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So in another thread the OP was asking why all adventures seem to start in a tavern. Whether they do or not, every settlement I've ever designed/run/played from had one. But that got me thinking - are they ALWAYS just a bar with rooms for rent?

I don't know how many hits this thread will get or even if its all that interesting, but I'm looking for variants to the "standard" tavern. For the purposes of this thread, the "standard" will be defined as a single common room, separate rooms for rent for PCs to sleep in and some kind of cellar area for storing extra alcohol/foodstuffs.

Here are my two right off the bat:

Auntie Mymm's Pies: this eatery is merely the parlor, dining room and kitchen of Old Widow Mymm. She is a kindly human, pleasant to the regulars and generous with the gravies in her pies. She serves kidney, beef and mutton pies for lunch, dinner and supper. She also has an arrangement with the Brewhammer Brewery, serving their pales and lagers with her savories. Seating is limited but turns quickly and there are always a few who know to ask for "Auntie's Precious;" a robust confection infused with the widow's own witchcraft. Although only the highest merchants and nobles can afford these pies (50 GP) they swear that once consumed all their aches and pains are gone! (note: "Auntie's Precious" is a Cure Light Wounds potion; GM may add other level 1 potions as desired)

Croak and Whistle Teahouse: this rather unique establishment is built into the hollow and boughs of an ancient, gnarled willow. A flight of steps rises through the taproots to a small-sized door while the wafting aroma of dozens of heady brews hangs upon the lintel like a worn old coat. Inside are a handful of modest tables fit only for a party of four. Each features a ceramic plate in the center. A staircase exits out the side of the hollow to ring its way around the girth of the tree to the decking above.

The Croak and Whistle, established and run by a grippli ranger and his associate - a Halfling cleric of Gozreh, serves only teas alongside a host of sweets, cakes and other pastries with which to pair the steeped beverages. They boast no less than at least 99 varieties; some are classic teas found throughout the region, others are hybrids created by the dual proprietors, and some more unique flavors they claim to have discovered on their adventures through this world and others.

With the nature of the fare served at the Teahouse customers tend to linger for hours. Attending either the breakfast or high tea at the Croak and Whistle is always a social affair as patrons tend to wander through one anothers' conversations like so many wisps of steam from a rattling teapot. (Note: if PCs make a point to be on hand for either the Breakfast or High Tea service at this establishment they gain a +1 Circumstance bonus to any Gather Information roll made)

Ok so it started with this thread. I want to know - if you use the Golarion gods, how do you run organized religion in your games? I'm sure there's other threads on this subject but right now my search-fu is failing me (point me in the right direction if this has been done before in earnest). For example I run a homebrew but use the CRB deities - there is a central church called the Holy Rukenvalyk Church and then there are small, regional or settlement-based churches dedicated to 1 or more of the cannon deities w/in the pantheon which includes Abadar, Desna, Erastil, Iomedae, Nethys, Pharasma, Sarenrae, and Shelyn. Other deities are more region-specific or pagan.

Also that begs my second point: do you have different versions of your deities representing pagan/heretic/fringe groups of the faithful and cannon?

1. Do you have them/make them in your game?
2. If yes, are they crafted by the PCs?
3. If yes again, do the players typically start with an idea that they try to fit spells/rules to, or spells/mechanics they try to fit an idea to?

I'm asking because our home game has hit an interesting event horizon. Our PCs are as follows: NG Halfling warpriest (archetype: Divine Commander) 4/hunter 3; changeling arcanist 7; 1/2 minotaur (homebrew) shaman 7; dwarf fighter 7. The arcanist chose a couple item creation feats, namely Scribe Scroll and Craft Wondrous Items.

I've got ideas for items, but they're pipe dreams; scenes I want to see happen because I have the gear to MAKE them happen. I have no idea if the rules exist to allow these things or if those rules are there, whether or not we're high enough level to make them a reality.

I just thought it'd be cool to open a discussion on unique, custom wondrous items.

So I just popped into the Settlements thread on the General Discussion board and learned that the CRB has some solid numbers on guards per city. I'm wondering if anyone has similar numbers for things like how many nobles for a kingdom, how many soldiers per noble or kingdom, and a good way to divide up the political titles?

I never could get a handle on nobles in real life. So in feudal societies, you had nobles based on the right to own land, but how much land made you one kind of noble or another? Like why would someone be a baron instead of a knight, or a count?

As for military I ask that because I've got a couple players wanting to take Profession: Soldier in a new campaign and they want to dive into the minutia of how big the armies are and how they're divvied up throughout the kingdom. They want to be able to use the skill as they level up to work with said military and perhaps at mid or higher levels even call upon favors from the rank and file.

So I'm on the fence about going to this con. I have never been and I live 4 hours away in MN. Y'see I'm not one for cosplay, I like to read as much as the next guy but there's no one I need to get autographs from, I'm not a collector so there's nothing I'd be hunting for in the dealer room... that just leaves me looking for gaming.

I've poked around the website and I see tons of photos about the stuff I'm not really into. They don't have the games schedule up yet so I don't know what to expect. There's a couple of discussions I'd sign up for but I don't think I want to drive for four hours, get a hotel room, and then attend two talks and end up wandering around by myself for a weekend.

If any MN Pathfinders happen upon this thread and are planning on going chime in. Also if any PFS folks from years past have anecdotes on what goes on feel free to dish. I've just been burned on one con in my own town that didn't live up to my expectations; I don't want to spend money and time a state away for the same let down.

So I'm on the fence about going to this con. I have never been and I live 4 hours away in MN. I'm wondering if PFS is going to have a presence there? Y'see I'm not one for cosplay, I like to read as much as the next guy but there's no one I need to get autographs from, I'm not a collector so there's nothing I'd be hunting for in the dealer room... that just leaves me looking for gaming.

