the wind swirling them into a dust devil and causing a tavern sign to swing, creaking eerily in the stillness as a distorted shadow passes across the cobbles swiftly.

A herd of mastodons move through a field, grazing, until one looks into the camera and sounds an alarm, causing them to encircle their young defensively and bugle cries of warning.

A woman with short brown hair sits in darkness, her pale face dirt-stained and her clothing in tatters, her hooves scraping against the stone floor futilely as she tries to stand in the too-small space.

With a rush of wind, a gigantic black-feathered wing blots out the sun and a tremendous claw sweeps across the screen to snatch up an animal so swiftly that all that can be seen are four hooves as they are carried off-camera.

With a shudder, a moss-covered stone pulls free from the ground and unfolds to become a stylized humanoid figure of stone, wood, and ropes taller than a man. Green light plays about the carving on its stone surfaces, and it raises massive lithic fists prefatory to delivering a crushing blow.

A raven flaps to a landing on a dead branch, peers into the camera first with one eye and then the other, and croaks 'Vanished' before taking flight again.

Kyla stands before the camera, tunic blood-spattered, and holds the remains of a chipmunk in her hands, face stricken, fighting back tears, as she says, "She's dead."

Armored for battle, a minotaur with steel-sheathed horns dripping with gore bellows a challenge whirls his greataxe, and charges through the screen, shattering the image to reveal a single bloodshot eye staring at the screen.

<The dramatic announcer voice resumes as the camera slowly moves in on the eye>

“Tune in this season and follow our heroes - Raj Mystery-Blooded, Mere Elkrider, Althais the Paladin, Osric the Stag Lord, and Kaylani Shadowborn – as they confront new dangers, new challenges… and one angry axebeak.”

<The eye closes, revealing the words: ‘Season Three begins on or about 01/31/2012 – check your local stations for listings.'>

At this stage, is there any chance of seeing a prestige version of the soulbolt like the old soulbow from 3.5? Archtypes are fine at the start of a game, but most of my players prefer prestige classes for tinkering with their characters once things are rolling.

After killing the stone giants near Storval Stairs, one of my PC's made his Knowledge (Nobility) check and has correctly identified the crown as the Lost Crown of Pallgreves.

Has anyone else had PC's develop an obsessive interest in the crown?

I looked around and can't find any major description of Janderhoff or any clan/families. I was thinking of having the Pallgreves be a family whose prestige and influence has fallen from what it might once have been. Possible the lost prestige could be linked to the loss of the family crown and the circumstances of how the crown was lost.

The PC want to take the crown back to Janderhoff and return it to the family, not for money, but for possible future help (troops etc.). If the rumors the PC have heard of the stone giants amassing an army turn out to be true they figure they might need the build a army to try and stop the stone giant's assault.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In my campaign, the player that had been made Lady Rannick did this, and used the return of the crown to improve ties with the dwarves, and convince them to (with her assistance) establish a colony at Hook Mountain as a way of gaining allies to her north and increasing trade.

If you look around (possibly at Louis Porter Junior's 'Undefeatable' series; I don't have it on this computer) there's a feat that increases the level of your animal companion/mount. IIRC, it raises it by 4 levels, which would make your critter rideable by 3rd level.

I can never tell if this is a reprint or an original with Shadowrun products

It's not a reprint. Having read through the PDF, there's material that was addressed in different ways and forms in past editions of the game contained in it, but by and large it's all re-imaged enough that it might as well be new.

Since my group is about to start Spires, I would *love* the conversions!

victorkrieghoff@gmail.com

Thank you!

Thanks, guys. =)

The players thought it was a winner, too. (And watching them try to figure out things like 'What's happening to Akiros?' or 'Is that blood being washed away literal and metaphoric?' or 'WTF is up with those bees?' or 'Daddy? Which one of you guys has a daughter?' is making my night every time we play.)

Because I was given the time today at work, my players got this advance 'trailer' for Kingmaker Chapter 2 which they start tomorrow night:

Kingmaker Season Two!

<cue dramatic announcer voice>

“In a world where high adventure doesn’t have anything to do with altitude – or drugs - one year has now passed, and the burgeoning kingdom of Roma is slowly growing… but what new adventures await the kingdom’s founders?”

<cut to rapidly flashing image montage>

Two snarling lizardman with jagged-edged war clubs charge through marshy grass at the camera.

An achingly beautiful, but obviously non-human, woman peers at the camera from around a tree, half-fearful, half hopeful.

A fog-shrouded swamp with shadowy shapes moving through it, torchlight dancing around them.

Akiros slams back into a stone wall, wounded, and slides down it to the street, his sword dropping from limp fingers.

A smiling dark-haired woman in festival garb dances towards the camera, hands out, as if trying to draw the viewer into the large festival dance behind her.

Thunderclouds roll in over a lake, pushing a wall of driving rain sweeping over Staghold, washing blood from the streets.

Swarms of bees pour out of the bushes and form a three-dimensional image of a female human face, the mouth opening to speak.

