Ondek Brightstone's page

Missing some players in my recently begun PF2e game, I and another player decided to get some more practice in with the new edition. We also get to finally use some of those PCs we build habitually, and see the story of the Invasion unfold. And boy was I happy we did...this was a blast to play!

Our story begins on the 7th of Gozran, 4721, in the small town of Phaendar, along the Marideth River and the old stone bridge which serves as the reason the town exists. After a couple days of Market Festival time, while everyone has brought in the lumber, foodstuffs, livestock, and the like to trade and all the business of the day has concluded, our party settles in for some entertainment and libations at The Root, or Taproot Inn as outsiders might call it.

Joining the local celebrity Aubrin the Green and the proprietress Jet are our heroes:

Jolly Jollison a dwarf cleric of Torag and farmhand/rancher. Relatively dour and stern, he nonetheless cares for the community and takes his duties as a protector and provider very seriously. A Phaendar local.

Thog an orc fighter and a person who exemplifies "Big Dumb Fighter." Raised from a cub by Jolly on the farm, he has been learning how to fight and work like a dwarf, despite being nearly 7 feet tall and 350 pounds and a teenager.

Karnot Pell, a halfling sorcerer and entertainer. Extremely well groomed and dressed, he speaks about 6 or 7 languages and enjoys sprinkling his magic into his comedy routines.

Khajit a catfolk rogue and the long-term traveling companion and friend of Karnot. Grey and black tabby marked, he loves to travel around Nirmathas and see what new and exciting places and people the pair can find, and thoroughly enjoys coming back to Phaendar for the Market Festivals every season, mostly to tease Jolly and drink his ale.

As the evening wears on and everyone is getting into their cups, the door to the Root is violently breached as a pair of hobgoblin soldiers kick their way in. Unluckily, Aubrin catches a broomstick thick ballista bolt through the guts which takes her out of the fight immediately. Luckily (for the heroes), the hobgoblins don't roll great on initiative. Thog moves to engage at the door, grabbing and holding onto the hobgoblin, while Khajit moves along the wall to get into a flank. That was when we found out just how deadly a rogue with a rapier can be.

Rolling a Nat-20 for his first attack of the game, Khajit then rolled max damage on the rapier, which, when combined with the deadly critical trait and sneak attack, pushed the "off button" for the first hobgoblin through the door. Karnot used a cantrip to hurt the second one while Jolly used a stabilize cantrip and then some healing magic to patch up Aubrin. The invaders didn't manage to get much done beyond minor damage to Thog before he grabbed the second one like the first Athletics vs Fort DC to Grab is such a better Grapple mechanic.... and bashed its head against the doorjamb.

With that excitement over, the team checked for injuries or damage, finding Aubrin now able to move, if barely, and conversed about how best to flee the newly occupied town. A quick plan to get the locals out while trying to secure more resources and people was hashed out, and the team set forth for the trading depot post haste.

Along the way, the team witnessed the various horrors and damages caused by the invaders, seeing their small town and the citizenry fall, all grew angry, but Thog the most so. Adamant that they get some revenge against the army but restrained by his friends in his desire to charge the whole squads running around, they happened across a lone scout, out looking for slaves or loot to acquire. At the end of a short alley, Khajit managed to sneak up close by, but failed to surprise the archer. Once again, the hobgoblin did horribly on initiative, which allowed the team to gang up on her. A bit tougher than the Recruits, Thog got a bit slashed up but still managed to tank and provide more than enough flanking for Khajit and Karnot to take her down. Some quick healing later, and the group was approaching the Trade Depot/Smithy.

On their approach, Thog had the bright idea to make sure as many NPCs had ranged weapons as possible (pretty smart for the guy, I must admit), and the plan was the same as before: Khajit scouts ahead, sneaks up, then the others move up and get violent. One critical success on stealth later, and Khajit managed to get right up next to one of the Recruits milling about the trading yard. He shanked that one right in the brain while the team moved up to assist. A very brief scuffle ensued, and before anyone inside the burning smithy could even get a loud yell out, it was over. Three more dead hobgoblins added their bows and gear to the NPC roster, while the group moved to deal with the burning smithy roof.

Rather than use the conveniently provided buckets and waste all that time, Jolly (Str 16) and Thog (Str 18) worked together after dropping their heavier gear, dumping the entire animal watering trough on the roof. With a big whoosh of steam and smoke, the roof was extinguished and the civilians saved. From there, the team looted the depot thoroughly, despite the protestations from Kining Blondebeard before moving to the smithy itself. Once there, Karnot managed to talk down the angry elemental with some smooth conversational moves, and even convinced the two half-elven hunter siblings Lirosa and Taidel to abort their futile attack against the legion and join the newly growing NPC horde.

From the trade depot, the team decided to head towards Oreld's Fine Shop, figuring the shrine could look after itself (and figuring the town alchemist/doctor would be a good resource to protect). They once again snuck up to the building, seeing Oreld with his gutwound and the hobgoblin Bomber pawing through the goods. The heroes stacked up at the door and made entry, getting up close and personal before the Bomber could do much at all. A few minor blows from Khajit and Karnot wounded him, before Jolly moved up and Nat-20 critted with his warhammer. The poor bomber never even got a chance to act, having his ticket punched by a heavy blow to the top of his bald goblin skull. Jolly then tried to aid Oreld via use of medicine, critically failing his check and nearly killing the poor man. "Hey, what happens if I just yank this javelin out of his belly? Oh, right, he bleeds a lot and passes out. Damnit, now I've gotta use magic to heal him!"

We wrapped up the night at that point, with the team having secured Oreld's Fine Shop, the Trade Depot/Smithy, and the Taproot Inn.

The following NPCs were rescued/healed.

Aubrin the Green (wounded, sickened)
Jet
Kining Blondebeard
Lirosa
Taidel
Oreld (wounded)

Adepts: 1
Aristocrats: 1
Commoners: 7
Experts: 1
Warriors: 4

Treasure Acquired:
6x Ironfang Recruit Gear (leather armor, longsword, wooden shield, shortbow, 10 arrows)

Ironfang Scout Gear (composite longbow, 20 arrows, mwk battleaxe, hatchet, padded armor, alchemist fire (2), potion of minor cure (2))

Grenadier Trainee Gear (leather armor, daggers (3), heavy mace, hooded lantern, potion of minor cure (2), potion of invisibility, alchemist fire (3), antitoxin, healer's kit, oil (5), smokestick (2), tanglefoot bag (2), thunderstone (2)

Greetings!

The following is a journal from a newly begun Pathfinder 2nd Edition homebrew game.

Our story begins in Kaer Maga, where four intrepid adventurers are about to set out on a journey into the wilds of Golarion. Newly formed 1st level characters in hand, we are introduced to:

Seattle, UCAS. 8 February, 2076.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am Trent Brockington, and this is the Emerald City News."

The trid screen resolves on a pleasant, if generic anglo human male, with a fancy but conservative haircut, dark suit and a bright green tie. He looks directly out of the screen with a slight smile before continuing.

"Knight Errant and the Metroplex Guard are still on the lookout for the terrorist group which detonated a vehicle bomb just outside the Aztechnology Pyramid here in Downtown Seattle. 27 people lost their lives in this senseless tragedy, with property damaged estimated in the 900,000 nuyen range. Authorities ask anyone with information on this incident or the terrorists involved to contact them <HERE>."

A window behind Trent shows the aftermath of what appeared to be a significant blast, dark plumes of smoke rising from a large wheeled vehicle and several wrecked KE patrol response vehicles.

"Looks like the weather is going to hold up, continuing our uncommonly warm winter this year. Forecasts call for slight rain, with limited acidity towards the end of the week, it will be partly cloudy with a high of 13 tomorrow."

A popup interrupts the newscast, with an anonymous 1-shot commcode attached.

<Incoming Message>

This is the discussion thread for the Redmond 2076 game.

I will be making my selection tonight by approx 2100 Eastern time.

For those who get selected, try to imagine what your PC is doing in Seattle in February, 2076. This can be as simple as "sitting around in his undies, nomming on Soy Flakes and watching Trid" or as elaborate as you would like.

If you have a Lifestyle, please decide (and declare) where it is and have a very rough idea of the type of neighborhood (quiet residential? rehabbed industrial? old storage container on the docks? a nasty alley with a couple of trash can fires?).

If you don't have one listed, I assume you are living on the Street (see the "alley" above). We will not be using the optional rules for Stun Damage for lower than Middle, but the various options (workspace, hard to find, etc.) are fair game.

Don't stress too much about the mechanics of the game system. Most of the complexity will be easily negated with the pace of PbP, and I am more than happy to help everyone with any esoteric or obscure rules that pop up.

Happily, the Matrix slow-down which crops up at the table shouldn't really impact us too badly.

Greetings.

I am looking for a few runners to participate in a new 5th Edition Shadowrun campaign. The setting is Seattle, 2076, beginning in the Redmond area.

Character generation will be as standard for 5ed: Priority System, maximum availability 12, maximum karma on positive/negative qualities 25.

Things I will be restricting: changelings, metahuman variants, and qualities which increase availability from CharGen (black market contacts?)

I highly recommend using either Chummer5 or Hero Lab (if you want to spend money or already have it) for character generation.

The start of the game will focus on the Redmond area and the local gang scene, mostly to allow the runners to stretch their legs a bit and get used to the shadows (and the players to the system) before branching out in who-knows-what directions.

I would like to see people who are interested in strong character driven stories and exciting action, and less interested in crunching the numbers in the absolute optimal fashion. Note: there is nothing wrong with crunching those numbers to be very very good at what you want, so long as the character behind the PC is also engaging and fun.

Posting schedule: I will typically be able to post long and detailed (number crunchy) posts earlier in the day (GMT -5; 0900-1300 ish) and respond or create shorter RP driven posts later in the evening (1530-2300 ish).

Let's hear those runner concepts, and feel free to throw any questions I have not answered my way!

Wondering who would be interested in a Shadowrun 5 game?

Set in Seattle, 2076, to start.

Standard characters, fairly player driven, with an early focustomers on Redmond & the local gangs.

Star Wars home theater setup

A quite drool worthy home theater set up, attributed to Paizo's very own Wertz & Stevens.

Not sure if that's accurate but if so, kudos! I know I'm jealous.

Gentlecritters, I return to tabletop IRL!

Beginning this Thursday, I resume tabletop play with my long-standing crew of miscreants. This time, we have three players taking on the latest completed AP, Iron Gods.

Numerian superscience!

Giant robot scorpions!

Dark-haired barbarian kings!

