Hellfire scorches a target or fills your tongue with lies. Either a target takes 1 fire damage per spell level (if the spell already deals initial fire damage, combine this with the spell’s initial damage before determining weaknesses and resistances), or you gain a +1 status bonus to Deception checks for 1 round.
I think the bolded part refers to the target of the spell you are casting, while one of my players reads it as "pick a target". He thinks that you should be able to choose a target to receive the bonus damage separately of the actual spell's target, because otherwise the ability would not make sense for many Granted Spells or Bloodline Spells, like diabolic edict or charm. I think it should not be a separate target, because it just does not seem to make sense to me that you would tell a willing target to go do something and someone else goes "ouch" (in the case of diabolic edict).
I think the language is ambiguous here, so I wonder what other people's opinion on this is. What do you think? Same target or different target of choice? If different target, what range should be used? No save?
I apologize if this has been discussed elsewhere, but I couldn't find a definitive answer, so I decided to ask here:
Is it okay to use the rebellion sheet from the Hell's Rebels players guide under the CUP?
More specifically, if I made an interactive version of the PDF, or similar, would that be okay to share with the community (free of charge, of course)?
I'm preparing for a Hell's Rebels campaign and planning to play an aasimar bard (Chelish Diva)/cleric (hidden priest).
I've been doing some research on how to pull off such a multiclass character and apparently conventional wisdom on bard/cleric builds usually involves the Evangelist archetype.
But for roleplaying reasons, I definitely want to go with hidden priest. So I'm not looking for optimal build advice, because I know that is not what I am getting with these kind of constraints.
What I am looking for are options that are well-suited for bard/cleric multiclass characters. I've stumbled across Divine Expression, but nothing else, really.
Is anyone here aware of some more thematically fitting options of any kind?
(I am not entirely sure if this is A-OK to post here and I apologize if I am breaking any rules but I didn't find anything along those lines in the Community Guidelines, so here it goes...)
Greetings, Pathfinders! I am saddened to announce that I am selling my collection of Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes. I have a complete and mint to near-mint collection of all the Adventure Paths starting with Jade Regent plus Serpent's Skull:
The kicker: I live in Germany so this may be a great opportunity to get some cheap EU shipping rates.
I have started to put my collection on eBay.de (only Serpent's Skull and Jade Regent so far). Feel free to join the auctions there or shoot me a message here if you are interested in any of the books.
We had our first session of The Chimera Mystery last Monday. I am running this in German for a group of four via roll20. It's our first Starfinder campaign after finishing Jade Regent last week. We dipped our toes into the system when it came out, but this is the first serious attempt to go through more then just a level or two.
I'm going to keep my notes here. Maybe someone comes across this while preparing their own game and finds any of it useful.
The player have decided to root all their characters in a common backstory with ties to the underworld. But other than the fact that they all know each other at the beginning of the book and have worked together in the past, no details were worked out.
This will of course turn out to be just a controlled parameter in the Gray's experiment: does an existing bond between the clones improve their performance? I plan to drop a hint at that some time in book 2. Later, they will find out that none of their alleged underworld contacts actually exist.
I kicked off the book with a lengthy narration of the first scene at the airlock, describing the other passengers as they board. After boarding, each PC settles into their cabin and is presented with the holovid I posted in another thread, which introduces the crew and the ship.
After this lore dump, I went around the table asking how their character would spend the first afternoon on board (I decided they left Legacy Station right after noon). Eeree went to stretch his wings in the gym, Stardust explored the middle deck, Sokka went to check out the dining hall, and Alyssa settled into her room.
Fast forward to just before dinner and Event 1. Everyone is present when the asteroid lice break free and combat ensues. To my surprise, all players said that their character's would be unarmed, since nobody brought a pistol, everyone is wielding longarms. We had discussed earlier that it would probably be fine to wear a holstered blaster around the ship, but everyonr agreed that you wouldn't bring a laser rifle to the dinner table.
This made the combat a lot longer and dangerous than expected. The only one who had a weapon at all was the solarian, but her low strength meant lots of misses and low damage. Only thanks to the technomancer's overheat spells did the asteroid lice finally go down.