I've poked around the website and I see tons of photos about the stuff I'm not really into. They don't have the games schedule up yet so I don't know what to expect. There's a couple of discussions I'd sign up for but I don't think I want to drive for four hours, get a hotel room, and then attend two talks and end up wandering around by myself for a weekend.

If PFS is going to be there or if any MN Pathfinders happen upon this thread and are planning on going chime in. Also if any PFS folks from years past have anecdotes on what goes on feel free to dish.

Looking for campaign advice. I was running a homebrewed one-shot involving the PCs getting hired by the local adventurer's guild to deal with some sewer monsters. There was no really big plot: go into the sewers, clear out some goblins using an underground chamber as a lair. The players are all completely new to RPGs so the session was supposed to be a fun way for these bored board gamers to blow off some steam.

About 3/4 of the way through the game I was already being peppered with requests to make this a campaign.

So I ad-libbed something. The main goblin leader was communicating through a mirror to some heavy-voiced mastermind and "faxing" a map to the guy through the mirror. PCs bust in, defeat the goblins, but the rogue goes for the map she sees disappearing.

While the fight rages around her she has a few tense moments using Sleight of Hand against the Escape Artist of her foe. After two ties between me and the player rolled heads up on the table, I rule that the map tears in half but that the mirror goes blank. Cheers erupt, high fives all around and we break up the game.

Now honestly, I didn't know if I could count on these players for regular gaming. They work different schedules, lead vastly different lives, and I am about 10 years older than all of them with a wife, two girls and a full time office job. Despite all of this all four players have since arranged things so that all of us have Sunday afternoons/evenings together.

They've even taken to calling themselves my "guild."

The only downside is that I have no idea where I was going. I literally just made everything up off the top of my head. I don't know what's on their half of the map other than a trail through the local forest. I don't know who the mastermind villain is, why he wants the map, or even what the goblins were doing there in the first place.

The players are all newbs, but this also works to their advantage. They don't yet fear Attacks of Opportunity, failed saves or bad die rolls. They even... SPLIT THE PARTY once!

So I come to you, oh gracious community. The only request I've had from my players is that I continue to homebrew. They'd prefer not to get involved in an AP, though I could probably sneak in an occasional module.

The PCs are all pre-gens I made for the one shot:

1. Hugh (pronounced "huge") Badaxe, CG male human fighter
2. Sneaky McFrench, NG female Halfling rogue
3. Luvvy, LG male dwarf cleric
4. Brutalicus Maximus (A.K.A. Kevin), NG male elf wizard

For the players' sake being new to RPGs and still asking "what CAN I do?" I'm guessing going sandboxy on them might not be good right now. I can probably pull off a non-linear thing, like having a main villain plot in the background and using multiple sub-plots to get to them.

Any advice you folks have would be appreciated. Thanks in advance and sorry for the wall o text!

So, I'm wondering what to run as a one shot adventure. I'll have four players, late at night, ringing in the new year with gaming. 2 players know the basics, the other four only know how to play an RPG. All four are in their late 20's/early 30's and are looking for fun, crazy and silly.

I don't want to run the beginner box stuff since they know at least the basics. I also want to stay away from We Be Goblins since one of them has played that before. Otherwise, sky's the limit. Normally I homebrew, so if someone just has a general suggestion on a short plot that might be fun for an evening, I'm all ears.

So I'm a Warpriest 4 and my next level I'm taking Hunter 1. That puts me at 4 orisons from the Cleric spell list and another 4 from Druid. Right now in a given day I'm taking the holy trinity: Guidance, Resistance, Virtue. The other 5 I'm stumped on.

I know you don't always use a lot of orisons/0 level spells at level 5, but what advice can you give on 0 levels that you actually still use? If it helps I'm playing in the Reign of Winter AP.

I have a Warpriest/Hunter PC that rides around on a wolf. When we enter melee my attack bonus is terrible, as is my wolf's. I do however have the Helpful Halfling trait, letting me hand out a +4 attack bonus on one attack.

Now the wolf has a bite attack:

Bite +7 (1d6 +3 plus Trip)

The Trip is an auto-generated attempt upon hitting a foe. If I use Aid Another on the wolf's attack, does the +4 only count towards his initial attack? If the +4 doesn't help on both, can I ready an action to help ONLY on the Trip portion of the attack?

Help me make a good maker. Just off the top I'm using Wizard; if there's a better crafting class let me know. I'm looking for something that not only makes magic items but also makes good mundane items as well.

At level one she takes a Familiar (owl, just 'cuz I like 'em!) and gives the familiar the Valet archetype so it can help her craft. She has a 20 Int at level 1, so 7 skill ranks, all in Craft skills.

Level 1 take the Bonded Mind feat. Also one of her 2 feats at level 1 is Fools for Friends. Its a campaign trait but per my GM it's allowed. My plan is by level 3 to take Exceptional Aid (+4 on skill checks instead of +2).

Her 7 Craft skills, by level 3, will be +16 (+5 Int, +3 Ranks, +3 Class Skill, +5 from Aid Another by her owl.). Using the Crafter's Fortune spell and some Masterwork tools she's rocking a +28 on her 7 Craft skills and churning out Weapons, Armor and other items.

How much MORE better can I get?

Currently playing a NG male humanoid (Halfling) Warpriest (Divine Commander)4. Next level I'll start a 3 level dip into Hunter. My feat choices currently are:

My future feat plan is as follows:

Currently my Animal Companion is a wolf with the Bodyguard archetype. He has:

His planned feats are:

So based on all the feats above, at level 9 I'm riding into melee, threatening and thus creating a Flank w/my AC but then slinging into melee w/out provoking. Unfortunately then though my AC hardly uses any of its AoO's so why even take Combat Reflexes?

What if, instead, I just risk it and provoke when firing into melee?

