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Two people from our group got into an argument (in character) and it spiraled out of control so hard, that they wouldn't talk to each other anymore - even outside of the game. One of them left the group over this. The thing was, we had bought the campaign books together (everyone chipped in - we were poor school kids back then) and he took the books so we couldn't finish the campaign. We told him we would give him his share of the money but his astonishing answer was "I don't want money, but I give the books back. But since a quarter of the books belongs to me, I rip out every fourth page and keep them".

In the end we let him keep the books and never spoke to him again. The rest of us saved money and bought all of the campaign books again to finish it without him.

It would work as written.

Spell Resistance wrote:

...

A creature’s spell resistance never interferes with its own spells, items, or abilities.
...

This means even low-level items like a potion of cure light wounds will not have to be checked against SR when he drinks it. It may (GM's call) be checked if the dragon were unconscious and someone else were administering it to him (aside from being harmless, of course.)

Ah, that explains it. I missed that line. Thanks.

P.S.: Sorry, didn't intent to spoiler something. It seems i can't edit my [EDIT: opening] post though to remove the name of the Adventure Path.

At the end of the Adventure Path Rise of the Runelords, there is an adult blue dragon that has in his tactics, that he casts mage armor on himself in the first round of combat and shield on himself on the second round. He has a caster level of 5 for these spells and SR 24.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, lowering the SR for 1 round is a standard action, as is casting those spells, so he can't do both in the same turn, meaning he has to overcome his own SR of 24 with a roll of 1d20+5 (his caster level).

Since mage armor has "SR no" in its entry, that works, but shield has nothing about SR in its entry. So, does the dragon attempt to cast shield on himself, probably wasting a turn because he only succeds on a roll of 19 or 20? I mean, that fight is hard enough, so the PC's can use this break, but is that how it is handeled or am I missing something?

Perhaps the constructs could be animated by giant life force bound into the constructs' bodies with runes?

Oh, I like that a lot.

Which parts of repeated enemies do they dislike? (For example: Thematic/motif repetition, mechanics, or strategy)?

Honestly I'm not sure. They said something along the lines of "In Carrion Crown it was undead all the time, now [in Legacy of Fire] it is fire based enemies. It gets old fast." Seems to be a thematic thing.

Thanks for your answers.

Yeah, I have have experienced Rise of the Runelords as a player and now I prepare it as a DM for another group.

I know that it is not always giants, but they are very common. Ogres are close enough to giants. A ranger with favorite foe (giant) will get his bonuses against ogres because an ogre has the type humanoid (giant), so technically, yes they are kind of the same thing.

I understand that this is an Adventure Path has a theme, but my players seem not to happy with it. They complained about always fighting undead in Carrion Crown even when there are many different types of undead and one of the books has not even one undead creature in it, but still the complaint was there.

I see what I can do and maybe add in some more Leng stuff and look into the things Pnakotus Detsujin suggested (the attack/siege at the end seems a really cool idea and shake up).

Hi, I will start a Rise of the Runelords campaign with my group of players in about 2 weeks. We finished the Carrion Crown Adventure Path and will finish the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path next week. Two of my players have complained that they got tired of the same enemies over and over again. In Carrion Crown it was undead and in Legacy of Fire it was Efreeti and other Fire based monsters.

In Rise, the first book is heavy on Goblins, the second has quite a variety of enemies but starting from the third book it is giants in all forms: Ogres, Trolls, Hill-, Stone-, Cloud and Rune Giants etc.

I see these players hitting giant fatigue soon when the Adventure Path progresses. Are there other monsters that would fit in the theme and make sense as Karzoug's minions?

tl;dr: Are there other fitting enemies than mostly various giants for the end of Rise of the Runelords?

Thanks in Advance

You are mostly correct. The only exception is that precision damage is NEVER multiplied on a critical, even if it's a flat number and not extra dice.

All your examples are accurate.

Thank you. I didn't know there was any other precision damage apart from sneak attack. I will have to read up on that.

I am a bit confused with what gets multiplied when a critical hit is rolled.

Multiplying Damage: Sometimes you multiply damage by some factor, such as on a critical hit. Roll the damage (with all modifiers) multiple times and total the results.

Note: When you multiply damage more than once, each multiplier works off the original, unmultiplied damage. So if you are asked to double the damage twice, the end result is three times the normal damage.

