And people were confused about why I was so insistent on cutting out all OGL-isms from my AP conversions. Well, look at me NOW! (I didn't actually know this was gonna happen; just a happy coincidence)
And correct me if I'm wrong, but based on my reading here, the champion's choice of an initial focus spell is either 1) shields of the spirit, or 2) touch of the void or lay on hands (depending on the deity's divine font). So a champion of Nethys could choose any of the three focus spells at level 1, while a champion of (let's say) Iomedae would choose between shields of the spirit and lay on hands at level 1. Do I have that right? An "evil" Justice Champion sounds like a cool idea. Like an honorable villain. I’d argue that they are meting out their own definition of justice, whatever that may be. Spoilers for Book 2 of Rise of the Runelords: After all, Justice Ironbriar seems like a textbook example of an unholy justice champion of Norgorber.
I'll allow it.
For ages I’ve constantly said that I’m terrible at making my own ideas but great at improving and tweaking existing ideas. It’s for that reason that I’ve always loved pre-written adventures and campaigns. I’ve never really been good at improvising and creating story beats on my own, and I wouldn’t be able to come up with good twists and turns for such story beats. Honestly, the existence of pre-written adventures is almost certainly the reason I even continued into Pathfinder. Even nowadays I don’t really create my own adventures; I primarily use the framework presented to convert existing Adventure Paths into 2e (Here’s some shameless self-promotion) because I know that that’s how my mind works as opposed to coming up with grand tales on my own. And to be able to use pre-existing art for major characters so I’m not just shamelessly taking art off of google or whatever. Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying I’m extremely grateful to Paizo for consistently putting out pre-written adventures to allow people like me to be able to fully enjoy the game without needing to slave away hours trying to come up with the “perfect” story. (fingers crossed for Wrath of the Righteous) If Paizo wasn’t then I was planning on doing it myself. The only current difficulty is the status of Baphomet as the demonic patron of minotaurs, because that is a VERY D&D thing, but is also extremely pertinent to the story of Wrath of the Righteous.
Out of college.
Alright, let’s get starting on my regular “First Impressions” post. Class Features:
Huh. Half-expected the key attribute to be Con.
A martial that’s not an in Perception. Huh. Expert in Will is…weird. I know it’s because non-full-casters are expert in two saves and the big guy in bulky full plate ain’t gonna dodge well, but expert in Will just feels…weird, I dunno. Oh. A champion’s reaction that redirects damage to you and protects you. Interesting. But it says you get resistance thanks to your armor, but has no penalty for NOT wearing armor. Grammar thing in Taunt: “choose a creature within 30 feet, who must attempts…” Ohohoho! So they gave Guardian an action to incentivize enemies to attack THEM! I love it! The worst part of having a tank is when enemies just choose to, y’know, not target the tank. Okay, maybe word Threat Technique differently so it could possibly have more choices in the future, basically making that the guardian’s “subclass.” For Mitigate Damage, maybe specify that the resistance can’t reduce the damage below what it would do on a non-crit. YOU GET DIEHARD FOR FREE?! AND you can avoid becoming dying 3+ once per day?! Interesting. They get weapon proficiency boosts 2 levels later than other martials, but get armor proficiency boosts two levels EARLIER than the champion or monk (the only other classes that get to legendary in AC). Huh. You ALWAYS have a reaction before the start of your first turn instead of having one at GM’s discretion. Interesting. DOUBLE THE VALUE OF YOUR ARMOR POTENCY’S RUNE WHEN DETERMINING ARMOR SPECIALIZATION?!?! Excuse me, their level 19 class feature gives them a special bulwark ability that uses the armor’s ITEM BONUS TO AC instead of Dex! AND a success turns to a crit success?! Feats:
Huh. Larger than Life is…weird. Though it DOES protect against Swallow Whole.
Shoulder Check, haha! That said, you CAN always make a “fist” Strike by kicking, etc. Also, it should be reworded to be usable with any free-hand weapon instead of just gauntlet or spiked gauntlet. Does the lessened broken penalties from Armor Break apply WHENEVER it’s broken, or only when it’s broken by that activity. You can FORCE enemies to stay in your reach?!?! That feels…a bit much. I could see a guardian moving up to a caster then using this to force them to stay there. I feel like there should be, like, a save or SOMETHING. It otherwise feels like it’s the must-take feat. Especially since it can force a caster to stay within reach of a creature with Reactive Strike. Those two feats feel like they really shut down enemy casters completely. Especially a fighter with the guardian archetype that takes Disruptive Stance. Meaning that shutting down a caster is only a 3-feat investment. I could 100% see a munchkin doing that. Shielded Taunt. Nice action-saver. Huh. You can get Avert Gaze while Raising your Shield. OH! A shielded stride that makes your ALLIES’ movements not trigger reactions! You can broaden your armor specialization resistance? Interesting. Shields basically become unusable when they become broken, so Shield Salvation feels like a useless feat, since I have literally NEVER seen a shield become destroyed. I have never seen a massive-enough attack that would both get over a shield’s Hardness AND take it from above-BT to destroyed. You can ignore clumsy’s penalty to AC?! Once per day get temp HP equal to HALF YOUR MAX?!?! For Clang!, are they also off-guard after you Strike them, or only after you Stride towards them? You can get fortification as a class feat?!?!?!? Really impressed with the guardian. My only concern is that Hampering Sweeps is wayyy too overpowered for a no-save, no-check “you’re basically immobilized.” Especially on a level 2 feat.
Alright, let’s get starting on my regular “First Impressions” post. “You might hold yourself to an incredibly high standard of personal responsibility, chastising yourself for small mistakes that others don’t even notice.” Man, that speaks to my OCD. That said, I would just suggest that you maaaaybe not put THAT as the first entry in the “You Might…” section. Feels like it starts it off on the wrong foot. EDIT: Actually, looking back through other classes’ “You Might…” entries, and none have anything quite as obviously negative as this particular thing on the Commander (with the possible exception of the exemplar’s “Feel the weight of immense expectations and obligation”), and definitely not as the first bullet point. Aaaand the flavor of the Commander sent me down a rabbit hole of Go, shogi, and other ancient strategy games, haha. Class Features:
Huh. Commander is always proficient in Warfare Lore. Makes sense. Society, though, seems odd.
