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I'm about to run the temple of Asmodeus and I cannot fit this thing on my battle mat. I have a 4' by 8' map and even breaking it up into some pieces I can't get even the first floor on it. What have other people done for running this part of the adventure?

It's rounds/level but fleshcurdle is a good deform target with no damage spell

I have done a few minor retcons here and there. I run mostly published adventures these days although I add some of my own content to flesh out minor things that I know my party is going to be interested in exploring and other things like that. I have had a couple times where something I added in in an earlier book conflicts with something I forgot was in a later book and if I can't adjust it behind the scenes to make sense I will talk to my party openly and let them know hey I need to tweak this or that because I messed up. Keep it short infrequent and be decisive when you do it and it doesn't mess up the narrative flow too much. In regards to the cavalier situation I probably would have left it at original call then spoken to the player. If they were really attached to that character as they weren't dead just calcified I would possibly create an opportunity for them to rescue said character though by no means would it be an easy task.

I'm currently playing an Enchanter (Arcanist) and I'm charging my party 80% (or as my character would say offering a 20% discount) well above what most other people in this thread have said they are marking their prices up and here is why I think it's perfectly reasonable.

It's different than charging for a healing spell or any other spell for that matter. I am not going to charge the party for a casting of haste or any other normal day to day adventuring spell just like our parties cleric isn't going to charge me for healing it makes no sense. Comparing charging for healing spells to charging to make a belt of con +2 is comparing apples to oranges.

Being and Enchanter is EXPENSIVE! I brought my character in at 6th level and spent 10k of my starting wealth on scrolls to scribe into my spell books. A significant portion of the extra wealth an Enchanter gets goes back into the business to make sure you have the spells to make items people want. I'm also planning on making items that make me a better Enchanter such as Gloves of Elvenkind and a Figurine of the Dwarven Forge. The majority of spells in my spell book are ones I'm never likely to cast but are common spells for making items other people want.

Paying for my time. Down time is the biggest cost (other than gold and the feats) for making magic items. Every day I spend making an item for a party member is a day I'm not using to make an item my character wants or needs and that's where the real cost comes in. If a character wants continual flame cast on something I'm just going to ask for the cost of the expensive material component not payment for casting it or expending a spell slot because it doesn't take a significant amount of my time to do.

Most importantly it's in character. My character has been a traveling Enchanter for 25 years. If you do something for a living, you don't just do it for free. You need to think about the character of they were a real person in the situation. Sure you might do a deeper discount or break even job occasionally in the right circumstances but if you have spent years investing your time and energy into a niche skill you want to see a return on that investment as a realistic person.

I'm looking for any references to Nidal I can find for a character I brought into a campaign recently and was wondering if anyone knows of additional material I can read to find out more about the country as my character is from there and I like to know everything I can no reference is too small!
So far I have read through
Inner Sea world Guide
Nidal Land of Shadows
Nightglass (Pathfinder Tales)
Nightblade (Pathfinder Tales)
Every semi relevant article on Pathfinder wiki

I agree its kind of poor form on the players points but as a GM I restrict myself from using these same save or suck/auto out abilities most of the time for the same reason. It isnt fun to sit there with nothing to do if your turned to stone and since everyone is there to have fun it can run counter to the reason everyone showed up to play. I like your idea of decreasing duration behind the scenes to help mitigate it without eliminating it entirely. Another thing I do is use abilities where they can still take actions during combat even if its not at full efficiency. Staggered and comfused still give them a reason to pay attention to whats happening. I had one of my PCs dominated by a vampire a couple sessions ago and told them who they were ordered to attack but left the actual rolls to the player so he wasnt just sitting there.

Ok if it has a straight comparison to another mechanic that is already established then cool. I should probably have looked at those spells when I was originaly looking at traps to figure it out. Kineticist abilities are know to be kind of vaguely written. Thanks for the quick response!

So I recenly came across the Elemental Trap wild talent from wilderness origins and I have some questions on how it works or how other GMs have run it. What I'm struggling with is how to resolve the trap against the primary target. The ability states "This 5-foot square detonates when triggered by a weight of 10 pounds or more, affecting all creatures within 10 feet of the trap with your simple blast (or composite blast, if you have it). Any creature other than the one that triggered the elemental trap can attempt a Reflex save for half damage." Normally a trap requires an attack roll or allows a save for the person who triggers the trap. But this ability doesnt say resolve an attack against the primary target just everyone except the one who triggered the trap gets a reflex save for half damage. With that being the case Im wondering how others would run this. It seems to imply its an auto hit against the primary target but doesnt outright say it.
Thanks!

