Mazym's page

How can you catch a dragon that is flying along at top speed, say, running away? Forget whether chasing it is a good idea. Once it is, say, a mile or two away, wouldn't it be pretty much out of range of ground based attacks, and now it would need to be chased?

There are lots of ways I can think of to engage the thing once it lands or when it is close, but the speeds I saw in the PRD look very fast. Little critters start at 100 and the terrifying max size ones were 250 fly. I didn't see anything that could catch the big ones. Air elementals can fly at 100.

Teleportation, I guess, or some very long range (sight?) level spell?

I'm especially looking for a flying creature or mount or maybe even a magical device (like wings of flying) that could do it, rather than a spell.

The old guys are really, really fast.

I didn't see one in a quick look. Maybe if I look more carefully at removing conditions?

I am specifically looking for the equivalent of a magical epidural nerve block.

I don't know most of the million classes and archetypes out there, so I am coming to the experts. Class needs to work for humans.

What I'd want for this purpose:

Take a fighter
Add lots of skill points per level
Remove or reduce whatever class features are needed to balance out the new skill points (bravery, maybe some of the weapons training?)

I'd also want to make some more skills class skills - a lot of them are rangery stuff.

But why not a <hunter, ranger, whatever?>
I don't want to start a flame war, but... I just don't want this PC have a pet built into the class or any magic.

Should I just play a different game?

Let's say I wanted to create a magic duck call that, upon command, would not quack, but would instead have the effect of a <Concussive> Shout spell. So it would act like shout, but modified by the metamagic feat Concussive Spell.

The creation rules would list...Concussive Shout? Shout and Concussive Spell?

1. Is this rules legal?
2. Is this really stupid, in that there is always another spell to use instead of the feat? In some cases, maybe, but what if there isn't?

What I mean by really strong is something like:

- when faced with a monster that is immune to weapons, the PC tears the monster's arm clean off (like Beowulf did to Grendel. Beowulf had the "grip of thirty men in his hand")

and at a really mythic level

- when a big object is falling over and threatening to squash something immobile but important, the PC can keep it from falling, at least for a minute (like the oil rig scene from Man of Steel or the wall scene from Spiderman (2?))

I cannot figure out how to do it. I understand that this gets into the realm of Superheroes, but I'd like to see how it might be done anyway.

Elysian titan in PRD
Strength 45
"Elysian titans are 70 feet tall and weigh 20 tons."

"Tremendous Strength: For Strength scores not shown on Table: Carrying Capacity, find the Strength score between 20 and 29 that has the same number in the “ones” digit as the creature's Strength score does and multiply the numbers in that row by 4 for every 10 points the creature's Strength is above the score for that row."

OK, heavy load for Strength 25 is 800 pounds.

45-25 = 20 = 2*10. So I should multiply by 16 (4 squared?) or 8 (4 doubled?)

Assume 4*2= 8. 8x800 = 6400 = 3.2 tons. So a heavy load is about 1/6 the titan's weight. For an average human is is 100 pounds, say 1/2 his weight (gross rounding here). Seems the titan is too weak under this assumption.

Assume 4*4 = 16. 16*800 = 12800 = 6.4 tons. Now the heavy load is about 1/3 the titan's weight. Still weak.

What am I doing incorrectly?

I have several PFS scenarios, independent modules, and three APs (Serpent's Skull, Carrion Crown, Rise of the Rune Lords). In only a couple cases, the big problem the players need to stop is NOT a bipedal intelligent bad guy (one is a set of three BIBGs and a big blob, the other is an aboleth). Otherwise it's a BIBG.

BIBGs include anything that more or less has a bipedal "person" shape and is intelligent. I realize this is an imprecise classification.

What are some good APs, modules, or PFS scenarios that DON'T have the main rival be a BIBG?

Spoiler tags may make sense here...

Thanks.

[Moved this from Gamer Talk, where it had no takers and was being pushed down by other threads]

I am not that familiar with all the old stuff, but I cannot think of too many examples where 2+ good guys fight 1 bad guy.

I can think of:
- Beowulf and a sidekick vs. the dragon (dragon dies, Beowulf fatally wounded)

- Herakles and a sidekick vs. the hydra

- Anyone shooting Smaug uselessly and Bard killing it. Was anyone shooting besides Bard?

