Lex Starwalker's page

I'm going to be running some modules for a group for at least one brand new player--to both Pathfinder and RPGs in general.

Just considering Pathfinder modules starting at 1st level, which is your favorite?

Thanks!

I really like the paladin class, and I always have, but I've found that few people play it in my games. Invariably when someone DOES play a paladin, there's a collective groan from the other players when this decision is made, and during virtually every gaming session.

The problem, I think, is so many people play the paladin lawful stupid. Even if a paladin is run well, they're often at odds with the rest of the group in a way that becomes tiresome to all involved (including the GM and paladin's player).

I wanted to "fix" the paladin so more people would play this very useful class. My idea was, I think, obvious. Why not have all gods have paladins? How does it make sense for a chaotic good god (e.g.) to have paladins that must be lawful good? The paladin would be living by and espousing beliefs his own deity doesn't even buy into.

The solution seemed simple. Any good god can have paladins, and any evil god can have paladins (antipaladin). I expected I'd have to retool some of the paladin abilities, so I put it off. Surely there were aspects of the paladin class that relied on the lawful part of their alignment, and those would need to be adjusted.

Yesterday, I went through the paladin's abilities and found, to my surprise, that not one of them has anything to do with the lawful part of their alignment. They're all abilities related to good against evil. So having a neutral or chaotic good paladin doesn't require any changes to the abilities of a paladin whatsoever!

The only required change is this: The paladin's alignment must match the alignment of his deity exactly. The paladin must live by this alignment and the ideals and tenets of his deity. If he fails to do this he suffers the penalties.

The antipaladin works the same way, only he has an evil deity. This allows lawful evil and neutral evil paladins.

I haven't come up with anything for a neutral paladin. The explanation is that neutral deities don't see the need for paladins as they're not involved in the good vs. evil conflict. They may be invovled in the chaos vs. law conflict, but this isn't what paladins are about (if you look at their abilities, none have anything to do with law or chaos).

I'm really interested to see if I see more paladins in my games with this new house rule. I also think it makes more sense in Golarion than the old fashioned "all paladins are lawful good" ever did.

As suggested in the SS books themselves, I'm planning to integrate Dawn of the Scarlet Sun after book 2 and at least some of the encounters from Seven Swords of Sin into book 3. I haven't read the last few books of the AP yet, but if they suggest good tie-in modules, I'd like to run those as well. I want to make this campaign as epic and far-reaching as I can.

My question is about the effect this will have on the xp of the PCs. Obviously, if I just throw in these 2 modules and don't do anything to compensate, they'll end up at least 2 levels ahead of where they should be. I don't like this as I would have to alter all future encounters to make them challenging, which will increase xp even more, and it quickly snowballs out of control.

So far the only solution that's come to mind is to switch back and forth between medium and slow advancement as needed, but this is not at all an elegant solution, as it would involve monkeying around with the PCs xp each time I switched.

Have any of you found an elegant and effective way to deal with this issue?

I also considered just running the whole AP with slow advancement, but since the first tie-in isn't until after book 2, I would have to add in a LOT of encounters to keep the PCs where they should be on the advancement track.

I'm planning to run this AP in the near future, and I was hoping to get some words of advice from those of you who have already run it (or are currently running it).

How many points would you recommend I allow to players to build their characters? The standard 15?

Are there any classes or abilities that the group needs to have to be successful in the AP?

Are there any classes that wouldn't be useful or fun to play in the AP?

Any general words of advice as I begin preparation to run this adventure?

Thanks!

I have recently moved to Bothell and finally have an apartment big enough to host in. I'm considering starting a Pathfinder group.

I will most likely run an AP; either Kingmaker or Shattered Star.

Let me know if you're interested.

Hi guys! I've been really wanting to run a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl in Pathfinder.

I'm looking for a module or an AP that involves one or more good dungeons. Preferably, I'm looking for an epic dungeon that the party will adventure through for some time. I'm looking for a dungeon with a story to it, where things make sense (i.e. the dungeon is an ecosystem). The bigger and more involved the dungeon, the better. I would like a dungeon that has interesting traps, and one with something like riddles that involve the players having to think to get past the trap would be awesome.