Exception: Extra damage dice over and above a weapon's normal damage are never multiplied.

So, here are some examples how I read it:

Paladin [+1 holy longsword] with smite evil active crits on evil monster:
Normal Damage = 1d8+1 (+1 longsword) + 3 (ST Mod) + 2d6 (holy) + 12 (smite evil)
Crit (x2): 2d8+2 (2x +1 longsword) + 6 (2x ST Mod) + 2d6 (holy - not doubled) + 24 (2x smite evil)
As far as I understand, the holy is not doubled because of the stated exception and the 2d6 from holy are "Extra damage dice over and above a weapon's normal damage" right?

Ranger [+1 giant bane longbow] with favored enemy (giants)+4 vs giant:
Normal Damage = 1d8+3 (counts as a +3 longbow vs giants) + 2d6 (giant bane) + 4 (favored enemy)
Crit (x3) = 3d8+9 (3x +3 longbow) + 2d6 (giant bane) + 12 (3x favored enemy)
Again all modifiers are multiplied, but the extra damage dice from bane are not, correct?

Rogue [+1 vicious flaming dagger] vs flanked enemy:
Normal Damage = 1d4+1 (+1 dagger) + 1 (ST Mod) + 2d6 (vicious) + 1d6 (fire) + 5d6 (sneak attack)
Crit (x2) = 2d4+2 (2x +1 dagger) + 2 (2x ST Mod) + 2d6 (vicious) + 1d6 (fire) + 5d6 (sneak attack)
In effect, the rogue gets only +1d4+2 extra damage from his crit because he has no flat modifiers but only extra dice from various sources?

Am I reading this correct? Extra dice are not multiplied but every other source of flat damage mod like power attack and so on is? Thanks in advance.

Okay, got it now. Thanks.

The wall blocks line of effect, so spells treat it as they would any other solid barrier despite being invisible. If a wall is shaped in such a way that a spread can flow around it, it does so.

Is it just spreads that can go around or also target spells?

In a dungeon with a 10 ft. high ceiling and a wall of force, no spell cann get through?

Wall of Force

Effect wall whose area is up to one 10-ft. square/level

A wall of force creates an invisible wall of pure force. The wall cannot move and is not easily destroyed. A wall of force is immune to dispel magic, although a mage's disjunction can still dispel it. A wall of force can be damaged by spells as normal, except for disintegrate, which automatically destroys it. It can be damaged by weapons and supernatural abilities, but a wall of force has hardness 30 and a number of hit points equal to 20 per caster level. Contact with a sphere of annihilation or rod of cancellation instantly destroys a wall of force.

Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through a wall of force in either direction, although dimension door, teleport, and similar effects can bypass the barrier. It blocks ethereal creatures as well as material ones (though ethereal creatures can usually circumvent the wall by going around it, through material floors and ceilings). Gaze attacks can operate through a wall of force.

I'm not sure if I understand the text for wall of force correctly and I hope to get clarification. The bold text above seems easy enough to understand for rays and templates like cones and lines such as burning hands or lightning bolt. It blocks line of effect and ends when it hits the wall of force.

My question is about other spells like cloudkill, feeblemind, baleful polymorph and so on.

1) Spread spells: Most spread templates just appear when the spell is cast. While the description of fireball says that a bead is flying prior to the explosion, I suppose it would crash against the wall of force and detonate early(?), but what about spreads that are not emanating but just appear like solid fog or cloudkill or a elemental bloodline sorcerers elemental blast?
Are those effect completely halted? Does it make a difference if the wall of force doesn't block completely (fighting out in the open or in a 15ft. high room with a 10 ft. wall of force)?

2) Spells that just target a creature: Does a feeblemind or baleful polymorph just smash against a wall of force and not effect anything behind it? Again, does it make a difference if the wall is not as high as the ceiling (can a target spell "hop over" or "go around" the wall of force if it isn't high or wide enough?

3) Form of the wall: There is no (S) for shapeable in the spell description, so can you only make a 10 ft. high straight wall or can you enclose it around yourself or someone else? Can you make it 20ft. high by building the wall squares atop one another?

That's all for now.
Thanks in advance.

Ah, I see. I will check that out then. Thanks.

