Krovenko's page

-Don't do the NPC party member, bad idea.

-If he can handle it you may allow him another PC though I don't recommend it

-Let him gesthalt a PC, certainly.
-Give him max HP and a wee bit extra stuff for his AC
-Give him a free Wand of Cure Light (maximized) and let him wield it as a free action

-Cut down the number of wimpy NPCs so that, in a fight, you don't have several NPCs to his one PC
-Pay close attention to potential save/or/die stuff and feel free to fudge EVERY initiative so he's somewhere in the middle or near the beginning

-W. E. Ray

All very good ideas, thanks! Though I don't think he can handle two characters - he's still quite young and inexperienced :)

Just out of curiosity why do you think having a NPC party member is a bad idea? My biggest concern with only one PC is that if he ever gets under 0 hp it's basically game over. An NPC cleric could save the day.

I've tried gestalt characters once with two party members and it certainly helped a lot but the characters still had fairly low hp. A multiclassed non-gestalt character could perhaps be a better idea - e.g. your ordinary 2nd level PC is still better than 1st level gestalt, if I remember the rules correctly? What do you think the starting level should be?

Hi!

Has anyone successfully run the above mentioned modules with only one PC? I think I'll be game mastering them for my younger brother during the summer and I'm wondering what kind of changes I need to do. I don't have enough time/patience to do extensive changes to the modules, so I'm thinking about starting at a higher level, maybe at 3rd or even 4th.

Unless the PC has cleric levels, healing will definitely be a problem so stashing him with potions or a wand of cure light wounds sounds like a good idea. Or a NPC cleric to accompany him.

What do you think?

-Krovenko

Thank you, DeadDMWalking. This was very helpful.

Huh? I tried it again and now the discount was applied properly. So problem solved.

btw. I just got email about the shipment of PF #8. I wonder if this caused a temporary kink in the system...

Hi,

I just tried to order two game mastery modules and Guide to Korvosa among other things. I proceeded to the point after selecting the shipping address where my credit card information is asked but cancelled at the last minute because it seemed that I don't get the 15% Pathfinder Advantage discount. I've been a non-stop subscriber since the first issue.

I'm confused. Shouldn't the discount be applied before I accept the order?

Good people, let's not fight over this :-)

My remark for using a spreadsheet was mainly intended so that the pros who do this type of work all the time are probably already doing this to speed up their work.

But if cross-class skills is the problem why not simply ditch them like Kirth explained? 1 point / rank regardless of cross-class or not but retaining the max ranks sounds like a reasonable idea to me.

Somehow I feel this alone could not have been the reason for the complete overhaul though...

Ok, I'm mostly using published adventures so I haven't seen the problem of setting up skill points for monsters and NPCs to be too much manual work. But if I were in the position of writing adventures I would certainly use a spreadsheet (or perhaps try to find or write a custom program) to track the skill points. With decent automation I wonder how hard that really is...

Anyway, I believe that monsters don't need to follow skill rules exactly as written. The skills are mostly geared towards human like creatures anyways (e.g. consider Profession, Craft, Knowledge). A fish is a good swimmer, a horse not a particularly good climber. So why not assign skill points for monsters based on common sense? However, I can see how this might affect game balance and make judging CRs more difficult.

I'm not particularly fond of monsters with classes and/or cross-class skills either.

For NPCs the situation is different of course and should follow the rules.

And I don't have difficulties explaining the skill rules to new players :-)

I have finally finished reading the alpha pdf. I have to say I'm a bit puzzled about the new skill system. It feels like the rationale of such a massive overhaul was not explained in the document. I know this is still work in progress and I'm sure that the authors have very good reasons that I'm not simply aware of.

So I would be eager to know what are the problems in 3.5 that the new skill rules are trying to fix? I don't remember our group ever bumping into major snags with the old rules, apart from a few silly things such as the separation of Spot and Search for instance.

Note that I haven't decided yet whether I like the new system or not, although it feels like the new rules are trying to fix something that isn't broken.

Hey, I've been thinking about combining the various skills too. Did you guys also change the amount of skill points gained? Without modifying the points it would seem that the characters get more powerful.

PS: Good stuff those sheets!

I got the book as my 30th birthday present from my fellow D&D players a month ago. I'm about halfway through. The story has a slow start but after the beginning I have enjoyed it quite a bit. Beware that the introduction and table of contents contain spoilers! I wouldn't have read them if I had known...

I can't really comment on the writing, because I haven't read other works by Tolkien in english before. I guess the writing is comparable to Silmarillion.

