Rory_N's page

I've never found any reason for dragons NOT to have a religious affiliation, regardless of what various rule books may say. I see no reason why a dragon couldn't follow any religion that it felt suited its needs and beliefs.

I was actually working on a campaign at one time where the original race on the planet was the dragon. They had their own version of what could be considered "The Bible" and used it to spread their religious beliefs throughout the world as new races began to appear. Eventually the dragons went into hiding, but there were still other races that followed their religion.

The Pathfinder Society! Those thugs are behind everything!

This made me laugh.

My favorite secret societies are the ones that no one actually knows about. I'm not saying that to be a smart-a or anything, it just holds more interest when a group of PCs stumbles into the hideout of a local religious cult that they know absolutely nothing about. But as far as the original post here, I'd have to agree with Son of the Vetrinarian above and go with one of those fairly well known groups/societies.

It kind of depends: do you want a behind-the-scenes type thing or an up-front-and-personal thing?

Behind the scenes could easily be done with various poisons or curses, not enough to actually kill the PCs, but enough to weaken them to a point that then they can be told what has happened to them and why. It could possibly lead to them having to perform a task for one of the slain victim's families in order to remove the poison/curse.

Something straight forward would be for one (or more) of the families of the slain NPCs to send out a group of high-level assassin-types to inflict their wrath. I don't necessarily agree with PC death as the result of their actions against NPCs, but it would depend on the circumstances.

I've heard and used both ways regarding drow. Our big one was always with kobold as one of our group was specific to pronounce it "ko-bald" while the rest of us were lazy (I guess) saying "ka-bold". I still don't know where the one guy got the "bald" out of a spelling of b-o-l-d.

I enjoy the 15-point buy myself...it gives me enough points to make a workable character who is just "above average" enough to have the potential to become a hero. I have used 20-point once, and it was alright as well, a little more powerful, but not so much as to really be that different. I don't know that I would enjoy a 25-point buy or not, it would depend on the campaign and what the PCs needed to accomplish I guess.

My approach to the game, as a DM and as a player, is that those who adventure are simply above average from the common man, with the potential to be much more. To that end, I rarely drop an ability below 10 when I'm creating a PC. Rarely I'll drop to a 9 or an 8, but I hate have minuses to anything when it comes to an adventurer. There are enough minuses to various things already.

As a DM, I don't allow anything over 18 for a 1st level character, and I don't allow anything below an 8, and then only one of each of those stats in any build. Again, this is pertaining to my "above average" thought process. I build my lower level NPCs the same way, although the higher level ones I use a 20-point build on, but these are the big baddies of the campaign world, those who have developed their power over a long period of time, so they need to be a bit more powerful (instead of leveling them from 1st level, I just create them at the level which is pertinant for their part of the campaign).

Really? A simple question posed by somebody brings a mini flame war, analogies of different "hero" type characters running from battle, and talk about educational degrees people have?

Many people have made very good comments here about what they do and why they do it. Back a million years ago, when we were playing 2E D&D, my friends and I all came to the understanding that the dungeons and hidden forest lairs had no signs outside saying "You must be 3rd level to adventure here". So, when the players venture their characters into areas that they shouldn't in my campaigns, they suffer the consequences of such actions. I have yet to make a TPK after some 25+ years of role playing. Do I allow the players outs when they are over matched? Occasionally, but not often. Have I fudged dice rolls to help out characters? Again, occasionally, but not often. I'm all for keeping the current campaign going with the characters already in it, but at times, that just doesn't happen. The one thing I do try to do is have fun, and make sure the majority of the players have fun as well. That doesn't include being soft as a DM or being a "killer" DM...it means being a fair DM. When the dice rolls are just icy cold for the party and red hot for the DM, sometimes you just need to make concessions to keep it fun for everyone.

Unlike what some others think, it isn't the party saying "We win" or the DM saying "I win", it's the party and the DM all saying "We win because we're having fun with a game we enjoy."

I'm a very old school player, having played the Basic boxed sets, starting back around 1979 or so. Our group then moved to Advanced D&D (1E) and then 2E. I've just gotten into PFRPG over the last 6 months or so, and after having played a little 3E when it first came out, I can truthfully say that PF is definitely a step up from 3E.

But is the game too soft on players? Well, yes and no. I think it allows for characters to escape death situations a bit easier then previous versions, and possibly makes reviving characters a bit less of a burdon, but it all comes down to the DM as to what is easy and what isn't, in my opinion.

