So these two places are suppose to have the best loot and raw materials in the game. They are currently way to safe from the most dangerous things in the game, the players. Rep penalty for PvP in these hexes should be reduced or eliminated.
These abilities are still way to strong. When my 1000 exp alt can do as much damage as my two month old toon something is wrong.
The basic attacks should enable you to kill starting mobs and that is it. Ammo will not balance this, so don't try to use that excuse. The great sword and spear exploits hit just as hard as the long bow one. They all need to be tuned way down.
The safest source of copper in the game is buying it in Kruez Bernstein. Sure you can go up and try to gather it on your own but those mean Golgothans might kill you. It's way safer to just buy it from KB!
So do the devs really just not want us doing the harder escalations? With the healing nerf (and it is a nerf) and the changes to agro its impossible to tank and impossible to kite. So are we just not suppose to do harder mobs?
This Saturday at 7 pm est Golgotha will be hosting a 2v2 pvp tournament in a hex with an open PvP window (more details on which hex to follow) We just want people to come out and fight to the death. Matches will be best of 3 with the option for gear swapping in between the fights. If you would like to participate in the fighting list you and your partners character name below. Sign ups will run until saturdays down time.
On to the good part, prizes. First second and third place teams will get a prize! The three prizes are a +2 wep for each of the team members 200 health potions or 2k +1 arrows. The First place team will pick what they want then the second and then the third. If any other organizations would like to add to the prize pool feel free to post it here as well. There will be no entry fee.
Mumble Information
Address: 74.201.57.188
Port: 64738
With the state of WoT as it is right now with the attackers gaining points for anyone in the tower no mater how many defenders are their it is impossible to defend a tower against any sort of determined attack.
A group of naked attackers (suffering no gear durability penalty) can slowly but surly take any tower unless the defenders out number then enough to kill them as they run at them.
Tonight an out numbered force of Golgothans took a tower we really had no business winning simply by grinding our faces against the defenders and sticking it out until we hit 1000 points. We kept fighting but we could have just run in circles healing ourselves till we died and won all the same.
We have already had quite a few successful trade opportunities up on our mountain and I would like to have more of them in the future. If you are in need of +2 gear send me a pm and we will start working out a deal. We are also willing to trade raw materials and recipes.
I do recommend that if you are coming up the mountain to train you announce yourself pretty loudly to avoid the murder hobos that live in the bushes.
As the subject suggests why are the devs so tied to saying we can't support every class in one city. I understand being unable to train everything and needing to interact with other cities to get all the training you need. I am fine with having to build something to support classes that you can't train but this notion that it should be impossible to have very class living in your city no matter how much effort you put in seems counter intuitive and unsustainable. Eventual we are going to have a multitude of arch types in the game. Cities will get burnt down or you may dislike some of the people you are playing with to the point where you have to leave your city. Why should years of training become worthless if you can't find a new home right away. This also completely discourages individuals from founding new cities. Why would I take my level 20 cleric out of his really nice city to go found a new outpost for my empire when eventually I will loose all of my skills?
I know some of you will respond with meaningful choices!!!! But there are so many other ways to put in meaningful choice. What you chose to train in your city will define your friends. That's a great meaningful choice. Loosing access to your top tier skills a month after you loose a war is not a "meaningful choice"
Charter Company Name: The Bloody Hand
Kingdom Name: Empire of Xeilias
Settlement Name: Golgotha
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Role: Assassinations, POI raiding, forbidden magic and general mayhem
Voice chat: Teamspeak
Leadership:
The Bloody Hand is a dictatorship with a small advisory council. Large decisions will be presented to members to voice their opinion on but all final decisions are made by the Grand Master of The Order.
Player Roles Accepted:
We are a strictly militant order. We do not accept those who are primarily harvesters or craftsmen.
Ideology:
We stand as an order of warriors, thieves, assassins and evil spell casters. Members will be expected to kill, and kill frequently. We live in the shadows of Golgotha. We take from those we can and complete our assigned contracts without mercy. We are the hidden blade of the state.
Who Should Join:
Assassins and raiders act as a massive force multiplier. One dagger sliding along the neck of a king can send a kingdom into turmoil. A small group of raiders can cause cities to starve and industry to grind to a halt. A cabal of necromancers razing undead can spread chaos and disorder to an enemy's lands. Anyone interested in having this level of impact on the river kingdoms will find a welcoming home in The Order of the Bloody Hand.
The Orders contribution to Golgotha:
During times of conflict The Order will be deployed into the enemies home territory to assassinate their leaders and wreak havoc on their supply lines. We will bring the enemy to the brink of starvation and chaos before our main armies even begin to fight.