Amazing sights and fantastic sounds!

Will the intrepid adventurers survive the dangers in and around Torch, a tiny outpost in the wilderness of Numeria? Will the discover why the strange skymetal melting purple fire extinguished itself? Will the Technic League exert itself and cause more problems for the area?

Stay tuned, readers, for the gory details and juicy gossip!

We are currently without a weapons specialist/close quarters battle person in our Shadowrun 5ed crew.

If you are interested in playing with an Irish Demolitions Mage, an elven Face Adept, and a human Rigger, slide on over to the Discussion Thread located here .

We just made it through our "first run" together, and made it out without too much trouble.

Hope to see some of you there, chummers!

Here's my single-player sim-room for the playtest. General thoughts:

4 PCs, going against 4-5 encounters as if through a "normal" adventuring day.

All PCs built to 20 point buy, without special considerations or houserules added.

Punchy the Brawler

Boy Scout the Warpriest of Iomedae

Blaster the Elven Arcanist

Cast-O the Human Shaman

Hey there all:

I have all the PF adventure paths from #1 to the current issue.

Almost all are in excellent to near-mint condition, and I am willing to part with almost all of them. These include the map-packs and potentially any of the gazeeters attached to each AP.

Carrion Crown, Reign of Winter, and Jade Regent are the only ones off the block for the moment (although Jade Regent will likely be added on once we finish with the campaign.)

PM me, or reply via this post if you are interested.

Note, these are generated from at table, PbP playtests run with others, and single-player (me) encounter playtests, so far.

Characters and monsters will be linked when available.

Notes from 11/17/12: At table playtest with 4 players & myself as GM. Basic setup was to see how combat encounters would run, as well as to familiarize ourselves with Mythic creation rules.

Characters: All Level 17 PCs, with Mythic Tier 8. All Paizo books were available for use. Character Generation rules: 2d6+6 stats, no traits, standard wealth by level (410,000gp). (all played by experienced Pathfinder players, all of whom also have GM experience. About 4/6 of my regular tabletop group.)

Marion: Human Ranger 17/Champion Tier 8.

Malik: Human Djinn Bloodline Sorcerer 17/Archmage Tier 8

Bruce: (link pending) Human Two-Handed Fighter 17 / Champion Tier 8

Jiffy: (link pending) Gnome Paladin (unknown archetypes/oaths) 17 / Guardian Tier 8

First Encounter:
Terrain: Open Desert, mid-day, no significant cover/terrain features. All characters "on foot" - no mounts/etc.
Creatures: 2 Great Wyrm Blue Dragons Each is CR 21, total CR for encounter = 23.

(NB: I goofed the first couple of rounds of encounters, forgetting that the 2nd dragon using his project image mirage ability was not really there. Fighter took some minor damage which I ret-conned shortly after.)

In the beginning, both dragons gain surprise rounds (since the party was travelling across the desert completely in the open with no regard for stealth/camouflage at all). Using their keen vision, invisibility spells, and project image occasionally, both dragons buff up with the following spells:
Greater Heroism, Stoneskin, Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, False Life, Ant Haul, Mage Armor, Shield. Each casts quickened haste during their surprise round, then the Mirage Dragon (real dragon sitting comfortably far away on a convenient rock mound/dune) pops up and breaks his vanish by breathing on Bruce & Jiffy. Both fail their saves and take a bunch of electricity damage.
Jiffy & Malik buff a bit, sharing around protection from energy, heals, and try to dispel the image, but failing.
Real Dragon comes closer, using his storm-breath power to pull down a bolt on Bruce, who fails, again. This time, it hurts a lot less since he's protected.

This proceeds apace, with the image dragon using spells (finger of death especially) but failing to do very much, in between his breath weapon attacks (much more effective in the long run).

Healing and buffs get spread around, with some ineffective attacks used on the approaching Real Dragon while he's burrowing through the sand.

As he gets close enough, he throws up an acid fog and then quickened dimension door's behind it. It's time to get our teeth & claws dirty!

Bruce (now Large and with a couple other buffs on him), flies over to engage, getting bit for some minor damage. He whiffs on all but one attack (not expecting an AC of 61, I believe), still dealing some 173 damage (Two-Handed Fighter + Mythic Power Attack + Auto-Confirmed Crits = OUCH!).

The real dragon, realizing his danger, quickens a blink before trying to tear Bruce's face off. He whiffs on all but the Bite & 1 Wing (very high AC on our beat-stick, as well!). Meanwhile, Mirage Dragon continues to harass the others, calling down lightning, casting more finger of deaths and quickening some low-level spells.

Bruce is unable to do much with the blinking Real Dragon, whiffing for a full round (rolled like 3 crits, but each one was negated by the miss chance), until Malik managed to land a mythic dispel magic to strip the blink (as well as his shield spell) away.

After that, it was a fairly simple Tank & Spank on out. Bruce landed another single attack for some 177 damage, before Marion finally managed to land a few good blows (on the new, much easier to hit AC 57), driving off the Real Dragon (running away via quickened dimension door) once and for all.

The Mirage Dragon went away shortly thereafter to another mythic dispel.

All told, the fight took about 90 minutes, and about 7-8 rounds, total.

Impressions: A Mythic Dragon would probably have been a better encounter, since it could bypass the Guardian's DR, do MUCH more damage with his breath weapon (still did QUITE a lot on the poor-reflex Bruce), and have a few extra tricks up his sleeve. Great Wyrm Blue's are tricky enough, as is, though. Even to the point where I goofed using the wrong one to deal melee damage early on.

Mythic Champions are QUITE the Beat-Stick. Move + Full Attack + Mythic Power Attack is extremely deadly, especially if the fighter has Reach from something. Two-Handed Fighter is still the king of melee damage, apparently.

Archmages & Hierophants who DON'T take "Endless Power" from Tier 6 on are really losing out. Turning 1st-3rd level spells into cantrips, effectively is extremely powerful (especially with things like resist energy, see invisibility, fly, and other relatively short-duration, awesome spells.

Paladins are still the kings of saves, and when you factor in Mythic Saves & Guardian defensive tricks, it becomes extremely hard to hurt them.

Almost no-one used their Amazing Initiative in this fight, surprisingly enough.

Conclusion: Each PC really did feel "Mythic" in their capabilities, much more so than a standard party of adventurers would have. They were capable of surviving a pair of CR 21's who really should have been capable of tearing at least one of them apart. No-one (other than Bruce the Fighter) really took SIGNIFICANT damage, and even then Bruce was able to be patched up by the healing Paladin fairly easily.

Discussion thread for the playtest.

Here it is, folks. Starting from 5th level, then advancing to 10th, 15th, and 20th, let's get to testing this new ruleset.

If you see problems or have concerns/issues with the test as run, please bring them up in the discussion thread.

I'd like to keep the actual gameplay thread as "clean" as possible to afford the Dev-Team the easiest means possible to glean their data.

Conclusions/After-Action-Reports and the like would be very helpful, again, in the discussion thread.

Hello all.

As you may be aware, the Mythic Adventures Playtest is likely going to begin around November 12th.

Or so.

My thoughts on the topic:

Why not run a few encounters right here where the log and details are public for all and sundry. Especially the Paizo Dev-Team, who really need to know.

So, my intentions were for a group of four adventurers to hit up some of the more iconic "Mythic Monsters."

For example, Treerazer, CR 25, The Jabberwock, CR 23, Rune Giants, CR 17 each, and the like.

Perhaps with some of the more nasty AP encounters (Xanesha, Mockmurian, and possibly the "Can't Win This Fight, But You Can Run Away" encounter from Skull & Shackles book 2 or 3 (I forget the title, but its the encounter where you have to sabotage a ship and flee, or die at the hands of some hundred or so guards/officer/sailors.)

So, what does everyone think?

I was thinking 15 pt buy, standard gold, RAW as much as possible for all character builds. Once Mythic Rules come out, we can slap the template on the characters and have at it. Reasonable?

Ohai, chummers.

This thread's for discussion, questions, further explanations, and the like. Mostly, it's here to keep the Gameplay thread from getting gummed up with OOC talk and shopping lists.

Welcome to Seattle in 2070, chummer. Specifically, welcome to Micky's Place, a known runner's bar in the Redmond Barrens. You'd heard of this place through the grapevine, heck you may have even stopped in for a drink before. However, this is the first time you got a call from George St. Cloud the owner, saying he might some work for you. He didn't provide specifics, just a hint of nuyen and the address to the bar.

"This town will eat you up and spit you out without even noticin', if you let it, kid. I know you think you're shiny-wiz with toys, spells, cars, or whathaveyou, but hear me well: there's always someone bigger, faster, meaner, and with better intel out there. Sometimes he's even gunning specifically for you, natch? George stands behind the old, scarred, wooden bar. Real wood, too, even if its patched here and there with synthetics. Polishing a glass with slow, exaggerated moves, he fixes you with a piercing gaze. "If you're sure about this, then yeah, maybe I got some work to slide your way. I'll even take my fee as a favor for the future, chummer. I'll send the details to your 'link shortly.

Inside Micky's Place, the slow thud of heavy bass pounds the room. Early in the evening, only a few blue-collar workers sit at the bar, draining glasses of synth-beer and grousing about the Seahawks. Micky's trideo setup over the corner of the bar shows highlights of the 'Hawks embarrassing loss from last night in between ads and other sports clips.

A couple of slim, skirt-wearing waitresses mosey around, carrying trays of drinks. Their PANs broadcast several "off-menu" options available. Everything for a price, right.

A handful of folks stand or sit around the perimeter of the room, sticking to the dimly lit corners and booths either by design or inattention. AROs crop up from time to time, as the patrons engage wirelessly for biz, love, or fun.

Ohaio, chummers!

As some of you know, I plan on GM'ing a few (at least) "beginner runs" for the SR 4e system. This is mostly so I can get a firm grasp on the rules and how different SR4 is from say, SR2-3 (which I was pretty familiar with back in the day.)

Several people have already proposed characters, such as:

Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter. 7 days remain to get involved!

So our Serpent's Skull party just reached 15th level, and my Gnomish Illusionist is in need of not one, but two feats.

The first is most likely going to be Truename, for a planetar, but I am at a loss for the other.

Currently, I have:

Now, I am kind of a WH40K fanboi, and love the Adeptus Astartes a little bit. Perhaps more than that.

After playing the recent Space Marine game on Xbox 360, and having just lost my witch PC in our Age of Worms campaign, I thought it might be fun to try to recreate a Battle Brother in Pathfinder.

