James Jacobs' official take on this is that it is not possible due to there being no more Thassilonians around or something, and also did not want to encourage it. His exact words are in his AMA thread here on the forums. Personally, more power to you and our players if you try to come up with something. I'm sure you've got some good ideas in mind.
It seems to be the season for ressurecting threads, so... I'll join in!Can the shield guardian upgrade work with Timmy? Bawww. I missed that it was dead. Somebody mentioned in a another thread and I assumed it read current. Can you make a wax golem of a homunculus?
Timmy's high cost makes him an excellent war machine for a wizard monarch. I can't imagine a dragon being willing to spend that much of their treasure for it unless they had several legacies of dragon treasure hoarded. Can the shield guardian upgrade work with Timmy?
32) Owlbear There is no price for an Owlbear, but Owlbear blinders exist. It stands to reason that they can be trained.
31) Golems. I have a awakened chicken Wizard who rides his stone golem (it's in the shape of an owl bear).
Does the character believe that helping the poor creates dependence? A character of a Objectivist persuasion (See Ayn Rand) that believes in Good might say the below. "You'll keep society from reaching it's ideal structure. By helping the poor, you are creating dependence. By helping the poor, you are making society less efficient by rewarding those who lack merit/skill/experience." "The best way for society to help the poor is to provide employment in public/private sector so they can earn an honest wage and build themselves up." Someone who has read economic history of Earth or Golarion will know of examples where misguided attempts generosity and altruistic goals cause economic damage by collapsing industries or causing inflation. "Redistribution of money and goods without a complete overhaul of the economy will cause more problems than help economically. This is a complex problem that cannot simply be solved by throwing money at the problem. Otherwise, the Gnomish money catapult would have been the best invention." Are all Lawful Good characters activists? Heck no! You might believe that it's sad that people suffer in poverty... but you don't have to lose sleep over it either. "Someone else will take care of that, there are bigger fish to fry for a hero like me (Demon/Dragons/Cthulhu/Tucker's Kobolds)! My actions enable those do gooders to not die from Wormy spellcasters and Efreet warlords! They would be nothing without me! Remember that! I follow the laws. I open doors for old people. It's counter-productive for me to use my time & energy to handle a social problem that I have no background or knowledge in, and that no other hero, monster or deity has solved thus far. NOT. MY. PROBLEM. Please just let me drink my grog and get hammered. I'm on break!" Another example: Captain Hammer from Dr Horrible's Sing Along blog. He is Neutral (at best) and only "cares" about the poor as much as it takes to seduce Penny. I used to live in China. Interesting place, very different culture. In everyday Chinese communitarian philosophy, altruism is not a common virtue (this does not describe all Chinese nationals, but it does describe many individuals in Mainland China). I encourage you to learn more if this unusual to you). There is a Chinese word and cultural concept called guanxi (connection/relationship). Think of a ring of concentric circles, with yourself at the center. You share your center circle with your family and closest friends. The next circle might be your co-workers, schoolmates and neighbors. The circle outside that may be more tenuous in linkage to yourself, but still somehow important to your daily life. As for everyone completely outside If a person is outside your guanxi circles, you don't owe them anything. For an adventurer, your closest circle can be your family, your party, and the next circle includes your friends (but not ones you might be willing to risk yourself for), and that could be it for your character.
Samsarans - They reincarnate. It's their schtick. Perhaps your character believes that the poor will reincarnate into the poor, and the rich will reincarnate into the rich, or perhaps that Good (or simply better people if you are a d**k noble) reincarnates into wealthy while inferiors are justly reincarnated into poverty. Self-centeredness is not an evil trait. Greed can be good, "My accumulation of wealth and spending it stimulates the economy. I am a job creator." PS. I'm sure someone disagrees. Violently. It's an alignment thread. Gods help us all. EDIT: Formatting
What sports are popular in Golarion? There are gods of competition (Kurgess) I believe, but I have limited knowledge of the world. I imagine there are races, fighting, and jousting. Are there ball sports? Is use of magic in sports controversial for some or all? Are there magical competitions or monstrous ones (cockatrice fighting rings, etc.)?
