Major Longhorn's page

lots of sensible things

I can perfectly understand the OP.

I discovered pathfinder at the end of beta test and then bought the CRB straight away.

I loved Pathfinder back then. No more 3.5 zillions splat books, a new start, I loved the way they changed 3.5 for the best. Easy for reference and so on.

Specially as now I'm working, I have kids, my time is extremely precious and I have very little time for out of game PF.

I loved the AP I read (ROTRL) and I thought it corresponded rather well to my style. Nice graphics, good ideas, good forum for new ideas and mature content and a rather simple ruleset.

Again I play once every 2 weeks and my time is precious.

We started playing RotRL and stopped at the end of book 5 a bit fed up.
I realised It was much much too heavy. Combats were not so much fun as it ended up with iterative attacks, too much maths and finally combat lasted one or even 2 hours for some.
That's what made us stop.

Too much roll play, too many rules and some flaws in PF are really core flaws (iterative attacks, too many bonuses of too many types take too long)...

At low level it's quite easy but the power is quite dull, at high level you're god like but it's hardly manageable unless you have plenty of time and rule lawyers.
That's why so many people talk about the sweet spot (say between lvl 5
and 10) where things arn't too complicated but can do real cool things.

Now don't tell me I can house rule the lot. It would require too much time to do so. and again as a profesionnal my time is precious.

I understand that we all have different opinions on that. Some don't want to throw all in the bin again...

Now I'm really in the same mood as the author of the OP (I think ...).

I love Pathfinder as a company, I love the way they do a lot of things (specially their AP), but I'm fed up with all these splat books again. Same as 3.5, probably better but still same flaws ... due to backward compatibility probably.

Is it too hard to keep the same level of complexity with more simple combats?

4 on table is good but I believe 6 on PbP is better.

So 6 for me.

Hail Asmodeus ! I would be very interested to start a PbP game as it would fill my unfulfilled hunger for RPG as my group has been slowed down to death due to real life hassle.

I really hope I'm not too late to apply (is the deadline for phase I still 17th of August?. I can perfectly your concern and your long questionnaire as playing RPG campaign implies dedication and motivation from all players (and DM of course).

My concept can range a lot but I love to play evil characters.
Ideas still need to be developped. I always dreamed of playing a Magus but I could also play an Asmodean cleric (one of the few who didn't burn on the pyre). I need to think about it but I'm pretty sure I can come with something. Probably some Evil guy (with a capital E) with style (BBEG as seen in James Bond) with an Island full of minions I can whip.

Phase 1 Questionnaire
1. Your experience with the rules
I started playing D&D with the boxed set end of 80's. I DMed more than I played. We started Pathfinder after 3.5. As Pathfinder and 3.5 are quite similar I think I have a dozens of year of experience on the system. As a player I'm not an optimizer. I'm more a roleplayer than a rollplayer and as a DM rule of fun is more important than anything else.

2. Your experience with PbP
Quite limited but I'm really eager to start. I played a PbP game called "In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas". I think it was called "In Nomine" where I was playing a devil named Major Longhorn. :)

3. Expectations for playing and what you want out of the experience
The advantage I think with PbP is that you can really develop the RP, what your character think and does and says. So it's a different experience from tabletop I believe although again my experience is short.

4. Philosophy as a PbP player
Well I think I answered in 3.

5. Why you are applying to this game?
Why are you Dming this game?...
Just because I like playing evil guys (but not the chaotic evil guy who kills everyone but a lot of my characters have ranged from psychotic to evil mastermind) and Way of the Wicked is just an awesome AP.

6. Define what you think good role-playing is in PbP.
I suppose there is no good role-playing as such. But If i had to define it I would say that you have to BE your character, think as your character and most important... have fun.

7. What is your experience with this adventure path?
That may be a major problem for you. I'm DMing this adventure as we speak although my group is now at a half in the middle of book 2. I've run book1 and half of book 2 and read book 3 and partly book 4. I havn't read book 5 and 6 if we ever go to that length. I will try not to use this knowledge and do metagaming. Of course I don't remember the exact dungeons and so on...
My aim is to focus more on RP. Or... another idea is that I could be a stupid NE barbarian (an Israen) who tries to revenge from of all the taldirans (or whatever their name) who conquered the island. Therefore I wouldn't have to give clever ideas...