Here's what I've got, so far:

Tybelore, Paladin of Apsu 3

Obviously, he won't have all the super-awesome-ness that comes from being a Space Marine right now, but I think he's got the gist down.

Imp Bull Rush & Imp Overrun are for Charge Through, and to generally model the "Shoulder Charge" common to the Astartes in many artists' renderings and the game itself.

Anything I'm missing here? I know a Bolter or Bolt pistol seem all but necessary, but I don't want to mess with the campaign world that much (it would be wicked neat if there were a re-skinned variant 1-handed ranged weapon, but I don't know of any). The longbow suffices for ranged combat as is.

Possible feats for the future: Quick Draw, Toughness, Rhino Charge (worth it?), and possibly Combat Reflexes/Improved Unarmed Strike/Vicious Stomp. All of them are thematically appropriate, and will add little bits of extra functionality to a badass walking death machine.

Further suggestions / tweaks / all-out revisions are welcome, since he won't see play until next Friday (9/19/11) at the earliest.

The Emperor Protects!

An interesting possibility was brought up in the FLGS Open Letter thread.

Would you as a Gamer be happy to pay a couple of dollars to use a nice airconditioned conference style room with WiFi thrown in and close to all amenities and a great coffee shop next door, loads of free parking and ready public transport access?

So, would you?

If so, what amenities and services would be "must haves" or "deal breakers" for you?

What would it be worth to you?

1$/hr/person at the table?

A monthly/yearly "club dues?"

How far would you be willing to travel for such a facility?

Inquiring minds want to know!

We just started Whispering Cairn with all new Level 1 Witches.

The experimental hypothesis:

Can a group of all Witches, all taking the Coven Hex, make it through and complete the AoW AP?

SPOILERS BELOW FOR AoW 1: THE WHISPERING CAIRN

Rolling for stats generated some pretty generous point buy equivalents...

We have: (will have more exact information next time)

Myself, Elf "Healer" Witch with the Healing Hex, Viper familiar, Plague patron. Very high stats (lowest is my Cha at 12) due to lucky dice.

Human "Archer" Witch, with Ward Hex, unknown familiar, unknown patron. Heirloom Weapon: Composite Longbow makes a LOT of difference at 1st level.

Human "Blaster" Witch, with Healing Hex, Raven familiar, Elements patron. Our savior when encountering swarms.

Half-orc "Melee" Witch, with Cauldron Hex, Monkey familiar, Strength patron. Our "Tank"

Halfling "Rogue" Witch, with Disguise Hex, Compsagnathus familiar, Deception (I believe) Patron. Our stealthy, searchy, rogue-replacement for now.

Our GM is a fairly longterm player in our group, but is coming back behind the screen after a 4-5 year GM hiatus. I thank him & relish the chance to play for once.

Moving down the hall, searching as we go My Elf has a total of +10 Perception, Low-Light Vision, and a Waterproofed Bullseye Lantern. At least 3 other characters have Dancing Lights or Light as cantrips prepared. We are not hurting for any of the things adventurers may need in a dungeon, such as rope, oil, pitons, climbing kits, reach weapons, 10' poles, ranged weapons, and food.

Playing with everyone being smart (lowest Int is 15, I believe) and generally ready for anything, a la 1ed dungeon crawls, is a welcome change for our group.

Our first encounter with some wolves progressed fairly easily. This is likely due to our extensive "Adventurer Preparation" and could have been achieved with any group of PC's. Longspears readied to receive a charge, Enlarge Person on Melee Witch, and readied ranged attacks from Archer & Rogue (arrow & sling bullets, respectively) prevented anyone from being seriously hurt. Melee took a bit of damage, but we easily patched him up via Healing Hex.

Much of the area provided similar challenges, until the spinning sarcophagus room and its beetle swarms. Here, after figuring out about the spinning dais and its role in opening the chambers, we got our first near-death experience. The acidbeetle swarm & bombardier beetle nearly ended Blaster's career early.

Swarmed by the acid beetles, Blaster managed to get one Burning Hands off before falling unconscious. I brought him back to his feet, just in time to see him go down again, nommed on by beetles. Archer had also prepared a Burning Hands, which was used to good effect, despite toasting Blaster as well.

Finally, Rogue managed to land a flask of oil on the swarm before Blaster got to go again. I patched him up via Hero Point casting Cure Light Wounds again, and he knocked the swarm out with his second (and last) Burning Hands spell. We got a Pearl of Power and some Cure Light Wounds potions (pearl used to regain Burning Hands immediately), and proceeded to search/open all the remaining chambers.

We didn't fall for the gust of wind - knock you off a 40' cliff trap, nor did any of us feel inclined to climb into a cylindrical chamber filled with crushed up bones. In hindsight, those were both good decisions.

The second beetle room went much smoother - Rogue managed to land a flask of oil right off the bat, and Blaster Nat-20/Nat-20'd an Alchemist Fire to end the threat.

Before we stopped for the night, we had managed to clear out an underwater cavern, recover both missing Rainbow Lanterns, kill an undead critter, kill a water elemental, and find a stone-blocked chamber. After resting in the sarcophagus room, we proceeded to the stone-blocked chamber, tipped the stone over, and triggered some kind of gas-discharge trap in that room.

We ended there for the night.

Notes:

Level 1 is tough without any armor-wearing and big-weapon wielding brutes. Melee witch, with his greataxe and potions, really put a hurting on a few critters (killing both the Ghoul and Water Elemental with minimal assistance from Blaster via Acid Splash), while the rest of us nickel-and-dime'd enemies with our slings, longspears, and similar.

Heirloom Weapon means a dedicated archer can be doling out 1d8+Str right from the start. Our Archer was routinely hitting for 1d8+4 (+2 Str, +1 Point Blank Shot, +1 Trait from Heirloom Weapon). Once my PC gets his hands on a similar weapon, we'll be doing pretty well for ranged attacks.

Cantrips can rock. Dancing Lights on 3 PC's meant we could leave specific lit spots (like green lights in a 4-square pattern at the entrance to the underwater room, providing a definite "go here to get out" message to Melee). When combined with our other light sources, we didn't have to worry about shadowy illumination, getting lost in the dark, or anything similar.

Healing Hex on 2 PC's, as well as my Cure Light Wounds spells, allowed us to proceed, despite having about 5 combat encounters in a single day (Wolves, Beetles, Elemental, Ghoul, More Beetles) and some damaging trap stuff (exploding sarcophagus when we forced it open).

Hero Points, like usual, meant the difference between dead PC's and just barely successful PC's. We started with 3 (1/2 lvl +3, rounded down), and will be continuing as such, resetting them when we level.

Finally, since we didn't have to spend much GP on weapons & armor, we had almost all the necessary stuff to adventure in a generally safe manner. At one point, we had to climb a 40' wall, and 4 of us pulled out hemp rope, knotted for climbing with grappling hooks attached. Prepared adventurers are alive adventurers, after all. Having plenty of oil and fire sources allowed us to deal with those swarms, as well (I started w/ 5 flasks, Rogue with 4, and Blaster with 10).

We will see just how the "Power of the Witch" plays out in further adventuring. Will be starting a Campaign Journal with this information re-posted, if you're interested in following along.

Just a quick question as to the status on this order.

I know the Conflict game is not a Paizo product, so was wondering if that was the hold up.

Thanks for your time.

Of course, it isn't simply homebrew campaigns I break by just deciding not to go along with the ridiculous working of other minds. Our DM for Rise of the Runelords kind of had to make up how an encounter would play out on the fly after we decided to set a crazy ass ambush instead of bursting in and fighting headlong.

In our Serpent's Skull campaign, our party of Level 2 PC's takes on the mid-boss encounter, pretty heavily outgunned. By a stroke of luck, we've all created Stealth capable characters with some very interesting Illusion tricks.(Ranger, Rogue, Wizard, Witch, and Bard)

Long story short, we were able to "pull" the guards, in small groups, onto the jungle path (which they normally control completely) and get the jump on them. This was thanks to some clever positioning and a Silent Image spell. Sleep, Color Spray, and a Lucerne Hammer did what they do best from there. We proceeded to take that camp apart, bit by bit, with successive "come & get me, hit & fade" type assaults, despite being pretty heavily out-gunned and out-numbered.

Another party had a Diviner wizard who completely played up the "Paranoid Mastermind" role. I was DM'ing this campaign, and it was all I could do to stay on top of his antics.

So, what are your nastiest, most successful ambush setups, spell combinations, and off-the-rails producing moments?

Travel Journal, Day 22

Boy, oh boy, was that a bad night. These marginal notations in my spellbook will have to suffice until I can get another full size writing journal. Thank Sivanah for my waterproof travel bag.

At least we woke up, there's that to be thankful for, I guess.

As best as I can piece together, the 10 of us left are the only survivors of the Jenivere's shipwreck.

Foggerton Brasshammer, Elian Falconsflight, Meekra, Ginnie Weasley, Gelik Aberwhinge, Aerys Mavato, Ishirou, Sasha Neva, Jask Derindi, and myself all found ourselves on the beach this morning. Poor Meekra woke up to find some euryterids trying to gnaw on her toe bones.

Luckily, she kept a blade up her sleeve, and was able to stab the one off her while Foggerton Brasshammer and I tried to assist. Blinding Rays don't work on these things, I think they don't really use their eyes to see. Arrows, however, seem to work just fine. Foggerton Brasshammer shot two of them, and no one got really hurt, thank the gods.

Once we checked out everyone, and figured out we were stuck on some little island called Smuggler's Shiv, we started putting together a plan to survive. Everyone is fairly nice, thankfully, and with a bit of logic and flirting, we were able to get everyone to agree we have to stick together. Ishirou, Sasha Neva, Gelik Aberwhinge, and Aerys Mavato all want stuff from the island or nearby shipwrecks. Once we freed Jask Derindi from his manacles, he also promised to help out. Having an honest-to-goodness Cleric will help so very much.

We split up there a bit, with our "home team," consisting of Sasha Neva, Jask Derindi, Gilek Aberwhinge, Aerys Mavato and Ishirou, in charge of getting a shelter, securing the perimeter, and trying to secure some more foodstuffs. The "away team," consisting of Elian Falconsflight, Foggerton Brasshammer, Ginnie Weasley, Meekra, and myself, suited up and went off to salvage what we could from the Jenivere.

On board, we found another, bigger euryteridid, which we stabbed to death super fast. We also found the bodies of Alton Devers and Rambar Terillo. The first mate had been stabbed with a rapier and also stung by those sea scorpion things, while the cook appeared to have been bitten by a big poisonous snake. Saddened, we still thanked them both for helping us out, and took everything we could carry.