After a few rounds of the PCs failing miserably to do damage, I started to bring in Algiada, but she arrived just when the last lice went down from a well-placed overheat.
Song enters and has a meltdown, orders Kiiv to clean up the mess. Alyssa offers to help and they match off to the incinerator as written in the book.
We then ended the session with apologies from the professor.
After the session, I texted Alyssa a cutscenes of the scene that follows in engineering as described in the book.
Conclusions
Overall, I think the session went well and everything served its purpose well: the players know the entire cast (at least by name and holovid image) and the general layout of the ship. They have also earned the professor's respect, which will become important later, when he asks them to look for Algiada. Since Algiada provided some medical aid to Eeree after the battle, there may even be intrinsic motivation to look for her when she disappears.
Dealing with the overheard conversation in a cutscene off-stage also worked well, because that scene may otherwise go seriously off the rails, I think. But of course, it's not everyone's cup of tea to be railroaded like that.
Anyway, we had fun and I'm looking forward to run the next session, when the mystery will actually start to unfold!
So one of my players chose an SRO as their PC. I'm toying with the idea that the Greys built him as a replacement for some non-sentient humanoid robot working in a neuralgic position somewhere and chose to give him a soul for the initial test on the Chimera just to see what would happen. Their plan was to remove it after the test but of course that never happens.
What do others here think about that? Any idea whatand where the possible target machine could be?
I'm also open to any completely different ideas how to fit an SRO into the premise of the AP.
The book suggests that the players can watch a holovid about the Chimera but leaves it to the GM to flesh that out. Since that seems like a great way of giving the players an overview of not only the ship but also the crew, I thought I'd give it a shot.
Feel free to contribute if you come up with any other info, clue, or foreshadowing detail that could go into it:
Mild spoiler for the very beginning of Book 1:
After choosing your native language, a holographic image of the outside of the ship comes up, gently rotating in front of your eyes. The projection is accompanied by a soft, gender-neutral voice.
"Welcome aboard the Chimera, [insert PC name here]!
Your captain, Rameem Vi Siala Corsen, and his entire crew welcome you aboard."
A group holopic overlays the image of the Chimera. A blue-skinned, middle-aged kasatha stands in the center of the group, his dashing form clearly marking him as the captain, even if it were not for the little name tag that hovers around each person's figure.
The captain is flanked to his right by a human woman with long, black hair tied back in a long ponytail, a round face, and hazel eyes. She wears an olive-green flight suit with brown accents. Her name tag reads: "Lozu Pahir, First Mate".
To the captain's left you spot the woman you met when you boarded through the airlock just minutes ago: "Algiada Iom, Security Chief". Her hand is resting on the right shoulder of a male Ysoki standing just in front of her. His fur is russet, his tail is tan, sporting a fancy-looking tail-ring. His eyes are golden in color, kind of matching the small silver hoop he wears in one of his ears. He has his arms crossed, wears a stained flight suit, and has a bit of a disheveled appearance. His name tag marks him as "Grath Metek, pilot".
To the right of the First Mate stands the Chimera's engineer, a nonbinary maraquoi named Kiiv Caedenns. They wear an estex suit and thick safety goggles, propped up on their forehead, as if to prove their occupation through their outfit. Despite the technical appearance, they look meticulously well groomed. Their fur is dark gray, and their tail quite skinny.
Finally, a little off to the side next to the security chief and the pilot, an android is called out simply as "Song, cook". Song is short, with silver skin and red circuitry tattoos. They have piercing blue eyes and wear a spotless apron over a drab set of stationwear. Despite what you would normally assume of an android's emotional state, they look seriously peeved in the holopic, as if ready to yell at someone.
After a few moments, the holopic fades and clears the view on the spaceship model, which comes apart in a kind of technical exploded-view, highlighting the various sections while the narrator's voice explains:
"The Chimera is a Palanquin heavy freighter, produced by Sanjaval Spaceflight Systems, and very well equipped for a variety of transport applications. The Chimera offers several decks and thus provides enough room for our spacious guest accommodations, which are far enough away from crew quarters so you can relax and unwind without being bothered by our busy crew. Beyond our comfortable guest quarters, our dining hall also sometimes hosts events on longer flights. Please also note our gym, which offers all kinds of workout equipment, current-swimming, or a relaxing bath in a hot tub. If you are traveling with oversized or live luggage, rest assured that it is safely stowed away in one of our two cargo holds.