Holy crap! Trained in ALL armors?! Didn’t expect that. Huh. So the commander just gets the Cavalier’s Banner feat. Interesting that Cavalier’s Banner is a circumstance bonus while the commander’s Banner is a status bonus. I…kinda agree with that, because the Cavalier’s Banner costs a feat, so it should be a slight bit more powerful (since it stacks with stuff like courageous anthem). Also, I’m still trying to figure out how you can feasibly attach a banner to a weapon or shield and still be able to use it properly. I know it was for balancing so one of the commander’s hands isn’t always wasted on holding a flagpole, but it’s still weird. Huh. So the commander prepares tactics similarly to a wizard preparing spells, save that the commander can swap them out with 10 minutes. 2+Int allies that can be drilled in your tactics is a bit interesting, because even if you only accept the class’s attribute boost to Int, you still have enough for a standard adventuring party (since you’re not your own “ally”). Gives a good buffer for familiars or random important NPCs. “…a character cannot respond to more than one tactic per round.” In the banner trait, you should also add “or wielding a shield the banner is attached to.” Once per round you can give an ally a reaction that can only be used to fulfill a tactic. Interesting. HOLY CRAP! Warfare Lore auto-scales, can be used to recall mechanical stuff about monsters, and can be used for initiative for non-ambush scenarios?! That’s…Wow. I’m unsure if that’s interesting or overpowered, but I’m kinda here for it! Hmm. Calling the “become an expert in weapons” class feature “Military Expertise” seems…odd. When I read that I was honestly expecting an increase to class DC. Master in Perception at 13? With the exception of barbarian, that’s the latest for anyone who starts off as expert in Perception. Tactics:
Form Up is also the name of an action used by troops, with the commander’s version only being different by a single exclamation point. Might want to change that to avoid confusion.
Mountaineering Training and Naval Training letting you use Warfare Lore in place of Athletics to Climb and Swim, respectively, is very interesting. Oh damn. End It! is really interesting. A good tactic for a mook battle that makes dealing with a large group more manageable. Plus makes for a good opportunity for Reactive Strikers when the enemy flees. Okay, Pincer Attack’s wording is weird. So if a squadmate ends adjacent to a creature, is that creature off-guard to THAT squadmate, or just everyone else? RAI I’m guess it’s the first interpretation, but the wording makes it ambiguous. EDIT: Rereading how pincer maneuvers work, it probably makes the most sense for Pincer Attack to work for people OTHER than the one who moved adjacent, since it’s all about overwhelming the enemy from two sides. Reload! is really niche, since it doesn’t let YOU reload as well, but in a campaign like Outlaws of Alkenstar where guns are prevalent, it’s really useful. I’m curious if allowing other reload-type-actions (like a Slinger’s Reload) would be too overpowered. Not sure. Okay, Shields Up! is weird. That should definitely also allow casters to cast shield. Also, why is it that Raise a Shield is a reaction, but using a parry weapon is a free action??? It feels like it should either be the other way around (to save a reaction to allow Shield Block) or just one or the other. A lot of tactics also has the banner trait when it…doesn’t make sense. If all of the ones that said “affected by your commander’s banner” had the trait, I’d understand, but some don’t, and some that DO have that wording don’t have the banner trait. It’s really all-over-the-place. Re: Piranha Assault: Ignore resistance equal to your LEVEL?! I was expecting at least half-level! Though it is one of your very few tactics, so I guess that makes sense. …Why is Stupefying Raid’s stupefied condition an emotion and fear effect? That doesn’t make any sense. It’s just confusing the enemy, not making them scared. Yeah, it feels like the emotion/fear thing should have been attached to the Demoralizing Charge save. HOLY CRAP! Ready, Aim, Fire! is so good! Swap to a ranged weapon, Interact to reload it, then Strike to fire! AND it can be used to cast a ranged cantrip instead?! Interestingly, though, is that the activity interacts weirdly with ignition since that technically has a range of 30 feet, but can be used in melee, which goes against the flavor of Ready, Aim, Fire! That said, though, I’d still probably allow the melee version if only for the pun (since it’s a fire spell). And again, the Special entry in Ready, Aim, Fire! implies that Shields Up! Hmm…Maaaaybe allow a free Interact to reload for Executioner’s Volley (since it can’t be combined with Reload! since squadmates can only benefit from one tactic per turn), but I could also kinda see the balance with not allowing that, since this tactic does A LOT. On Valkyrie’s Charge, maybe specify that the Stand and the double Stride are free actions. Also, it should have the wording of “This effect draws upon your allies’ morale and adrenaline and has no effect when used outside of combat.” thing from Rallying Banner to explain WHY you just healed each ally 80 HP. Feats:
Combat Medic seems like a must-have feat for a forensic Investigator. Thgouh, the requirements of preparing at least two tactics makes it seem like it won’t be a simple two-feat investment archetyping into commander for this one ability.
Y’know, I actually like Deceptive tactics. Really makes sense to replace the combat-oriented Deception actions with Warfare Lore. Plant Banner lets the area become larger by turning it into a burst?! EDIT: Wait, why DOESN’T Plant Banner have the banner trait???? Oooohhh. Adaptive Stratagem is gooood! Replacing a tactic when you roll initiative is NICE! Though, that also feels like it will become the must-take feat for commanders. EDIT: I stand corrected. Rapid Assessment letting you Recall Knowledge as you roll initiative is also really nice. Okay, Banner Twirl is funny. Though I’m wondering why the concealment is only limited to ranged attacks. Probably balance, but I’ve seen some massive banners where that kind of twirl would definitely make it harder to hit in melee. WHOA! A follow-up feat to Combat Assessment that lets you gain the circumstance bonus on a non-crit?! AND doubles it ON a crit!? Yo. Shielded Recovery letting you use Battle Medicine with both hands full is sweet! Hmm. Why does Unsteadying Strike not apply the penalty to their Reflex saves against Trip. If it’s “unsteadying” then it would make sense that they’re off-kilter enough to be susceptible to falling. Plus it’s the only applicable Athletics maneuver it DOESN’T apply to. Whoa. Defiant Banner giving resistance to non-bleed physical damage is really nice! Especially for a non-tactic action. *Reads the first bit of Officer’s Education* Wow. This really sucks for a level 8 class feat, since that’s just something a human gets as an ancestry feat.
