The bonanza will be the last published Society adventure for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. From May, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society will join the Pathfinder Society (first edition) as a legacy program still available for convention support, but for which we will no longer produce new content.
Do we know if the last three-plus chapters of the Year of Reborn Strife will be published, or is that being discontinued after three books?
Since my wife and I got the Core Set and CotCT during the pandemic (and played it every night for months), we haven't shared it with out normal tabletop group yet. So, we still have months -- if not years -- of content to go through with them. But still, I am really kind of bummed out by this.
I will continue playing and tinkering with the game (shameless plug to the first two books of The Year of Shroud and Scale), but I have some suggestions about how Paizo and the community may want to move forward. I'm sure some of this has already been done, and if so, I hope someone will point me in the right direction:
1. Online shop discounts:
If you know where to look, there is still a lot of first-edition content in the Paizo shop, with old five seasons of Society play, class decks, expansion decks, et al., in addition to the original adventure paths. In the process of making this a legacy product, I'd like to see Paizo put most (if not all) of these old products on sale. The class decks provide a lot of expansion on the Boon side of things, and the old Society paths will provide more than 100 scenarios. Making it much easier for the community to access these might make it easier to take the blow of losing any hope for new products.
2. Distinct conversion guides:
This would almost certainly be a community project, and it may already be done. But to make it easier for new (Core Set) players to get into older content, it might be helpful to have title-by-title conversion guides for the best way to play old modules with new cards. Basically, if you want to pick up Season of the Shackles, what rules updates to do you need to be aware of, what cards will you need to have to play it, how would Core Set characters need to be adapted to playing it. I'm sure there would be a lot of crossover from scenario to scenario, but there are also a lot of rules changes over the years that new players won't be aware of.
3. Expanded homebrew permissions:
If Drivethrucards is still going to be allowing users to create PACG cards, I think it would be a show of good faith for Paizo to allow players to create cards from the old APs, so that those cards could be used in the corresponding Society play Seasons. Having not played any of the original Seasons, I don't know how much crossover there is, but if I could buy a $15 pack of cards from Drivethrucards that would let me give Paizo $40 or $50 to pick of the PDFs for a Society Season, I think everyone wins.
In addition, I would be curious to see if Paizo would now allow players to create homebrew content from published adventure paths. I started tinkering with a PACG adaptation of Jade Regent, before being told that was a strict no-no. :)
4. Homebrew initiative:
Game writing is hard. But, I know some people have been writing and sharing their own content for the game. If you've ever had the idea that there is a story that you'd like to tell with the game, now might be the best time. (I've gone through and categorized a lot of the Location and Story Bane cards from the Core Set and CofCT, if anyone wants to jumpstart their homebrew planning.
5. Centralized location for all content, including homebrews:
Again, this is something that may have been done already, and I just don't know about it. As far as I know, there are at least three major PACG communities, with varying degrees of activity and support: the Paizo forums, the Org Play Online Discord server, and r/Pathfinder_ACG. Each seems have have bits and pieces of what's available, between the old APs, Society Play, Paizo one-shots, homebrew one-shots and and longer homebrew campaigns. I think it could be very helpful for there to be a central repository of what all exists for the game, broken down by where to get it, what you need to play it, what it costs, etc. I am sure there is a ton of stuff out there that I'm missing, and would love to pick up to continue my PACG experience. Having a central database like this might also stoke the interest of some people to start working on that homebrew they've been thinking about, and help us create more content as a community.
Sorry to be so long-winded, but this game has been important to my wife and me over the past year, when we couldn't get our normal group of silly friends around a table for most of Sunday to play Pathfinder. The other shoe dropping doesn't really surprise me, but it does sadden me, and I'd like to see the community do what it can to keep the game alive.
The ones playable at any level are, in my mind, especially precious. I know level 6 of an AP seems to go by fast. I'm often left thinking, "Wait! I just got these amazing level six cards, and I want to play more!")
That's a really interesting idea. I'm slowly working my way through Book 3 of my homebrew (I think the link to Book 1 is on here somewhere), but the idea of creating new high-level content... Call is 6+ or 7+ ... Hmm... That could be the next project (after I finish four more books of this one...)
Hey, folks. Just started tinkering with a L1-L6 homebrew (my last attempt ran seriously afoul of Paizo's CUP; mia culpa). The storybook is still very rough (cleaning that up will be the last thing I do), but I'm curious about how the thing plays.
Posted the first scenario here (I'll probably keep adding to the same file, or at least link from it). Bang on it, comment, have fun. Let me know what you think. And if anybody wants to play Thargrap, the Blood God summoner, in this, so much the better.
Yes, please. Looks like a fun character, and I'd love to see more.
Had to put this on a single sheet for our next home playthrough of Rotting Ruin. Anybody else is welcome to use it, too. (Hope that's OK with the designers.)
Single sheet, portrait and landscape (cards are slightly bigger on landscape, for those of us with bad eyes).
Hey, folks. I played the first few scenarios of a borrowed Rise of the Runelords back in the day, but never felt like I had the money and room to assemble everything needed to play the original APs. I recently got the Core Set and Crimson Throne, and my wife and I are both loving it. I came here to check out who was doing homebrew scenarios, and ... well, kind of ran into crickets.