During times of peace we will accept contracts for multiple types of wet work. Assassination contracts, caravan ambushes and POI harvesting of a more aggressive nature just to name a few. This work during peace time will swell our coffers and hone our skills for when the State calls upon us again.
Anyone out there who wants to practice the most heinous types of magic with out hiding it form those nosy paladins. Come move to Golgotha. Individuals and charter companies welcome.
I find the lack of evil guilds in the land rush disturbing. If there are any evil guilds out there I urge you to sign up or send me or any of the other Golgothans a message to open diplomatic ties. With so much good flying around we need to band together against their oppression.
The Order of the Bloody Hand will be founding a N/E city as soon as it is economically viable. We are looking for groups to come and make this city their home. No matter what aspect of the game you want to be involved in there will be a place for you here. As long as you have a decent reputation and are within our alignment requirements.
I would like to attract a FC dedicated to crafting and one more focused on PVE to compliment the PVP focus of The Order. Respond here or via PM if you would like a spot.
Hello again, The Order of the Bloody Hand is currently seeking a CC of crafters and PVE players (could be two separate CCs) to form a settlement with deep in the wilds of PFO. We are looking to build a city as far from civilization as possible. Therefor it should have access to some of the best natural resources in the game. Post here or whisper me if you are interested.
I know there are one or two evil CC kicking around out there, and Shadow Haven will accept anyone regardless of alignment. But has anyone mentioned starting and actual Evil(and more than likely lawful)player kingdom? I am also aware that should such a thing come into existence it would probably be sieged to hell and gone by all the good people that seem to be running around.
How many of you would be interested in putting together teams of 10-15 individuals and engaging in a PVP tournament? They style and location is of course still in the planning stages. I am just gauging community interest at this point. Everyone would of course be welcome to compete regardless of alignment or charter company.It can even be something our crafter focused characters can get involved in, selling things to the combatants. Right now I think we would do it twice a year or maybe quarterly. What do you guys thing, would you be willing to participate?
So we have had quite a few threads about bad things spawning in your hexes. Goblins bugbears dragons, the list goes on. Has anyone discussed beneficial things spawning? For instance, you run a good aligned hex a pilgrim to one of the gods is inspired to start preaching in a random location that is still fitting to his god. If you keep him safe from nasty things (see above) he may found a shrine that grows into a temple, and so on and so forth.
This would also generate meaningful PVP. I as an "evil" character hate your god and want to burn down the shrine and kill the pilgrim so I and my cohorts attack. Now there could be some sort of defense mechanic ere we have to stay in the area for a while to kill him and desecrate there area when the god players would have time to drive us off to preserve the shrine.
This book is everything I never knew I needed to have to run an underwater adventure, and has made me interested in an all underwater campaign, something I never would have wanted to run without this book. While they required a little thinking to wrap my head around, the rules for buoyancy, drag, and pressure really add a lot to the feel of an underwater game.
The races come next, and offer a nice variety of exotic races to choose from as well as more familiar races like sea elves and seafolk. classes chapter, aside from including a few interesting new classes like the Kahuna and Siren, gives short conversion notes for the core and APG pathfinder classes that keep them relevent in an entirely underwater campaign.
Not to be overlooked in all the excellent rules is the fact that this book is called a Campaign Setting and does include some information about the Cerulean Seas. Small nuggets of campaign details are sprinkled through each section of the book, and a short 26 page section gives a little information on the history of the various races and a tiny amount of information on cities in the setting. This is probably the section of the book that could use the most expansion, and if my primary interest in the book was as a campaign setting I would probably disappointed with this section. As it is it's a nice little bonus add on to the rules and serves to give some flavor to the different races.
All in all this book provides everything you never knew you desperately wanted for underwater campaigns. If you have any interest in running an underseas campaign this book will be valuable to you. If you never thought you wanted to run an undersea campaign this might convert you like it did for me.
I bought this book as a pdf and this review covers the pdf version of the product.
It was a campaign setting (the Forgotten Realms) that got me involved in RPGs, hooking me to the idea of playing (and running) adventures in an actual world that keeps on spinning regardless of the adventure's outcome, with nations, power groups, and individuals with their own goals and plots full of gaming potential. Flipping through the pages of a good campaign setting usually leaves me with dozens of potential adventure or campaign ideas.
The Midgard campaign setting is no exception. This wonderful, mythical world is overflowing with fascinating locations, horrifying evils, and excellent, original takes on many fantasy tropes. On most pages there is at least one or two ideas ready to be made into campaign or character ideas. There is an excellent mix of folklore inspired and truly original creations. Some particular standouts for me include the subterranean Ghoul Empire, the Seven Cities and their wars, the Wasted West with the slow moving horrors, Ley Lines, Shadow Roads, and the Gnomes, oh the awesome of the gnomes.