Say I take Paired Opportunists instead of Point Blank Master? It would look like this:

1. I ride up to melee with my wolf (or fly in by level 9)
2. My Halfling uses Ranged attacks fired into melee; provokes AoOs
3. If opponents attack me with these AoOs, my wolf gets his AoOs either to defend me against their attacks or, if they can be tripped then he just uses his Bite with the +4 on AoOs from Paired Opportunists

Do you think this strategy is a better use of my AC and I overall?

I'm planning out a Halfling sling staff warpriest/hunter. He has an animal companion he rides around on. He also has the Warslinger trait. Here are his proposed feats:

Level 1: Point Blank Shot
Level 3: Combat Expertise
Level 3 Bonus Teamwork: Pack Flanking
Level 5: Slipslinger
Level 6 Bonus: Outflank,
Level 7: Weapon Specialization
Level 7 Bonus Teamwork: Enfilading Fire
Level 9: Point Blank Master
Level 9 Bonus: Coordinated Shot

If I'm reading this right, when I ride my AC into melee I

1. Full attack with 2 shots without provoking (Warpriest trait, Slipslinger, Point Blank Master)

2. Threaten with the melee part of the sling staff and therefore create a Flank with my AC (Pack Flanking)

3. Gain +4 on Ranged attacks (Coordinated Shot, Enfilading Fire)

So, do I have this right? If so this is really awesome! The point of the character is to be support and a switch hitter. By 9th level in the above situation with my current gear and no buffs running I'll be looking at

Ranged +1 sling staff +19/+14 (+6 BAB, +5 Dex, +1 Enhancement, +1 Point Blank Shot, +1 Size, +1 Weapon Focus, +2 Coordinated Shot, +2 Enfilading Fire)/1d6 +6 (Damage Die from Warpriest Sacred Weapon, +1 Str, +1 Enhancement, +1 Slipslinger, +1 Point Blank Shot, +2 Weapon Specialization)

Please correct me if I'm off here. Thanks!

My PC is a NG male humanoid (Halfling) Warpriest (Divine Commander)5. In anticipation of level 6 which will likely come next game session, I'm prepping ahead. Divine Commander 6 has the following power:

So per this I'm going to pick Simple: Celestial for my wolf, granting among other things Spell Resistance = Divine Commander level +5.

So, how do I get that higher?

At level 6 we're looking at SR 11. Most spellcasting foes at this level are flinging spells at a CL 7, meaning they only need to roll a 4 or higher to affect my mount. Can I increase this resistance or should I just not count on that being of much value?

I got my book in the mail today and I am STOKED! My oldest daughter is interested in learning PFS. Both girls are going to try some board games and this year they're going to learn the magic of "deck building" games.

As for me there's gaming, a bar, cheap hot dogs, gaming, open tables for impromptus, the painting contest, gaming, networking... did I mention gaming? GET EXCITED Minnesota! Feb 12-14, Plymouth, MN, the Crowne Plaza... IT IS ON!

So a tazlwyrm is a primitive dragon that lives in the woods. It's also ripped from RL folklore. Finally it shows that it has Standard treasure in the Beastiary.

Does it desire treasure as true dragons do?

I'm looking t give a tatzlwyrm levels in either a PC or NPC class and am trying to give it some kind of realistic motivation. It's Int is 5, so it isn't a mastermind, but it's Wis is a 14 so it has plenty of natural cunning. The fluff describes it as sort of a really smart animal. Why would an animal have Standard treasure?

My rationale so far is kobolds.

Kobolds worship dragons. A Tatzlwyrm is a kind of dragon. Some really minor kobolds find the CR 2 dragon and placate it with some treasure, awakening some long-dormant hording instinct in it. Once it begins acquiring loot it NEEDS more and demands its "minions" gather more.

Since I'm going to be giving it some kind of divine spellcasting class (either Adept, Cleric, Druid or something else) the tatzlwyrm began to come into its faith and power as well through exposure to the kobolds. It learned to worship and earned rewards from the patron it began to serve. Using this as a model it rewarded some of the kobolds serving it to the best of its ability and earned a place at the top of this weird heap of dragons and reptiles.

Now when the PCs come along the dragon is sending his kobolds far and wide to find more sparklies for his nest. Meanwhile the dragon takes a few elite kobolds with him on hunts in the woods using superior Survival skills and simple traps to keep the entire tribe fed and happy.

Should a tatzlwyrm have a desire for treasure? Further is this simple rationale enough to make a bunch of PCs want to destroy the creature?

I know: depends on the players. If YOU were a player, what would YOU think?

So some kobolds worship dragons or Dahak directly right? They are meager minions claiming kinship to dragons and worshipping them for power. In PF mechanics all it really takes to use divine spells and powers is a high Wis.

Imagine another draconic kin with decent Wis. It sees kobolds gaining power from this worship and learns to mimic their prayers and devotions. Unlike others of its kin this creature is willing to add these devotions to its daily routines of nesting, trapping meat and sleeping.

Enter: Umbravex, the Black Hearted Wyrm

This would be nothing more than a tatzlwyrm with levels in some kind of divine casting class. Right off the bat I'm thinking of advancing him with the NPC class Adept. I'm wondering if folks have other ideas though. I'm looking for an epic challenge for a group of optimized level 1 PCs. Despite their optimization they are all level 1, so they're APL 1. For this reason I'm thinking of advancing the tatzlwyrm no higher than CR 4.

Ok, one last rules question before today's game then I'll stop bugging you folks for a while. Help me wrap my head around the action for jumping.

In one game I have a grippli ranger 2 with the Jumper and Glider traits. As I understand it I can't jump further than my base speed of 30 but I can combine my jump with a Move so 10' Move +20' jump. Grippli with the Jumper trait don't need to move 10 for a running start and can always take 10 so just standing still and leaping I can jump ahead 30'.