Any recommendations you guys can give would be awesome, especially if you can tell me what you like about that particular dungeon. I don't want to have to do conversions, so plesae limit it to Pathfinder material.

Thanks!

I am looking for players for the Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path. You can download the Players’ Guide for the AP from Paizo here.

This game will be online. We will use the OpenRPG program and Mumble for voice comms. Both these programs are free and I can help you if you’ve never used them before. You will need a working mic. It doesn’t have to be a $300 mic, but it shouldn’t sound like a bag of cats either. Character sheets will be recorded via Google Docs, so you also need a Google account.

The game will run either every Friday or every other Friday (TBD)* from 12-4pm PST. I’m looking for 4 players, but I will also accept additional players who are willing to be on standby in case someone can’t make a particular session. It’s vital to the survival of the group that there be 4 players every week. If a given player is habitually absent, the next standby player will be able to step in. Unfortunately I can’t have more than 4 players due to the design of the AP and limitations of my Mumble server.

I think part of the fun of playing RPGs is rolling dice, so we will be using dice. Everyone will make their own rolls (unless I need to make roll for you in secret, of course). We'll be using the honor system, and I will have to trust in your integrity not to cheat, and you will have to do the same. If we have problems, we can always use the dice rolling function in OpenRPG, but I'd like to avoid that because it's less fun.

Character Creation

Please refer to the Kingmaker Players’ Guide for advice on races, classes, patron deity, etc. There is a lot of good advice in there that will help you make an effective character that will do well in this campaign. Please read it.

All races and classes in the CRB are open for play. The following additional classes are also available to play: Oracle, Witch, Magus. Any races, feats, spells, archetypes or other options that come from somewhere other than the CRB must be approved ahead of time. No evil alignments are allowed.

Each character begins play with 2 traits. You can only pick one trait from a particular category. If you pick a Campaign trait, it must be one of the traits described in the Kingmaker PG. If you don’t decide to pick a campaign trait, please come up with a reason why your character is called to explore the Stolen Lands as part of your backstory (see the campaign traits for some ideas to get you started). It’s best if your character is from Brevoy. You can get a PDF with the non-Kingmaker traits from Paizo here. They're also in the APG.

Each character will begin play with 1 Hero Point, which can be used as describe in the APG. You can find the Pathfinder rules online here. Characters will be made using the 20 point buy method as described in the CRB. You can also see a chart for the point cost of ability scores here. You can download a printable character sheet from Paizo here.

Please come up with a background for your character that explains why they’re going to be part of the adventure and what they’ve been doing with themselves up to that point. I really urge you to come up with at least one or two hooks that I can use at some point in the future if the muse strikes me. By a hook I mean something from your character’s past that may come into play at some point in the story.

Advice

It’s really ideal if there’s at least one character in the party who is charisma based. You’ll understand why when you read the KM PG. Pay attention to the leadership roles in the Players’ Guide. Once you build your kingdom, each character will fill one of these roles. Ultimately, how good you are in the role will be determined by a particular ability score. The ruler uses charisma. The roles that aren’t filled by PCs will be filled with NPCs you meet along the way. It would be kind of weird and unfulfilling to have the ruler of your kingdom be an NPC.

If you’re interested please reply to this thread. Let me know what type of character you’d like to play. I will then contact you by PM so we can exchange email addresses so I can give you access to the Google Docs character sheet.

Feel free to ask any questions you have as well.

* I’m in school right now, and although I’d like to play every week, we’ll have to play it by ear. I may need every other Friday to catch up on homework. It also depends on what the players want to do (i.e. if everyone prefers every other week, that’s definitely what we’ll do).

I am looking for players for the Pathfinder Kingmaker Adventure Path. You can download the Players’ Guide for the AP from Paizo here.

This game will be online. We will use the OpenRPG program and Mumble for voice comms. Both these programs are free and I can help you if you’ve never used them before. You will need a working mic. It doesn’t have to be a $300 mic, but it shouldn’t sound like a bag of cats either. Character sheets will be recorded via Google Docs, so you also need a Google account.