So, I've started trying to adapt one of my old tabletop campaigns (Jade Regent), seeing how far I could go using just the Core Set while keeping as true to the published AP as possible. I've got the card structures for the first book (The Brinewall Legacy) posted in a Google doc, linked below. I don't have any flavor text written yet*, but I'd welcome feedback from anybody who wants to get in and run a few new scenarios and see how they feel. I've turned on comments, so feel free to leave me a note here or on the doc itself and let me know what you think. Thanks.
I went a slightly different way with a synth I played when the class was new. Not saying it's the best play, but it was a beast.
Half-elf for the extra points. By 12th level, that makes your eidolon effectively 14th. Any feat that you don't have to have, into Extra Evolutions. Three more points and your eidolon is now effectively 17th, five levels above the rest of the party.
Serpent form, magic flight, large (huge, if you can spare the points), with the highest AC in the party. One bite, one sting, take your Multiattack freebie on your bite. STR poison on the sting, grab and CON poison on the bite, constrict just for fun. Improved Natural Armor every time you can. I was able to convince my DM that grab did more than enough to fulfil the requirements for Improved Grapple, so by end-game he looked like this:
1: Extra Evolution
3: Power Attack
5: Improved Grapple
7: Extra Evolution
9: Greater Grapple
11: Extra Evolution
13: Improved Crit: Bite
So, by 14th level, the large flying snake would sting for 1d4 STR damage, bite for 1d4 CON damage, grab and constrict. If you're feeling lucky, drop as a free, bite again, grab again, constrict again. Also, unless it's been errated, constrict does the same damage as the attack that used grab, so if you critted on the bite and make your grapple check (now at +8, from grab and Greater Grapple), you get the crit damage as bonus damage. Once you have the grapple, you have two checks to do damage (bite and sting, which keep doing poison damage every round).
Barkskin at 140 minutes a casting, Greater Invisibility, Evolution Surge to give you SR 25... It was a lot of fun to play, but it's really easy to see what it got banned from PFS play.
So, I'd like to throw out a potential build for a Skulls and Shackles campaign and, to make life as difficult as possible, I've decided to take a run at a halfling mouser (swashbuckler archetype). Because, (A.) it's thematic, and (B.) I've been trying for a few years to really find a place halflings work, and this seems to be as good as any.
In looking at the class, and building it out to about 15th level, I began to see that everything after Hamstring at Level 7 was seriously diminishing returns. You get non-multiplying precision damage, a few free feats and ... nothing else really special. So, I'm looking at Mouser 7/Fighter (Weapon Master or Freehand Fighter) 8. Considering that he's never going to do great damage, no matter how he's spec'ed, I am tinkering with Golarian's smallest melee battlefield controler. With Nimble, buckler, high DEX and Combat Expertise, it should be possible for him to keep his AC up with 20 plus twice level.
We're doing a bit of an overpowered stat roll that left me (after racial mods) with 18s in DEX and CHA, so I left off Extra Panache (which had initially been my first feat). I think four at the start should be enough. So, here goes:
1st: Step Up. I haven't found it in print, but the PFSRD states that anything *within* 5 feet is considered adjacent, which means an halfling who is underfoot is adjacent while in the same square. Step Up should allow you to shift with your foe and stay underfoot, without blowing another panache.
3rd: Combat Expertise. Threatening Defender trait also drops the to-hit penalty by 1.
4th (bonus): Agile Maneuvers. DEX instead of STR on CMB. Really pops on Hamstring.
5th: Outflank *or* Combat Reflexes. Outflank is nice, if everybody else buys in. Otherwise, it's a wasted feat. When it pops, it pops a lot.
7th: Improved Disarm. Intentionally not going with Improved Dirty Trick here, since Hamstring does not draw AoOs, and adds a lot of flexibility to the build.
Fighter from here down.
7/1 (bonus): Improved Dirty Trick.
7/2: Critical Focus. Required for Critical feats.
7/2 (bonus): Greater Dirty Trick. Hamstring now becomes 1d4 rounds, plus 1 round for each 5 points by which you beat CMD.
7/4: Signature Deed: Underfoot Assault. Now panache-free.
7/4 (bonus): Bleeding Critical. 2d6 stacking bleed damage.
7/6: Combat Reflexes, if not taken at 5. Otherwise, lunge.
7/6 (bonus): Stand Still. Keep a foe from moving away from you, if you're underfoot.
7/8: Blinding Critical. Even at 15th level, this is just brutal for a high-crit range weapon, because a Fort save to reduce to Dazed for 1d4 rounds. So, they are blinded, or just can't do anything for 1d4 rounds.
7/8 (bonus): Critical Mastery. Swashbuckler levels are considered fighter levels, so he adds bleeding and blinding together.
I would normally find room for Iron Will/Improved IW on any melee build, but he'll have four uses of Charmed Life before he switches classes. WF, WS, GWS are nice, and unlike precision, the damage stacks on criticals, but I felt the disarm/greater dirty trick direction was a lot more bang for the buck, over three feats for +4 damage. If Outflank at L5, then Stand Still doesn't come online until 13. Is it worth trying to move it higher, considering I'd need Combat Reflexes first?
The other big question I'm considering is which fighter archetype to switch to. Weapon Master will allow two bumps to weapon training (10th and 14th) and the chance to reroll once per day. Free-hand gives +2 to AC by 13th level, but only one bump to weapon training. Both give the same bonus to disarm (ignoring feinting and sundering). Or, is there another fighter type I should be considering?
A couple of math points, and then some general thoughts.
To the poster who put in the work to add up the major Inner Sea settlements: good work. But, the gazetteer does cover just about every place that could cause a major population swing.
