Leandro Garvel's page

I don't know if anyone's still interested, but I rebuilt Karzoug for the final fight to be significantly more dangerous (because my PCs would have steamrolled him otherwise) and with updated sources, spells and theme.

As a GM who is just finishing running a party through Rise of the Runelords, my group have already started asking me to run Shattered Star next so we can finish in time for Return of the Runelords.

So hyped.

I don't know why this has changed, I'm interested in why this has changed, and oh boy am I happy this has changed because in general alignment descriptors on spells only caused arguments rather than fun.

A Promethean Alchemist that uses flesh crafting on death row prisoners, the criminally insane, (murders rapists so on) and his enemies. When / if they die he traps them in soul gems to use for constructs and reanimates their bodies as Alchemical Zombies. All of which he uses as manual labor to build orphanage, schools, and hospitals all which he volunteers at. And when the creations are not being used to better the community they are patrolling the woods away from the roads especially near those pesky goblin camps which he makes sure to raid once a month to ensure those chaotic evil spawn keep their numbers down. Any above the designated quota are hauled away or killed (see top). Unruly individuals receive an implanted bomb.

I know this is GM / party specific but I want personal opinions here.

I'd call it Lawful Evil (using Evil means towards Lawful ends).

The character clearly cares about infrastructure and the protection of their society and forcefully uses those who society considers - correctly or incorrectly - as unwilling resources for soul-based necromancy (which may or may not be inherently Evil, very campaign-dependent).

Proactively and aggressively targets creatures considered Chaotic and Evil - the goblins - and uses violence and evil magic to reinforce authority - the implanted bombs - all sounds pretty textbook Lawful Evil to me.

Magog wrote:

I don't know a whole lot about the Empyreal Lords but Benorus, Dammerich and Vildeis seem interesting. But my favorite is Kelinahat .I love the idea of a LG deity of stealth and espionage. She's the Epyreal Lord of the !@#$% Batman.

Aw yeah, Kelinahat fans unite. (I played a rogue in Council of Thieves who worshiped her. She was a spy, unsurprisingly.) I'd love for her to get more material at some point.

Other favorites: Black Butterfly, Arshea, Irez, and Soralyon.

Kelinahat! She of Ebon Wings definitely needs some expansion so I can build a character who worships her...

Leandro Garvel wrote:

Bellona wrote:

Yikes!

My condolences. Are there any plans to send in a back-up party from Sandpoint/Magnimar when there is no more contact from the orginal characters?

They weren't organised enough as a party to have set up a contingency plan, but I've offered them a similar arrangement as many influential NPCs in both places knew where they were going.

They haven't decided yet though, as we were planning on moving onto Strange Aeons when we finished RotR, and we might just move onto that AP early.

Well RotR's worst possible ending is pretty Lovecraftian so that is oddly suitable :D

Quick update: we forgot the Black Blade had the True Resurrection 1/month special purpose power (randomly rolled).

So the BBlade True Rezzed the Magus, who then used a scroll to Planar Ally in a Glabrezu, and made a Treacherous Wishcraft (the Mark of Treachery variant) deal with it to Wish for the Revive the Dead option of the Wish spell, which then Rezzed the rest of the party.

Campaign continues! Woo!

Also the Magus now owes a Glabrezu a Wish spell...

I would suggest an Arcanist or another Wizard. This AP really rewards spellbook using casters.

If neither appeal, then there is a unique Bard reward somewhere in the adventure path, and a Bard would help the rest of the party you have.

I wish it worked, but there are better ways to do the "one attack kill" build it's going for, and it isn't on a great class chassis to begin with.

Would you like advice on builds with a similar flavour and mechanics to back it up?

Oh boy oh boy oh boy free money! Too good to be true is the best kind of good - where do I sign?!

24. It is in fact a keystone - once placed in the right empty spot in a bridge, said bridge will lead... elsewhere

Don't be the only GM in your group for too long. Build up the GMing skills and appetites of everyone in your group, then set lengths of campaigns accordingly so that everyone is the GM at some point over a set timespan (say, a year).

Wish I'd been given this advice: would have ended up with the whole group being good at GMing rather than me being periodically burnt out by running campaigns for too long...

Orfamay Quest, the idea of a logarithmic penalty for distance is excellent! I may just have to steal that for my games, so ta :)

Leandro's step by step guide to resolving this problem:

1) Tell your GM the relevant part of the last sentence of your post, but in as polite as possible a fashion as you can muster (Leandro recommends not doing it immediately, but taking a moment to muster some calm and take a deep breath).