The game will run either every Friday or every other Friday (TBD)* from 12-4pm PST. I’m looking for 4 players, but I will also accept additional players who are willing to be on standby in case someone can’t make a particular session. It’s vital to the survival of the group that there be 4 players every week. If a given player is habitually absent, the next standby player will be able to step in. Unfortunately I can’t have more than 4 players due to the design of the AP and limitations of my Mumble server.

I think part of the fun of playing RPGs is rolling dice, so we will be using dice. Everyone will make their own rolls (unless I need to make roll for you in secret, of course). We'll be using the honor system, and I will have to trust in your integrity not to cheat, and you will have to do the same. If we have problems, we can always use the dice rolling function in OpenRPG, but I'd like to avoid that because it's less fun.

Character Creation

Please refer to the Kingmaker Players’ Guide for advice on races, classes, patron deity, etc. There is a lot of good advice in there that will help you make an effective character that will do well in this campaign. Please read it.

All races and classes in the CRB are open for play. The following additional classes are also available to play: Oracle, Witch, Magus. Any races, feats, spells, archetypes or other options that come from somewhere other than the CRB must be approved ahead of time. No evil alignments are allowed.

Each character begins play with 2 traits. You can only pick one trait from a particular category. If you pick a Campaign trait, it must be one of the traits described in the Kingmaker PG. If you don’t decide to pick a campaign trait, please come up with a reason why your character is called to explore the Stolen Lands as part of your backstory (see the campaign traits for some ideas to get you started). It’s best if your character is from Brevoy. You can get a PDF with the non-Kingmaker traits from Paizo here. They're also in the APG.

Each character will begin play with 1 Hero Point, which can be used as describe in the APG. You can find the Pathfinder rules online here. Characters will be made using the 20 point buy method as described in the CRB. You can also see a chart for the point cost of ability scores here. You can download a printable character sheet from Paizo here.

Please come up with a background for your character that explains why they’re going to be part of the adventure and what they’ve been doing with themselves up to that point. I really urge you to come up with at least one or two hooks that I can use at some point in the future if the muse strikes me. By a hook I mean something from your character’s past that may come into play at some point in the story.

Advice

It’s really ideal if there’s at least one character in the party who is charisma based. You’ll understand why when you read the KM PG. Pay attention to the leadership roles in the Players’ Guide. Once you build your kingdom, each character will fill one of these roles. Ultimately, how good you are in the role will be determined by a particular ability score. The ruler uses charisma. The roles that aren’t filled by PCs will be filled with NPCs you meet along the way. It would be kind of weird and unfulfilling to have the ruler of your kingdom be an NPC.

If you’re interested please reply to this thread. Let me know what type of character you’d like to play. I will then contact you by PM so we can exchange email addresses so I can give you access to the Google Docs character sheet.

Feel free to ask any questions you have as well.

* I’m in school right now, and although I’d like to play every week, we’ll have to play it by ear. I may need every other Friday to catch up on homework. It also depends on what the players want to do (i.e. if everyone prefers every other week, that’s definitely what we’ll do).

Is there a feat to reduce the -2 penalty for a medium character using a large weapon (eg large bastard sword)?

I found a fun way to show the party their progress in KM exploration.

I got the map pack from Paizo. I then got some pads of Post-It notes. I took the top Post-It off a pad, stuck it on a hex on the map, and folded the sides up so I had a hex-shaped Post-It template. I then put the template on top of the pad and used scissors to cut along the template. I now have a pad of Post-It hexes. I then covered the map with these hexes.

Every time the party explores a new hex, I remove the Post-It hex cover, revealing the map hex by hex.

One issue with this is that it makes the map hard to fold, so I just covered half of the map with the Post-It hexes and leave it folded in half. As each hex is explored, I move that Post-It hex to the back side of the map.

For those of you GMs who use encumbrance (I know not all do), do you apply the rules to mounts as well?

As far as I can tell, by RAW a "light" horse has a strength of 16 while a "heavy" horse has a strength of 20 (Bestiary: Horse, Bestiary: Advanced Template).

With those values, a light horse carrying any more than 76 pounds will be encumbered, while a heavy horse carrying any more than 133 pounds will be encumbered. (CRB 171, Table 7-4).

As a horse has a base speed of 50, its speed while encumbered would be 35 feet (CRB 170, Table under Armor and Encumbrance for Other Base Speeds).