Remember, 10,000 people is a decent size town in this world. With "records" for about 4.6M in settlements, we could add another 40 towns of 10K to come up to an even five million. You estimate that Inner Sea covers roughly about 1/8th of the land mass (which I think is, if not completely accurate, a good working number). Let's assume that all of the major realms are as dense with people (essentially, playable races) as Inner Sea (my hunch is that they are not, but it makes the math easier). Five millions time eight is 40 million. That's still short of two billion by a factor of 50 (40M = 40,000,000; 2B = 2,000,000,000. Taking 7 zeros from each side, because I still do math like a eight-year-old, leaves us with 200/4, or 50).
So, based on what we see in the published material, the only way for the world population to be over 2B is for there to be 50 times more creatures with language -- if language is what we are using as our definition of population -- than there are of the total of all of the playable-class races, which are all counted in the gazetteer write-ups (hell, there are discrete figures for tengus, samsarans and kitsune in the first Tien city south of the Wall of Heaven, in Jade Regent).
Now, for the side of the argument that goes "yeah, but there are a ton of goblins, and orcs, and giants and rainbow-pooping unicorns." Actually, there aren't. All of those critters come with "organization" write-ups in the bestiaries, or at d20pfsrd.com. Goblin tribe sizes top out at "17+, with 100% noncombatants." Even if it is a massive goblin tribe, with 50 warriors and 50 more wives/kiddies, that's still only 100, and they would be in a location secure from other tribes (and with all these adventures running around, how many goblins are really left, anyway?). Orcs are "30–100 plus 150% noncombatants," so max of about 250. Hill giants (I was looking for the lowest CR, which should reasonably have the highest numbers, but most of the giant organization numbers are the same) are "13–30 plus 35% noncombatant," and would control a big swath of land.
The same kind of thing applies to the subterranean realms. The largest settlement (that I could find) mentioned in the dwarf sourcebook is Highhelm, at less than 40,000 people; the actual underground stuff is much smaller. The Darkland capital of the drow is 55,000, and only one or two other settlements in the Darkland are more than 10,000. Those are big cities in-world, but they don't do much toward getting you to two billion.
The question of tiny is still an issues, but if we are basing population on intelligence (use of language), wouldn't you be looking at almost exclusively fey and native outsiders? And I don't think there have ever been that many of them hanging around.
Interesting. Other people know a lot more about the world than I do, but the 2-to-3 billion figure seems incredibly high. How many cities in Golarion have more than, say 200,000 total residents? Two in all of the Inner Sea, two in all of the Dragon Empire. Kalsgard is the biggest city in the Land of the Linnorn Kings, and it's less than 75k. (Running Jade Regent, so those are from the sources I have at hand.) Is there a single city (humanoid, native outsider, anything) of more than half a million?
If it's even vaguely based on Earth (a Goldilocks planet, third from the sun, etc.), consider that humans didn't top 1 billion until the 19th century, and didn't top 2 billion until the 20th. Pre-Black Death world population was less that half a billion.
I get the argument of adding in essentially everything that has a language into that count, but very few non-humanoids have large-enough collectives to really shift that number. Do giants have the resources to maintain population centers? Do goblins have the structure/bureaucracy?
(Earth pop data: http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/unit/text.php?unit=5&secNum=4)
Is the population of Golarion essentially like the right side of a normal curve (bell graph), if you break it down by level, with each level representing a standard deviation? IE, the largest part of the population is level 0/1, and each level above the represents a predictably smaller segment of the population.
Add to that thought: What is the world population of Golarion? If we can assume the first and know the second, can we then determine how many people of a certain level are alive on the planet at any given time?
I am playing a duergar tetori in a campaign that may run to near 20th level. I am currently sixth level, with a strong stat array, having already taken Crane Style and Crane Wing (Riposte is slated for Level 11).
Monk underpowered/tetori a one-trick pony/why not be X/yada yada. Now, with that out of the way, here is my question. I'm looking for a good fighting AC that does not require in-combat buffing time. The caveat is that STR/grappling are more important to this character than AC, so money spent on Amulets of Mighty Fists trumps Amulets of Natural Armor, STR items trump DEX items, etc. Using standard wealth by level for the 10th-level build; I didn't worry about money on the very speculative 20th-level build.
So, what am I missing that would be level-appropriate, not prohibitively expensive and would not take up combat rounds?
10th LEVEL 10
DEX (12+2 item) 2 DEX (6000 gp rider on a +4 STR belt)
WIS (16+4 item) 5 Dodge
Monk +2 2 Dodge
Dodge 1 Dodge
Fighting Def 4 Dodge (Crane Style plus 3 ranks in Acro)
Barkskin 4 Nat (100 minutes per 1 ki, qinggong substitution)
Mage Armor 4 Armor (1 hour wand/10 hours casting)
Ioun: DustyRose 1 Insight
Ring of Pro +1 1 Deflection
1) let them try it and if they die, lesson learned.
(I introduced the NPC right before they were going to TPK 20 minutes into the 1st game)
This is probably the "right" answer, but this isn't going to fun for anyone, especially you.
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2) have one of them play a second character that is a healer (not fair to the others if only one, and all of them would require beefing up the adventure. The newest player would be very lost running 2 characters)
This can work if someone actively wants to do it, and if no one objects. Of the five options you listed, I think this is probably the best, if all of your players are up for it.
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3) Somehow convince my wife to play (ain't never gonna happen).
"Honey, can you come play the nurturing, healing type for my friends? No, you don't need to bring the frying pan."