- Aragorn, Boromir, and Gandalf against the balrog. Only Gandalf engages with it. The other guys were moving up when the bridge fell.

- Merry and Eowyn against the King of the Nazghul

Are there others from stories from before, say, 1960? Did I mischaracterize the ones I listed?

When I click Factions links from the Paizo > PFS website, I get the old lists, not the current list.

I know this has been brought up before, but I wanted to take a look at this in a way that is not criticizing the decisions. And maybe Paizo staff, if I am very lucky, will comment.

Some of the key places seem pretty much to be operating - or at least have fashion, ships, and architecture - our of the early 19th Century. Especially via the artwork. I'll get back to that.

Andoran, Taldor, Ustalev, Galt, and others in "Civilized" Avistan seem to be early 19th C. in dress, in ships and in architecture.

Is this mostly an artifact of the art used in depicting the people and places? There's no getting around Andoran (post-revolutionary USA Northeast) and Galt (revolutionary France). But what about the others? It seems like maybe they have tech and some societal structures from that time period.

Paizo folks - Should we should be encouraging Taldane PCs to dress like Mr. Norell and Jonathan Strange, not Gandalf?

Does anyone have experience rewriting published adventures to avoid classes, spells, etc. you didn't like? I haven't had much success doing that, but I don't have much practice. Encounter balance would be the hard part, I'd think (and have been my problem when I've tried).

I am thinking of writing up something that needs kayaks and canoes of varying sizes.

A needle that allows the user to use mending to fix damaged objects that would normally be fixable with needles (such as torn cloth or leather). No thread or whatever would be required. It's a spell in a can, for sure, but potentially a handy thing for non-PCs. Let's say it is command word activated and takes the 10 minutes that would normally be used for casting to use the needle. And like the only other needle I saw, it won't take up a slot.

OK, here goes:

0 level spell, so 1/2 price of 1st level spell
caster level 1
command word activated

so this sound likes it should cost 1/2 * 1 * 1800 = 900 so far...

It's slotless, so it double the price: 900 * 2 = 1800

1800 gp? Is this correct? I feel there should be a big discount for restricting its use to cloth, leather, etc. rather than the full set of options the spell would allow. But I don't know how much it should be. Is there a rule on this?

Please let me know where I have made mistakes, if any. I'm not saying this is a great item or a in a great deal for an NPC. I just want to get some practice pricing items and this was a simple place to start.

I noticed, to my pleasant surprise, that the two scenarios I played Saturday morning were already added. Is there a normal amount of time it takes for the rest of a conventions results to be posted? Thanks!

I assume not, as this sounds like it would be a big hassle. I've looked into the nearest places to me and they do have some lists of what is upcoming. That's pretty good. I am looking specifically for a certain season 5 scenario and might drive a while to find it.

I am not presented with a Vote Now! or anything. How do I cast my vote for Round 3? I think I am not understanding things properly.

I'm thinking of something like Narnia - playing oversized intelligent Otters or something. The race builder thing in the PRD for the Advanced Race Guide didn't have rules for it - for plants, but not for magical beasts.

Did I miss something? Anywhere official I can turn for this? Just use from monster templates or whatever.

[If I am incorrect on this, I apologize - and I only mean with CRB. Not the ever expanding crunch in other documents.]

I'm not asking about game balance, etc. but in "game world" reasoning.

I am especially confused because bards can heal. Bards don't get their powers from gods, spooky outsiders, Mother Nature, etc.

I think several of these spells should be available, at some level, for arcane casters:

- Cure XX wounds
- neutralizing and removing poison
- removing disease
- restoration spells

Now, Raise Dead and Resurrection, Reincarnation - these might be different, as they might be considered to involve reaching out into the Land of the Dead and fetching the subject's soul. But, you can do this with Wish, right? Maybe that's good enough?

I'm not looking to make these casters more mighty or divine casters redundant (I like playing clerics a lot, actually, for the flavor). Just trying to make sense of it.

Not sure if this should be in the Campaign Setting forum. Please relocate it or tell me if it should.

Muskets are listed as a weapon in the Inner Sea World Guide. The description is a little thin, but it says that the firearm shoots a bullet.

OK, here's my thinking:

1. I'm going to assume that all these firearms are flintlocks. There's nothing about percussion caps or slow burn matches in the description or gear list.

2. There's nothing about rifles or rifling, so I'm guessing these haven't been invented yet. That would mean the muskets are smooth bore.