This means that with the possible exceptions of a light horse carrying a small unarmored character, or a heavy horse carrying a very light and un-armored character, horses carrying riders would be considered encumbered and would move at the lower speed.

I'm curious how many of you use these rules, as every game I can remember had mounted horses traveling at 50.

What do you think about a house rule where you use a Fortitude save to roll to stabilize instead of Constitution?

My thought was to make it easier for higher level characters to stabilize than lower level, and make it easier for those classes with good fortitude saves.

I haven't run a lot of Pathfinder yet, so I'm going to wait to have more experience with the lethality of the system as is. I actually thought this was how the system worked at first, and I was surprised when I learned it's a con check and not a fort save.

What do you think?

If you're one of my players, stay out! :)

It looks likely that I will only have 3 players for my KingMaker campaign. The characters are an Illusionist, an Animal Oracle with a horse companion, and a Barbarian. I've had them make their characters with a 20 point buy.

For those of you with experience running this AP, what adjustments do you think I'll need to make in the first chapter, Stolen Land?

Right now my thought is to advise the party to avoid harder undertakings in the beginning (like taking on the bandit camp) until they can gain some experience and levels by exploring and doing some of the easier quests. Since there are three characters instead of four, they should level a little more quickly than the AP intends. Do you think this party will be able to handle the encounters as is, if they focus on easier things until they gain a level or two?

I've also thought that I'll monitor their progress, and if they really seem to be struggling, I could help them by providing a magic item or two, or giving them some easier random encounters to allow them to level.

What are your thoughts? I'd really like to avoid having to doctor every single encounter if possible, so if something simple would work, like letting the party get a level ahead, or handing out a few minor magic items, that would be preferable.

Thanks in advance for your input.

The second book of KingMaker has some information on Erastil that some may find objectionable. I know I do, and I anticipate that some of my players will as well. After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to make a few small changes.

Here is the section from the book:

Old Deadeye is set in his ways and doesn’t take well to those who challenge his opinions or upset how things work. He believes the strength of a man’s will makes him the center of a household, and while women can be strong, they should defer to and support their husbands, as their role is to look after the house and raise strong children (consequently, there are few female priests in his church). Independent-minded women, he believes, can be disruptive to communities, and it is best to marry them off quickly so their duties as wife and mother command their attention. Children should honor their parents and know when it is time to work or time to play. He dislikes the chaos and trouble that adventurers bring, and while they may have their uses when monsters come sniffing about, it is best if adventurers take care of the problem quickly, receive a meal and a place to sleep, then move on before their wanderlust catches on in otherwise good families. His androcentric beliefs are unusual given his religion’s intermediate role between the Green Faith (which is largely egalitarian) and modern faiths (which have a mix of male and female deities).

I personally find it hard to accept that any deity (or at least a good one) would be so close-minded. I also think that, even in a world where priests can commune with their deities, it is difficult for mortals to know and understand the mind of a god. The above, therefore, is more an interpretation of Erastil's doctrine as opposed to words from the god's mouth. It represents the beliefs of a very traditional and conservative tradition within the church. However, much like real world religions, not everyone of a particular religion thinks and believes the same way.

So here's my spin on what Erastil stands for. He is a deity of family. He looks at it all from a more biological perspective. Ultimately, his desire is for every person, whether male or female, to eventually marry and raise a family. Once a couple does this, their first priority should be to the family. As long as the children's needs are met, it's really not worth the god's time to concern himself with what roles the husband and wife each play. What is most important is that the couple work together as a team to protect the family and provide for the family's needs.

Erastil is not a fan of adventurers, but this is as much directed at men as women. The question is not one of gender, but rather that one should be "settling down" and raising a family by a certain point in one's life. Adventuring when young is fine, but eventually the time comes to "grow up". Although most of Erastil's clergy does marry, the god does acknowledge that some may have to forego marriage (at least temporarily) in order to provide for the safety and well-being of the community. In that vein it is not uncommon for priests and priestesses of Erastil to serve their communities by adventuring, protecting, etc. Rather than being seen as shirking one's duties to raise a family, this is seen by Erastil as a sacrifice made by an individual to benefit the community.