In case of a space emergency, the Chimera is equipped with a total of 12 escape pods. You can find the nearest pod by following the emergency lighting and the crew's instructions.
Thank you for choosing the Chimera. We hope you have a pleasant stay on board our ship."
I've played and reported some 1e Society games and have started GMing some 2e scenarios and quests. I really like the new edition and I am trying to like Society play, but I find myself getting frustrated with the way things are organized. It's like 2e Society is not even officially supported: Season 10 and the last 1e Organized Play guide are more prominently featured on the Pathfinder Society page here on this website. The reporting system uses the language of 1e Society, even when you're trying to report 2e games. Stuff from the (externally hosted!) 2e Society guide does not show up in the reporting system at all or pops up in a confusing way: According to the guide, everyone is supposed to get Achievement Points when playing or GMing scenarios. Some of my reported scenarios list those, some of them don't. There is a tab to purchase stuff with it, but only one boon is available and it costs nothing.
Long story short, it's a mess when you are coming to this as an outsider and I am sure it is putting a lot of people off. I would love to hear the story behind it, because I am sure there is one, given that paizo has extensive experience with Organized Play programs and there must be reasons for all this confusion.
[/rant]
Alright, sorry about venting, but apparently I had to get this off my chest. I actually have some specific questions:
What am I supposed to put into the "GM prestige" box when I report games here? I guess we are supposed to treat "prestige" as "fame" for the purposes of reporting 2e games, so do I put the appropriate number in there?
What do I do if I don't have a character yet that I can apply my GM credit to? Leave the character number empty? Can I assign the credit later?
And speaking of GM credit, from reading the Organized Play guide section on filling out chronicle sheets, it sounds like there is no difference in what you put on or cross off GM and player chronicles. Is that really the intention? Wouldn't that incentivize GMs to make sure the players find all the treasure bundles, magic items and get all the boons, so they get access to them, too? Or do GM chronicles follow different rules (as, IIRC, was the case for 1e GM chronicles)?
I'm sorry if there are already answers to these questions somewhere, but I searched these lands and didn't find any so if I missed them, kindly point me in the right direction please.
So I've been listening to the Know Direction recordings from this year's PaizoCon and during one of the events, the panel is asked what upcoming thing they are most excited about. Lisa Stevens then goes ahead and mentions something she cannot quite talk about yet but that saying something to the effect of "it will transform the way we play".
Now, I've been looking around these messageboards for a thread of wild speculations as to what that might be but I haven't seen any. So I thought, why not start one?
So let's guess: what does paizo have I'm store that will transform the way we play our favorite game?
Here's my long-shot guess: Virtual Reality! something like an augmented reality virtual tabletop.
I have subscribed to the Rulebook line and chosen to start with the P2 hardcover books. I also have an Adventure Path subscription. In August, when the hardcovers are going to ship, I would like to use the US shipping address in my account but not before that for that AP.
I'm afraid I'll forget to change it in time. Can you make a note so that it uses the US address is. August only without me manually changing it to that and back?
It's a very minor thing but I noticed that the spells with a Material Casting action don't actually say what the material component is like they used to.
Please bring those back! I really, really enjoy seeing that you need a piece of butter for grease or a length of copper wire for sending.
I hope the example components were just cut for space and that we'll see them back in the final version!
I have already posted this in another thread but realized that it probably would not catch the developers attention there (sorry for the double-post).
During part 1 of Doomsday Dawn, a PC got confused by the fungus spores and another PC wanted to get him out of the spore cloud.
We realized that there is no Drag maneuver, no Reposition maneuver, and no way to move an opponent while grappling so the only way by the rules would be to walk around the person and Shove them.
Please add skill uses for Drag and Reposition and please add more options to the Grapple rules! My group thinks its a vital part of tactical battles. Thank you!