The City of Brass seems to be a fun and interesting setting. Alas in The Impossible Eye you don't get to see this setting and you are stuck in one place.
I wanted to make use of the City of Brass and let my players explore it a bit. But there is only little information in the book. Any suggestions where I can find more about this setting (the artwork suggests flying ships - I'd like to know about that in particular, should be fun).

Here is the text for the alkali flask:

This flask of caustic liquid reacts with an ooze's natural acids. You can throw an alkali flask as a splash weapon with a range increment of 10 feet. Against non-ooze creatures, an alkali flask functions as a normal flask of acid. Against oozes and other acid-based creatures, the alkali flask inflicts double damage. Crafting this item is a DC 20 Craft (alchemy) check.

At first I thought this was a special way to fight oozes, but nearly half of the oozes have immunity to acid damage. By the rules as written the alkali flask would deal no damage against these oozes at all because the damage counts as acid, am I correct?

Against oozes without immunity to acid, how does the double damage work? is it a d6x2 (similar to how the enervation effect is made against undead)? Or is it 2d6 (similar to a critical hit with a x2 weapon)?

My group played the Legacy of Fire AP. They were all 1st Level and encountered some enemies in an old monastary at the beginning of the first adventure and got extremely "unlucky".

The wizard casted acid splash on the last (but strong) enemy and rolled a natural 1. He confirmed the critical fumble and draws a card from the critical fumble deck - it said: roll rod of wonder table twice. The first result from the table was a 5d6 fireball and all characters (including the wizard) were in range.
After the enemy and each character took 23 fire damage, the second roll was made. The badly burned enemy sprouted green leaves all over his body...

How unlucky. The end.

Name: Brianni Goldheart
Race: Dwarf
Class: Cleric 14
Adventure: Shadows of Gallowspire
Location: Renchurch Catacombs
Catalyst: Revenants

The gory details:

Yeah, pretty much this. Figure out why the characters keep needing to rest in the dungeon. If they're novaing and blowing through a couple encounters then resting to do it again, then you want to convince them not to do that. Preferably by talking to them, but making it dangerous to rest can be an backup option.

If they're clearing a significant chunk of a dungeon that isn't designed to be swept in one pass, then resting has to be accounted for, one way or another. Leaving and returning. Safe areas to rest. Something. Often the dungeon can be designed in such a way that it's broken into poorly connected sections and resting after clearing one of them should be fairly safe.

Even with leaving and returning, there's a temptation to punish the party by having the enemy reinforced or on high alert, ready to ambush a returning group. That might make sense, but design around it.

I do not design the dungeons myself, I'm using an Adventure Path. I have no idea if the dungeon was designed to be cleared in one go or not.

In the group where I am the DM, it happens frequently that the party decides after a level or portion of a dungeon, they need to rest up. The spellcasters especially burn through their spells and after half an hour of in-game time the characters leave the place and rest up for 8 hours.

There are times where this is easily done, but there are also times when this would give the enemy time to prepare or even retaliate.

I wanted to know how common this is in your games and how it is handled - is it no big deal, are you adjusting the enemies left or do some of them even come after the party?

One of the latest ideas might even kill the party:
Spoiler for Carrion Crown: Shadows of Gallowspire

I liked the Nexian Galley from Legacy of Fire chapter 4 "End of Eternity". The pictures on page 9 and 23 show the helmsman as a golden minotaur - it's Minoton, a stop motion monster from the movie "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger".

In Haunting of Harrowstone from the Carrion Crown Adventure Path, the Haunt Siphons are introduced. Their design is the same as the vials of acid that Keldor/Skeletor uses (skip to 3:40) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk2yuCc5c-I

Murder is murder, rape is rape. Both are atrocities no matter the victim or how often it happens, and it happens way to often in real life, yet here we talk about a hypothetical in a fantasy game. I don't see how you find one of these things too terrible to write about here and another not just because you differenciate between "murdering babies" and "all murder".

The Paladin doesn't think things true. He has to guess which babies are evil. If he only kills half of the babies, he risks killing only the innocent ones. What a disservice to the world. Better to be thourough.

