Mahavira's page

While I have owned the rulebooks for a while, I have yet to actually play Starfinder. There is something that seems odd in the starship combat rules, specifically the stunts. The DCs are set based in part on the tier of the ship, and at least one of them has the DC increase by more than 1 per tier. Unless I'm missing some expected means to increase skills, it seems like you'd eventually hit the point where it is harder for an expert (aka high level) pilot with his custom ship (aka equal tier to his level) to perform stunts than if he stole some off the assembly line scow, and may even be worse off in his custom ship than a lower level pilot would be in the scow. Am I reading something wrong, or is there some rule I've missed that escalates skills more than I think? On one level I get that "you don't give a ferrari to someone with a learner's license", but on the other, I think that the Starfinder version of the Red Baron should be doing stunts fairly routinely.

More or less what the subject line says - the Dominion of the Black keeps getting brief mentions in rulebooks (new monsters in particular) and occasionally setting information, but I don't think I've seen anything that goes into any depth. This seems odd - the idea predates Starfinder, and Starfinder is the most natural venue to address it. I dropped out of the AP subscription a while back (early in the swarm one) - do any of the subsequent ones (or projected ones) have DotB as a major antagonist?

Xanesha features prominently in the obituaries thread, but I gather from comments people have made that the Anniversary Edition modified her somewhat to make her less of a TPK machine. What was the major change, or was it just an issue of 3.5 vs pathfinder rules making the encounter less survivable?

I like the base idea of Second Darkness, but it is widely considered to have problems - tone shift from scum and villainy to saving the world (combined with generating the false impression the campaign is centred in Riddleport) and the elves are...unsympathetic. The latter is not that hard to fix by just playing them differently, but the first is a bit more trouble.

I've seen the suggestion of using Souls for Smuggler's Shiv as a first chapter, and thought this might help, though obviously a few changes are needed.

1) I skimmed Souls and didn't find much that NEEDS to be tropical, so it can be reskinned to a temperate forest island, perhaps once part of Alaznist's empire (which is mostly underwater I understand). Alaznist was a demon worshipper so a temple of Zura isn't a stretch, and the cannibals can be like the Picts in Conan.

2) I'd like to replace a couple of the castaways with Kwava and Samaritha (she's already the apprentice to a cyphermage and is on the way back from a fedex mission for the boss), levelled down to L2 for convenience. I only have 2 players so the source of NPC assistants is useful in any case.

The faction connections in Souls are:

Red Mantis
Pathfinder Society
Government
Aspis Consortium
Pirates of the Shackles

The pathfinder society and Aspis consortium are fine as is, the rest leave something to be desired. My recollection is that Kwava's part of a mercenary company that sometimes works for the Winter Council. With Samaritha, we'd have cyphermages as a faction. The pirates could perhaps be replaced by one of the gang bosses in Riddleport - Zincher's gang (this could make the pirate lady's chapter 2 quest killing Zincher or otherwise getting her free of him)

3) Obviously replace the serpent traitor with Depora Azinrae - part of the ruins on the island is similar to the cyphergate and she decided to study it to see if it gave further insight. To get Depora to CR 6, I was going to add a level and make her noble (also gives her suggestion 1/day, explaining how she controlled the captain). I might need to give her spellcasting levels (perhaps shift to L3 fighter L3 cleric (abraxus)) to explain how she got past the lacedons - she'll have enough feats that rebuke undead won't be a hardship.

Children of the Void - connect the PCs to this by quests from their fellow castaways. Samaritha and the Pirate lady are already on the island with their own factions - Kwava's mercs and either the Aspis or Pathfinders could bankroll the PCs expedition with scholarly/heroic as well as monetary reasons, and while there they can rescue Samaritha from Akatas and pirate lady from Zincher.

The shift from medium track to fast track is an issue here - I could either retcon the xp and just switch to fast track, or add extra xp in the form of side quests and random encounters - getting into a fight with Zincher's crew after arriving in Riddleport would be good forshadowing of eventually fighting him on the Island.

My main hesitation is that I would half like to run serpent's skull as well (for all that it is about as highly regarded as Second Darkness), though there the big change would be I'd use one of the more common firearms rules for a more Solomon Kane feel, and don't know that I want to reuse Souls.