We try to call out all the rules we apply and describe all the abilities as we go along so it may be interesting to see how it all comes together at the table. However, we are still learning this massive new rule set and I am sure we make hundreds of mistakes on the way. Feel free to comment!
I am struggling to work out how to use Encounter and Exploration Mode at the table.
Originally, I thought Exploration Mode was for overland travel and such but the description specifically says "you could be [...] delving in a dungeon in search of danger and treasure."
So I tried to apply it in part 1 of Doomsday Dawn but even though I think I understand it in theory, the reality of it at the table makes me scratch my head.
An example of one time I think it worked well:
After the fight with the Sewer Ooze, I went around the table and asked everyone what tactic they are planning to use during the exploration of the Ossuray. I then assigned each of them an Exploration Tactic from the list that best fitted their descriptions. I then narrated the transition through the tunnel from the first area to the second area and then asked them to roll Initiative (with those who used the Sneaking tactic using Stealth), placed them near the entrance of the room and we were back in Encounter Mode.
An example of where it gets sticky:
The encounter with the Goblin Commando group was weird to transition into from Exploration Mode. The PCs notice a dim light spilling out from the passage so they know something's up. Some PCs want to sneak in and surprise them. What do I do? Do they just change their Exploration Tactics to Sneaking? Do we start Encounter Mode without rolling Initiative (which the rulebook claims is Step 1 of Encounter Mode)?
Generally speaking, I feel like Exploration Mode is not a good fit for dungeon exploration. Maybe it's because we play on roll20 and the players actually move their tokens through all the passages and down all the corridors or maybe I am just not "getting" Exploration Mode just yet, but so far it just confused me more than it added to the fun.
We've had a situation come up where a PC wanted to restrain another (confused) PC and pull him out of a cloud of spores.
Since we couldn't find a Reposition or Drag maneuver, we started with a Grapple and then tried to find any rules telling us how you can proceed from after the grapple is initiated.
But from what we can tell, the only actions that can be taken in a grapple are Acrobatics (Escape), Athletics (Break Grapple), and Athletics (Grapple) to maintain.
Are we missing anything?
The possibility to forcefully move opponents around on the battlefield has been so important so many times in our 1E campaigns, it would be shame if all that was left was Shove (which only works in the direction away from you).
Just watched the demonstration video and I had stop by and say that it sounds amazing! I especially like the little news snippets. Way to crank up the atmosphere!
Unfortunately, I GM exclusively on roll20 these days, but if I ever get to run in an in-person campaign again, I will definitely give this a try!
My group has chosen Carrion Crown as their next adventure path and I am currently trying to get my ducks in a row.
For some reason, I subscribed to the AP line starting with Wake of the Watcher. I managed to find copies of Broken Moon and Trial of the Beast but Haunting of Harrowstone is pretty much unavailable and at best sold at pretty outrageous prices, especially here in Germany.
So before resigning to my fate and getting the PDF and print it I'd thought I'd try my luck here.
Are there any former GMs who would be willing to sell me their copy for a reasonable price?
Since I am in Germany, a seller from somewhere in or near Europe would be a plus. I could also provide a shipping address in the US, though, because I have family there who I see regularly.
I just received my order confirmation for this month AP shipment. It also included the replacement Starfinder HC for the faulty one I purchased here. When I was told that it will be replaced, I was promised that I would not have to pay extra for shipping but now the order lists 50+$ for shipping.
It looks like my group is going to pick Carrion Crown as our next AP.
I am gearing up for the first adventure and I am looking for ways to help introduce the overall plot of the AP (using Loki_Thief's brilliant letters found on this board) and also drive home the history of Harrowstone and its spooky inmates.
One idea I got from the opening vignette of the first book is to start each session after the first with a short cinematic flashback narration that introduces one of the murderers that are now haunting Harrowstone.
These flashbacks are only for the players' enjoyment, the PCs do not experience them, and the idea is just to thicken the atmosphere and give some context, not to give any vital plot information. After the scene is narrated, the game returns to wherever it left off at the end of the last session.
Since the players will not have any agency in them, it is important that they are short and sweet. They should touch on enough details of the murderers' appearance that the players will recognize them later when the PCs face their ghostly presence.