Hot damn, Unrivaled Analysis letting you Recall Knowledge FOUR TIMES as you roll initiative?! Oh, interesting. A commander animal companion gains the “takes an action when you don’t command it” thing when it becomes nimble/savage instead of mature. But the mature one instead will never attack you, even if magically compelled. That’s breaking the mold quite a bit, but I kinda like it. So with Targeting Strike, the Guiding Shot automatically grants the +2 from a crit? So Targeting Strike makes Guiding Shot not do anything additional on a crit. I’m not necessarily complaining, but it’s still a bit weird. …Attack an opponent and give the next person to attack them advantage?! Jeeeeez! SIX RECALL KNOWLEDGES WHEN YOU ROLL INITIATIVE?!?!? Oh. Desperate Resuscitation is really weird, since it means it applies all the penalties from raise dead. Also…why can the commander get this activity two levels earlier than the medic? And doesn’t have to be legendary in Medicine to use it? It feels like the dedicated Medicine archetype should be better at this than the commander. The commander can just give haste to everyone within 30 feet as a single action once per 10 minutes?!
Okay, the wording of Confusing Commands with who it targets implies that it only affects enemies who are benefiting from your banner, which is obviously not what it means. Wow. Demand Surrender is just…so good against mooks. Though it does create weird story stuff for if a creature is, say, magically controlled to attack to the death or surrendering is detrimental to them or something. Whoa. Glorious Banner doing all of that PLUS increasing the area of the banner is ridiculously good! Pennant of Victory gives a +4 status bonus to attack AND damage!? As a single action?! I know it’s only one round, but daaaang! Wow, uh…This is good. This is really really good. I want to play this class immediately. My only complaint is that the usage of the banner trait is really inconsistent and needed another proofread. And, once again, an under-utilization of Int as a key ability score over, say, Str or Dex.
Chance summons forth an orchestra on top of Rivozair!
Jisara has very little that she can do, but not nothing. She utters an incantation as a ball of freezing wind engulfs Rivozair!
Edrakk chucks a bomb at Rivozair then heals Vitalis. Vitalis cannonballs into the nearby lake! Rivozair, prepared to delay this combat in an attempt to dispel the strange die over her head, is bombarded with attacks. When she is finally encompassed by Jisara’s blizzard do things change.
Rivozair’s screams of pain echo throughout the air. All throughout the city, everyone turns to the skies above the Opera House—Ravens, dottari, and devils alike. Rivozair glares down at the pitiful insects that forced this upon her—to her, their lives waste away like those of a simple ant. And yet here she is, being bested by these ants. She spreads her wings wide once more, and Flies to the south, her massive wings taking her far further than these pitiful insects could hope to catch up.
She growls once more, having forgotten about the flesh-rotting chemicals from that one insect—“Edrakk,” Thrune had called it. She turns to where she was hit by the insect’s strange alchemical weapon and prays to Asmodeus as she does a desperate move: she unleashes her hellfire breath in an attempt to evaporate and cleanse her body of the chemicals!
The chemicals eventually subside, Rivozair holding on for dear life. Nearly 200 years upon this mortal coil, and here she is. Running. She uses the last ounce of her adrenaline to flee as fast as possible, reaching speeds just under 70 miles per hour. She continues to flee to the south, hustling to get away from that city. She feels the strange aura of that glowing building fade behind her, slowing her flight by a third as she continues south, toward the Menador Mountains. The insect that she respects—Barzillai Thrune—will not be happy with this. *
The Devil’s Bells—the mysterious bells atop the Temple of Asmodeus—ring out and are heard throughout the city. All in Kintargo watch as the dragon flies over the city’s walls and out of sight. Both sides of this war know what this means: Barzillai’s greatest ally has been sent fleeing by the Silver Ravens. The dragon that this man has made his subordinate has been brought low.
They run.
The humans flee, realizing the strength of the forces that could bring down a dragon.
Loyalists abandon their cause.
Dottari quit the city guard on the spot.
Even some of the Asmodean Inquisition have a crisis of faith regarding the supposed strength of their superior.
It is only the devils that seems to always stay behind, likely because they are contractually obligated to continue the fight.
This is only the third time that the PCs have heard the Devil’s Bells ringing. The first was at the Aria Park riot, right before Thrune issued his eighth proclamation. And the second was right before Thrune came out of the Opera House to meet with the Silver Ravens, where he announced the masquerade ball that would end in a massacre.
What remains of Barzillai’s forces at the Opera House is far from what it was prior to Rivozair’s defeat, and the Silver Ravens are able to dispatch the remainder with ease. It seems that this was indeed Barzillai’s big push, as when this attack on the Opera House is dealt with, there is no other attack for the rest of the day.
It’s always fun having someone who’s as much of a musical theater nerd as I am XD
In other, non-game-related news, I just finished and submitted the final assignment I had this semester. That means that I have officially, after 20 years, finished school. Man, this feels surreal.
