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The Aldori Dueling Master feat from the Inner Sea World Guide. Okay, thanks. I thought it was in there somewhere but I couldn't remember where the "rules pass" was located. I had tried looking at the weapon description and the class descriptions but I forgot to re-read that feat.
I have seen some Aldori Swordlord builds suggested on the boards that take levels of Duelist. Duelist has great abilities, but I have seen nothing in the rules that lets you get around the fact that an Aldori Dueling sword is slashing weapon, and the interesting Duelist abilities require piercing. Am I missing a special exception written in somewhere? I do like the idea of taking Crane Style, and taking a Monk MoMS dip makes that easier.
So, why is it that so many are failing their will saving throws? Is there a symbol of persuasion anywhere on the page casting charm customer?Probably because it's This Guy casting the spell. He can't cast that spell, it's in one of his prohibited schools!
Why would anyone take that feat when you can already do that without it. The quote I pasted above is also from the PRD and that's what it says in my CRB as well - so unless they errata's that (which they may have) I don't see why Mounted Skirmisher is necessary. Yeah, there does seem to be a conflict there.
I think the key is the difference between the Blink and Ethereal Jaunt spells. Ethereal Jaunut says "insubstantial". Blink says "incorporeal", which I think is a typo (from what James Jacobs was quoted as saying). In any case, Blink is mostly about generating a 50% miss chance. A miss is a miss, and a hit is a hit. Don't worry about applying the icorporeality rules to the misses, as it's probably a typo. In any case, applying the incorporeality seems to lower the power of the spell, not raise it, because it gives certain folks a "second chance" to avoid the miss. Why create more work for yourself? But again, I think this is a typo. You are not incorporeal, you're insubstantial. For hits, you were fully material at the point of contact, tag your it, no other rules need apply. The nature of the blink miss chance foils blindfighting, but can be partially or fully bypassed by combinations of seeing invisible or using force, abjuration or ectoplasmic. You get other bennies like +2 to hit due to your blinky concealment, and 50% on falling or area damage. You can do the walk through walls thingy, but it's risky over long distances and you will probably take damage on any trips over 5 feet. Don't bother unless you're desperate. Also, as the caster level of the ring is 7, the Blink last for 7 rounds, and then the character has to use another standard action to start blinking again. So it's inaccurate to say the PC uses it continuously. At most, he's using it 87.5% of the time.
If a leopard (or a crocodile) is attempting to intimidate you, instead of tearing you limb from limb in the surprise round because you didn't see it coming, then they're doing it wrong. Yeah, ambush predators put their ranks in stealth, not intimidate. If you watch the wildlife shows, it's rare for one animal to totally demoralize another animal. Unless they eat it. I guess that would be a demoralizing experience. Bears are bigger than wolves, but I've seen videos of wolves harrying a bear while trying to protect a kill. The wolves keep nipping and dodging, even though it's risky. The bear growls, but with the numbers advantage going to the wolves, usually wanders off. The fact that Intimidate is a CHA skill means animals are at a slight disadvantage, because it's modeling humanoid interactions. But they're mostly going against other animals, often their own kind. So the real key is hit dice (for the DC) vs. how many ranks you think the animal should get from their hit dice. I suppose you could train an animal companion to intimidate the villagers on command. It's a reasonable trick. If that's your thing, as you go up level and it gets more skill points and feats, focus on intimidate.
Yeah, the quasit frustrated my party too. The first battle was a draw, and they retreated to rest & re-rack. I think they blocked the door so she couldn't get away. We only play once a month, so they had a lot of time to email between sessions. They went back to face her and grappled her and then drowned her in the fountain.
Besides, the city is is only partially in phase with the material plane. Knowing it's location is only half the battle. But the fact that it's been four years matters. From the point of view of the materials currently being published, the RotRL campaign is done, the RL is defeated, and now various factions are jockeying to exploit the riches of Xin-Shalast. You can't expect the Golarion timeline to be frozen indefinately at the start of the first AP.
With all the lunatics residing in california , they probably had some people feeding the darn thing before it decided to say 'hello' to the biker. Why the hate, dude? There are crazy people all over. I doubt anyone was leaving steaks on the mountain bike trail for it. It just got out-competed for space and deer by other mountain lions and took a chance. Really, animals don't use the intimidate skill so much as announce that they aren't flat-footed and are ready to attack.