Because of all this, there are more female clerics than stated above. The selection from the book represent the view point of the most conservative elements in the church, but it is changing. It is due to this change--the more enlightened attitudes of recent generations, the more liberal elements--that female clerics are becoming more common in recent generations. This all has a snowball effect--a more liberal attitude leads to more female clerics, more female clerics leads to a yet more liberal attitude.

Currently, it has gotten to the point where the conservative element has become a minority and is seen as a group of narrow-minded people stuck in the past by the bulk of the followers of Erastil. As in the real world, though, the holders of power do not give it up easily, even when the majority of people disagree with them.

A cleric of Erastil does not have to worry about falling out of favor with the god for adventuring (or not having kids) as long as she's serving others so that they may raise their families in peace. She may, however, sometimes come into conflict with the more conservative elements. This can be a great opportunity for roleplay as she would be a champion for the more open-minded people who are tired of such rigid and outdated philosophies.

I've been debating whether or not to get the poster map folio for KM. To those of you who got it, did you find yourself using it a lot?

I'm going to start running this AP in a few weeks. I've been going through the first book and looking for rules that I need to review before beginning. I thought it might be helpful to myself and others to post what I've come up with. If you see anything missing here, please post to the thread, along with annotations if you've found them. :)

Weather

Swimming, Drowning, Crossing a River (CRB 108, 432)

Mounted Combat

Perception, Stealth, Encounter Distance

Getting Lost (CRB 424)

More to come I'm sure!

Quick question. When reading the stats for Elven Chain and armor made from mithral, do these stats include the -1 armor check penalty for being a masterwork item? Or are these stats for a non-masterwork suit of elven chain or mithral armor?

I've read on these forums that Paizo modules and AP's assume a 20 point buy for ability scores. I was wondering what impact having a 25 point buy would have? Would it make enough of a difference that you'd have to rebalance encounters if you're using a module or AP?

Hello friends! I am wanting to give my fiancee an intro into Pathfinder and roleplaying. She's never played a tabletop rpg before.

I'm looking for a module or scenario for characters starting level 1-3. Preferably one that's a "one shot", or at least can be completed in a maximum of 2-3 gaming sessions.

I'm looking for a great adventure that will showcase this hobby.

What would you recommend and why?

Thank you!

Another thread got me thinking of all this again. I had some real issues when reading about travelling to and from a plane with a timeless quality in the GMG.

From the PRD:

Timeless: On planes with this trait, time still passes, but the effects of time are diminished. How the timeless trait affects certain activities or conditions such as hunger, thirst, aging, the effects of poison, and healing varies from plane to plane. The danger of a timeless plane is that once an individual leaves such a plane for one where time flows normally, conditions such as hunger and aging occur retroactively. If a plane is timeless with respect to magic, any spell cast with a noninstantaneous duration is permanent until dispelled.

I have a real problem with the sentence in bold. The whole concept assumes that there is a definite, universal time, when in reality, time flows at different rates in different places in our own galaxy. Even here on Earth, time flows in different rates in different places.

[This is, for instance, how the GPS system works. Time flows a little bit more quickly for the gps satellites in orbit than it does on the surface because the force of gravity is weaker in orbit. Effectively, the stronger the force of gravity, the more slowly time flows. The satellites are also traveling at a high velocity, which also slows the flow of time. The system measures this small difference and uses it to triangulate your position on earth.]

The system, as it is in the book, doesn't make any sense. If I ever have players go into a timeless realm, time will simply resume when they leave that realm, at whatever rate time flows at the realm they enter.

Consider:

Our heroes leave Golarion (prime material plane, "normal" time). We'll call it Plane A.

They enter a timeless plane, let's call it Plane B. They remain there for "3 years". Okay, right here there's already a problem. How can you say they remain there for three years, when by definition, the plane is timeless--there's no such thing as three years. I suppose what we're really saying is they are gone for 3 years on their original plane - Plane A.

The heroes now leave Plane B, but they don't return to Plane A, rather they go to yet another plane, Plane C, that has Flowing Time, where time goes faster than their home plane of Plane A. They stay on this plane for a week, but that equals a year on Plane A. They then return to Plane A.