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4) Allow gish characters (might unbalance things, and not really sure how gish works)
I ran a group of three gestalts through a 3.5 conversion of the original Temple of Elemental Evil. Two of them had a blast, and when I could keep up and keep everything balanced, I had fun. But gestalts can get out of hand *very* quickly, and, since it's still only three bodies and three actions per round, a few bad rolls can still leave you with a TPK.
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5) Suck it up and run the cleric for them. (seems the best bet)
From the way you write it, it doesn't sound like something you want to do. Remember, the game is for you to have fun too. If you don't like the idea of running a healbot, find another way to do it.
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Anything i'm missing that might help..
The first thing that came to mind is that a rogue is a healer class. Every rogue (IMHO) should keep UMD maxed out, and that opens up a lot of wand use. You can supplement this with potions at lower levels, or perhaps a trinket for the rogue (or the Sorc, if he's taking UMD), that eases the UMD checks for wands. You can keep him from abusing this by just deciding what wands he can and cannot get as the adventure goes along.
Another thing that might be interesting (but would require a *big* change in mindset) would be to go to a Star Wars d20-esque "vitality point" system. There is an interesting description here (under "Vitality, Health, and Healing") about how this would work in Pathfinder. I'm starting in this guy's ultra-low-magic game on Sunday, and I'm very curious to see how it works.
How about an elf barbarian who's best stat is Intelligence?
I've always wanted to do something similar but reflavor the rage as a state of flow. Yes that is a real psychological phenomenon.
OK, this is just a little scary. I've now had flow come up in a textbook and three different conversations (one sober, one drunk, one online) in the past four days...
I'm still looking for a GM who will let me stretch RAW a little bit and play a halfling paladin of a chaotic good god. Basically, a character who is, by nature and compunction, chaotic, who must make conscious choices every step of the way to act in a lawful manner (as opposed to the general "I AM LAWFUL" boilerplate manner that most people, including myself, play paladins). Put him on a riding dog mount with a bow? Little dude could be a heck of a lot of fun.
I can't seem to get the direct email link to work, so if you're still looking for another player (yes, it *has* only been about seven hours since I last posted ... why do you ask?), email me directly and I'll send you a character sketch and a stat box. chopper992@gmail
Also, I may have completely flaked while I was reading this, but what method of ability generation are you using? Point-buy (if so, how much), array, rolling?
I haven't tinkered with OpenRPG yet (I'm opening it as we speak), but I'm jonesing to get back into a game, and I'm in a mood to test out PF's big changes to the ranged rules from 3.5 (I've played a paladin in a short-lived PF campaign, but I'm very curious about going straight fighter as a ranged combatant).
If you've got room for a human archer (fighter), I'd love to join. I can get you a stat block and write-up in the morning.
Also, your health system sounds very similar to that used in Star Wars d20. I've never thought about using it for a D&D-esque setting, but I'm beginning to think that it could work really well.
The God may not have any disdain for the law, but he certainly doesn't woreship the law. This is a deity who in his mortal life would spend a lot of time drinking and whilst drunk agreed to the test of Starstone, but I'm not bashing him, I think he's a pretty cool deity.
It's definantly a interesting concept and if I was softer I'd allow it, however like a Cleric, Paladins gain their spells and abilities from their deity. Plus I'm sure Iomedae wouldn't appreciate Cayden bestowing powers onto a paladin. Inquisitor sounds a little bit more like the way you're going though.
Not a problem at all. This little guy will go back into the cupboard, and I'll pull him out at some point in the future. I may submit another idea before that night's done, but for now, I'm going drinking. If my next post is unintelligible, you'll know why.
I think I see where you're getting at, but I have to dissagree about there being no descriptions of him being unlawful: Cayden Cailean He's Chaotic in nature and Chaos doesn't nessacerilly mean you're going to go about burning buildings or giving the finger to the members of the watch or something.
Paladins are still restricted with Lawful Good alignment, only in 4th edition (As far as I am aware) you can get a Paladin of a different alignment which is True Neutral. I believe Paladins, like Clerics, can only have a deity with an alignment one step away from their deity and Cayden Cailean is 2 steps.
Completely viable and valid interpretation; there is actually another thread on here that quickly degenerated into a flame war about that very subject (paladins of non-lawful good gods). My point on Cayden is that I don't see him having any * disdain* for lawful as a concept; ie, he doesn't go out of his way to tear down lawful behavior, so much as he just does his own thing and allows others to do theirs.
This *would be* outside of the standard interpretations of the rules, but if the character is played as lawful good, and does his best to uphold his god (by doing what is right, and doing what he wants to do, which in this character's case would be striving to act like a paladin), is that enough for a disciple of Cayden?
This may be way off base, but what's the game if you can't have a little fun with it.
** spoiler omitted **...
Cayden Cailean is Chaotic Good and Paladins are Lawful Good.
I'm well-aware. Halflings also tend toward chaos racially. That's what I think would be interesting about this little guy. He wants to be a paladin in a place (Korvosa) and for a god (Cayden) that don't necessarily place any value on law. Where as other paladins are usually played with a boilerplate of "I AM LAWFUL," Alf must make conscious decisions along the way to go against his nature to act in a true and lawful manner.