In a barn engulfed in flames, a woman runs from side to side, hemmed in by flames, trying to escape.

A wounded warhorse, reins dragging, staggers down a path, exhausted and riderless.

A huge ebon-furred wolf with a silver mane, wearing oddly-designed armor, growls and circles the camera as if about to attack.

A blonde-haired girl of perhaps twelve, eyes white and unseeing, rushes towards the camera, arms outstretched, crying “Daddy!”

A rooster glares at the screen balefully, and sounds a challenging cry.

Armored for battle, a troll swings a bloody greatsword, slicing the camera view in two, to reveal a single bloodshot eye staring at the screen.

<dramatic announcer voice resumes as the camera slowly moves in on the eye>

“Tune in this season and follow out heroes - Raj Mystery-Blooded, Mere Elkrider, Althais the Paladin, Osric the Stag Lord, and Kaylani Shadowborn – as they confront new dangers, new challenges… and one angry chicken.”

<The eye closes, revealing the words ‘Season Two begins 04/05/2011>

Yes. Most of the time they're not a problem, but if they get too greedy, then I just have the seller tell them that he doesn't have what they want, but for a 'small fee' will start a search for it. You need to, as others have said, mind the city's limitations on availability, too.

My group is just finishing up the Runeforge, but my plan is to mitigate things somewhat by having them all be granted the altitude Affinity (or whatever it is called) feat by the Ice Nymph Queen, and then letting them acquire enough extra gear to cover the people that aren't still using the amulets (half the party has them still).

My actual thought was that what he'd do is try and use the party as cat's paws to eliminate threats that he considered dangerous to him and his plans while he worked on gathering his powers and forces to eliminate the party once and for all. The other Runelords for example, several of which are actually far more likely to punch party buttons than he is (at least at the start)

The overconfidence angle is worth revisiting, though; I was, admittedly, thinking of him being more of a rational villain, and that's not as likely as I'd thought on further reflection. Not as bad as, say, the Runelord of Pride would have been but I doubt that any of these guys are really all that tightly wrapped.

So, Karzoug is smart, right?

Appallingly smart.

And he can scry out of the extradimensional space he’s stuck in.

So, what happens when he plays ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ with the party rather than die permanently in the final fight?

“No, don’t kill me – I need your help to stop the other Runelords from rising.”

“No, don’t kill me – I need your help to stop the Second Starfall.”

“No, don’t kill me – I need your help to….”

Thoughts?

How well would that work for your players?

Real life ran down my Runelords campaign in September, and we’ve just now gotten back to it, with the party fighting their way through the Runeforge, trying to wipe out the last of the surviving apprentices in the Hall of Gluttony.

And things aren’t going well.

They struggle to get their feet under them after the three-month skip in time, get just hammered – twice - by the mummies, almost lose the sorcerer to the ravenous zombie, and then suffer a near total wipeout to the negative energy trap battling the apprentice.

And despite the screams and the laughs, and their ultimate success, something’s… off.

That done, they take a day to heal up, de-mummy rot themselves, and start up the process of making some runeforged weapons to take the fight to Karzoug. They finish the first one, Karzoug possesses the statue and starts snarking in his dry, ‘been there, seen that’ way, and the players are all <yawn> “Yeah, whatever, baldy.”

That’s when I figure it out. They’re not scared of him anymore. The three-month skip has disconnected them from the worry and fear they’d built up.

So I keep talking when I reach the end of the scripted threats: “…your destiny is death, here, in the Runeforge, at my hands and those of my new friend. Say hello, Arkrhyst.” <insert draconian roar as the shielding spells on the dragon drop and he starts to force his way into the Runeforge Pool area through the passageway the party entered through>

And there, in that moment, facing the animated statue and the reanimated dragon, as I told them “We’ll pick it here next time,” they found their fear again.

Player commentary:

P1, P2, P4: “WTF?”

P3: “Arkrhyst? We killed him!”

P2: “K-Man must have raised him.”

P1: "Oh we are so getting our butts kicked."

P3: “How? He’s still stuck wherever, right? And he’s a mage; he can’t raise anything except his hairline.”

P1: “He possessed that statue, right? Maybe he did the same thing and got someone to do it for him?”

P4: “That takes a lot of cash, where’d he get it? Not like it’s just lying… around.” <horrified look>

P3: “Auuggghhh! That <censored> SOB used the dragon’s horde to pay for his resurrection! I *knew* we shouldn’t have left it outside the Runeforge door like that!”

P2: “Well, he *is* the Runelord of Greed; makes sense he’d pay with someone else’s money.”

P4: “Dammit! I remember why I hate this guy, now!”

P2: "Wait, I bet the dragon has a rune on it, too! We kill it, and K-Man gets his 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card!"

P3: “Dammit! I hate him more than I did before now!”

Sometimes the magic just works.

We're about halfway through Chapter 1 and the party falls out like this:

Mere - Female Gnomish Ranger. [Desna] Taking the archery path and planning on acquiring an elk animal companion to use as a mount. Looking at an archer prestige class.

