Kharsus's page

I'm quite confused by the intelligent legendary items. It cost super expensive for quite lame abilities. I have 3 questions:

1- So basically in the rules they say:

"You can select this ability more than once. Each time you do, you can increase its ability scores (to a maximum of 20 each) and select one of the following special abilities"

Does that mean that the first time the intelligent ability of the legendary item is taken, we can select one special ability?

2- Also the spellcasting ability lets you choose 5 points to spend in spells. How does it work?

Are those spells fixed when chosen, or can they be changed anytime? Do you choose them from a list of spell known, or do we need a spellcaster to cast them on the item? Can we keep accumutaling the points until we have a high enough level?

3- "The bearer can then activate the item to use each spell-like ability once per day. By spending double the cost, the bearer can use each spell-like ability three times per day."

What do they mean here? What cost?

Thanks for your imputs.

Kharsus wrote:

Hi.

There is something that I don't understand.
Iomedae's herald (as all gods heralds) is a CR15 being.
He is then captured and corrupted by Baphomet (a demon lord) and becomes a CR20 MR8 being?
How does that makes any sense? Are demon lords more powerfull than gods?

Baphomet is a CR 27 creature

A god, Iomedae, for example has no CR because deities cannot be beaten through the mechanics of the game. A deity only gets hit by statted creature if they want to be. Baphomet only has an AC of 45.

In the story, its not not impossible for Baphomet to grant a power increase to a creature. The Ivory Labyrinth is his Abyssal Realm. He has more power there than any other place in the universe.

The actual mechanics of it are...Shrug. The Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth is the end boss of the book, so he's supposed to be challenging. Slapping a few templates on a CR 15 probably wouldn't cut it.

If you want to know why Deities aren't going around smiting evil creatures obviously weaker than them, you can reference the story of Desna and Aolar.

Agreed, Im not talking about gods destroying their ennemies around the corner.

Kharsus wrote:

...

Thanks, so it is considered as a magic item, not a spell.
In that case,the DC is 24 and it has +15 on the save roll. So rolling under 9 is a fail for the item and the binding is unraveled, am I right?

If I am, this is more than a "small chance", as it is said in the
AP.

I reviewed the AP. It's rather high level and almost mythic.

{I'm going to obscure the names but you should know what I'm talking about}
** spoiler omitted **
For both magic items and permanent spells it would take a roll of natural "1" on the save to be 'unraveled'/dismissed.

With +15 verses DC 24 it is likely to;
  A)(60%) to negate the Disjunction, or
  B)(35%) simply be suppressed for the duration of the Disjunction (which works for the plot), or
  C)(5%) be dismissed.

Thanks :D

Disjunction:A9

you posted it but maybe didn't get it.
Permanent items(aka magic items or spells with a permanent duration) get a Will save or are mundane(suppressed) for the duration of Disjunction (then it goes back to being Magical).
Active spells get dispelled.
Binding:C8 and 3 of 6 effects are permanent. The last paragraph in the spell description also applies.
Lastly, Saving Throw A magic item's saving throw bonuses are each equal to 2 + 1/2 the item's caster level in case it's not given. So +15 in this case. It's very close to 27 -10 or +17 which would be a common guess. Rather than bandy numbers about the author should have just listed it (poor editing). As a 'magic item' it would have to roll a "1" to be dispelled/broken/ended otherwise it is just suppressed for the duration or not affected.

example: A creature (Will Save of +15) has activated a Ring of Invisibility so it is now invisible. A few rounds later it is in the area of effect burst of a Disjunction cast be a wizard with a DC of 10 +9(spell level) +5(ability score of 20) = 24. The invisibility effect on the creature is dispelled and ends. The Ring gets a save with a roll of 10 +15=25 and thus saves and remains magical. The creature on its turn then activates the ring within the AoE and goes invisible as the save says "Will negates(object)" so the ring is not affected nor is the new invisibility effect. The burst does not continue as it is not an emanation, see Aiming a Spell.
In this case the Wizard could not target the invisible Ring at the time of casting Disjunction.

Thanks, so it is considered as a magic item, not a spell.

If I am, this is more than a "small chance", as it is said in the AP.

Hi,

I'm reading the WOTR AP and I'm in the part with Alderpash.
It says that his binding has a small chance of being dispelled by mage's disjunction, because the binding is casted at CL 27.
But on the description of mage's disjunction, it just says that spells are dispelled, there is no mention of rolls to dispel spells.

"All magical effects and magic items within the radius of the spell, except for those that you carry or touch, are disjoined. That is, spells and spell-like effects are unraveled and destroyed completely (ending the effect as a dispel magic spell does), and each permanent magic item must make a successful Will save or be turned into a normal item for the duration of this spell. An item in a creature’s possession uses its own Will save bonus or its possessor’s Will save bonus, whichever is higher. If an item’s saving throw results in a natural 1 on the die, the item is destroyed instead of being suppressed."

What am I missing, and how is the difficulty of the roll calculated?

Thanks :D

Hey.
Do anyone happen to have the stats of the "Crown of Feasting Ravens" artifact, or know were I can find them?