The choice is all yours and I will accept it. But I hope I will be one of the chosen ones ^^

That's one of the advantages of Alzheimer's disease. :D

I would recommend forgetting about it until the whole series is completed. Fire Mountain Games makes some great products, but they have terrible service because they are a small two man operation with horrendous communication skills. If you forget about trying to get information one day you will have some great adventures to play and won't have the resentment of banging your head against the wall of silence for months on end.

so true ...

That bugs me even more as they are doing such great products that it's such a waste of potential. If the APs were so-so i would just screw it but they arn't
In a few years i hope too we'll only remember how great these APs are. Probably the bests of the decade or so.

Well in these days Magic items were part of Game Master Guide. So no shopping catalogue for players in Players Handbooks.

Don't think so... And that's indeed something which would have been good.
May be when (if ever) gary comes back.

agreed of course

Gary come out of your cavern. We need your feedback ^^

No wonder .... lol.

I added the vampires template for only 3 feats, which is a small tax.

Nevertheless I don't like the way vampires are handled. Not enough weaknesses and I added a few. They have to drink blood more often than required by the book, when they reach 0hp they will transform into mist but STILL take damages. if they ever reach -cha hp they "die"... turn to dist.

First question is : Rule of cool.

Is it cool to do it once? Is it plausible?
If yes then yeah it's quite easy to do it.

Now you could maybe not tip the boat over but may be shake it enough such that the soldiers on board need to roll for an acrobatic check may be DC 15 or something. They fail ? They are in water, hope you have swim ranks.

To be honest I could hardly imagine one tipping such a big barge on its own. Nevertheless rule of cool would allow one or 2 soldiers to fall off the barge. Why ? Because it's cool and i can imagine them sinking while the others get slaughtered and because I want to reward my players for thinking "out of the box" and using other things than THACO (wink) and swinging swords.

Just a short story, very recently my PCs were followed by soldiers on fishing boat, the soldiers were about to attack my PCs boat and it would have been a real slaughter. I won't explain how they got there to keep it short but anyway...
The summoner called for some dolphins, he had 5 dolphins who charged on the side of the packed fishing boat (6-7 feet by 18feet was the size of the boat). I rolled for acrobatic checks for all the soldiers and 2 fell including the BBGG paladin who sank like a stone(the PC are evil against good). The summoner called then a crocodile for good grapple and that's how my big boss died. Sinking in a lake.

It was a great joy for all PCs. I as a DM was a little bit frustrated to have spent time tuning my lvl 9 paladin big boss just to see him drown as i didn't put any swimming ranks. But my players were extatic and they are still talking about full plates as "the stone that sinks".

All in all we had a great time and my players thought out of the box. That's why I want to reward them for that.

Coolness ... and think out of the box. Who cares about RAW or RAI or whatever....

It's a meaty adventure by AP standards. The adventure section runs from page 3 to page 95.

By comparison WotW book one went from page 3 to page 77

There is a separate file with nineteen pages of cleaned up maps / player handouts.

wahooo as expected it was worth waiting. ^^

Interesting Kevin.
For the stairs going all the way to the top.

yeaaaah baby. Nevertheless before ordering i'll wait for the PDF+ print out. Unless gary says we can buy the PDF and then the discount for print

I wish we could have more blunt weapons (hammers morning stars and so on) and other exotic weapons. I mean almost all weapons are blades everywhere. Except for the ol' dwarf with an axe and occasionally a hammer well i have a lotta troubles finding characters with blunt weapons.
One of my player is a mace dual wielder inquisitor and well I have found it impossible and found just a single inquisitor mini with a mace.

Now come on stop doing the standard sword stuff and try doing some exotic weapons, hammers, guisarme, net, bolas .... you name it.

I have zillions of warriors with swords and for the rest almost none.

I wonder if I'm going to wait for the print+pdf version. Last time I bought PDF version of the WotW only to realise i had to buy it again for the print copy....

