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Pedro Sampaio's page

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So I wanted to share our group's experience, add some insights from our experiences with the Playtest of Part 1, and tell how it ended in a TPK at the boss fight.

Before we begin, I'd like to say our group is very experienced. We play as the same group since 2000 and we play 3.5 and PF1 regularly. My players are very savvy combat-wise, and in our regular games, I frequently have to wrap my head around to build proper challenges to them.

As to the characters, we had:
- Half-elf Monk, with tiger style, DEX/STR focused. AC 17. He was the main front-line.
- Elf Ranger. Archery focused, High dex, AC 17 and wolf animal companion to help tanking.
- Half-Orc Druid, wild order, focused on Dex and Wis, prepared Heal and Burning Hands as 1st level spells.
- Elf Bard, Lore muse. 16 Dex, uses a shortbow as his weapon. Spells known are true strike, Soothe and Fear.

All in all, a relatively balanced party. Now, on to the playtest.

The sewer ooze encounter was a piece of cake. The players took a little (2) damage from the trash explosion, but otherwise dealt with it in 1 round.

For the Burial chamber, the players were sneaking, but were spotted because of their light source. The druid acted first and killed 3 of the 4 goblins with a well placed burning hands, and the last goblin was finished by the monk before they could even act.

The Mindfog fungus Hazard was very fun, as the Druid tried to use Survival to disable the fungus, but kept failing the DC19 check, becoming confused and repeatedly hitting himself with the sickle. He finally gave up and just used produce flame to destroy it. He then used his Heal to patch himself up.

In the vermin den room, I divided the 6 centipedes in 2 groups, in order to roll for stealth. 1 group rolled super high and remained hidden, while the other half was easily spotted by the PCs and combat began. This was where the new initiative rules became EXTREMELY confusing. Instead of just having a surprise round for those 3 centipedes that remained hidden (as it would've been in PF1), I used their stealth checks as the initiative roll, but they used their action to position themselves in the edge of the rubble and readied attacks when some PC appreached the other (now spotted) centipedes. The ranger sent his wolf pet to attack a spotted centipede, but the companion was completely demolished by 2 hidden centipedes attack. He dropped the next round. The wolf then almost died because of death rolls. The players could defeat the centipedes, but sustained a lot of damage. Having no other means of healing they went back to the city to rest and heal up.

When they got back, and since they were away for 2 days, I decided to spice things up a bit, and put 4 goblins investigating the burial chamber. This time, the players sucessfully sneaked and hid behind the pillars. The bard, knowing goblins hated dogs, used ghost sound to imitate do barks and lure the goblins to their location. Then again, the stealth as initiative rules are VERY confusing. I rolled perception for each the goblins and stealth for each of the players, to see if they could have become hidden from them. With their stealth results, some players could sucessfully hide from some of the goblins... HOW the hell do you run that? I don't know if I ran it correctly, but I ruled that hidden characters could ready an action to attack a goblin as soon as they got into range, and then used their superior stealth results as their initiative for the rest of the combat. The problem was that hidden PCs would effectively "lose" their action waiting for the enemies to come closer, while the Seen PCs could act normally from the start. It seem counterintuitive, in practice. Anyway, the players sustained minor damage and continued.

They proceeded to the fountain, spotted the idol and tried to remove it, trigerring the Quasit summons. The battle was overall interesting and balanced. The druid suffered a lot of damage even though he had 16 armor (17 with light shield up), but the +7 bonus to hit from the quasits plus poison plus wolf shapechange was savage. Since the quasits could fly, they could reach almost anyone in the room wih impunity. I think the lack of attack of opportunity for the monk really undermined his ability to be an effective frontliner. The Druid used his one Heal to patch himself up, and the rest of the players drinked from the clear fountain to recover.

None of the PCs were good with Thievery, so they couldn't open the locked door to the south. They went east, detecting the alarm trap. Slowly opening the door, they proceded to the cave with the goblins, the commando and the pyro. Failing a stealth check, the Ranger that was scounting ahead was noticed by the goblins. The battle was difficult at the beginning, as the players were cautious to enter a cave full of goblins and with a grease spell at the entrance (the goblin pyro cast it in his first round). As the mobs could attack with ranged weapons and only one or two PC in the corridor could fire back at them, they eventually entered the cave. The goblins set the trap after the druid failed his jump check (to jump over the grease area) and ended in the area of the trap. However, the druid was able to once again cast a well placed burning hands that finished 3 goblins and hurt the commando. The rest was just the PCs finishing the pyro and commando. They finished healing with a Soothe and the Healing potion and set themselves to the skeleton room.