This is the part I get.

Now this hasn't come up in the game yet but I'd like to know: can I combine jumping with other forms of movement? What I'd like to do is:

Climb up 20' and take 10 with a Jump, moving me forward 30'. In the process I glide adding an extra 5' forward for every 10' up, so in total +10'.

Is the above legal? If I climb with a Climb 20 speed I haven't moved my full base 30, so that's how I'm justifying the initial jump but would I be able to make the full 30' jump or only 10'? Also can I glide so that it moves me further than my base speed?

Currently I'm running a homebrew game that's made it to 3rd level. Our primary villains are kobolds and they use Cover often. I've been told though by a player that I may be running it wrong.

I've had these kobolds (upgraded from using slings to bows) firing arrows from corners, behind stalactites and boulders, etc. In this instance I've given them +4 AC and +2 Ref saves until the moment they pop out to fire; then I give them Partial Cover; +2 AC, +1 Ref. They are not Sniping; they're not using Stealth and trying to target PCs' Flat-Footed AC.

My player is telling me that the PCs should be getting Cover from their shots. Since I'm giving the kobolds Partial Cover at the time they fire the PCs should have a +2 AC from that same cover. My players have also mentioned that the kobolds should be taking a 5'step and then firing, leaving them exposed for an entire round unless they have Shot on the Run and can Move/shoot/Move in a round.

Am I running this wrong by RAW?

Fresh off another thread that dipped into this topic I thought it was worth discussing. Aid Another is, at it's heart, a mechanic that encourages all the players to work together at a common goal. In my own home games I've houseruled that in some situations players don't even need to use the same skills.

I had a scenario once where the PCs came to a magical trap. There was a rogue in the party but I didn't want it to be just him making dice rolls so I asked the other players their skills.

One was a wizard and he'd noticed the magic of the trap with Detect Magic so I asked him to use Spellcraft to try and figure a way around it. Part of mechanism involved a relief of a face on a door; the mouth would open to unleash the effect so the fighter got to make a Strength check and finally the trap had been created by an adept so the cleric made a Knowledge: Religion check to analyze the faith that contributed to the device and any details that would yield.

In all every player at the table helped disable the trap. Yeah, that's not RAW and may have detracted from the rogue's unique ability to break magic traps but in the end everyone participated and had fun. Mechanically all that happened was the rogue got +6 on his own roll and since the DC was a 21 on the trap it ended up helping him.

Anyway, since then I've strongly encouraged my players to use Aid Another. Not just with different skills. Any untrained skill can be used. We've had a party face talk to an NPC and had a second player chime in; no skill in Diplomacy but a natural +2 from Cha so on an 8 or higher they're helping. I've also reminded players that Craft is an untrained skill. So one guy wants to make a bow? The other 3 PCs can help somehow and tack on +2s so long as they roll a total check of 10 or better.

In combat no one ever uses Aid Another and I get it; the action economy is bad and there's better things to do with your actions. Still against single opponents it might be handy or, say, if you've got an animal companion, familiar or other helper with no chance of hitting this might be a worthwhile standard action.

I had a level 2 wizard use her Enlarge Person on her owl familiar in one fight. Next fight was only a minute later so the familiar was still enlarged. It flew in and granted the oracle a +5 (had a trait from a feat that allowed it to give +2 on Aid Another) to attack from Aid Another and Flanking. That's no small bonus at level 2.

What have your experiences been with Aid Another in your games?

I'm kicking off a new game and invited an old-timer player to join. He's grudgingly jumping into a PF game. When I asked what his frustration was, he lamented that the character building process was such a joke.

Per this player there's only a few "correct" feats to take and everything else is a trap. His example was Power Attack for a fighter. If you're a fighter Power Attack is the "right" feat to take and everything else is either sub-par or a trap.

That's been really grating on me. It assumes that my game will be so combat heavy that most scenes will be melee. What if the game slides political, or all the villains are ranged attackers?

Yes, some rare feats are brutally ineffective (I'm looking at you Fleet) to buy with such a finite resource. But as a GM I'm more about player empowerment. If you WANT to play a grippli with an Agile Tongue that you use for the Steal maneuver, I want that ability to shine so your feat choices are validated.

So does that make me a wuss GM? Are there really certain feats that are a "must" for PCs and everything else is worthless? Who else out there is willing to modify their game if their players want to make some of these so called sub-par feat choices?

So my gaming friends and I were chatting the other night about old school versus new school. It was the same old; we all ranted about kids these days... video games... get off my lawn, that kind of thing.

Somewhere in the middle of it all I went quiet. My one buddy mentioned that the GREAT thing about all these old school systems is that there were a LOT of rules, but not for players. The DM handled everything. Players just rolled some dice and got their little package of class stuff and went along with the plot.

Right there it hit me: I HATED that.

I don't want to get my old school card revoked but I gotta admit that there were tons of games of D&D when I was a kid where I tried different things to make MY fighter different from other ones. I'm not talking "this one carries axes" different but like asking the DM if I could have a mutant power, or a combat tail, or be super-acrobatic or something.

The other thing I always hated about back in the day was that EVERYTHING was on me when DMing. If a player wanted his character to throw a grappling hook and swing out dramatically, there weren't a lot of rules for it and no skills. So... I'd just make up an arbitrary number. It was a ton of "mother may I" situations and I ended up being the biggest "mother" of them all if you catch my drift.

So I have to admit that I LOVE Pathfinder. I loved Marvel Super Heroes back in the day for the same reason: player agency. Sure the villains are left up to the GM but the rules and customizing the PC is ALL you!

Please tell me that there's a way for me to be a little old school, a little new at the same time. Do any of you guys play the same way? Help me out here.

