Paul Murray's page

I remember a Paizo representative saying that Pathfinder sets would always have a few Huge miniatures in them going forward. But...this might have been in a dream.

For game, I don't need a truckload of huge minis, I need a dozen or so orcs, goblins, human mercs, wolves, low-mid level undead, etc.

I do wish Whizkids would stop doing minis with delicate fragile sticking out plastic bits. They look cool, but can't they bend their talents to making something as cool looking that you can throw into a plastic container?

Ghost Touch is a +3 armor enhancement. Does it do anything else other than protect against touch attacks from incorporeal creatures?

I don't think so. And yeah - highly situational. A simpler solution is to get your mage to give you mage armour. Won't stack with armour, but it applies to incorporeal touch attacks.

Oh well. It was cool while it lasted. I'd like to forward it on to someone else playing WotR, but the other dude who worked on it is all posessive.

I'm currently paying WotR, our group is just starting part 2.

For Part 1, we built a wardstone. Here are some pics:

https://paulmurray.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/wardstone/

I have some cool ideas for building another one: I want to make the sides into infinity mirrors. Maybe use some more LEDs - brighter, bigger, more awesome.

Thing is: I wasn't sure about the dimensions when we built that one. Without giving too much away: is there another wardstone further down the campaign? How big is it, according to the module? We made this one with a 10'base - is that right? Does it need to be broken, like this first one is? Without giving too much away, any hints about colour? Shape? Special things about it?

I haven't used it yet, but I have just taken the feat. I'm running a half-orc inquisitor. Strength-based, but with Intimidating Prowess.

The Shatter Defenses feat is awesome, but an inquisitor doesn't get enough fighter bonus feats to make it worthwhile.

Now, an very interesting thought exercise would be in thinking of reasons why crushing an ant hill isn't Chaotic Evil for the 5 year old.

It wouldn't be evil if the five-year-pld didn't recognise ants as living things. If the five-year-old does understand that ants are alive and don't want their anthill crushed, then not only is it chaotic evil, it's one of the three signs of latent psychopathy (cruelty to animals, fire lighting, late bedwetting).

I see no reason why it wouldn't work. On the other hand, requiring 1500 gp worth of diamonds to cast it reduces the frequency of it happening...

True. Then again: at 14th level 1500gp is a lot, but not crippling. My sorcerer will be hauling around a load of diamond dust for Communal Stoneskin, my party's very favourite spell in the whole world. He also packs "Blood Money" for emergencies. Haven't had to use it yet - fingers crossed :) .

My sorcerer has a headband of counterspelling and dispel magic. Disrupting casting with damage? Feh - that's what the barbarian, archer, and swashbuckler are for.

It turned out to be a good build for one of the boss fights in Rise of the Runelords

http://paulmurray.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/something-for-everyone/

Can you use Limited Wish to counterspell a spell of 6th level or lower, as if you had the spell prepared?

What about if you have "improved counterspell" feat? Limited Wish is not any specific school, but its a Limited Wish for goodness sake and I'm only suggesting that it can be used in this manner for spells 6th level and below.

FYI: I run a sorcerer with arcane bloodline.

http://paulmurray.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/something-for-everyone/

Certainly the fly *check* made while hovering is part of the hover, but is the *hovering itself* a move action? There's much more involved in hovering than just standing on the ground.

Probably the rules don't explicitly say.

Something I missed - if a creature using wings to fly fails a fly check, it plummets out of the sky. What happens to someone using a spell?

There are a few threads on this, but I still have a couple of questions.

Is hovering a move action? Does this mean that you cannot take a full-round attack while flying? It makes sense, I suppose, and explains why dragons land on the ground to fight adventurers. It creates a bit of a quandry for air elementals, though, who are always flying. But then again, they don't use wings. But neither to PCs using the fly spell.

What I'm asking is: can a PC using a fly spell just sit there hovering in midair and make full-round attacks as though they were standing on the ground?

You can "turn more than 45° by spending 5' of movement", and "Turn 180° by spending 10 feet of movement". 180 is greater than 45 - why can't you just spend the 5'? Is there some errata to the effect that 5' will buy you more than 45° but only up to 90° or 135° or something?

When you sacrifice 5' of movement to turn, do we assume that this 5' does not count towards the requirement to move at least half your movement to stray aloft? I suppose so, otherwise you could hover by just spinning in place.

The fly spell states that it "requires no more concentration than walking". I read this as "it requires no more concentration to fly than a creature with a fly speed needs". That is, you still need to make fly checks when you are flying with a spell.