If you don´t want to ´waste´ the Feat slot, the only RAW way is taking the Feat (Dodge in this case) as a Fighter Bonus Feat (Combat Feats only), and using the Fighter Class Ability to re-train it to something else once you gain the Feat by other means. Now if only Fighters could cast spells, too... ;-) It's too bad fighters are the only ones who can retrain.
I think animals need some sort of fear causing effect. I mean for petes sake a T-rex has an intimidate of +0 >.< I don't care if your a level 8 fighter trained to kill and armed to the teeth, it's a flipping t-rex it should have some way of scaring people. A commoner shouldn't have a 50% chance to stand his ground. Meh, dinosaurs don't have a fear aura, dragons do. Anyway, the t-rex doesn't need to make a skill check to scare a commoner. The commoner will be frightened for his life regardless as long as they have a working brain. They will try to get away if they want to live. Why does the t-rex need to scare anything smaller than itself? All it wants to do is roll initiative and try to eat it. Or ignore it if it looks inedible.
There is an excellent novel by C.J. Cherryh called ‘Rusalka’ that is set in a mystic version of medieval(ish) Russia that might provide some inspiration. I read that book a long time ago, it's another good example. But I recall that the three or so main characters spend a lot of time alone in the woods. Lots of atmosphere, but they were isolated and mostly interacting with each other in the woods but not the wider world.
The Intimidate skill is not a good measurement of the threat displays that animals make. Keep in mind that the forecd to act friendly version of intimidate takes one minute of conversation. This is the Michael Westin from Burn Notice version of intimidation, and obviously, normal animals can't do this to people. But if you've ever watched that show, I think it's easy to see where the Charisma feeds the fear of the target. I can see where you would look at animal threat displays and think that they should use demoralize side of intimidate. If there's a size difference, the +4 partially makes up for the low stat. And hit dice feeds the DC, so low hit die critters are easier to intimidate. But really, so what if various critters have trouble actually applying the shaken condition to their foes? In the end, shaken or not by the threat display, each critter has to size up their chances in a fight and decide whether to attack, run away, steal the food, whatever. Also, mountain lions don't just attack 4'11" PETA members. They will also stalk armed sheriff deputies that are hunting them after they maul a mountain biker (which is a big package when you consider bike+dude). This happened in the LA area a few years back. The mountain lion was shot by a game warden with a night vision scope as it was creeping up on another deputy in the dark. Mountain lions favorite natural prey is deer, but when desperate for various reasons will expand the menu to pets and people. Success probably breeds more targeting of non-deer vittles.
i assigned a DC5 climb skill to it and as a circumstance due to some of the remaining stair features being able to crumble out of the wall and the darkness they were climbing in I added that as long as they did not roll a 1 they could make it all the way to the top with one roll.. If you wanted it to be a risky climb, you probably should have given it a DC higher than 5 (unless that's a typo). It sounds like your players are against the house rule of rolling a 1 on a skill check always causing some kind of penalty. There's no point in forcing the issue, because there is a way you can get around this. If you think that there was a small but unavoidable chance of crumbling footholds or other mishaps on an otherwise routine climb, force each climber to make a Reflex Save. If you are making a saving throw, then a 1 does always fail. It's a bit wormy in a way, but perfectly reasonable. Look at the rules for things like Avalanches, Normal Fire damage, poison, rotting food, etc. There are many non-magical things that can force a saving throw, and a 1 always fails. So remember, if you think a situation is "dicey" enough to mean a 1 will auto-fail, state the risk in terms of a saving throw instead of a skill check. It doesn't have to be a super high DC, but if it's a saving throw, the risk of failure always exists.
There are a huge number of fantasy novels that use a slavic setting. I think Orson Scott Card did one, but there was some time travel in there, and Baba Yaga's hut was a grounded 747 that had gone through the wormhole. Oi. To some extent, if you're doing research, you should first decide on the level of magic in your campaign. Then find some fiction with a similar level of magic and go from there. Dave Duncan has sort of low magic thing with his Sky of Swords series, and one of the books takes place in a pseudo russia with mad czars and stuff. Rest of the series deals with vikings and other euro types.