This also comes down to a way that I read the rules and the descriptions of Cayden that other people may not agree with. The paladin's code of conduct has been toned down dramatically from the AD&D days, in regards to the lawful aspect. Now, a paladin is required to respect legitimate authority (in Korvosa, this, as written, means that the paladin should not interfere with the workings of the city government, even if they are not always 100% above board, as long as they are not supporting evil), act with honor, help those in need and punish those who harm the innocent. There isn't anything in there that, in my mind, goes counter to how Cayden is written. The Drunken God does what he chooses, but I haven't found any descriptions of him in which he actively moves against "lawful" as a concept, if that makes sense. That's why I think a paladin of Cayden could work.
If you agree that it's plausible, I think this could be a really fun character from a role-playing perspective (even though he is seriously gimped until about level five, when he gets his mount and deadly aim) and I'd love to join the game. If not, it's your game, and have great fun with it.
I've seen a few threads that danced close to this topic, but I haven't found one that addresses it exactly (my search-foo may just be lacking).
I'm tinkering with the idea of a halfling paladin, played as a mounted archer. If I'm reading the druid description correctly, when a paladin can first call his mount at fifth level, the mount would have three feats. Now, for my question:
If you went the dodge-mobility-spring attack route with those first three feats, would the mount *and* the rider be safe from attacks of opportunity due to spring attack? IE, if my halfling archer used a full attack to fire (with rapid shot, or with a standard second attack after 5th level, taking his normal penalties from firing mounted and rapid shot) at the same time that the mount was using his full movement to make a spring attack, would the rider be safe from AoEs while the mount was moving through the critter's threatened squares?
This may be way off base, but what's the game if you can't have a little fun with it.
Spoiler:
This is an idea that I have been tinkering around with for a little while, and I actually think it could fit well into this campaign. The overall idea is a Halfling paladin, struggling to stay completely lawful in the face of his racial compunction toward chaos.
Alfalfa Stubbletoes is the son of a Halfling sailor who worked the specialized trade vessels of Korsova, and the grandson of one of the great Halfling outriders (a 3.5 concept; basically the guardians of the Halfling lands, specialized in mounted archery from riding dogs). He was abducted by Gaedren Lamm as a child, and due to this nimble hands and quick wit, was forced to work as a begger and cutpurse for the Little Lamms. Throughout these harsh times, “Alf” was beaten regularly (Combat trait: Reactionary), but would always close his eyes and relive the stories of his grandfather, the legendary Thistle Stubbletoes, defender of the homeland, and would draw an inner strength from the memories.
One day during his thieving, he lifted a heavy purse from a clergyman in simple brown tunic. As he hid in an alley to count the purse, a small silver tankard fell out, seemingly perfectly sized for his tiny hands. He hid the memento on his person before returning to Lamm. But the old thief knew instantly that the Halfling was withholding, and beat him savagely even after he’d found the item. Lamm assumed that the child had known the origin of the piece, and did not hide his disgust at the stories of the chaotic do-gooder Cayden Cailean. Over the next several weeks, Alf asked passersby about the curious man-turned-god, and many seemed surprised that a Halfling of any age would not be familiar with the hard-drinking, carousing god. One day when he asked an already intoxicated dwarf, the bearded drunkard swept the child up onto his shoulders and noisily and happily made his way to one of the drinking houses that served as Cayden’s centers of worship (Background trait: Religious).
Inside, Alf found many other Halflings, including one who was a priest of the drinking god. This new mentor promised to look after the child until his coming of age, and gave his food, a little nip of ale occasionally, and the promise that he would be safe in the alehouse/temple. He began studying the snippets of witty prose that constitute the sum total of Cayden’s holy teachings, and soon aspired to become a priest of his new faith. That dream changed the night that Lamm tracked down his wayward ward.
Lamm and a group of the older and stronger Little Lamms stormed the alehouse just before dawn, and while the priests were busy trying to fend off the admittedly light attack, Alf grabbed the closest thing to hand, the Halfling priest’s small hunting bow. He loosed shot after shot, pinging Lamm twice in the legs before the thief’s assault was repulsed. In the aftermath, Alf – remembering the tales of his grandfather – asked why they had been surprised so easily, and why there were so few defenses in place. The priests explained to him that the chaotic nature of the alehouse, and of Cayden’s own beliefs, lended more to revelry than devotion, and that across all of Golarion there were not more than 100 souls who would call themselves paladins of the drunken god.
That night, Alf pledged himself to the protection of the alehouse that had become his home and his savior. He taught himself the bow and Cayden’s weapon of choice, the rapier. He recited the tenets of his new god every day, and worked in the alehouse every night, charming all with the same wit that had made him one of Lamm’s most profitable beggars.
The day will come when he will ride out from the alehouse on one of the great outrider dogs of yore, and he will confront Lamm, and free those who were not able to escape on their own. But until that day, the lowly Alfalfa Stubbletoes will wash ale mugs and recite his creed, and dream of becoming the first Halfling paladin of Cayden Cailean.
I'm slowing working through a complete conversion of Temple of Elemental Evil. Still may favorite module ever (followed closely by running the original "Tomb of Horrors." Never, anywhere else, have a I seen a group not be able to make it out of the first room lol...)
If this had been designed as a single encounter, it would have been way over the top. And maybe as is, I wouldn't have unleashed it until the players had another level or two under their belts (the difference between 3rd- and 4th-level spells could have been massive against the vamp). But the players can't blame the DM for setting off what looks like at least four separate encounters at one time.