”Very well. It will be risky, but I will do my best to mobilize at least 100 people to be in attendance for this performance.” And with that, the rest of the day is spent preparing for a casting of the world’s a stage. Kinda-important tangent:
Now, while only three people are making checks, the ritual itself can provide its benefits to up to 13 people. Obviously, the people making checks are among them, and I’m assuming that you’ll extend that to the rest of the PCs as well. That makes:
Chance
I’m also gonna assume that you will try to incorporate as many of the important NPCs in the performance as well. Jackdaw actively chooses to not participate in performing (though she will assist Edrakk backstage), as she is not in a proper mental state to be doing anything like that in front of a massive crowd. So, I’m also gonna assume that y’all will include: Jackdaw
Additionally, I will reiterate that most fortune effects cannot be used on rolls made during downtime. It also says that GMs can make specific exceptions, and the exception that I have personally made is that you CAN use Hero Points to reroll downtime checks. And finally, I’m assuming that no one goes out to buy/sell stuff while The Song of Silver is being cast, as your bigger priority would be to maintain protection of the Opera House. *
14 Pharast Reprisals:
66, so three Reprisals
Devils on the Streets
Defamation
”More desperate attempts to paint us as the enemy.” Dragon Strike
”Damn it! As I expected, my mobilization of troops did not go unnoticed. Thrune used the opportunity to attack us with devils, before a deadly fly-by attack from Rivozair scorched the mobilizing group. Luckily, we were prepared for such a thing to happen and managed to fend off an attack.” * Checks to cast The World’s a Stage:
Critical Success
Success --> Failure (nat 1) --> Success (Assured Ritualist)
The performance hits well with the Silver Ravens in attendance! While it has its tense and emotional moments, it focuses significantly on comedy to show Barzillai as a coward and a fool, pushed around by the women who supposedly work for him. Edrakk, Jisara, Thatch, Jackdaw, Hetamon, and Strea all assist backstage in making the performance run well, as Vitalis, Shensen, Jilia, Lady Docur, and Rexus all perform onstage, with the imposing Octavio playing Barzillai himself. All the while, Chance, as the director, has a front-row seat to ensure that the performance runs smoothly and the magic of the ritual itself works. There is a standing ovation as Octavio (as Barzillai) is cast off a balcony to fall into the fiery pits of Hell itself! Another Kinda-Important Tangent:
The world’s a stage calls itself out as a “sophisticated example of symbolic magic,” and I need to address the major symbolism that has been used here.
Now, Barzillai is a fascist strongman, plain and simple. Now, Umberto Eco, in his essay “Ur-Fascism” relayed 14 general properties of fascist ideology. While Barzillai doesn’t necessarily hit every single one of those points (whether because of his character or because I, personally, didn’t want to make things TOO realistic with the fascism thing), he does hit A LOT of them. The points I want to touch on are “contempt for the weak” and “machismo.” Barzillai, from day one, has always been something of a “man’s man,” and has done nothing but shown contempt toward Kintargo’s citizens, since he sees them as the equivalent of rebellious teenagers. He has always shown contempt for those who are below him, and that way of thinking has trickled down into his own followers. For Chance’s depiction of Barzillai in this ritual, it turns much of his own mindset on its head. It sucker-punches Barzillai’s machismo by making him into a person pushed around by his female subordinates and defeated by a female “Hellspawn.” This likewise annihilates his whole machismo because it means that he is unable to stand up against a woman for the sheer fact that they are a woman. This particular bit of symbolism turns Thrune’s ideology of “contempt for the weak” on its head. The usual targets of “weakness”—women and Finally, there is a line in the world’s a stage that I can’t stop thinking about: “If a major antagonist featured in the performance is in the audience and the ritual is a success, you get a critical success instead.” Now, I see this as having a connection to the fact that this is a very symbolic ritual, so while it’s definitely not RAW for me to do this, I feel that, with all of the story stuff that I know that this one performance managed to weave into it, I must give rewards where rewards are due…
Once the curtain call is finished, Octavio, still in his costume as Barzillai, announces ”As I have told you prior to this, clear out from the Opera House and return to your posts, post-haste! We still have a Thrune to defeat!” With those words, the crowd quickly begins to exit. About a quarter of the crowd stays behind—troops that Octavio specifically assigned to keep guard over the Opera House while The Song of Silver is being performed. *
15 Pharast Reprisals:
58, so three Reprisals
Counterstrike
Barzillai sends a troop of dottari to the Opera House in an attempt to put a stop to whatever is happening there. Octavio and his troops easily put a stop to it. Public Excruciation
”Thrune’s been excruciating anyone who mocks him with things from the play. Thankfully, the citizens see past this desperate attempt to silence any criticism.” Defamation
”More desperate propaganda. It seems our play really got to him.” * Checks to cast The Song of Silver:
Failure --> Success (Assured Ritualist)
Failure Success Success
The rooftop of the Kintargo Opera House glows silver momentarily before extinguishing. If Barzillai didn’t have an inkling that something was happening at the Opera House before, he definitely does now. *
16 Pharast Reprisals:
65, so three Reprisals
Assassination Attempt
Dragon Strike
Devils on the Streets
”Barzillai is really pulling out all of the stops. He’s making an attempt to advance on the Opera House. I’m not sure how much longer we can delay.” * Checks to cast The Song of Silver:
Success
Success Failure --> Success (Assured Ritualist) Failure
The roof of the Opera House shines in a holy beacon against Hell! All across the city, diabolic teleportation ceases, and devils that were previously impervious to damage are slain by a mere dagger! This levels the playing field, and Barzillai’s foothold diminishes drastically! ”Don’t celebrate just yet! We now have a target on our backs!” Octavio announces. And much to Octavio’s prediction, the sieges of devils began that same day. However, the sieges were no problem for the PCs to handle. *
17 Pharast Reprisals:
44, so two Reprisals
Defamation
Defamation
”Thrune’s focusing on attacking the Opera House; he can’t afford to do much else than simple propaganda.” * The situation has been quiet for several hours now. Chance would occasionally take over for Shensen to be on vocal rest. All is quiet as the Silver Ravens prepare for the worst. And so the worst then comes. ”Dottari. CCG. Vordines. Coartis. Thrune must have been gathering his forces over the past several hours, planning to overwhelm us in one massive blitzkrieg!” Octavio grits his teeth. ”Shensen! Take over for Chance! We need all the help we can get!” * The Silver Ravens take to Aria Park to combat! The devils within the park are numerous, but the PCs do not even need to break out more than their basic cantrips. That is, until there is a terrified call from the other Silver Ravens: ”Dragon!!!” Sure enough, several hundred feet to the east is a dragon mid-flight, rapidly approaching the Opera House. As it grows closer, it can be clearly seen that the blue-scaled dragon has the pentagram of Asmodeus carved into its underbelly. Rivozair approaches. ”We’ll try to make a clearing for you four, but we can’t handle a dragon; it’s up to you to take care of it!”
