Mucus von Spidtle's page

Hi Team
Would you please cancel my AP subscription. I'm going to head down the "collect as PDF" route (and if my PC dies it's great that I can still access them through your site - unlike iTunes...).

Many thanks for your great service on the deliveries all the way out here to NZ. Never a bad one! Looking forward to the next installment.

Kind Regards
Mark

Hi Paizo Team
I would like to cancel my module subscription. Can't fault them, I just have lots of material and the adventure path is enough for me at this time.

Thanks
Mark
NZ

Gorbacz wrote:

Regarding the reworking of 5th SD adventure:

** spoiler omitted **

I didn't mind MoD, but I like the idea of that, and the Queen.

I believe that in the Foreward by Wes on Pg 5, bottom of the 1st column, he talks about this issue of the convoluted politics and suggests this "fix" for groups that might not like the double-dealing.

Sounds like good advice all round.

Who saids you have it better than your parents...Let me ask you how well would you cope if your cell phone just vanished...

Ah the cell phone. Looking forward to 5 weeks hiking across Spain WITHOUT it!

Mark

Thanks, I'll go with the more recent (PF#10 and CS) infos.

Anyone knows something more about Medesa and/or Torandey?

I've just started reading my backlog of Paizo goodies and I too would like to know where Medesa and Torandey are located. Anyone have a rough map of ancient Thassilon overlayed on Varisia?

Thanks again for asking the fans what they want.

In trying to decide what I'd like to see published I thought it best to start with me as the customer:
cash "rich", time poor (working, no kids but never any time)
try to play once a week in the evening for about 3 hours max (7.30 - 10.00 pm), usually tired after the working day, with a group of guys who always seem just as tired (esp the ones with kids)

so with the above in mind, I enjoy:
exotic locales including the planes, and love finding out more about Golarion.
RoleP opportunities to break up combats (and DnD can have a lot of combat) – and when I am DM, having info to support my tired brain on motivation/desires/goals of the NPCs that I can leverage off to perk up my players is a big help.
Some high level adventures would be useful especially now that the classes have a juicy capstone ability waiting to be used.
Playing a monster appeals for a break from “normal” play.
Anything to support DMing the adventure in general appeals.

Don’t enjoy:
long dungeon crawls, we found return to the temple of elemental evil one long combat slugfest, none of our PCs were particularly stealthy or able to interact with the NPCs to avoid combat. Maybe we just didn’t “get it”. The length of an adventure, given our short playing times (and attention span at times) means being stuck in an “endless” dungeon sometimes results in a feeling of “why are we here again?”
Anything that gives the perception of railroading the group. The illusion of choice keeps the brain attentive.

Hope that makes sense.
Cheers
Mark

For shame! Russell Crowe isn't Australian.

If it talks, walks and acts like a duck...

When he behaves himself better us kiwi's will claim him back
;-)

This fiction introduces us to various areas of the world the same way that most writers of worlds flesh out their worlds, in small bits.. it allows for each area to get a distinct feeling without being limited to the information that is needed in a RPG book. you can find out how the street gangs of Kaer-Manga act, without having to wade though the encyclopedic information on their leaders that your characters may never see (for instance)

+1 too, much easier to read some info as a fiction piece than read encyclopedia type entries only. Makes a nice change of pace and brings some of the cultural elements alive and easier to visualise.

So in the interests of telling the editors what is GOOD

- LOVE the fiction.

Cheers
Mark
NZ

A good deal that's for sure. With the postage on this puppy I'm hoping that my FLGS will be able to ship it in at a reasonable price point so that I can buy the PDF and save on what it would cost be to just buy the dead tree version from Paizo. Then I can say to the wif: I got it cheap ;-)

Hey old man, Mark here over in Hamilton. I've lost your email address so drop us a line on yarlekthun at g male .com. Didn't back up our old computer dang it!

Cheers
M

Sword and Board Fighter. I don’t have my notes to report what feat she chose. I will point out that after the current dungeon the party is in is over I’ll be offering the entire party (with a little emphasis on this character) a respec of feats and skills. Just a pause and a chance to fix things up and...

Thanks for the insights into your game experiences. It mirrors our own experiences somewhat w.r.t. sword and board.

I'm playing a sword and board paladin through AoW and thought I'd try a defender archetype as we had a barbarian/fighter on damage duty. So of course I didn't expect to match damage outputbut I was hoping to do better in the defence stats that what I have been. Our DM's WotC dice always seem to roll high anyway (and we joked that they're built that way 8-) but when we leveled up I started looking at some of the math.