I run a fair number of Pathfinder Society Games, and to me the telling feature of something that's overpowered is when roughly 1/3 to 2/5 of the players at the table have this feat. Yeah, this trait is sort of a min/maxer's dream at low levels, especially in a one-off game or organized play situation where you don't expect the DM to waste any time targeting you. It has the potential to really beef up the combat power of a starting character. But starting characters are pretty squishy anyway, so I'm not sure there's too much of a balance issue. As long as the player doesn't try to go overboard with crazy stuff, since they have to pay the base+special and only save on the masterwork. For a long term campaign, this trait would tempt me depending on the type of build I was going for. It could really open things up for certain fighter or multi-class builds. You could use it to let a wizard swing a greatsword, but I'm not sure that would pan out in the long term. But I would be worried that in a long campaign, circumstances would eventually conspire to separate me from my heirloom or cause me to switch weapons. Losing the trait bonus isn't that big of a deal at higher levels, but still kind of a bummer. So I might be tempted to go with something else.
I like both Remco & Khuldar's ideas. A competing party is a good way to show the players what the "ideal" is. Might be a bit of work for the DM, might be fun if you like to build characters. Depending on the campaign, it's reasonable to assume that most of the magic items are owned by the local establishment as opposed to just available at "Magic R Us". So you have to be in with the establishment if you want to buy or trade for new items. One thing to keep in mind is that a PC party is almost a small army. Depending on the size of the city/town they're in, and how high their level is, they could make the local rulers nervous. So this could provide an additional reason for the PCs to get on the queen's good side. There could be a local rule that no one is allowed to have a weapon/armor better than +1 unless they have royal permission. No misc items over 2,000 gp, can't have more than two potions or scrolls, no wands above 2nd level, etc. You just have to be careful that the restrictions don't make the players want to leave town and go play somewhere else. If the players get in good with the queen, you could offer a number of benefits depending on how well they're doing. 10% discount on equipment and magic, free healing, stuff like that.
I agree, it comes down to how much roleplaying the players are doing. Acting the "big spender" is not going to appeal to a purely tactical minded party. If they're really mired in tactics vs. strategic thinking, they might wonder why they should care about the queen since she won't go into the dungeon and fight with them. Probably. Do you have the faction guide? If you want to encourage the party to give stuff to the queen to get on her good side, just make her a faction. The more presents you give the queen, the more she does for you in return, as measured in the amount faction points you get.
I think it's pretty clear that in the Rules As Written, the Quick Draw Feat doesn't allow quick sheathing. I absolutely don't think this was an oversight in any way shape or form, given the name of the feat and the ample space in the description to mention it. So to pull quick sheath off (pull, get it?), you either have to convince your DM to allow it by fiat or by letting you take a new feat. But there's really no point to arguing it on the boards, other than to prcatice for the argument at the table, I guess. It doesn't look like you are convincing many folks here. You haven't mentioned why you want to quick sheath. Color me curious. I am guessing you want to be able to switch weapons during a single full attack, without having to drop anything (which may not always be the best idea, but people do it all the time in combat, both real and imagined - combat is desperate business). As far as two weapon defense goes, if you take the AGP Two Weapon Warrior Class, your TWD goes up with your level.
Well, bastard sword is a reasonable choice for a TWW if you want to "go big". Keep in mind that the improvements to the off-hand penalty don't kick in until your 11th fighter level. There is also a lot of love for the Falcata on the boards for a go big type of build. I would add two-weapon rend to your feat list, fer sure. Eventually, you will be able to attack with both hands as a standard, and also, your AoO will eventually be two-handed as well. If you add in the rend, it's like getting three-for-one, if both hands hit. If you're going to rock the bastard sword, I don't think you'll need weapon finesse. If you're going to stick with weapon finesse, you might want to go with the Aldori dueling sword.