And as the major front of the Silver Ravens pushes outward to give the PCs room, Rivozair makes her way overhead and dives directly to the park. She lands directly on top of the fountain right outside of the Opera House, the dragon’s weight completely demolishing the fixture as she roars! Initiative:
Will Saves vs Frightful Presence; courageous anthem (because let’s be honest):
Failure
Failure Success Failure Failure The dragon seems to wait, side-eying Vitalis as she does so.
She'd be insulted if you DIDN'T ask.
The Song of Silver | Ritual 6: Song of Silver | Ritual 6
Unique Holy Cast 1 day Locus Kintargo Opera House Secondary Casters 4 Primary Check Occultism (master) or Religion (master) Secondary Checks Occultism or Religion (whichever isn’t used for the primary check); Performance (must be an expert); Performance; Society or Kintargo Lore Area 1-mile-radius centered on the performer; see text Duration sustained up to 1 week; see text Targets up to 10 willing creatures; see text ———————————————— The Song of Silver is both an operatic aria and a ritual that uses the aria in its casting, originally used by the original Silver Ravens to fight against the diabolic hordes of Hell. The Song of Silver can only be cast inside the Kintargo Opera House. The casting time of the ritual includes both preparations and rehearsals of various sorts and the actual performance, which must be at least an hour long. An audience is not required to be present to cast this ritual beyond the casters performing the ritual. The secondary caster who attempts the expert Performance check performs the vocals for The Song of Silver, while the secondary caster attempting the other Performance check provides the instrumental accompaniment—the exact instrument is irrelevant, as long as it can play the necessary chords. Several sections of the lyrics are left intentionally blank for the inclusion of modern troubles facing Kintargo into the lyrics; the secondary caster attempting the Society or Kintargo Lore check fills in these lyrical breaks with modern troubles—freedoms that were taken away, threats to the city, etc.—while still adhering to the musical rhythm and tempo of the song. Several dozen measures of The Song of Silver were intended to be repeated for as long as necessary. This ritual is Sustained by continuing to sing these measures repeatedly (accompaniment is not required for the Sustaining, only the initial casting); this adds the auditory trait to the Sustain action. Sustaining this ritual can be done by multiple performers so that the performers can rest, but the Sustain action must be performed by someone every round or the ritual ends. The Song of Silver can only be Sustained by a creature onstage at the Kintargo Opera House who is at least an expert in Performance. Critical Success As a success, except weapon and unarmed attacks without the unholy trait made in the area gain the holy trait, and the primary caster can also choose up to 10 willing creatures who witnessed at least 1 hour of the opera’s performance. Those creatures gain a +1 status bonus on saving throws against divine effects for the duration and can cast breath of life once during the duration as an innate spell of the same tradition as The Song of Silver and heightened to the same spell rank as The Song of Silver. Once a creature casts this innate spell, they lose the status bonus against divine effects.
Jackdaw listens intently to the PCs’ words, but it is at Jisara’s incredulousness that she chuckles. ”You sound just like Brakisi.” Her face then turns serious. ”Let’s hope you do not make the same mistake he made.” In fact, it’s more than just her. Jackdaw looks at Vitalis. Amyreid… At Chance. Kyda… And at Edrakk. Ba… Jackdaw chuckles. ”I apologize for my cantankerousness. I’ve…kinda forgotten how to talk to people. I’m sure that’s a major understatement, haha. But you also need to understand that you can’t simply fight with no plan of what’s next. Learn from the past, so that it does not occur again.” Jackdaw brings herself to her feet finally, standing upright. ”The lyrics don’t matter. Well, they do and they don’t. I don’t know a whole lot about magic—it was mainly Amyreid and Kyda that made the ritual. But Kyda did describe it to me. She said that what is sung is not exactly what’s important, it’s the emotions those words evoke. The pain of Kintargo’s hardships, the determination to get justice for this city—those are what’s important. “Sure, the chorus usually stays about the same, but the verses are for Kintargo’s current hardships. That’s kinda why Kyda never really bothered to write lyrics down on the sheet music: the lyrics you would sing about Kintargo today are different from the ones I would sing about Kintargo from 60 years ago. I know this absolutely stumped Ba, because he was expecting the specific words in that particular order would create this resonance that amplified the magic or whatever. He and Kyda would then have a conversation about arcane vs. occult magic.”
next you're gonna say you've all stopped needing to eat." Did I forget to mention the four rings of sustenance the First Warden was wearing? (Obviously a joke)
Hey all! It's been a while. I think the last time I posted on this side of the forums was when I was making my campaign log for Tyrant's Grasp. Well, I have exciting news: after a long time of working on it, I have officially released my Remaster conversion guide for Tyrant's Grasp on Pathfinder Infinite! I needed to wait until Monster Core dropped to do my last bit of conversion, but now things are golden! I also want to give a shout-out to user rkotitan. While I did not actively reference any of the things that they personally made, they DID start working on a 2e conversion of Tyrant's Grasp A LOT sooner than I did. Anyway, enough rambling. If you want to go for it, the conversion guide is now on Infinite!