Now this was a very difficult fight. The only way this didn't end poorly for the PCs was because the Monk was blocked the doorway and fough 3-4 skeletons at a time, instead of all 6. The skeletons with their resistances were almost immune from all damage the party could deliver: The monk couldn't enter Tiger stance as its slashing damage and fought in regular unarmed attacks. The ranger only had his longbow (P), and the wolf bite is P as well. The Druid had a sickle and produce flame, but could get some damage through acid splash. The bard sang and attacked with his shortbow. They slowly but surely chipped the skeleton's HP and won the fight. The monk was badly hurt, end they had to get back to rest and recover once again.

Recovered, all PCs but one had drank from the fountain to replenish their HP (they still had some leftover damage from the day before), so only the bard set off the Statue trap. After that, the players deduced the fountain was protecting them, the bard drank from it to recover and then bypassed the trap the second time around.

Now the boss battle against Drakus. The PCs had to spend 3-4 rounds trying to roll open the stuck door. Drakus positioned himself behind the left statue, whereas his dire rat friend was behind the right statue. The PCs opened the door and the fight began.

With his high Perception of +6, Drakus won initiative. He moved to left side of the doorway and readyed an Strike. The monk assumed tiger stance, Stepped into the first square in front of the doorway in order to attack Drakus without the cover of the Wall. Drakus used his readyed action to Strike the monk, hitting him (he needed a 7 on a D20). The monk hit with one attack, missing the second flurry attack. Next, the ranger moved in and attacked Drakus, but missed. He orderer his Wolf to circle around and flank Drakus with the fighter, which it did with a double Stride. The Druid cast Procuce Flame but missed. The bard sang, and tried to hit with his bow, but missed as well. The dire rat attacked the ranger, hitting with 2 attacks and dealing 5 damage (1 hit and a nat 20, crit). Next round, Drakus reverted his form, and with his +2 to hit and damage, easily downed the monk (1 critical with a nat 20 and a regular hit). The ranger attacked Drakus, but hit with only one attack. The wolf missed both attacks now that he wasn't flanking anymore (the monk was dying). The Monk also failed his first Recovery check, and was now at dying 2. The druid (with a potion) and the bard (with soothe) both healed the Monk, but those actions were essentially wasted, as the Monk could not wake up (he had to pass a DC 17 fortitude save - High DC for a level 3 creature). The rat missed both attacks against the ranger. Next round, Drakus moved next to the ranger, hit him with a crit and downed him. Again, the monk failed the recovery save and wouldn't wake up. The bard cast Fear, but Drakus saved, becoming frightened 1. The druid healed the Ranger. Next round Drakus moved in to attack the Bard, and with a crit (not natural 20) downed him. He then moved to the Druid. He tried to escape, but was soon overwhelmed. the monk and the Ranger never woke up (they couldn't pass the DC17 fort save). So that's it. A TPK.


As stated, please cancel my Pathfinder Adventure Path and Roleplaying Game subscriptions.

Thanks in advance,

Pedro Sampaio


I am sad to inform about the terrible quality the USPS has been offering as of late. Almost every single order from my subscriptions for the past 6 months has had some damaged books, with signs of bad handling of the package itself, such as the most recent one (Paizo order #3194731), which came with a corner of the package torn out. This obviosuly resulted in damage to the contents inside, such as cover of the books, signs of bending, sometimes even with shearing of the cover, especially the softcover AP volumes. I do have pictures of the books and the package from this last order, if it would be of any help.

I am aware that, as I live in Brazil and this is an international order, some risks are involved when handling the package over great distances. However, I subscribe to SEVERAL international magazines (including Nature, National Geographic, Neurology, among others) and frequently buy books from Amazon.com, and yet they NEVER arrive in such bad conditions. This for me is a strong sign that the problem does not lie with the Brazilian postal service, and is instead a problem within the USPS, for whatever reason.

I would very much prefer to stay a Pathfinder subscriber, mainly because I want to support you guys in the best way possible. So please, try to find a solution to this. Perhaps using another type of package, one that maybe costs a little more but offers more protection? Maybe offering an alternate shipping company? Whatever the case, I just wanted to add that I want to see these problems solved, because I don't want to be forced to cancel my Pathfinder subscriptions.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the small rant,

Pedro Sampaio


Due to customs here in Brazil being ridiculous for non-books products, the price of the Pathfinder minis will become prohibitive for me (I'd have to pay about 2 to 3 times the original price!). So, please cancel my Pathfinder Battles subscription.