So far I only have a draft of the first vignette, introducing the Lopper. Here it goes:
The Lopper:
Lepidstadt, 4661 AR.
A courtroom, the gallery filled with curious citizens, rumbling and mumbling, every now and then pointing with fearsome delight to the calm, bald and haggard, almost emaciated man sitting alone beyond the bar. Even the jury cannot hide their disgusted fascination with the accused. The man grins wickedly and stares blankly ahead at the empty bench.
"Rise for Jurisdeclaris Axenris the Third!"
As the crowd stands up, the elderly judge enters through a side entrance and walks straight to his bench, avoiding to make eye contact with the bald, grinning man. He takes his seat and begins rifling through some documents.
"Vance Saetressle, you are..."
The bald man interrupts, his words pressed through his frozen, toothy grin: "Please, call me Lopper."
"Silence!" the judge exlaims forcefully. "Vance Saetressle. You have been found guilty by a jury of your peers of stalking and savagely beheading at least 17 victims with a handaxe."
The crowd erupts in gasps of horror and rage at the reminder of the Lopper's deeds and is only calmed down when Jurisdeclaris Axenris starts banging his gavel.
"Order, order in the courtroom!
Vance Saetressle, you are hereby sentenced to live the remainder of your short life in Harrowstone, which, I hasten to add, is a blessing compared to the extent of your crimes and the suffering of your victims. There you will reside in the misery of your thoughts until such time as you are drawn, hanged, and quartered. May the gods have no mercy on your blighted soul."
As the judge gets up and leaves, the crowd erupts once more, this time in cheer and mockery of the Lopper. The bald man, however, does not even flinch. He just sits. And stares. And grins.
I intend to write one for each murderer, but I would love to have some help, if anyone feels inspired!
I guess every Pathfinder GM and player at some point runs into this: combat becoming repetitive and tedious.
Example and more in-depth motivation:
When the party storms the cave system where the tribe of skum have taken the town elder, there is just no way to make every single encounter unique. Of course you have to fight through a couple of waves of "skum warriors" maybe accompanied by a "skum lieutenant" with slightly different stats.
I know that you have to have low-level goons because otherwise every lair would just be empty except for the main villains. But what it often comes down to is a series of fights that do not really threaten the party (at least not at level 4+) but, from a mechanics perspective, are only there to drain the party's resources.
Taking into account that combat in Pathfinder takes quite a long time, these fights eat up a disproportionate amount of the total time it takes to clear a dungeon/lair/enemy headquarter/haunted house. But they are just not a whole lot of fun!
"Easy," you might say, "Just write better encounters where the terrain and environment makes a difference!" But what if I don't want to write encounters? What if I just want to run pre-written modules or adventure paths?
And that's where my idea comes in: Develop a simplified system for "easy" combat encounters that still causes some attrition but that does not take longer than it takes to do a skill-based encounter.
The basic question is: what is the game effect of a string of easy combat encounters?
The answer is attrition and getting to know the enemy.
In my opinion both of these things can be achieved in a more condensed way (although I am still somewhat shaky on the details, see below).
When should the narrative combat system be applied and what is an "easy" encounter?
Every encounter of less than or equal to APL-1 is considered an easy encounter and should be resolved using narrative combat.
How does narrative combat work?
The GM starts by setting the scene and giving some basic information on the enemies tactics, thus helping the party getting to know their enemies.
You then go around the table letting every player describe their actions, giving some creative license since they know the party will prevail.
The GM rolls 1d20+CR. The party collectively rolls 1d20 for each point of the CR below the AP and takes the best result.
The party adds a cumulative bonus for every expendable ressource any PC has used in their narration of their actions. Fighters and rogues always add a bonus of 1d6.
If the adjusted party roll beats the GM's roll, no damage is taken. If the adjusted party roll fails to beat the GM's roll, the party takes damage (see list below) for each point they missed. The party decides how to allocate the damage dice to the PCs but they cannot break down a die roll.
Expendable ressource bonus:
Here is the bonus each kind of expendable ressource yields:
Spell or spell effect: Bonus equal to spell's level.
Alchemical item: +2.