As y’all may know, I currently work as an independent writer selling AP conversion guides on Pathfinder Infinite. I decided I’m gonna finally start working on a proper conversion of Hell’s Rebels to the Remaster to sell on Infinite. I was very hesitant for a while because the Silver Ravens as an organization took their name from the silver raven figurine of wondrous power, which is such a major OGL-ism that it’s not even funny. Thus I thought that the name “Silver Ravens” was kinda gonna be on the chopping block. But with a bit more research, I found out that Paizo actually included the Silver Ravens in a blurb on Old Cheliax in the GM Core. AND they also went out of their way to include the Silver Ravens in the glossary of that same book. Anyway, I guess this is a long-winded way of saying thanks to you guys. I know things haven’t been easy, and we still haven’t quite bounced back from the difficulties from earlier in the year, but y’all have really helped me to understand this system and be able to fine-tune my ability to convert from 1e to 2e (as well as giving me a helpful medium in which I can look back on the campaign for easy reference). Also (if I may get into shameless self-promotion territory), I’m gonna be dropping a new conversion guide tomorrow on Infinite for Tyrant’s Grasp if any of y’all are interested.
Boodiddly continues singing and gets into Akie’s head. Jevar dismisses the illusion and commands Akie to fall to the ground.
Shohreh casts both shield and needle darts
And Kolgradd brings his hammer down on Akie’s head, causing it to cave in and the hollow construct to stop moving!
So…a long long time ago (I think right after the beginning of the campaign), I reached out to Chance and made one request of him: The player was not to use/parody/etc. any songs from the musical Les Misérables when he was singing as Chance. Say hello to the reason: I did not want Chance to inadvertently stumble upon this song and screw up my plans. Because, since Chance is a master in performance and (presumably) mulled over The Song of Silver in his spare time, Chance quickly recognizes that what Jackdaw was singing was a section of The Song of Silver. Jackdaw does indeed know the lyrics. Now, obviously, I’m not Chance’s player, so I don’t know with certainty, but the combination of 1) needing to go through Hellknights, 2) abandoning his friends, and 3) missing out on learning both a piece of music and a powerful ritual against devils would turn the suggestion of “go home” to be against Chance’s self-interests. This is one of those instances where you could just say “well, if you say so, then I won’t complain,” but I am genuinely asking for your opinion here rather than expecting you to take the obviously “optimal” choice here.
Jisara attempts to send the First Warden into a laughing fit.
GM Screen:
Edrakk sneaks over and uses the skeleton key in his hand to open the cell door—it seems that the locks haven’t been changed in the intervening decades. Chance, under the First Warden’s magic, attempts to “go home.” Vitalis advances on the First Warden and attacks her. When Edrakk opens the door, he finds a simple, concrete room with no windows whatsoever. What he is a bit surprised by is that he also hears singing—not the best singing, but certainly not bad either. ♫ ”…When the beating of your heart
The singer is an elf woman who sits on the ground, leaning against the far wall. She has strawberry-blonde hair and deep purple orbs for eyes. She looks haggard and malnourished, practically clinging onto what little life she has left. This is one of the founders of the original Silver Ravens: Jackdaw.
When the door opens, Jackdaw ceases her singing and looks up in confusion at the door seeming to be opened by an unseen being. She then notices the First Warden, and Edrakk can see the gears in her head—what few remain after several decades of solitary confinement—begin to turn. With a burst of energy that she must not have used in decades, she quickly leaps up from her place on the ground and rushes straight at Edrakk!!
Edrakk is caught so off-guard by how quickly this woman moves that he is barely cognizant of when she leapfrogs over him and kicks off his back for a bit of extra distance—the tengu would have collapsed to the ground if he didn’t have the doorframe to grab onto to maintain his balance. Jackdaw smiles as she finds herself in a state of euphoria she has not felt in decades. With one more quick burst of movement, she does numerous backflips to get into position to flank the First Warden, then delivers an absolutely devastating uppercut into the Warden’s chin!
The First Warden is more than a little caught off-guard by the sudden appearance of Jackdaw. She takes a brief second to assess the situation before determining the best course of action: subdue her ward. The Warden’s hand that wields her mace becomes infused with void energy that mends her wounds as she attacks Jackdaw!
But Vitalis takes this opportunity to attack the First Warden in an effort to protect Jackdaw!
With this opportunity, Jackdaw moves to make another punch at the First Warden!
The First Warden growls and sends another attack at Jackdaw!
Just doubling down on making the sea hag just straight-up Ursula, aren't we XD
Okay, seriousness time: I have been communicating with Shohreh’s player and they are, to put it bluntly, going through a lot of sh*t; I won’t elaborate further, as that’s not my story to tell. To the point where it is up in the air as to whether or not they’ll be able to continue playing at this table. So I had to lay things down. I’ve given them 2 weeks to get things under control, during which time I’ll be botting Shohreh (with a bit of input from the player). If, after those 2 weeks, they still feel like they can’t in good faith start posting consistently again, then I’ll have to have a conversation with them about if they can continue playing with us. I am saying this so the rest of y’all have an idea of what’s going on behind the scenes. And please, show some love toward Shohreh’s player—they’re going through a lot right now and deserve to know that there are people who care about them.
Okay, slight story: my grandfather who passed away in November 2022 absolutely adores Fiddler on the Roof (especially If I Were a Rich Man), so seeing that brought back a lot of fond memories of the man.
Maybe the imp snuck into the Lucky Bones?" He says in the same room in which he found a scroll of scrying. Don't mind me, just realizing that my clues seem to be going over people's heads.
Now, let me be clear: I like this creature. I think it’s a fun creature (even though Ride the Wind is more than a little clunky). I don’t, however, like that it’s called a wendigo. Now, I’m not a member of any kind of native tribe or anything—I am a super white guy who is just interested in folklore—but the whole thing about wendigos being weird deer creatures has always kinda irked me. I do agree that Paizo’s deer-antlered wendigo could just be renamed and that would fix a lot. Now, I’m also not one to speak about the whole thing about whether it’s appropriate for Paizo to even try to recreate the wendigo, but if they did, I think it would accomplish a lot of what the folklore says about it if they made it into a type of ghoul with a winter theme. Just my two cents.