One of the things that I never really liked about the move from 2.0 to 3.0 was the idea of CR, which seems to boil down to "every party member should survive every encounter." I ran a group through a 3.5 update of Temple of Elemental Evil (shameless plug: I'm currently updating it for Pathfinder. See the Conversions forum), which is an old-school Gary Gygax party shredder. I normalized it somewhat, but I also wanted the feeling that if the party wasn't smart and constantly aware of their situation, there was the outside risk of a TPK every three or four encounters. If you bust down a door instead of picking a lock, you better get it the first time or expect a chestful of javelins for the door-smasher. And even if you do get it on the first shot, every critter within a 200-foot radius probably heard you.
Both the players and me were spent at the end of an eight-hour session, but they really seemed to enjoy being pushed. I know that doesn't work for all groups, but I think the old AD&D idea of constant peril is just more rewarding than the 3.0-plus idea that everybody survives.
Two points I'd like to add from a DM perspective (most of the useful stuff about the PC side of it has already been said: don't be stupid).
First, when players create their characters, I ask them for their alignments on a 1-100 scale (stolen shamelessly from the Neverwinter Nights computer game). 100-67 is law and good, 66-34 is neutral and 33-1 is evil/chaotic. This allows the players to really define how they look at life (a paladin or monk who has law of 70 is vastly different from one who has law of 100; I played a halfling paladin with a Law of about 70, who was reluctantly taken into his order and always had to make conscious decisions to stave up his chaotic racial nature), and it allows me to see how close characters are from slipping into another alignment. Chaotic characters who slip below about 15 are dangerous to the party. You really are getting into mental instability (if played well) and recklessness that can end the party up in serious trouble. This holds true for every facet of chaos. The Chaotic Good (5/75) ranger who can't keep himself from striking down the land-grabbing baron in his own hall is far more dangerous to the party then the Chaotic Evil (20/15) thief who amuses himself by killing beggars in the street.
I recently played a very long, fun campaign with a chaotic neutral (with slight evil tendencies) gnome psion who was ancient and senile. The character was always roleplayed well, so when he decided that the best idea to get back at someone who'd pickpocketed him was to burn down his favorite bar with him -- and about 30 other NPCs -- inside of it, we knew two things: This was perfectly in character for the gnome, and it was time to get the heck out of Dodge.
The other thing from a DM's point of view, is that I will allow any alignments in the party, but if you're CE, or CN with evil tendencies (which most people at the table will be able to see, even if you can't), I will not step in on your behalf in any way if the party decides it needs to deal with you. Knowing that they have to maintain their usefulness to the party will keep a lot of CN and CE PCs from drifting into the dangerous levels of chaos.
OK, I had family in town all last week, so the ToEE conversion had to take a backseat. But I've got most of my prep documents done, and am into the general updating of the village of Hommlet. After this is the Moathouse, the Moathouse Dungeon, then Nulb, and then starting on the Temple proper.
I'm testing out Dropbox, so let's see if this works. (All docs are Word 2007 format, which should also open in Open Office. I've numbered the files for my own use, but it is also kind of a suggested reading order.
4 Master of the Fallen Fortress. This is a free Pazio Level 1 adventure that I'm putting on the road between Korvosa and Hommlet. It makes an easy hook to get players to Hommlet with some information.
5 Players' Background on Hommlet. If Master of the Fallen Fortress is used, this can be used as in-character text for the rescued Pathfinder.
Hopefully I'll have the village of Hommlet (and any other introductory text it needs) up soon.
I ran a revision of Temple of Elemental Evil for 3.5 completely from my laptop, and it was the easiest DM'ing I've ever done.
I kept all of my notes in Word files (OpenOffice or plain text works just as well), as well as the entire text of the campaign. That way, I could go back and make notes (highlighted, bolded, whatever) in the actual adventure to reference later.
In a separate file, I kept a running combat log, with updated HP for everybody, including mobs. Whenever we rolled new initiative, I'd just take 20 seconds, highlight a PC's line and move him into the correct ini order. Again, once you get used to it, makes life much, much simpler. If I needed to note when a spell stated and ended, boom, into the combat log. New mobs entering the field? Just roll new ini and slot them in. Never missed someone's turn, or had people out of order.
As far as things you need, you can save the html for Pen, Paper and Pixel's dice roller, which works great for DM's-eye's-only rolls. I do all of my combat with physical dice, in full view on the table. But the ability to type in two digit and click a mouse for a full round of perception checks means not tipping your hand to PCs there there *is* something to perceive.
Learn to Alt-Tab between then all, as well as your open PDF of the Core Rules, Bestiary or whatnot, and you'll never go back to DMing from a stack of books and loose-leaf paper again.
Kuma: Go for it. This is something I just kind of threw together one night while I was playing with a monk-fighter concept. Take anything you want.
Aeshuura: With the bonuses he's getting, which at 20th level will be pre-ability mod damage of 2d8+5, 18-20/x3 (assuming improved crit), with seven attacks a round (assuming TWF chain) and the ability to use mirhtil full plate (I think my math is correct on that), I wanted to provide something that was actually limiting at higher levels, as opposed to something that was just sub-optimal. That's why I went with an attack *and* damage penalty. It's supposed to be painful, in exchange for all of the benefits that this class gets in its specialty.
I spent some of this evening reading the thread of fixing Monk damage, and someone on there suggested just making an unarmed fighter. Here's my riff on that. Feel free to slash and burn, or take and modify. But any feedback might be helpful to those who are dealing with the monk issue.