Some background - for some time I've been playing around in my head with the idea of a dark tapestry themed campaign, featuring an alien lich (bone sage of eox, for those that care) using a Yithian mind transfer device to assume control of Golarion natives (with the possible end goal of recreating Eox civilization by having all the bone sages do this, or even using it to implant thousands or even millions of alien ghosts on the citizens of a country).

While it is all well and good to come up with a villain and an evil scheme, a starting point for L1 characters is sometimes hard to find. It occurred to me to possibly have the PCs all have been previously Yithed, have no idea what they were doing for the past several months, and languishing in a madhouse for weeks after their unwanted tenants departed. The PCs all return to lucidity around the time something terrible happens to the asylum (haven't decided whether it's a cleanup team of MIBs or whether one of the lunatics was actually possessed and a bottom tier demon or devil was able to manifest) and they have to escape from the no longer safe asylum (as a change, I was going to have it run by kindly nurses and doctors that are part of a minor holy order of Sarenrae or someone rather than a hellpit run by sadists who experiment on people).

Once out, perhaps rescuing a visiting expert (perhaps he proscribed new medications that caused the PCs to recover) or perhaps just getting his journal which contains hints to the next adventure, the PCs realize they all suffered the same memory loss for around the same time, and start looking into what happened. For campaign traits, I thought each trait could be based on a kind of fictional/cinematic insanity (as opposed to a realistic depiction of actual mental illness), basically the symptoms they had while recovering from the mind transfer relate to what their bodies did while under alien control (this would come out in later adventures).

Catatonic: while in the asylum, the PC just sat and stared into space, unresponsive to anything. The PC was actually contemplating something (incomprehensible now), and now has greater powers of concentration (+1 to all concentration checks) and is unusually able to be still (+1 to stealth).

"the Gibbering": while in the asylum, the PC spoke only Aklo. The PC knows Aklo, and linguistics is always a class skill.

Writes on walls (wizard only): as one occasinally sees in movies, th character was constantly scribbling complex diagrams, equations and the like on the walls of his cell. The character knows one additional L1 spell, which is not in his spellbook but which may be prepared as though he had the Spell Mastery feat.

Violent: the PC was uncontrollably violent and begins play wearing a straightjacket. Not sure what the trait bonus should be, except perhaps a bonus to fighting with unarmed strikes or improvised weapons.

Paranoid: the PC was convinced that some person or organization was out to get him (and was responsible for his presence in the asylum), even to the point of believing that from one day to the next the nurses and doctors were being replaced by imposters. Bonus to initiative or sense motive?

Sleepwalker: despite being tied down and locked in his room, the PC always ended up sleepwalking in the atrium or garden. The PC has +1 to escape artist and disable device, and has a lockpick secreted on his person.

Apparently lucid: the PC spent the entire time in the asylum thinking and acting completely normally. Despite this, the staff were clearly afraid of him. Not sure what the bonus for it should be, it just seemed interesting.

Phobic: the PC has a morbid fear of some particular type of creature (a fairly limited list) and spent his time in the asylum terrified of even pictures of it. The PC has a +1 dodge bonus to AC against creatures of the type (dogs, perhaps, or vermin)

Obsessed with cleanliness/purity: the PCs obsession with the purity of his precious bodily essences took the form of excessive cleanliness, picky eating, and obscure exercises. It turned out he was on to something, as he now has +1 to fortitude saves.

Any fantasy insanities I've missed or suggestions for trait bonuses? Or is this a terrible idea for a campaign start and I should go back to the drawing board?

A simple question: can elves from Castrovel turn into drow? When elves returned to Golarion, they discovered that normal elves can turn into drow, but were they elves fresh from Castrovel, or were they born on Golarion? If drow went to Castrovel, could they cause sufficiently evil Castrovel elves to become drow, or is the cause not something easily taken from Golarion (the "magnetic field" or whatever)?