Match the mythology Side-eyes the wendigo
Couple things: 1) @Chance & Edrakk: Could you put an indicator of your proficiency in each of your skills so I don't have to constantly reverse-calculate what it is every time? 2) @Edrakk: This isn't RAW until the release of Player Core 2, but I'm going to make a GM call about this because this does seem to be the direction Paizo's going: Instead of Tengu Lore (the ancestry feat) making you trained in Tengu Lore (the skill), it gives you the Additional Lore skill feat in Tengu Lore. Most notably, that means that Tengu Lore automatically scales as you level, meaning you'd be a master in that skill. EDIT: Also, combat's over. Nobody post until I have.
First of all, Hero Point to Kolgradd for tanking the abomination’s attacks. Secondly: I’m aware that we are in the middle of the “12 days of Christmas,” so people will likely have a lot more going on in their offline lives, so I completely understand that the coming days will be a lot slower when it comes to posting and whatnot. No big deal. Spend time with your families.
You can reference the horde lich, GameMastery Guide NPCs, and sahkils, for sure. You can even use more specific references to them via a micro stat block or give tactics advice for running them, referring to specific abilities (with a few exceptions, but mostly). You can reprint their stat blocks in their entirety with a few modifications, like removing alignment and any spell or feat that we didn't reprint in the Remaster or that uses another company's IP. Oh yeah, I very much assumed that "de-OGL-ifying" things would have just come with the work of the conversion. I was just wondering if I even COULD, say, tell my buyers to read through AP#100 so that they would have the story context. Like, I was just wondering if I could put something like, say "The First Warden is a horde lich (Book of the Dead pg. 121)" or "The blue-scaled Rivozair is a diabolic dragon (Monster Core pg. XXX) with the hellbound creature template (Bestiary 3 pg. 64)" (Also including a hyperlink to AoN) I was wondering if I could still DO that without needing to license it under the OGL, because I'd still be referencing OGL books for the statblocks, for example. then you can get around a lot of this by just using proper nouns and using a Paizo-owned term like nephilim or caliban or hellspawn if you need to refer to Strea's heritage. Side note: you keep saying "caliban." That's...not a word I've seen anywhere else in Paizo's material. I thought the new term for "fiend-blooded nephilim" was "cambion."
Okay, this is just…really hurting my brain. So, I make 2e conversions of 1e Adventure Paths, and I do not want to put my stuff under the OGL from here on out if I don’t have to. If I’m referencing a book published under the OGL (like, say, AP#100: A Song in Silver), then do I HAVE to publish my conversion under the OGL? I’m not reprinting the whole book, just creating a supplementary document that makes minimal sense without the context from the original book. And by a different coin, let’s say I want to use the Horde Lich from Book of the Dead, which is not under the ORC, would I be unable to reference that creature because that book is under the OGL? Or the vast number of NPCs in the Gamemastery Guide that weren’t reprinted in the GM Core. Like, obviously if it’s something like an aboleth then I have to use the OGL, but sahkils are Paizo’s IP, but still in Bestiary 3 under the OGL. I am far from a lawyer, so a lot of this stuff is going over my head. EDIT: Or, say, providing hyperlinks to AoN in the document. Is that something I can do without needing to include the OGL?
I'm holding off at least until AoN gets the remaster stuff.
GM Screen:
Hetamon meets Chance’s gaze for a moment. He stays deep in thought before finally saying ”No. I’m not going yet.” The tiefling’s gaze meets back with Chance’s. ”No one in this room knows this woman better than I do. If you’re going to question her, then I’m going to be by your side when you do.” Hetamon looks down and speaks in a voice of shaking determination. ”She will not be a boogyman to my family any longer! I will not let her hold any more power over me.”
Death and dying rules. I did them in a spoiler. She happened to stabilize.
That's it. That's the post. I just think needing to take Additional Ikon for another weapon ikon to dual-wield is a bit too restrictive. Especially since they made the perfect dual-wield feat in Twin Stars.
Hero Points reset in a week And because I'm always really bad about remembering to give them out, I'm just gonna give everyone a Hero Point.
Hero Points reset in a week And because I'm always really bad about remembering to give them out, I'm just gonna give everyone a Hero Point.
Okay, I mentioned this before, so I’ll bring it up here. This is what I’m planning on implementing from the Remaster. Firstly, some changes to the monster abilities Grab, Knockdown, and Push: Grab:
Requirements The monster’s last action was a successful Strike that lists Grab in its damage entry, or the monster has a creature grabbed or restrained; Effect If used after a Strike, the monster attempts to Grapple the creature using the body part it attacked with. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the creature’s multiple attack penalty.
The monster can instead use Grab and choose one creature it’s grabbing or restraining with an appendage that has Grab and attempt to Grapple that creature. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the creature’s multiple attack penalty. Knockdown:
Requirements The monster’s last action was a successful Strike that lists Knockdown in its damage entry; Effect The monster attempts to Trip the creature. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the monster’s multiple attack penalty. Push:
Requirements The monster’s last action was a successful Strike that lists Push in its damage entry; Effect The monster attempts to Shove the creature. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the monster’s multiple attack penalty. If Push lists a distance, change the distance the creature is pushed on a success to that distance (double that distance on a critical success). Those of y’all with the Rage of Elements PDF might notice that what’s written here is not QUITE what’s written in that book (specifically, the italicized stuff is my own personal modification). I did this to make it feel more fair—I disagree with maintaining the Grab being automatic, and I don’t like that there’s no specification on what happens on a critical success with Push. Secondly, regarding flail and hammer critical specializations: flail allows a Reflex save against class DC to negate falling prone, and hammer allows a Fort save for the same. Thirdly, you can Refocus as much as you want. It was a weird and silly rule to begin with. Finally, this one is not actually confirmed, but it’s something I’m suspicious of. In Rage of Elements, the brass bastion, which appears to be eerily similar to the brass golem from 1e. But the bastion does not have antimagic, instead having resistance to spells. This leads me to believe that Paizo is moving away from the “golems that are immune to magic” due to its ties to the OGL. As such, I’m going to implement this: instead of the headache-to-adjudicate Golem Antimagic ability, golems will instead have resistance X to spells (except Y). X will be the exact same number as the golem’s resistance to physical (except adamantine), and Y is variable depending on the golem (in the case of the alchemical golem y’all just fought, Y would’ve been sonic). This is also the reason why I made the GM fiat that Kolgradd’s 1d10 persistent fire was the “higher amount” than Jevar’s 5d4; the 1d10 did NOT come from a spell, while the 5d4 DID, so the 5d4, after resistances, would have likely done a lot less.