Well, thankfully the level of spell completion items can't be jacked up, but your point about money is not much of a point. As to character wealth in game and theoretical scenarios, character wealth per level is meaningless, because guess what my players are doing *right now*?. They are not being greedy, uncooperative, stupid fools, and so are pooling their money to have the magic item crafters make stuff to benefit the group. Pretty savy, no? So far they have made a wand of magic missiles (CL 5) and they have just made a wand of fireballs (CL 6), which cost 6,750 gp. They look forward to seeing it roast many enemies, and no doubt they will see it do just that. They have also made eight scrolls and a few potions. The downtime is not really a factor either (14 days to make the wand of fireballs; less for the others); merely relegating most magic item creation to downtime between adventures, or between parts of adventure series, which is what they are doing. How's that for theoreticals in a white room?

And this is perfectly acceptable if they are Level 6 in my opinion, but I'm waiting for one of this dreaded in-game example where the group pools money by selling their whole stuff to afford crafting this single imba item...

And saying they are not greedy because they pool gold strikes me as odd, they are just greedy as a group for magic items, not individually for gold. It is not as if the group isn't getting something out of it^^
They may not be uncooperative or stupid fools, but greedy... I would argue that ;)

I see what you mean about the FAQ. It throws everything off a cliff. How about one just creates a wand of fireballs at 5th level that has a caster level of 10th? That's just a DC of 5+ 10 + 5 = 20. Why, my Wizard 5 has five ranks in Spellcraft (a Class Skill), Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Magical Aptitude, and Int 18 for a total bonus of +17. So...to create an item which will break the game by allowing him to chuck fifty 10d6 fireballs against CR 6 encounters, he needs to roll...a 3+. Brilliant. If we are all understanding this correctly, the pearl of power FAQ person dropped a load in the bed on that one. Usually it is players who wil lbe hunting for ways to break the game balance, but you don't often have developers doing it for them in such a simple way. I thought the magic items creation rules were pretty bad before, which is why I use little to none of them, but apparently they are worse than I thought. They are certainly more complex than they need to be, are overly indulgent, and are unnecessarily scattered throughout the book.

Aside from not being possible as Diego Rossi stated:

This wand of fireballs (CL 10) would cost 22,500 gp (3*10*750). The wizard would need 11,250 gp and it would require downtime to make it in 23 days. If the wizard keeps adventuring, it takes him 92 days.

The character wealth by level indicates, that a level 5 character should have 10,500 gp, so he falls 750 gp short and is not able to craft it because he can not pay for the materials (which have to be bought in advance).

Even if he could get those 750 gp, he would sink all his gp from 5 levels in creating this wand. He has no other gear whatsoever - no protection items, no ability boosting magic item, no nothing.
How realistic is this in actual gameplay?! Answer: it isnt. You all asume theoretical scenarios in a white room. That is not how gaming happens.

OMFG! Ok, forget the g@! d!~n potion. A Disruption Weapon that has Heal as a prerequisite, ok? A wizard can make one of those completly by himself. Is it clear now that we are talking about an exemple of a mage creating a magic item by himself which would normaly requires a divine healing spell? Do you get the point, that it's weird to see an arcane spellcaster doing something only a divine spellcaster should?

A dwarven mastersmith/craftsman can - with the right feats - create magical arms and armor, wondrous items and rings, even wands and staves without even able to cast spells at all, but a wizard who can make a disrupting weapon bugs you because it has a healing requirement?

I see no problem with this at all. I think it is even intended. If there is no cleric in the group to help this wizard craft this, the party might be in dire need of some magic gear to balance out the odds.

Crafting a magic item needs some requirements to mold magic into an object. Not everyone has divine magic, but this crafting wizard has the spellcraft skill, so he knows how magic on a fundamental level works. He can circumvent the requirement for a divine spell - he knows how to do it because of his skill - but it will be harder, hence, the DC+5.

Wealth isn't a a good way to control that.

The first problem is that player characters can pool their money to craft items that will change the balance of the encounters.

The second, and for me, more important problem, is one of setting believability. Why rich reign don't have an abundance of useful magic items? An example I have often made is using Craft wondrous items to make a statue of the local hero that enchant the weapons and armors you place on its pedestal with greater magic weapon and magical vestment at CL 20 an unlimited number of times in a day. Place it in the local garrison courtyard and have your troop use it before entering service. You troops will have +5 weapons, armor and shield for 20 hours.
Costly? Not really for a government. 600.000 gp at most. 150 BP or the equivalent of 2.000 masterwork weapons.

Time and circumstances. It takes 600 days to craft this and it doesn't happen in a vacuum.