Osric - Male Human Druid. [Erastil] Has a tiger as an animal companion. Gearing to become the 'Druid King' in Chapter 2. No plans to class out at this time.

Kartike - Male Aasimar Martial Artist. (From Tripod Machine's 'Adventuring Classes') [Iori] Light armor halberd fighter, planning on classing over to sorcerer in a few levels, and then maybe Arcane Knight.

Althais - Female Half-Elven Paladin. [Erastil] Gearing towards a Swordlord style combat form. Planning on running straight paladin.

Kalyani - NPC Female Shadow Assassin (Super Genius Games). Trailing the party, but hasn't actually met them yet. Here to discharge a debt to Althais' family held by her master.

It is a known bug (wrong references), which I have fixed in my draft document..... however I am a bit busy with other stuff at the moment so the next update (including armies) will take a bit longer than anticipated.....

My bad - mea culpa! - the error does not appear in the 1.5 version of the document. (at least for me) I plead blindness at not reading the version number earlier!

And version 1.5:

Kingmaker Sheet V1.5

I'm getting an odd error when naming cities: City 1's name propagates to the Kingdom Summary sheet just fine, but none of the other cities will do so.

Is it me doing something wrong, or is it an actual bug?

Thanks!

So has anyone used this race in their games yet? How did they work out mechanically?

They seem to be a good fit for some obscure beings in my homebrew that were initially never meant to be made a viable player option, which might change now.

I haven't had anyone take the plunge to play one, although almost everyone has read the write-up. Some started laughing and couldn't stop, some shook their heads, and at least one was interested enough to go and get their own copy, but as to actually playing one, nope, not yet.

Kharis2000 wrote:

I'm running it now, and the party's primary NPC is, in fact a fey, and another party member is courting one, so there's plenty of room for fey interaction and storylines in the Adventure Path.

Does the fey NPC accompany the party openly into urban areas such as Sandpoint of Magnimar? If so, how do the NPCs react to such a creature in their midst?

The NPC utilizes a Hat of Disguise to avoid the worst of the 'pointed fingers and whispers' issues, and hasn't really caused a problem (in that regard, anyway). She's amused by the whole 'sneaking' idea, and smart enough to realize that she doesn't want to give anyone a reason to scream and start swinging a sword just because leaves fall out off her hair when she combs it, or her hair, eyes, and complexion change color with the seasons.

She's really far more likely to create an issue by simply talking - she lacks virtually anything resembling the 'filters' that humans have regarding what to say or not say to a given individual in a given situation.

I'm not familiar with the Quickling Faen, and I do not wish to spoil further adventures, but there are certainly places in RotRL related to fey, or where a fey character would be useful.

I'm running it now, and the party's primary NPC is, in fact a fey, and another party member is courting one, so there's plenty of room for fey interaction and storylines in the Adventure Path.

The last time I ran something like this as a plot element, the individuals that the group encountered, while insane demon cultists, weren't portrayed as such. They were attractive, cheerful, pleasant sisters who had more in common with the young people that come around on Saturdays trying to get you to come to their church than the popular image of robe-wearing, chanting psychopaths. They flirted casually with folks, offered them tea, and talked about things in terms that completely obscured the acts in question, such as 'escorting the aged and deathly ill to Great Lord Pazuzu's cloud-filled realm in the skies' (sneaking into villages and taking the old and sick to be staked out in the desert and devoured by fiendish vultures), and so on.

Things were helped along by having the sisters cheerfully and happily volunteer information about, and assistance against, a competing cult that the party was mixed up in a conflict with.

I had my players stop in Wartle and get wrapped up in a local dispute that required them to participate in the local 'judicial combat' system to resolve. Essentially, they chose a champion (they could have hired one of the locals, but - wisely - chose to do it themselves) and were assigned an area roughly on city block in size and told that they had three hours to catch snakes. (This was made possible by my interpretation of Wartle as a town built on stilts, with raised streets and rope-bridge side streets/alleys stand, to avoid the constant flooding)

The one with the highest point value of snakes was considered the winner. Standard snakes were one point. Poisonous snakes were three points each. Goblin snakes were five points each. No magic was allowed to summon or contain them. The locals caught them with snake sticks (sticks with loops of rope suspended from one end that could be pulled tight), but the party won by discarding the snake-stick they were given and having the fighter just snatch them up with her bare hands.

I looked at their offerings on DriveThruRPG last night and had much the same reaction. Even taking the 'bundle' option, which gives you both for $30.00, and knocks the individual prices down to essentially $15.00/each, it was still a bit pricey for me right now.

I also found it odd - really odd, in fact - that they'd chosen to not advertise here, even after the products were released. One would think that the boards of the company that makes the product they were writing for might be a good place to do that, yes?

I always told players when they asked this question that it was because elves, as a highly magic-intensive and magic-using race, *and* one that liked peace, quiet, and serenity, had used Sleep spells on their children so many times as infants that by the time they reached adulthood, the constant interaction of the Sleep spells with the elves' inherent magical nature had rendered them immune to the effect.