Class feature counted in rounds (bardic performance, rage): half number of rounds used (rounded down). Every round that is not needed to beat the GM's roll is not expended.
Damage dice:
The damage dice used depend on the CR. In addition, add the CR to every roll!
CR 1: 1 point
CR 2: 1d2
CR 3: 1d3
CR 4: 1d4
CR 5: 1d4+1
CR 6: 1d6
CR 7: 1d6+1
CR 8: 1d8
CR 9: 1d8+1
CR 10: 2d6
CR 11: 2d6+2
CR 12: 2d8
CR 13: 2d8+2
CR 14: 4d6
CR 15: 4d6+4
CR 16: 4d8
CR 17: 4d8+4
CR 18: 6d6
CR 19: 6d6+6
CR 20: 6d8
Example:
The party is of APL 8.
GM: "Another group of 4 skum come storming out of the tunnels, trying to stab you with their tridents."
Barbara the barbarian: "I charge to meet them head-on! I valiantly fends off their tridents and answers every stab with a brutal swing of my axe! I will spend up to 5 rounds in rage."
Eric the cleric: "I mostly help by providing a flank and use my divine magic to aid my allies. I expend a 1st level bless spell!"
Bart the bard: "I sing songs of glory to inspire courage for up to 6 rounds!"
Margaret the magus: "I mow the skum down with blade and spell! I expend a 2nd level sonic scream.
GM: "Alright, the CR is 6 and you are APL 8. Roll 2d20!"
*Party rolls 2d20*
Barbara the barbarian: "Shucks, a 5. But the other roll is a 14. Plus 1 from Eric's first level spell, plus 2 from Margarets 2nd level spell and up to +5 from my rage and Bart's bardic performance. So that is a minimum of 17 and can go up to 22, if necessary."
*GM rolls 1d20*
GM: "Alright, 18. Adding the CR of 6, that is a total of 24. That is two higher than your maximum check. So..."
*GM rolls 2 times 1d6*
GM: That is a 2 and a 5, each one plus the CR of 6. So one of you takes 8 damage and one takes 11.
Eric the cleric: "I got this, folks, I'll take both hits for the team."
GM: "How brave of you! Alright, moving on."
*Fun continues to be had after but a few minutes of combat*
What do you guys think? My main worries are the damage levels for each APL (I kind of pulled them out of thin air, I did not try to match them against average max HP per level or anything) and how to help fighters and rogues and other classes with few expendable ressources feel like doing their part.
I also have not given this idea any testing yet! I am very curious to hear what you have to say about it, though.
rejected Sial and Laori's offer at the beginning of the chapter and in the book (hardcover edition) it says that the two will retreat for now and don't play a role until later in the adventure. Unfortunately,
I cannot find any reference to what happens if their offer is rejected anywhere in the rest of the chapter. The only other mention is when the party meets the nightwing but that encounter does not really work as written if the two are not with the party already.
I was cleaning up my gaming bookshelf and couldn't find book 6 of the Ironfang Invasion. I came here to check and realized that for some reason it got canceled!
Now I think this is because I asked to make some changes for my August subscription shipment and apparently that got overlooked.
Can you send a copy my way? And also unlock the PDF? Because I never paused my subscription and still I don't even have access to the PDF.
Please note that I am not sure if you already charged me for it.
Thank you so much!
(I realize I am using a lot of your time recently, sorry about that!)
you kindly switched my delivery address for last month to a US address, because I happened to be in the States for the Starfinder launch. You also switched back to my German address right after, as I had requested, but unfortunately the shipping modality carried over, too, costing me 40+$ in shipping.
I know I should have caught that when you sent the first shipment notice but I didn't notice it until just now when I got your final shipment notification.
Is there any way you can call the delivery raptors back?
EDIT: I also just realized that my shipping option is set to Cheapest... Could you please check for me what went wrong here?
I have pre-ordered the Starfinder rulebook and the first Starfinder AP book and had you set the shipping address to a US address (because I happen to be in the States in August).
Now I have subscribed to the Starfinder AP line (order no. 4355092) and would like to avoid getting the first book delivered twice, once to the US and once to my regular (German) shipping address.