But let's craft an adventure:
Spies have reported that Cheliax has spent many ressources on a task to create a magic statue that bolsters the weapons and armor of everyone that lays down his gear at the feat of this Thrune Lord statue. After more than a year, the crafting process is nearly at an end and the surrounding countries fear, that this is not made for guard duty, but invasion.
The party is hired to infiltrate the location, assasinate the crafter and destroy the not yet finished statue.

Or, if it is already completed:

The Crusaders of Vigil finally revealed their latest trump card against the evil of Virlich: The Statue of Saint Iomede will give the Paladins an edge by bolstering their weapons and armor if Vigil is attacked.
Unfortunately, this was not done exactly in secret and spies or divination spells took this information to their dark masters. Earth elementals, an evil party with teleportation magic or the wish spell (the material component is quite cheap in comparison to the crafting cost) can steal this statue. And guess who has the edge now without pooling ressources and putting a wizard to crafting for over a year...

Disruption Weapon(+2): CL 14, Heal. (DC 29 for a wizard)

A Lv 8 wizard, with Int 20, a headband of Int +4 (a must) and an amulet of +5 spellcraft for 1,250g can craft items up to DC 34 with a take 10, enough to make that, something that normaly would require a 11th lvl cleric or druid, AND, since it's "paying" the +5 on DC to eliminate the Heal requirement, he won't have to reserve a 6th level slot every day for the item, during the creation process.

A weapon has to have a minimum of +1 enhancement bonus before you can apply special properties. So, this has to be a +1 disrupting weapon (which costs as much as a +3 weapon).

The price for this weapon (I assume a quarterstaff since it costs jack) would be 18,000 gp (+300 gp to buy a masterwork quarterstaff but I will handwave this).
This wizard needs to sink 9,000 gp in materials for this +1 disrupting weapon, but maybe he makes it for an ally and so money is not his issue - except it is, because of the time it takes to craft the magic item.
The price for the weapon would be 18,000 gp (even if the wizard crafts it with 9,000 gp) So it will take 18 days (assuming 8 hour work days).

Many people forget that this stuff does not happen in white rooms. 18 days can be a lot of time. Also, the circumstances may make it difficult.

If the caster is out adventuring, he can devote 4 hours

each day to item creation, although he nets only 2 hours’ worth
of work.

This means, while adventuring, the crafting process will need the quadruple time - for this item 72 days. And that is only, if the wizard can spare 4 hours per day.

@Casterlevel: Well, it is clear, that a crafter can create items with a casterlevel higher than his own. But that does by no means mean that he can choose it freely. The casterlevel is used for dispelling, identification via spellcraft (DC = 15+CL) and as a bonus to saving throws the weapon makes.
At best case, this means, a crafter can make a CL 15 item while he is, let's say CL 8, and the item is actually a CL 15 item. But I would argue, that this crafter may circumvent the need for CL 15, but cannot really create an item with a CL higher than his own and the item would be a CL 8 item rather than a CL 15 one. The rules state that you can create an item at a lower caster level, but nowhere indicates that you can make them at a higher CL.
This item would be easier to dispel and would have worse save bonuses. On the plus side, it would be easier to analyze it with spellcraft too.
That is at least what I take away from my reading of the rules.

I made a rough overview for the vampires. I wanted the vampires to be distinct creatures, not whole groups. throwing dozens of vampire spawn at my players diminishes the vampire theme in my opinion. They complained about fighting werewolves all the time in broken moon and that it got old after a while because it was to many of the same over a short time and I agree to apoint. So I want to make them the select few who are memorable.

I will keep Merrik Sais and her lair, but replace her vampire spawn with more plant creatures. There is also no entrance to the vampire underground there, but she acts on her own.

These are the Vampires I have come up with:

Shukuris - The Rat King (male half-orc vampire ranger 6/rogue 4)

Theme:
Vampire as beastlike predator with power over lesser animals

Location:
The sewers under [district? North and/or West Cushing?]

Coffin:
In a destroyed sewer tunnel under lots of debris.

Hunting style:
Shukuris hates elves and hunts them exclusivly for their blood. He stalks through the underground tunnels and grabs elves that are in close proximity, drags them into the sewers and feeds on them.

Hunting the hunter:
stories of numerous rat swarms go through the district and in the morning, there was a blood trail leading into the sewers. The characters can explore the tunnels until they find Shukuris and the
rats he feeds with vampiric blood to keep as his pets.
Cave-ins, close quarter fights in the tunnels and lots and lots of distracting, clawing and biting ratswarms are obstacles.