Thanks for the feed back.

Im going to be running a character soon for a campaign thats starting up and the characters uncle is a follower of Hastur. His uncles family has followed Hastur for generations they are members of the aristocracy but the one detail I have not been able to figure out is why they worship him. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Remember there is a refresh market rebellion action to change available items each week i am planning on doing something similar but having the stores auto refresh monthly as to not invalidate thatRebellion action

I apologize if i wasnt clear enough in the original post instead of having the players upgrade the teams when they recruit them they are at the third tier for example Cognescenti. When the rebellion hits a level where they can recruit a new team have them decide what kind of team they need for the rebellion and in game have some of their supporters keep an ear to the ground for someone who would fit the bill then after a week or so in game have a NPC introduce them to one of the team leaders who would need something before signing on as a full fledged rebel rather then just a passive supporter. After they do the quest they get the team leader who has friends of their own that make up the full team. I think this would help the PCs connect with the teams better and make it a bigger impact if something were to happen to one of them on a mission.

I am about to run Hells Rebels for my group and one of the few things i don't like about the books is how the teams work rather then recruiting genetic teams and paying a little gold to upgrade them I am thinking of having mini quests to recruit team leaders and having them just starts at tier 3 these are the leader concepts and rough quest ideas. I would greatly appreciate feedback especially from anyone who has done something similar. I could really use help with ideas for the Spellcaster team leader and the Cabalists team leader quests Thank you!

ADVISORS

Agitators Team Leader
Licisso Praecus
Male Human Bard
Upset Opera performer who now wants a location to host rebellious plays and operas PCs need to secure a venue for the troup to safely hold their performances.

Cognoscenti Team Leader
Arra Onis
Female Elf Wizard tired of thrune redactions and needs the PCs to recover some soon to be redacted books that she cashed for safe keeping.

OUTLAWS

Spies Team Leader
Kohsa Trueleaf
Female Halfling Rouge ex-slave hoping to turn kintenegro into a hub for the bellflower network needs the PCs to rescue some recaptured slaves.

Saboteurs Team Leader
Trerzutt Thudnuovro
Male Gnome alchemist slightly unhinged demolitionist looking for a chance to rebuild the skyline specifically removing the temple of Asmodeus as well as tired of restricted trade needs PCs to set up new supply routes for him

REBELS

Spellcasters Team Leader
Megelo Gallus
Male Tiefling Cleric of Iomedae needs the PCs to prove they will create a just government if they succeed at overthrowing Thrune. Unsure how...

Cabalists Team Leader
Latensa Tanessen
Female Human Aristocrat unhappy with the influence of thrune in her city views the rebellion as a chance to gain political influence over rival families needs to be convinced by the PCs that the rebellion can be sucessful before she will join. Unsure how...

TRADERS

Blackmarketers Team Leader
Vetus Scipo
Male Human Occultist
Hopes for looser import laws in a new government after having his once reliable suply chains have been disrupted. Needs PCs to secure and retrieve his latest shipment which was confiscated upon arrival to the city.

Trade Lords Team Leader
Captain Avidia Senas
Female Human Swashbuckler upset about eighth proclomation citizen of Kintenegro who's citizenship paperwork was confiscated by the Dattori. PCs need to recover her paperwork

I tend to roll well and as I am the GM my players get shafted by that so i have them roll 4d6 drop the lowest 7 times drop the lowest for 6 stats. If they got crap stats i give them a second try at the 7 rolls and pick which stat line they prefer.

Young wizard with hemophilia who forgot to prepare spells because he was too busy reading

The troop unit type was an interesting play on this i dont think it would scale to army vs army combat but i hope it returns as a way to run mob combats

For my campaigns I simply removed the touch ac in first range increment. This has seemed to balance them mechanically as most combats occur in close range. I am ok with the higher damage die and crit mod as the trade off is misfire, load times (both of which can be mitigated to a point with gear and feats) as well as the lack of relevant loot. Your not going to find a +1 pepperbox in an ancient temple. There is a deed if i recall that lets you resolve as a touch regardless of range which i still allow as there is a limit to the number of times per day which was my problem with the default attack always hitting touch.

It sounds like the player is a team player for the most part and not a murder hobo so you could always make a custom order with similar or even the same abilities but change the fluff to make it work better for rollplay purposes. The goal is for everyone to have fun and as the GM you have the power to change things to make them work for the story.

I usually make anything under the base value available by default if the character is looking for something really specific or over the base value i might roll percentile to see if they can find it. (for example a esoteric material or weird weapon) i just kind of make up the percentile based on how reasonable it seems to me given the city

Thank you all for the feedback! I truly do appreciate it i have been GMing for so long i forgot how to build a character who is going to last more then one session lol. I think I am going to go with hunter with a possible dip in brawler or despite this being a thread about a non ranger poacher a deep diver archetype ranger as I think the manuver based combat would make it very different from any character I have run before. I think i do need to have an animal companion any recomendations? Crocodile is the obvious go to but it starts small size and caps at medium which might not be great. Thanks again for all the input!

I was considering doing something with melee rather then archer because I agree non traditional can be fun. The terrain is going to be mostly swamp so plenty to hide in/swim through. Possibilities for a grappler build that could try to drown targets? Any suggestions on featsir build? The suggestion of unchained barbarian gave me the idea so that would probably be the class if i go that route.

Thank you for the suggestions the forester is pretty much a perfect fit

As of right now Im thinking no animal companion. I realize they are good especially for action economy but its a new GM so not having an animal companion allows for the new GM to focus on fewer things. This isnt to say its not an option by any means but thats why I was thinking of avoiding it. As far as magic i would rather avoid a full caster although that could make for a unique character concept so magic use and degree of such is very much up in the air. I forgot the hunter was a class i will look into that thanks!

A friend of mine is starting a campaign soon and I finally get to play again (been GMing for the past couple years) and for her campaign the characters need to have had some sort of reason they are in jail. Its a wilderness campaign so i was thinking of doing a poacher. Not evil just down on his luck trying to make a living. The problem is which class/archetype? Ranger is the obvious choice but that was my go to back in 3.5 an I would prefer to try something new. So im hoping for some suggestions I am not set on a play style yet could be ranged could be up close.

Slayer I was always a fan of the sneaky characters and the slayer can do almost everything i want in a combat focused sneaky character.

I tend to just have my players roll and trust them not to metagame. On the other hand there are times where its fun for the players to not know if something happened. Example im running book 3 of Carrion Crown which has werewolves and i told the party that i would be rolling their saves against lycanthropy for them in order to increase their sense of paranoia and they are really liking that.

I have played moraly grey characters where they dont fit neatly into an alignment on paper and i have found the best way to figure it out is play a session or two and see how the character actualy plays when faced with outside influences. I had a character i wrote with every intention of him going NE down the road from stuff that happened in his past but at the table he ended up transitioning to CG.

Write up the exact charges and have the evidence the prosocuter will present as well as any witnesses. Then let the pcs decide who will present the defense. Let the party do group roleplay as they plan how to present the defence and maybe call them to the stands as witnesses. For resolving the trial have the character who was picked to represent the defense roll either bluff against the judges sense motive to misslead on the nature of actualy incrimidating evidence. Roll diplomacy against the prosocutions diplomacy for circomstantual or untrue evidence that may be presented. And bluff diplomacy or intimidate during cross examination of an uncooperative witness. If the players roleplay it well consider giving them a bonus on the roll as a reward.

Arcane threads
Arcane Casters 1 (too many these days to write them all)
School: conjuration
Casting time: standard action
Range: close 25'+5'/2 levels
Saving throw: none
Spell resistance: yes
Targets: Up to 5 targets no two of which can be more than 20' apart
Duration: concentration or until used
Sematic and material components (a few strands of spiders web)

You create threads of raw magic connecting to your target (1 target +1 per 3 caster levels max of 5 at 13th) requiring a ranged touch attack. As part of the casting you may choose to attach a light one handed weapon (commonly a knife) the weapon travels along the line resolving with 1/2 your casting stat modifier added to the damage. You can choose instead to hold the lines active and as long as line of sight has not been broken before your next round you can run a spell requiring a touch attack down the line allowing you to resolve the attack as if you were in contact with the target this destroys the line used but does not effect any other lines. If you can make multiple threads you can choose to target one creature with multiple threads or multiple creatures with single threads or any combination there of.

Quick(ish) explination as to why I am working on this. I am GMing a Carrion Crown campaign and we are headed into book 3 which is a werewolf themed adventure. Our party has an inquisitor and the player came to me asking if we could have his character inflicted with lycanthropy. Now this is not a power grab attempt we have a high roleplaying group and he wants his character to have a struggle with his calling as a monster hunting inquisitor so becoming one of the beasts he has been taught to hunt works really well with this arc. The books recommend taking control of the changed character to prevent it from being a power bump but I don't want it to just become a situation where every full moon we tie him up the end. Under the description for lycanthropy it lists a DC to change shape with the implication that a PC looses control of the character but I am looking for a variant that allows the player a chance to use this unstable power but not without the chance of consequences. This is based off the control shape check from the old 3.5 rules but tweaked some. If you fail the control check you loose control of your character and the GM runs them per the books suggestion. This is for an aflicted lycanthrope not on a night of the full moon.

Control shape
Wis based skill (not class skill)
Action full round or swift (to maintain control)

Uses:
Shift form hybrid dc 20
Shift form animal dc 25
Return to normal dc 25 (+1 per minute in alternate form)
When in non base form dc 25 (+1 per minute in alternate form) to maintain control for 1 minute after the first minute. (Effectively making the first minute automatically in the PC's direct control)
Resist forced change from damage dc 20*

*Forced damage check required if you loose more than 1/2 your base hit points in a single round

Try again special: You can retry attempts to change form to hybrid or animal form. Failing the attempt to return to normal form causes you to be stuck in your current form until the next sunrise. Failing the maintaining control check can be attempted again after a minute has elapsed as a swift action.

Beastiary 5 has stats for clockwork familiars although they require the Improved Familiar feat and arent normaly availible until 7th level. Im not familiar with the archetype your looking at so not sure if it gives you early access to it. Here is the link to the prd entry for clockwork familiar http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary5/clockworkFamiliar.html#clockwo rk-familiar

Core only is a good idea for starting out. Possibly comsider running on of the earlier adventure paths as they dont have anything from the later books to add confusion if you do that. The premade adventures have been very useful for me as a GM for balancing encounters in my homebrew campaigns as well. The other big recomendation is you and the other players should work on knowing the rules for your classes. This way the new GM doesnt need to add understanding the ins and outs of the 4 players classes on top of everything else he needs to understand. If you have physical books sticky notes are your friend. But most importantly keep having fun with it and dont get hung up if you make a mistake, its a game and should be fun!

The Mesmerist class from occult adventures gets +1/2 level to bluff pair that with 18 cha (depending on your build points or rolls of course). Go human for 2 feats at first and pick up skill focus bluff and decitful although there are arguments if those feats stack just a heads up.

This gives a bluff at first level of +14 (+1 rank +3 class skill +4 cha +3 skill focus +2 decitful +1 from class ability)

At 10th without magic items (which there are several)your at +33 (10 ranks +3 class skill +5 cha +6 skill focus +4 decitful +5 class ability)

You could also max out linguistics to create forgeries that could back up your bluffs for potential circumstantual bonuses to specific bluff checks.

Easiest way to get around the evil alignment class requirement is "Hey GM I have a really cool character concept. This is what I want to play to make it work mechanicaly but it requires the character to be evil. Can we waive the evil requirement for this character to make the character work?" Paizo constantly reminds us we can make modifications to the system to tell a compelling story. As a story oriented GM myself. Which it sounds like your GM is as well we like to see new types of characters to work with so we can tie in new interesting elements to the story.

I am currently GMing a Carrion Crown campaign with a good aligned gnome undead bloodline necromancer. She was tainted by all the necromantic energy in the area and is using undead to stop the main villans from making it worse. This is obviously house ruling but I as the GM care far more about the rollplay reasoning behind casting necromantic spells rather than the fit all rules of the spell having the evil descriptor. Obviously Paizo needs to include things like this in the base system but it sounds like your GM may be willing to look at it the same way. It does make the party inquisitor VERY nervous around her, and he is trying to convince the party she is going down a dark path and it will corrupt her which has lead to some great rollplay moments!

The Alchemical Sapper from UI caught my eye recently. Its a bomb focused archetype but with more focus on planing ahead with things like their delayed bombs at 1st level and later trip mines. Knowledge engineering as a class skill then later 1/2 alchemist level on said engineering and craft (stonemasonry) also seems pretty dwarfy to me.