2) If your GM agrees and resolves the problem to your satisfaction, stop here. They may also have a plan to resolve the issue in game - if they say this, I'd recommend trusting them all other things being equal, but that's a judgment call on your part. If not, go to 3.

3) Do you enjoy this game/is this a minor issue to you? If yes, try this step. If no, go to 4. If yes: ask your fellow players if they would be willing to enter into a gentleman's agreement to resolve the issue (for instance, to split all acquired loot equally, regardless of origin), as this would make the game more fair and fun for you. If they agree, problem solved. If they disagree, step 4.

4) Make it clear that you will leave the game if your problem isn't resolved, as it is significantly impacting your enjoyment of the game. They may have erroneously believed your issue didn't matter/was minor - they now know it is not, and may now to try to negotiate/agree to a previous solution. If they do, great! Go to the relevant previous step. If they don't, go to step 5.

5) If you're sure this issue is making the game much less fun for you, and the GM won't resolve the issue, and the players won't help, then leave the game. No gaming is better than bad gaming, and there are lots of games out there that have responsive GMs and sympathetic players.

Hope this helps!

Excellent guide, and simple and easy to read to boot.

I found it interesting that you prioritised defences (even if only to bring them up to a minimum benchmark) over offense in the order of building a character. I'd argue the opposite - an active offense is the first thing that should be brought up to the desired benchmark, as it is the main way a character will affect the game.

Finally, I like the explanation of the division of three origins for a character.

I feel like the best solution to "we want to be historically accurate but also welcoming" is to remember that ultimately, the point of a game is to have fun, and put a disproportionately large amount of focus into enabling people to play "uncommon" characters. Explain how such things might function historically and encourage the GM and player to work within the facts. Matriarchal societies did exist, especially in smaller or non-European communities. Female samurai were totally a thing at first before patriarchal norms caught up with them. There were a lot of non-white people in Europe, though they were obviously generally the minority (though Spain was at one point dominated, to its economic benefit, by Moors and Jewish people, by my understanding).

Despite what the "historically accurate" crowd would have people believe, there is a place for diversity in history. History is full of badass women and minorities bucking the system and becoming heroes. Hell, just 150 years after the end of the Middle Ages, Julie flipping d'Aubigny showed up, an openly bisexual opera-singing swordswoman and one of the most badass antiheroes* history's ever known. Sure, the Middle Ages were in most ways a more hostile time, but we're talking about the exceptional here—the fantastical, the people even more badass than Julie. And aren't games like Myfarog supposed to be about heroes? Supposed to be about the "exceptional"?

Historical accuracy is really rarely deployed in a context where it actually both holds up and makes sense.

*By protagonist-centered morality, anyway. She was kind of a jerk.

Indeed!

Content which takes into account the actually much more varied and diverse nature of history than most basic history textbooks would have you believe is usually also better written and researched than content that doesn't.

You have to go deep enough into the scarcer sources to research it and have a better understanding of the context of those sources.

So going the extra mile in this situation to allow people to play the characters they want to play (and to acknowledge that extra effort is necessary to improve the industry as a whole) actually pays dividends for the quality of the game and it's writing as well!

My personal headcanon has always been that a Witch's familiar teaches the Witch mystical secrets and tidbits of lore according to a metaphysical plan their specific Patron has for that Witch.

So a Witch's Intelligence is clever but distinctly strange - their knowledge informed by their patron's philosophy or even whim.

Also, I enjoy throwing the environment at the players. Particularly if Poltergeists are involved.

wraithstrike wrote:

Where is Razmir statted up at, or where does it say what his levels are?

Leandro Garvel wrote:

Didn't Inner Sea World Guide have his levels as Human Wizard 20? Could be wrong, don't have the book in front of me.

If it's the Inner Sea World Guide, it's not in the country's entry (I just checked)*, but in Inner Sea Magic, near the bottom of page 7 (right below Nex, in fact), it notes that he's "LE male Taldan wizard 19 Ruler of Razmiran, false god, Master of the 31 Steps" - pretty clear to me!

* Out of curiosity, I did a cursory scan - I wasn't able to find it anywhere else, either. Doesn't mean it's not there, just that I'm not able to find it in a swift once-over.

EDIT: Ninja'd... by a dead man! How humiliating!

Deadmanwalking wrote:

That said, calling him 'the most powerful wizard in the world' is pretty much factually untrue. There are a fairly large number of scarier people around. He's pretty scary, but hardly uniquely powerful in any meaningful sense.

And using him as an example in this thread is just silly. Razimir is dealing with a world where people know what a 19th level Wizard can do, and most large countries are ruled by people of at least 15th level. That's not the situation a wizard would be in on Earth as we know it.