Hi.
There is something that I don't understand.
Iomedae's herald (as all gods heralds) is a CR15 being.
He is then captured and corrupted by Baphomet (a demon lord) and becomes a CR20 MR8 being?
How does that makes any sense? Are demon lords more powerfull than gods?

Reaching back almost a decade for queer discourse? To what end?

Simple, I didn't realise it was a decade old :'D

I see no problem here.

Since this is tabletop RPG, everything is basically decided by the GM.

For instance, as a GM, I decided to change the gender of several NPC's proposed by the APs. So several couples that I did not create became straight (except Ileosa and Irabeth and Anevia that I am very fond of).

Then I created other NPC and characters who are gay, but in a way that is appealing for my particular story, and that is within my control.

Same with the attractiveness of male and female characters. If I have straight female players, I will also create interesting male characters and NPC for them.

For exemple, on of the PC is playing an man suffering from amnesia, that is actually a woman (a truth that he will discover soon). Meanwhile he fell in love with a bisexual female NPC.

What I mean to say, since everything can be changed by the GM, there is no reason to feel rejected or being "not the target audience". Its your GM mission to make you feel as the target audience.

English not being my primary langage, I'm sorry if something is not super clear in what I said :D

Since the seven Thassilonian "virtue" runes seem to never had been illustrated I figured I'd give it a try. Click on the link below to take a look at the results:

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5303/thassilonvirtuerunes.jpg

I created these by studying the seven pictographic sin and other Thassilonian runes to try and pick out similar elements. For instance, black circles only appear in positive runes, while negative runes favor more pointy tips. Then I started sketching equivalent pictographic virtue runes based on their sinful counterparts. I started with the assumption that most of the original virtue runes may eventually morphed into the later sin versions; often by turning them around or distorting them so that they resemble other images. I'd be curious to read some feedback; what would you change about them if anything?

Hi,

Yup. A returned runelord has a significant uphill battle when it comes to re-establishing their power base. For example, in Rise of the Runelords...

** spoiler omitted **

Which is why, in Return of the Runelords...

** spoiler omitted **

Also, thanks for the kind words! Those Demonomicon articles were lots of fun to create.

It makes sense. Thanks again.

For the Demonomicon, they were as fun for me to read, as they were for you to create. Keep up :)

Kharsus wrote:

Hi guys,

this is my first post here, its quite exciting.

The title says it all.

One of my players bought several adventure paths for me to delve into an make their life thrilling (miserable) :D

Anyway, while going throught it and all the lore around the runelords, I have a hard time to understand several things:

1- How do the new runelords get recognized and accepted as such by the runelords related artifacts (specifically by the seven swords of sin)?

2- How do runelords dominate rune giants, and by what are the means used by the new runelords to get that authority?

3- Generally speaking how do new runelords rise to power? What makes someone a runelord?

I thought that the most logical explanation is to make that related to the Alara'quin. Its kind of the regalia of the runelords, but I didn't find any material to corroborate that.

What do you think?

Yay! Welcome to the boards!

1) Part of someone becoming a new runelord is making that happen. The artifacts don't automatically accept them, but if you're high-enough level to force your will and presence onto those artifacts, you take control and prove it. Which is a LOT tougher if there's already a runelord in that role.

2) Mostly through a combination of bribery and bullying and giving the rune giants the agency to control and dominate and bully giants "legally." And the very first rune giants were magically created to have "serve Runelords" be part of their very existence. As generations wore on, that magical compulsion faded but was replaced by a societal element where rune giants had the privilege of being boss giants. They enjoy their cruel position of power and understand that a big part of what gives them that position is serving a runelord.

3) It's mostly "if you are tough enough to replace the previous runelord and tough enough to not get replaced by another" that decides if you're a runelord. It's not an inherited title, nor is it something that you campaign votes for. It's a power grab....

An answer as simple as it is elegant :)

thats super interesting in terms of possibilities that can happen with the players at high level. I know my guys, I'm sure one of them will think of replacing the bad guy one way or another :D

For the rune giants, that would make it harder for the several returned runelords to control de modern rune giants, since they lived 10k years on their own, isn't it?

anyway thank you very much James, you've given me some nice perspective on how I will build up all this in my world :D

I want to take opportunity to tell you that you have a real talent for this. I loved your style since the demonomicon (nearly 20 years ago, time flies...).

Keep it up, you and your team are making real good stuff. Thanks again.

Hi guys,

this is my first post here, its quite exciting.

The title says it all.

One of my players bought several adventure paths for me to delve into an make their life thrilling (miserable) :D

Anyway, while going throught it and all the lore around the runelords, I have a hard time to understand several things:

1- How do the new runelords get recognized and accepted as such by the runelords related artifacts (specifically by the seven swords of sin)?

2- How do runelords dominate rune giants, and by what are the means used by the new runelords to get that authority?

3- Generally speaking how do new runelords rise to power? What makes someone a runelord?

I thought that the most logical explanation is to make that related to the Alara'quin. Its kind of the regalia of the runelords, but I didn't find any material to corroborate that.

What do you think?