That amounted to canvas sheets, fishing nets, bullseye lanterns, 12 flasks of oil, some shovels, a block & tackle, some 150' of rope (Foggerton Brasshammer was super happy about the rope), keys (including the key to the manacles we took off Jask Derindi), several sea charts and maps, some pricey brandy (Foggerton Brasshammer claimed that), a bottle with a tiny carved Jenivere inside, and a coffer with 350 gp in it. There were even Alton Dever's masterwork armor and shortsword.

We also found the emergency supply kit, with potions of Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, Remove Disease, Water Breathing,andWater Walking, and Jask Derindi's gear. I made sure we gave back Jask Derindi's stuff (minus the potions, because we were likely to need them soon), as soon as he asked for it.

We piled the whole bunch into the broken lifeboat and dragged it back to camp. The home team had done good in our absence, with food cooked, a fire made, shelters prepared, and everyone in fairly good spirits. I hope we can keep up this camaraderie, since sad and angry humans are often the most dangerous kind of animal.

In my ongoning Kingmaker campaign, I have been using the Graul Clan of Ogrekin as recurring villains, mostly to get some more of the excellent Hook Mountain Massacre adventure in, but also to give me an opportunity to use the new playtest classes with "Throwaway" NPC's who still have some story-pull with my group.

This Sunday, we'll be continuing into Blood for Blood. I was planning on using a Bard-reformatted Crowfood to help guide the Troll Army in the attack against Tatzlford.

Instead, they're gonna get to meet "Da Sheriff," an Advanced Ogrekin Gunslinger 9, along with the as-written Trolls.

Any mistakes / suggestions / comments?

I will make sure to post the results here, as well as in my Campaign Journal, A Bandit King Arises!

Party Details, short form:

Ganon, Half-Elf Infernal Sorcerer
Artemis, Human Druid (Growth Domain)
Brunner, Human Oracle of Life
Hestia, Human Barbarian (Elemental Rage focused)
Rilani, Human Cavalier (Order of the Cockatrice)
Altrum, Half-Orc Oracle 1/Cleric of Pharasma
->Hal, Cohort Human Fighter

All are Level 9, and very well geared / optimized (mostly due to the GP/Time available KM allows for self-crafting PC's.

Edit: Signature Deed Requires Gunslinger Level 11, so that's out...Extra Grit, it is

Howdy...

Starting a few one-off style games in the near future, and came up with a (i think) viable Mr. Hyde/Dr. Jekyll alchemist.

Another few sets of eye/brain pairs looking it over wouldn't go amiss.

(stats were 4d6, GP standard + 1k extra for consumables. at our table, craft feats mean half-cost stuff at CharGen for games like these.)

Any obvious mistakes / illegal combinations?

Thanks for taking a look (and double checking my maths!)

Google Docs Link

So for this Sunday, one of our regular players is throwing a one-shot Halloween Fun-Time Adventure.

We're all ECL 15, and have probably at least 2 vampires. No idea on the others' class choices, though.

General plot outline: We are the Evil Barons being beset by do-gooders. We have to go dispatch them.

My thoughts for fun characters to play:

Ghast Necromancer. Lots of fun corpsecrafting tricks, could probably pull off the Mother Cyst Exploding Flood Swarm if I set my mind to it.
Second plus: when is playing a Wizard not fun?

Mummy Lord (probably not a cleric).
Big plus: it's right out of the book, math is very easy and choices seem obvious.
Second draw: playing a druid or non-cleric Mummy Lord...some melee / sneaky class, perhaps?

Ghost Master of the Unseen Hand. Something I've always wanted to see played.
Cons: kinda one-trick-pony. Could get really creative with TK objects, though...

Alice: Human Alienist, simply a little girl lost amonst all this craziness...in reality, Wis 8 Int 30 mastermind of the huge sacrifice over yonder.

Wererat Sleuth. Wears a beret, carries a .45 (or maybe a .44 mag), sneaks around and turns up what you don't want found out. Rogue or Ranger (perhaps multiclass or something tricksy.

Franken-Fighter. Awakened Flesh Golem (CR 8 right there) with some melee class levels.
Plus: Easy to run at the table, can do the Herman Munster jokes all night long.
Extra Plus: 3.5 means Bo9S, so Warblade or Swordsage Frank becomes a possibility...

I honestly can't decide, and don't want to put off the stat-blocking (I have a feeling it's gonna take a while...out of 3.5 practice badly...)

Rules are: 4d6, reroll 1's, best 3 for stats.
All 3.5ed stuff is fair game.
ECL 15
No extraplanar stuff
Must be Halloween-Themed.

any suggestions or pitfalls or sample builds would be fantastic, as would a quick run-down of the CR/ECL/Monsters as PC's guidelines for 3.5 would be greatly appreciated.

Let's hear it? What Halloween Monster would you be? How would you stat em up?

Will be throwing a couple playtest challenges this weekend, just looking for some suggestions for decent challenges.

So far, I'm thinking:

4 PC Party, one of which is definitely Magus.

Level 1-2

Challenges:

CR1: 3 Human Skeletons
2 Orc Warriors
Spider Swarm

CR 2: Faerie Dragon
2 Lizardfolk
Medium Shark

CR 3: Ogre
Monstrous Scorpion
Fire Mephit

CR 4: Owlbear
Wyrmling Green Dragon
Satyr

CR 5: Green Hag
Manticore
Megaraptor

As individual encounters, I plan on running 3-4 of each CR level per simulated "day" of adventure, likely escalating in difficulty. I expect the solo-monster types to fair worse than the pairs do.

Still need to come up with good Mid and High level challenges - perhaps APL 7-8 and APL 15-16?

Those will take some more engineering, I fear.

So the Druid in my KM game has directly challenged Erastil in game.

His champions will be Ashitaka, Princess Mononoke, and their respective mounts/friends (wolves & elk).

I'm thinking ranger for Ashitaka & Druid/Fighter (or ranger, or barbarian) for Mononoke herself.

Any other suggestions?

In case you're unfamiliar with the film, Google search any of the proper names easily enough.

Thanks

Sparked from the "Party Design Coordination" thread, it seems that a lot of people suggest the "healer" role and the Cleric class are unneeded in a standard party.

I don't want to get into a discussion of "action economy" or what makes an effective character.

Rather, what do you do (as DM or player) when noone has access to Restoration, Heal, or Remove Disease (say, in a party of Wizard/Rogue/Fighter/...other wizard)?

There are some get-around tricks possible, with Summon or Call spells available to arcane casters, or natural healing, or just dealing with negative levels or ability damage.

But what happens when the party is in a dungeon, or out in the wilderness, and someone catches Mummy Rot? Or triggers a trap on the way into the dungeon (which they really SHOULD clear out, whether through plot reasons or because the enemies inside will only get worse with time) and suffers whole bunches of ability damage on the 1st trap in the place?

Do you just let the chips lie where they fall, and the next group comes better prepared? Do you avoid using things like Shadows or Ability Damage traps/monsters? Do you add in an NPC Cleric who follows along and throws free cures at the party?

For my part (I have a player who loves playing Clerics, so it's a moot point most of the time), I refuse to run NPC's for the party. It's my job as DM to keep track of monsters, NPC's, the world, the plot, and the maps/minis. I will not add on another level of complication, solely to make your adventuring easier.

Also, I do not avoid particular types of encounters simply because they will be difficult. In Savage Tide, one PC was a Cleric/Radiant Servant. There are a bunch of Undead encounters in that path, especially during the 2nd to last book - they became non-encounters with that PC at the table, but I didn't avoid their inclusion. Why would I go the other way?

So, what do you do?

From the personal journal & ledgers of Oleg Leveton

Gozren 30:

Ganon says they're friends now, and they're gonna listen, but you never know...once a bandit, and all that.

So I'm running a one-off adventure this weekend, for 18th level 3.5ed "anything goes" characters.

My players are pretty good optimizers, so I'm not really worried about how well they'll do against my metroids, space pirates, Ridley, Kraid, and etc...

The problem herein: What to do with Samus.

Obviously, if I'm running a Metroid Prime based game, I can't simply ignore her. I don't want to kill her off, or have her be a prisoner, either, so that left me with "NPC Participant"

Basically, they'll encounter her about halfway through the adventure, right as they fight a big old Metroid for the first time.

So....how to stat her out.

Basics: CR 18, needs to stay humanoid in general, Medium, and not break the WBL guidelines. Also: no flight, no wielded melee weapons, and definite use of the Power Beam, preferably with Ice, Plasma, and Missile fire as well.

So far, I'm thinking a specialized Warlock, bumping the HD to d8/d10, Full BAB, good Ref & Fort Saves, 2+int skills (with ranger-style list), and thats about it.

Suit garners life support (nonfunctional in the adventure til the end..thus why she's still here), increased jumping, wicked AC/DR, extra sensory stuff (darkvision/thermal vision for sure... possibly a variant "detect Phazon" mode), and the Blaster itself.

For the Blaster, I was thinking of just porting over the Warlock's Eldritch Blast (9d6/attack, standard action, range 200') or possibly as a Large Longbow, allowing for the rapid-fire lower individual damage attack. Perhaps a combination of the 2, where rapid fire allows for individual targeting and suppressive fire, and "super beam" delivers one big punch after some charge time.

Ice Beam, Missiles, and the Grapple Beam I plan on having stashed around the adventure area, just ready to be picked up. Each of them can be used individually by non-Samus PC's, but can be integrated into her armor for optimum usage.

The only other thing would be Energy Tanks...I was figuring they'd be like a "Contingent Heal" or "Healing Pact" type effect. Hit 0 HP, they kick off, delivering some amount of HP to the imbiber.

So, any thoughts? Problems or issues with the above?

I have 4e stats for Space Pirates, Metroids, and the bosses, would LOVE if someone had already made up 3.5 or PF style baddies, otherwise I'll be reverse engineering those 4e critters by hand.

-t

This came up in another thread, and rather than derail that one any further, I thought it would be interesting to see where the community stands.

The question is simple: How does one "Win" at DnD, PFRPG, or any other tabletop RPG game?

In my opinion, this is like asking "Where can I buy oranges?" when playing Monopoly, or "When do I level up?" when playing Texas Hold'em.

The idea that there is a set "win condition" in the game, other than "having fun playing" is alien to my concept of the game. Some of the most fun times we've had were completely non-combat, non-encounter type of sessions. We talked in character, cracked jokes, and made up funny voices (and horrible accents) that night. If dice were rolled, it was a very minor part of the evening.