How often can you rewrite it?
How long does it take to do?

I've built a sorcerer with standard wealth at level (previous character died) with "Arcane' bloodline.

The arcane bloodline says you can have a bonded item. With a bonded item, you can cast any spell in your spellbook once a day. So I gave my Sorcerer a spellbook. Sure - he can't prepare the spells, but there's nothing stopping him from knowing the spells (Read Magic, etc). (I whsh there was a game mechanic for casting spells directly out of the book).

I'm playing it as something my Sorc can do at daily recharge time, putting spells into the rings that hopefully will be situationally useful. His arcane bond and mnemonic vestment give him a bit of extra versatility - the spellbook is full of utility spells. Communal Spider Climb, things like that (must get Rope Trick).

Beats me how legal it is.

...TRANSCRIBING spells into a spellbook is a wizard feature.

So can a sorcerer pay someone to write the spell into a spellbook, and use 'Read Magic' to understand the spell?

I have implemented the UE treasure generator as a self-contained javascript app at GitHub Pages.

Page of Spell Knowledge?? That's broken - it makes a Sorcerer better than a Wizard in every respect, and all it costs is money.

I'm building one. It's being built as a completely self-contained HTML page with a bunch of plain-vanilla javascript, and so it should run on any web browser.

In theory.

If you save the file locally, you don't even need a net connection.

The current versions are hosted at
http://paulmurraycbr.github.io/MICGenerator.html (D&D 3.5 MAgic Item Compendium)
and
http://paulmurraycbr.github.io/UEGenerator.html (Pathfinder Ultimate Equipment)

The UE one is very, very unfinished. The MIC one is used by the Die With Honour long-running campaign (Salvadore Conti) and aparrently is a real time-saver.

Repo is at https://github.com/PaulMurrayCbr/mic-generator

To draw an X-foot circular burst, pick an intersection. Measure out from there by x feet in four directions, then draw eight diagonal stairsteps. Start by going one across, then draw a series of "one down, two across" stairsteps from there. You wind up with an octagonal area.

The shape of a cone at 45 degrees is the same as a quarter of a burst.

The shape of a cone at 90 degrees is the same as a quarter of a burst burst not including the squares at 45 degrees but with a slice added in the middle, expanding the front of the cone to three squares wide. That slice in the middle lines up with the caster.

Thank you, and you are welcome.

There's been a couple of thread on this, but I haven't seen a simple yes/no answer to this:

If my character channels positive, and I take alignment channel (Evil), can I harm evil outsiders with positive energy?

The issue is out cleric player is upset that they are a heal bot and everytime it comes to a fight, they have to be in range to heal the fighters. What this person fails to understand is this is the main task

With respect, man - F that noise.

Your problem is not that the cleric character does not understand his role. Your problem is that one of the players is not enjoying game. If you feel so acutely that people should do their allotted tasks, why don't you swap characters with the other player? You be healbot! You do it! And if you don't want to do this because you'd find it boring - well dude, you should think about that for a bit.

I had a similar issue pre-Pathfinder. The cleric eventually snapped at the party and insulted their intelligence in the process - "I'm a warrior of my god, not a magical bandaid! I'm capable of tending to wounds after battles, or during in the case of extreme injuries, but I'm not running a nursery for children playing with knives! Sharpen your wits and stop leaving yourselves so open to attack, before my god decides you're not worth healing anymore..."

I'm thinking of running a minmaxed healbot for pfs. I'll give him a dex and str of 8, which fluff-wise will be because he's outrageously old and slightly blind. And deaf. "What's that, boy? Can't hear you! You want me to shimmy across that rope? At my age? Light of Saranrae! If only I *could* shimmy across ropes like you whippersnappers!"

As in - ok guys, you want a healbot? Cool. But deal with this.

The urban druid class states that yu can spontaneously cast domain states instead of summon nature's ally, but does not state that this is limited to domains that you got as a result of Druid class (ie: nature's bond)

So how about playing an urban druid with one level of cleric, rocking three domain spell lists and able to cast them spontaneously using druid spell slots?

I'm thinking of building a half-orc or a dwarf, conversion inquisition and dumping Cha all the way - 7 or even 5 for the dwarf. I'm a fan of darkvision. Str/Wis 16, Con 14 or better. Heaps of teamwork feats - maybe even a level of fighter.

Or - how about a fighter with enough levels of inquisitor to get the teamwork thing?

I'm not certain I understand why it's easier and smoother without a battlemat?