If you are looking for a world oozing with fun, flavorful locations and beings, with intriguing adventure ideas on almost every page, pick up this setting. Even if you don't move your campaign to Midgard you can find lots to use in this great book and setting.
I am primarily a Pathfinder GM, only rarely do I roll up a character, and from the first time I encountered monster templates I loved the concept. For most of my campaign I used the original Advanced Bestiary, along with other monster template books, to great effect in my games. When I learned of the Kickstarter to update the Bestiary to Pathfinder I jumped in and backed it at the pdf level.
Now that I have received the pdf and had a chance to use it in my current campaigns I can safely say that this is my favorite Pathfinder monster resource book. This book is a must have resource for Pathfinder GMs in my opinion, at least as valuable as the various Bestiaries themselves. This over 300 page book contains dozens of fantastic, evocative, and deadly templates, as well as example creatures for the templates ranging from CR 1/3 to 29. Aside from being a great resource for beefing up well known monsters, there are many templates in this book that drip with story potential. Finally, even in pdf form the book's looks great, with wonderful illustrations for the example creatures.
This is hands down a 5 star book and a must have resource for any Pathfinder GM
I'll start off by noting that I have a bias in this case, as I have always loved unique equipment, intelligent items, and magic items with history. As this is a collection of unique, intelligent magic items that each get their own history this book would have to work very hard to disappoint me.
Right off the bat the book starts off strong with an introduction written as a letter in character which is interesting enough to draw me in, then followed up on by a few paragraphs on reasons why an item could be intelligent. I like the rationale used in this book, the view that the potential for intelligence lies in many items, and especially the idea that being wielded by a passionate or significant individual can draw out the intelligence in an item. This provides a great in character reason for a PC to have a favored item of theirs start to develop intelligence.
Also present in the introduction is a bit on how the PCs can learn about the items and a bit about changing the more generic histories given for the items up a little to fit a specific campaign world. The table for identifying the intelligent items seems to have DCs a little low for me, and I am a little uncertain why they chose to have the DC for knowing most of the item's history be less than the DC for knowing what the item is. As these are legendary items it seems that knowledge of them is expected to be widely spread, which explains the low DCs in general, so this little quirk doesn't affect how I feel about the pdf.
Moving on we get into the meat of the pdf, the intelligent items themselves. Each item is defined by the usual statistics, then has a description for appearance, history, personality, powers, it's special purpose (if applicable), and construction requirements. As a side note, I really like that the introduction makes it clear that fulfilling the magic item creation construction requirements doesn't necessarily mean that the specific intelligent item can be recreated exactly. Each of the items is well described, and a couple of pieces of artwork are scattered throughout, though nothing particularly noteworthy to me.
A few notes on the items themselves:
Astijhen and Ranklikor: CE and LG intelligent plate barding each forged by a brother who fought and slew each other in battle, which now each have the special purpose of trying to destroy the other. An interesting idea that is fairly unique (I've seen magical barding rarely, intelligent barding never) with a story that makes sense and links the two items together.
Ha-Min's Circlet: A great item with a decent power and a very interesting purpose. I'm a little confused why an item infused with a sense of justice that exists to help others and be charitable has a CN alignment. Other than that (which could be a typo) this item has an excellent story and could be very interesting, especially for a too-greedy PC to find for a time.
Marrija: A cool item, it's personality (mirroring the owner's behavior so long as they are a powerful mage) makes for interesting plot possibilities, as does it's ability to preserve a copy. Evil and cautious mages could use this item to have a backup in case they are slain which is limited but still useful.
Nasirdil: Interesting, so long as a PC likes the idea of being a part of a formerly great noble family. Also, I am amused by the idea of an intelligent item which is encouraging it's wielder to continue the bloodline and produce heirs.
Red Najaddi: A cool item with an argumentative personality that could be fun or obnoxious depending on the group. Useful for a party but very opinionated, I really like the bit about it being pulled into arguments easily but refusing to stop talking even when drawn to a topic it knows nothing about.
Salchuk Carpet: A carpet of flying with the cool side effect of basically being a portable trap, able to affect those who step on it if the carpet feels they are hostile to the wielder.
All in all this is a fantastic resource for any GM who wants to add some interesting items to their campaign. Between the price tag and the amount of value I greatly recommend this to anyone who likes intelligent items, or even just interesting items with history in general if you're willing to do a tiny bit of work taking out the intelligence.