At CR 12 I recall 3 out of the 5 critters in the MM would hit on 2+ at AC 28 as their attack bonus was high enough, only the roper and another critter were lower at about +13-15 or thereabouts. I also checked out CR 10, 11 and 13 and there seemed to be a lot of high bonues to attack also. So, I checked out the designing monsters part of the MM to find that the recommended total attack bonus should be aimed at CR x 1.5 +2, so CR 12 = +20 (note this is total attack and not just BAB). I have copies of Dungeon with the adventures we're playing and an awful lof those critters also seem to hit far about their CR. Some even have ACs that far exceed the MM's advice of CR +13. So are the designers ignoring their own guidelines? If so, why? As others have pointed out AC is hard to buff high enough, my paladin can get AC up to about 35ish with Divine Shield (CW) in exchange for not attacking for a round but the critters still hit me on 8+ or thereabouts. No use to me when our DM seems to roll 15+ a lot!

Perhaps the feats and items are okay for sword and board, just designers appear to ignore the guidelines for monster total attack bonuses? I'd be really interested to hear about problems with the guidelines and unhittable PCs because I'm having some trouble finding them.

Cheers
Mark

Hi Cosmo
Please cancel my modules sub. I will retain the PF AP sub.

FYI, no fault on Paizo's part, I'm getting seriously into my Tai Chi training and need to redeploy some spending. Paizo's product is top notch and I love the APs!

Cheers
Mark
NZ

Yes, another cancellation :-(

Please cancel the PF Companion sub. I will hang on to the adventures as long as possible.

1. Whenever hit points are rolled the minimum value you can get is half the total value (ie 3 on a d6, 4 on a d8, 5 on a d10, etc.)

MINIMUM HALF:

1d6 - Average: 3.5, Minimum: 3 (Per Level)
1d8 - Average: 4.5, Minimum: 4 (Per Level)
1d10 - Average: 5.5, Minimum: 5 (Per Level)
1d12 - Average: 6.5, Minimum: 6 (Per Level)

We use this method in our games and as the party tank (paladin) it insures that I can do my job every level. You have the certainty of a min amount of hps but you have the fun gambling element of "daddy needs a 10!". It's a nice compromise and nothing sucks worse than having rolled a 1 one level and a 2 the next, it just doesn't work and the risk of dying is too high. Doesn't help that the DMs WotC dice seem to have a high rate of rolling 19s and 20s...

Baquies wrote:

OK, I was curious if the feeling was something unique to the pathfinder Paladin or not. As someone who was once playing a Dwarven Paladin and had a guy show up with a Dwarven Fighter Cleric one day, I can sympathize.

In my opinion its not just limited to Pathfinder. The last time I myself enjoyed playing a Paladin was in 2nd edition. 3rd ed made the cleric so much better for a warrior/priest that the paladin was left in the dark.

Using 3.5 rules, I'm playing an Aasimar Paladin (currently lvl 9) through Age of Worms with a Druid, Barbarian/Fighter/Eye of Grumsh(?), Druid/Barbarian (mainly Druid), Wizard, and an Urban Ranger. My paladin uses Sword of Celestia class ability from Dragon mag in place of mount.

Early on I found the Lay on Hands useful in a tight spot but that is now mostly used to keep the paladin up in combat against tough foes who can hit him. The druid and urban ranger can use CLW wands and we have some potions so paladin looks after himself and the odd NPC mostly.

Have use turning very occasionally but our group prefers to kill undead and given the paladin is weaker than the cleric I've taken Divine Shield feat from Complete Warrior and Sacred Vitality from Libris Mortis to use Turn uses to boost survivability in combat instead.

Haven't bothered with Heal skill, leave that to the druid which has come in hand with a certain monster in the AoW campaign.

The Sword of Celestia class ability is more limited than the PRPG version but it has some nice tradeoffs.

In combat I find the Barb/Fighter/Grumsh guy consistently outshines in the damage dept as we don't seem to go through enough combats to use up all his Rage abilities and the Grumsh PrC has some pretty big bonuses. Even his AC seems to compete with my paladin's AC of 22 - 25 (I need a ring of protection I think). Given our DMs propensity for rolling an insane number of very high rolls and 20s it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference what AC we have though.

Does Jason get the full Monte?
8-)
<ducks>

Cool bananas, PRPG just gets better and better...

and the DMG does NOT include all that stuff about being a completely mental ability without components (DMG Pg 289)...

that's just really helpful...

Found it in the Glossary section of the Monster Manual under Special Abilities/Spell-Like Pg 315. The text here is greatly expanded and adds the important clarifications.

Would have been nice if the DMG actually pointed to this rather leave you the impression that the text provided was full and complete.

Robert Hawkshaw wrote:

From the srd:

Armor never affects a spell-like ability’s use, even if the ability resembles an arcane spell with a somatic component.