The standard kobold in the Beastiary is a warrior 1 which is a CR 1/4 threat. They also automatically get Craft: Traps as a skill as well as Stealth. They get a +2 Perception for their Racial bonus, a +4 Stealth from their size and generally travel in packs. Light Sensitivity as a weakness as well as Darkvision suggests that kobolds generally don't walk about in broad daylight. Couple that with high Stealth and a low tolerance for damage (standard Kobold in the book has 5 HP) and you gotta figure these things generally keep to environments it's easy to hide in.

So if you surprise some kobolds I could see it being a CR 1/2 or even a CR 1/4 fight but if not then:

1. why would they NOT be using their environment to their advantage (Cover, Higher Ground, Difficult Terrain, etc.)
2. why would they not be in close proximity to their traps?
3. why would they fight ANYONE in the open?

I'm talking Tucker's Kobolds here; in their lair all the above makes sense. But like, I was writing a homebrew encounter involving some kobolds trying to steal a mundane book from a mundane library. Why would said kobolds in the library not be moving with extreme stealth, tossing smokesticks, attacking from the tops of the stacks and using ranged attacks to keep foes at bay?

All of the above, using their environment and decent equipment and superior tactics adds to the CR of the fight. So there's my question: why would kobolds EVER be a low-CR encounter?

Last night we killed Orcus.

A buddy of ours is moving and he's wanted to get a one-shot on the table for a while now pitting the demon lord against some mythic PCs. Over the last few weeks we've been creating level 20/mythic tier 10 PCs to go head to head with Orcus.

Two thousand, six hundred, and seventy two points of damage.

That was the ludicrous number I dumped. In 2 attacks. I stole part of a mythic fighter build that's floated around the boards a couple times: 20 levels of human 2h fighter and 10 mythic tiers in Champion path focused on Vital Strike, Criticals and a x4 crit weapon, the scythe.

When I announced that number everyone in the room stopped. The GM actually looked at me, blinked and mumbled "Wait... what?" I proudly laid out how I'd hit the numbers and my buddy just sat back, staring.

The fight was over. Orcus had been dropped below "negative a lot" per the GM. He was also dimensionally anchored, couldn't regenerate and had no DR for a round. In that next round his corpse was completely and utterly disintegrated by mythic spells and fire even while dispels were being cast to ensure he didn't have a contingency.

Now of course the story of the scenario went on. Rovagug was coming and there was nothing we could do would stop him. Saranre appeared and she sacrificed herself and imploded the entire universe to finally eradicate the Rough Beast once and for all, creating the conditions for a new "big bang" which would re-start everything again and put us as new divine beings at the center of it all.

My takeaway from the experience was this: that was nuts!

It took longer for the prologue and epilogue. Also at that level you better know EXACTLY how you're attacking. The barbarian and the monk/rogue both got thrown for a loop and had to improvise; respectively their turns took nearly 20 minutes each.

Still the damage output was insane. The powers outside the realm of anything I've done before. And I'm a guy that once hosted a "3-day demigod" event in 2e back in the day!

I know some people vibe on mythic and no disrespect at all. For me, that was just too much. 2 attacks, 2,672 damage. I do have to admit though, it was somehow satisfying in the moment when my buddy went into shock so it wasn't a total bust. Thanks again Paizo!

I have a game coming up which utilizes the Lost City of Barakus from Necromancer/Frog God Games. It will be played in the Pathfinder system.

In this campaign the PCs investigate a lost city. An ancient evil has been sealed in the underground layers of the city for millennia but its prison has been nigh unbreakable. This is one of the potential final villains of the campaign.

I'm coming to ask for advice on how to make my players hate this villain.

Its been locked away, so it can't have directly caused a destruction the PCs are avenging. The same restriction means it doesn't have much contact w/the outside world so that doesn't help my case either. How do you make a helpless prisoner into a satisfying final villain?

Some initial thoughts I had were

I'm open to any advice you can offer.

So in a little bit here I'm going to be kicking off a Sinnar Coast/Lost Lands campaign starting off around Endholme with the Lost City of Barakus product from Necromancer/Frog God Games. I was grateful though when my players gave me a couple more weeks to prep since as I looked through the books the setting didn't make sense to me at all.

Just in the immediate area of the starting city there's thousands of square miles of open plain. There's also some hills and forest. None of these lands appear to have any settlement beyond 30 miles from Endholme. Apparently though the city is a trade hub.

Monsters from the nearby hills replenish cleared areas in the dungeon, but none of these monsters seem to have lairs. Some monsters in the dungeon seem to have no means of ingress or egress between their areas and the outside world save plowing through other monster lairs and yet these trapped monsters have food, water and combat gear. Finally none of the monsters are described as being connected to any larger culture but yet they have gold and other wealth which would imply they're collecting said wealth for some reason; while it could just be a hoarding instinct I wouldn't assume that of EVERY monster.

So... should I care? Do any of you? Does your setting need to make sense or have at least SOME kind of realistic feel to it for you to enjoy it or do you just handwave such details?

I myself am trying to make some connections between some of the wilderness sites to create sub-stories in the area. I'm also modifying settlement of the area saying that the "empty plains" of the interior to the west are open steppe, moors, and grasslands as well as tiny forests so small as to not be recorded on the overland map. This area then is sparsely inhabited by settlements no larger than a Small Town under the protectorate of Endholme. Finally I'm alluding to larger groups of humanoids in the hills from which the ones in the dungeon spring and establishing that these monsters sometimes barter and purchase from one another or greater monsters - there is a sort of "monster economy" at work somehow.

I'm level 1, game starts tomorrow. So far in the party the only PCs I know for sure are an inquisitor and an arcanist. Here's the build I'm going with so far:

Str 12 (14 -2 racial)
Dex 18 (16 +2 racial)
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 13
Cha 12 (10 +2 racial)

Feats
B1 Weapon Focus: Sling
L1 Point Blank Shot

I'm debating whether or not to take the Divine Commander archetype which trades out blessings and feats for an Animal Companion, Teamwork feats with the ability to hand them out to allies and a Celestial template bump for the AC at 6th level. I also am looking for advice on the stats/feats. Any advice would be helpful.