Now, I understand the purpose of keeping track of the time that has passed on Plane A while all this has been going on. We're assuming eventually the heroes will return to Plane A, and we'll need to know how much time has passed while they're were gone. (In this example, when they return to Plane A, they'll find that 4 years have passed.)

My problem is in saying that the time spent on the timeless plane "catches up with them" when they leave it. It just doesn't make any sense. The plane is timeless, so no time passed while they were on that plane, by definition. To say that time did pass, even though it seemed not to, is to assume that there is a static reality to time in the universe, which simply is not the case. Time is fluid and flows and different rates in different places.

Instead of saying time "catches up", I think it would be much more elegant, and realistic, to say that no time has passed while they were on the timeless plane. They essentially leave the plane at the same time they entered it. [You could just as easily say they arrive at their home plane at a completely random time, which is equally valid, just messier. They could get home BEFORE they left as easily as they could get home after.]

I think it would also make more sense to say that any magic that is anything other than an instantaneous effect or permanent (any spell with a duration) simply ends whenever you enter or leave a timeless plane. This makes a lot more sense than trying to shoehorn in a static universal time that simply doesn't exist.

Any thoughts on this?

Do luck bonuses stack with other luck bonuses, and do natural armor bonuses stack with other natural armor bonuses in Pathfinder?

Maybe you all can help me make a decision. :) I'm converting to Pathfinder from 3.5, so I'm trying to slowly replace my shelf full of 3.5 books with Pathfinder books. I both play and GM. So far, I have the Core Rulebook and the AP book The Haunting of Harrowstone.

If I want to focus on playing, what should I get next? I'm thinking the Advanced Player's Guide.

If I want to focus on GM'ing, what should I get next? I'm thinking either the Boxed Set (for the battle mat and pawns) or the Inner Sea World Guide.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

I'm thinking specifically the +1 morale bonus to hit from the cleric spell Bless and the +1 morale bonus to hit and damage from the Bard ability Inspire Courage. Do they stack?

Thanks!

I see in the core book that you can fight defensively as either a standard or full round action. For each you get a -4 penalty to your attack roll and a +2 bonus to AC. (pages 184, 187). The bonuses are the same for the standard action and full round action.

I seem to remember in 3.5 there was another option for defense. I believe it was called full defense, or something like that. This was where you could do nothing in the round except try not to get hit, and it gave you a higher bonus to AC that fighting defensively, but you couldn't take any attacks.

Has this been removed from Pathfinder, or is it in the book somewhere, and I just can't find it?

Also, when fighting defensively, do you have to be armed? If I have a shield and no weapon, can I fight defensively (and make no attacks)? If I'm completely unarmed, can I fight defensively?

Thanks!

I've noticed in some of the later supplements that give additional mysteries for oracles, they will give the patron deities of those mysteries. However, I can't find this information for the original mysteries described in the APG. Is this information out there somewhere? Can someone tell me where to find it?

Specifically, what are the patron deities in Golarion for the original APG oracle mysteries (such as life, flame, heavens, etc.).

I was wondering if we're allowed to play a cleric who follows a concept instead of a deity in PFS. It says you can do this in the core book, but says to discuss it with the GM.

If we can, are there any limitations to the domains we can choose?

I love forums, but eventually most of them leave a bad taste in my mouth, and I have to leave. I have to hand it to Paizo and the moderators: these are some of the most pleasant forums I've used. Great job keeping the troll away. I've known from day one that I liked these boards because people treat each other like human beings here.

I just realized a second big reason I love these forums:

No signatures!!! Thank you, thank you Paizo! I just wanted to say something because I'm sure you get the occasional request to add signatures. All you have to do is go to any forum that allows them and see how and why they'll ruin these beautiful boards as you do. Even on forums that limit the size of the signatures, it's amazing how obnoxious people can still be with them.

Kudos guys!

Does the Spirit Boost revelation boost the Channel revelation of a Life Oracle (Channel lets an oracle channel energy as a cleric)?

The book says:

Spirit Boost (Su): Whenever your healing spells heal a target up to its maximum hit points, any excess points persist for 1 round per level as temporary hit points (up to a maximum number of temporary hit points equal to your oracle level).