Major Longhorn wrote:

@Kevin : Thanks for the feedback. 2 of my characters are undead. So... I'll have to think about it. Whether it could be by the end of book 2 or may be book 4. Book 3 is too much Angel orientated. Although during book 3 I could have a sort of avatar of Mitra warning them that the gloves are off if they don't stop. That will make them think and become a bit paranoid about everyone.

Except Devils. And be a good incentive for book 5 to happen when they have to slay "him".

Demons love chaos, and if your players happen to survive until the end of Book 6, have the demons be upset that Asmodeus will be in charge, so have them choose "If I can't have it, neither can you" and send an Armaggedon Beast after them.

Ooooh that's a good one. I'll have other fights with demons though... Oh I was thinking of a good thing somewhere in Vaelterna they find the dead body of a demon and an unopened letter from some major demon that the 9th is coming with an army. Of course being Lawful good they destroyed the demon as soon as he appeared (does outsider's body stay on material plane when they die btw?) and didn't bother to search him. How ironic....

Looks absolutely great !!! Can't wait to read it now that I have it in my downloads ^^

Rhapsodic College Dropout wrote:

Another vote for Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition from me.

Every player (whether GM or PC)needs to experience Runeforge.

Really? would you mind to explain why in further detail? I'm asking because I consider parts 4 and 5 of RotR to be the weakest in the campaign... with 1,2 and 3 being excellent low level adventures and part 6 being an excellent high level adventure, but parts 4 and 5 being kind of standard and uninteresting.

I agree... partially. Book 4 and book 5 are both fun to play the runeforge is after all great fun and so was the dungeon in book 4. The problem was IMHO.

The problem with book 4 & 5 is that they both are a lotta dungeon crawl. We had almost finished AP 5 but ... we couldn't stand it anymore. This is also when you reach levels where fights become tedious and much much too long.

But nevertheless AP 4 and 5 are great. It's just the overall scheme of 2 long dungeons in a row is well .... too much.

I'll second WAY OF THE WICKED.... It is so much fun to play/read/run.... and such a fresh air (and it goes to lvl 20). I fear though that AP 4 will be a bit too long.

OK thanks everyone for your feedback.
I think I'm going to rule out that you can't do both. Otherwise I think EVERY monster with natural attacks would have those feats before anything else.

Hi,

One of my player has an eidolon (plenty of natural attacks then) which has 2 feats.
Power attack
And touche
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/3rd-party-feats/super-genius-games/combat-fea ts/touche-combat

from Genius.
Touché (Combat)
You can make a quick, accurate attack at
the expense of hitting power.
Prerequisites: Dex 13, base attack bonus
+1.
Benefit: You can choose to take a –1
penalty to all weapon damage and combat
maneuver checks (to a minimum of 0) to
gain a +1 bonus to all melee weapon attack
rolls. This bonus to attack rolls is increased to
by an additional +1 if you are fighting with
a one-handed or light weapon in one hand,
and have nothing in your other hand. When
your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every
4 points thereafter, the penalty increased by
–1 and the bonus to attacks increases by +1.
You must choose to use this feat before
making any attack rolls, and its effects last
until your nest turn. The bonus does not
apply to touch attacks or effects that do not
deal hit point damage.

Since he's got natural attacks (considered as light then) he can use touche with a +4 to hit, -2 to dmg (Eidolon has a BAB of 6)

Power attack gives -2 to hit and +4 to dmg

If both combined it gives +2 to hit and +2dmg with all attacks (primary ones) and +2 to hit and +0 dmg with secondary attacks.

I have trouble visualising a "touché" combined with a power attack, but well may be it's just me.

Is it cheesy? Knowing that at lvl 20 he then gets +5 to hit and +5 dmg for all his primary attacks.

One could argue that he needs an empty hand but since it's all natural attacks...

I'm not sure you could stretch it to a full 6-volume AP, but I'd also like a series of modules detailing a multi-plane adventure, like the classic Great Modron March, or even great one-shots like Dead Gods or The Deva Spark.

Heck, I'd love even several little mini-adventures/side-treks, with each detailing a planar location or two, and a couple new items/spells/critters.

i agree.