Lady Evgenya Zunaida - The Charming Killer (female human vampire aristocrat 1/sorcerer 10)
- keeping her stats from the book with a few spell changes, may change her name

Theme:
Vampire as enchanting seducer, posing as mortal noblewoman

Location:
The Mansion of the Lady on Laurelight Hill

Coffin:
Behind a secret door in her room

Hunting style:
The Lady keeps many servants, and sometimes, one of them vanishes. No one seems to mind. To many of her household are already under her spell.

Hunting the hunter:
A tip from Luvicks agent or the tale of a former escaped servant who saw to much can bring the PCs on her trail. The PCs may have to get an official invitation for an audience or her party to get close
enough to her (which is possible with OotPE contacts). When investigating by day, the PCs can be brought before her for an audience, but PCs can make checks to deduce that the windows aren't real (a combination of a silent image and a sunlight spell with permanancy). [If the PC go to the high society party, they may encounter Adivion Adrissant. Interesting if they have Raven's Head. Time for a chat with the bad guy and some Whispering Way assasins later. Not Adivion though, he has to leave for Renchurch]
Problems are her high status and her many dominated mortal servants. How to get near enough to slay her without harming the innocent mortals?

Liek - The Silent Shadow (male halfling vampire rogue 8)

Theme:
Vampire as mysterious creature of the night

Location:
The at night always misty harbour district

Coffin:

Hunting style:
People go into the fog at night, but do not always emerge from it alive. As a rogue, Liek is already stealthy. This is turned up to eleven with his ability to turn into mist. When a lone victim passes by
he turns back and silently kills his mark.

Hunting the hunter:
The trouble is not fighting him but finding him. PCs could dress as sailors to play bait or try to snuff him out another way. When discovered, turning into mist in sight is to dangerous (slow and the PCs
have magic weapons), so it will probably be a chase through the foggy harbour streets. (wanted to try out the cards for some time). Liek will only fight when cornered.

Florian Lamorath - The Song of Blood (human vampire bard 8)
- keep his stats from the book, change motivation and background

Theme:
Vampire as trickster

Location:
The taverns of Caliphas and the campfires of the nomads and immigrants out of town

Coffin:
He has a coffin with some of his dominated Varisian Nomads in a wagon

Hunting style:
He uses his hat of disguise to take on different forms (but always a musician with a fiddle). He then charms, seduces or tricks a victim to a place where they can be alone and kills them.

Hunting the hunter:
The PCs can ask around the communities and will sooner or later discover that the victims where last seen with a bard. Although the description varies (sometimes a Varisian, sometimes a Chelaxian or even elven),
the distinct masterwork fiddle is always the same.
Focus is on the role playing and finding out who he is and which of the nomad caravans protects his coffin.

Radvir Giovanni and his lair will stay the same, vampire spawn will be replaced. Also, I don't like the bladed scarf as a weapon... it seems so silly.

Any suggestions? Something I missed (first time I statted some creatures, so my math could be slightly off...)?

Since the "vampire murders" and the pact with the vampires will not fly with my group (LG cleric of Iomedae, LG pro Pharasma Monk and CG Ranger who hates the undead - favored enemy undead), I will have to rewrite the Caliphas part a bit.

There are no vampire murders, but vampires kill the living. Giovanni gave the bloodbrew to a few specific vampires who are free now from their masters (and quite a bit stronger), but in exchange, they have to collect blood for the whispering way (in my version, the witches work for the whispering way). The blood is needed for aritual as Adivion Adrissant's failsave to compensate for the lack of Raven's Head.

Luvick does not like that vampires show their actions so openly and uses the PCs for his own needs. A letter or agent will give the PCs hints, where these rogue vampires hunt.

Now there is still a problem. I wanted to let every vampire to hunt in a different part of town, but the info on this is a bit perplexing. In Ashes at Dawn it says there are seven districts, each made distinct by its geography, population, or trade. This is great, but is there anything more specific? Another thing is, there are ten names for seven districts: Ashtown, Blackwood, North Cushing, West Cushing, Dowell, Eskcourt, Hawthorne Rows, Laurelight Hill, Leland, and Valpole.