"pbp" == "Play By Post"

I was thinking of the "Dueling Weapon" enhancement in the PFS field guide. It gives a bonus to maneuvers, but does not allow a weapon to perform maneuvers that it otherwise couldn't.

Specifically - is there a weapon enhancement I can get put on a whip that will allow me to perform dirty tricks with it? Whip will do trip (and therefore drag/reposition) and disarm. I seem to recall a "this weapon can also be used to do combat maneuver X" enhancement, but not sure where to find it.

And is it legal for pathfinder society play?

It seems that the intention was to provide bonuses to maneuvers that might be used in a one-one-one swordfight type situation. Dueling, in other words. So reposition has the correct sort of 'flavour' for this, but drag and steal no so much.

Ok, I found the relevant post re trip/drag:

http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lcom?Combat-Maneuvers-and-Weapon-Speci al-Features

Also contains this interesting snippet:

Of course, the GM is free to rule that in certain circumstances, a creature can apply weapon bonuses for these maneuvers, such as when using a sap in a dirty trick maneuver to hit an opponent in a sensitive spot.

A sap does not have the 'dirty trick" special, so it seem s dirty trick with a weapon is "whatever is reasonable". Using a whip to give a target the blinded, entangled, or sickened condition for one round seems reasonable to me. Oh - and cracking the whip right by the ear could reasonably deafen for one round.

Sigh. We probably need a proper rules ruling.

I have a halfling archaeologist/bard, with a leather fedora and a whip. His name is Zack Jackson.
http://paizo.com/people/ZackJackson/profile

Zack Jackson is proficient with a whip (bard).
Zack Jackson has Agile Maneuvers.
Zack Jackson does not have Weapon Finesse.

If he performs a combat maneuver *with his whip* - does that mean that he has to use Str rather than Dex? (If so, I'll grab Finesse Rogue at 4th level. Why 4th? Cause at 3rd level I will be getting Lingering Song.)

I have seen it mentioned that a weapon with the 'trip' property can be used to perform a drag or reposition. Can someone refer me to a source for this rule that is official WRT to PFS play? I couldn't see it in the APG - maybe I'm blind.

Can an ally willingly fail their CMD to be dragged or repositioned? If they willingly fail, how much to they fail by? It's relevant to the question of how far you can drag them.

Can a whip be used to perform certain dirty tricks? The rules are vague, and pretty open to interpretation. Blinded, sickened, entangled - all very reasonable to do with a whip. Is it basically a matter of finding an amenable DM? If so, then what's the PFS ruling - is there an official source?

If your weapon has the "trip" quality, it can also be used to perform drag and reposition maneuvers.

Where is the rule for this? I couldn't find it in the APG - maybe I'm blind.

Items fastened to a foe (such as cloaks, sheathed weapons, or pouches) are more difficult to take, and give the opponent a +5 bonus (or greater) to his CMD.

So you can steal a spell component pouch with a whip at -9, or move up next to the caster, take his laughable AAO and steal it the old-fashioned way at -5.

One more reason for a caster to stay behind a wall of mooks. I can definitely see a monk or rogue risking two rounds of whackage from the bodyguards (one going in, one coming out) to pull this off.

I'm taking Goblin Cleaver and Great Cleave for my Stonelord. Our party mage is kind enough to enlarge him for the big fights, so goblin cleaver means he can target size M opponents.

It's also correct thematically. He'll have the remove fatigue mercy at level 7, so the main problem with Defensive Stance (you can't move and keep your stance) goes away.

Why would a spellcaster gimp themselves by casting an antimagic field on themselves?

We are playing right now. My arcane trickster has cast it. Why? 'Cause we are up against a lich.

Where are the record sheets for WWe Be Goblins? The module doesn't appear to have them. I reacll that record sheets for modules were separate, but I can't seem to find them.

2. Creatures are denied their Dexterity bonus to AC "if they cannot react to a blow" (CR pg 179 under AC). It was our intent that if you are unaware of a threat, you cannot react to a blow.

Perhaps what needs to be amended is

Ok, so we are talking about a basin with sandbars. When they hit one and get stuck, the dudes ride out on the sandbar.

Even if the water is only knee deep, I still can't see them leaping from their horses and "charging". Difficult terrain. I'm thinking a larger group of them, but two or three of them rope-and-grappling hook the boat and pull it with their horses, taking no further part in the fight. Maybe make 'em teenagers. The warriors make a jump/climb check to get onto the boat.

In summary, with 4 new players and 1 veteran, 3 of the newbies were doing excellent RPing in solving the encounters while the veteran had bad judgement and did several things that threatened to unravel the work the rest of the party did. In the interest of making the new...

An important meta-rule is: "never apply in-game penalties for out-of-game behaviour".

Playing like a dick straddles that line, unfortunately.

So here's another meta-rule: "you have the right to choose who you do and do not wish to play with".

And here's one more important little rule:

"Aside from genuine hard core role players, people play characters the way they like to play".

That is, someone building a character who is a dick usually does so because they are a dick and that's how they like to play.

So:

Level 1: "dude, you are playing like a dick".

If the reply is "well, that's because the character is a dick", then:

Level 2: "ok, well the other pathfinders *in character* do not wish to go on missions with your character, *in character*. And the venture captain *in character* is sick of your character blowing missions. Build a new character who isn't a dick and play it."

And if the player refuses, or the new character turns out to be a dick, too, then:

Level 3: "I do not wish to spend my Thursday nights playing Pathfinder with you".

At the end of the day, it's a people problem, not a game problem. And in reference to this particular character who worships the god of murder or whatever, this is why evil characters aren't allowed. Because evil simply *is* being a dick.

How on earth do a squad of tribesmen on horses on the shore of a river manage to board a boat?

The Tuunma river is 50-70' wide, and "broadens out" at the basin. Ok. Say it winds up being 100' wide. It's still deep enough for river traffic in the centre, which is where the boat will be.

"Khoquarit remains within 50' of the PC's ship". Ok, so they are right at waters edge.

"Once the ship comes to a stop, he dismounts and charges forward onto the ship's deck"

How? For the love of God, how? Does he Water Walk? Fly? Jump the distance?

Only thing I can think of is if it's at a bend in the river, and the faster current on the outside of the bend means that that's where the deeper channel is.

What did you do?

I'm looking at this feat for purposes of combining "Charm Person" with a performance (act) check - to give the party a leg up in organised play.

"The question is, this "performance check" does it means I could use Inspire Courage AND cast a spell? Or does it means I just roll a d20 and add my performance skill to "hid" the fact I'm casting a spell? "

Depends on what you mean.

If you are already performing, you can maintain the performance as a free action and also cast a spell - this is just standard even without the feat.

As I read it, you cannot BOTH commence a bardic performance to inspire courage as a standard action, and also cast a spell as a standard action. But after you level up a bit, this is no longer an issue, because you will be able to commence a performance as a move action.

What you can do is burn a bardic perform round to conceal the casting of a spell. As I read it, you don't also need to be in bardic performance mode to do this. (Although it might seem a little odd flavour-wise if your character bursts into song or starts strumming thier lute for no reason, if the point of the exercise is to conceal the fact that you are casting.)

IOW: it does the same job as a stilled/silenced spell in a social situation, IF you beat their perception, and at the cost of using a perform round.

Makes more sense if you multiclass.

Oh well. I'll have to be satisfied with 22d6 in a 40' radius in the surprise rouind, then 77d6+98 after that, then.

Surprise round: Freezing Sphere 15d6 + 7d6 Sneak Attack. First Round: Contagious Flame (4 rays) + Quickened Scorching Ray (lesser rod of quicken), 7d6 sneak attack, Sniper Goggles. Second round - extra hits from Contagious flame, Scorching ray + quickened Scorching Ray.

The DM is not giving me sneak attack on the extra attacks from Contagious Flame, even though the rules *clearly* say "as if you were firing them".

But I kinda see his point. 143d6 would just take too long to roll :) Have to settle for 82, assuming all the rays hit.

Is an opponent flat footed if you are invisible? The rules say that the opponent is denied its dex bonus to AC, but not specifically that this is the same thing as being flat footed.

I have the same situation with feinting in combat.

It has implications for the "Surprise Spell" ability of Arcane Trickster 10.

Swallow whole damage tends to be acid (and bludgeoning).

What I would really like is a volume collecting together the rules in the various modules - the city building and war rules in Kingmaker, the overland and making camp rules in Serpent's Skull #1, and the factions rules in serpent's skull #2. And those are just the modules I have read. I'm sure other adventure paths have rules for naval combat, trade networks, all kinds of stuff.

These auxiliary rules and mini-games - it's the book that the game mastery guide should have been. Collect them, tighten them up and make 'em consistent, and I will totally buy a copy.

Week 6: http://paulmurray.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/ss-week-6-mission-accomplished/

Not a lot to add, here. I will have to stat a "Fishing net with hooks" at some point. Perhaps: touch attack to hit, automatic grapple heck when it does (with a pretty good CMB: is +15 too much? Perhaps +10.). Does (say) 1d4 damage to a grappled opponent that does anything other than stand still, triggering a concentration check for spellcasters using spells with somatic components. Escape as per usual rules for escaping a grapple, but you can add slashing damage to your attempt (offsetting the rather high CMB).

I found that it was about right, in fact. I awarded XP for the NPC missions, for the occasional wandering monster.

Oh - that's right. We are using the "level up quickly" table. Yeah - that makes a difference.

Week 5: http://paulmurray.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/ss-week-5-god-what-an-idiot/

One of my players is a keen roleplayer/user of diplomacy. I am not creative in that way, so it's difficult to run the game without being heavyhanded. I did manage to kill off Jim-Bob before he simply walked the party into the cannibal camp.

The other issue was that a) I was not in top form last night and b) I had not prepared the thrunefang camp encounter. To deal with this I just flat-out told the players. They are mates - we have been playing for a a while.

D&D is not players vs DM - it is collaborative fiction. My players just decided that the party needed to rest a little, off the track. That was about 10ish, which is a short night for us but whatever.

Oh - the Alchemist leveled up and had another liguistics check at the name "Nyalathiti". Ge made 25. I told hin that a) if it was anything, it would be Draconic, and b) the language sounds ancient. Very old.

I suppose out-of-character they know that it's serpent language (are we going to have to call it parseltoungue?).

Next week, I will have the cannibal camp drawn up ahead of time. No worries.

I'm blogging our Serpent's Skull campaign at
http://paulmurray.wordpress.com/category/games/serpents-skull/

The blog contains spoilers, and there are additional spoilers in these posts. Basically - the blog is ok for my players to read, this thread is not.

My players - Andrew, Brett, Tim, Dave, Scott, and the other new one: please do not read below the fold.

=================

Week 4: http://paulmurray.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/ss-week-4-omg-this-is-all-going- to-go-much-quicker-now/

Not much to add. The "odd scaled footprints" were left by Pezcock - he rolled up as a wandering monster. Yes: his feet have scales. They rolled badly on survival, so they don't have anything more specific.

Likewise, I would have identified the language that the name "nyltithilighti" (or whatever it was) might be ... but I think 20 is fair and they didn't make it. It's very obscure, after all.

I'm concerned about the number of NPCs the party is dragging around. I started the game with three players, so I was lenient on the morale and attitude rolls. Now that I have five players, it's a party of 10. Too much. But the cannibals are aware of the party now, so a raid of some sort is in order.

I'm concerned about the villiage. Too much/too little - balancing the encounter. The Alchemist's bombs are a bit of a wildcard. Hope they don't simply charge in and leave the other quests not done. It'd be sad if chicky-babe didnt have her quest done by some brave and resourceful PCs.

OTOH: it's easy enough to send them back if they escape the island. Out-of-game, the players want to do the module. It's all good. They can do the lighthouse, escape, visit the city and shop, and then be sent back in one or two various ways. One of the characters is a druid, so I can arrange for a dream from chicky-babe. And the haunted surf is of interest to, say, the merchants. And there's always that general-purpose hander out of plot gooks: the pathfinder guild. Gelik still hasn't fulfilled his quest, yet.

All under control.

I hate the idea of a player rolling what they think is a save, getting a nat, and then me saying "ya, but you are unconscious anyway."

Meh - just tell 'em its more of a constitution check than a save. Which it is, really, and perhaps the game should have done that instead. Checks don't have an auto - pass feature.

I had a question about the NPC's starting attitude. The book says they're friendly towards characters that are from whichever city the NPC boarded from. Was the intent of this to have the PCs grow up in that city, or just board from there?

The intent was that the PCs take a campaign trait from the player's companion, many of which are about where the PC boarded the Jeneveve.. I had my players take two traits and a campaign trait.

I also noticed a discrepancy in what building a shelter does for you in alleviating the bug/disease aspect. The disease section says a shelter reduces the chance of disease 15%, the shelter section says it reduces it to 10%.

It reduces it from 25, by 15, to 10.

Forget that it's D&D, forget that you are DM.

If you were playing chess with this person, and found they were moving the pieces around while your back was turned, what would you do? If you were playing monopoly, and realised that they were helping themselves to hotels while you wen to the kitchen, what would you do?

Oh, sure there are roles - DMs and Players. But meta that, D&D is a game that a group of friends - or at least acquaintances - plays together for fun. How does everyone feel about cheating? If the whole group is cool with it - are you?

Not running the game is always an option.