What weapon were you going to use? Kukri? Maybe spamming shuriken? The standard Ki ability that grants an extra attack for 1 point is great because it adds one more attack at your highest iteration. The +20 feet to move is also good for escapes. For a TWF, my favorite trick is Acrobatic Master: +20 to acrobatics means you will probably get away free if you need to, no matter how outnumbered and boxed in you are. Helpful because a TWF Ninja is DPR, not a tank. Other than that, it depends on you weapon. If you go hand to hand, you probably want to take the bonus to sneak things that add bleed, stat damage or prevent AoO. If you go ranged, you want ki charge, deadly range, flurry of stars, etc.
I agree, going with an exotic weapone is probably the best use of this trait. You just have to be careful you don't ever lose or break grand-pappy's sword. The chance of that can depend on how mean your DM is, I guess.
My other tactical suggestion is to match them, not 1 falcata/1 kukri, so that you get the double dip in the weap focus/weap spec/improved crit feats. I was planning to match things eventually, because the ability doesn't kick in until 11th. So I was gonna use a light weapon offhand to start. That might be a long time to wait for the intended build to pan out. One I've done is the dagger, I like it because you can throw it when you can't make a melee attack, either at the beginning of combat or at the end of a full round action. There is a nice trait that gives a +1 on dagger damage bumping it's damage up so it's inline with the short sword. And... I do manage to launch a fair number of daggers at the end of a turn or at the beginning of combat when I wouldn't otherwise be able to attack. The ability to throw could be useful. If you want to swing two big-ish swords then why not just go for scimitar or longsword and save yourself a feat? I guess I'm just looking for something a little different. Scimitar is only a d6. It comes down to if you think spending the feat on exotic weapon gives you enough extra punch to be worth it. Part of the reason I'm interested in a big weapon is the double-strike ability that kicks in at 9th. Allows two hits with a standard attack. At 13th you can Opp with both hands as well. Don`t feel like `you have to` get Greater 2WF, it`s the attack least likely to hit... And there`s plenty of other Feats you can take instead, while not forcing your choice of stat investments. You have a point about G2WF. But one more attack just sounds fun, no matter how small the chance to hit. There's a reason I have so many d20's The most gonzo choice would be 2WFing with 2 Two Bladed Swords (as one handed weapons per their description) ;-) Yes, dual 2-bladed swords would be gonzo...edging towards a silly place. Anyway, what I pick will probably be influenced by which campaign I end up playing my next PC in - that's still up in the air at this point. The makeup of the party will also have an impact. If it's an urban campaign, I might go with kukri or dagger and pirahna strike for the concealability factor. Thanks to everyone who commented :)
Charisma ki pool works for me. All arguments about historical vs. fantasy ninja personality traits aside, in the same way that there are multiple spell-casting stats, I think multiple ki pool stats are reasonable.
I added two levels of ninja to a lamia matriarch in place of the two levels of rogue that were written up in the adventure I'm running. It's awesome, because the ki powers she has been using, combined with her lamia abilities, have the players quaking in their boots. She is already a good two weapon fighter, so adding one extra attack really freaks the players out. When losing a fight where she was badly outnumbered, she used the bonus to acrobatics to get away clean from a room full of PCs and NPCs, then followed up with the movement bonus to really increase the distance. All in all, turning out to be a great big bad because of the combination of combat threat and survivability. Not sure I could make a rogue quite as threatening. The ki powers are great. I think dialing some things back for balance may be a good idea. Fewer skills are probably in order. It seems like it will be hard to keep the rogue and ninja classes balanced with each other and still keep the ninja flavor. I think this is partially due to the fact the the ninja archetype is just more specialized and "powerful" than the rogue, which is a much broader cultural archetype.
I threw a dual kukri wielder at my players when I was a DM once, they were unpleasantly surprised. It's a good weapon for a dual wield. I would probably carry a kukri as my off-hand weapon at low levels, until I'm studly enough to pick up a second Falcata, or whatever. I'm just attracted to the idea of swinging two big-ish weapons once the ability becomes available, just for the "shock and awe" value. In the grand scheme of things, a bigger die probably isn't as important as other factors, unless you go way up the vital strike tree. But my understanding is that vital strike isn't compatible with a full attack and multiple swings, so it doesn't have as much synergy with a two-weapon build. One of the things that concerns me about weapon finesse is that you restrict your useful armor types as you pump your Dex to the crazy high numbers at higher levels.