The title says it all really. Seriously, you're a L20+ wizard and at some point in your career you had nothing better to do with a feat than learn "martial weapon proficiency: obscure pole arm?" Did Xin make his apprentices fight gladiatorial duels while he and his friends bet thousands of quatloos on the victor? Do they get an initiative bonus because the enemy stops to ponder "is that a Voulge or a Glaive-guisarme?" Or were the wizard weapon proficiencies just that different back in Thassilon. It kind of makes sense for the runelords of wrath because they were mostly eldritch knights (though even there, I would expect a one handed weapon that allows them a hand free to cast while they still threaten), but for everyone else?

My group started playing pathfinder not that long ago (well actually quite a while but we haven't been playing regularly due to RL responsibilities). We finished 3.5 with Savage Tide and Shackled City, using gestalts. With a party of 3, and high stats, in those 3.5 modules we found ourselves starting later modules higher level than we were expected to reach by the end of the modules (in shackled city we outright skipped one), and ran roughshod over most encounters (not sure how much of that was due to gestalting and how much was due to higher level and loot split only 3 ways). Now that we've started pathfinder APs, we're alternating between my DMing Carrion Crown and the other DM running Jade Regent (I went first). Thinking that it was time to get people used to less generous character generation, I made the PCs roll, and got supermen. Thinking that to go with the horror theme I didn't want people levelling to outstrip the module, I decided to divide xp by 4 not 3 (this was also to counteract the high stats). This wasn't a big problem in Harrowstone (all told I was quite pleased with how it turned out, challenge wise) but I'm getting the impression this won't last - Schloss Caromarc is almost certainly going to TPK (this is in part because the PCs are ill suited to the encounters - the arcanist is a sorcerer whose spells are mostly subject to SR and the lead melee is a 2 weapon ranger - lots of weak attacks is exactly what NOT to have here). If/when the denizens of the Schloss rack up another party to their tally, I am probably moving to Shattered Star or Runelords (anniversary), and was wondering how people manage xp with smaller groups - without the complication of gestalts, is the action economy enough that being higher level isn't a big deal?

As I understand it, the problems people have with second darkness are as follows:

1) chapter 1 points PCs in the wrong direction as to the trajectory of the AP - going from seedy underworld type to the kind of hero they expect later on is something of a stretch

2) the PCs are unlikely to want to go above and beyond for the elves because the elves are not exactly friendly or grateful (and there's that whole chapter 5 thing)

A common suggestion appears to be "make the pcs be elves/half elves", but my thought is to take another tack.

The PCs are not a random collection of do gooders, they are employees of the Aspis Consortium or some similarly amoral entity. Their involvement with the Golden Goblin is part of a scheme against Zincher - they get close to Saul and help him to get Zincher's attention off his business allowing the Consortium's groomed crime replacement to step in. The drow in the basement is interesting and filed for future reference, but when Zincher goes to the island after the meteor strike, that's too good an opportunity to finish the job. Finding drow again, and finding they have a connection to the meteor is too interesting - since their patsy Kwava knows where to find more Drow, they are directed to follow along and gather more intel about this new kind of elf and what kind of threat or opportunity they present - getting the magic to call meteors is a plus, and having Kyonin vanish would be bad for business.

Rather than start as seedy underworld figures and becoming world saving heroes who do the right thing in the face of ingratitude and even treachery, they start and finish as hard boiled mercenaries with a secret agenda who can put up with the elves' crap because it's part of the real job (as opposed to whatever the elves are paying them to do). It also makes it more justified that the elves are as suspicious as they are.

So, do you think this would take care of the issues people have with the AP?

At some point in the future, we'll be playing Skulls and Shackles, and I thought I'd try a barbarian(urban)/fighter (corsair) cross (essentially the descendant of a viking who gentrified, using his plunder to a plantations and business interests in the Chelish colonies in the Mwangi expanse). With the various abilities each class gets at different levels, however, it isn't entirely clear to me that I'm not better off just staying barbarian (or being a corsair from day one).

Corsair adds: ability to wear heavier armor while swimming/tumbling (I refuse to drown, dammit), improved cleave and great cleave, weapon training and a few extra feats.

Corsair costs: rounds of rage, rage powers, points of damage reduction, and resistance to being flanked (fewer levels to count for uncanny dodge).