For the record, I do know Gary, and if he's running behind, it's not malicious. You all know what a great job he does...life happens. I'm glad to see cooler heads prevailing.

Eldon... I do completely agree. Nevertheless communication is key. And I understand perfectly it's not malicious. Hell yeah my project is 2 years behind schedule but well ... I have to report the whys and whens and hows....

I'm ok to wait no prob.

and with such a low wisdom he's bound to be charmed, dominated and so on.

So no it's not cheesy at all.

yeah .... he's got one trick pony requiring 3 rounds of observation for a save or die.
Well it's not very powerful. Usually after 3 rounds the combat is either over or you're all dead specially at 13th level or higher.
I also concur to the other guy suggestions.

I have a party with 2 rogues and a ninja and they hated the bunch of barbarians I threw at them. One of them is a gob rogue. Very stealthy but well you can't have it all

For the 4 lvls higher it also apply. But that means throw barbarians higher level than lvl 9.

Remember also that undead and a lot others like constructs are immune to death effects.

For the video alone I pledged. ^^

Way of the wicked AP book 5 (Fire mountain games)
has a great way to show the progression from bitten to full born vampire.
It was going from lvl 3 to lvl 9 and you only get advantages every odd level.

it had a cost though 5 feats tax. This may seem a lot but in exchange you get 6 feats from vampires + You are indestructible and lots of stats boosts.

In fact I took only 3 feats tax and I regret it somehow.

If you don't know the AP it's absolutely gorgeous.

I'd say the riddle isn't very good. I'll have to think about something else (and translate in French too). ^^

@Kevin : Thanks for the feedback. 2 of my characters are undead. So... I'll have to think about it. Whether it could be by the end of book 2 or may be book 4. Book 3 is too much Angel orientated. Although during book 3 I could have a sort of avatar of Mitra warning them that the gloves are off if they don't stop. That will make them think and become a bit paranoid about everyone.
Except Devils. And be a good incentive for book 5 to happen when they have to slay "him".

If anybody is looking for rules on followers and what to do with them, you'd better look at Fire mountain games AP: Way of the Wicked.

in Call forth Darkness you have rules for followers and what to do with your minions. Obviously it's evil based but it can be used for good organisations.

Plus the AP is probably one of(if not) the best I've ever seen/played.

Check it out.

Now i found this thread very interesting. As my players are about to reach lvl 7 and will take leadership.

All i've realised is that it all comes to discussion between GM and players.

It's got no link with this particular scenario but as I was reading the bestiary I (page demons), I was thinking that somewhere in the AP I could add some demons upset that Asmodeus plans are going to well and perhaps try to kill the PCs.

Specially if a certain contract Devil warns them (as in next book) that some Demons are after them.

May be add a very short sidequest, just to let them understand that they are in the middle of a maelstrom between different gods.

I'll have to think about it.

What I realise after years of D&D (25+)is that combats breaking the horror ambiance. IT's good to have fights but it's somewhat hard to settle the horror feeling when you go into rules and combats.

that's my 2 cents.

Except for the occasional perception rolls or alike.

Could use some ideas and thoughts from fellow GMs who have run this book. My situation is thus:

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks!

Well, no one would be proud to be a descendant of "the sons". One could imagine that the baron is unsure if he/she really is a descendant. so you have to organise a time where they interrogate the poor mitran cleric who tried to atone his parents deeds. or he could be a local wealthy merchantman.

Thanks Tony.

It looks like it could be a sequel to the brilliant Way of the Wicked by Gary.
After having settled an evil asmodean empire, they have to free from it...
Anyway it looks cool. Hope we reach the stretch goals for the players guide. ^^

Indeed. Yeah!

OK I subscride... Hope we got plenty of additional stuffs ^^

Tu as raison french wolf

Or in english: You're right.

looks good. If i see what I like can I upgrade from skeleton to (international) zombie ? Have you got something to make us drool?

Whatever suits you... In fact 2 of my PCs are playing vampires and i'm trying to find a way to fear true death (as they are already dead) ^^.

No balentyne map for me sorry.

Thanks John.
I don't know about it. The idea is good though (and that would explain a lot of things about the thrones).