Hmmm, not being familiar with that website, that would explain why I was not following.

How "official" is that website? I did look in my players, DMs and Monster manuals, and nowhere does it say that spell-like abilities are not affected by ASF.

I too was a bit surprised by this but checking the SRD from the wizards site against D20 org's version it would appear that:

"Spell-Like Abilities: Usually, a spell-like ability works just like the spell of that name. A few spell-like abilities are unique; these are explained in the text where they are described.
A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, or material component, nor does it require a focus or have an XP cost. The user activates it mentally. Armor never affects a spell-like ability’s use, even if the ability resembles an arcane spell with a somatic component.
A spell-like ability has a casting time of 1 standard action unless noted otherwise in the ability or spell description. In all other ways, a spell-like ability functions just like a spell.
Spell-like abilities are subject to spell resistance and to being dispelled by dispel magic. They do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated. Spell-like abilities cannot be used to counterspell, nor can they be counterspelled.
Some creatures are actually sorcerers of a sort. They cast arcane spells as sorcerers do, using components when required. In fact, an individual creature could have some spell-like abilities and also cast other spells as a sorcerer."

and the DMG does NOT include all that stuff about being a completely mental ability without components (DMG Pg 289)...

that's just really helpful...

<edited for clarity>

The threat range also allows weapons to vary a bit in performance. Having an auto critical might mess with this or make it difficult to make it fair. There are feats that this would mess with also not to mention some of the class abilities to have auto criticals IIRC.

I wonder how Paizo is going to decide issues like this? Do they run a poll for every point? Design by committee is like herding cats...

Lilith wrote:

1.) Neutral. I have not seen the books, and I refuse to commit to any sort of decision regarding it until I have them in hand. I can see myself running both editions.

2) It won't. I like Paizo's stuff, regardless of edition.

3) See #2.

QFT

ditto

and Thanks for Asking!

Gnome wizard with CON 20, called Durrin Nobblegobb. HP goodness, I thought that if I rolled a PC with high CON and INT why not try a gnome wizard, besides the DM was pretty tough and we had a negative E using cleric so healing was not as plentiful.

Kia Ora from New Zealand...

5 guys in our group, 2 regular DMs, currently 1 running AoW at the moment and it is taking a while (2-3 hours, once per week).

4 of us are wait and see, we're interested in rules and are intrigued what the final thing will look like. But we're all very happy with 3.5 and aren't considered changing in a hurry.

1 just built a new house and is not spending any money on non-essentials at the moment.

None of us are bothered about changes to fluff as none of us are hard core about that stuff, playing either homebrew or published material as written mostly.

Would love to see some reviews of this product...

My real name is Mark and my grandmother used to call me Marcus Welby (some doctor show) because I seemed to remind her of the guy. Well a highschool friend, Garp, heard this and decided that it was a good idea to change it to Mucus as teenagers are wont to do, and it stuck. Then at my job another friend heard Garp calling me Mucus and decided that it sounded like a good German name or something so added von Spidtle. And I've had the good fortune to have it stick ever since ;-)

bad German accent/
I prever Baron von Spidtle though, yavol?
/bad German accent (and spelling)

Does anyone know the reasons why paladins and monks are not allowed continue in levels once they stop? Was it mechanical reasons or spat?

From what I've read on EN World and other bits and pieces, all flavour reasons. The playtesters felt that paladins and monks must be dedicated to their training, path, whatever. I think Sean K Reynolds site has a piece about this. Conclusion: the classes are balanced and no reason why they shouldn't be allowed to multi-class like any other.

Creating a Shapeshifting Wizard: Yeah, the rules on polymorph are a bit convoluted in 3.5, but instead of fixing them, lets just say you can't do it. Again, guess there aren't any fantasy archetypes of wizards that could shapeshift or use that ability to shapeshift to fight more effectively.

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread but this but caught my eye...

In the movie Krull (sci-fi/fantasy crossover?) there is a guy with a spell book, or rather pages of one, who transforms into a tiger to battle the invading soldiers.

There is also the old woman from Willow who shape-shifts although perhaps not intentionally (more like a baleful poly spell)...

Cheers
Mark

Mucus von Spidtle wrote:

Hey, let's join the fun...

Lightning Coils

I like this item and will include it in my campaign with some tweaks. You need to specify how long the lightning fist effect lasts. I'd recommend 1 use per 10 points absorbed or something to that effect. I'd also add some runes or glyphs stamped into the copper coils to the physical description. Alternately, as the ends are fanged serpents, have the rods patterned with scales with a tiny glyphs stamped on each scale. This is a cosmetic change, but makes the rods seem more arcane than plain copper.