I don't know how you are currently doing this, but take control of cohorts, undead, animal companions, and other followers. The rules specify how much a player can say freely, or the type of actions a character can designate for an animal companion or undead. Have them issue orders, and you resolve their actions on their own initiative. It is how the game is meant to play, and stops players from analyzing every step for 14 characters. Just have them manage themselves and you will run the NPCs. They may get some flack, but just don't play them foolishly and I think there won't be any problems. Also, it will encourage players to invest in making group tactics for and specific orders they can give their units which will make them more heavily invested without further complicating things. Most players like to roll dice for their cohorts, and the DM usually has enough dice rolling of his own to do. It's usually good enough for the player to state the kind of orders they're giving and then take the action for the cohort. You just have to keep an eye out and make sure that the PCs don't "overcontrol" the actions of their cohorts. If the table is honest, they will encourage each other not get too complex with animals, etc. Controlling all the cohorts (and all the bad guys) all going on their own initiatives would add too much to my workload as a DM. You must really like to roll dice :)
So I'm thinking of building a Two-Weapon Warrior. Plan is to specialize in and eventually dual wield a one-handed non-light weapon when the Improved Balance class feature kicks in at 11th (APG page 109). So what weapon to choose? Is Bastard Sword Exotic Weapon Prof worth it to aspire to a d10 in each hand? How about the Falcata with the x3 crit? I think maybe the Aldori dueling sword is meant to work better as a single wield build. Since you eventually have to get up to a 19 Dex, is Weapon Finesse worth it? Or just concentrate on strength and get the minimum Dex through magic belts and such?
I agree, having people put the details of spells and rules and abilities on cards or sheets or whatever is very helpful. I use a magnet board initiative chart, so I always know who's next. Also, we usually tell the person after the person about to go that they are "on deck" so that the (hopefully) get their action ready while the guy ahead of them on the initiative track is going, and can act immediately when called on without dithering. Cohorts, pets, summoned critters, spiritual weapons, all that crap always goes on the same round as the PC. Our group frowns on cohorts and pets a little bit because they make fights more complicated. I usually don't break the bad guys into more than two groups. Maybe one for a boss or quick guy and all the other mooks at once. Often they all go in one group. There are a number of things you can do as a DM to make fights take less time, especially if you are having a lot of fights that drag out a long time and you or some of the players are getting bored by it. If it's not an important boss fight, have the bad guys bail or surrender as soon as things start to not go their way. If they surrender, taking prisoners is totally optional. Even if the bad guys don't expect mercy, they still might give because they're tired. If it's a "random encounter" or other less important sort of fight, and your players are really good at combat, maybe don't roll dice for every fight. Just say that the bad guys get beat and cause a little damage to hp and other resources, and move on to the next challenge. You could add a small amount of randomness to a shortened fight by having each player make a save or a skill check or something, with success slightly reducing the cost of the fight for that player.
It's a cute idea, but easily neutralized by the DM. If you try to push the envelope on the crazy min/max stuff, you're just opening yourself up to the DM pulling out the stops, and he has a bigger bag of tricks, up to and including "rocks fall, everyone dies". Some of the problems you could run into with this build: If you run out of powder or shot, you're screwed. Also, the gun crew, whether it's NPC cohorts, unseen servants, whatever, will be vulnerable to something. Dispel magic, cloudkill, attack from below by incorporeal undead, etc. Waves of mooks, High DR, massive hit points, concealment, etc. A door that's too narrow for your big fat gun. And worst of all: Any roleplaying situation that can't be solved by applying massive amounts of damage to the bad guy. (I know, what DM would stoop to that? It's practically inhumane!)
This is a cool idea. I have both APs and I'm currently running RotRL. My party is in Fort Rannick right now. When I read through the exploration rules in Kingmaker, I had thought they might be used to expand on the "keeping a keep" rules from Hook Mountain. I might run the ruling of the territory around Fort Rannick as a "side game" to the main RotRL quest. Maybe leave it up to NPC cohorts of the main PC party.
I like the fact that it looks like you can arrange the rooms in multiple different configurations.