I'd like to combine my current sidecart (Starfinder AP 1) with the new order 4235801 (Starfinder Core rulebook) and have it shipped to the address given in order 4235801.
I would also like to change my billing address of my only registered payment method to:
I am aware of the chase rules, but is there any subsystem that helps with a less high-speed situation, like trying to follow a suspect to their secret hideout?
I didn't find anything in the PRD, but maybe there is a module or PFS scenario out there that has something along those lines.
I noticed that the current Adventure Path issue (A Whisper out of Time) is not listed with the other Strange Aeon AP books in My Downloads but instead under a new category called "Paizo Inc.: Taldor"
Is that a glitch or intentional? If it is the latter, I have to say I don't like it. If an Adventure Path jumps from location to location, the individual books would be scattered out across different categories. Doesn't seem useful to me!
I want to run Retribution by Raging Swan Press but I am a huge fan of Golarion. Since the adventure was written expressly so you can transplant it into a different setting, that is what I intend to do.
However, before I reinvent the wheel, I thought I'd ask for some messageboard wisdom from people who have more experience with the Lonely Coast setting than me (which should not be difficult because mine is zero).
The adventure itself is mostly generic enough to be run in Golarion as is. The only two elements that do not fit right out-of-the-box are the two major deities that the plot revolves around:
Darlen:
LG god of Law, Order, Justice and the Sun
Epithets: The Justicar, the Shining Light, the Noble One
Symbol: The rising sun
Domains: Good, Law, Protection, Sun
Favoured Weapon: Longsword
Raiment: Voluminous, white cowled habits. Unless expecting
battle, clerics do not wear armour.
Teachings: The strong must protect the weak, for this is the
natural order. Those with great abilities or aptitudes must use
their gifts for the betterment of their fellows. The faithful must
be ever vigilant for evil’s rise, but must show mercy in dealing
with its tools.
Holy Texts: Darlen’s teachings are set down in the Scripture
of Law – a vast tome containing teaching, stories and lessons by
some of his prominent early followers. Divine Order and On
Darkness’ Rise are important early commentaries penned by
legendary high priests.
and
Braal:
NE god of Hate, Malice and Revenge
Epithets: The Hated, the Wreaker, Dweller in Shadows
Symbol: A cloven skull
Domains: Destruction, Evil, Trickery
Favoured Weapon: Morningstar
Raiment: Braal’s faithful wear cowled black cloaks smeared
with the blood of their sacrifices. Adherents also shave their
heads.
Teachings: Strike from the shadows; punish those who have
wronged you and show no mercy. Take what you want and
destroy that which you cannot take.
Holy Texts: The worship of Braal is not as prescriptive as
other religions. No universally agreed upon text exists, but
several dark tomes are preferred by various sects.
I was thinking to go with Sarenrae as a stand-in of Darlen and Norgorber for Braal.
Sorry if I am being impatient here, but I had pre-ordered the Curse of the Crimson Throne Hardcover in March and then changed a bunch of things about the order (billing, shipping address) and moved it from the sidecart to its own order.
It looks like some people have already received their copies while mine does not seem to make any progress and I just wanted to make sure that all those changes did not somehow wake up warehouse raptors and made them eat my order.
I am fairly new to PFS play but have been playing Pathfinder on roll20 for quite some time now and I love all the nifty features it offers, like music, dynamic lighting and so forth.
When I set up a game, I like to make sure the maps look nice, the NPCs use the right tokens, proper music is queued in the jukebox and just generally get the most out of the experience.
This of course takes a bit of time and effort and I thought PFS would be perfect for that, because you could play each scenario with a different group several times!
However, I learned that this is only true for the evergreens and usually they really are just one-shots that you could run again, but not for credit.
I've played in a few games now where that apparently led to the GM not caring about the "production values" and most fights were on completely white maps versus generic tokens.
And I don't want to criticize them for doing that, I totally get it.
So I thought, how about a place where GMs who hold their games to higher standards could swap tables?
I am not entirely sure how this could work mechanically, but you can invite someone to a game you created and then promote them to GM so they gain full control.
Is there something like this already out there?