As this is my first martial character in the new system (we played 3.5 until quite recently, and I don't think I ever played a barb in the entire 3.0-3.5 period) I'm not sure how to judge the trade off.

About to start Trial of the Beast, and one of the PCs (indeed the only one with social skills) is a cleric with the glory domain. Touch of Glory is supernatural, so I presume that using it will get your wrist slapped/head cut off?

Well, the title more or less says it all. I have a party of 3 players, and to change things up a bit (and also to match the kind of story the AP is based on a bit more closely) I was thinking about using commonplace guns (25% price, martial weapons) for kind of a 16th-17th century, Solomon Kane feel. Given that only a gunslinger is likely to shoot more than once or twice a combat, I don't think it -should- cause too many problems, but I've only skimmed the modules, and we've not had occasion to use the gun rules yet (only made the switch to Pathfinder from 3.5 this year). Possible counters if it would make a big difference would be using a weaker build (we're currently going with 25 to counteract the fact there are only 3 of them) and/or dividing xp by 4. People who have actually run/played the AP, what do you think?

I've been looking for a recording of the goblin song in Burnt Offerings, but all I can find is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7zTUIYQVpY

While it probably sounds more or less like goblins singing, I have trouble making out the words and I have the lyrics in hard copy, so it's not much help as a "game aid". Does anyone know of another recording anywhere?

I'm making a magus for Jade Regent - the party is 3 people, my magus, a summoner (broodmaster) and an inquisitor - nobody has full bab, and nobody's AC is going to be that great. As such, I'd like to make my magus suck a little less than he otherwise is likely to (relatively new to pathfinder and some probably non optimum choices for flavor). As such, please C&C this build:

Half elf magus (uses ancestral arms alt class feature from advanced player's guide)

Feats
L1 (half elf) EWP katana L1 combat casting
L3 improved unarmed strike
L5 deflect arrows L5 bonus quickdraw
L7 power attack
L9 bloody assault
L11 weapon focus (katana) L11 bonus weapon spec (katana)
L13 extra arcana (spell blending, learn enervate and protection from energy)
L15 death from above
L17 L17 no clue, may not be necessary

Arcana
3 arcane accuracy
6 close range
9 ghost blade
12 maximized magic
15 accurate strike

unarmed strike, quickdraw, and deflect arrows are pure flavor, and I'm more or less okay with dropping them. Close range is primarily so in the far future I can slash someone with a maximized disintigrate, generating a kill that looks like something from Blade of the Immortal - realistically there are so few rays it could probably go for something more practical (wand wielder perhaps? with wand mastery added by another extra aracna feat?).

The title more or less says it all, but here goes: now that Demons, Devils, and Daemons have had their day, is there any chance that more exotic fiends could get a bit of detail work? Obviously what gets made depends on a combination of what the creative staff are interested in and what is considered to be potentially marketable. With the Dragon Empires gazetteer etc. out, and Jade Regent done, an Oni book might have some selling power and people might actually see an Oni outside of Jade Regent if a bit more was known about them (we have 30 odd years of lore about demons and devils, even if some of the details have changed). Rakshasa are even worse off - there is no Vudra AP (or even module, or is there?) though having read a few books setting the legend of Rama to the modern style of epic fantasy, I would actually be interested. Either Oni or Rakshasa would have been more interesting to me than Daemons (this is obviously a matter of taste, however). So, would anyone buy such a suppliment if it was written?

It seems likely that my group will be playing Jade Regent in a few months, and if it comes down to drawing straws over who has to be the healer (yes that's our attitude towards it), I was thinking of being Ameiko's younger sister, an oracle of Shizuru. Neither the Primer nor Gazetteer suggest mysteries for the asian deities. Flame, Heavens and Ancestor all seem potentially appropriate (Sarenrae, also a sun goddess, has flame, ancestor is part of the portfolio, and heavens...well, the sun is in them, right?). With luck I'll even be able to beg teh DM to allow me to take EWP katana at first level (favored weapon of the deity after all) even though it requires bab+1.

Getting closer to running Carrion Crown, and thought some music would be in order.

This thread http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz3qrp&page=1?Carrion-Crown-Soundtrack goes a bit more in detail than I intend to though.