3. A smooth bore musket can be loaded with shot (bird or buck), a ball, or "buck and ball" which was a ball and something like three buckshot.

I realize that this is going deep into a marginal, exotic weapon, but are there official rules out there for using shot? House rules?

I ask because I am contemplating the wider use of firearms in a Ustalev campaign. The cultural chrome of the setting (clothes, etc.) says 19th century, but PCs are still clanking around in armor and toting spears. I was thinking of adding a lot more firearms and dispensing with armor. Hunting with shot would be widespread enough for me to want rules.

I was reading the subscription v. FLGS thread and it dawned on me that this never came up in the past in my case because I never played games at a FLGS. Always at my residence, at the residence of the GM or another player, or (when in college) somewhere on campus. Then again, I am about to start playing in a game at the FLGS in a couple weeks.

Do a lot of people play at the FLGS? If home is out, where else do people play?

I understand that there is a Walkena priest NPC in the NPC guide. I am looking for info on Walkena and the Walkena cult (yes, I'll take a brochure) that is going to be "canon" but don't want to spent $14 to get it. Is there a smaller write up or some place with info for either free or cheaper?

I'm pretty intrigued by this guy and the situation he presents.

I've been looking at the dates in some of the Wiki articles. Golarion's history is *very* long, when compared to earth history. The whole history of civilization on earth is something less than 6000 years, I believe. The age of Absalom is 4700+, right? That would be like a city existing from 2700 BC to today. Sure, a couple places might exist like that, but generally not in the same general shape. Wow, it sure is long. Almost 3000 years of fire arm production in Alkenstar, for instance.

Again, the key to the bard is that he or she is someone whose performing creates supernatural effects. And there's more!

OK, this sounds like Bardic performance would work just fine in a "tribal" setting - the war chants, drumming (audible over a loooong distance), dances, etc. work really well for things like inspire courage (especially) and inspire competence, etc. Telling stories works great for fascinate.

Bardic knowledge certainly works well for "loremasters" in generally oral-based cultures. Especially since that knowledge wouldn't be in musty old libraries, but in the living culture of song, story, art, dance, etc.

Bards get Arcane Spells without books, curses, pacts with demons, or kooky bloodlines. Woohoo! And the list is full of handy and "feels right" things like cures, fears, geas, etc. Very, very good.

Works for me. OK, in a tribal setting, the close contact with nature would argue for nature spells, but one could multi-class for druid or nature cleric access.

I saw something handy - the Barbarian is a good class to use for a character who is a) not lawful and b) "hulks out" and rages while fighting, but lives in town and otherwise doesn't fit the "Conan" model. Yes, the class skill list does have a bunch of outdoorsy-nature stuff, but one could choose not to use it. So I was thinking more about this.

Here's one take: Beastly Pete, brawler about town

Beastly Pete is a fellow who lives in town and is muscle for a local street gang. He rages when he fights (check), has acrobatics for moving around and jumping from rooftop to rooftop (check) and has climb for getting on to roofs, etc. (check). He wouldn't wear heavy armor (check) and "law" is a fighting word with him (check). He probably gets his kicks during off hours beating the snot out of other chaps in no-holds-barred prize fights.

Any reason why this is stupid? Sounds like a good fit for a human, dwarf (a bad seed who isn't lawful), or half-orc.

That is, content made in accordance with the Community Use Policy and consistent with the PRD, existing canonical products, etc.?

I am interested in Mwangi Expanse material and in fact have been plunking down some dough to catch up on the publications to date. I notice that mysterious places or rumors or NPCs that are in Heart of the Jungle, for example, tend to show up in Paizo publications, either past (Lyrics of Extinction) or future.

In another game world there were "blank lands", places the publisher said they wouldn't publish content. In the event, the publisher published very little, but the idea of a safe spot was nice for folks who wanted to make their own home-brew stuff for the setting public on the web. No worries about being trumped by canon.

Is there some sort of similar thing for Golarion?

There are an awful lot of products out there: PFS scenarios, modules, APs, Player Companion, etc. I'd like to compile a comprehensive list of Mwangi content. I want to know the canon so I can write according to it. Unfortunately, it looks like a lot is spread through the Serpent's Skull AP, which will make it expensive to acquire.

Sargava
Heart of the Jungle
Serpent's Skull AP
...rest??