Thanks in advance,

Pedro Sampaio


So... I wrote in another thread (Mangrum's Legacy of Fire Conversions [and NPC Stat Blocks]) that I intended to expand the last chapter of Legacy of Fire, but because that would derail the original thread's subject, I decided to create a different thread to post my ideas. Also, if anyone has any ideas, criticisms or personal experience from your own campaigns, you'd be more than welcome to share it here!

Now, let's get down to business. First, what were the reasons for me to think that an expansion for LoF would be awesome:

1. My players have been begging to reach level 20 for a very long time. The last time we played till max level was in 2003 using WotC's published adventures for 3E (the ones that told the story of Ashardalon, or so I recall). Since then, we always stopped between mid-high level, but never actually got to 20 again. And now, with Pathfinder's new level 20 awesomeness, they're all craving for that little extra power!

2. My players, since AD&D 2E, always wanted to fight against the dreaded Tarrasque. I know Xotani isn't THE tarrasque, but it's close enough. I even think Xotani is even cooler (or hotter, some might say), and I guess my players will think it too. As a result, the idea of a Xotani revival at the end of the Final Wish is too tempting to leave aside.

That said, however, I'm a busy person (damn you, real life!), so I haven't the time nor the disposition to expand the AP for about 2 whole new levels (my players will be about level 18 after they defeat Jhavhul). So here's what I came up with:

Jhavhul will be about 1 wish short of completing the ritual. However, when he dies, his life essence will be the last drop of mystical energy required for Xotani to revive itself. I'll give my players a couple of rounds to leave Xotani's cave, but after that, I plan to have one last battle against Xotani in the heights of the Pale Mountain.

As was told throughout the AP, Nefeshti empowered the Templar's through wishcraft (which, as I understood, effectively gave them levels, among other things), so it stands to reason that she could give the player's enough power for them to reach their fullest potential (in other words: level 20). Given that Nefeshti is in part resposible for Xotani's revival, she decides to help the players, using her wishcraft to its fullest potential and thus also redeems herself (given her Lawful nature, I think that's somewhat reasonable). She dies in the process, because she's empowering 4 beings that are already strong. I'm still deciding if there will be conditions to be met for this powerup work, as she did with the Templars (they would only have power as long as they served Nefeshti).

In any case, empowered by wishcraft, the player's power level might be enough to fight Xotani. I'll probably using the updated version from the PFSRD (link), which is based on the Pathfinder RPG Tarrasque, with some modifications. However, I think I'll use some power ups for Xotani as well, upping its CR to 25. I'll post more on that later.

Well, that's it. Any sugestions?


Hello good folks at Paizo! I think I'm having some issues with Order # 1778424. I am pretty sure I opted (and payed) for USPS Priority Mail on August 17 and was properly charged for $135.97. Now that I am checking my orders, I see that my order was in fact shipped as Standard Postal Delivery (in 2 packages). Could someone please check this? I am pretty sure I ordered as USPS Priority, though I'm not 100% sure now.

Thanks in advance,

Pedro Sampaio


Sorry if this had already been brought up, though I did search the forums and found nothing on the subject so I decided to start a new thread.

My question is: when you roll a natural 20 on a caster level check (such as when you cast a Dispel Magic) do you automaticaly succeed, regardless of the target DC? Or to put in another way, in the case of a Detect Scrying spell, when you have an opposed caster level check, if someone rolls a 20 is it an automatic success? Or you still have to see if your result (roll+caster level) beats the opponent's result?

Thanks in advance!


Hello good folks! Well, my current campaign is ending somewhere in the near future (we're finishing RotRL) and since I'm GMing our next campaign, me and my players started to wonder which AP to play next.

As some might have noticed my replies on other threads, Carrion Crown is a strong possiblity. I already read it once, I'm starting to read it again and already took some notes about things I will add and so on. However, Legacy of Fire is another AP that I'm very inclined to play, and so are my players (though I haven't read it thoroughly, I only read the campaign outline and the adventure summaries). So far, I would say we are 50/50 on which one to play next.

So I kindly ask those that GMed/played any or both APs for ways that I could explain to my players what they should expect from each one, without spoiling the story, etc... That way, I guess I'll find the one my players are more interested in right now.

Thanks in advance!


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Having just read The Harrowing PF Module (link), I'm very inclined to using it in my campaign, not only because of the sheer awesomeness of the mudule, but also because I wanted to expand the importance the Harrow Deck in the AP, even if that meant changing the module's background. Because of the level requirement, I think it would fit best between Bronken Moon and Wake of the Watcher, though I am unsure as to how to insert the module into the story.

Any ideas would be most helpful!

Thanks in advance!


Hello good folks at Paizo.com! I'm having a minor issue with my Pathfinder AP subscription. I have recently started the AP subscription with Carrion Crown #1. Since I'm a Pathfinder RPG subscriber as well, I choose to "Hold subscription items to ship with my Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription". Until this morning, Carrion Crown was due to be shipped (alone) on march.

However, just bought the Inner Sea World Guide, and chose to ship with my AP subscrition (since CC#1 and the World Guide both release in March). But now, no matter how I try, Carrion Crown #1 and the World guide are all being combined with CC#2, and so will only be shipped on mid-April.

So, my question: I don't mind waiting for the physical product till mid april (since I will pay less for the shipping), but does that mean I'll have to wait till April to get both the pdfs for the World Guide and CC#1? Because in that case I'd prefer to have those 2 items shipped as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Pedro Sampaio


Hello everyone! I'm kinda new to the forums here (I think this is my second post or so) so I apologise in advance if any of these questions have been answered elsewhere.

So I'll be GMing Kingmaker in the next months. My group of players consist of old friends of mine, we've been playing D&D since 2000, and our game sessions will mostly consist of 2 to 3 monthly sessions of 5-6 hours each. That said, after reading through all 6 books, I still got some questions:

1) How long (usually) does it take to complete a turn in kingdom building? In other words, excluding the event phase of course (which could take a whole session all by itself), how much time is usually spent per turn doing all the number crunch?

2) I'm already antecipating this, but I'm pretty sure my players won't be comfortable with only one of them being the "ruler", so I'm thinking of an alternative (something like a "parliament"), where the ruler would be more like a "prime minister", elected among the PCs every year or so. Any suggestions on how that could be done?

Thanks in adavance!

Cheers


Dear Paizo,

This Saturday, February 5, I placed an order on Paizo's online store. Yet today I received these two emails:

First email wrote:


Dear Pedro,

Thank you for placing Paizo Order # 1569308, submitted February 5, 2011 at 06:02 PM (America/Sao_Paulo).
We are eager to ship your products, but we need your help. When we requested authorization for your order, we received a "transaction declined" message from your bank. Please contact your bank to resolve this issue. Once the issue has been resolved, please notify us so we can complete your order.

If we don't hear from you by April 8, we will cancel this order.

This order contains the following items:
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #37: Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (Serpent's Skull 1 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition @ 19.99 = $19.99
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #38: Racing to Ruin (Serpent's Skull 2 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition @ 19.99 = $19.99
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #39: The City of Seven Spears (Serpent's Skull 3 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition @ 19.99 = $19.99
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #40: Vaults of Madness (Serpent's Skull 4 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition @ 19.99 = $19.99
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #41: The Thousand Fangs Below (Serpent's Skull 5 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition @ 19.99 = $19.99
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #42: Sanctum of the Serpent God (Serpent's Skull 6 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition @ 19.99 = $19.99

Payment Method:
[redacted]

You can change the payment method for this order at:
https://secure.paizo.com/paizo/account/payment

You may view your order online at:
https://secure.paizo.com/paizo/account/orders/v5748a8i2v4f0

If you have any issues with the URLs above, or any further questions or concerns, please contact us at customer.service@paizo.com.

Thank you for your business.

Best regards,
Paizo Customer Service
customer.service@paizo.com

And the second one, just after the first:

Second email wrote:


Dear Pedro,

A package containing 6 items from Paizo Order #1569308 is about to ship from the Paizo warehouse via USPS Priority Mail, estimated 6 to 10 business days in transit.

Shipping Address:
[redacted]

The following products are included in this shipment:
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #37: Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (Serpent's Skull 1 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #38: Racing to Ruin (Serpent's Skull 2 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #39: The City of Seven Spears (Serpent's Skull 3 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #40: Vaults of Madness (Serpent's Skull 4 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #41: The Thousand Fangs Below (Serpent's Skull 5 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition
1 x Pathfinder Adventure Path #42: Sanctum of the Serpent God (Serpent's Skull 6 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition

This order has been processed and finalized for shipment. It can no longer be altered.

You may view your order online at
https://secure.paizo.com/paizo/account/orders/v5748a8i2v4f0

Thank you for your business.

Best regards,
Paizo Customer Service
customer.service@paizo.com

If understood it correctly, my order is ok now and these items were shipped, although I wanted to be sure. Therefore, I kindly ask for the current situation of my order.

Thanks in advance,

Pedro Sampaio