There's lots of ways to optimize your PCs these days. While you can't ever MASTER all the ways with a single PC there are a few key choices that mean that, by about 6th level you can solo many fights and lucky hits and bad initiative rolls are all that stand between you and glory.

So do you consider the party when making your character? Do you consider the rest of the PCs when determining your strategy or the development of your character?

I was in an email discussion with a fellow player today and one of their comments amounted to: we shouldn't have to huddle before every fight or buff ourselves outside every door.

I thought: why not? I'm not saying so extreme that we're buffing for EVERY fight, but why not huddle, plan, and make decisions on spells to take, strategies to employ etc based on the whole group? When we're actually in play this gamer tends to act independently from the rest of the party but that's fine since they're decent at optimizing and can usually survive each battle unless luck is against them which is something out of their control anyway.

I don't know, it just got me thinking: is the prevailing thought now about the individual characters instead of the group now? And please don't ONLY answer with "it depends on the GM/campaign" because EVERYTHING depends on those things. Independent of the GM or the particular game they're running, is party unity a thing of the past?

Next game session I'm bringing in a wizard with an owl familiar. Said familiar will spend most of its time enlarged, buffed with Mage Armor and helping out once in a while in combat. I did however want to figure what would happen in the following scenario:

My enlarged familiar and I are facing an opponent in an open air ruin. Chunks of masonry, some of which are Medium sized and weigh a couple hundred pounds, lay strewn about. I hit my familiar earlier in the day with Ant Haul and currently he's not carrying anything.

1. Can a Small sized flying familiar with a max carrying capacity of 260 lbs grab hold and fly with one of these chunks of masonry?

2. Assuming a yes to #1, what is the rule for dropping it on a foe and how much damage will it do?

Thanks in advance!

So I set myself a challenge: 30 days, 30 low-level encounters right? I have a game going every week that's at level 2 so I figure I can work the encounters into the game, plus I was thinking about starting a blog with free encounters and ideas so these would be good fodder for that too.

I grab some dice and the PF Beastiary 1. I get "2d6 goblins" so I put that down and start designing. They're the Mirthskinner Tribe, called such cuz they skin their victims and wear grinning masks of said stuff. Then that leads me to an idea, which in turn becomes part of a larger power struggle between a ghast who was a former cult leader and just HAPPENED to have been a noble when alive.

Now I've got a cursed noble line, a survivor of the ghast's family predations, said survivor has grown into an Aristocrat 1 but also exhibits burgeoning Sorcerer powers with the Undead bloodline. Oh, and she chafes against her super-lawful asimar lady-in-waiting and is not-so-secretly in love with the captain of the guard, a half-elf Warrior. Said captain has made a deal with the goblins to deliver the girl whose kidnapping will draw out the lady-in-waiting so that she can reveal the whereabouts of the family fortune and all concerned except the asimar and her mistress believe the ghast to be a myth.

...

What's wrong with me? First I spend months with writer's block and am so burned out running my other game that I turn the reigns over to one of the players, now I try to discipline myself to writing just simple encounters and instead I have the rudiments of an entire module.

Think about all the enchanted gear your PC has. How did you acquire the majority of it? Loot drops, crafting it or purchasing it from NPCs, or some other source?

I get it; Pathfinder isn't ALL about combat. PCs can measure success in goals achieved, heroic moments, etc. However I'm thinking more mechanically tonight. When it DOES come to battle, how do you KNOW you're contributing?

Is it DPR? A level 1 Halfling fighter, well optimized for Str and Dex (as much as he can be in those stats) and wielding a masterwork sling he got from a trait can hit a Ranged masterwork +10 sling (1d3 +4) attack that deals an average 6 damage, or DPR versus a CR 1 creature (14 AC per the Beastiary) of about 5.1

Is THAT successful contribution? Is that any MORE valid than a skald starting her raging song for +2 Str, +2 Con and +1 Will versus -1 AC? What about if a Witch uses his Sleep hex to take out a foe? Is that character only successful when the hex succeeds?

I'm asking because I've been called on to run a 2nd character in a campaign that just started. The GM is... interpretive with even some of the core rules. The first game session our APL 3/4 party (3 level 1 PCs - a Bloodrager, a fighter and a divine caster version of a sorcerer called a Favored Soul) went toe to toe with CR 4, 5 and even a CR 6 fight.

The GM has promised to tone it down but now I'm re-thinking what I thought of as "successful." My fighter ended up being fairly useless, focused as he is on Quickdraw and Shield Focus on his way to becoming a switch-hitter sword-and-board type.

My own personal interpretation was always this:

I am successful if either I have a 50% or better chance of dealing 1/4 the HP of a monster of my CR or my actions contribute directly and intentionally to the success of the rest of the party (buff spells, Aid Another, debuffing the enemy or using save-or-suck tactics/abilities successfully).

Am I naïve, foolish or out of touch?

So I know the most combat-intense familiar archetype is the Mauler. However I have an idea of crafting a half-elf character that uses her familiar as a second set of eyes since she's giving up Keen Senses for something else. As a result I'm using a Valet familiar archetype.

Please note: we were allowed to ROLL our stats so don't freak out over the numbers. The only stipulation by the GM is that we couldn't go over an 18 to start.