A short pdf packed full of goodness, the Genius Guide to 110 Spell Variants adds 110 new spells to the game in quite an efficient way, by building off of spells that already exist. By both tweaking existing game spells slightly and extrapolating higher level versions of existing spells SGG is able to fill the 10 page pdf (1 page cover/intro, credits/OGL) with just the material needed to modify the existing spells.
This book provides a GM with an excellent resource for their magic using NPCs as well as for unique or custom spell ideas for player PCs to research or discover as treasure. For the price this pdf packs a lot of content. This pdf also is notable for including spells for the APG specific classes. Antipaladins, Alchemists, Inquisitors, Oracles, Summoners, and Witches are all given some love with the new spells.
The pdf itself is laid out well, easy to read, and all in all well done. The spells seem to pass the eyeball test for balance, and in play I haven't run into any problems with the spells I've used as a GM or left as treasure for the PCs. If you are a GM looking to add some spells to your game, or a player looking for balanced spell options for your character to research give this pdf a look!
DM "Before you rises a hulking, hideously twisted form at least nine feet tall. Long, gangly arms end in razor sharp claws, and its greenish, rubbery skin is marked with countless scars. It tears the arrow out of its arm and before your eyes a new scar forms in seconds!"
Players: "Oh look, another troll. Get out the alchemist's fire to stop it's regeneration and watch out for its rend."
DMs have seen this before, or a scenario much like it, long term players have seen all the traditional monsters so many times that it is difficult to surprise them anymore. While there is always the option of throwing out the familiar in favor of something new, an endless stream of monsters that the players have never heard of gets tiresome as well, and adding class levels to monsters can be a complicated task. And sure, a DM can just decide to add abilities to a monster, but I'll be the first to admit as a DM sometimes my ideas are much better in my head than in the execution.
Enter templates, an easy way for DMs to add a little spice, changing up a monster just enough to let it surprise even the most experienced players. This book, 101 Not So Simple Monster Templates, is filled to the brim with these excellent resources. Many of the templates within this book include quick rules that can be used to modify a creature in a few seconds, perfect for the last minute additions a DM might need, though a few of the templates only include rebuilding rules, including some of the templates that stretch the label "simple" beyond the breaking point.
While all of the templates in this book were presented well, in my opinion, a few of the templates within definitely stand out from the rest.
First, the Afflicted creature template is quite simple in concept, a creature which is suffering from an affliction or curse that losers its defenses and abilities, but provides a wealth of possibilities to to a DM. As a CR -3 template, this template could be of excellent use to DMs whose players tend to know exactly where a certain monster falls on the CR scale. Having a creature 4 or 5 CR above the players with this template allows a DM the chance to center an adventure around an iconic, powerful enemy that might be too strong for the characters otherwise. You could even provide a way for PCs to be the ones who cause the affliction in the first place, giving them a way to weaken a powerful creature before taking it on. There are numerous possibilities for this template to be part of an adventure beyond simply changing the mechanics of a monster, which drew me to it immediately.
Also, the Mist Hunter template had my mind spinning with possibilities. A creature that creates its own fog, and attacks from it without being troubled by it, seems to be a perfect fit for any number of foul or undead beings. Facing something, or a number of things, that strike hard and melt back into the fog, perhaps eerily silent or else babbling or shrieking with maddened laughter, could make for a difficult and memorable encounter.
Pyrrhic creatures just scream to be the creation of a powerful creature, serving as weak and disposable minions that explode upon their death, dealing a type of energy damage that any self respecting being of power will have made themselves resistant or immune to long ago. This could force PCs to be careful with their attacks, or clever PCs might use this to their advantage once they know about it, maneuvering the exploding creatures together and setting off a chain reaction of exploding minions. In any case the first use of this template is sure to be a shock, and subsequent encounters that include this template will certainly make for some adjusting.
Finally, I can't talk about this book without mentioning the Walking Fortress template. An excellent, nearly page long template that stretches the definition of a "simple" template to the limits, walking fortress does what it says, turns a creature with at least 4 legs into a Colossal version of itself, complete with a fortress on its back. The Walking Fortress creature itself is probably not something you want to face in head to head combat, but could be a fantastic location for the adventure. A ruined island on the back of a long dormant turtle, an invading drow army complete with a command post on the back of an enormous spider, or any number of other scenarios could revolve around the PCs braving the defenders or inhabitants of the fortress in order to get control of or stop/kill the creature from the inside.
I've left out many excellent template but if I talked about them all this review might be as long as the pdf. In the end if you are a DM I can't recommend this product enough. The templates within are excellent ways to spice up monsters that the players know and love, and many of these templates may spark adventure ideas that could lead you to many hours of excellent adventuring.
Goblin Squad Member