It's only five bucks, but you only get four chips for $5. I'm still thinking about this one. You could actually make these yourself in endless quantities and variety if you were clever with photoshop and had access to the right materials: Poker Chips (easy enough to get, not sure if the standard size would work for every need) 8.5x11" sheets of blank sticker stock pre-punched in circles about the size of your poker chips. (not sure how hard it would be to get this) A printer that can handle the sticker stock.
I just discovered this post, so I haven't had a chance to use any of the suggestions, but I may throw some in later on. My PCs are at the Foxglove townhouse in Magnimar, getting thumped by faceless stalkers. My campaign started with 6 PCs, then one guy left and another moved away, and we got a new player, so now we have 5. To make up for the larger party, I made most of the goblin mooks into commandos. I put a Gutdragging Lurcher (from U2: Hangman's Noose) into the prisoner pits with the zombies in the catacombs. I added a few extra Sinspawn. At Thistletop, I bumped up the levels of Nualia and all her party.
In order to give the players backstory, while still handicapping them slightly for their heavy-handed approach, I'd switch Kraven to some other area. Unfortunately, his desire to help goes out the window once Lucretia gets to him. I totally agree with this idea. I think that it makes sense that the players suffer a penalty for setting the fires by losing some potential allies. The fact that Shalelu left drives the point home that "we don't need no water let the motherf#cker burn" might be a bad idea. But I think it also makes sense that they can't get away from the traitor that easily. Kraven should "re-spawn" somewhere so that they still have to deal with that part of the adventure.
Opinions? I'm going to query some of my FLGSs to see how are the Paizo orders. I think it's ridiculous that the OP on the RPG.net forum assumes that a "buy our stuff" email is an indication that there are problems. It's just standard business practice. If you've got a list of email contacts, any company is going to work the heck out of that s#it. I never got the email in question because I keep buying stuff for the game I'm running. But I get solicitations from Amazon, Land's End, etc. All the companies that I've bought from in the past but don't buy from regularly. Hey, is that over there on the ground...a piece of SKY? AAAAAAAAAAAGH! Exactly.
Serious Gamer Cred for the contents of the shelves (and window sill) in the background of the first pic. Looks like somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 gaming books. Maybe a nearly complete set of everything from 1st through 4th edition. Probably 100+ figures visable, plus at least 10 plastic cases filled with more figures. I can also see the octagonal velvet-lined dice rolling dish, plus assorted other boxes of gaming stuff, cards, etc.
Yeah, I'm kinda starting to hate these interns. Their posts are all "look at the special things we get to do...tee-hee!" We paint minis; we play-test unreleased products; we hang with Pierce Watters. Well, don't be too jealous, I don't think they get paid. It's great (work) if you can get it, but you also have to be able to afford it.
Alright, but why is reincarnation the purview of nature gods? What about the druidic faith makes the progress of the soul unique? Do all druids reincarnate when they die? Do the nature gods reincarnate their own followers with the same whim outlined in the spell? One week the High Druid of Shamalama, the next week a bugbear bride? I think you're putting the wrong "spin" on it. A Druid would say: "Dude, don't get all caught up in the whole human body good, demi-human body bad vibe. We don't judge, we're Neutral baby, it's just how we roll." Since the "High Druid" is a stud who doesn't age, he probably doesn't die too often. If he did die, and someone was around to reincarnate him as a Bugbear, I don't think he would be anyone's "bride" if he didn't want to be. And since he can shapechange into a Huge animal or a freaking Elemantal, I don't think anyone will pay much attention to the extra fur. To the Druids, there is nothing wrong with dropping someones soul into a random body from a different species, because "it's all organic & 100% natural, baby". By being cheaper is reincarnation implicitly inferior? What does the spell say about the people of Golarion who believe that reincarnation is a spiritual journey? That they just come from regions where diamonds, and better forms of rebirth, are more rare? Just because it's cheaper doesn't mean it's inferior. It's just different because it's a lower level spell with less costly components. For whatever reason, Reincarnating a soul into a new body is less "costly" than repairing and reanimating the original body in terms of magical power. The trade-off is the possible inconvenience of a new type of body with some different stats. To some extent, that's a game balance / design decision that you could argue harken's back to Gygaxian "torture the player" impulses. I don't know of any cultures in Golarion that are specifically written up as believing that reincarnation is a "spiritual journey" that is better than raise dead. I would immagine that any culture that favors druids as their divine casters is going to see more reincarnations than raises and resurrections. These cultures are going to be a little more "wild" and more likely to just roll with folks coming back furry or hooved or whatever. But bringing folks back from the dead is going to be a rare event in any culture.