The text contains a LOT of references to places and people. I was a bit confused until after reading about 100 pages, I found a map neatly folded inside the last page :-)

Thanks, Ungoded! Ok, it seems that Standard Shipping vs. USPS doesn't matter. I guess I can just hope this water damage is only one time incident and does not happen anymore. The fact that others have suffered from the same problem worries me a bit though.

Ok, what is the difference between Pathfinder Standard Shipping ($5.00) and USPS Package Service ($6.86)? I have currently chosen the first option. If I change to USPS shipping, would the probability of getting undamaged Pathfinders increase? I'm living in Finland, Europe.

I too would like to hear official word from Paizo on this issue, please.

Hi,

The second installment of Pathfinder came yesterday and unfortunately it has some water damage on it. The cardboard envelope has large stains on it and apparently some water had leaked through. The top and bottom edges of each page in the book is wrinkled and wavy. The damaged area is about one inch wide.

What is the usual procedure with this kind of things? Should I contact my post office? The damage could be worse and the book is fully readable but I'd prefer my Pathfinders shiny new and undamaged...

I just glanced through the second issue in PDF form and I have absolute nothing to complain here. The interior art looks fantastic and clearly more in-line than in Pathfinder 1. The first issue looks a bit rushed compared to this.

I know how hard it is to hire talented artists. I happen to work at gaming industry too, although we make video games rather than pen&paper games, but I totally understand what you are saying.

EDIT: maybe you could consider hiring an artist or two who would concentrate only on the pathfinder stuff fulltime? Of course, the artist should be of exceptional quality...

After drooling over the gorgeous previews, I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the interior art, especially NPC portraits after getting my hands on the first issue.

Dr. Jacobs and Mike McArtor mentioned that "variety is good" earlier in this thread but I have to disagree. Instead of providing a mismash of different art styles to please everyone I think you could differentiate in a positive way from your competitors by presenting a consistent view of the Pathfinder world. Make the brave decision and tell us how the world feels and looks like you already tell us how it functions.

Practically every D&D source is filled with random collection of different styles - monster manuals being the prime examples. There is one exception I know of and it is the big Ptolus book, and I seriously think one of the reasons it is so appealing is the consistency. Ok, maybe there are a few slip ups in the Ptolus book but you get my point.

I'm glad that the maps in Pathfinder are very consistent and very high quality - one of the reasons I was hooked up in the beginning. It seems that all maps are done by a single artist and that is the right way to go. Hopefully the interior NPC art could also be as consistent as the maps and be in-line with the rest of the product like the covers, monster section at the end and the gorgeous imagery by Andrew Hou.

Please fix this in the upcoming issues and keep up the otherwise exceptional quality and you've got a winner.

I've not read nearly as much I would like - so much to do, so little time.

Somehow I had missed the earlier thread about Old Light and it seems to answer my questions pretty much. So I think I'll leave Old Light intact for a while but maybe place a mini-adventure on Chopper's Isle if the PCs get interested. I suspect a raven or two might live in that place... thinking of The Birds.

I'm still reading through the first issue and o'boy am I excited. Thanks for the über-quality design and writing, James and folks at Paizo!

I really like Chopper's tale, it's very creepy. More of that please!

A question: are Old Light and the ruins at Chopper's Isle going to be detailed further in future Pathfinder installments or better yet are they going to be adventure locations in the campaign?

I would like to know, so that I don't write contradictory material myself...

This is very cool!

Thank you very much!

Multiple PDFs feels a bit... unprofessional, to be honest. Especially considering the otherwise über-quality.

Really, a 25MB PDF is nothing nowadays. I could easily open several PDFs of that size even on my old Mac laptop. So, I would definitely prefer a single PDF version.

If providing single PDF only is out of the question, could you provide both the multiple PDF version and the single PDF version for downloading in the future, please? That way everybody can download their preferred version.

#787zzz here.

Yay! I've got mail!! Downloading now...

I'm in Finland. Yes, that's in Europe.

btw. I guess shipping order is determined by order #.

Bravo, this adventure is brilliant!

SPOILERS AHEAD - IF YOU ARE A PLAYER STOP READING NOW

I'm planning to run this adventure for a party of three or four 1st level PCs as a one-shot scenario. I will be replacing the runehound with a hellhound variant which spews acid instead of fire and tune down the glass golem (a lot). Probably have to leave out the spirit of the nature at the end too, and maybe add some low-level critters in the forest to make the trip to the worship site challenging. Any ideas how to change the climax encounter so that it would be appropriate for 1st level PCs? What do you think, would it be too anti-climatic to end without a combat encounter?