Now, I'm not sure the situation for a Wizard on our Earth is a lot better, it depends on many factors, but it's sure not the same.

This is also correct.

Thanks for finding that, forgot about Inner Sea Magic!

Ironically, if he could only get that last Wizard level, he'd be able to achieve his goal of immortality by taking the 20th level arcane discovery...

Just letting everybody know, I am using this exclusively for Scooby Doo adventures.

As long as they aren't Scooby and Scrappy Doo Adventures...

Future Alien Overlord wrote:

dwayne germaine wrote:

Who is the GM for our real world earth?

I will be... very soon

In that case... Have some cookies!

Tracking cookies that is - once we infect your alien OS which looks suspiciously like MS-DOS with a virus imported via floppy disk written by that dude from Jurassic Park, your giant space ship is doomed!

I'm going to go with the opposite end of the spectrum with a minimum of 18th level.

People constantly don't account for stealth or sneak, as well as other things intelligence agencies can do.

In addition our technology is probably on the level of something higher than what an 18th level wizard could do in many instances.

If intelligence agencies become aware of the threat, then yes they would be a real force to be reckoned with.

DualJay wrote:

Title. What level would an optimized wizard need to be, coming over with only his WBL-gear, to conquer earth? Remember, he doesn't speak the language and his Kn History, Kn Local, and Kn Geography checks are useless until he reads up on some local

We'll say he can't use conjuration (calling) spells or travel to any plane he did not create, but all other magic is okay.

My guess is 11.

By himself it wouldn't be possible. AT ALL. He would need several things.

1. Knowledge. Our world is tremendously different from Golarion in the way things work. Ready access to rapid communication and travel is common to a degree that's not imaginable.

2. An organisation. The world is a really BIG place. Razmir, possibly THE most powerful living wizard in Golarion today hasn't even managed to conquer all of Golarion yet which is a much smaller place in population and the number of countries involved... In fact, he's only got one small piece of the entire Inner Sea region. And he HAS an organisation to boot. An empire ruled by one man is pretty much limited to what that one man can immediately grasp and personally control... which isn't that much at a time, no matter how powerful you are.

3. Capable henchmen. Which is what Razmir really dosen't seem to have... He has minions and spellcasters but no real Number 2 types. And these would have to be native henchmen...who know how things work.

4. Time. Rome wasn't built in a day... and what you're talking about is a couple of of orders of magnitude of what Rome ruled on it's best days.

Razmir is a) apparently real lazy, b) really unconcerned with ruling everything, at least in comparison to his goals of becoming immortal and a god, and c) exists in a universe wherein powers that check and balance his arcane might exist (for example, her Infernal Majestrix, or the current Queen of Geb).

OldSkoolRPG wrote:

Byronus wrote:

A shame. I like it when the PCs are scrambling in terror. :(

Good players will role play appropriately.

** spoiler omitted **

I use the hero point system and award hero points when characters really portray their characters in a realistic way. This encourages the players to act their characters appropriately rather than me telling them how their characters react based upon a die roll.

Hero Point system? Sound interesting. Can you please elaborate, or provide a link?

Hero Points

Given infinite time, a savvy Wizard with access to Silent Image, Comprehend Languages and Charm Person could conquer the earth. So, level 1 :P

Man, I've just started playing in a 3.5 game, so this is perfect timing - thanks for the heads up!

I think that maybe, perhaps, we will get to fight some monsters, take their loot and level up. Maybe.

...fight some monsters, be driven insane and die you say? Yes, I think there will be a lot of that :P

Little to add to Charon's Little Helper's post, but also:

Very versatile spell list, with multiple archetypes that alter it and allow for out of class spells.

Spell list as is and core performances make you a master of enchantment and illusions, with many early access spells.

So in 5e medicine is a wis based skill. Did the WoTC developers feel that medicine was more about intuition and insight then about learning?

It's *typically* a Wis-based skill, to allow the herbal and medicinal loremaster character concept who isn't academically smart, but is very experienced.

However, since technically a DM can call for any ability check for any skill proficiency in 5e, I tend to split it into Medicine (Int) checks to be able to know about medicine and disease and Medicine (Wis) checks for treating said disease and mixing up medicine accurately and carefully. Heck, I've even called for a Medicine (Dex) check to do stitches and delicate surgery.

We do not have anywhere near enough reliable narrative from this blog to judge the Red Raven's actual alignment.

Also, the art is swag.

You guys all make valid arguments, but you're forgetting one simple fact.

Bard is best.

This person makes a compelling argument, probably because he has levels in the best class: bard.

Some of the best recent backstories/flavour (see: the iconic Kineticist from Minkai) has been set in Tian-Xia.

In other words: you have my axe!

