Pharasmin's page

I would love that someday! It's the kind of book I'd buy two of because I'd wear through the first copy too fast.

On another note, I'm currently wrestling with Nocticula's ascention; I'm happy to see it happen, but my character is in a wierd position. My current character just recently converted to her and became an evangelist, specifically worshipping her aspects of lust and assassination, but now those subdomains are completley missing.

I don't think my DM is aware of the changes so it likely won't be a focus in the campaign, but I still personally want to know what's going on. I guess the question is, what is the relationship between my lust/assassin based newly converted worshipper and Nocticula? Beyond just "do I keep my class", but along the lines of what does she think of me and others like me?

Hello James, thankyou for your continuous support on this forum. I haven't heard about that holliday yet so I hope you get it soon :)

As for my question, I was wondering what the creature on the cover of Planar Adventures is. It kind of strikes me as a nightmare astradaemon but I feel like that's jumping to a random conclusion. It looks rad and I'd love to use something like that but I can't for the life of me place it.

I've not yet actually read the adventures, though, so yeah—my first step would be to read them and then make decisions. So ... I don't really have any advice or insights for you on how to adjust things. Sorry!

That's totally understandable, and in that case maybe I'll ask in a more general way? When you design your adventures and want to include extra content that supports the themes that you are telling, how do you try to balance the added content with the main focus so that it enhances the story as opposed to distracting or cluttering the story?

Hello James. Over in the Thrushmoor Terror GM reference thread, there's been discussion on switching the skum out for deep ones and having them worship Shub-Niggurath to give them a stronger connection to Ariadna and the Watcher in the Bay. Personally I'm on board with this for when I get to run this, but I was curious how you would go about introducing these themes in a way that enhances the experience as opposed to adding to many disparate plot elements. I feel like it can be done seeing as Ariadna is already part of the plot but I want my players to care most about Hastur and Xhamen-dor. Honestly, I'm still worried about juggling those two alone so any insight as to how you would balance these themes in a supporting way would be great.

Actually, is there anything about Shelyn that you can share that you find is often overlooked or not discussed in the books? She seems like a lovely deity but she's always overshadowed by her brother. I feel like I've heard you say before that Zon Kuthon is not her defining characteristic so it would be great to hear what you think is under appreciated about her.

Personally, I really don't like the idea of giving away the big XD name drop so easily. DC 25 is too low for something that is only known about in rare occult texts. A DC 25 is equivalent to something specific in an area of study, so while it would make sense for most uncommon holy symbols to fall in this category, XD is beyond obscure. If a PC's backstory would explain their knowing (if they are a wizard who studies the dark tapestry for instance), then giving a bit more info would be fine but I'd suggest that you seed things with the symbol. Tell them after making the check that they feel nauseated and uneasy and they don't know why. Or that they recall seeing something reminiscent of the fungal tendrils in the corner of one of Zandalus' sketches. If they make a really good check or use legend lore, reward them with the knowledge that it is not contained in any conventional book and if they want to understand the only way to learn more is to research more obscure texts (which they can find at Iris Hill, maybe from a book with the symbol of XD on it's cover).

The horror of XD comes from the desire to know being tainted and dangerous, so I'd play that up and set things in a way that makes your players want to know. I also really agree with Leedwashere in that making the PC's be vectors is really cool and if they learn about XD at iris hill then the boat ride is a fantastic place to bring out that aspect.

Adding apostles to the fight could work but I treated this encounter in an almost social way. My players new he was wrong in the head and didn't fully grasp the situation so when they confronted him, I had him act friendly (in a very insane way). My players tried getting on his good side and talked to him, with him reciprocating in kind, but all the while I had him casting spells. One of the greatest strengths of psychic casters is that they use emotional and thought based components so their casting can be a lot less obvious. Even once attacks began, I described them in ways that made my players think they were more akin to haunts that were tied to Zandalus, so they still weren't sure if Zandalus was insane with a good heart or just pure evil.

Ultimately, I'd recommend making the encounter wierd and creepy, which is fitting for the final boss of an asylum. Also, probably switch out those NPC levels for Zandalus and play the tatterman viciously to make up for the more social encounter before hand. The best tactics I've seen for the Tatterman are using shadow walk to separate the party and, what I did, using suggestion to isolate a party member after feigning death. There's a fair chance that you kill that pc (most likely by making them sleep and then coup de grace, through having them make a series of secret rolls) and then you can have them continue playing as the tatterman without knowing.

I don't have the book on me right now but I'll just say that the way I ran these encounters was crazy fun and led to the best roll playing of my entire time playing pathfinder.

I'm sorry to hear things aren't going great, hopefully your vacation goes well.

I was wondering how you like to go about messing with player characters and adding plot twists. I've always loved plot hooks that surprize players or recontextualize the character's background, but how do you bring in these surprizes and big changes while not accidentally ruining a players experience? The main issue I find is that these plot hooks are coolest when they are a big reveal and have large impact on the characters on a personal level, however this can really easily remove agency from the player or worse, alienate them from their own character. I'm just looking for some input so I can excite or freak out my players instead of anger them or make them disinterested.