I hope to see this kind of quality writing and adventure design in Pathfinder!

Everybody interested,

To avoid cross posting, let's continue the discussion on Ptolus message board at
http://p222.ezboard.com/Shackled-City-in-Ptolus/fokayyourturnfrm38.showMess age?topicID=599.topic

Sorry for double posting in the first place.

Cheers,
K

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

Hey, this is great stuff! Thank you very much!

I was just thinking about Flood Season myself. Water rising from the dungeon would probably work better than rising sea level because Ptolus Bay cliff is quite high. I can already imagine all kinds of nastyness escaping from the dungeon to the city before rushing water hits the streets...

Btw, why do you think the dragon is a turn-off? I haven't read that far into the AP yet. Do you mean that it is too small a threat for a city like Ptolus?

Oh, flipping through the book it seems like there will be some volcanic activity in chapter 9, Foundations of Flame. Hmm...

Ok, I see your point... though I would really like to run Shackled City and not let go of our ongoing Ptolus campaign. Running two campaigns would be too much work. The problem is there is so much good gaming content but too little time to actually play. Basically I have two options: a) integrate SC adventures into Ptolus, or b) put SC book back on the shelf and wait a year or two until our Ptolus campaign is finished. Hrhm, hard decisions...

I'm thinking about running some or possibly the entire Shackled City campaign in Ptolus. I think with a few changes the campaign could fit nicely to the big city, e.g. replace Adimarchus with Galchutt, Cagewrights with chaos worshippers, the big bad beholder Vhalantru and corrupt city officials perhaps with Vladaam. The ultimate plan of the bad guys would be to wake the Galchutt (of course). The adventure locations can be easily placed in various places above and under the city - though the volcano aspect needs to be altered I think.

Has somebody else considered this, or better yet actually tried it? What kind of changes were necessary to the original SC campaign? What about the volcano? I think in one adventure the volcano will erupt or that is at least a part of the big ritual the villains are planning.
Maybe that could be replaced with some other kind of natural disaster. Any ideas?

To be honest, I haven't read through the whole SC book yet.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

I'm trying to figure out how large the new AP is, so I'm wondering how long does it take to play through one book in the series? I know it's impossible to say for sure and the time varies from group to group but I would be happy with a rough estimate. Have you, Paizo folks, playtested the adventures yet?

If the adventures are really big (which I'm thinking they are), it would be cool if there was some sort of conclusion for each book so that it is possible to end the campaign in some sensible way without actually playing through all the adventures.

Hey, now I'm starting to get really excited about Pathfinder. It is very nice that you listen to your readers.

I think I will check out Savage Tide at some point but our group is currently busy with a Ptolus campaign and there are some difficulties to fit Savage Tide thematically into it, to say the least...

Come to think of it, I'd like to add urban adventures to my wishlist of Pathfinder adventures. Ok, I think I have exceeded my monthly supply of wishes.

Thanks James for the reply! Sorry I was negative but it's hard to be a happy camper (or gamer) at times like these. Anyway, what you're describing sounds really great, especially what you said about level progession and having more non-combat stuff.

Actually I haven't read or played any Savage Tide adventures because I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed with AoW and thought ST was the same. Although some of the AoW stuff was really great, especially Whispering Cairn is one of the best adventures of all times (Erik Mona rocks!), a few adventures felt like fillers or hack'n'slash.

I wish there would be many adventures by Erik in Pathfinder.

Oh, one more thing, not every AP has to be about saving the world! ;-)

My first post, here goes...

First of all, from levels 1 to 15 twice a year?? That's insane! Why the rush? Either adventure paths are way too long and take years to play through or the party levels up every session or so and the game feels more like a video game than D&D.

I think the "problem" (for me, anyway) is that there is too much combat in published adventures. And too much combat and dice rolling gets quickly boring and repetetive. In the previous adventure paths (especially AoW) it seemed like a lot of monsters were added so that characters would level up for the next instalment of the AP just so that the adventure would meet the predesigned level progression.

I would really appreciate if there would be more opportunities for story telling and roleplaying in Pathfinder adventures. At least please don't automatically insert monsters into every numbered location which is seeminly the case with Dungeon adventures. Maybe I'm a bit over the top here, but I'm trying to make a point.

So my wishlist is: slower level progression, intense but less frequent combat, more storytelling, drama, puzzles, horror, atmosphere, suspence, romances, comedy, interesting and memorable NPCs, roleplaying, cool locations, cinematic action with purpose, ....

Don't get me wrong, action and combat is great and sometimes necessary but a good adventure needs more than that.

Does anyone else share my view?