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This class combines Fighter, Monk and a couple of touches of Rogue, while placing very strict limitations in the hope of creating a character who specializes in unarmed combat and can hold his on on the front lines of a fight, acting as the primary tank of a party. Giving him a Fighter's number of feats, and adding some of the Rogue talents to that feats list, hopefully allows for a significant breadth of character development and individualization.
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Unarmed Specialist
The fighter takes up arms for battle. The monk uses mysticism for his powers. The rogue uses cunning and guile for his deadly attacks. But the unarmed specialist enters battle with just his fists, and in this, is the master of his craft.
Alignment
Any.
Hit Die
d10.
Starting Wealth
5d6 x 10 gp (average 175g)
Class Skills
The unarmed specialist’s class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Skill Ranks Per Level
4 + Int modifier.
Table: Unarmed Specialist Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1st +1 +2 +2 +0 Unarmed Attack, Unarmed Training I, Bonus feat, Weapon Restriction, Armor Restriction
2nd +2 +3 +3 +0 Bonus feat
3rd +3 +3 +3 +1 Armor training I
4th +4 +4 +4 +1 Bonus feat
5th +5 +4 +4 +1 Unarmed Training II
6th +6/+1 +5 +5 +2 Bonus feat
7th +7/+2 +5 +5 +2 Armor training II, Improved Unarmed Attack
8th +8/+3 +6 +6 +2 Bonus feat
9th +9/+4 +6 +6 +3 Unarmed Training III
10th +10/+5 +7 +7 +3 Bonus feat
11th +11/+6/+1 +7 +7 +3 Armor training III
12th +12/+7/+2 +8 +8 +4 Bonus feat
13th +13/+8/+3 +8 +8 +4 Unarmed Training IV
14th +14/+9/+4 +9 +9 +4 Bonus feat, Greater Unarmed Attack
15th +15/+10/+5 +9 +9 +5 Armor training IV
16th +16/+11/+6/+1 +10 +10 +5 Bonus feat
17th +17/+12/+7/+2 +10 +10 +5 Unarmed Training V
18th +18/+13/+8/+3 +11 +11 +6 Bonus feat
19th +19/+14/+9/+4 +11 +11 +6 Armor mastery
20th +20/+15/+10/+5 +12 +12 +6 Bonus feat, Supreme Unarmed Attack
Class Features
The following are class features of the unarmed specialist.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
An unarmed specialist is proficient with all simple weapons and gains no armor proficiencies at 1st level.
Unarmed Strike (Ex)
At 1st level, an unarmed specialist gains Unarmed Strike, as per the Monk class feat. His unarmed strikes do 1d6. A character may select the Two-Weapon Fighting feat chain to allow for multiple off-hand attacks, while retaining his full STR bonus on his offhand attacks.
Unarmed Training (Ex)
Starting at 1th level, an unarmed specialist gains a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls when he is using unarmed strike. Every four levels thereafter (5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th), he gains an additional +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls. An unarmed specialist also adds this bonus to any combat maneuver checks made with his unarmed strike.
Bonus Feats
At 1st level, and at every even level thereafter, an unarmed specialist gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement (meaning that the unarmed specialist gains a feat at every level). These feats must be selected from the list of Combat Feats, with additional feats added to this list as the unarmed specialist advances in level. An unarmed specialist may qualify for feats that are restricted by Fighter class levels (i.e., Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus) at the same level that Fighters would be eligible.
At 2nd level, an unarmed specialist adds Fleet, Evasion (as per the Rogue class feat; only functions if current Armor Check Penalty is 0) and Bravery (as per the Fighter class feat) to his list of selectable feats, both for his bonus feats and his feats gained through normal level advancement.
At 4th level, an unarmed specialist adds Unarmed Strike: Magic to his list of selectable feats.
At 6th level, an unarmed specialist adds Fast Stealth (as per the Rogue Talent), Ledge Walker (as per the Rogue Talent) and Stand Up (as per Rogue Talent) to his list of selectable feats.
At 10th level, an unarmed specialist adds Defensive Roll (as per the Rogue Advanced Talent), Improved Evasion (as per the Rogue Advanced Talent; must have Evasion; only functions if current Armor Check Penalty is 0) and Unarmed Strike: Alignment to his list of selectable feats.
At 14th level, an unarmed specialist adds Unarmed Strike: Metal to his list of selectable feats.
An unarmed specialist may swap out feats after 4th level, as per a fighter.
Weapon Restriction (Ex)
An unarmed specialist who uses any weapon, even those with which he is proficient, takes a -2 penalty on attack and damage on all attacks in any round in which he uses weapons. This penalty resets just before his next turn begins.
Armor Restriction (Ex)
An unarmed specialist loses all class features related to his unarmed strike if he begins a round with an Armor Check Penalty greater than 0. See Armor Training below.
Armor Training (Ex)
Starting at 3rd level, an unarmed specialist gains proficiency with light armor, and learns to be more maneuverable than an average person while wearing armor. Whenever he is wearing armor, he reduces the armor check penalty by 1 (to a minimum of 0) and increases the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by his armor by 1. Every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, and 15th), these bonuses increase by +1 each time, to a maximum –4 reduction of the armor check penalty and a +4 increase of the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed. At 7th level, he gains proficiency with medium armor, and may move at his normal speed while wearing medium armor.
Improved Unarmed Strike (Ex)
At 7th level, an unarmed specialist’s unarmed strike does 1d8 damage, plus that granted by Unarmed Training.