That thread title... I know it's a legitimate question, but I immediately thought of Yahoo Answers.
29. Dress them up in 200 gp royalty clothes... that you stole (unnoticed) from the richest person in town... allow goblin babies to vomit on stolen clothes... place babies where rich person will find babies and has a comfortable viewing point... eat popcorn. If the rich person harms the babies, blackmail them for money on threat that the adventurers will tell Mikaze. Gods help that rich person.
Despite the danger, Rabbit possesses an ability to use knowledge checks and take ten. 10+12 = 22. Success! I identified a troll. I think the proposition made earlier by Quintain that equates "taking 10 on climb checks" as "giving everything to the players" is sad. Not old school, just sad. I get that you want climbing to be dangerous and use your own house rule. What do your players think? Do they come back for more than one campaign? Do they love it and how much you it makes you happy to have this house rule? Ive sent my imp Wesley to your PCs to send a box of rings of feather fall to your players. I don't want them to get hurt further. I also included pillows and sheets so they can settle in for a long night of Clifffinder.
If there is a market price difference of 250 gp, those paladin are heavily incentivised to produce due to the gap. Paladins are only LG, one could even say the most LG of LG. There aren't enough around to put clerics out of business. However, they can make loads of money selling these to merchants or priests of any creed, reinvest profits and fund poverty fighting programs, charities, crusades against evil, recruiting or rebuilding infrastructure. They may share profits of the 250 with merchants, depending on competition. The paladin with low strength and constitution but good brains and a honest soul is the overlooked heart of a Paladin Organization. He listens wisely to his elder mentor, the arthritic Seelah, "Do not overlook the importance of your duty. Money moves mountains, potions profits power Paladin projects and prayers. Each potion enables our mission and - WHAT ARE DOING PUTTING ASPHODEL IN THERE YOU NINCOMPOOP!"
Out running a construct is tough. While you can safely hustle for 4 hours by level 5, I get the feeling that your GM is not prepared for you to escape the dungeon in the... underground? I can sympathize with your GM regarding making realistic dungeons etc. That said, not all realism is fun. What's fun in one group can founder in another. I am running two campaigns ofthe same material, a sandbox underground game. I've seen it happen already and I have learned from my mistake to adjust the pace with one group to promote interest. I have made this exact mistake as a DM in 3.5 when a player made a Beguiler (enchantment/illusion caster). I made a golem/undead dungeon. He was annoyed but I made sure to arm him with a scorching ray wand as loot first. It also was temporary and he was back to normal after two sessions. You are right about the sneaking/running option. That is tough when you can't get agreed to hide. However, sometimes the fighter needs to sober up and put the armor away. I don't know if that would be suicide for your fighter, but you do need more options. Can you have your party lure enemies into an ambush? Bards are great at getting attention. Ghost sound, illusions, and ventriloquism, plus just playing your songs loud.
I know I prefer my games with rock men and small, potion-making robots to be as realistic as possible. Lmao
Cool! I wanted to post in here that I am using slivers in my campaign. There is a hook that the PC's will get next session that they can choose to take or not (that is to say, I run a sandbox campaign, so they may get distracted). They unknowingly offed the Cleric of Cthulhu responsible for bringing them back into the world in an unusual turn for an encounter. If they don't take the lead after x units of time the slivers will expand beyond their first hex and start to grow much faster. I will post a battle report when they have engaged. The players have 3 people who have played magic (2 of which have played my sliver deck :D)
My boy's attempt to say New York city, came out suspiciously sounding like New Orc city. I suppose the gamer in me is rubbing off on him.We are proud of our Orcish population. In new York they say I'm Orcish, in Miami they say I'm Hobgoblin, and in LA they say I'm Tiefling.