If not, I could start a list where people enter the games they have ready and some contact information to get in touch.
I am trying to get a last minute game together, we have two players signed up and thus need only one more to hit minimum legal size.
If you are interested, come and join us on Warhorn and send me the following information:
Name
Character name
PFS #
Faction
Race
Class
Level
Current XP, prestige, fame, and GP
Has this character played The Wounded Wisp or The Confirmation before?
Token for rolll20
I am currently preparing myself for Escape from Old Korvosa and I have a little gripe with the fact that I am supposed to tell my players that their characters would miss the Queen's first public appearance after the botched execution.
So I was wondering why exactly this is the suggested course of events and I came up with no good reasons.
There is no realistic chance for the PCs to intervene and there is also no uncertainty to the truth of the events because Cressida is able to confirm all the rumors.
Have any of my fellow GMs tried to let their party witness the scene in person? How did it turn out?
James Jacobs mentioned before and wrote in one of the most recent Adventure Path issues that he had been pulled from Strange Aeons to work on a super-secret project that has been on his mind for at least 10 yeaers now.
Intriguing, isn't it? What could be so important to pull Mr. Jacobs from developing what would probably be his favorite theme for an Adventure Path ever?
Now people around here have always shown a remarkable ability to come up with inside information, rumors, and competent guesswork to figure out stuff like this so I pose the question to the community:
What could James Jacobs be working on?
(If a thread like this already exists, I apologize and would like the link. My search-fu was not enough to find any.)
I am currently running a group through the first part of the Adventure Path but I am trying to seed upcoming events or people as early as possible.
So while looking for possible cross-references I came across the King of Old Korvosa and wondered, why it wasn't Devargo who the group already knows (and probably hates) at that point? I think that would give them a lot more motivation to move against him, maybe even feeling partially responsible because they put so much gold in his hands to get to the letters back in Edge of Anarchy.
I tried to find a reason why paizo chose to go with a new villain instead of bringing back an old one but I could not find any.
Were they afraid that the PCs might end Devargo or his business in Edge of Anarchy and thus the plot hook would dissolve? Am I missing anything? Or is Pilts just such a great character that it would be a huge mistake to get rid of him?
[I'm not exactly sure where to post this so I hope this is the right board.]
I am currently preparing my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign over at roll20.net and because the PCs spend quite some time at the Korvosan guard's headquarters, more specificly Cressida Kroft's office, I would like to have a nice background image to go to when those scenes play out.
Because I am somewhat of a stickler for consistency of the artistic style of my pictures, I don't want to use an actual photograph of a guard room but would prefer a digital painting or colored drawing of some sort that at least vaguely fits in with the Pathfinder art style.
If anyone has something that fits the description, I would immensely appreciate a hint! I've been googling my fingertips off but so far to no avail!
I seem to recall that someone was unsatisfied with the modules climax as written and posted a number of checks (following the chase rules) here on these boards to make the escape from the city more memorable and dramatic.
However, my search fu fails me and I cannot find it anymore. Does anyone know what I am talking about and can point me in the right direction?
There is a holiday coming up next week here in Germany and I would like to spend the day running an adventure on roll20.net. Now I already have a couple of regular games going and do not want to pick up another one so I want to make this a one-shot contained to a single, long session (10-12 hours).
And this is where the title of this thread comes in:
If you had 10 hours to run a module/scenario/adventure - which one would you choose and why?
I have tried the previous version of Syrinscape and really liked it! I am done with the RotR AP, though, but I love the idea of tailor-made soundtracks! Any idea what is going to be the next supported AP?
I am prepping this module and am almost done doing so but I stumbled across a little oddity:
I cannot, for the life of me, find anything in the module about the secret door leading to M6 (you know, the BBEG room). I would assume a DC 30 Perception check because that's what most of the other secret doors ask for but I am wondering if I missed something.
Also, if I read this correctly, there is a chance that the PCs might bypass almost the entire adventure and go straight to the final confrontation if they just notice one little thing.
Pathfinder Society GM. 923 posts (1,140 including aliases). 33 reviews. 4 lists. No wishlists. 6 Organized Play characters. 3 aliases. 
