Michael Talley 759's page

Have you tried GURPS?

It has much of what you are talking about and wanting in a Roleplaying game. Depending on the Storyteller, the world can be as real/detailed as they want. The system also includes real-life Disadvantages and Advantages that you can start the game with.

It is however a Point based game system, similar to the Champions/Hero System. But it has more realistic and thought-out Drawbacks for characters.

It is fun to play and from what I've read in the above post. It might work for what you are looking for since there isn't much House ruling, it's just what the Storyteller allows for books for their world-building. But everything you mentioned in the above post, is in the core book.

Hopefully, this was helpful.

It might sound a bit mean, but perhaps the GM should let them do something in the realm of a bad idea, and give them consequences for the action that they could earn.

Of course preferably without inconveniencing the group as well. But depending on the level of "Bad Idea" that might happen as well.

I find Monkey Paw's effects quite useful in some cases.

Nice.

Glad you found a group.

Thats pretty high level, so slap some hero levels on her previous tea circle.

From personal experience, do not actually fully stat out these NPC as if building a player character, but have an outline you finish on the fly.
You could specifically have a fight against her tea circle, but communicate to the party that they are not out to kill you, this is a "hijinks and shenangians episode".

** spoiler omitted **

It could also be fun if they stay the same and over the course of encounters get levels as they try to out pace this powerful enemy before they finally learn the truth and have to join the group as a form of apology. (Wouldn't do to kill off the Dragon Maids friends after all)

That way they can have a story arc of the friends trying and failing to take out the party that never kills them because the Dragon tells the party that they are friends and seem to have "misunderstood something" That way they have their own training arcs.

If we go fully anime, then I suppose each of the friends would fall for different party members too then, that or the poor Paladin might end up with a harem with more headache inducing Gming

Generally, all the ones I've run have gone past level 10, although the recent high-level game didn't go to far past that point.

Have an ally invest in False Focus Feat, Get a 50GP Holy Symbol. Cast Continual Flame on Random objects. The Item now has a Magical aura, and strength would be based on the caster, but with False Focus, it forgoes the constant 50GP Ruby Cost.

and best of all until they hit level 3, they can Scribe Scrolls. Making some cheap lv 0 Spell Scrolls, but until then, certainly still costly to the character that needs them for healing.

But on the plus side, you can destroy cursed Items safely ;-) and once people find out something is cursed, generally want it destroyed.

Bluff is a great friend in those moments

I generally for blasting Sorcerers Like Elemental and Draconic or using the Cross-blooded archetype for the combination of the two.

The abyssal bloodline Summoner build is quite fun when you're playing a Neutral Character and the enemy needs Holy Weapons to hurt your summons.

I've also done more Social Games using Fey & Infernal as the cross-blooded Archetype for Mind Manipulator. Low levels are pretty meh, but once you start getting access to more charm and/or compulsion spells make for a pretty good "maker of friends"
(Although that was a very SLOOOOOOW little combat adventure so it likely wouldn't survive a non-social game)

This was said as a half-serious, half-joking comment in a recent session, to our charismatic bard/priest: "Will you quit trying to talk our way out of these encounters? It's costing us valuable treasure!"

^_^ this was recently an issue for a few friends around the table with my Kellid Sorcerer, I've RP'd the group out of several issues big and small and lately they are wanting to get more combat.

Been able to change out my character with In-game story.

As for the GM, the game is a WAR Story with an army of Drow invading from their lands with Air Ships and Tactics on par with the Roman Legion. My Sorcerer Is now leading a Military Army while they are on a quest to fetch Magical artifacts that the Drow are looking for.

Sounds pretty amusing for an AP for certain. ^^; might have to look for more information on the school since I certainly don't play 2nd edition with my group

Might have to look into this school. Sounds like an interesting concept if all the students have bonded items that are Masks.

It just seems to scream Illusionists to me :3

So Take the Item Hat of Disguise add in Nondetection and Misdirection enchantments to the mask. Could make for quite the amusements :3

OMG... liars. I don't know that they're liars up front usually, but I've made a point to distance myself from any gamers that are liars. Like, I get the urge IRL to lie to me about big, major things in your life; not saying I CONDONE those lies but what the hey, I get it. But lying about your die rolls, or your PC's scrolls, or what kind of a campaign setting this is? Like, just why?

Anyway MT 759, I feel your pain then. As you can see I've run up against telling my players something, they don't either listen or take me seriously, make a decision, then suffer the consequences I mentioned and they get mad at me for whatever reason.

But liars... I had a GM end of last year/beginning of this year who first ran a 3.5 campaign, then a 5e campaign. In both I asked up front for primers on the games. Like, this guy is SUCH a fan of lies of omission... huge blind spots plus his general gaming style led to me just quitting both games.

Currently I'm saddled with a guy who lies routinely about his character, cheats on his die rolls, etc. I want to kick him outta' my table SO bad, but he's friends of the other players, most of which I inherited through a mutual friend, and there's this weird social dynamic at play... bottom line, I've been asked by the other 3 in the game NOT to boot this player.

It is SOOO annoying. Like, every level I have to audit his PC. I randomly change ACs of monsters attacking him or else he'll just hit, magically, on EVERY attack! SO infuriating.

Yeah, Liar's are so much fun. Had a similar player in one game. they hated the Defensive Spell Displacement and for some reason could never quite get the right even odd to make hits 100% of the time. {*innocent Halo appears over my small horns*} Generally had it as a one-use item, normally increased combat long enough for everyone to have fun. I did this after I noticed the player had one d20 on a natural twenty in their roll container and would roll another d20 and then of course claim the first one was the die roll.

the one they were dating generally protected them saying they saw them roll.

I'm not a big fan of an Eye for an Eye, but sometimes, the only way to nip it in the bud. Some players are new and don't know everything (had a player constantly stacking AC bonuses that wouldn't stack, but too their credit once they got past that rule it was fair sailing)

also if you can find it, you might find some amusement in the "Too much of good thing" Rule from Teenagers from Outerspace. It's meant for humor Comedy RPG's but it can be adapted for other genres easily enough and can make cheating start backfiring on the person/group.

Basic Adventure Outline

- Lord Maxwell Conner is in need of adventurers to deal with a Thieves Guild that has started to cause problems for his beloved fiancee, Lady Abagail Wincroft.
while unsure of the abilities of most adventurers he has sent a few of his men to seek out a group that might be able to nip the "start of a great problem should it be left to fester"
While he does hope the Players can catch the would-be Thieves Guild before it takes root in the city he lives and hopes to wed in (a secret to no one should people listen to him more
then 5 minutes) to Lady Abagail Wincroft (whom incidentally has a family that runs many wealthy trade routes in the merchant quarter and would reward heroes amazingly)
He offers the group a reward of 500 GP each for getting rid of the problem before it becomes too great, and even sweetens the pot by letting them know other wealth on the thieves is also
allowed as other merchants would consider it a reward to remove the thieves guild before it takes root as well.

Part one of the Adventure Encounters/Traps- (Level one Party, group size 4-5 Players)

6 CR 2 Traps - Poisoned Bolt Traps
{Type- Mechanical, Perception/Disable DC 20, Trigger- Location, Reset- Manual, Effect: +10 ranged Attack 1d6+4 Damage Plus Black Adder Poison}

2 CR 3 Traps - Poisoned Spiked Pit Traps
{type- Mechanical, Perception/Disable DC 20, trigger- Location, reset- Manual, Effect: 10' Deep Pit (1d6 Falling Damage), Pit Spikes ( +10 Attack Melee, 1d4 Spikes per Target for 1d4+2 Damage Plus Black Adder Poison)
reflex Save DC 20 Avoids, Multitarget in a 10' Area}

8 CR 1/2 or 2 Groups of 3 thieves (CR 3)

1 CR 4

This is the start for a game to bring the players together, this first Scenario part brings them from level one to level two, if people want I'll post the rest of the notes of what I call
Barebones adventure building, right now I have written in a notebook enough adventure to bring them all the way from level 1 to level 4 (like most Adventure Paths)

Michael Talley 759 wrote:

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

The paladin PC doesn't ALWAYS remember to scan for evil but when he does and I'm just making stuff up on the fly, I rarely think of all these precautions. So... this is one more reason why the PCs in my games are RARELY surprised.

That's good, imagine the looks of just the locals if the paladin went around the concentrated Gaze on 100% because they suspect evil is everywhere. The Paranoid Paladin archetype has been fairly common in more than a few games I've sat in, Games I've run, and games I've played in.

He's a LITTLE paranoid. Y'know what IS always "on" when the paladin PC is in town? Sense Motive. Like, seriously; any time I have a non-combat scene in the main city, even if I'm just narrating some Downtime activity, the player's always like "ummm… sense motive? Is this on the up and up?"

Sometimes folks, especially when you're level 7 and the GM's 2 most major plot points revolve around a giant megadungeon… an unnamed NPC buying one of your shields is JUST an unnamed NPC buying one of your shields.

XD so -VERY- much yes.

Sure I've had a few Con-men Merchants (Generally Travelling with other Merchants that are on the Up and up) but rarely if the adventure is centered on Dungeon diving XD

But I've seen the ones that use Sense Motive on City Guards when asking for Directions

The paladin PC doesn't ALWAYS remember to scan for evil but when he does and I'm just making stuff up on the fly, I rarely think of all these precautions. So... this is one more reason why the PCs in my games are RARELY surprised.

That's good, imagine the looks of just the locals if the paladin went around the concentrated Gaze on 100% because they suspect evil is everywhere. The Paranoid Paladin archetype has been fairly common in more than a few games I've sat in, Games I've run, and games I've played in.

Both are interesting ideas for Skulls and Shackles as Backup characters.

I've found the best Illusionists as Bards, Generally focusing on being spies Disguise Self, Image spells for creating props and performance Acting.

1st- Disguise Self
2nd- Invisibility
3rd- Invisibility Sphere
4th- Greater Invisibility
5th- Mislead
6th- Programmed Image

these would help your character move around and at the highest casting with Programmed Image, create an illusionary Dupe that can die for you if someone breaks into your room (generally pair it with the spell Alarm and the Programmed Image can be triggered with it going off)

Most GM's however generally forget Illusion spells only get the will save from directly interacting with the Illusion spell so it's a good rule of thumb to make sure the GM of the game remembers and know this mechanic. Otherwise, you might run into the GM that says all NPC's get a will save from just seeing the image.

Enchantment can be good for short-term gains and if you can role play it well, can even convince the target there was no spell and they really are your friend (or at least they like you) Still Spell, Silent spell and good Bluff/Diplomacy Checks are very useful :3

Michael Talley 759 wrote:

There is a 3.5 Feat that would give you Produce Flame and the early rules for Pathfinder do allow for Conversion of the feat.

For ease, I've done the converting of the Prerequisites. However, in most Pathfinder Society Play, I've not seen too many GM's allow feats from 3.5
...

I haven't seen any PF Org Play with 3.5 feats. Today it is not allowed as the Guide directs participants otherwise.

Neither have I after moving out of Alaska :-) But, who knows I've seen games played in the society style but not actually for Society play (They get no benefits from going to other Society locations with said characters)

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

2 of my 3 current games feature a paladin. No matter how I plan the narrative, it ends up going like this:

Me: you enter the (insert setting for meeting the BBE here)...
Paladin player:*interrupts* I've got Detect Evil running, just a reminder
Me:*heavy sigh*… you see (insert physical description of BBE here) and yes, they're evil.

Now yes, I know there's ways to obscure the alignment of the NPC or villain monster, but I often forget that or don't want to include the extra magic item on the foe. My point is that while I very much enjoy a crunchy system, sometimes mechanics get in the way of good storytelling.

I get around this problem by doing two things.

1) A paladin using Detect Evil is very obvious. Not necessarily the same as spellcasting or your eyes glowing with holy light, but it's clear to all that you are Doing Something.
2) politeness. Most places frown on people just casting spells for no apparant reason. Especially if people recognize the spell you cast/ability you use. It's like going to come in and sic their drug sniffing dog on you - not something you do unless you have a good reason to if you don't want to needlessly offend people.

Not to mention Detect Evil is worthless on low level evil characters. Same as magical auras on items with Detect Magic. Unless they are supernatural or a Cleric, most peoples Evil Aura is barely a blimp on the Paladin's Radar.

Detect Evil (non-supernatural/Cleric) auras by HD
4HD or Less - None/nondetection
5-10HD - Faint Aura
11-25HD- Moderate
26-50HD- Strong
51+ - Overwhelming

Detect Evil (Cleric/Outsider)
1HD - Faint
2-4HD - Moderate
5-10HD - Strong
11+HD - Overwhelming

The Difference in the storytelling ended up with a Paladin learning the ability to Detect Evil wasn't as useful as they had originally thought, and it's a pretty common issue for most Game masters to forget about how Detect Evil/Magic/Undead work so I generally keep re-reading it myself to remember how it works.

Not sure if this Encounter will help or not, but here is a low level Encounter I built for City encounters.

Michael Talley 759 wrote:

nope, I welcome all types. a few Murderhobos often complain after a few sessions when they notice their monstrous race character builds are being treated as monsters.

Question: did you TELL the players up front their monstrous race characters would be hunted as monsters?

One of my homebrews, had a backstory involving orcs and barbarism both being very bad and socially prejudiced against. I gave the players a "player's guide" to the region with this info, then reviewed it at Session 0. One of my players decided to be a half-orc barbarian.

I asked her "are you SURE you want to play that character in this region, based on the negative perception everyone has of both barbarians in general and all things Orcish?" She's like, umm... yeah, why?

2 adventures in, the PCs make it to a backwater village. The half-orc barbarian is stopped at the stockade wall and told she'll have to sleep in the barn with the rest of the pigs; the other PCs were welcome. What ensued was a near total murder of the village militia, halted only by swift intervention from the party's wizard.

The player was genuinely peeved that her character was so blatantly discriminated against. I calmly handed her the printed copy of the player's guide and pointed to the "Orc Wars" section.

I always try to tell my players, up front, if their PCs will have some disadvantage based on the way I'm running the setting, their race, class or whatever, preferably before they've even decided what to play. That being said, I have no control over whether or not they remember or care about those disadvantages.

yup. I asked. This same player was also one that believed Charisma was more important than Strength and Constitution for a Barbarian, and almost Rage quit because they also rolled at a single Stat Roll campaign (IE, only roll once and for each stat down the list) I still have that list too: 18, 16, 18, 12, 14, 5

That one wasn't my campaign (the die roll one) my stats sucked in that game. 10, 14, 12, 13, 12, 8. Ended up playing a Thief Style rogue because I was told it was going to be a city based Campaign. GM lied, it was Wilderness war story.

Generally, if they can hear, they do in my settings. Many plan their own Ambush against those who are breaking in, also why in larger areas where sound doesn't travel well they'll set off an alarm to alert everyone there are intruders. Some will come to look for the group {Guard types], some will lay Ambushes [Those generally too weak to chase down indruders] and the Main Villain the PCs are generally after knows to set themselves up for a fight should they not receive word of the intruder's removal by the guards in the proper fashion. (after all, some intruders have been known to disguise themselves as the guards)

Depends on the villain, some are obvious

IE/ in the middle of burning down a town with raiders when the PCs happen upon them. The villains ride off, generally, good-aligned PCs help the surviving villagers. (Ironically not always and then the group generally finds themselves to be misunderstood as being part of the villain's Raiders because they ran off with/after them.)

Charismatic/Intelligent based villains, if done right, the group won't notice they are the BBEG until is generally way too late and the group has helped them quite a bit.

There is a 3.5 Feat that would give you Produce Flame and the early rules for Pathfinder do allow for Conversion of the feat.

For ease, I've done the converting of the Prerequisites. However, in most Pathfinder Society Play, I've not seen too many GM's allow feats from 3.5

The Domain you'd be looking for is Fire which would mean you'd have to Worship Asmodeus or Sarenrae in the Pathfinder campaign setting.
If it is Society Play, leaves just Sarenrae as your choice. [Unless they started allowing PC's to play evil recently when I wasn't looking XD]

Arcane Disciple
( Complete Divine, p. 79)

[General]

Choose a deity, and then select a domain available to clerics of that deity. You can learn to cast the spells associated with that domain as arcane spells.

Prerequisite
Knowledge (religion) 1 ranks, Spellcraft 1 ranks, able to cast arcane spells, alignment matches your deity's alignment,

Benefit
Add the chosen domain's spells to your class list of arcane spells. If you have arcane spellcasting ability from more than one class, you must pick which arcane spellcasting ability this feat applies to. Once chosen, this decision cannot be changed for that feat. You may learn these spells as normal for your class; however, you use Wisdom (rather than the normal ability for your spellcasting) when determining the save DC for the spell. In addition, you must have a Wisdom score equal to 10 + the spell's level in order to prepare or cast a spell gained from this feat. Each day, you may prepare (or cast, if you cast spells without preparation) a maximum of one of these domains spells of each level.

Special
You can take this feat more than once. Each time, you must select a different domain available to the same deity you chose the first time you selected the feat. For example, a character who chose Heironeous and the Good domain with his first selection could choose Law or War with successive selections of the same feat. He couldn't choose Protection, since that domain isn't available to clerics of Heironeous.

Michael Talley 759 wrote:

nope, I welcome all types. a few Murderhobos often complain after a few sessions when they notice their monstrous race character builds are being treated as monsters.

Mostly they complain that I use a "common sense" style of running NPC's when it comes to players playings things in the uncommon and rare categories.

Like the player that was playing a Lizardfolk Barbarian, that ended up slaughtering a village of women and children and was shocked to be hunted down by the surviving men that had been out hunting, that and to be reminded that Speak with dead was a way to get information about a killer and was even more upset that the other players didn't back him up.

The same player later down the road ended up getting his characters killed 12 times but only after events of his own making.

He did finally start finding his method of fitting in with a Grippli Rogue I think they went with the scout Archetype. The character ended up being more heroic in the end than the Paladin.

It's one of the reasons I don't disallow players types. All types can bring something to the table, and a few of his murder hobo moments were helpful, his planning and tact, however, were what did him in so many times in the past.

I think I heard he is a pretty decent player and starting to become a Game master now as well in Alaska.

Sounds like a typical hero origin story for one of those villagers. Inhuman monster kills parents/family they hunt it down and slay it mounting its head somewhere.

Honestly, I had debated making an Islander that had made it to the mainland to become a Human Ranger NPC with Humanoid - reptilian that would be an encounter (friendly type) but never did

PossibleCabbage wrote:

Troth of the Forgotten Pharoah- You lose 3 HP so you can explode when you die (and thereby prevent folks from raising you in the traditional way.) You can also just choose to die as an immediate action, if you want.

Holy crap, though... the Mask of the Forgotten Pharoah that goes along with that little cult...

AoN wrote:
If worn by an evil character, the mask enhances the wearer’s control over undead, doubling the number of undead the wearer may control with animate dead, control undead, the Command Undead feat, and similar effects. Additionally, the wearer can cast animate dead once per day as a spell-like ability.

Ryze Kuja, have seen this freaking mask?!?! Give it to your Mystic Theurge necromancer build. Lol.

My Kobold Sorcerer ended up getting that Mask, Neutral Evil. :3 was quite fun to help the party with by making zombie Camels to cross the desert. No need for water or food for the undead camels. It was pretty fun. Shame the game master gave up running the AP I think either book 3 or 4 when I ended up slaying the Lamia snake lady.

Hmmm my favorite cleric build - Cleric of Abadar LN

Domains - Protection & Travel

Feats

Human- Skill Focus {Alchemy}
1st- Dodge
3rd- Brew Potion
5th- Mobility
7th- Craft Wand
9th- Combat Expertise
11th- Empower Spell

this creates a healer that can move about the battlefield and heal/help all people. Leaving Channel Energy only after a conflict is over to help everyone.

Creating Alchemical healing supplies, Potions, and wands.

Group members may or may not enjoy a discount depending on how they treat said cleric.

Personal equipment should also focus on personal protection over damage dealing. Because if the Healer does go down, the others might not be able to revive them, but that would also be the reason for Potions since they can be used by others to help the Cleric recover.

Stat focus would be Wis, Dex, and then Charisma

20 point build would be:

Str 10 Dex 13 Con 14 Int 13 Wis 15 Cha 12

Humans would add either the +2 to Constitution or Wisdom But the leveling up should focus on the Wisdom. Personally, I put the +2 into Con, and then as I level I increase Wisdom.

This gives me HD 1d8+3 {Society Style Play: 11 HP +8 per Level}
and 5 skill points per level.

Skills that I generally pick are: Craft- Alchemy, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge History/Religion (Alternating), and Spellcraft

edit: don't forget to charge for all services you render, some Game Masters have been known to stop divine power for not acting like a merchant. To get around this I generally role Play out the creation of a Contract of service to an adventuring party.

nope, I welcome all types. a few Murderhobos often complain after a few sessions when they notice their monstrous race character builds are being treated as monsters.

Mostly they complain that I use a "common sense" style of running NPC's when it comes to players playings things in the uncommon and rare categories.

Like the player that was playing a Lizardfolk Barbarian, that ended up slaughtering a village of women and children and was shocked to be hunted down by the surviving men that had been out hunting, that and to be reminded that Speak with dead was a way to get information about a killer and was even more upset that the other players didn't back him up.

The same player later down the road ended up getting his characters killed 12 times but only after events of his own making.

He did finally start finding his method of fitting in with a Grippli Rogue I think they went with the scout Archetype. The character ended up being more heroic in the end than the Paladin.

It's one of the reasons I don't disallow players types. All types can bring something to the table, and a few of his murder hobo moments were helpful, his planning and tact, however, were what did him in so many times in the past.

I think I heard he is a pretty decent player and starting to become a Game master now as well in Alaska.

The loss of a friend is always hard Cori, I'm sorry for your loss of one.

Just wondering, why is it SO hard to find players to play face to face with?

I have been looking on Meet-ups, here, Discord, and fliers in game stores (What game stores I have in my area and ones that will let me post fliers.

If I want to play online, no issue, but for the past 3 years I have looked and looked and cannot find people who want to play face to face (When their is no major outbreak of pandemic)

Anyone got ideas, sites that work to find players?

I am in Colorado and SO frustrated!

BTW, prefer PF1 vs PF2 but will play PF2

Currently running F2F in Billings Montana, some of us are thinking of starting a 2nd group. If your in region give us a holler.

1st edition as well, although the group tends to like Horror Style games

I was asked to never play Kobolds again in one group in Alaska because I played them as "too clever" and according to the GM I was supposed to Hero/God Worship ALL dragons, not just Dragons of my same scale color.

>.> It didn't help I one-shotted the Blue Dragon in the Mummy Mask AP ^^; I was a very lost in the world Black Kobold Sorcerer named Knicknock

Ravenloft plays well with Pathfinder, because it's basically a kitchen sink setting with steadier theming.

Have to agree with that and the White Wolf Ravenloft rulebook was very well written. Wish I could afford to get the rest of the books of that series

I have recently gained renewed interest in Ravenloft as a setting myself. Dark Fantasy is fun to run and the players I seem to run into simply adore the setting

I confess I like merging elements of 3.0, 3.5 with pathfinder 1st edition.

So far it's been fun and the players are enjoying 1st edition it seems more than 2nd edition and now I've gotten a full 6 player group.

O.o

Ravenloft seems to be popular with them all. Who knew

Alice was a good girl since the day she came into this world, her father made her from the remains of his dying daughter's soul, she had been bad, Alice was sure of that. Adventuring and leaving her father alone...Although Alice would protect their father now, she wasn't like old Alice...well not much, she lacked the money to buy food for her father, when he got too involved in his experiments. So she would take it, people would come to try and take or demand money. She would make them go missing. With her father on his death bed now, she must truly protect her father and all his things from strangers entering the house. some say they work for the city or that they were Adventurers hired by the same. She knew that was false, Father's memories told her he had paid for their home in full and he was still alive. So they were thieves, all of them.

So they all have to die

To protect daddy

Because she was the better Alice.

___________________________________________________

Dread Soulbound Doll
NE, Tiny Construct, Rogue 3
Init: +8, Senses: Darkvision 60ft, Low-Light Vision, Perception +11
AC 19 Touch 16 Flat-Footed 15 (+4 DEX, +3 Nat, +2 Size)
HP 43 (3d10+3d8+6)
Fortitude +2 Reflex +7 Will +2
SD: DR2/Magic, Immune- Construct Traits, Evasion, Trap sense +1
Weakness: Susceptible to Mind-Affecting Effects
Speed: 20ft
Melee: Dagger +7 (1d2/19-20 P/S)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th, Concentration +8)
3/DY- Light, Mage Hand, Open/Close, Prestigitation
1/DY- Levitate, Inflict Serious Wounds (Will DC 15-Half)
SA- Sneak Attack +2d6
ST 11 DX 18 CN - IT 15 WS 14 CH 14
BA +5 CMB +3 CMD 17
Feats
Improved Initiative, Toughness, Skill Focus {Stealth}

SQ- Telepathic Bond (ex), Rogue Talent (Fast Stealth), Trapfinding (ex) +2
Soul Focus (su)

Language- Common, Dwarven, Halfling

Skills
Acrobatics +10, Climb +6, Craft- Trapmaking +11, Diplomacy +8
Disable Device +13, KS- Local +8, Perception +11, Sense motive +11
Stealth +24

Notes
Susceptible to Mind-Affecting Effects
(Ex) The weakened conviction of a soulbound doll’s soul makes it
susceptible to mind-affecting effects, despite the fact that it is a construct.

Telepathic Bond (Ex): The construct has a constant telepathic bond with its creator. The Construct is
constantly aware of all of its creator's thoughts, hopes, fears, dreams, and desires. It can see
through its creator's eyes and always knows its creator's location. It can also "speak" telepathically
to its creator. This ability has unlimited range and cannot be blocked by any means magical or
otherwise.

The Construct's deep bond with its creator invariably leads to hatred and contempt. The Construct
acutely senses any anger or disappointment the creator feels toward the Construct and knows its
creator's darkest and most humiliating secrets. No creator can maintain the loyalty of the Construct in
the face of this intrusive intimacy. This is a one-way power only.
The creator has no such bond with her creation.

Soul Focus (Su) The soul bound to the doll lives within a focus
integrated into the doll or its apparel, typically one of the
doll’s eyes or a gem embedded into its neck or chest. As
long as this soul focus remains intact, it can be used to
animate another doll, using the same cost as creating a
new construct. Once bound into the soul focus, the soul
continues to learn, and so if later it is put into a new doll
body, the soul retains its personality and memories from its
previous body or bodies. A soul focus has hardness 8, 12 hit
points, and a break DC of 20.

Challenge Rating 6

Hope others get some enjoyment and use out of this built Encounter

Does it have to be Ravenlofty? Maybe you should look into the ** spoiler omitted ** I think it works best if you start with a rather mundane adventure and then introduce the horrible horrible twist. I think it would work really well with a cutesy setting like Humblewood or My Little Pony.

I still want to run it as a sequel to my Gnome Liberation Front adventure, where gnomes have to rescue their petrified buddies from the gardens of the big folk.

This is sounding amusing indeed, have to look it up

Technically you don't need Knowledge skills. Profession Scholar, allows one to make Knowledge checks based on your studies in the profession as well as some Craft Skills such as Alchemy, and Scholar was an actual profession so it can work, can even alternate the name to Sage if you want.

So then all you need is a high Wisdom-based character. Just be careful though, most GMs will only allow the check once to see if you've "read the Subject" and the DC's can be higher if said creature/group/thing is Unique and has never been recorded anywhere.

XD I am doing something like this. :3 re-working from the book "Villain Codex" I have the Arcane Society, Although changed the SpellQueen out for an Elf - Fey Based for no Aging. Leveled up a Corrupt Scrivener to her CR She seeks Magical Knowledge and items of Unique as do her minions. She'd likely let the City rot or allow her Necromancers to experiment on the populance.

Sorcerer

Depending on the type of blasting you pick bloodlines to improve damage.

You cannot lose a spellbook, you are the spellbook

which holds at level 1 and upwards effectively.

Feats and such make your spell choices more effective, at which point you pick AOE Spells and Ray spells for Sniping.

I generally go with Fire/Water Elemental Bloodline and then take Cold/Fire Spells as you can freely change the energy type on casting.

Burning Hands (Freezing Hands)

It doesn't increase your damage output, but it does make it harder or more expensive to resist both versions of your Arcane power.

a lot of good ideas.

The Baron in charge is actively looking for his brother "So that he can take the lead of his land and allow himself to 'retire' away like he is supposed to. However, most of the adventurers and nobles are not really looking for the noble's brother. At least publically and it is what the people believe in the area, and that the nobles dislike the current Baron.

The main enemy ironically of the campaign is the Elves & Half-elves. (Immune to sleep spells and effects with a high resistance to enchantment based magic & Effects)

I was debating having the group meet someone with the item that seems to know them. (makes me happy I have a group of players that don't put a lot of work into backstories)

Example: A Goblin Pirate (Finesse Fighter) Woke up in a crate two weeks travel from the nearest ocean in the landlocked Baron's city and don't find it strange in the slightest that they slept the entire time, nor died from lack of food and water.

^Is the memory alteration obvious and supposed to be considered desirable ("Citizen, report immediately for memory updates!")?

Is the "cursed item" supposed to also do something bad? Preventing external memory rewriting sounds like a feature, not a bug.

The Baron has the ability to memory alter through people's dreams/while they sleep within his domain. I was thinking of making the item a Cursed Ring of Mind Shielding (this way while worn they can't just get rid of the ring via selling it)

I am still in the starting area of running a Horror Campaign and trying to keep it slow and smooth. (Generally, my favorite style of Horror, where it is slow to get to the creep Factor and then hit with the full horror)

I'm going to try and keep this vague just in case any of my players happen to come to the board.

I'm running a Psychological Horror and the Baron of the land has the ability to re-write the memories of the people within his domain that are linger there too long. The Start of the campaign has the group joining the local Adventurer's Guild that is backed by the Baron and opposed by other nobles the region is at war with a Core Race which becomes off-limits to the PC's at character creation.

I'm planning on a cursed magical item that will block the Baron's powers of altering memories to start the ball rolling with that character starting to notice things since they will not be able to have their memories altered.

I'd like to give the characters the effect of questioning if they truly are who they think they are.

So any advice for slow to boil Horror Campaigns.

yes.

every time I run an AP I always alter the encounters generally after the first book to keep with themes and in some cases enemies learning more about the PC's and start trying to develop methods for dealing with them.

The hard part is generally keeping it within reason to make those Epic battles still winnable.

1st edition pathfinder (which still feels weird to say)

Just moved into the area and I am looking to create a group of players or find some that already know how to play.

I generally run plot-heavy games but I can create basic hack and slash "dungeon of the month" type games as well.

Planning on running weekend games at the local game shop by the name of 'Nerd Rager' (nicely put together store with upstairs tables dedicated to tabletop games.)

Reach me here or contact the store.

While I will likely not run Society Adventures, I do accept Society style built characters without any complaint

-Sorry if this seems like a double post, the first one seemed to lack any real information on re-reading.

Now officially here in Billings MT, contact me here or through splash page (local comic/gaming shop)

Can I do the opposite? I gave my players a doorknob that would make doors in things they attached it to. Eminently useful, you'd think. It's not like this group hasn't totally exploited unique items I gave them before.

They completely forgot they had it multiple times.

Which was a shame, because the doorknob was a full on One Ring tier artifact that, after some time, was going to trap them in a labyrinth of doors and do some crazy stuff I hadn't decided on yet.

Love this post XD

And it works as an opposite, it sounds like something a group would use a lot, but it sounds like they were wary of it. Then forgot it O_o

I first came across this on an AD&D group on Facebook.

If they were producing cool OSR stuff, I'd be all over it, but since they're not, and are merely winding people up on social media instead, I shall steer very well clear of them.

Makes sense, best to wait and see if they make anything good before buying into anything.

Pretty much. I haven't come across any new systems that leave me "Wowwed" and need to buy it right there.

For the most part, Pathfinder's first Edition is still the newest system I enjoyed where I started buying it the moment it came out, and almost all the Adventures.

All I heard was that it was a return to a percentile system. Such as early palladium games or the 80s Marvel Role Playing games.

I'm very meh about new systems, I'll likely give a look through but otherwise.

Like I said, Meh.

moving into Billings next month

Moving into the city next month, and I'm looking to create some contacts for starting a group there.

I am a Game Master/Storyteller with roughly 10+ years of experience with First Edition Pathfinder (not a big fan of 2nd or 5th edition D&D)

Depends on what you might like to happen I suppose. There could be secret words chosen by his mistress that alert people that those following him are enemies, New recruits, Etc.

Thus when they arrive at the location of interest the group is greeted by encounter X depending on how Kardswann views them following him.