We have also had plenty of combat-heavy, dice-rolling-crazy dungeon crawl type sessions. One is not "better" than the other, merely different ways to spend a few hours amongst friends.

For me, the definition of the genre lies in the Roleplaying aspect, rather than the Game aspect. You take on the character of someone you are not, who is usually capable of amazing and unusual abilities, or possessing some extraordinary set of skills/equipment/etc.

Through your imagination and creativity, you interact with other people who are pretending to be others, and tell a collaborative story with them. The best ones involve the whole table, everyone buying into the illusion and helping one another to achieve their personal goals/desires.

So, no matter if you do 100hp of damage per swing, or have the exact right combination of feats/powers/skills/spells to waltz through each and every combat encounter the DM generates, or stand back and swing your whip while inspiring courage, if you are having fun, you win at DnD.

There exists, somehow, this idea that Higher Level/Higher Power > Lower Level/Lower Power, and that equation follows for amount of fun. That is to say, if you are not playing the most powerful character at the table (or theoretically possible), you are not capable of having fun. That idea is alien to me.

So, what say you, Paizonans? Is there a way to "Win" at DnD? Can you quantify the amount of fun to be had in any particular class/combo? Is someone wrong for playing a Fighter/Barbarian/Monk/Bard?

Inquiring minds want to know!

-t

As the title suggests, I am interested in seeing how other DM's adjudicate this level of NPC / Monster activity.

The Paizo people, thankfully, have incorporated a Morale section in most (if not all) of their stat blocks. This reads something like "If reduced to less than 30 HP, Boss-dude will retreat to area F7" or "The fanatic cultists fight to the death."

Now, the question arises: Do you follow these guidelines? Do you have every single critter opposing the PC's be fanatical/enraged/mindless and attack until brought to unconsciousness? Do you have baddies break and run when faced with obviously overpowering PC's?

For me, I try to have the bad guys react in a logical, consistent manner. Ogres, Orcs, and Trolls, as described in their entries, are crude, stupid, and prone to rages. They typically fight until they can no longer stand (with Orc Ferocity, that gets a little tricky sometimes.)

Other, more "stable" monsters, like Bugbears, Hobgoblins, or Boggards, will typically flee if more than half their numbers fall, or they witness at least one or two PC's able to "one-shot" them. They don't want to die, of course. If able, they will typically try to cover one another in a fighting retreat, but a general rout is also possible.

Humans (and by extension the other "demi-human" races) are a little bit trickier. Here, the individual NPC's character and morale counts for more than his race. Is she a sneaky, conniving rogue, out for her own and that's it? Is he a big, beefy fighter-guy convinced of his own invulnerability? With the AP's and other modules, it's great to have this stuff written in. For homebrew stuff, chalk up one more choice to make.

In a recent game (CoT AP, I will try to avoid any spoilers), the PC's engaged a large group of human rogues, with some Giant and Ogre backup. The PC's themselves brought in some assistance, more to destabilize the camp rather than provide actual in-combat assistance. At the end of the fight, however, some 12 rogues had been Blinded (some permanently) and subdued with great ease by the party's cleric (Sunbeams, BTW).

I had those 12 surrender (stuck in the forest, they can hear their Giant-buddy bite it, they just saw their Ogre backup go out in a Fireball in one shot, blind, offered a chance to survive...) and swear to follow the cleric's teachings. Basically, he was able to "recruit" a new bunch of mooks for the PC's side. Nothing else seemed to make sense, at the time.

So, the question is out there: DM's, how often do your baddies retreat/surrender to the party? If they do, how do you handle the aftermath, and if they don't, why not?

-t

This thread is dedicated to the Heroic (or un-Heroic) escapades of your Party, PC, DM, or what have you.

Nice, dramatic, intense combaty fun times that you'd like to share.

Last night, we ran through most of Howl of the Carrion King. Not to spoil the whole adventure, but we fought gnolls. A bunch of them.

On the way back from a "haunted" waterfall, we assault a small, ruined fortress with 8 or 10 gnolls and flinds inside. Sneaking up to javelin and Alchemist bomb range, we start exploding gnolls. I (Gnome Paladin) Smite a flind, and the fight's on.

We killed all 8 regular gnolls, and both flinds, in the process almost losing our Cleric/Monk/Bard. The Alchemist's bombs and increased splash damage was the key there, as the enemies bunched up to be exploded.

Flinds are nasty, though, especially when they can dodge around to engage your squishy spellcasters.

Later on, after clearing most of Kelmarene SWAT style, we hop up on this stage-thingy. Bad idea, it turns out. Big baddie up top starts yelling about intruders, offering a bounty for our heads, and the buggers swarm us.

An Ogre, several Bugbears, and wave after wave of Gnolls assault us, but we hold firm. The Witch threw Web and Fog Cloud, blocking LoS and movement to most of the 2nd and 3rd wave of mooks, while we chopped limbs, heads, and blew everyone up.

Highlights include:

a Nat-20 Crit on the Ogre with a 2d6+5 Alchemist Bomb. I'm pretty sure he failed the Ref to not catch on fire as well.

Witch's Cat ran around in our first fight, patching everyone up with CLW spells. (Channelling touch spells)

The whole Battle Market shebang took 2 hours, of an 8 hr session, to run. At the end of the night, we had killed some 36 gnolls, 3-4 flinds, a harpy, some snakes and

I may be missing some bodies in there, but we didn't lose anyone permanently. I thought it was an awesome and well-written adventure so far, and we seem to be keeping pace with the Plot vs. Combat vs. Resources game rather well.

Just for reference, our party consists of:
Gnomish Paladin
Halfling Witch
Human Alchemist
Human Cleric/Monk/Bard -taking more cleric levels for now...

Dish out the dirt, ya'all

-t

it's happened to everyone sooner or later. my group has chosen sooner, it would appear.

This is the story, so as not to threadjack the

Obit's Thread with the gory details.

Yes, I did just ambush 6 lvl 6 PC's with a Lvl 8 "boss" and 5 lvl 6 mooks. There's a perfectly justified reason, and that goes:

The party, having successfully navigated the dungeon in Book 2, decide to go BACK to the party, rather than home. Jackson the Bard, under the effect of SERIOUS wis and int damage (Wis 6-7 and int <10, and in possession of a fairly powerful evil weapon.

Now, if you read my Campaign Journal [/shameless plug] you would know Jackson is not in the most stable of mindsets. Thrown in with crazy revolutionaries, a couple of insane, powerful Gnomes, and a lizard Paladin, Jackson's world has been rocked. Going through such mental torture, combined with (i think it was Doc's idea first, but may have been mine) an attempted compulsion to kill drove him to desperate measures.

He attacked the Mayor, in front of about a dozen noble witnesses, with a red, glowing glaive. That started a fight where everyone ran away, the PC's and Mayor barely escaped with their lives.

However, that left me with a conundrum: What to do with a power-mad party who LOVES to optimize and trounce the encounters as written (note: Paladin has AC 26 or 27, without a shield, at level 6, hits like a ton of bricks. Mages destroy anything flammable, and Evan heals 10-20 to everyone, every round, at least. These are not amateurs.)

So far, they've encountered an Alchemist with Fighter mooks, and Inquisitor with Fighter mooks, and a Cavalier with Ranger mooks.

They plan on continuing through the rest of the AP (at least in a general fashion) and we've just now reached the Ruins of Aberian's Folly in The Infernal Syndrome.

I plan on posting all the stat blocks in my CJ, and the tallies of wins...er...kills in the Obits.

So, any other off the rails type AP fun yet? Any crazy toss-in type NPC's? Anything fun or weird with which to populate the unexplored parts of Westrcrown?

-t

This past Friday, 12/5/09, I ran 5 friends through the Fort Rannick section of Hook Mountain Massacre. For the unfamiliar, lots of ogres in a smallish fort in the mountains.

The party consisted of:

Dwarven Cavalier
Halfling Oracle
Human Witch
Gnome Summoner
Elven Rogue (I would have used another APG class, but there wasn't enough, nor a good replacement for the rogue yet)

All characters were built by me, with a 15 pt buy and the standard 7th lvl gear (some 20k or so).

I will have more detailed build info later, but do not have the sheets with me ATM.

Here are general thoughts/observations of the 7th lvl Cavalier and Oracle. First up, the stand-in healer, the Oracle.

For this test, I picked a Wind focused Oracle, and went Halfling for the Cha boost, AC boost, and Save Bonus. Favored class went into HP.

Spellwise, I found it a bit easier than with a Sorcerer to pick spells. The Focus Bonus spells are a nice touch (would have loved to see a Healing Focus, but I am sure it will come up eventually) and having the whole Cleric list made for some tough choices. Eventually, I grabbed the Cure Wounds line, some other buff spells, and loaded up on scrolls.

I deliberately chose the healer role, as no other divine caster was intended. If there had been a cleric, the more offensive spells would have probably been more attractive. The oracle held her own healing, though. Those Ogre Barbarians and Fighters hit for a ton, and she was right up there popping off Cure Serious and Cure Criticals when necessary.

It helped to have 3 full CLW wands in the party, but most groups would have SOMETHING similiar.

Offensively, the Oracle swung her morningstar once, i believe, and with no zap or SoD spells, she stuck by the Cavalier and healed his wounds (him, or the Rogue.) Skillwise, she fared as I would expect a Cleric, doing decent with Spellcraft and Perception, and not having anything else that came into play. Having Appraise would have been nice, but that was an oversight on my part (entire party without Appraise, and almost all of em had Detect Magic somehow. D'oh!)

The player loved the class, as she enjoys both healing and spontaneous casting. I found the class the 2nd easiest to create (Rogue was 1st, as I've played those in PF several times now) and intuitively grasp. I'd rate him right up there with Sorcerer (Focus = Bloodline, Arcane Magic Offense offset by d8 HD, 3/4 BAB, and 2 good saves) and with some more Foci he'll really shine.

Next up, the Cavalier!

We began our newest PF AP Adventure this past Sunday, namely The Bastards of Erebus, Council of Thieves Pt. 1

Personae Dramatis:

Jackson Friendly, Wiscrani Human Male Bard. He of the high initiative and little action-taking.
Evan Fuzzyfeet, Wandering Halfling Male Cleric of Sarenrae. He of rock-throwing and healing-power wielding.
Nuella Fitzwizzlesprocle,Wiscrani Gnome Female Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline). She of the ever-changing hair color and seemingly limitless Color Sprays
Job, Wiscrani (nee Crusading) Human Male Paladin of Iomedae. He of the sad-faced power attack and Holy Smiting with a rifle.
]Dr. Master Veatrix Magnus Dumptruck Ellypen Rae Chief, Esq. Homeless Bleachling Gnome Female Evoker. She of the ridiculous and the resident Doctor of Confabulation. Doesn't believe in the bleaching, despite looking like an albino WoW addict.

