A little mixed feelings. Like you, I thought it was a little odd that it got tossed out in 2nd act.
Spoiler:
On the other-hand, they are little things that hint at it throughout- The monastery specifically being dedicated to the Sangpotshi philsophy, and the presnece of Nindoru would likely cue folks into the Reincarnation/Anti-Reincarnation thematics, and Xinyue's cryptic remarks implying she's dealt with you before. Along her Aura of Past Regret's causing people to remember tragic past lives they may have had, most of which by far would presumably be lives they experienced in the Kugaptee cycles, there's enough to perhaps tip off genre-savvy players, along with alot of more minor hints I don't recall.
I will note that a key detail Zhi-Hui isn't able to give them is the particulars on how long they've been in the mindcycle, leaving less savvy players without a clear guess- Additionally, I don't believe there's any that specifies that time is still moving forward outside of the mindscape, with players perhaps inclined to guess that once they break the curse, they'll simply reconnect with the outside world, as opposed to effectively be flung a century into the 'future'.
Acknowledging Mr Jacobs encouragement to wait for Book 3 before deciding anything drastic, one angle you could take is for her not to know as much, or say it other ways. For example, I find Mindscape a very technical term, one that a Wizard might take, but perhaps not a more spiritually minded Monk ghost, and kind like the idea of communicating it to players more along of being trapped within "Kugaptee's dreams", or similarly mystically vague terminology. Though I guess that could feel too Lovecraftian? Although, it's not like Kugaptee's shadow picture doesn't ooze a 'Demonic otherworldly alienness".
As to alternate ways, well, I think Xin-Yue's past regets aura is a great visual way to put emphasize to it already, with it perhaps interrupting or beginning before combat to make players experience their past lives- be it just say an extended description of them, or even having them a roleplay a day in their past lives before dying horrifically, potentially at a past cycle Xin-Yue's hand. That way, Zhi-Hui's explaination will serve more as a clarification of what your PCs lived through whilst fighting her, instead of semi-random reveal.
I can't give you a full review as of yet, as my party is only three moderate duration sessions into it yet, but I can give you my and their first impressions. I'm going to assume you're asking from a DM standpoint, but in case you're hoping for a more light player-perspective, I'ma opt to spoiler my heavy in-depth insights in case otherwise. Short version? It's spooky, it's got a lot of interesting characters, and has a cohesive direction that makes everything feel like in sync- The plot, the atmosphere, and the encounters.
Spoiler:
More specifically, my players ended towards the end of chapter 1, in downtown Willowshore just after defeating Gray Butcher after successfully poisoning and slaughtering the Buso~
My players are loving the spooky atmosphere, as am I. While I'm a big fan of Paizo's classic spooky Haunt manners, having a village-wide horror atmosphere is a refreshing take, as it keeps the party guessing when and where the next spooky omen might manifest. The talking animals, the mischievous Jinkins, ghostly apparitions, and creepy-crawly swarms hunting for them all work well. In some APs, it can feel like you're throwing random creatures at the party just to somewhat diversify your encounters, but with Kugaptee's curse influencing everything, there's a sense of cohesive menace even towards the lesser non-important threats, at least to me. It gives players plenty of time to breath, recover, and think out their next moves, without every losing the sense of lingering anxiety- The fog and blood moon in particular do alot to color things.
This is definitely a game wherein NPCs matter- And the AP makes the right choice by giving you a bunch of sub objectives that encourage you to meet and learn the various locations in the village. Helping out say, Doc Dami at the clinic isn't just a fetch quest that has some immediate rewards to help you defeat the buso, but an opportunity for you to build relationships with the primary source of elixirs and drugs going forward. With the AP emphasizing him being the only doctor, rescuing him feels essential for keeping your village healthy in the long-run, even if one of your party happens to be a healer. I feel like in general the AP does a good job of having meaningful interactions with NPCs, both from a story and gameplay side with the regular item rewards. I assume this'll only expand later when influence properly comes into play. If you don't like having to play a bunch of NPCs that'll persist throughout the AP, this might not be a game for you to DM. If you love getting to play a wide variety of personalities for whom you can develop proper relationships beyond quest givers or momentarily villagers-in-distress, I highly recommend.
Another aspect I hear from alot of earlier APs is that they weren't the best balanaced for low-level characters, with alot of the early foes too strong or deadly. My party hasn't experienced this- Outside of stupid or reckless decisions, they've been able to handle most of the enemies, even the phantoms which can be relatively tanky- And they're not super optimal team, with one of the players barely knowing their spells and the rest opting more for flavor choices than power gaming.
That's all I can really say at the moment until they delve deeper into things, but I haven't felt so excited to DM an AP since Hell's Rebels. Hopefully this helps those on the fence!
Thanks so much for the responses James Jacobs and Sen H.H.S! It's great to get insight and clarification from those whom were involved in the making of the book.
Hello! I'm starting up Seasons of Ghosts soon with a group, and I was hoping to get some insight and advice on how to manage my party through the game. While I'm fairly savvy on stuff like helping my players build characters, running combat encounters, exploration, I'm a bit more unsure on how to manage downtime over the course of the game, so I was hoping more downtime savvy GMs could clarify some of my pondering. I did google around and eyeball rules beforehand, but forgive me if misread or missed anything!
Firstly, from what I've read, Downtime is meant to be day long activities. But I feel like my players would be quick to point out that, even in a fantasy world, spending more than 8 or 10 hours of hardwork would be odd, leaving them with a third or less of a day to spend other stuff, like hanging out with NPCs, gathering rumors and intel, or stuff like minor adventuring (like 'Opportunities' that only day a few hours to accomplish)- Should I be particularly strict, and demand players who engage in stuff like earn income and crafting effectively be uninvolved from anything else going on in town? Or is it okay to be lighten up and be flexible and let them accomplish a bit more within reason?
In terms of Hexploration, the default rules suggest that each Hex is roughly a 12 miles zone- But Seasons of Ghosts region map emphasizes each Hex is about two miles. Later on, when mapping out a certain ghostly obstacle, the book suggests that players can spend four hours to map out a hex of the ghost wall, rather than 'travel actions' (which usually translates to days worth of efforts unless the party is consistently moving at high speeds.) So I'm going to assume SoG is using a smaller scape variant of the Hex Map system. If so, and if a party should normally be able to hit 12 miles worth of hex-based travel, I should let my party cover roughly 6 hexes worth of travel a day? (Not counting difficult terrain or events that may slow things down.)
Likewise, since there's a Stable in town, should I let the party get horses if they'd like? Is there any sort of terrain that I should suggest them to be ineffective, like horses navigating mountainous terrain? And if they use horses, should I follow with the guide direction, and effectively double the distance they can cover to 24 miles of distance, since horses would have a consistent speed of 40 ft? (2 travels action?) (i.e. 12 Hexes worth not count difficult terrain.)
In terms of Influencing Granny Hu and Old Matsuki, the book suggests that with Chapter 3 I should let the party attempt to begin influencing them. I've got a pretty good handle on the Influence Subsystem and I think it works well for this AP. But, I'm a little unsure of the logistics. I'm guessing it'd be better not to go "Hey, if you guys want to, you can start building influence with this too", but instead I should do something like, both of them inviting the party for some of private gathering at their abodes the first time, and organically let them explore it?
The book describes influence rounds with the two as taking an hour- Should I let the party spend multiple hours if they choose to with the Elders, or is intended that the interactions are only an hour before the party has to leave? If the former, how many hours should I reasonably let them take up of the Elders time? And how often should I let them engage in meetings with the two? Once a day? Once a week? Clearly, if the party is interested in building a relationship, they should be able to invest time in it, I'm just wondering how much I should put the brakes on in case they try speed running the influencing of them. One thought I had was whether Faction reputation should factor in, with one soft capping or influencing the other. I'm guessing they're meant to be untied, though it would be funny to say, be hated by Granny Hu's faction but super trusted by her xD
Finally, at a late point, in the book, Hu and Matsuki are supposed to butt heads and initiate a duel between their factions to decide who becomes leader. The book implies both are supposed to have champions fight for them, with inserting yourself as one an option. But it doesn't meant whom the NPC champions could be- Is the duel SUPPOSED to be a fight between Hu and Matsuki, hence their stat blocks and influence connecting to combat in some cases, or would it make more sense to dig around for high level character of the faction who isn't an Elder? Or is just meant to be open-ended so that two PCs could technically both be champions in the duel, in case the party themselves is split on which faction to favor? I'm GUESSING you're just supposed to fight the faction Elder by default in the duel if you can't diplomacy through it, but I figure second opinions are always helpful.
Once more, thanks for any input and apologies if mine blind eyes failed to find relative text guidance in the book or online! If this topic is in the wrong location or should be better titled, please let me know, I don't often post on the forums.
I wasn't sure if this was the appropriate place for this question, so if this need be moved, by my guest- I just figured general discussion seemed a good area for flavor questions.
Specifically, I've recently come at odds with a friend over the meaning of wisdom, and whether it can be applied to chaotic characters in specific ways. He's a very law minded individual, which he recognizes, and has a hard time accepting chaotic characters offering valid philosophies and forms of wisdom that don't necessarily lend themselves to building, order, and structure.
I wanted to see if the community could aid me in providing examples of wise chaotic minded characters, preferably including a mix of good, neutral, and evil, that I could offer to him as suitable examples of both a chaotic orientation and qualify in the conventional sense as wise, whether they're canon pathfinder characters, or from any other fiction. Anyone got some good solid examples for me~?
Swashbuckler is the quintessential martial face. Mysterious stranger gunslinger fills a similar role. The avenger vigilante also qualifies as a full BAB face type. There's also a brawler who can use bardot performances via charisma, the exemplar. The ranger also has the hooded champion archetype for those of you who feel Robinhood. So yeah- a lot of martial face options.
Then aim for his weapon. Sunder it, disarm him, force him to use a different side arm occasionally. Have him fight in places with low ceilings where being bigger is disadvantageous. Try grappling him- he can still act, but it'll mean he has to rely on more than just swinging his biggest weapon. Or hell, just cast reduce person or dispelled magic at him. Debuffs don't have to completely disable him. Level 7 is a completely reasonable point for pcs reputations to be known and thus tactics become infamous, and your mooks to become smart.
Well, the name Thrune has an association with thorns, so if you wanted to go with a similar thematic translation, the swedish word for Thorn or a similar word might be a good bet.
I generally avoid revicing dead threads, but I was curious as to whether this question had received any definite resolution, as I had assumed phabrim fighter enabled a phantom to attack while incorporeal, but can see why my assumption may have been wrong.
The Psychic Abomination discipline has a Dark Half ability that allows them to transform into a rage-like state during which they can gain DR, enhance their spells, and generally be scary :3
I'm having somewhat of a disagreement with my GM onto the nature of how Frost Fall works, and when the secondary damage occurs. At level 4, I'm under the impression that the area of cold damage that triggers should last two rounds- That is, I cast it, at the start of my next two turns, it does the secondary damage twice before vanishing. My GM believes it should only occur once. It says at the start of my turn- That's also normally when I was under the impression spells with a duration of rounds end. But does the spell's effect happens first, then vanishes, or does the spell end without the secondary damage occuring?
This may admittedly be a click bait thread, but I actually think there's alot of substance to the question of what sorts of characters tend to go wrong. I think a better title would be, what kind of characters do people tend to crash and burn at?
In response to each-
I've never had any issues with the Racist, whether it was me playing it or someone else. This one is the one I think is the most easily achieved without negative consequences, but could definitely be awkward in the right group. The part people have to keep in mind is not to let the characters adverse preferences or looking down of a specific sort cause the downfall of the group, unless every is perfectly okay with. As someone whose played the haughty, racist/sexist/classist character with a great deal of joy, its all about moderation.
The Joke is one I completely get. There's alot of hilarious concepts you can have, but its hard to avoid the one trick pony result. Partially its due to the nature of humor being subjective. I think the best way to go with this isn't necessarily having this funny element of your character be only a small part, but let it be something that evolves or escalates, something that can provide character development.
The mute is an interesting one. Vow of Silence esque characters can be a mechanically way to just avoid RPing. But I actually think the best way to make this one is actually to talk MORE in your games. How so? Well, go into great detail describing your characters nonverbal actions, making a big point of how they write things down or sign language them out, or perhaps if magically inclined use prestidigitation to conjure icons of what they mean to say. I think this could be a fun way to provide an interesting sort of character, but only if you go out of your way to find a fun way to communicate without your character speaking- Not YOU not speaking.
The Hedonist is another one that I haven't seen go wrong too much. Just find way to make your passions, pleasures, or joys be connected or dependent on the main plot. Got a drug addict? Make it so his fix only comes as a reward for saving the day. Got a woo-them-all bard? Make the object of their wants manipulate THEM back, flirting into aid. Have an impulsive character who does bad ideas? Make them reroll. That's all I got. Though, really, its probably an issue with the player, not the character.
The misanthrope. Yeah. Ouch. I've been on the burn from this one. Its fun to play the snarker, the hater, the downer, the anti-social, because its cool cliche, to be the skeptic and the opposite and the devils advocate and the lackluster. But. YOU NEED. To FIND. A WAY. TO KEEP HIM INVOLVED WITH THE PARTY. Like with the mute, you either need one of the party members or a cause of theirs to be an exception to their normal negativity, or you need to work with your party to have your character dethaw gradually. But no, this one is the hardest, because its so tempting. Ultimately, I have to agree, a character who interested in dealing with others is generally a bad idea for a RP game.
I moved to the Eagan area about a year ago after having played quite a bit of pathfinder in college, and I haven't had alot of success at finding like-minded players since I've moved here. Due to the fact that I lack a vehicle and Bus routes tend to be a little convoluted for my tastes, not to mention slow, I've been musing for a long time of starting a group that could meet in my local area, as I seem to be in somewhat of a nerd deadzone, as all hobby stores seem to be just a might bit too far for me to regularly attend. As such, after a year of lonelyness, I've decided to get over some of my shyness and see if I can find some like minded individuals who might be interested in a group.
As most of my other games I've just sort of stumbled upon, I'm not sure exactly how I should go about this, but I figured the pathfinder forums would be an excellent place to start.
To say a little about myself, I've had an interest in table top games for about ten years, starting with a passive interest to a full blown obsession, to the point that I theorycraft for hours for fun. Some of my personal interests include history, philosophy, RPG games, anime, Star Wars, and pretty much anything that could be remotely be considered nerdy. In terms of what interests me in Pathfinder, to me, its about the story, the telling of interesting personalities making their mark in a fantastic world.
In terms of how I act as a player, I'd consider myself a benign Rule Lawyer, whose goal is to inform people about the rules, as opposed to abuse or frustrate people with them. I make characters based on a concept, and then see about using mechanics to fulfill the concept the best I can. In terms of a GM, I've been told that I'm one of the most fair and reasonable DMs by a guy who has alot more experience than me. My goal is to challenge and immerse my players as a DM, and that generally works best when we don't hate each others guts~!
Now, for what I'm looking for? Well, while flexible, what I'm envisioning is basically a Saturday noon weekly game, one that I'd imagine I'd DM but not required. Generally my preferred group size counting the DM would be 6. I'd be more inclined both to play and DM adventure paths, as they tend to be more fascinating and fun. The kicker being that, since I have next to no transportation, ideally I'd host it at my place. Thankfully, my pads pretty big, and more than suitable for such purposes. I'm not completely sure when I'd want to get this going, but I suppose that hinges on me getting actually interest.
So yeah. I realize this is a bit wishy-washy and vague. I'm not accustomed to putting myself out there (I'm too paranoid to even want a facebook account for example!) The thought of inviting random people I've never met before to play Pathfinder at my house is one that makes me slightly apprehensive. But! I shan't let that stop me. Sooo. Yeah. If uhh, anyone has any interest, feel free to post or message me privately.
Hello~ Recently with the release of the Heroes of the Street book, came what I think is my favorite cavalier archetype yet- An officer of the law type keeper of the peace that forsakes the mount to gain an plethora of cool abilities, with a focus on combat maneuvers. I quickly realized that Order of the Hammer would blend splendidly for this Cavalier's Order, with the abilities interacting well. Bonuses to combat maneuvers, easy access to grapples and sunders, the ability to neutralize enemies with nonlethal force.
However, when it comes to a specific build beyond level one, I'm really quite scratching my head. For one, while all of this is great for humanoid type enemies that are harmed by nonlethal or maneuvers, I know I need fall back methods in order to harm larger, more obtuse or non-living enemies. Even if I were guaranteed a high number of humanoid foes, there's ALOT of feat choices, with teamwork feats possibly mattering even more with the awesome Constable ability to plan before a fight, and I was wondering if anyone had any insight? I'm looking for more of a general build, as opposed to best "insert" ever.
A sensate fighter archetype is built upon the flavor of being a reactive fighter, who senses an enemy's movements before they happen and responding according.
Play a divine guardian. Enjoy the free shield feats with charisma instead of dex. Additionally, you can just two hand with a heavy shield if you don't wanna twf.
Well, passion, rather than lust, is an angle you can approach. Putting all of your self into the things you desire. Patience is another angle, as while Calistria is a vengeful deity, she's willing to wait along time to get to it. Being patient when facing evil or wrong doers is something you can play with. If you're AOO focused, you could argue that you're patiently waiting for an enemy to make the first move before retaliating,
Another point of note is that Calistira encourages survival- Vengeance is a worthy effort, but not if it ends your life. Wasps are creatures which survive after they sting, rather than die after the first blow.
Half-elves seem drawn towards being thrill-seekers, capable of looking through the eyes of other cultures and having little reluctance towards new things. This would be something Calistria would approve of I'd imagine. Additionally, she's a goddess of trickery, which could embody spying, harmless pranks, or leading enemies into traps type of combat style (Which, the whip lends itself to.) You can definitely play a Warpriest of calistria without being angry and lustful all the time.
Hello~ I was hoping to gleam some insight from the forums on what kind of fun can be had with the reaper of secrets archetype, a recent inquisitor archetype whose primary feature of note is the ability to utilize enemies as allies for the purpose of flanking and teamwork feats. Now, an almost automatic decision anyone should make with this archetype should be to take sanctified slayer as well, to replace judgement with sneak attack, a far more useful ability when you can use enemies for flanking. But, beyond that, I was curious if there were any particular interesting uses for the Mind Games Tactics abilities.
I've been playing around with some of the material I've read popping up on from Heroes of the Street, and the coin shot spell in particular is catching my eye. While its a bit pricey with early levels, its a spell that scales well in terms of damage, especially once you can reliably hold platinum coins, and lasts for a good duration. As far as I can tell, you can even stock up on the coins, casting the spell say three times before a fight so you've plenty of ammunition.
My question is this- Are the coins are a valid option for the Cartomancer or Eldrtich archer's spellstrikes? I ask because the thought of playing a gambler type character who uses coins and cards makes for awesome flavor. It seems really strong, being able to fire touch AC projectiles that can spellstrike, so I thought I'd ask to confirm it works.
My reasoning is that it explicitly refers to them as simple thrown weapons, with their own damage (Albeit varying) and weapon qualities, that they'd be a perfectly valid option for spellstriking and spellcombat when applicable. I realize that the Cartomancer has a still murky Spellcombat question that I don't THINK has been addressed specifically by any Developers, though I welcome links to prove me wrong.
I'm asking this specifically so I can back up my usage of it this way in a game before doing so in actuality.
Also, now that I think about it, I suppose their damage wouldn't necessary change if the caster was a small race? Maybe.
Reign of Winter has alot out doorsyness, and most of the urban enviroments later on are build for giants and trolls to be able to move through, so mounts should haven't too much trouble.
Typically canes have been described as Club weapons off-hand, so for the purposes of improvised weapons, i'd imagine that'd be the most fitting. I'm not entirey sure about whether its an improved weapon though.
This is less of a feat combination, more so just a cool feat trick. The Escape Route teamwork feat is a nifty feat when used with anyone who takes the Valet familiar, effectively granting both you and your familiar a decent amount of safe movement, which is useful for a spellcaster attempting to withdraw out of melee but still wanting to cast spells. Even better if you can get away with it counting when your familiar is on your person or in a bag! Also nifty for letting your familiar be touched focused, as normally tiny creatures provoke as they have to move into an enemy's square.
I'd definitely say Chandra, as far as I know her, is far more along the lines of being a Fire Kineticist in terms of flavor. From what I've heard on the forums, while fire DR is somewhat of an issue, the fire Kinetics does has some means around it. As long as he isn't playing in a Devil heavy campaign, he shouldn't be too stuck. Additionally, gaining an additional element later on means even if he focuses on fire, he won't necessarily be denied the ability to contribute to a fight.
As for a Sorcerer, well, Fire Elemental Sorcerer is a ninth level caster that likes fire. Pretty straight forward stuff. Natural, an Ifrit Sorcerer would be the way to go if you really wanted to be optimized, though human is rarely a poor choice. Sorcerer is less MAD than the Pyro Kineticist, but both offer plenty of utility. Sorcerer would be far squishier, whiles a Kineticist is actually pretty durable with their emphasis on dexterity and constitution. Obviously, most people well tell you (And not incorrectly) that ninth level casters are the stronger choice.
However, the fire Kineticist specializes, if I recall, in aoe damage with side effects, as opposed to a single target boom. His attacks won't be quite a metamagicked fireball, but he will be able to throw flames. All. Day. Long.
Welp, there's another Gambler Deity now, Irez, but they also might seem out of sorts for a Dhampir to worship. But hey, even half vampires might find angels attractive.
Unless you can reload a musket as a free action, its a bad idea to use it as your primary weapon. The best way to get around the reload clause if you want to shoot a musket multiple times but can't get to a free reload, is make multiple muskets, so you can shoot but draw drop and fire with quickdraw, or double barreled muskets. Or both.
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I've a concern towards the resonant power of the Occultist. Specifically,
"Casting Focus (Su)
The implement empowers the bearer's ties to the worlds beyond, allowing his spells to maintain their power for a longer period of time. The bearer can add the implement as an additional focus component to any conjuration spell he casts that has a duration measured in rounds per level. If he does so, he adds 1 to his caster level for every 2 points of mental focus stored in the implement (to a maximum bonus equal to your occultist level). This increase applies only when determining the duration of the spell. Apply this increase after other effects that adjust a spell's duration, such as Extend Spell.
Base Focus Power: All occultists who learn to use conjuration implements gain the following focus power."
Here's my beef. The Occultist doesn't get any round per level spells it seems like in the conjuration school worth noting, at least from the quick skimming of the early level spells. He doesn't even get summon nature or monster spells at any of the levels which seems peculiar, given they literately give him a minute summon at level one as a focus power. So, is this intentional, to make the conjuration resonant so specifically useless? If I'm missing something or if they're a particular spell that this is meant for, please, let me know~
Are you technically Undead now? Given that you're a spirit (Ghost, more or less, though phantasms are consider outsiders, so you might count as one instead), inhabiting your own recently murdered body?
First and foremost- Can a Skald select Rage Powers from the Unchained Barbarian?
Second,
"When starting an inspired rage, the skald chooses which rage powers (if any) to add to the song, and all affected allies gain the benefit of these rage powers, using the skald's level as their effective barbarian level."
If I took the Superstitious and Witch Hunter Rage Powers, could I apply the Witch Hunter rage power to my song without applying superstitious? For obvious reasons.
I actually haven't thought about looking for general bookstores or Colleges. Which is funny, since I was the president of my table top gaming club at my college. Thanks for the advice~
Hello! I wasn't sure where I should even post this question. I was debating between here and general dicussion area. So, basically, I recently moved from living on a couch to living in my own place with tons of room and an excellent area for table top gaming. Problem is, I don't really know anyone in the area, and every game store is six or more miles away. As I lack a vehicle and none of the buses go remotely close to any of them, I can't go to my usual location for finding similarly minded nerds. That said, I'm SURE there are Pathfinder players about in my area, so I figured an online ad might be a good way to go.
That said, I'm not sure where I'd wanna put that kinda topic. So I was wondering if anyone here had any experience seeking players for RL games, and if the paizo forums had a good area for that, or if there was another site excellent for it.
I swear to god, I had this idea before seeing that there was a guy asking for Undead Puns. Perhaps some of the same crowd of geniuses wouldn't mind sharing some of their mirth to me!
I'm intending to play a Winter Witch character for a campaign soon who I'm thinking I'd like to play as a little quirky. He's a tiefling from Irrisen who became a Barrister with his witchcraft skills. I intend to play him with an eastern euro accent (Of questionable quality), and I thought that having him give ice puns whenever he casts spells or uses his magic would be a great way of showing some personality and contrasting some of his more sober and gray personality.
Anyone care to offer me some ammunition to agonize my party and enemies with? :D Ice, Snow, Cold, frost, etc...
Okay. Bear with me. The Winter Witch archetype of Witch provides the following Hex as an option.
"Frozen Caress (Su) Whenever the winter witch casts a touch spell, she can infuse the magic with cold as a swift action. This grants the spell the cold descriptor, and adds 1d4 points of cold damage to the spell’s effect. If the touch spell allows a saving throw, a successful save negates this additional cold damage."
Witch Familiars have a special version of the Deliver Touch Spells feature, where they can both deliver touch spells by assuming the charge, as well as Deliver Hex's (And the Hex's, unlike the spells, don't require them to be near the witch to provide the effect.)
"If a witch is 3rd level or higher, her familiar can deliver touch spells or hexes for her. If the witch and the familiar are in contact at the time the witch casts a touch spell, she can designate her familiar as the “toucher.” The familiar can then deliver the touch spell just as the witch would. As usual, if the witch casts another spell before the touch is delivered, the touch spell dissipates. If the witch activates a hex, her familiar can be used to make the touch. She does not have to be in contact with the familiar to use this ability."
Here is my question. With a Touch Spell with multiple charges or touches (Whatever phrasing applies) such as Chill Touch, how would it interact if it were being delivered by a familiar after the witch uses frozen caress when casting it? I can imagine three avenues.
Firstly, if a Witch casts Chill Touch and uses a swift action to enhance the spell via Frozen Caress, whenever the familiar delivers the touch, the spell gains the benefits of Frozen Caress
Secondary, the Witch must utilize a swift action each time the familiar delivers the touch to gain the benefits (Which, I don't think DMs would have an issue with, due to hexes being useable at range via familiars.)
Or third, it only applies to the first touch.
As its worded, it seems like the first, as frozen caress doesn't say that the ability stops working after the first round. If the Witch maintained the Touch spell charge after being enhanced with a swift action after one round, it shouldn't be any less potent or require a second swift action, so it doesn't seem like the ability would stop working for multiple touches either. Each touch should be a part of the same spells effect, so each touch should technically gain the +1d4 and be cold, no?
The second example actually doesn't seem like it should work to me according to the phrasing of Deliver Touch or the actual Hex, but could seem some DMs ruling for non PFS games so as to balance it in some way.
The third one doesn't seem likely to me, but would be the worst case scenario.
Firstly, I have scoured the forums already for a proper answer to this question, and I haven't found it yet, so I wanted to place it here. The usual questions tend towards "Do it get a bonus to give to its master" and "Does a Witch lose its spells", and "Does a Celestial fox give its bonus to its master!"
And. I'm satisfied on that front.
But, I'm having trouble discerning on whether or not an Improved Familiar would be granted the bonuses of a traditional familiar, such as Shared Spells, Deliver Touch spells, improved natural armor, raised intelligence, and using its masters base scores when better than the familiars. (i.e. Base attack bonus, saves, skill ranks, etc...), half their hit points.
Or whether they just use the base monsters abilities. Period.
I thought about creating my own topic, but I figure hijacking a not-so-different subject thread wouldn't hurt.
Would a small Deadly Dealer use 1d3 for their thrown cards? I ask because generally speaking, I'd assume that Card decks would be the same size for either medium or small creatures. Would the feat change the damage to that of a smaller dart, despite the fact that the ammunition used would generally be the same size as that of a medium creature?
Speaking from experience, Enchanters don't work well in this campaign, especially the first two books. A large numbers of enemies are immune to mind affecting stuff, which means half the time an enchantment caster can't use the majority of his spells. This from both playing and DMing this campaign- If yer gonna focus on an enchantment spellcaster, its going to be awkward alot the first two books.
An Alchemist has NO trouble fitting in flavor-wise. In fact, I haven't seen a campaign where an Alchemist can't find something strange to experiment with. He'll do well especially in the second book. As for favored enemy, Undead, Human, those would be the big two early on.
There's actually more small enemies you fight than large, honestly.
Rather create yet another topic, I decided to dig my old topic. It's been a long time, with life being quite a distraction. But! I'm still quite in love with this concept, and would love further input. I can imagine fates only grown in popularity with the UBW series.
Most of my change so far have been incidental or personally flair- Having played through the first book before as a player, I was more or less mostly aware of how the adventure plays out, and did my best to stay true to the source material. That said, things have a way of coming out differently.
Firstly, I play my campaign online on Roll20, so there's been some shuffling of players as we went on. Only one person left has been in the group that killed Gaedren Lamm. Because of this, Zellara is only known to exist to her. This has left me to ask myself whether I wanna expand her influence to the whole group, or have her remain a mystic advisor to the single player. Other changes I've made are greater efforts to play the Queen as innocent and naive, and discourage assumptions that she's mad, evil, or especially selfish. She DID end up causing the demise of one of my PCs though. Going to the Castle alone, demanding a private audience with the Queen, ignoring guards saying they couldn't let her through, would've been what I describe as rail-roading too much. So, I let her have dinner with the Queen. Unfortunately, their character was female, had a charisma of 16, and took a trait describing them as "An unmatched beauty." So when the Queen asked her to join her in her personal chambers for a private discussion on art (Trinia's painting specifically), they had taken too many turns in my opinion for them to survive. Flatly put, I had the Queen murder them, though I made sure to have the death, a magical one, be too vague for them to decipher who did the deed. This, I know is something I could've avoided by just not letting them see the Queen, but was something that DEFINITELY deepened the plot. (And made sure the PC was alright with their death before finalizing it.)
Beyond that, most of the core story has remained intact. The more I read ahead however, the more I feel inclined make changes. I'm comfortable with the base foundation the first book has provided, but I'm not sure about the path for the future. There alot I'm looking at in terms of character progression and plot premise that I'm thinking over on how I can do it to make more cohesive and coherent.
I've been reading over some of the online topics, and I noticed that some people aren't in love with chapters 4 and 5. I've heard two could use some logic fixes, and three might need to be more cohesive (Both challenges I'll happily mend as I go), but I heard that book 4 is just a rail-roaded quest chain for the shoanti, and that 5 is just eldritch horror after horror?
I've only just completed book 1 with my group, albeit quickly, and getting started on two, but I'm wondering ahead of time if there are any adaptions I can make to better manage those books. I'm open to smaller changes to more drastic ones, such as perhaps combining the important parts of book 4 and 5, and then perhaps having the 'new' 5 be focused on a more drawn out rebellion. Buuut, as I've yet to read them in detail yet, I'm just fishing for some preliminary advice.
Well, having downloaded the two books and been very impressed with what I've seen, its a little depressing to hear such stalls and lack of communication regarding this particular title :x Especially since, despite concerns towards how much effort and dedication is put into this, both Throne of Night and Way of the Wicked as far as I've heard are REALLY good adventures. Hmm. Shame.
Well, anyway, since the second book failed to elaborate on what book 1 mentions, I was curious if anyone here had any suggestions on how to go about running two parties, Explorer and Overlord alike, through the first two books, which seems a little challenging to scheme together.
I'm actually under the impression that this'll be heavily dragon emphasized, given the Orb of Dragonkind. Reading it over, ANY non-human who DARES to possess one will IMMEDIATELY earn the wrath of all dragons aware of it, regardless of alignment or type. I'm expecting the party to quickly become agents of dragons at some point, and a full on battle between giants and dragons.