I have never actually had a player use any of the planar binding spells in my experience. I haven't ever explicitly give my NPC's wishes after the fact (now seems like the right way to build high level villains), but I do sometimes just generate NPCs with normal stat rolls that wild out them above the heroic NPC block, because heck yeah. I max out the hit points of major foes (keeping the added difficulty in mind) because it would make the villain more memorable. Back on point, foes with mythic surge are tough.
This sounds really encouraging. I love hearing about this. When I have kids someday I hope to do something like this.
many contributions of value I couldn't agree more regarding building NPC's and monsters correctly. I for a long time had grappled with rocket-tag problems. The action economy is extremely important, and even a tough solo creature can lose easy. The answer is more mooks, and more than one encounter per day as the rule rather than the exception. Here's some fun things with the limited use/gear column in the CRB. Basic level - limited use (gp)
This amount can be use for alchemical items, potions, partially used wands, poisons, and scrolls. Here are some items that all cost less than 100 gp each. Acid - 10
That's the short list
THE UNDERWORLD SLAVER HAS FOUND YOU, DUERGAR INQUISITOR. Hide yo' kids, Hide yo' wife. Let me know if the link fails. Please let me know if this is cool, OP, not OP enough, interesting, boring, etc.
Is there knowledge that you have that he doesn't? While he can always shoot first and ask questions later (speak with dead), knowledge is power and might save you. Too bad you don't have glibness - lying with +30 is always a good plan. You could convince the town that he is evil and you'd at least be safe from the court of public opinion until someone does proper divination. He might even get run out of town if you are lucky. Underdark/Darklands is a little harder for him to get you. Go there - that wizard doesn't need to follow you to a place that he would not want to go alone.
As a DM, this happens to me one every 2 campaigns on average. Good luck fighting the wizard. Fight dirty. Fight from a room that he can find, but keep the traps hidden. Set the room to collapse. Use nets and thunderstones - spellcasters hate being deafened. Or get a lion to protect yo' $#!% man. The reincarnated and research the wizard plans are my vote.
Inevitable Kolyaruts. Very specific damage reduction, SR, fast healing, as well as Enervation at will. The two times I threw these at PCs they were defeated through burying them while unconscious and healing or wiping their memory.
I was working on my campaign making some Duergar NPCs when I noticed a powerful synergy in feats and Duergar spells. Assuming a 5th level character as the base example. Step one: Duergar Race (note that Duergar are Dwarven subtype, and qualify for Dwarf feats)
Optional feat: improved natural armor
Natural Armor Bonus to AC at level 5: +7 BEWARE THE IRONSKIN CLAN OF DUERGAR.
Never know when I might need some free prebuilt dungeon levels. Dotted. For real. Dotted. Broken zenith, thanks for sharing
You want grim dark, ill give you grim dark. At one point, have your PCs interact or encounter Death's Choir. What is Death's Choir? An encounter I ran in my grim dark setting. It is an army or simply squads of children of civilized races brainwashed ( through non-magical and/or magical means) into becoming Child soldiers with fanatical loyalty. They are called Death's choir because they sing f-ed up songs about unspeakable acts. I used goblin stats as a short cut. Then mass bull strength+ mass enlarge + greatswords. Also, Tucker's Kobolds. Edit: the face on my paladin player's face was priceless. Party nearly lost against Deaths choir because the person insisted on knocking every child out and used positive energy to heal them when people used lethal force. A PC, and a beloved DMPC were killed on the battle. Lol
The Remorhaz. It's CR 7, but they can easily TPK an unprepared party. Huge, immune to fire and cold, causes 8d6 fire damage when touched (once it's angry - not hard), DC 19 fort save to avoid your weapon taking for damage, swallow whole (2d6+9+8d6 fire), CMB+21 grapple. The person who gets bit/swallowed first need to hold on while the party kills it - super rough. This monster has inspired terror in my parties for years. That's why I made intelligent spellcasting civilisation-building versions for my homebrew. *evil laughter* Edit:forgot the 20 ft burrow speed and tremorsense. They get the drop on pc's, pretty much guaranteed. They suck to fight.