Greater Unarmed Strike (Ex)
At 14th level, an unarmed specialist’s unarmed strike does 2d6 damage, plus that granted by Unarmed Training. In addition, the threat range for his unarmed strike increases to 19-20. If he has Improved Critical: Unarmed Strike, the threat range is 18-20.
Armor Mastery (Ex)
At 19th level, an unarmed specialist gains Damage Reduction 5/—.
Supreme Unarmed Strike (Ex)
At 20th level, an unarmed specialist’s unarmed strike does 2d8 damage, plus that granted by Unarmed Training. In addition, he automatically confirm all critical threats and the damage multiplier of his unarmed strike increases from x2 to x3.
Additional Feats
Unarmed Strike: Magic (An unarmed specialist’s unarmed strike acts as a magic weapon, for purposes of bypassing damage reduction.)
Unarmed Strike: Alignment (An unarmed specialist chooses one of his two alignments. His unarmed strike acts as that alignment, for purposes of bypassing damage reduction. Once this choice is made, it is permanent, but this feat may be taken again and used to add the character’s second alignment.)
Unarmed Strike: Metal (An unarmed specialist chooses one type of alchemical metal (silver, cold iron, adamantine, mithril). His unarmed strike acts as that metal, for purposes of bypassing damage reduction.)
PS: If anyone wants to format that levels chart, by all means, be my guest. Some things escape me.
My plan, at the moment, is to set the whole thing up inland from Korvosa. That allows me to put Nulb intact on the Jeggare River (60 or so miles inland), and the Temple up about another 40 miles or so, in the shadow of the Mindspin Mountains.
It also gives me a ready-made center of commerce that's within a day's river-trip, and is large enough for me to stretch the rules and say that an upper-level party could restock to level there.
Been glancing through the Guide to Korsova, and it's got a good setup for the city (when I did this for Saradush in Fareun, I had to create a lot of the city on my own; having one pre-built will be nice). Also, it seems that the area is written specifically to be wild. I can't find an exact description of where Citadel Vraid is, but it seems to be close enough to the city that it could have taken part in the raid on the Temple a decade ago, but not close enough that it would have kept a watchful eye on it since.
For those familiar with the original, my current idea is to replace the references to St. Cuthbert with Iomedea, and while the druid's workings will still be referred to as "the Old Faith," he will be a follower of Gozreh. I'm lifting Zugg intact (I don't see a demon queen interfering with the established pantheon that much), and couching Iuz in the idea that he is trying to break across the multiverse and establish himself in a new pantheon, if that makes sense.
Starting rewriting (and slightly expanding) Hommlet, so hopefully I can post the beginning some time next week.
Return to ToEE is good, as far as 3rd Ed., goes, but as I said, I've always been partial to the old Gygax stories. The original ToEE is a party shredder, but it's an incredible sense of accomplishment to get through.
And Lloth is pretty minor, as is Iuz, but they show up enough that I need to make the call of whether I'm going to import them lock, stock and barrel, or if I'm going to modify them or replace them. I can lift the mushroom queen intact with no problem.
As far as Varisia... Rural communities, independent city-states, cyclopean ruins, and uncharted wilderness? Sounds like it could be perfect. Hopefully a few decent-sized cities and a mountain or two (I don't think it actually says the Temple is backed by mountains, but it just seems right) and I'm in business. Thanks.
I'm just old enough to have played the original Temple of Elemental Evil (not the year it came out, but within two or three years), and it has always been in my top three or four campaigns I have run in any system ever.
Last year, I ran a group through the beginnings of a total conversion to 3.5, but the group got down to three regular players and suffered a TPK about three-quarters of the way through the second dungeon level. It was still an incredible amount of fun to run. So much since 3.0 seems to have been written with balance and the characters' chance of survival as the main reasons for playing. The old Gygaxian stuff concentrated on telling a story, and --- to paraphrase Ivan Drago -- if the players die, they die. It kept the party on their toes for ever room, every doorway (including a couple of specially made traps to liven things up a little).
So now, I've got a group that may be interested, and I'm starting from scratch to do a full translation to Pathfinder. This isn't my first time playing with PF at all, but I haven't had more than three or four sessions with it, all as a player. I've got a good grip on the rules changes (I think), and on the mentality that Paizo seems to be using. I'm ready to start.
What I don't know is, for me, the most basic of all: Where the heck does this take place in Golarion? In Fareun, Homelett was about halfway between Saradush and Riatavin, Nulb was along the River Ith and the Temple was in the foothills of the Omlarandin Mountains. The location worked great. But I know almost nothing about the PF campaign world, and it's important for me to know about the region where this takes place, even if the players never ask the first question about it. So, anyone have advice for a nice, out of the way location in Golarion to put one of the most evil place on the face of the planet?
My next big mental project -- the room-by-room conversion takes a lot of time, but it's not really a mental creation process -- will be to rewrite a little bit of the mythology (those who have played the adventure will understand), but I don't think that will be a difficult task at all. And Lolth will probably be imported intact, simply because if we're successful with ToEE, I may run the same group through the Giants trilogy and then through Queen of the Demonweb Pits. But that's getting way ahead of myself. As I envision it now, ToEE will be a 1-20 adventure, with the final god/demon queen-level fights as 20th-level battles.
So, anybody have any specific advice on settings, or any general advice on ToEE as 3.75? I can use all the feedback I can get. Also, I'm kicking around the idea of posting the conversion on Google Docs when I'm done (or as I get each area/level completed). If this is successful, and if I can finish it, would other people be interested in running it as well?