Argentica
Wizard (universalist/Arcane Builder)
Str 13
Dex 16
Con 18 (16 +2 racial)
Int 18
Wis 14
Cha 14
Traits: Dangerously Curious, Reactionary
Feats:
Level 1: Evolved Familiar - Skilled (Perception)
Level 1 bonus: Scribe Scroll
Level 3: Lookout
Level 3 bonus: Extended Spell
Level 5: Evolved Familiar - Skilled (Use Magic Device)
Level 5 bonus: Craft Wand

This is as far as my thought process got me. At this point my familiar, an owl, will have a +18 Perception before any buffs. As well I can cast Alter Self on the familiar, put it in a humanoid form, and use it as a Quicken Spell kind of effect. With a +11 Use Magic Device by 5th level I can hand off wands or even level 1 scrolls to it and double my spells cast in a round.

If anyone has any critiques of where to take the build from here or changes I should make I'm all ears.

I haven't been a player in a while. I've got a new half-elf wizard 1 with a familiar and I'm wanting to use the familiar as a combat-aid. I gave it Familiar Focus so at first level I can give it 2 hours of Mage Armor off a scroll, so I'm not worried about that. I am worried though that I'll never get a lot of buffs on the thing just before a fight to make it combat viable.

I feel like, to keep it alive at low levels I'm going to need:

Enlarge Person
Infernal Healing
Magic Fang (from a half-elf racial trait)

I can maybe skip Magic Fang but the other 2 seem essential. Judging by my own players' spell use though in my games it doesn't seem like I'm ever going to have the chance to get 2 buffs on my pet, and sometimes not even one.

How often do players honestly get the chance to buff up before a fight?

Is it at 0 HP or do they die when they hit negative equal to their Con? I have a 1st level half-elf wizard 1 with 10 HP; her familiar gets 5. If she sends her familiar into combat does it die at 0 or at -11?

I have a half-elf with Magic Fang 1/day as an SLA. She is also a Wizard 1 with Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat. Can she make scrolls of Magic Fang?

So I have a female half-elf Wizard 1 with an owl familiar. For RP reasons I don't want to change the familiar but my half-elf gets only Low Light Vision, not Darkvision. Are there any means at low levels to make sure I always have SOME light to see by but not enough to spoil my +3 Perception bonus?

I asked my GM to houserule Penumbra saying it would shield my vision against light effects so I could always be considered to be in Dim Light but he says since the spell isn't worded that way it doesn't work that way. At 3rd level I'll get Darkness but then I won't be able to see at all.

Vocal Alteration is a 1st level arcane spell that changes a creature's voice. Its a transmutation, not an illusion; it actually changes the voice to something else. Per the spell:

The target can vary the disguised voice just as it could its normal voice. For example, a halfling female given a male dwarf noble’s voice and accent could speak in falsetto, with a rural halfling accent, and so on.

Now if you have a familiar you can target it with a spell regardless of it's Type; by this rule you can cast Enlarge Person on a familiar despite the fact that the creature is a Magical Beast. Combining that ability with this spell, could you change your familiar so it could speak common? It has an Int of 6 right at the start which gives it access to a single language; you could select Common and then cast this spell to alter it's voice to actually speak if that's legal.

So the rules are that if a caster uses a Touch attack spell, designates their familiar as the "toucher" and then has the familiar hold the charge they can't cast another spell while the touch charge is held.

What if the caster uses a scroll?

Ex: a third level wizard has crafted a 3rd level scroll of Chill Touch. Before going into a weird cave the wizard gives her familiar the charge off the scroll; the familiar can now deliver 3 Chill Touch attacks. Can the wizard still buff them both with Mage Armor if she has the 1st level spells memorized?

Did you know it explicitly says in the familiar rules that familiars use Str or Dex, whatever's better for determining attack bonuses? They don't need Weapon Finesse to attack with Dex. Also get yourself the 2 1-point evolutions Reach and Pounce and your familiar can attack with all its natural attacks even being Tiny sized.

What other obscure rules/feats are good for familiars?

Ok, I can't find the rules for it so my search-fu must be broken. Can you have a familiar deliver a Touch attack as part of a Full attack action? If so, can you take the feat Evolved Familiar to give your familiar Pounce which in turn means, based on the ruling above, you can send in your familiar to deliver a Touch attack the same round it makes a Move action?

So I do this thing when I get a little fried: I grab some dice and randomly roll some encounters, then try to make a dungeon out of it. I grabbed Beastiary 1, opened to the Dungeon random encounter tables and got:

x4 Fire Beetles
1 Cockatrice
1 Ogre
1 Medium Humanoid Skeleton
1 Rust Monster
x4 Vargoyles

For whatever reason the vargoyles stuck out as the most dynamic, so I focused in on them. After about an hour of research, brainstorming and tinkering around, here's the bones so far:

Since the encounters in the dungeon are all low level I'm thinking this is an adventure for about 2nd level. I don't know that I'll have all the vargoyles encountered in ONE room; that's a CR 6 fight and likely to end in a TPK. Rather I think I'd just have the vargoyles fly around supporting other encounters but possibly escaping back to the vault.

So what am I missing? I'm writing this completely as a stand-alone, not tied to any particular plot. What kind of generic plot hooks can I use to get a group of adventurers involved. Oh also, before I forget

So imagine a human wizard 1; they take a Valet archetype familiar. Right off the bat the familiar counts as having all the wizard's Teamwork feats.

Level 1 feats:
Distracting Charge (Wiz 1)
Escape Route (Hum bon)
Scribe Scroll (Wiz bon)

Take a flying familiar and swap its first level feat for Flyby Attack. Now it's making flying Charge attacks (which essentially deal 1 non-lethal if they hit) but if the wizard can get to melee and better yet hold their action until the familiar attacks so they can move into a flank position at just the right moment they'd be attacking at +4 to hit if the familiar hits with its flying charge.

The familiar doesn't need to worry about moving through threatened spaces adjacent to the wizard (Escape Route) so no AoOs. Couple this with both wizard and familiar tanking through high Dex and Mage Armor and you've got a way to compete on the front lines.