I'm guessing it wouldn't boost the channeling, as channel is a supernatural ability and not a spell. Is this correct?

I live in Edmonds, WA, and I'm looking to find people for a Pathfinder group. I am willing to GM, or I am willing to play if there's already a group out there that needs another player.

If you're interested or would like to discuss this further with me, please send me a pm here on the boards or email me at lexstarwalker[at]gmail [dot]com.

The Core Rulebook states:

At 1st level, a bard can use his performance to cause one or more creatures to become fascinated with him. Each creature to be fascinated must be within 90 feet, able to see and hear the bard, and capable of paying attention to him. The bard must also be able to see the creatures affected. The distraction of a nearby combat or other dangers prevents the ability from working. For every three levels a bard has attained beyond 1st, he can target one additional creature with this ability.

So how many can I fascinate at first level? Seems to be a sentence missing here, or there is an error in the first sentence. I would assume only one creature at first level, however it specifically says "one or more creatures" "at 1st level". But then it doesn't tell you exactly how many creatures.

There's a nice flute piece on Dead Can Dance's album Toward the Within. It's called Piece for Solo Flute. It's track 5.

It's a beautiful, mournful piece, and it's nice because it's a flute only, no other instrumentation. It has more the sound of a Native American flute (wood) as opposed to a flute you'd hear in an orchestra (silver), which is more appropriate to the setting.

The only caveat is that it's a live performance, so there's some clapping and such at the very end of the piece, so you may want to turn it down at the very end if you listen to the whole thing.

You can listen to it here.

Throughout the many iterations of D&D and now Pathfinder, I've been perplexed by the lack of bonuses to 0 level spells for casters with a high primary attribute (int, wis, cha). I first started running D&D with 2nd edition, when every DM I knew had a list of house rules as long as your arm, so I just ruled that you got a number of bonus 0 level spells equal to the number of bonus 1st level spells you got. Never seemed to really matter one way or the other.

When 3.0 came out, and then 3.5, I found the system tight enough that I didn't find any real need to have any house rules, except for the bonus 0 level spells. I kept them in because I didn't see any real reason NOT to. They're 0 level spells, it's not like they're going to unbalance the game.

Now I'm getting ready to run Pathfinder, and I see the same thing--no 0 level bonus spells. I really like that in pathfinder a wizard, for instance, can cast each 0 level spell prepared as many times per day as she wants. That's great. But I find myself wondering why casters still don't get bonus 0 level spells per day for their high ability score.

I've never seen a player use a 0 level spell to any effect in a combat situation. Most of my wizards in the past have merely used them to light camp fires. So it doesn't seem like giving them a bonus spell for their 18 intelligence will make any difference.

And yet, for all these, years, there have been no 0 level bonus spells. It occurs to me there must be a reason. Otherwise, why would the writers and developers not just give those bonus spells, if only for chart symmetry?

What am I missing here? What is the reasoning behind not giving bonus spells at 0 level?

(sorry this is rambling, I'm on my 3rd Belgian tripel...)

Hello everyone! I've newly discovered Pathfinder, and I can't wait to try it. I've been playing D&D since 1st edition, and although I really like 3.5, it looks like Pathfinder has made some much-needed improvements.

My fiancee has never roleplayed before, so I'm going to start her out with Pathfinder. I don't have a lot of time to write adventures right now, so I'm thinking about running one of the Adventure Paths. I've been looking them over, and I really like Second Darkness and Kingmaker, but they all look good.

What's your favorite Adventure Path and why?

Are any of them more doable for a small group (1-2 players) than the others?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

Hello everyone! I'm new to Pathfinder, and new to these forums. I'm really impressed with what I've seen so far in the Pathfinder RPG and Paizo as a company. I especially think the Adventure Paths are brilliant in concept and execution.

I just got the core book of the PFRPG, and I'm a little overwhelmed with the number of PF supplements out there. I'm wanting to use the PF Campaign setting. I apologize if this question has been asked (a 100 times) before, but I've been unable to find the answer.

Is there somewhere on the site where I can see what Paizo products have been published since the release of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook and/or are completely compatible with the Pathfinder game system without any kind of conversion?

Thanks!