I've played with "killer" DMs who set their dungeons with traps that make Tomb of Horrors seem like a kiddie playland, and monsters that they create from a dozen random tables of abilities. Throughout all of those sessions (using 2E, I might add), our party was decimated at almost every turn. I was playing an ultra high level cleric and he was out of curative spells by our 2nd encounter. Did we live through the 3rd encounter? Yep. The DM placed a chest of cure potions and scrolls in the room before the next encounter. So in that instance, it's not the system making it easy on the characters, it's the DM.

I've seen some people saying things about the removal of level loss for dying and XP loss for creating items. I know that 1E and 2E had this little caveat, but not sure if PF has it (and I don't remember if 3E had it), but, there has always been something to the effect of "These rules are merely guidelines...if you dislike something, throw it out, or change it to your liking". If you as a DM feel that characters should loss a level when they are killed, so be it. If you want to use some rare and exotic spell from an old Dragon magazine that no one in your group has ever heard of, so be it. I personally like the thought of something similar to the old system shock save (now fortitude) for massive amounts of damage from one single opponent, and will use that when the time comes that it can be used. There's no reason for a DM to be bound so strictly by the rules that he can't "wing it" every once in a while.

QUILL OF THE HEDGEHOG

Aura: moderate conjuration; CL: 7th

Slot: none; Price: 2800 gp; Weight: nil

DESCRIPTION

While looking no more unusual then a quill shed from a hedgehog, when worn on a belt or carried in the hand, the quill’s magical properties come to light. Not only does the quill offer a natural resistance versus the venom of a snake (+1), but can also be used to camouflage the scent of its wearer. In order to create the camouflage effect, the wearer must find an item with the scent of another creature upon it (soil or mud from a track will suffice), then the wearer mixes a small amount of his own saliva with the scented item, and coats the quill with the mixture. This camouflage is similar to the pass without trace spell, although the wearer may still be tracked normally, only the scent of the wearer is hidden. The camouflage ability lasts for 4 hours, at which time the process can be repeated. In addition, the quill may be used once per day to neutralize poison on any creature touched, as long as the poison has been inflicted by the bite of a venomous snake.

CONSTRUCTION

Requirements: Craft Wondrous Item, neutralize poison; Cost: 1400 gp

I finished my item a little over a week ago and have been looking it over since. I would really like to come up with another concept, but so far I can't seem to shake my thoughts about the original item and how much I really like the simplicity of it. So, who knows what I'll be sending in?

As an "old timer" and new to PF, I just went with my favorite character class from all of my 1E and 2E days to at least have some familiarity with it. After looking over the various info in PF on traits, feats, etc., I started to get an idea of what I might like to "try" and do with this character. Then, after getting the campaign world info and finding a deity (I'm playing a cleric), every really fell into place for how I wanted to play and advance the character.

I have never really be into basing a character off of something I have seen on TV or in a movie, or something I've read, but I have seen some very good adaptations by others. Myself, I tend to base my ideas on the campaign world and what kind of character I am most interested in at the time.

I've recently gotten back into role playing after a long absence. The area I live in has a very minimal RP type population, so I felt that online was the way to go (in fact, I am playing in one of Bigkilla's games). Using d20pro seemd kind of daunting to me at first, but with a little help from those who are familiar with it, as well as just playing around with it myself, I found it to be a very nice program to work with. Using Ventrilo for voice is a plus and adds nicely to the game, but I think any voice chat client would be just as good.

I have Maptools and OpenRPG on my computer, I just haven't gotten too deep into learning either program at this time, so I can offer no advice on those. But, as you can see, there are plenty of opinions on all sorts of programs to enhance the online RP experience.

Nice work! The Norse pantheon has always been my favorite and this is excellent material. Thank you.

While I don't see a party of adventurers immediately attempting to construct some kind of boat to get off the island, they may if they feel that they are at a dead end, or overpowered by the creatures guarding the forts and/or secret tunnel.

A couple of ideas to ward them away from the forested area is to have it be considered a holy place by the local village, complete with several carved statues of their deity(s) at certain points to scare intruders away. Entry into the woods most likely would be punished with death for outsiders (like the party) and probably a lighter punishment for island natives.

My other thought is to have the wood in the forest be so pourous (spelling?) that it just can't be made into anything seaworthy. This would also play into your thought about having the village be primitive and not necessarily know of any other nearby islands.

Since this effectively keeps the party stranded on the island, then the four items from each abandoned fort could be used with another item of element deep in the volcano to create some way off of the island for those shipwrecked: a portal opens that leads them to their next adventure, they find an underground passage that leads under the sea, or they are simply teleported back to the city where they embarked on their voyage.