Laurelight Hill seems to be the place where the countess has her castle, so, a very high class victorian environment I would assume. Ashtown I would place at the borders. Its name suggests, it is where the ash from the brass and iron works comes down. Seems to me like a many common workers. Blackwood seems similarly at these outskirts. The name invokes in me the picture of trees black with coal and ash. Lumbering should be the trade of this district.

Any other suggestions or references to the districts? Some of the vampires will remain the same, and to mix the hunt up, I will stat some new ones to make their hunting style different.
I got the Silent Shadow, a halfling rogue vampire who preys silently in the mists of the harbour for foreign labourers, and I got an Idea for the Rat King, a half-orc vampire ranger with a taste for elven blood who stalks through the sewers, accompanied by his swarms of rats under his control.
There are more ideas, but I want to have the theme of the districts down before I place the specific vampire there and flesh out his methods and how the PC can get hints and means to destroy them.

I talk with the player in question, and if there is a good reason, I think I will go with the 1.5 times of the normal cost version.

I will have to be careful with the balancing by slot things... I guess adding magic powers to existing things is ok for 1.5 times the price.

Thanks for your answers

Huh, didn't know about that^^ Thanks

I read into the magic item creation and had some questions about the slots. If a character takes the craft wondrous items feat, he can ... well, craft wondrous items. Say he wants to make a hat of disguise, but, he already has a cool hat (or magical headband), can he craft an amulet of disguise instead (same powers, but different slot)? Is there a restriction in place? I saw that the item costs more if it doesn't take a slot at all, so this is ok?
What if the character has the forge ring feat too? Can he create a ring of disguise?

Ok, got it. Thanks for your answers.

Vampires have DR 10/magic and silver.
Does that mean you need a weapon that counts as magic and silver (like a +1 silver/mithril weapon or a +3 weapon)? Or is either ok, meaning, the DR is completely bypassed by magic weapons and even mundane silver weapons?

Name: Xanben
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Monk 6
Adventure: Trial of the Beast
Location: Last Tower of Schloss Caromac
Catalyst: The Guardian of the Tower

The Gory Details: The Flesh Golem went into berserk mode and attacked the nearest foe with all attacks. Xanben stepped in to take the attacks in place of the healer. Four hits with the claws (one of them a confirmed critical hit) later, he was down to -16 HP, so we spared his mutilated corpse the rend damage... It was heroic, but bloody.

Ring of Wizardry I-IV doubles the amount of spell slots of the Ring level
(Ring of Wizardry 1 doubles the slots for level 1 spells, Ring of Wizardry 2 doubles the slots of Level 2 spells and so on).

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rings/ring-of-wizardry

For some reason I did not reread the vulnerability to silver and just assumed it was the usual +50% damage. Thanks.

I have a question about the Vilcaris:
How do you exorcise this spirit out of a possessed creature? I think I read somewhere in Broken Moon that he leaves the possessed body if he ist damaged with silver, but I can't find the part anymore. Was I wrong?
How can you save Corvin or a PC who is possessed?

My players are at the end of book 2 and will be facing the Guardian of the Tower and the Promethean next.

Athenriel: female half elf rogue 6 (two weapon fighting with daggers, minor and major magic rogue talent)
Brianni Goldheart: female dwarf cleric of Iomedae 6
Thrinia: female elf druid 6 (hawk animal companion)
Variel: male elf ranger 6 (ranged built, will take a level in bard next, "aims" to be an arcane archer)
Xanben: male human monk 6

@Blazej: You have a very good point about the Necromancer, I didn't think of that. If this was spelled out as a reason for his tactics, I wouldn't have any problem.

@Turin the Mad: Probing is a good reason for this, but not with maximized magic missiles.

@Taku Ooka Nin: It seems you misunderstand me. It is not that Difficult = Fun (although curve stomping every encounter gets old soon). I don't want to kill the PCs. I want to give them a challenging and fun encounter with a belivable enemy. If everytime, they face someone stronger than them, this person has quirks so they do not kill them, it gets unbelivable soon. "So the Warlord was crazy, the wizard underestimated us and gave us the first round... are quirks a byproduct of evil?"

Again, my argument is not: The wizard has the TPK spell - so he should use it.
Instead it is: So, the wizard has the TPK spell and will not use it - why give him that spell in the first place? Make him weaker, drop the TPK spell, so the players feel good about themselves, because they defeated a dangerous and clever foe (who was actually nerfed but used his weaker abilities better).