...This lead her to use shil-what's-it-called and try to beat a zombie to death despite it having DR slashing.

Slightly off-topic, but in our group mispronouncing Shillelagh is the verbal component for casting Shillelagh...

Another thing is that while 'righteous' and 'innocents' are mentioned it's all from her point of view. Her completely effed up point of view, brought about by corruption and brainwashing from being sent to a church of Evil and went through a very biased and revised history and education.

I don't hate her as much as Lazarro, she's definitely not even in "douchebag" territory. But she is Evil with a capital E.

Ruthless, soulless, emotionless, broken, pitiful.

I actually feel sorry for her.

The complexity of her character that allows anyone to feel sorry for her, while she is still definitely a villain/evil is part of why I really like this iconic - heck, part of why I have liked all of the Iconics so far.

*nods*

Spiritualist of Naderi with a Lust/Love Phantom is too awesome to pass up. Especially if said Phantom is trying to help their Spiritualist move on. Or not.

"My Love died to protect to me... and then clawed their way through reality from The Boneyard to be with me again while still holding onto their own morality. Can your's compare?"

Aww, I may have to borrow that idea for a character. Can I, please? :)

That ending... Man, that's beautiful.

I can think of a few NPCs that could be reflavoured and rebuilt as Occult classes.

Caizarlu from Book 2 could be an interesting Spiritualist, and the Skinsaw Man could be a Mesmerist, for instance - in fact the many Rogue/something multiclasses in the AP could be Mesmerist/something instead.

Mammy Graul could be a pretty horrifying Void Kineticist. Likewise, Conna the Wise could be an Earth Kineticist.

Could be interesting to reflavour the Denizens' [of Leng] magic in Book 6 as psychic magic, to emphasise the culture clash with Thassilonian hermetic arcane magic. Also for this reason, I'd probably leave the Thassilonian magic as arcane.

The Hidden Beast in Book 6 could be interesting to turn into a Psychic, and Gamigin could be a Water Kineticist. Given how dependent Viorian Dekanti is on her sword Chellan, making her a Battle Host Occultist with Chellan as her implement could be cool.

In this specific instance noble peasant, it was not only not a jerk move, it is specifically the sort of thing a player should make an effort to remind GMs about.

As others in the thread have said more eloquently, GMs have 101 things to think about while running a game, and long-lasting conditions with little immediate dramatic impact (like diseases) are even more easily forgotten.

Players, having less to do all the time than a GM, should in my opinion make an effort to remember and remind GMs of these things - they are by no means obligated to do so, but it is actively good for a game if they do.

last night after 22 hours of labor and finally a c section, my son Luke James was born. 8 lbs 11oz and 22 inches long both he and his mom are doing great. Just felt like sharing this with my paizo family.

Congratulations! :)

Rynjin wrote:

To defuse the political aspects, maybe people aren't "offended" by any particular message, but just don't like that touchy-feely hippy dippy crap?

Hm, possibly, but that might be a touchy subject too.

Just last month I was griping to a couple of guys about a paper I had to write, and how the professor wasn't being overly helpful -- it was an advanced course, to be fair -- when one of them exclaimed "Oh yeah, I hate professor whatshisname, and his hippy dippy crap!" And my thought was "Whoa, dude, you just took this from first gear straight into fifth!" I didn't question the guy, but the following questions did cross my mind:

1. What do demanding professors have to do with hippy dippy crap?
2. What's crappy about hippy dippy stuff?
3. And what's to hate about hippy dippy stuff, even if you think it's naive? The goodwill to all mankind? The 'live the change you want to see' idealism? Not having a simple moralistic answer firmly rooted in traditionalism to all of life's issues? Or maybe it's the fear of bell-bottoms making a comeback?

I'm sure there are answers, but I'm somewhat of a second-generation hippy myself, so this attitude is always bizarre to me when it crops up.

4. Surely it should be 'hippy-*trippy* crap'? :P

I like traits. I don't play in Golarion, but I allow the setting specific ones in my campaign.

I agree with this. Also, I allow certain campaign traits that fix issues I have with the game for characters not in said campaign (Trap Finder from Mummy's Mask, for instance).

I've been running the Emerald Spire for my likely lot of gaming folk for roughly two months now - around 8 sessions, once a week, with nearly a week of in-game time passed. The party has just finished Splinterden, just reached level 4 (using the fast xp track) and we've been having a real blast playing through it.

9 and a 1/2 characters have died so far.

I felt I should chronicle their various humourous and tragic demises (presented in spoilered sections below for your enjoyment)

Prior to this module, I have never permanently killed a character in a game I've ran before. I feel like Anakin presumably felt after he