Act the First, Where Random Adventurers form a Party:

The party receives their invitation to dinner via various and sundry means. Job receives a sealed invitation from a young member of the Iomedaen community center, Jackson is approached openly on the street while en route to his next public speaking appointment. Dr. Veatrix received an early morning visit in her alleyway crash spot; the offer of free dinner and possibly a place to sleep were all it took.

Evan and Nuella seemed very afraid of the tall, confident Janiven, and almost fled her approach. Again, the offer of food, drink, and possibly a crash spot appealed to the small folk greatly.

Once there, some good Sense Motive checks told Job and Nuella that Janiven was worried while she went on with her speech/sales-pitch. After her impassioned plea for rebellion, the night quickly fell apart, especially for Jackson and his nice clothes. The Hellknights approaching and their new "friend" seemingly ready to flee, the party accompanies Janiven and Morosino through the secret passage and on into the sewers. (Happily, the Gnomes, Halfling, and Paladin seem quite eager to make snap decisions and follow through on them. This is a welcome change from our usual "hem and haw about everything" method of play.)

Now in the architecturally impressive Wiscrani Sewer System, Janiven quickly doles out potions, instructions, and advice. She then requests leave from the party, believing that her stealth and speed will be better suited to getting Morosino out alive than to hanging around the party (thanks go out to Thom for biting at the relatively easy dangling "lose the NPC" hook :) ). The party sets out and quickly comes across an abandoned storage room with a few pieces of door still blocking the entrance.

The door taken care of readily, Job is now staring at 8 little jelly-bean shaped bugs the size of his hand. Scenting fresh meat, they swarm him. Of course, the Bard rolls 1st in the order, electing to do nothing as he is around the corner and unable to see anything. The Torbles soon fall to longsword/dagger/evoker's missile attacks, but not before scoring a Nat-20/Nat-20 critical on poor Job for a whopping 4 damage!

Having taken stock of the situation, the party progresses through the twists and turns of the sewers before hearing the footsteps of armored men coming round the corner. This is the start of something silly, as the Sorcerer with Max'd out Perception (Draconic Bloodline, remember) not only hears them coming, but has the movement to get into a corner and await the hapless armigers. Once initiative starts, the torchbearing armigers walk directly into an ambush, with Nuella stepping out from cover and hosing them down with a Color Spray. (Gnome, SF: Illusion, decent Cha means DC 18, maybe 17. Armigers have will saves of -1.) There is some stabbing of unconsious dudes before the Paladin move-action Detect Evil's, noting they are NOT, in fact, evil. After that, almost all armigers were simply rendered unconscious and nude, being left in closets, doorways, and the like.

Highlights of the rest of the mighty Sewer Dungeon Crawl include:

-The goblin rogue manages to surprise Jackson, getting a Nat-20 on the poor bard. Of course, I then roll less than 5 to confirm the critical. Damage was 1d4-1+1d6 Sneak Attack. I rolled 2 1's, yielding in a small scratch instead of a gushing neck wound. Said goblin took a Smite Evil rifle round in the back as he fled, becoming so much more flotsam in the sewer channels.

-Another set of armigers, this group attempting to flank the party with a goblin patrol, takes a color spray to the face, making the 3 foot tall giggling Gnome the current holder of "most kills". That goblin patrol, meanwhile, managed to do some small damage on the paladin before it was healed. They then took many longsword wounds, with 1 managing to flee beyond Job's bullseye lantern's radius.

-In a small office, the party found a group of Skeletons, armed with mining picks and wearing hard hats. Dr. Veatrix quickly claimed one as her own (the hardhat) and has been stuffing things underneath to provide for a proper fit. In the same room, the desk turned out to be trapped with a Burning Hands spell, charring the good Dr.'s hands (again) and destroying the bits of paper-based treasure inside.

-Towards the end of the dungeon, in the multi-channel room with 4 exits, the party sees a strangely glowing rectangular archway. Oddly shaped for the area, it radiated Evocation and Transmutaion magic to the Detect Magic wielders, while producing a transparent, smooth, hard to the touch barrier across the doorway. Beyond the portal, all they could tell was that there was a faint shimmering in the halls and a decided lack of organic material. An educated guess put the spell effect as a Wall of Force, and while a brief discussion of "Can we mine through the surrounding walls?" came up, the threat of Hellknight reprisal was considered too great.

-As a final encounter before exiting the sewers, the party came across 3 brain-eating zombies, intent on devouring the newcomers despite having just finished off 3 Hellknight armigers. With a few Channel Energies and some fancy longsword work (seriously, +6 to hit at level 1, with 1d8+6 damage per swing is nothing to sneeze at) they went down without incident. The victorious heroes managed to escape the dungeon and the Hellknight patrols, making it to the abandoned temple of Aroden in the northern Spera.

I was playing pretty fast and loose with the encounters, adding bits here and there, setting up various maps as I went. Having the maps pre-generated on 1” grid paper helped a LOT, especially as I colored the sewer channels green. Overall impression of this adventure: Lots of fun, and a fast-pace to begin!

On to the talky bits!

Act the Second, Where an Adventuring Party becomes a Political Movement:

The party, now safely ensconced with their erstwhile friend Janiven, begins to introduce and be introduced to the growing group of dissidents. Evan and Nuella take quite well to Yakupulio, the meth-smoking, fast-talking, atheist barkeep/pimp. I expect much trouble to come from them later.

Fiosa and Sclavo gravitate towards Job, but his grumpy demeanor and Eeyore voice may well drive them from him. At least, may drive Fiosa away. Sclavo and Job seem well suited for one another, and I forsee much “Second Fiddling” from the wannabe Paladin.

Tarvi tried to talk with the good Dr. Veatrix, but she really is in a world of her own. Smart beyond compare (at least amongst this group) but hopelessly out of her mind, Doc is not the kind to really know she has friends for a while. I look forward to this relationship playing out.

Jackson spent his time chatting politely and trying to determine just what he had gotten into, finally grabbing a bottle of wine and sulking in a corner. Unfortunately, the Gnomes did not help his mood with their cartwheels, giggles, and all around rambunctiousness.

During the evening, the party shot down pretty much any and all suggestions for names, finally settling on “Heroes Against Lawful Opression” or HALO, for short. I think they need to play some new videogames, honetly, but the name is kind of catchy. Also, this was one of the best inter-party RP sessions I have seen in a LONG time. Most of the time, I have to spur this kind of thing on, but I managed to keep my mouth shut and let them do their own thing. As it unfolded, I was rewarded with one of the funniest things I have seen in a decade and a half of RP'ing.

While discussing the new “uniform” of HALO, the subject of masks came up. Now, Dr. V is being played by a rather animated person, one who consistently RP's quite well. Dr. V is taking notes all the while, trying to get everyone to call themselves some form of equation or other, or adding Force to all the suggestions thrown out already. When someone mentions wearing a mask to disguise their identity, Christa (Dr. V's player) calmly rips a sheet out of the notebook she is scribbling in (while her PC does the same) and stabs 2 holes through the paper. She grabs an elastic headband from somewhere and presto, has a serviceable mask with which to disguise herself. I couldn't stop laughing, mostly because of the visceral RP'ing, but also because she kept the mask on. For the rest of the night. When someone made disparaging comments about Gnomes, she pulled it off, drew a frown on it, and threw it right back on. The two Gnomes kept changing the expression in game with obvious Prestidigitation illusions, and the mask IRL, eventually gained eyebrows, a teardrop, and some other cosmetic additions.

Seriously, the match up of PC and Player action was so perfect I gave her bonus XP. And the fact that she kept it on despite eating, drinking, and the like for the night was awesome!

The new members of HALO finally settle in, get places for themselves in the temple, and sack out.

I awarded them some 2100 XP's for everything so far, and the next day dawned on shiny new Level 2 PC's

Act the Third, Where the Authority is Shown the True Power of Color:

Armed with the knowledge of Arael's (known as the “Mermaid”) transportation, the party sets up an ambush, borrowing horses from uncle Gorvio and following the adventure's plan with a slight discrepancy: Job plans on hiding himself in a small copse some 200' south of the bridge and will charge down the rear of the carriage guards with a lance.
Everything proceeds flawlessly, save that Job didn't count on being quite so effective with his new mounted lance charge attack. He skewered the poor guard with something like 32 damage, well more than the 21 necessary to kill him outright. Shanwen tried his best, rolling a 4 to hit the deadly Job, and then Nuella got to go.

Readers of this journal should know what happens now: 15 foot cones of colors flash out, bad guys fall over (yes, even the cleric) fight is over. With the key from Shanwen and all the weapons and potions they can carry, the party frees Arael, who bluffs the party into believing they have the wrong guy. They grab him anyways, with the rule of “no witnesses” and ride off into the dust, leaving just the 1 dead armiger. They also left all the armor, the wagon and horseteam, believing the remaining 4 armigers would be able to mount a signinficant threat.

This is a distinct differnence from our usual style of play, which involves things like crowbars, extradimensional spaces, and extra-large mounts, just to make sure we can carry ALL the loot. A difference, but a pleasing one for me

On the retun of the horses, Team HALO runs into Thesing Umbero Ulvauno, the pompous local singing celebrity. With truly horrible Knowledge: Local rolls, no-one has heard of him; his strident tone and self-important attitude do not endear him to the group, to say the least. In the middle of a tirade, Evan casts Create Water, soaking the blowhard with a couple gallons of water. Just as he's getting geared up to deliver an ear-splitting and thesauraus-referring retort, the giggling cute little Nuella steps up and ...you gussed it...Color Spray. Down goes the nuisance, down goes the party's chance of a peaceful interaction with him, and off goes the party. Exeunt, and curtain.

Act the Fourth, Where Bastards receive their Comeuppance:

Having successfully reunited the pair of Janiven and Arael, HALO is ready to make strides towards the big-time. Given some time to lay low, research, craft, and train, the party really settles into the Freedom Fighter routine. Job has the NPC's training and working, Dr. V spends her time being a mad scientist and scribing scrolls. Jackson, Evan, and Nuella spend more than a little time with Yakupulio at the Bruised Eel, sharing stories, enjoying libations, and making new “friends” with the employees therein.