I think it gives the party a better sense of accomplishment if the enemies are dangerous (or seem that way, I'm not out to kill the PCs), than they used the obvious quirk or the oh-no-my-one-weakness-was hubris-factor. It might be fun once in a while to play a snobby caster or something similar, but if every caster encounter is only survived because the caster was an idiot, I don't it is believable.

@Dark Immortal: Sure, there are some nasty encounters out there and it is really easy to kill PC's if the GM wants to (but honestly, a GM who wants to do this is just not somebody others want to play with).

My problem is not, that the encounters I described above are not deadly enough, but that they would be deadly if the villains as written were players and not NSC. Players can be smart and tactical, but the villain as written has to summon d3 dire rats so the characters can swing at him during his full round action... If the wizard was a player, he would blast the greatest threat, then employ defensive spells and act with a lick of sense, but alas, he is an NPC and therefore has to be lobotomised, because the party would die otherwise.

My point is: Don't make the villain caster overly powerful but too dumb to use his power, but make him moderate or even lightly powerful and for this let him act as if the Intelligence Mod of +3 meant something apart from bonus spells he doesn't use. Compensate for the CR with an additional minion or two.

In the game I am running, the second example, the Necromancer is coming up. I guess I strip two levels from him, make his minions a bit better to meet the CR and play him intelligent. It is a much higher threat and more fun this way.

Well, thats good for this adventure path then. I'm glad that this is nothing that is done universally.
Are there examples where the enemy casters are supposed to hold back? If yes, do you follow this as written? Or do you change some things?

This is something that bothers me. I have seen that quite a few times in official publications. There is the Big Bad, a spellcaster with terrible arcane (or divine) power, but when you read his tactics as written, he does stupid things.

Example 1:

The enemy was a wizard who had prepared 2 maximized magic missiles. It was a 3rd Level encounter, so he could have blasted one or two of the characters away with 20 damage (4 maximized 1d4+1 missiles) per spell. But what does his During Combat entry say: "He is cruel and spreads his magic missiles on as many targets as possible to prolong the suffering".

Example 2:

Necromancer with 2 (not particularly strong) undead minions. In his arsenal of prepared spells are things like circle of death. What does his entry say? "He bolsters his undead minions." yeah, right, he has one desecrate spell prepared between all this attack spells.

I am aware that these things are there to prevent a TPK by enemy caster, but it doesn't sit well with me. Why was it designed that way in the first place? If someone doesn't want them to TPK the group, make them weaker, give them different spells and add a second in command who is a fighter or something. But just coming up with some excuse to not use all the deadly spells that are written there stretches my imagination and the believe.

Have you similar observations or is it just me? Did i pick two bad examples? If you know this "problem", what are your solutions (because simply TKPing the group is nothing I want to do. It can happen, but the odds should not have benn stacked against the players)?

Here comes some thread necromancy...

I found this thread via search and it fits my question. It only has four answers, so I hope it is okay to ask here instead of making a new thread.

I was reading the Research and Designing Spells portion, but there is still a question. In my group is a sorceress who wants a healing spell. I thought it would be simple enough to copy cure light wounds and give it to her if she spends the time and money. But the thing is: cure light wounds is not always at the same spell level.
It's bard 1, cleric 1, druid 1, paladin 1, but ranger 2. So, if she researches this spell, would she get it as a Level 1 or level 2 spell?
What about cure moderate wounds? It's bard 2, cleric 2, druid 3, paladin 3, ranger 3.
Is there a guideline? Should you always use the highest spell level there is?

What if the cleric wants an attack spell like magic missile? Copying the effect is easy enough. Am I correct in assuming, that the spell would be spell level 2 for the cleric, instead of level 1 (because of the damage cap for divine spells)?

About the last point... Is there any difference in XP if they manage to defeat the Abberant Promethean alone? Say, when there are 5 Players and the Beast, the XP gets divided by 6 and if they manage to do it alone, it is divided by 5? Or does it not matter?

And yes, the dead Beast lying in the room and reviving it is a better way than just having it showing up out of the blue in seven rounds... (heck, seven rounds is a lot of time in a pathfinder fight).

Well, we will see tomorrow what they do - if they make it that far the next session. Thanks.

I'm currently running Trial of the Beast as a GM
I'm putting spoiler tags, just in case: