Michael Donovan's page

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks... the whole thing... especially the Vegipygmies

VFP Rocks :)

I've been thinking about creating MySQL/PHP online versions of various GM tools, but nothing beats the VFP app design tools...

Also, if I were creating a character for the first time and bringing it into a new game with new players, what kind of gear should I have besides weapons and armor? Do I need food? Soap? Spyglass? A Tent?

As a Gamemaster, would you anticipate your players need to buy some of these things and suggest they stock up on certain items? Or do you not even worry about this kind of thing? Like in movies, you don't HAVE to see people eating a going to the bathroom to know that they do it every day...

Food and water (or wine/mead) can be significant depending on availability of such during an adventure... four days worth of rations is usually sufficient. Consider at least one skin of wine (or mead) in addition to one of water - save the wine for when potable water is unavailable. Sunrods are good for light. Knotted silk rope with a small steel grappling hook is handy for climbing. A hammer and pitons or spikes can be useful. A spyglass is expensive, fragile, and rarely useful except at sea. A tent is worthy only if inclement weather (cold, hot, or wet) is an issue. A bedroll is a must (ever try to sleep on rocks?). A fire kit (flint and tinder and such) is another essential. Also, someone in the party should carry a scroll tube containing a few sheets of parchment with pen and ink for making maps.

A hooded lantern having a continual flame spell cast therein serves better than a sunrod. A ball of twine is handy for make-shift traps (for food and mayhem). A small metal mirror is good for peeking around corners and signaling. And, a hunk of soap is probably not a bad idea.

Of course, a backpack to carry all of this is needed, as well as a pouch or two for coins and small objects, and a large empty sack for carrying the spoils of the adventure.

Each class should also have a small kit of appropriate sort: thief's tools, healing kit, holy water, spell components, etc.

All of this should total no more than about 30 pounds or so, which is reasonable for long hikes.

Equipping the characters is a basic part of the game that can lead to some very interesting play, particularly when the party later comes up with a nifty solution using a rather mundane item, such as the ball of twine.

BTW, I am a bit surprised no one has commented on the "Paperback Writer" Beatles reference. Of course, the tune will be playing in my head all day now - thanks :)

What is the weight/thickness of this paper? The stuff I am using now is a rather light, probably about 18lb. Would prefer 20 or 24lb paper.

I've had my battlemaps for 10 years, I know paper for gaming doesn't last 10 years. (unless you get some Vellum sheets.)

I have shelves and boxes full of gaming notes and maps on paper, much of which is 20-30 years old and has held up just fine.

I just ran one adventure with a 200 foot roll of the grid paper... It is wonderful for preserving hand-drawn maps for future use, return trips, separate groups, etc.

Only issue I see is that it is a bit unwieldy at the table... So, my next set with this will be to cut it into poster-sized sheets...

Any religion that requires you to pay to gain deeper knowledge seems like less of a religion and more of a profit making enterprise.

Kind of a quasi-spiritual pyramid scheme for delusional sociopaths... a scam, by any other name, still smells like troll funk.... Maybe that's what's attracting the trolls...

Black Book Editions, who publishes Pathfinder products in the French language, will release a very limited, collector edition of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. 500 printed copies, super-deluxe, fake leather cover with gold trim, and so on.

Question for the Paizo staff: Will we ever see a similar product in English from Paizo?

Question for the fans: If such a collector product was made available, would you purchase it?

I would buy it... Would prefer hard leather, metal corner points, metal re-enforced binding with gilt page edges and several assorted color book-mark ribbons. Something very much like a nice spell book... But I would settle for leather and gilt page edges.

Someone may have trod near this point above, but consider these thoughts:

Perfect balance means nothing interesting is happening. Everything is so evenly distributed and countered such that action by one side is immediately countered by action on the other, producing no net effect beyond rearranging the furniture.

Drama comes from situations that are decidedly out of balance, usually in reaction to a force that is overwhelming, requiring great effort to develop a suitable response. The drama is in the development of the response required to counter the imbalance and the ultimate settling of things back into equilibrium.

The imbalance is usually provided by the opponent, the bad guy or beast. The counter is the acquisition of unusual power or extension of great effort by the heroes. A balanced approach seldom is sufficient to overcome the opponent who is upsetting thing. If the characters are balanced, they must possess an item or key power that imparts the balancing force. In the case of the first sorcerer introduced into the Forgotten Realms saga, the incredible energy that could be channeled by the character was the key power.

So, if a balanced party has nothing to rely upon but their perfectly proportioned abilities, and they face a well-matched opponent, the outcome is a coin-toss, and about as dramatic. However, if the party is unbalanced, or possesses an item or power that can be wielded only by one of the party, and the opponent is significantly stronger, things get a little more interesting. How much does the wielder depend on the others to set the stage for the final conflict? Does the wielder suffer any balancing repercussions from the act of wielding the item or power? Is the opponent capable of nuking the party unless they use the key item or power in the right manner, at the right time? If the unbalanced party fails, is the fate of their village, country or world at stake?

Remember, the drama of the Death Star was not that it could wipe out a fleet of ships, but that it could easily destroy a planet - considerably out of balance with anything else to the point that it took many heroes to make sure the one with the key power was delivered to the final conflict that resulted in the destruction of the Death Star. Without the impetus of extreme imbalance of power on both sides, Star Wars would have been no more exciting than a game of checkers.

Balance, in the long term, is nothing worth writing home about. Imbalance leads to heroic struggle and (hopefully) triumph.

OK, I think I got it...

No need to alter or include anything with the book.

Log on to the pathfinder website, visit the special pdf page and then I propose a simple series of questions. What are they? Interrogative statements used to determine knowledge, but that is not important right now. The questions ask for specific words on specific pages of the book to unlock a pdf or gain access to pdf like webpages. Each time the document is to be accessed, new questions must be answered.

Example: What is the first word of the second paragraph on page 237?

What do you think?

That coding scheme was used for authenticating computer games many moons ago and was quickly shown to be easily circumvented.

The better device is an individually coded alphanumeric on the book, with a checksum that cannot be reasonably predicted. I have used such numbering systems in my work to identify perfectly the registration of individual documents via web, assigning such to a specific user and preventing unauthorized reuse. It's also very simple and inexpensive to laser the individual code on each book as it is printed.

So, coded unique number on inside cover - visit web site, enter number in your account (one authentication function, one code look-up table, and one extra field in the individual account table), get personalized pdf... Easy and secure.

According to my sources, Aroden is only MOSTLY dead...

Call Miracle Max! :)

Of course, the death of a god should be so dramatic that any mortal witnesses might not survive or remain sane. So, no reliable account of the death may ever be known - and each god in attendance will likely have their own version of the event...

G-SPAN. 24-hour live feed of select sanctioned gaming sessions.

Guaranteed to make the folks in the legal department nervous as hell :)

This is a worthy project and you've done a nice job.

Two points to consider:

My vision is not so good anymore, so any image behind the main text makes such difficult to read. Small type is ok, but not with a busy or dense background.

To Eric's point about the images, original art on the back of each card illustrating the spell would be nice.

I prefer 4d6 best 3, with the exception that if the average is less than 12 then re-roll the set. This typically results in only one person having to re-roll. The end result is a fairly decent range of scores and usually does not leave an unlucky player with stat-envy (not much, anyway).

Here's a fair idea for parties who insist on not having a healer and who cannot afford lots of healing potions. I used a similar device twice and while it was a bit annoying it was quite effective:

Medevac Charm, 200gp, 4 charges: A simple, silver wristband that stabilizes the PC upon reaching negative CON/2 HP (or mostly dead). The PC is immediately teleported to the nearest appropriately aligned healing facility/abbey/enclave/grove/etc. as long as such is within 10d6+10 miles.

If there is no appropriate facility in range, the PC is deposited in the safest area within range, however inconveniently located such may be. The band has a distress beacon feature, allowing another wearer of such a band and/or an appropriately aligned healer to intuit the approximate direction and distance to the evacuee.

Annoying side-effects: getting back to the party. If the charges run out, the price of a replacement charm increases by 1000gp for each replacement (or some other less-than-encouraging cost increase).

This saturday we had our first day of gaming with my paladin. Unfortunately I had a very bad allergy attack and was unable to commit fully to playing the character. I was so worn out I had to lie down and rest half way into the game. Hopefully the next game goes better.

Hmmm.... playing a paladin of Asmodeus yields severe allergy attack. Sounds like a failed Karma check :)

Hope you feel better - I'd like to know how this experiment works out.

I actively use both the books and pdfs in prep for and during games. The PDF is fine for quick searches and snagging stat blocks and maps for building encounters in Word and such, but the books (modules mainly) are better for study, carrying around the table while drawing dry-erase maps, showing the players art of the critters they are facing, etc.

Having both proves to be quite effective. I explained exactly this to my FLGS when they asked about the PDF sales - as I was buying my second copy of the core rulebook (the first being directly via Paizo). So, they are happy to order more PF stuff, knowing that active gamers will tend to buy both. In fact, a number of book sales can be attributed to people downloading the PDF and subsequently wanting the print version.

The PDFs, in my experience, function as more of an adjunct to game prep and play, rather than a complete replacement for the books. Each is practical for different reasons that all contribute to successful gaming sessions.

Seems like this thread has run it's course when it becomes obvious that taking a feat to get one old option formerly available without a feat is the straw that causes a Copernican revolution on the one hand, and it devolves into the minmax/role-play discussion on the other. What's next? Paladins and alignment?

There's a discussion a couple of threads over about paladins serving Asmodeus, if you're interested ;)

Every resturant is Taco Bell.

You do know how to use the shells, don't you? :)

Yep, agree 100% as the weapon is in your hand permanently or is in fact your hand (natural attack). The only instance you may have to interpret this is in the case of a bite attack ;) where you dont need a free hand.

One of my players is running a Barbarian and uses the grapple+bite thing as much as he can... so much so that I'm considering requiring him to make a DC20 fortitude save versus ticklishness each time he engages in a grapple. Being tickled induces giggling, preventing the bite attack, and gives the defender a chance to take control of the grapple.

:)

The development and refinement of the crossbow was limited by the introduction of firearms, otherwise some notable improvements recently developed by hunters and hobbyists might have made it into the medieval arsenal - chiefly: the bolt retainer. This simple grommet-like thing is typically mounted in a small guard over the bolt channel and applies a very light bit of force to keep the bolt from falling out without significantly putting any drag on the bolt when fired. More advanced versions would release such pressure entirely on firing.

The stress on the bow, string and stock still can be an issue unless all are made of steel (perhaps with steel cable for a string) if the bow remains cocked for more than an hour. Even with steel, the forces will eventually cause failure, but likely not for a few hours.

In the later stages of its development the light crossbow was improved for use from horseback, with bolt retention and a levered or ratchet cocking mechanism that allowed loading with just one or two hands (no feet or braces required). So, even in real-world terms, the more advanced medieval crossbows were more than capable of vigorous movement while loaded.

Even without these advances, carrying a crossbow loaded and at the ready while moving for a few minutes is trivial and should not be prohibited.

However, any activity requiring the use of hands between loading and firing should be considered an interruption requiring a reload. With a light or hand crossbow that features a retainer and a good metal firing mechanism, the use of one free hand for other purposes should not cause an interruption. A heavy crossbow is so heavy and awkward that it requires two hands to carry in the ready position while moving.

If one wants to get picky, one might rule such convenient features as a retainer or steel firing mechanism are present only on a masterwork crossbow of the same type, but that would be a stretch and would depend largely on the general martial technology of the setting.

Here's a nice article about such things: http://www.huntingsociety.org/CrossbowDesign.html

Note in this article the interesting bit about Chinese repeating crossbows :)

All -

... For now, let's roll some dice and play, have fun, and bring along a friend or two to a game that continues the tradition of the world's oldest roleplaying game.

... I am so very happy that PAIZO is at the helm.

—Pax

Hear, hear!

I would like to see not so much expansion or revision of rules, but more high-quality adventures with greater variety of plot, more setting details, more gamemastering tools/templates (e.g., all of the stats for an orc/hobgob/kobold army, from grunt to general) and basically anything that concentrates on the practical aspects of using of the system for play, rather than on the system itself.

Michael Donovan wrote:

Think of Stinking Cloud as Tear Gas and its utility becomes more obvious. Somewhat effective for clearing small areas without causing actual harm - Clearing the criminals out of the barn to be arrested is better than fireballing the barn - at least the guy who owns the barn thinks so.

Actually that is not a good comparison because prolonged exposure to teargas can damage and injure a person.

Prolonged exposure, yes, but well in excess of a the duration of a typical encounter, thus the compulsion to flee. I am a veteran, so I have some experience with exposure to tear gas. For all practical purposes, it is a fair, if rough, comparison - minus the burning/watering eyes, perhaps. Such interpretation has always worked for me anyway - YMMV :)

I noticed Stinking Cloud being mentioned a couple of times, but can anyone explain to me who it is useful?

I know it might not be a right topic to ask but I ask anyways.

By its description if you fail the save you cannot do anything but move. If you pass you can act normally but if you stay inside you need to get out unless you want to roll a save each round.
It also has effects of Fog Cloud.

OK, so on a open plain (or forest and similar places with plenty of space to move) almost everyone (expect those that are REALLY slow) will be able to get out in one round as its radius is only 20ft and Fog Cloud spell (whose effects is copies as well) does not limit movement.

Web at least limits movement even if you pass the save.

Think of Stinking Cloud as Tear Gas and its utility becomes more obvious. Somewhat effective for clearing small areas without causing actual harm - Clearing the criminals out of the barn to be arrested is better than fireballing the barn - at least the guy who owns the barn thinks so.

With such a broad range of skills, feats, schools and domains available to the base classes, once the characters progress beyond fourth level or so, players have the ability and tendency to build their characters in a wide variety of ways, quite frequently taking their characters at least a little off the beaten path. Multiclassing alone makes for some very interesting and unique characters.

Since the notion of prestige classes was introduced (which actually goes back to some 1e variant classes, e.g. the Witch), I have known only a few (maybe two or three) players who have gone the prestige or variant class route (beyond experimenting) or used much of anything from the myriad splat books.

I think the best route is to stick with a reasonable set of base classes and provide each with a variety of customization options and guidelines/suggestions for likely paths of progression to explore. For all practical purposes, prestige classes are just such suggestions, albeit more formalized with specific requirements and benefits.

Instead of spending a lot of ink on class variants, I would prefer to see Paizo (and others) provide more adventures, monsters, opponents, challenges, stories, settings, maps, game aids (print and software), etc. - the stuff they already do so very well, just throttled up a notch.

I would love Paizo to do a "Make a new campaign world" contest like Wizards did a few years ago (and Eberron was the winner).

Ditto. Already working on mine in anticipation of the eventuality :)

Well some canon and change is good so long as it is done slowly and in moderation. Campaign worlds need to change and evolve slowly over time, and open new mysteries and doors and new stories and adventure paths can be created. I can actually visiualize a series of small and seemingly unrelated adventure plots happening in Cheliax and over the course of several years evolving and spanning into something alot bigger like the downnfall of House Thrune, and Cheliax then caught up in a war of Succession.

There is also this to consider: Social Inertia. Once a particular rule is established in a region for more than two or three generations, it becomes so entrenched as to defy all but the most widespread civil war, which is usually not won entirely by either side. Old grudges die hard and defeat, either from within or without, leads to vengeance - usually the patient kind that sneaks up after a few years. Only a very carefully orchestrated campaign by dozens of agents acting in concert after years of laying groundwork can hope to overthrow an otherwise stable and well defended realm without decimating the population or the land. Few such coups have succeeded for long in large countries.

One notable example is the Russian revolution, which was executed with stunning speed only after years of careful plotting and arousing the will of the populace. And even that revolution ultimately failed with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In some respects, societal changes are like geological changes. They can happen in a number of ways: Cataclysm/Impact (rocks fall, everyone dies), Upheaval (foundations are broken, the shape of the land is altered, many die), and Erosion (evolutionary, gradual change over a long period, seldom noticed in the short term, tolerable casualties).

Cataclysm and Upheaval are frequently overt plot-devices, like the spell plague, and are often poorly received as contrived and destructive.

Erosion is the mode of change that is best tolerated and most likely to foster significant and sustainable change in the long run.

In the example of Cheliax, one might begin a long term campaign of undermining the workings of the empire from within, with a tipping point that comes not as a revolution, but a natural next step. This can take a very long time, and even in the end it may only be partially successful.

War is expensive. Conquest even more so. Revolution is the most costly endeavor of all, for it pits brothers against each other.

When contemplating saving Cheliax from the diabolists, consider very well the long term cost and effects. Work out the consequences not of success, but of failure. Seriously consider the worse that could happen - because it very well might come to pass.

Stalchild wrote:

On an only mildly related note, try mixing crushed graham crackers and caramel syrup with your vanilla ice cream. It's quite good.

Unless, of course, you're lactose intolerant.

Cheese, anyone?

If you have a local store that carries those large tea biscuits or tea cakes (over-sized cookies without a lot of sugar in them, hard outside but adsorbent), put them in the oven and reheat them. Top them with vanilla ice cream and serve with hot, dark coffee. For some reason, you can get them everywhere in Oak Cliff, but I'm not seeing them in North Dallas. (And hot tea is not exactly the drink of choice for the OC. Can't explain it.)

North Dallas? I'm in north Fort Worth (Haltom City)... Are there any regular gatherings of Pathfinder folks in DFW yet?

From reading the rules on Rake it seemed like you could only use it when grappling, not being grappled. Is that correct?

I think the rule requiring the critter to be the grappler to do the rake is reasonable. Having been owned by up to five cats at once (you don't own them, they own you), I can say from experience and many scratches that a cat will generally only attempt a rake if it has its front paws around its opponent, thus being the grappler.

However, there is a case in which there is a mutual grapple: Say the ant-lion has the cat about the neck, and the cat is on its back and has front paws grabbing the ant-lion's head/pincers. In this case, the cat will rake. A cat will generally prefer to use a rake when on its back, where leverage against the ground helps apply greater force.

I need to check to see if the rules accommodate a mutual grapple...

horror can be presented in many ways... Cheliax only offers a few more challenges in some ways...

in others as i said is perfect... it has the athmosphere... oppresion... fear... resentment... paranoia... just let them fall from the "ordinary" into the suppernatural and chaotic maelstrom...

I am currently reading the companion on Cheliax. Seems to me to be more like a combination of pre-WWII Nazi Germany and Italy under Mussolini.

Rather than chaotic, Cheliax is extremely lawful, fascist, without compassion, where oppressed citizenry attempt to maintain a living and national pride, trading relative peace for basic freedoms. Even some of the names, particularly in Westcrown, seem quite Italian, and Westcrown itself resembles Venice in many ways, just as Egorian and the rebuilding therein resembles Berlin.

Rather than the creepy feel of gothic horror, it inspires an extremely tense level of paranoia.

Please cancel my PFRPG subscription

I will be buying the PFRPG books from my FLGS and the PDFs from Paizo.

I still want to keep my adventure path subscription.

Please advise if I need to do anything further to accomplish this.

Thanks :)

To add on to what Vic said, the reason why we don't do PDF only subscriptions is because there is no need to. There is nothing to ship out to anybody, so we don't need a subscription process. When the PDF becomes available, just pop it into your cart, buy it and download it. The subscriptions are a way for us to automate the shipping process so we can process a large number of orders more efficiently. This isn't needed for PDFs.

-Lisa

Thanks for the reply :)

Of course, using the manual method is easy enough. However, by canceling my subscription, I would presumably lose the "(Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber)" bit on my profile. Not a big deal, really. I was just curious if I could retain status of subscriber while receiving only PDFs automatically in my downloads section when such become available.

So, yes, I am so insecure as to relish a message board name tag and too lazy to click a couple extra buttons on a web page. At least I am aware of my flaws :)

I would like to support both Paizo and my FLGS. Is it possible to have PDF-only subscriptions for PFRPG and APs from Paizo, while I order and buy the hard copy through my FLGS?

... You guys made for a great show, one that will go down as one of the best in Paizo history I am sure.

With the successful launch of PFRPG there will no doubt be great interest in submitting material for official Pathfinder publication - adventures, rules, fiction, even campaign settings.

Have y'all considered or do you already have a submissions policy and/or editor for new material from the general audience?

Sounds like an adventure path setup... Rescue the stranded merchants, including a wayward chronicler... :)

So, have you rendered a Golarionesque map of Indy yet? Starting perhaps with a run-down inn near the site of an annual festival?

Either way I would be very, very surprised if they presented a class that was an intentional redux of something WoTC had already done.

I think, from here on out, I would rather see a distinct divergence than a parallel universe. Given Lisa's statement, I'm guessing that Jason has just such divergence in mind. I will be interested to see the presentation of these classes in a way that steers away from the WotC models in a reasonable manner.

Danubus wrote:

Saw Lisa talking to Ryan Dancey. Wanted to say hi, but didn't want to interrupt them. Was great to just see her and to check out the booth.

I wish you would have butted in. I would have loved to shake your hand and say "hello!" Thanks for stopping by and making yours Pathfinder!

-Lisa

I wish I could have been at GenCon this year to toast your success and to personally thank you all for everything Paizo has done.

Our family group has now converted all of our characters and our first official PFRPG session begins Sunday. Everyone is rather pleased with the changes and looking forward to playing.

Thanks again for breathing new life into the game we love!

I hope to see you all next year, if not sooner.

Cheers!

Wolfthulhu wrote:

Kyle Baird wrote:

swash and scout will mostly be possible via the alternative class options in APHB

Oooohh, now I like the sound of this. More alternate class options, less actual class bloat. :-D

Pleeeeze give me an official urban ranger I can play in Society games.

PFRPG page 65 - Ranger - Favored Terrains - Urban (buildings, streets, and sewers).

A Ranger with two-weapon combat style and Urban favored terrain and appropriate skill/feat selection should work :)

Wild guesses: Swordmage, Illusionist, Beastmaster, Warlock

Hmmm...

Make sure to hold onto the Core books and Eberron books if you have them!!

...

I may trade you what I have left after this quest :)

Sorry, but my main FLGS took my whole collection for $230 store credit... AND had a spare PFRGP hardback hidden away waiting for me... now I have two! Happy Day! :)

Good luck finding folks to trade - there should be many who are interested now :)

If you start with the basics, PFRPG will work very well for new players, and you will not run into the system limitations later as my players did. 4e is a bit easier to GM, but PFRPG (3.5+, if you will) yields greater variety at the start as well as down the road. It really depends on your players and whether they are looking for a quick and easy way to kill some time, or something more involved, with greater depth.

I have at this moment all of my 4e stuff (a few hundred bucks worth) in a box in the back of my car. As soon as my wife is ready, we are going to try to return/sell/trade all of it to a couple of FLGSs.

Ah, she's ready now... off we go!

I may trade you what I have left after this quest :)

Lathiira wrote:

Since this is the thread for buckets, blankets, barrels, and churns, I've got a question: what kind of proficiency is it (simple, martial, exotic, etc.) to use a 10' pole?

If the pole is verticle, I believe its exotic then. >:)

Depends on the use of the pole.

Poking a goblin would be an attack as per a staff.

Using the pole to vault over a chasm would be acrobatics.

Trying to hook a large keyring from a sleeping guard to affect your escape from a cell would be a combination of stealth and a DEX check.

Securing the pole between a pub's bar and the ceiling would be Craft/Carpentry DC15. Using the thusly secured pole for pole-dancing would be a Bardic Performance (Fascinate(Su) DC15, with modifiers depending on audience intoxication level).

Using a pole with a hook and line for fishing would be Survival (DC depending on fishing conditions and beer supply).

Pushing a small boat along a canal using the pole depends on water depth and current speed. Entertaining passengers in said boat by singing gains a +4 bonus to Bardic Performance while using said pole to navigate a canal in a flooded city. An additional +1 bonus may be applied if the singer is wearing broad horizontal stripes.

Sharpening the end of the pole takes 4 minutes if a sharp blade is used, or one minute if the blade is magical.

Using the resulting sharp end of the pole to poke a bear is a standard action that automatically hits, does no damage, and enrages the bear, which then attacks immediately with a +2 bonus to hit and damage for being annoyed.

The optional skill Use Pole adds a bonus to all of the checks noted above equal to skill ranks + DEX bonus.

So, as you can see, the diversity of the usage of a pole defies specific classification of the pole itself :)

Ok, that was a fun Saturday morning warm-up :)

This is my Core Rulebook. There are many like it but this one is mine. My Core Rulebook is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my Core Rulebook is useless. Without my Core Rulebook I am useless. I must play my Core Rulebook true. I must play better than my enemy, who is trying to outplay me. I must outplay him before he outplays me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my Core Rulebook and myself are defenders of my game, we are the masters of our enemy, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.

TtO

Hooah!

Just got mine... went USPS and arrived in ONE DAY.

Me happy old man :)

26. Silent But Deadly - Once per day, without warning, everyone (including allies) within a 10 foot radius of the wielder must make a Fortitude save or be disgusted for d6 rounds. The DC for the save is 15 plus the wielder's CON bonus. Wielder loses 1 point of Charisma for d4 days.

27. Clear The Room - Prerequisite Silent But Deadly. Effects are the same as Silent But Deadly, except that a Will save is required by each target within range. Once per day, when not engaged in combat, those who fail the save flee the vicinity and normal speed for d4 rounds. DC is the same as per Silent But Deadly.

Condition: Disgusted - No combat effect other than causing the target's expression and words to convey disgust. The charisma penalty suffered by the wielder might, however, affect reactions by opponents.

Optional: Wind speed and direction may modify area of effect at the discretion of the GM.

I apologize if this has been covered already. I would rather avoid the throng of people downloading the PDF on the 13th, but am just as eager as said throng. When exactly will the PDF become available? (I'm hoping for a time. IE: 12:01 PM August 13th)

Thanks for your time!

~m

I subscribed to PFRGP and my download page shows:

If you pre-ordered, check your downloads page...

A drunken paladin of cayden Cailean! Drinking the pain of his\her demonic taint away!

I've been trying that for years :)

Besides Sarenrae. I know that's probably the most obvious choice, but I'm trying to branch out and show some gods other than ol' Dawnflower some love with my Golarion PCs.

If god did not exist, Tiefling would have to invent him...

How about this: A new god or demi-god, known by few so far, save those Tiefling and other tormented folk who have found faith strong enough to counter their heritage and the usual mistreatment of their peers. The new god could be a Tiefling hero who endures a great series of trials and challenges to demonstrate that the powers of order and good can drive darkness and chaos from the heart of anyone who possesses free will, even one so affected as a Tiefling. Pick a name - Balcazar the Redeemed, or some such. Create a suitable series of trials which aspiring paladins and clerics might seek to emulate. Have the PC worshipers start spreading the word of a god who welcomes even the most troubled soul who has but to chose the righteous path and demonstrate their choice by thought, word and deed.

Who knows. Perhaps word of Balcazar the Redeemed might reach the ears of the Pathfinders, who would likely order an investigation to seek evidence or information about his ascension... Such a god might even inspire enough followers within Cheliax to mount a serious challenge to the realm's diabolic rulers.

Just a thought :)

WARNING: RANT AHEAD

How utterly unsurprising. Eventually, perhaps studies like this will squelch the "it's unnatural" (whatever that means) argument. Then again, I'm not holding my breath; humans show a startling ability to ignore evidence that doesn't support their preconceived notions. It's really kind of sad.

Given the report as noted, those who consider it unnatural now have the option of noting that such is related to a physical brain difference that will be interpreted as a defect.

In these matters, evidence for one side often serves the other side equally as well.

This study will settle no arguments... At least not until a pair of male dolphins is found to be communicating via squeaky show tunes. :)

(yeah, I know, that was bad) :)

I used to like the idea of spell cards, but 4e has honestly soured me on the concept.

Item cards are cool, NPC cards migt be nice. But I think I'd have to skip these ones.

(Yeah, who am I kidding. I'd have to buy them to satisfy my collectors urges. *sigh*)

I have the 2e mage and priest cards in a box in my closet... When we played 2e the cards largely went unused. Though nifty at first, we quickly learned that writing down a summary of each spell in your character folder served as a mnemonic as well as reference. Oddly enough, the act of reading one's notes on spells for a session equates roughly to a wizard or cleric memorizing or preparing spells for the day. Works quite well... better than using cards, which serve as a crutch. Actually remembering spell effects when needed is quicker than shuffling through and reading a deck of cards.

In terms of play-time, it's really a matter of pay me now or pay me later. Paying now is taking time to check your spell notes at the start of a session for use without interrupting the game. Paying later means a quick start of a session, but a serious bog when players have to look through their cards at the start of each encounter (or even round). Such can be devastating to dramatic timing.

In my experience, taking notes on spells (and even feats) and reading them at the start of each session saves huge amounts of time and helps the adventure run without speed-bumps for look-ups.