Mortavius's page

I'm not knowledgable enough about Golarion to give you a definitive answer, but I can give you some advice.

Nex: The people of this land are primarily Garundi and Keleshite, with some Vudrani mixed in. In broad terms to me, this says African & Arabian, with some Indian mixed in (I stress, broadly; I'm not an expert in these cultures at all).

Oprak: I'd look to what Oprak was carved from. I believe it was Molthune, and maybe another land? The accent should mirror those places, with some Hobgoblin slang thrown in. When in doubt, look at the names of places, it can give you a clue if it's an obviously ethnic name. An example of this is Lepidstad in Ustalav.

Numeria: This is another example where I'd look to what it was before. Do we know anything about Numeria before the crash? If not, then what about the people? Well, we do know the Kellids are native to that place (I believe). In the Core book, Kellids look like Native Americans, so that's where I'd start.

As for the Shackles, you have complete freedom here, as every ethnicity makes their home there. However, again, looking at the history, Cheliax has a notable hand in the area, and they are Taldan in ancestry. So that can be a starting point for you.

Hey folks,

So there were some detailed rules for buying magic items in 1e Pathfinder.

Does such a thing exist in 2e? I don't recall reading about it. With my players, experienced in 1e as they are, do I just tell them "you can't buy magic items anymore"?

Hey folks,

I'm preparing to run the first module of Hell's Rebels, and I'm planning on using milestone XP. I notice that at certain ranks of the rebellion the PCs are supposed to get bonus XP, but this won't work with milestone XP.

I don't want to remove the reward completely; I hate "dead" levels in games. I'm thinking about just changing the XP to a group GP award. Some levels already give gp, but it's individual (for example, at rank 6, the PCs each get 750 gp). I was considering at rank 5, rather than 1,200 XP, I'd just give a group award of 1,200 gp.

The problem I can see with this is later ranks. Rank 15 would be a group award of 6,400 gp, and the very next rank each PC would get 8,000 gp.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

I don't believe this addresses the OP question. He is asking if he can legally copy pics/maps from the PDFs and post them on a web-based application.

Actually, he did answer my question. :) Basically wanted to make sure I could copy the maps for use in the game from a technical standpoint.

I hadn't even considered the legal ramifications behind it, because I'm not planning on distributing the images; it's just for my private game.

But thanks for the tip about Obsidian Portal; I'd never heard of them before this. I'll take a look!

Hello all,

I'm looking at running Reign of Winter soon on roll20.

My question is, if I buy the PDFs, can I copy the maps out of them to use in roll20? I've heard reports in other circles that the PDFs can be protected, so you can't copy from them. This will basically prevent me from running the game.

I don't necessarily want to buy the book if I can't use it.

I know that Bwatford was doing up the maps, but he's only done the first two modules, and hasn't really been seen since.

Anyone have any advice or knowledge?

Going to finally start my Reign of Winter campaign on Tuesday.

I have two PCs who have demons in their background. One is a Monk who thinks he has a demon in him (whether that's true or not, I haven't decided) and the other is an Aasimar Sorcerer with the Daemon bloodline (and a good background).

I haven't read all the APs yet, so I'm wondering if there are any demons in the modules as written that I can twist around to fit these characters backgrounds?

Those are great suggestions everyone, thank you for them! My mind is working all kinds of ideas, and thinks I hadn't considered before. :)

Hey all,

So I've been running my group through Carrion Crown, and last night I wiped out almost the entire party during Shadows of Gallowspire.

It was during the Revenant encounter in Renchurch. I had the Revenants laying out on slabs, and when the PCs went in to investigate, they waited till the party got close, then leapt up and attacked.

Now, I may have fudged the rules slightly. I decided that the Revenants got their Reason to Hate bonuses against the entire party. I reasoned that the entire party was responsible for their murders, so their bonuses applied to the entire party. Also, frankly I didn't keep track of who did the killing blow on the boss enemies from previous modules, so I had no idea which specific PC actually landed the shots.

Anyways, long story short, using their Power Attack feat, the Revenants just murdered the party, except for the Paladin (who would have also fallen if not for his high AC and using Lay on Hands on himself every turn).

Due to some players not being able to be there, and possible unhappiness, we're talking about doing a rewind. Two of the PCs are worshippers of Pharasma, and due to their service, I'm considering having her resurrect the party. But I don't want this to be free; the Gods help those who help themselves.

Does anyone have an idea for what that penalty can be? Because it's a bigger group than normal, they're already lower level than they should be right now. I'm not sure about a mechanical penalty. Also, these PCs will not be in use after this module, so any penalty that lasts after the adventure is wasted.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Well, the Lovesick drawback actually says the GM chooses the object of affection. So I'm planning on running a "love at first sight" moment when the PC comes upon Greta. You know, romantic music plays, slow close-up on the face, all the cliches! :)

Thank you for all of that! I will certainly keep it in mind.

Do you have any inspirations about the Rokar connection? So far this is what the PC has in his background regarding it:

"Born on the frontier, my mother raised me and my four siblings (2 brothers, 2 sisters) and my father left when I was possessed by a demon from the deity Norgorber.

While possessed, I committed several crimes including many thefts and after being captured by the guards I tried to kill them with my hands. I learned to control the demon and prevent him from taking over while in prison."

The PC is a Monk, and also says that his studies in meditation and such have helped him control his urges.

Maybe I should have a revelation that he isn't really possessed, and what he ascribes to the "demon" is just himself? But how to tie it to Rokar?

Mortavius wrote:

Hello all,

I am starting Reign of Winter soon, and one PC has the lovesick drawback. This one is really vexing me; has anyone used this before? Is there a good way to tie it to the AP? How can I use it so it's a penalty, but not one all the time?

Its a tough one. There are all sorts of love options that can travel with the party starting with half way through the first module, but not really from the starting place.

You could tell the player there is an option coming up and wait for it.

This is actually a great idea! I'm only about 2/3 of the way reading through book 1, so I'm skipping ahead to see if this will work, thank you very much for the idea!

Hello all,

I am starting Reign of Winter soon, and one PC has the lovesick drawback. This one is really vexing me; has anyone used this before? Is there a good way to tie it to the AP? How can I use it so it's a penalty, but not one all the time?

Hello,

Wondering if some of you veterans can give me some advice on this AP. I'm about 2/3 of the way reading through the first module, and will be running this soon. My players are making their PCs.

One PC wrote in his background that he had a bad experience with a Priest of Norgorber in the past, so I was thinking of tying this to the priest leading the bandits. Any thoughts?

One PC has the lovesick drawback. This one is really vexing me; has anyone used this before? Is there any advice anyone can provide?

Thanks for the suggestions folks.

In Carrion Crown I was running 6 PCs. So it's only 1 more, but I'm worried that will tip the scales dramatically.

I've run the carrion crown with no alterations, and the net result is that the PC's are a level or two below where the adventure says they should be.

With 7 PC's, I'm concerned this will go even further, and I know there's a point where you're just too low level, even if there are seven of you.

Is that a concern I should have?

I want to take the path of least resistance; if I don't HAVE to do a bunch of extra work, then I don't want to. I'm willing to, if I need to, but I want to know if there are other options.

Hello all,

I'm finishing up Carrion Crown, and my group has decided on Reign of Winter as our next AP. We're excitedly making characters, but as DM I have a concern.

I have a few people joining, and I'm going to have 7 PCs. This is an online game, so the PC's will be there even if their players can't always make it (they can be controlled by others).

How do I modify the encounters to accommodate for this many players? Preferably, I would like some kind of rule I can follow. Does anyone know where I can get info on this, or have any info they can share?

Hello all,

I'm finishing up Carrion Crown, and my group has decided on Reign of Winter as our next AP. We're excitedly making characters, but as DM I have a concern.

I have a few people joining, and I'm going to have 7 PCs. This is an online game, so the PC's will be there even if their players can't always make it (they can be controlled by others).

How do I modify the encounters to accommodate for this many players? Preferably, I would like some kind of rule I can follow. Does anyone know where I can get info on this, or have any info they can share?

Ahh, I'd never considered the idea of using negative energy to control the undead. That does make sense.

I was also quite concerned if they got a bonus vs. channelled positive energy; it looks like they don't get one, but the DC they have to save against is 4 lower.

That answers all my questions, thanks so much for the response!

Hello all,

I'm currently about take my PC's into Renchurch, and I have a question.

The templates for the Unhallowed & Shrine-Blessed creatures say they get a +4 bonus to save vs. channelled negative energy.

Why the hell would an undead want to save against that? Wouldn't it heal them?

I would assume they get a bonus to save against channelled positive energy, but that isn't mentioned anywhere. The spells Desecrate and Unhallow mention these effects, but I'm not sure if these templates are supposed to mimic those spells exactly or if they are just derived from them and altered.

Does anyone have any ideas, official errata, or seen anything like this?

Thanks for the quick reply. That's what I figured. And yeah, so far everyone in the group really likes the game. :)

I see in the manual there is a section about "loot" cards, but I didn't see anything else in the rules about them. Is there an explanation somewhere?

Hello,

Apologies if this has been asked before; I wasn't sure what terms to use to search it.

I got the base set for Christmas, and promptly bought the character add on pack and the skin-saw murders adventure.

My question is, when do I open these packs and add these cards to the base set? Should I wait until I am actually going to start Burnt Offerings, for example? We've only played Brigandoom so far.

Has anyone else encountered this and house-ruled a way around it? I'd really love to use the tables from UE but this problem is causing an issue for me.

Thanks Nobledrake. That seems like it's true, but you'd think that's a rather BIG oversight eh?

"Let's go to all the trouble to make these categories for items (which is cool, and shows a lot of thought)...but we won't give a care to telling people how to determine WHICH category to start with."

Frodo, that link you posted seems to be dead. Doesn't show anything for me. I think you may misunderstand what I'm asking (but I can't be sure, because I can't view your link).

I understand that Ultimate Equipment shows me all the different lesser and greater enchantments. What I'm asking, is how do I know, when I roll an item, whether to go to the lesser or greater table? They're both separate tables.

Okay thanks for that. Please allow me to clarify my question.

My PCs were in Thrushmoor last night, and I was wanting to roll the magic items for sale in the city. The stat block says it has 3d4 Minor items, etc. If I am rolling the minor items in the settlement, how do I know if a minor item is lesser or greater?

This is really what I was trying to ask; I'm running an adventure path so the monster treasure is all picked out for me already.

Hello,

I just got Ultimate Equipment. I have a question about the tables. I notice that a lot of the tables have entries for "lesser" and "greater" items, but I see nothing on how to decide whether an item the PCs find or buy is lesser or greater? If I want to use the tables for rolling, how do I know where to start, is I guess my question?

Thank you all very much for the continued interest and advice on this topic. I find all this discussion very enlightening and interesting. I think everyone has brought up some good points.

Some concerns I have, is I don't want to come on too heavy-handed. This player has played this character since the middle of Trial of the Beast (the previous adventure), at somewhere around 4th-5th level (I don't recall which). So I'm concerned about coming to our next game and pulling a complete 180 on the way things have been done all to this point.

I haven't discussed any concerns with the player in question, partly because I wasn't sure that whether this was all in my head or not. And the last thing I want to do is jump on this person when he's just trying to have fun with his character.

I am going to speak with the player about speeding up combat by having his rolls ready. I also want him to try and tell me what monsters he wants to summon ahead of time so I can get tokens prepared beforehand. I think these are reasonable things, as they affect everyone at the table.

I don't think I'm going to take complete control of his summons, but only because he's been doing it all the time up till now, it will look like pretty unfair targeting if I start doing that to him. But I do think I will take other suggestions to heart, and keep in mind the nature of the beasts. What with elementals reacting differently to commands and such. Also, I like the suggestion of limiting his commands in combat. I think it's reasonable that he can only give short commands in combat, unless he wants to give up his actions.

@Uri Meca: I think we have different versions of the book. My book clearly says "Summoned creatures that are not evil are immune to this effect." But I still appreciate you pointing it out, make no mistake.

Thank you all for your feedback on this issue, it's very appreciated.

Just to clarify a few points,

1) I don't want to single out this PC or specifically attack him. I know that's no fun for the player. Also, I fully realize that summoning flocks of monsters is basically the only strength this PC has. And I don't want to take that away from the PC, just mitigate it where it seems too powerful. Or, where it seems to ME to be too powerful, and maybe I'm wrong there.

2) The Protection from X and Magic Circle spells are a great suggestion. Unfortunately, they don't do any good in most situations with this PC, because he's been summoning Elementals, which are Neutral. :( But I thank you all for bringing it up, because I'll be sure to keep it in mind if this PC summons anything other than Elementals.

3) DR does work, but it's not fool-proof. For example, the lycanthropes have DR 10/silver. They are immune to the Lightning elemental's regular damage, but the extra electric damage they cause gets right through that DR.

4) So when he summons them, the spell has a casting time of 1 round. Does that mean when it comes around time to the Summoner's next action, the Elementals all appear and act just before him on the turn order? With it being roll20 interface, I have to put them in somewhere, and assign them a number.

5) Is it true that when the Summoner dies the summoned creatures disappear? I think that's reasonable, but I'd like to be able to point to something to back that up.

6) I love the idea of having the elementals do things from their own perspective. Elementals breaking down doors, because there are no doors on the elemental planes, etc.

7) I am very appreciative of the suggestion of not allowing things not allowed by the Pathfinder Society. I think I'm going to implement that going forward, but it's not fair to ask the players to change existing characters.

8) I think the action economy is exactly what's bothering me, that, and the way the battlefield is filled with all these elementals. It stops me from even moving my monsters when he surrounds them with summons.

9) With the small flying elementals, I'm unclear of the rules for combat. Technically, each elemental takes up a square. But we all know that a small elemental doesn't take up the same amount of space as a medium one. The player has tried to argue in the past that he can stack the flying elementals on top of each other. What would your rulings in this situation be?

10) Finally, my game fluctuates between 5-7 players, with 6 being the normal amount. Can anyone point me in the direction of how to modify encounters for this? I'm very hesitant to modify things as presented, just because I'm always worried that I'll make things too hard or too easy.

Hello all,

I'm running the Carrion Crown adventure path; we're currently on Broken Moon, at the Stairs of the Moon.

One of my PC's is a level 7 Summoner, Master Summoner archetype.

He never uses his Eidolon, instead just summoning 1d3+1 Small Elementals (Lightning, Fire, Mud, etc.) every round (he has the Superior Summoner feat giving him the +1 to the number he summons). He can do this 9/day and they stay summoned for 9 minutes each time.

I'm having a hard time as the DM with this character. Here are my problems:

1) It slows down everything. We play on roll20, and I have to make tokens for the new elementals every time, not to mention a new initiative spot for them, etc.

2) It seems overpowered. He basically summons a whole bunch of weak meat shields. Even if the elementals do little damage, they still represent another threat for the monsters to attack.

3) It fills up the board. With the flying elementals, he usually wants to stack them too. (What kind of rules are there for this type of stacking? The elementals themselves are small size, even if they do go in a square...)

Now, I don't want to hate this character. I realize that he has very little in the way of attacking spells, and his summons are basically it. I don't want to neuter this character, but I feel like he's overpowered. Is this all in my head and he's really not that powerful? Is there some weakness I am missing? Something I should be paying attention to? Do you folks have any advice how I should handle this going forward?

That and remember that the PCs are often going to be better at things then the players. A rogue with a high perception is likely dramatically more observent then the player who is controlling him. Requiring the player to think of likely places to look for things is like requiring the fighter to be capable with a sword in order to make his attack roll. I am personally not an overly observant person, and my attention span probably isnt all that great most of the time. Should I be barred from playing a character with a high perception as a result?

Very good points; I should clarify my idea. I totally love the idea of rolling for Perception, I think it's a great way to reflect the strengths of different PC's and I certainly don't want to eliminate that completely. I just find that every room my PC's go into it's "We search the room." There's not much thought behind it, it just becomes

Walk into room
Kill/talk to inhabitants
Search room; roll Perception

Repeat.

Now, I'm simplifying, and I realize I certainly have an impact on the way it plays out and such. I just want to encourage my players to think about it a bit more. Rather than, "We search the room," they say "I'm searching that closet and desk."

But I'm glad you folks brought up the mental picture point; I never considered that angle before.

I wonder if going of what another person suggested, I increase the DC's for searching as they are presented in the module, but I reduce them if the PCs are more specific? Of course, they may just go back to "We search this and this and this...."

I'm running a Pathfinder game right now (Carrion Crown), and I'm trying to decide how to handle when my PC's search a room.

My players always just say "We search the room" and they roll their Perception checks.

My problem is, I want some more interaction. I want the players themselves to think of where to search. I tried a variant rule, where I told my players they could specify where they search. If they say exactly where something is hidden, they will find it automatically, if not, they have to roll their checks. The problem is, they just started saying "We search X and X and X..." and just listed everything. So it basically went right back to "We search the room" just longer.

I know that searching a room takes longer than normal...but I wasn't able to find any guidelines on it. Also, although sometimes the PCs are pressed for time, that's not always the situation.

How do you folks handle it? I don't want to restrict my players, I just want to get them more involved in looking and thinking about where stuff might be hidden. So that the player feels good when they find something, not just because they rolled well.

SPOILERS...

BUT WTF about the stolen effigy and the damage at the university?!!!
Duh! He was captured there.
Red-handed.
Dazed and Confused for so long it's not true.
He did it.

Fine, we learn LATER that the Whispering Way used some device to take control of him and they're the guilty ones, but WE DON'T KNOW THAT (at least can't prove it) at trial!

What did we miss?

(Or did Pett and Jacobs miss it?)

As some other folks have touched on, when I run this (soon) and if my PC's ask, I will respond with this.

The Beast was found at the scene of the crime, yes. And we can link property damage to it. But we have found no trace of the effigy, so we can't charge it with theft.

The town also wants to burn the Beast; they're looking for excuses. Theft doesn't warrant that, so instead they're ignoring the crimes they cannot prove, and going with ones they think are a surer bet.

My mother-in-law works in the Justice system, and she has said many times the prosecutors will have crimes that they cannot charge and proceed with because they simply don't have enough evidence, even though they know the person charged did it.

Okay, I understand what you're saying; that means that a Monk could take Djinni style at level 5 before he gets Elemental Fist. Of course, it would be useless, since Djinni style doesn't have any effect without Elemental Fist. That's what I was meaning seems a little weird. It's only a few select ways of building that it seems it could be useful at that low of a level, and they all revolve around getting Elemental Fist without have to pay it's prereqs.

Okay, so theoretically, the PC could get his Monk up to level 5 and get Djinni style, but it would be useless, as he doesn't yet qualify for Elemental Fist, right?

Also, he has multiweapon fighting, so even without flurrying, his justification is he attacks once with each limb, with penalties (-2 I believe). Does that sound right?

I'm glad this has generated so much discussion; I'll try and elaborate more on what the character has. Note, I don't have his sheet (he took it home yesterday), so I'm going off memory and what he said.