Other question: How did you handle PCs turned into vampires ?
Specially for the sleeping in coffins stuff.

By Raw I think they don't have to sleep in coffins and in fact they don't have to sleep at all even during daylight.
But i like to have my vampires as classic vampires (still i'd like to give them a chance to do something during the day even if not under daylight from time to time).

How can I rule their sleep? What would happen if they don't sleep? What happens if someone opens or move their coffin during the day? Would they wake up ?
I want to rule out that they can only sleep in coffin (which makes good RP and stress as they have to make sure their coffins are well guarded and not too far away) if they do sleep of course.

Any ideas or feedback or how to rule that ?

I have a couple of questions.

Nowhere is described the beginning of the stairs to level 1 & 2. By looking at the front picture i decided it was a DC25 perception check to notice the stairs going up lvl 1 (since it's entangled with vines).

How about the stairs to level 2? Is it the same stairs or others ? coming from base floor ?
It seems weird to have 2 different sets of stairs, one going only to lvl 1 and one going only to level 2.

Also:
In the capture cell (room 1-23) it says it's a 50ft fall nevertheless between level 1 (which is 100ft high) and level 2 (almost 200 ft high). So that would be an almost 100ft high fall no?

Nevertheless when I look at the map for the height of each lvl I see there is a 50ft difference between each lvl.
So Lvl 1: 50 ft, Lvl 2 100 ft and lvl 3 150 ft....

mmmh I'm confused then.

@BlackTorment : Getting stuck in the ritual room is no fun. So the NPCs are clever. They back up and attack en-masse flying. Then all the adventurers know that they have to avoid the death stairs as they call it.

Play your NPC cleverly.

For my own part we are about to start this book and I have a couple of questions :
1/ I know my players, they will probably attack the horn and kill everyone, not knowing that they will have to keep the horn for so long. How could I help them realise that

2/ Does the Baron Vandermir knows anything about the Horn or the ritual to break the seal ?

Although it's just out of curiosity because we are still playing WotW (it took my players 1 year and 1 week to finish book one) I have to agree that the classic error is a lack of communication from FMG.

Nevertheless I understand perfectly that he's got workload all over him (and may be also tons of personal stuffs). It's like trains or planes delays, there nothing worse than not knowing anything.

So if you ever learn something Gary on this one. Communicate, even if you just say "sorry guys I had to do this and this.... and so .... therefore I'm expecting to deliver this time".

Nevertheless You guys at FMG have aaaaaall my trust.

Provided you communicate with people who gave you their trust and their money (not me I didn't have the dosh at that time for KS).

TWF + Two weapon feint is good too.

Hey kevin !! I can't wait for your suggestions to the AP, like Douglas Muir and others if they still stick with Gary.

One thing though: Don't you ever mention again your 162 gp teleporation ring again... (smirk and teasing ... ;o) ).

Can you see that i'm bored waiting ?

The Timeline is given in book 6.

July 24, Year 16 in the reign of King Markadian V
called the Brave (Day Zero): The PCs are brought in
chains to Branderscar Prison. They have no realistic hope
of escape and in three days will face just punishment for
a crime they did commit.

And it carries on for 5 years....

Sometimes I wonder why people think that wizards casting fireballs and lightning bolts and fighters killing dozens of minions in little more than 10 seconds isn't mythic already.

But well I suppose that's just me.

Damn it ! I wonder why my PC clock keeps on writing that it's september 12th... It can't be true since ToN isn't out yet...

Damn you Hewlett Packard and your untrustworthy internal clock.

Unless ....

We get ToNs of delay...

As far as I can tell, it will tick 6 times including the initial tick, meaning it won't last a full 6 rounds (unless you poisoned yourself). What's important is to get the 6 ticks, so the poison would end at the end of your turn on round 6, not the end of the round (although there's no significant difference between the two since the tick wouldn't occur again until the next round anyway).

The reason I say this is because of poisons like blue whinnis. It doesn't make sense to have to save twice against 1d3 hours of unconscious— the first save would be for the 1 con, the second would be for the unconscious, and then the poison's over (2 ticks).

I think you're wrong. The first save when poison is applied doesn't count towards the 6 round in that case.