Once the dust has settled from the daring prison break, Arael and Janiven approach the party with a new target: The Bastards of Erebus. After some discussion as to whether it'd be better to leave them in place and use their actions to rally the people, it's decided to remove the threat. It's also decided that, since they're tieflings, no quarter should be shown or expected.

Attacking at night, the first place the party finds is the Woodcarver's House, from which issue sounds of rather vigourous lovemaking. They elect not to break in (the door is locked, and with no rogue that will become an issue rather quickly) and move towards the old Church of Erastil. Before they get too far, though, they target the Belltower Sentry with crossbow, sling, and magic missile fire, dropping him without incident. At the front door, Job “knocks” with his boot, failing to kick in the door and alerting the residents inside to their presence. Another good kicking drives the door in, revealing....darkness.

Thus begins an epic, 10-round long battle of cat-and-mouse. Dr. V. moves into the room, for some reason, and takes 3 crossbow quarrels before she can get back out. The dog himself charged the paladin, missed, and was quickly subdued for his troubles. While Jackson inspired his party, Nuella eventually broke one of the windows and Sprayed the curious tieflings who investigated. 2 succumbed to the knockout spray, but the remaining 2 put crossbow bolts through the poor Gnome, one critically. With only a few HP remaining, Nuella wisely chose to withdraw, but managed to attract enough attention in doing so to let Dr. V and Job approach the back of the room, despite the darkness. A lucky burning hands later (doing all of 1 hp to the fire resistant tieflings) and the room is lit again. 1 thug did manage to flee, however, warning the “Mummy” loudly of the intruders. The players were taken aback for a while, scared of the thought that they'd be fighting mummies at 2nd level, but taunting the thug that he'd need his Mum to assist in his fight.

Down below, the fight went similarily, damaging Job, Evan, and Dr. V rather seriously before they could get the magical artillery in the proper spot. The battle went back and forth, mostly because one thug would open the door, his allies would get a readied crossbow shot, and Evan would get his readied action to slam the door shut again. That went on for at least 3 or so rounds before they tried to grapple him (failing) and left all the thugs in a nice cone-pattern in front of the door. 2 Color Sprays later (Nuella's last for the day) and only the “Mummy” Ostengo is left facing an angry Job. He springs across the unconscious bodies of 5 thugs and delivers an 18 point longsword power attack, seperating the Mummy from his head.

After looting for a bit, Job opens the next door, is attacked by the Wolf Skeletons (who can't hit the broad side of a Paladin) and puts them down with some assitance from Evan (Magic Weapon on the Longsword followed by Aid Another actions to assist with Job's attacks).

Jackson calls to borrow Job's rifle, which he provides without question, and heads up to the belltower to loot and stand guard.

We ended the evening there, with everyone out of most of their resources (Nuella is empty and running on Cantrips, Evan has a scroll or 2 left, Job used his smite for the day, and Dr. V. has a few spells remaing. I think Jackson has about 5 or 6 rounds of inspire left and a couple of spells remaining) and in the middle of the dungeon.

They got enough XP to put them to 3800, and have the last few rooms left to deal with. They also have more crossbow bolts and studded leather armors than they could possibly need, and a bunch of dead tieflings. The plan, last I heard, was to stash the bodies in the wolf-skeleton room, and press on.

We will see in a couple of Sundays!

The quote of the game, brought to us by the irrepressible Dr. Veatrix:

With regards to the tiefling's potential treasure: “I got dibs on anything with hinges or springs!” Delivered from beneath her new bright yellow hardhat with its paper “sad face” mask.

-t

This subject came up on the "Are Evil Clerics weaker than Good Clerics?" thread, and I felt it deserved its own spot for discussion.

Simply put: who has seen Evil PC's? How have then been handled? Were they intrinsically disruptive or useless in the game? What were your favorite/most hated Evil PC or NPC moments?

In general, an open discussion on the topic of Evil (and to a lesser extent) Good PCs and their choices/actions.

For me, the most fun Evil character I've had was a Gnome Beguiler/Mindbender set in an Eberron game. His name was Dip, and he was unabashedly capable of horrible evil actions. He also was immensely likeable to everyone around, quick with a helping hand or beneficial buff spell. Several times over, he was the turning point in the party surviving or suffering a TPK.

Some examples of his callous Evil:

While exploring the undercity of Korranberg, looking for some old magical doohickey, the party encounters a party of 4 adventurers. As the party scout, I see them first, and remain unseen at the same time. I see an obvious "White Mage," a Rogue-type, a Wizard in all black, and a Fighter-type in heavy armor. Plan of attack: sneak in, kill the rogue and wizard by ambush, capture and charm the healer and fighter.

When I described the enemy party, I made sure to play up the black robes and numerous knives angle, hinting that the white robed healer-looking one may have been coerced into participating. Complete fabrications, but then thats what he did. Our attack was successful, the rogue and wizard didn't get a single shot off, the Fighter was Charmed before he knew what was happening (and told to go guard the back door) and the healer was captured. Complete success on our part, due to complete disregard for things like "intentions" "alignments of the enemy" and the like.

Later on, when I had realized the charm will wear off long before we can get back to the surface, I attempt to (not my most subtle, but I was improvising) lock the 2 of them in a magically sealed underground vault (where we just got the magic doohickey). This sparked combat, and the 2 were taken down rather quickly. I got a bunch of sideways looks for the attempted entrapment/murder, but managed to talk my way out of it.

Other highlights of subtle Evil (that the party could neither counter or even discover most of the time) were:

Betraying some subversive Gnomes to the Trust (Zilargo's version of the Secret Police...very very scary people) because we had raised some suspicions about ourselves; I was told, basically, it was them or us.

Selling a Good cleric into bondage in the cogs of Sharn, because he chose to ally with an opposing patron (dragons playing some kind of great game, with the both of us as pawns).

Spreading all kinds of rumors and propaganda about a particular crime boss / pirate captain in the Lhazar Principalities, so as to distract most of the rest of the pirates and allow us easier passage up to Riedra.

Scattering entire villages with telepathic messages of doom and gloom, again to disguise our own travels through Riedra with hordes of travelling refugees.

All the while, none of the other PLAYERS had any problem with these actions; he was quick witted, commonly loaned money, used his spells and abilities to great party effect, and in general was a really nice guy. One of the PC's, a Psion, had some general problems with some of my actions, but until I actually stabbed a villager (looking to implicate some other adventurer types, IIRC), accidentally within eyeline, there was no real inter-party-conflict.

So, bring on the stories, philosophical treatises, and mechanical manipulations of Evil.

I'm dying to hear other peoples' experiences.

-t

similar in vein, but in the opposite mode to the "CotCT Obituaries" page, here is where you can share you over the top, oh my god, WTF situations your players (or you) have pulled off.

I will start with some hijinks from last nights session, set in the middle of 7 Days to the Grave.

The party (using PFRPG ruleset) consists of:

Sam, Female Human fighter specializing in longsword, dabbling in TWF

Carson, Male Human diviner spec. in summons and crafting, loves him his wand of Magic Missile, CL 3

Kura, Female NE Cleric of Nethys...uses hand of the acolyte and turning smite to blast things with a giant hammer of doom.

Shiro, Kura's twin brother, the healing cleric of Nethys, still uses hand of the acolyte, usually to finish off something via dagger to the throat.

Yuri, Male Human TWF Rogue. my current chew toy, as he is usually at the front of the pack and has a midline AC.

While going through the opening of 7 Days, Kura decides that Brienna is Patient Zero, or the original source of the plague. With her heal skills and knowledges she figures it was somehow related to the box of coins she picked up, and starts racking her brain on how to figure out more.

Within short order, the party is underwater and smashing the poor druid to bits. Recovering all the tantalizing secrets, the party regroups, decides to follow the trail a bit longer, and goes with Cressida's missions. So far, they've identified the real bad guys, know how and around where they operate, and could go right to the end of the adventure. (some nudges by me get them to go to the other parts first...i don't want to kill them all, especially after it effectively happened already at Devargo's barge.)

When they encounter Vendra and her goons, their first reaction is to shoulder their way in while the rogue sneaks around the back. In the alley, he sees a guard with his back to him, and whacks him unprovoked with a sap. Combat ensues, and the party manages to not only take every guard but one out, they also capture Vendra alive, while not killing a single bystander or guard.

1 mission down, on to rackers alley, by way of the church of abadar.
At the alley, the on-guard spawn stealthily creeps up on the fighter, trying to dominate her and get some backup before his bro's arrive. She manages to save (rolled a 19 if i recall correctly) and the wizard (specialized diviner, remember) acts in that suprise round, casting "command undead" from his arcane bond ring. I fail my save (with a +4 or +5 will save vs. DC 17? yeah right) and they have a newly friendly vamp spawn asking who he gets to eat.

At that point, the evil cleric and wizard tag-team him with diplomacy and negative energy bursts, telling him not to resist the next one. with a massive 12-hp burst and an auto-failed will save, they have a pet vamp spawn. at that point the rest of them show up, dominates and prot-evils fly around, and they manage to defeat the remaining 3 spawn readily.

more hijinks ensue with Heinz the vamp spawn for the rest of the night.
-t

Hello,

I received the order today, thanks for the rapid shipping.

However, Munchkin 1 (SJG1408) was not included in the order. The Dragon Compendium and all 3 of the munchkin expansions, as well as a bonus pack of Hero's Hoard cards were all included.

Thanks for the attention to this.

-T

This space reserved for when i finally get to run this game.

PC's: If you are reading this, DON'T use the spoilers and meta-knowledge, please. You know better.

So, this is the 3rd of the Paizo AP's we're going through (long term group for the past 5-10 yrs), the first being my Savage Tide game which ran about 26 months or so and saw only 1 character make it through from start to finish; the second was Rise of the Runelords, in which I play an insane goblin druid named Toki.

You can read of our exploits elsewhere on the appropriate AP boards, especially in the Obits of the Savage Tide game.

I'm looking forward to running another game, especially one starting at low level, with Pathfinder RPG rules.

To Wit: The Rules of the Game
1: Pathfinder Rules, people. Let's not even go into the whole "but I want this feat/spell/etc" for right now. If it seems like we can't handle the path, I will reevaluate.

2: Please refrain from leadership-driven character concepts. Z, Hiro, Olan all having leadership in the ST game made my head hurt. I'm not saying NO! outright, but let's use some restraint.

3: Crit Cards and Fumble Cards are in play: Any PC or named NPC (including boss-monsters) will have the joy to pull a card.

4: Still working on Char-Gen rules. This # Under Construction.

5: The above is subject to change, due to changes in ruleset, inability to survive the 1st adventure, complete and utter horror, or boredom.