As mentioned, he's Summoner (Synthesist)3/Monk2. He was originally doing 9 attacks per round. Half way through the session, I saw the FAQ on Synthesists where Sean says that the Eidolon is a suit, and he doesn't automatically get four arms for choosing biped. So that locked him down to 7 attacks per round; two with his normal arms, and he took the extra limbs evolution twice, so he has six limbs. He was also flurrying.

I know that he took Master of Many Styles, which I found out after the game last night, that makes him lose Flurry, so he should be down to 6 attacks per round.

In one round, he was able to full attack a manticore for over 120+ damage. Now, he had cast corrosive touch and lesser evolution surge (extra limbs) beforehand, but that still seems completely unreasonable for that level of character. Note, when he did the attack, he did only apply corrosive touch to a single attack.

He was using the Djinni style feats, and I think he read that he didn't need Elemental Fist requirements; that he could take it as a bonus feat at 1st level (which according to the requirements for that feat, is impossible).

His damage was 1d6 from his fist, plus Str (which is high, because he's fused with his Eidolon), plus 1d6 for elemental fist, plus wisdom bonus (which is high, because he's a summoner, and being a synthesist, he essentially only has to focus on three stats) for Djinni style. I can see looking at the feats that he has been doing some stuff wrong; Elemental Fist can only be used 2/day, or 3/day with Djinni style.

His justification is that his eidolon doesn't use natural attacks, it uses his monk unarmed strike damage. Thus, this allows Multiweapon Fighting to relieve the penalties for the attacks, since unarmed strike counts as a weapon.

Although, it does say under the unarmed attack entry for the Monk:

"At 1st level, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A monk's attacks may be with fist, elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a monk may make unarmed strikes with his hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed."

Does this mean that no matter how many limbs he has, he is limited by his BAB? It seems to me that FoB is meant to simulate attacking with more than one limb...but what about creatures with more than two limbs?

Also, on the original subject of elemental fist, it says this for requirements of Djinni style:

"Con 13, Wis 15, Elemental Fist, baseattack bonus +9 or monk level 5th"

Now, I understand that the archetype allows for the PC to take this feat without it's requirements. BUT, what is that last bit about "or monk level 5th?" A normal single class Monk could not take the prereq of Elemental Fist till at least 11th level, because that's when he gets BAB +8. So are they saying you need the prereqs for Djinni style OR you can be a 5th level Monk and ignore them? Still seems weird...

Again, I appreciate greatly all the feedback this has garnered.

Hello,

Does a Master of Many Styles need to meet the requirements for the Elemental Fist feat? Here's the exact wording I found:

"Bonus Feat: At 1st level, 2nd level, and every four levels thereafter, a master of many styles may select a bonus style feat or the Elemental Fist feat. He does not have to meet the prerequisites of that feat, except the Elemental Fist feat."

I'm not sure if they're referring to the fact that you need to have Elemental Fist and that's it for the other style feats, or if they're saying you don't need any prereq's for Style feats, but you do need prereq's for Elemental Fist.

I have a PC who is playing a Summoner (Synthesist) 3/Monk 2, and he was doing 6 attacks last night (extra limbs), with unarmed strikes, doing electrical damage and adding Strength and Wisdom damage to each one. Considering the damage he did in one round, he outshone everyone at the table, and I thought there could be something wrong about it.

So is it the case that Flurry of Blows is dependant on the BAB, and not the number of limbs the creature has?

That seems to be the wording of the rules, but does it make sense with a creature with more than two limbs? Do you folks think it would be overpowered, if a PC with more than two limbs was just allowed to make one extra attack (with the penalties in multiweapon fighting) when he flurries?

Hello. Sorry for resurrecting this topic, but I have a question relating to it.

I'm looking at the table of the Monk here:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/classes/monk.html#_monk

And the Flurry of Blows doesn't seem to make sense. At level 1, shouldn't it be -2/-2? And why does the Monk get a third attack at level 6, when his BAB is only +4?