Word count kind of cramped some of this. I kind of assumed that given the charge-up effect that it was kind of obvious that using the lightning bolt depleted the item for this ability. But in hindsight we all know what happens with common sense and rules-lawyers...

Like the added scale details too, thanks.

Lightning Coils
...
Wow, my item was almost exactly the same:

Hey, great minds think alike!

Hey, let's join the fun...

Lightning Coils

This item appears to be a pair of copper coils, each fashioned from a copper rod about the thickness of a finger, with one end of each coil fashioned into the likeness of a fanged serpent.

Worn on the forearms, the coils provide the wearer with energy resistance 10 against electricity.

In addition, some of the absorbed energy is stored and may be utilised in one of two ways. When the coils have absorbed 10 or more points of damage, the wearer’s unarmed melee attacks do an additional 1d6 points of electrical damage on a successful hit. Secondly, the wearer may completely discharge the stored energy in the form of a lightning bolt. Any creature struck takes 2d6 points of damage per 10 points of energy stored (maximum 6d6) unless it makes a DC14 Reflex save.

If the wearer can avoid all electrical damage, such as through the use of a rogue’s evasion class ability, the coils will not charge.

Faint abjuration and evocation; CL 6th; Craft Wondrous Item, lightning bolt, resist energy; Price: 18,000 gp, 2 lb.

---
Definitely not superstar material but I couldn't get the image of a dude with lightning fists out of my head. Thanks Big Trouble in Little China, I love those Storm Lords.

Cheers
Mark

PS. Merry Christmas!

I really don't have a problem with giving you guys more money. I just hate to see it wasted on the postal service. They're not really making the game I like - thus no reward for them. I guess I like the one shipment a month idea.

I'm a little the same in that shipping to NZ can get expensive once whatever threshold you guys have is reached for a parcel. If I can get the postage limited to $6.95 (or whatever that cheapest rate is) per package I'd be grateful.

With your sale items I ended up buying two hardcover books on separate orders to avoid going into the higher postage rate...

Cheers
Mark

Party On
Party Hard
Be Excellent to Each Other

1: pilot (anything that flew) thanks Commando comics. Then I got really short-sighted...
2: architect, but too arty, designery waffle...
3. scientist/explorer, thanks Julian May's Saga of the Exiles.

Senior Technologist at a commercial laboratory (environmental testing), i.e. glorified lab rat.

I'm sure I've missed a glaring typo or something...

That just great. Five Aussies and I'm the first kiwi. Oh well, at least we both suck at rugby this year.

If you're ever in the Land of the Long White Cloud, feel free to drop by.

Mark
Hamilton
New Zealand

Party On
Party Hard
Be Excellent to Each Other

Can I just say once more, that I am always suprised at the speed in which the editors/writers and publishes reply to posts on these forums. No where else can you get such personal service.

They must have house elves or students keeping an eye on the boards and when something comes up they run off to their masters with the info.

Either that or they're sitting around waiting for the next interesting question ;-)

Glad to see a few other people appear to have cut their teeth on Basic DnD. For some reason we never played any AD&D products, not did anyone have any until late high school.

Anyways, B2 Keep on the Borderlands, B4 the lost city, and X1 Isle of Dread will always be fond early memories of learning DnD, aged 12, in 83. Castle amber was fun to read but never played. My all time faves though are X4 master of the desert nomads and the follow up X5 the temple of death.

Mucus von Spidtle
Lord of Projectile Sliminess
Walker of Dogs
Personal Chef of She-Who-Saves-Injured-Animals-Oh-And-Issues-Books
Wannabe Tai Chi Chuan Paragon

2c from Hamilton, NZ

Three of us, in our group of seven, own reasonable quantities of 3.5 stuff.
We're happy with the system at the moment and will still be playing at the end of 2008.
No doubt that we'll look at 4ed, we love rules and mechanics. But given the amount of 3.5 material we've yet to play, unless 4e is wickedly good, we'll probably stick with what we know for a while.
Two of us buy Paizo stuff and I will certainly continue to do so while their quality remains excellent.

Cheers
Mark

Party on
Party hard
Be Excellent to each other

The save DC for scrolls is set using the level of the spell and the minimum attribute necessary to cast that spell - the level of the spellcaster doesn't alter the DC. To effect the DC, you'd need to do something like scribe a heightened fireball.

According to the DMG (Pg 215) the CL sets the saving throw bonus as well as any effects of the spell, the disadvantage is that the cost of the scroll or wand starts increasing at a rapid rate once you increase the caster level of the item and it is more cost effective powerwise to create these items to contain higher level spells (if your PC is able to). I'm wondering if the confusion is the bit under scrolls (Determine Effect section DMG Pg 238) that says "Assume the scroll spell's caster level is always the minimum..."?