I've selected the following characters/scenes that seem to need a theme. Suggestions sought:

Funeral of Professor Lorrimor - the music from the Halo ODST commercials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN7MJISCA2A&feature=related
or Song of the Volga Boatmen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55KNMMGcLaw

The Skipping Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLwW745WJ2Y the Freddy Krueger counting song in German

Stirges in Ravengro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSoITBvyC48

Fire in the Town Hall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYPFwEbC91k

First view of Harrowstone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekLuKK7e9kQ

Vesorianna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIBdpFJyFkc&ob=av2n or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04_rDXjQuoQ&feature=related

The Illmarsh Piper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIHbAyBhWqc Not really satisfied with this but can't find better - evil and/or ghostly flute music is kind of hard to search for

Father Charlatan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJGIJn24Nrk&feature=related OK, probably not...Gregorian chants were my only other thought, but they don't seem quite right either

The Mosswater Marauder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpCV2wgoxC8 Ok, no, but
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4_zaZ3utUY it's even about dwarves!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L07Ur1M9PRY&feature=fvst Everything sounds twice as evil in German! Other suggestions?

The Splatter Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08hwxkEQiCQ Not sure here, the words are actually shockingly appropriate, but the music itself doesn't

Given that HoH hypes making the PCs feel at least a little invested in her (so they don't just ditch town rather than deal with the prison)it seems like a waste to not have her involved at all in the rest of the campaign. The 'obvious' course would be for her to sell the house, and initially move to Liepstadt, perhaps intending to take a few courses. I wouldn't expect her to be hugely useful during the trial proper, except as a source of "well what about X?", or a source of 'gossip' if they are slow to investigate the break in at the college. The Lorrimor name could have the order of teh Palatine Eye taking an interest in her. Silent Moon and Wake of the Watcher don't look like appropriate venues, but getting her to Caliphas for Ashes at Dawn doesn't seem like a stretch (either pursuing studies there, visiting a family friend, on a mission for the order) and the Whispering Way could possibly kidnap her for use as a hostage in shadows of gallowspire. What have others done with her?

One of my players is talking about playing a necromancer (specializing in destroying the undead), and I was wondering what effect if any the necromancer's turn undead or control undead might have on the many, many haunts in Harrowstone. Turn undead seems like it ought to do something (maybe treat it as regular channelling?) Not sure about control. Someone has to have run into this before.

The original rise of the runelords ap was for 3.5, which more or less translates to fast progression. With the anniversary edition being converted to pathfinder and containing some supplimental content, has anyone heard anything about whether it is being expanded to use medium progression like other ap's?

As our first foray into pathfinder, I am going to be running Carrion Crown, and was wondering how important party composition was. I've got a group of 3, one will play a life oracle (probably pretty solid), one likely wizard (pretty rare that a wizard is a bad choice) and one undecided, though fighter, inquisitor and barbarian are classes that have been thrown around. How important is a rogue? I've seen megamodules where there are two traps over 10 levels, and others where traps and locked doors will be a constant source of frustration. How big an issue will this be? (haven't even received my copy of HoH yet).

Well, we're switching to Pathfinder from 3.5, our more regular DM wants a break once the current campaign is done (shackled city, in the second last chapter), so I'm 'volunteering' to DM an adventure path. From the summaries, I have interest in (no particular order):

Second Darkness
Legacy of Fire
Serpent's Skull
Carrion Crown
Jade Regent

I'm getting the updated Rise of the Runelords hardcover in June, but plan on foisting it on someone else.

I will be dealing with a party of 3.

I am given to understand that Second Darkness is actually 3.5, which will mean a certain amount of conversion (and fast track xp). While "Dark Elves and Meteors" sound like a very strong concept, the path doesn't seem highly thought of.

I am less enamored of the concept of Legacy of Fire, but genies are a different focus. It is also 3.5.

I gather Serpent's Skull et al are full fledged Pathfinder (what xp track to use?), which makes life considerably easier (and for a first pathfinder game this is a meaningful factor), and while it's hard to argue with snakemen, classic horror, or westerners visit the orient (not something we've really done in 20+ years of gaming) I'm curious what people think (or if there's a tight conversion of Second Shadow on someone's webpage).