I have a player looking at a Synthesis Summoner and getting multiple attacks through the Eidolon, and combining these with Flurry of Blows from a Monk.

Is there something I'm missing that would prevent this?

Ahh, I understand Sleet. I wasn't looking at it that way, since I'm not concerned with the extra damage; what matters to me is the whole thing. I'm aware that he will be doing a certain amount regardless of the feat, but monster HP totals don't care about what's regular and what's bonus.

Sleet, Sap Master lets you roll your sneak attack damage *twice* and add it together. So it's really 20d6+20. If you go with an average of 3.5 per d6, you get my numbers above.

Kind of funny Wraith, I always think of wizards as DPS. Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, etc. Not arguing with you; I totally understand where you're coming from, just a different perspective.

Not sure where you're getting your math from Sleet; I come up with an average of 94 damage at level 20. That's average, not minimum and certainly not max. And it doesn't account for any magic weapon, just a d8 weapon, plus sneak attack, plus the bonus from sap adept.

Just to take the math further, the minimum would be 41 damage, and the max would be 148. Again, with a d8 weapon, and no magic enhancements (or other feats, for that matter).

They do need a flat-footed opponent; this is easily overcome with the Scout archetype, which means if the rogue makes a charge, they can apply their sneak attack damage as though the target were flat-footed. Considering a charge means a minimum of 10 feet movement closer to the target, combine this with Charging Hurler, and you can have a character that move 10 feet closer to his enemy, throws a hammer, and gets his sneak attack damage, as long as he is within 30'. Add in Bludgeoner, and this allows the rogue to use his hammer to deal nonlethal damage without the penalty to attack.

Does this help you to see where I have a problem with it?

Thanks for the replies folks,

He doesn't have Precise Shot, and we've factored that in. Still, he'll be hitting at least half the time, with Dex bonuses, magic weapons, etc.

It's true that not all enemies are subject to nonlethal, but most of them are. I mean sure, when they get to the small undead part of the adventure (Red Hand of Doom), he won't be as effective, but for the rest, he won't have a problem.

As for running out of hammers, he wants a Returning Hammer (a +1 bonus) and at 5th level, that's not outside of the realm of possibility, so that solves the ammo problem.

The grapple idea is a good one, and one that the module recommends later on in the adventure when the monsters know of the PCs.

It just seems overpowered to me, because take a 5th level Wizard for example. Sure, they'll have a few Fireballs at that level, which would do approx. the same damage, but they're limited by how many times per day they can do that. This PC can do ~30 (and that's the mid-range, not the max damage) every round without fail. All he has to do is hit. That will almost take out most of the normal monsters in one hit; especially when combined with the efforts of the other PCs at the table.

Sure, there are things I can do to make life harder for him, but that takes the game into a "me vs. him" mentality, and I want to avoid that.

I figure I'm going to just not allow the Sap Master feat; that solves all the problems. I've considered lots of other things, but they over-complicate the situation more than it needs to be.

Essentially, Sap Master is a feat that allows the Rogue to double his sneak attack damage. Whether it's nonlethal or not is irrelevant; a creature knocked out is just the same as dead for the end result. And in fact, it's more advantageous for the PCs, because they have the option to easily capture/question an unconscious enemy.

Again, thanks for the replies; I was hoping that maybe there was some errata or something that fixed this, but it doesn't look like it.

Sorry that I'm a little late to this discussion; I have a player who wants to make a 5th level Rogue (Scout). He's thinking of going Dwarf, with the Bludgeoner, Sap Adept/Master feats. He's thinking of doing the sort of stuff with his Rogue where he charges each round (and taking Charging Hurler as a feat) so he only moves 10 feat, throws the hammer, gets his sneak attack, doubles it, etc. in nonlethal damage.

Calculating it out, it's about ~30 damage once per round, every round, every fight. I wonder if this has been errated, because it seems rather powerful, compared to what other classes might do. If it hasn't been errated, is there something I'm missing? Or any suggestions?