6: You get 2 traits, and no flaws. Traits are similiar to the regional feats from ST, but not as cool. See Players Guide for more info.

Starting Conditions:

You are all starting in Korvosa, as either new immigrants with a purpose, or as locals (also with a purpose). See the Curse of the Crimson Throne Players Guide for some suggestions.

The Purpose you have at this moment is revenge/justice on Gaedren Lamm. He is a despicable old man, a blight on the face of Korvosa, and has wronged you in the past.

Posting this up as a general "entry to the path" and place to put any all-group answers. Also a point to store new stat blocks, NPC names, treasure and the like. Now I won't forget, assuming I remember to enter in stuff here.

As the title suggests, I am interested in the general feel of the community here. Some people are quite obviously hard-core optimizers, both for PC and DM duty, expecting everyone else to do the same or "fail" at D&D.

Others must be more casual players, relying on *gasp* pre-generated monsters/NPC's and NOT tweaking each and every number/bonus/skill rank to its ultimate potential.

Myself, as DM, I will optimize to an extent, switching out spells/skills/feats for monsters/NPC's, mostly since our common party size is 6 with at least 1 cohort or companion/mount/etc. My usual players split about 50/50 on the optimization fence, and no one really gets too crazy about it.

As a PC, unless it's a one-shot or I know we're going to be going against wicked-tweaked opponents, I will generally build a character to a theme, rather than trying to maximize each and every ability to the extreme. When the gloves come off, though (like the 19th lvl start / anything goes / save the world adventure) out comes the crazy persistent divine cleric of doom (or it's equivalent).

So, how would you characterize your D&D table? Optimizers through and through, casual players not interested in that side, some of each? Sound off!

-t

I was looking for the "post your group" threads for this AP, and couldn't find it anywhere.

If it's just hiding on me, could someone w/ the power move it on over please?

So our group is really firming up, as we're on the cusp of 6th lvl, and smack in the middle of The Skinsaw Murders.

Our motley crew:

Dahlia: I call her Pickles. She's the heavy-drinking, fast-in-the-sack Varisian bard going for sublime chord. Constantly has inspire courage going, drumming away on everything.

Kerrigan: I call her Murderface (noticing a trend here, Adult Swmim viewers?). Whispergnome rogue, played by one of the nicest women i've ever know, scary in her "i'm a cute little human girl who will slice our your kidneys when your back is turned" kind of way.

Taris: I call him Nathan Explosion. CN (almost CE) Chelaxian worshipper of The Great Demon, Pelor. Ardent/Cleric/Psychic Theurge planned out, with an emphasis on the blasty ardent powers and prepared healing spells. The first death in the campaign, currently a dwarf.

The Paladin: I call him "The Paladin". Shoanti barbarian, forget his tribe and never really paid attention to his name. Paladin of Freedom variant, his aura of no-compulsion has saved our butts several times thus far, as has his immunity to the same.

Toki Jr. and Wartooth: My character. Goblin Druid with his soon to be direwolf campanion, he's the primary healer in the party, loves fire, pickles, Pickles (that's why i call the bard Pickles, cuz i like both of them), and killing undead. Is the party motivation (primarily because i take on that role regularly) and keeps us moving.

So, who else is set on the path, and what craziness do your players have made up?

Any other goblin-PC's (i thought there was one all-goblin party playing...)

-the hamster

So, finally got to actually sit down and play these new rules, with some very interesting observations.

First: The Cast (players). We've been playing together for 4-5 years now, and have all had extensive experience w/ 3.5. Most of us have not played the other editions (with a little bit of 2ed thrown in there for spice)

They are some of the same players (actually all of them are) that are in my current Savage Tide Game, with all of us having some DM experience as well.

thats out of the way, now on to the characters:

Gnome Cleric 5/ Bard 1 (Played by Christa, known feats: Empower Turning, Extra Turning, ...the one that lets you exclude creatures from your turn-healing burst...)

Forest Gnome Druid 6 (Played by Susan, Shapeshifter variant, don't know her feats)

Human Fighter 6 (Played by Paul, lots of feats, not present at this session)

Human Barbarian 6 (NPC filling in for Paul's Fighter, run by the DM)

Human Rogue 6 (Played by myself, feats include Point Blank, Precise Shot, Rapid Reload, Telling Blow, Crossbow Sniper, rogue talents: Finesse Rogue, Weapon Training (Lt Crossbow), Combat Feat: Careful Targetting)

ON TO THE GAME LOG:

right off the bat, we had most, if not all, of the non-combat skills covered between all of us, so getting info in town, getting around in the wilderness, and the like was no problem. no glaring weakpoints other than a lack of full-arcane caster. not too big of an issue, methinks, at least at this level.

1st Combat: Encountered a Brown Bear on the trail of some giant-type footprints, both rogue and druid able to stealth up relatively close to it, not hostile, later approached and wild empathied. the bear seemed ok, gave us some intel, and provided a good wilderness encounter for the druid to shine. her 30 or so on survival ensured that when she went for food while we set up camp the bear was happy.

success due to wild empathy, stealth, and staying non-hostile to poor old bear.

2nd combat: on watch, rogue hears movement, sees some creatures approaching, initative.

turns out to be some wolves and a dire wolf, looking for a midnight snack. Careful Targetting and bad perception rolls on the part of the wolves meant sneak attack for the first 2-3 rounds, and the rest of the party held their own quite nicely. Barbarian did his thing, doing some significant damage to the little wolves, and the druid nipped and bit, taking out his leftovers.

The direwolf grappled the cleric, trying to make off with her, (grapple check = move yourself and them 1/2 speed and place them in an adjacent square), which we all thought was entirely appropriate, a decent threat, and quite easy to adjudicate. being able to still shoot while the wolf was grappling the cleric was also nice.

the bear even helped a bit, since we camped close by, and took out 2 or 3 of the wolves on its own.

success due to healing burst (cleric took a bunch of damage, but was able to heal herself while also helping the barbarian and druid who were getting dinged for litte bits), easy and fight appropriate grapple rules, and ability to keep up ranged attacks at enemies who are grappling!

combat 3: After resting, come across some ogres (3) hanging out at some ruins. send the druid ahead with intention to lead them into the undergrowth and entangle them there. Ogres respond by throwing javelins from behind cover, druid entangles while in place.

fight goes our way rather easily now, since the ogres can't move (failed reflex save), and we can ping them from outside the entangle zone. rogue and druid move around, shooting crossbow bolts and flying in with talons, while barbarian engages one at the edge with his reach weapon. cleric stays back and heals as necessary.

not too much different from 3.5 rules...but a fun fight nonetheless.

combat 4: underground from the above encounter, run into some undead in an old wine cellar. they move in, get shot a bit, shoot us some (Karnnathi Skeletons and Zombies, with a few normal zombies thrown in) till the cleric can get in range. Boom, Boom, Boom, 3 or 4 turns later, all the undead have been destroyed from turning damage and little bits from the others, and we're all healed up from arrow damage, almost as an incidental "thank you" for having a cleric.

success due in large part to cleric's positive energy burst, as well as the ability to sneak attack undead, not that it did too much, but meh...it was nice to shoot for a reason, rather than have absolutely nothing to do.

combat 5: more ogres, underground this time, and disguised (with illusions) as couatls. they get the drop on us, missing due to bad rolls, and combat is on. lots of damage dealt and received in the combat, mostly on the druid and barbarian...everyone was moving around to try to get me flank angles, get the party in the healing burst, and minimize AoO's, flanking by enemies, and the like. Good, solid slugfest that dropped the barb to negatives at one point (cleric right there by that point) when he was swift-action-teleported out and healed back to effectiveness next round.

success, again, due to cleric's healing burst, druid's predator form Mobility feat (love the "no AoO's from movement", so much more appropriate now), and the barbarian's rage power that acts like Smite...don't remember the name right now. Another quite satisfying encounter.

combat 6: Back outside, encountered some kind of illusion-veiled-swamp (looking like jungle), ran into 5 more Karnnathi skeletons/zombies, this time they were invisible in the bog. Pretty basic fight, was able to sneak attack one Skeleton, doing a bit of damage, barbarian was able to drop another, then the cleric turned em, and again. Took 2 or 3 attempts, but dropped them quite readily.

success due to turn undead damage, again.

combat 7: Further along in the swamp, encounter a ruined tower looking place, see more undead archers/swordsmen on top.

This fight took a long time, because the cleric and druid were able to get up close much faster. All party members were invisible due to Wand of Invis found as treasure (and rogue w/ UMD), so they flew/ran up to the tower and engaged while rogue and barbarian slogged through the swamp, running at 1/2 speed for 8-9 rounds.

Again, turn undead damaged most of the guys on the top of the tower, and what damage the cleric took (from arrows shot by the zombie guys) was being healed as she damaged the archers. The druid ended up drawing off all the melee undead, as they couldn't hit the flying cleric, got surrounded, and danced out using mobility. That lasted till backup arrived, and we put down the undead quite readily after that.

Cleric and Druid success due to Mobility (would likely have dropped if not for this) and turn-undead-damage, again. Rogue and Barbarian did next to nothing this combat, except a little light cleanup.

Final Combat: Us vs. a hag-coven. Annis, Sea, and Green hags, all inside the ruined tower. Using good stealth (and another charge off the invis wand) encountered the hags (one invis) while illusioned to look like an old lady and her cow. A kind of tough fight ensued, the invisible hag whiffed on her attack vs. the cleric (tough night for DM's dice...lots of nat-1 attack rolls), and the Green strength drained the cleric for 2 str, barbarian whacked Sea Hag, druid whiffed, rogue did some damage to Green, became visible.

The Green used a coven-power-thing to forecage the barbarian, taking him out of the fight, then the Annis grabbed druid, doing some damage, rogue was able to drop Sea hag with another crossbow shot.

Cleric took her turn to dimension hop over to the barbarian, next round brought him out of the forcecage, rogue acrobatics tumbled into the room, and barbarian was able to trip the Annis using rage power to add to him CMB score.

That was pretty much the nail in the coffin, as she was flanked by rogue and barbarian, prone, and unable to really do much beyond die.

Barbarian finished off green hag on his next action, Annis took some rapier-sneak attacks while standing, druid bit her when she dropped the druid to fight the rogue, and rogue finished her off on my next turn.

All around good fight, needed healing, tactical movement, skill use, grapples, trips, and the like, as well as flanks and AoO's.

Final thoughts: Cleric Turn-Undead positive energy burst is AWESOME. minor healing for the whole party, damage to undead (not just work/no work)