But werewolves are. And a man-hyena will probably be mistaken for a man-wolf. Most peasants will see slobbering jaws, and run away screaming. That's a good point. So in addition to daily brusing of the fur, good oral hygeine is also essential. Perhaps a bib would be a good investment. But any area that is being threatened by werewolves (like Darkmoon Vale) is unlikely to be 100% safe for the undisguised PC. The hat of disuise is still a viable option. And being 12th level is a great insurance policy against many hazards, including pitchfork wielding angry mobs or trigger happy town guards (deflect, deflect, deflect the hastily fire crossbow bolt!) Also, the OP's player posted some ways back and mentioned something about a vampiric template and already being a worshiper of Lamashtu with a tattoo to that effect on her cheek. So yeah, she blends. [/sarcasm]
Well, Reincarnate saves you 4,000 gp over Raise Dead. You gets whats you pay fer, baby. If you're too cheap to pony up the extra cash, don't complain. I assume the party didn't roll with a 12th level Cleric, or Raise Dead would have been used. If your only divine caster is a Druid, sometimes you have to put up with a little extra body hair. In our Age of Worms campaign, one of the PCs died and was reincarnated from Human to Human (we only have a Druid). What a rip-off! (Easy for me to say, it wasn't my character). Really, if my gnome wizard died and came back as a gnoll, that would be sweet. It would have zero impact on my abilities as a wizard and improve my physical stats. Strength was my dump stat, so it would be funny to go from a 6 to 12 while more than doubling in height, gaining over 250 pounds, getting extra hit points, and +1 natural AC. (The new 30-foot move wouldn't come up often because I cast overland flight every morning so that the hobgoblin barbarian would stop threatening to stuff me in his bag of holding because I was too slow...) For a 12th level monk, the bonuses from becoming a gnoll are all gravy (in combat, at least). +4 STR, +2 CON, +1 natural AC. A 12th level Monk probably already has items that permanently buff these stats, or routinely buffs the stats before combat. Now the buffs are stacking onto even better base stats. Whee! There may be some difficulties from the new body, but I don't think they would be insurmountable. The benefits outweigh the cost. As others have pointed out, gnolls aren't very common in Varisia, so there will be little motivation for the residents of most towns and cities to be instantly hostile. Also, the party might be even higher level by the time they get anywhere near civilization again. And they will be heroes of at least some renown. So be sure to brush your fur every day and you will be fine.
I can't answer the DC part, but my thinking is this: If the creature uses his Charm Monster ability to charm a PC warrior (who has low will saves in general) and have him "defend" the creature and in turn use the Rage SLA....just a thought. I think this is correct (and would be mean). The fact that the DC is listed doesn't matter if the spell description says "willing". You would never be able to use the spell as an attack on an unwilling creature. If you look at through the SRD / Monster Manual, pretty much all Spell-like abilities have a Save DC listed. Even healing spells (which could be attack spells against undead) have Save DC's. I think the Save DC's are always listed, even if they might not be needed. I'm not sure if there are any rules for whether or not being charmed means you can be considered a "willing" target of any spells cast by the charmer or its allies. If you were a generous DM, you could say that a charmed creature is only "partially willing" and give them the option of a "subconscious" will save to avoid being Raged after getting charmed.
The software I use is d20pro: It handles attacks, initiative, hit points (notice the red on the portraits), and tracks numerical effects and does all the math. So do you guys figure that the prep time for the d20pro method is less than paper DM notes, printing out maps, & figures? My friend has a 50" flat screen networked to his computer. I can imagine the players sitting at the couch looking at the big screen while the DM sits at the nearby desk and drives the action from a PC. But my friend also has hundreds and hundreds of minis. Not sure if the group will want to give all that up...
Misgivings level 1 is finally done! These look great. Although my players went down the well first and so they haven't even been to the first level yet. Bastards! I did have a few questions: 1. Are both resolutions meant to be printed at the same 1" = 5' scale? (I've downloaded the files but I haven't opened and tried to print anything yet.) 2. Have you consisdered making an image the shows the house on the lands with a roof instead of the rooms showing? Sometimes what I like to do is print out a "base" map without the room details and then print and cut out the rooms individually. So the players would be able to see the external shape of the house but wouldn't know the size or shape of the rooms they hadn't visited yet. This worked for Thistletop because the players could see where they were in relation to the edges of the island, but the had no way of knowing the size, shape, and number of rooms waiting for them in the unvisited / unmapped sections. My players are used to gridlines, but I can go either way. All the figures for medium critters have bases that are about an inch across. So if there's a spot without another figure on it, you can stand there. If your bases are close to touching, you're adjacent. Sometimes counting squares is slower than just pulling out a ruler, especially for diagonal movement in curvy tunnels.
I agree Lisa, full color battle maps are the way to go. I have been running Rise of the Rune Lords and have been using full color battle maps from the very beginning. After decades of gaming with battle maps and vis-a-vis markers, my players were very impressed. I have been using both community created maps as well as "blowing up" the PDF's to 1" per square when I print them. The resolution on the blow-ups isn't great, but it's still much more immersive than a plain brown battle mat. We only play once a month, so I have a bit of an advatage in that a long span of time has passed since the AP came out, giving the community more time to create new stuff. I'm going to have to take a serious look into the business plan idea posted by Vic. One of my gaming buddies knows CAD and was also an RPG Superstar-08 Top 32. And I've always liked maps... :)
I actually lean towards making the Map Folios a PDF only product, or at least making the PDF version distinct from the printed version. I have been buying the printed Map Folios, but overall I have gotten more use out of the PDFs. I actually lean towards making the Map Folios a PDF only product, or making the PDF version distinct from the printed version. I have been printing out the PDFs at 1" scale and using them as battle maps. The resolution isn't great, but may players really like the full color because it adds to the immersion. I don't think that printed 1" scale maps of every battle site in an adventure path is even remotely economically feasible. That would literally be several square yards of color printing. However, if the PDF version of the Map Folio came with 1" scale versions of the maps, players maps, etc, I would be willing to pay at least $15-$20 for just the PDF. I would bear the printing cost, and Paizo wouldn't have any shipping or printing cost. I'm not sure if the lack of printing and shipping cost for Paizo would offset the added cost of doing more artwork & cartography.
I have to work the next few days, but maybe I can sneak a bit of time in here and there to wrap the first level up. I better, since I have campaign on Sunday! What a co-winky-dink, I'm running this Sunday as well. The detailed Misgivings 1st floor looks great, with knocked over chairs, etc. My players are currently in the cornfields, but I couldn't get to those maps for some reason, I get a 404 error. Edit: I was able to get the maps when I went to your Google page, but the link embeded in this forum page seems broken.
I agree - I'll rune them up if I get a chance before they burn down Sandpoint. You could add all sorts of potential downsides to bearing a rune so that the players are compelled by self interest to follow the plot. Brodert Quink could look at the rune and sort of make a "tsk tsk, you're screwed" noise. You wouldn't even have to define 100% of the penalties, just to keep them guessing. As far as rewards go, you can always have the various potential patrons offer choice equipment for taking the job, with the understanding that the PCs can't keep the gear unless they finish the job. The mayor of Magnimar is the only person who comes to mind with major resources, but you could add others. The PCs will surpass the "level" of the folks in Sandpoint pretty quickly. The equipment / rewards issue in my game was solved fairly easily. The players decided that all their characters would be from the same order of knighthood. The party functions like a small military unit with a command structure, etc. (It's funny when the other players force the player of the "commander" to tell them what to do. A real change from the normal "herding cats" table dynamic.) They have to option of turning all the random loot they get in return for equipment provided by their order. Being knights from the same order, the mostly have similar "builds" (longsword and shield) and the order provides them with standardized equipment of uniform quality. No one is way ahead on equipment because they won the "loot lottery" and were the only person who could use some obscure but powerful piece of treasure.
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