I mean, I made slight modifications, but the 1e adventure had this creature, so I just used the 2e stats.
Okay, a couple things I want to take care of now that the combat is over: First, from here on out I’m changing stagnate time into a Fortitude save to bring it in-line with similar spells like slow. I wish I had noticed Jisara had that spell beforehand so I could have brought this up earlier (since she likely only cast it in that combat because it was a Will save), but I’m making a public statement about it now. Secondly, I am going to implement a couple more things coming in the Remaster to this game to make it feel fair. Specifically with regards to the monster abilities Grab, Push, and Knockdown. The texts for each of these abilities will be replaced with the following: Grab:
Requirements The monster’s last action was a successful Strike that lists Grab in its damage entry, or the monster has a creature grabbed or restrained; Effect If used after a Strike, the monster attempts to Grapple the creature using the body part it attacked with. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the creature’s multiple attack penalty.
The monster can instead use Grab and choose one creature it’s grabbing or restraining with an appendage that has Grab and attempt to Grapple that creature. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the creature’s multiple attack penalty. Knockdown:
Requirements The monster’s last action was a successful Strike that lists Knockdown in its damage entry; Effect The monster attempts to Trip the creature. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the monster’s multiple attack penalty. Push:
Requirements The monster’s last action was a successful Strike that lists Push in its damage entry; Effect The monster attempts to Shove the creature. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the monster’s multiple attack penalty. If Push lists a distance, change the distance the creature is pushed on a success to that distance (double that distance on a critical success). These are mostly on the GM’s side of the rules, so this announcement is more of an FYI to y’all. Also, those of y’all with the Rage of Elements PDF might notice that what’s written here is not QUITE what’s written in that book (specifically, the italicized stuff is my own personal modification). I did this to make it feel more fair—I disagree with maintaining the Grab being automatic, and I don’t like that there’s no specification on what happens on a critical success with Push.
Jisara Steps back and casts telekinetic projectile at Black.
Vitalis attacks Black and slices straight through the ooze! He then turns his attention and attacks Red!
Ah, I see. I figured it was open from Ian having just come through. If not, we'll figure out what else to do. Oh, shoot! My brain did not process that fact! Yeah, Ian would have no reason to completely shut the individual room doors on his way to the front door. For some reason I just processed it as “Oh, he just teleported from X to the front door,” which he didn’t do. My bad!
Yeah, I feel that. I had a family reunion, my grandfather’s funeral services, and motivating myself to apply for a job at a small gaming company that y’all have probably never heard of ;). This past week has been crazy for me. Welp. Rage of Elements introduces the needle dart cantrip, which will bring back the conversation we had a long time ago.I saw your thread on the subreddit, but my subscriber copy of RoE hasn’t shipped yet so the PDF hasn’t hit my downloads. I just found an excerpt this morning (linked in a different thread) that includes needle dart. Here’s the link. Yeah, and I got completely ratioed in that thread. Basically, my only stipulation about that spell and similar ones is that I believe there should have been a clause about needing “a bit of metal larger than a coin.” That’s it. That’s all I think it needs to be balanced again. Otherwise, by RAW, you could get some adamantine shavings and use it for the spell, which just feels…wrong. To use pre-Remaster terms, it feels like a transmutation spell, so the idea of turning a coin or a single iron shaving into a bunch of damaging needles feels utterly wrong to me. Turning, say, some of the metal on Reprisal into said needles? Yeah, that feels right. I just don’t like the lack of definition of what a “piece of metal” means for this spell. Plus, it’s also a divine spell, which means that it’s actually not a bad pick for divine casters. My own take on that math: I’m just gonna crunch some numbers under the assumption of a critical hit. I generally calculate persistent damage as twice the amount for such number crunching (e.g., I’d count 1d6 persistent as being an “average” of 7 damage; I use this same metric for figuring out averages for homebrew monsters that deal persistent damage on a Strike).
Telekinetic projectile, 1st rank (assuming 18 in casting stat): (1d6+4)*2 (15 average)
Needle dart, 1st rank (casting stat irrelevant to damage): (3d4)*2 plus 1 persistent (17 average)
Interesting. It actually does seem that needle dart is about the same as telekinetic projectile on a crit. There’s a bit of devation, but it’s a 3% difference, which isn’t really statistically significant (as opposed to the 30%-ish difference on a non-crit)
Yeah, go for it. 4 gp less of your Earned Income.
She's also a former PC of James Jacobs himself.
I will post Chance’s response to Octavio in the next couple of hours. Putting aside the other benefits to Chance being the primary caster for the Resurrect ritual, I assume that nobody has better than a +15 modifier for Religion? To be fair, I assumed it would be you because you're, y'know, the Ritualist. I didn't actually check people's Religion bonuses. That said, I don't think anyone in this party is more than Trained in Religion, meaning they can't be the primary caster for resurrect. You ignore that because of Resourceful Ritualist.
GM, are you thinking of implementing the revealed changes to Refocus (specifically, removing the requirement of having spent a Focus point since the last time you Refocused) prior to the Remaster releasing, or just waiting until it's officially out? You know what? Yeah. More specifically, I’m going to add it to the House Rule document as such: In the Refocus activity, remove the clause "since you last regained any Focus Points" from its Requirements. Thus, if you have 0/3 Points in your Focus Pool, you can spend 30 minutes consecutively to regain all 3 Focus Points. Class feats such as Domain Focus allows you to regain up to 2 Focus Points in a single 10-minute period. Class feats such as Domain Wellspring allow you to regain all 3 Focus Points in a single 10-minute period.
Shameless self-promotion, but if you're looking for a 2e conversion of Mummy's Mask, my conversion document is live on Pathfinder Infinite.
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