What other Teamwork feats would serve this wizard build?

Let's take the lowly kobold. In my Bestiary 1 I see a pic of a kobold with a bone through its nose, a spear and it's range weapon lists a sling. Bear in mind that it is defined by its class levels. Its listed class in the stat block is Warrior 1, one of the only advantages of which is all martial weapons.

Why so cruel to the kobold?

Without changing/optimizing stats, adding PC class levels or modifying any feats I'm looking at a Str 9, Dex 13 Small sized creature. Said creature is also of average intelligence and capable of wielding ANY martial weapon, so why is he depicted with THESE weapons?

A simple change from a sling to a shortbow gives the kobold a +2 avg damage for a mere 30gp. There's not much you can do for the melee weapon but if he HAS to fight melee you could drop a Lucerne hammer in his hands; justify it as a mining hammer and pick combined. He's using 2 hands for his ranged weapons; why not max out his damage potential?

Ok, so maybe the hammer is too much but seriously; why a spear and sling? For that matter mites are throwing darts? Seriously? They ride on giant vermin; poisoned darts or instead maybe a crossbow?

I get hamstringing monsters with inferior stat arrays compared to the heroes. After all the PCs ARE presumably the heroes right? But really sub-standard gear seems like overkill on making monsters weaker than the PCs.

So I've been reading around the "Gamer Talk" forum and looking at some of the stuff that some of the posters consider status quo for their games. Stuff like killer plants, fish and exotic wildlife all supremely adapted for murder, plus APL +1 to +2 on every standard encounter, etc. Not one at a time mind you, but CONSTANTLY.

Am I too soft on my players?

My last few gaming sessions have been 2-6 fight scenes on average (some with none; some with 8) but said fights have been APL, APL -1 or APL +1 or +2. I have provided a few instances of terrain hazards such as slopes or loose rocks and cover/obstacles, but that's it. Within these sessions I've had maybe 2 Fort saves and no other types, combats the PCs had plenty of options to either win or flee from, and journeys through a tangled forest with nary a hazard or natural foe in sight.

I'll ask again; am I running on easy mode right now?

"Are your players having fun?" Yes, they are; that's not the point. This is more a question about me to find out more about what kind of GM I am.

So I know - we all make our own rules and screw reality in our fantasy games. Still, I'm trying to get a handle on how other GMs do this.

In my current homebrew we're in the Sothryn Wylds. The area was hit hard by a global calamity called the Wilding and most civilization was destroyed. Not surprisingly I'm running this as a "points of light"/sandbox kind of game.

To the north though is the rest of the region, a land called Rukenvall. Now this area has towns and villages in a feudal system. Trying to be realistic I've described a town surrounded by a dozen outer settlements from as small as a PF "Thorp" which I call a farmstead to as large as a village of some 400-600 souls.

Does this seem right? I've basically got civilization hexes scattered every 20-30 miles from one another along major roads and waterways. I look at published fantasy settings and they have like one town, no smaller settlements even hinted at, for every 100 miles. What do you do in your setting?

So I know that Kingmaker has rules on BPs. Also you have the Downtime section of Ult. Campaign for building buildings. I'm thinking: what if 4 characters, starting at level 1, want to just go and build a house, farm, and later a village?

4 PCs, a ranger, fighter, wizard and cleric go into the wilds. They find a bunch of kobolds, dire rats and a tatzlwyrm inhabiting a ruined tower. Over the course of a couple sessions they clear out the whole place but rather than go back to town and buy magic items they decide to rebuild the tower, add on a hall, and start living there.

The PCs have between them Survival +7, Profession: Architect +9, Profession: Woodcutter +7, and Profession: Blacksmith +7. The cleric is also a dwarf with Stonecunning and a rank in Profession: Miner. Finally they have the following Knowledge skills between them: Nature, Local, Dungeoneering, Arcane, Religion and Geography.

I figure this is all the skills needed but, are there rules for just being in the wilds, cutting down trees and mining stone from a cave to rebuild a tower? Should I just handwave it? If anyone has suggestions I'm all ears.

Last night I really should've used terrain. The final fight was several groups of kobolds in a huge dragon shrine with toppled pillars, cover, rubble, etc. The players used some of the standing stuff for cover, but that was about it.

Its sometimes frustrating when players think in only 2 dimensions. They can move at or away from the enemy. There were lots of instances to stand on, climb over or even swim around (the room was surrounded by a moat on three sides) the villains but no one really took advantage.

How can I encourage things like tipping pillars onto foes, standing on a big rock for attack from above, sniping, etc?

Related to my last grippli brawler thread. I need a solid build and have finally decided on a role for my PC. Please help. The only pre-reqs are:

1. Must be grippli, home-rolled stats: Str 16, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 13

2. Agile Tongue is the first level 1 feat

3. Must be a brawler

I'm trying to design a switch hitter brawler that really takes advantage of martial flexibility. He's basically the only martial in a team of spellcasters. He's got to be able to cover long/short range and melee to make sure three spellcasters don't get mauled to death by onrushing attackers.

Right now with these stats I'm thinking of carrying javelins and feats like Point Blank Shot, Weapon FInesse and Combat Reflexes. I'm sorry if I'm being annoying with 2 threads but I really need help; I haven't been a player for a long time so as a GM I only know how to optimize for a nova on a single fight instead of long-term growth. Please help.

I'm starting a new game in which we're rolling up stats. I got:

Str 18, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 13

I wanted to be something truly unique and we'll be encountering jungles and swamps, so I chose a grippli brawler. Please help me pimp him out with build ideas after level 1.

As you can see he's got the Agile Tongue feat. He can hold 5# objects with it, use Sleight of Hand, and perform the Disarm and Steal maneuvers with this feat out to a 10' reach. Basically he's a very mobile, versatile switch hitter right now. Any and all advice would be appreciated.