89) The PCs met through a joint drug trip. 90) The PCs meet because one of them has to move an unwieldy load (perhaps treasure, perhaps a body). 91) The PCs know each other as political organizers in an election with literal backstabbing.
For thread reference. The Riptide Project is an excellent way to introduce slivers to the campaign setting.
Another thought. The range of the Hive mind has not been indicated. Perhaps have it scale as the you have bigger slivers? Queen Hive mind may extend 5 mile, while the overlords can extend 10 miles and the Hive Lord can extend for 20 miles? What happens when a sliver loses its hive mind? Are they confused? Do they act instinctively? What are a sliver's instincts? Do slivers need to eat, drink, or sleep? I realize I know almost nothing about slivers.
My thoughts are these. Trying to calculate the CRs on these will be tough. Different abilities interacting in unexpected ways, plus the initial lack of knowledge will make them very very tough, even the little guys. Best guess, add a +1 CR to the base slivers for two different slivers in a combat after after the first (1-2 CR+, 3-4 CR +1, 5-6 CR+2). That is an untested guess - use your best judgement. Do a test run of encounters with a similar team to your PCs to see if they are tough/weak for their abilities. Next focus is who is fighting them. If you have low level adventurers (3-5) fighting these guys, then the Queen should be CR 5 maybe max CR 6 by herself (more hit dice, maybe toughness or saving throw feats, improved natural armor or improved natural attack), since she will likely have more types near her that will boost her CR. For the Overlord and hive lord, will they accompany the Queens? If so, they should have CRs maybe in the range of CR 7-8 for the Overlord and CR 9-10 for the Hive Lord. If that is too low (e.g. you want slivers to be a higher level threat), those should be adjusted as high as you want Slivers to be a playable and credible threat. In that case, my suggestions are Overlord should be 9-12 CR, and the Hive Lord 13-17 CR. More appendages/attacks as size increases would increase their danger/damage.
I like your stat blocks, althouh my suggestion would be to increase the hit dice of the queen, overlords and hivelord. PCs will naturally shoot/attack the big boss sliver, so it needs to be able to be tougher, especially since it's what ties the hive together. The reverse idea is if you make it vulnerable, it's going to need to be cowardly to maintain control. A thought: slivers are smart enough to use magic items. I don't recall seeing opposable thumbs or fingers really in the art. Since we have made the jump to Pathfinder from Mtg, we don't have to be locked into the same cards. Illusion Weaver Sliver - Sliver may use the spell silent image at will as a spell like ability. Stalker Sliver - Slivers may use invisibility 3/Day as a spell-like ability. Dragon Sliver - Slivers gain an 40 ft line or 20 ft cone elemental breath weapon (fire, cold, electricity, acid, sonic) that deals damage equal to their # of hit dice in d6s (so 3d8 does 3d6), reflex save dc (10 + 1/2 hd + Con mod) for half. Recharges 1/minute. Arcane Sliver - Slivers may use magic missile for 1d4+1 damage 3/Day. Siren Sliver - Slivers may fascinate targets as the Bard ability for (4 + Cha Mod) rounds/Day. Cave Sliver - Slivers have tremorsense 30 ft. Bloody Sliver - Slivers' melee attacks cause 1d4 bleeding damage per round that does not stop until a Dc 20 heal check or magical healing.
I have multiple locations like this in my world. In the LG nation of Nomit, evil prisoners that won't repent/become good are turned to stone before they die of old age and their statues are stored away so their souls never go to hell to enrich/empower fiends. The inevitables are kinda pissed off about the whole system.
88) The PCs are co-litigants in a class action lawsuit in a country that practices trial by combat.
71) PCs meet while waiting to be executed, right before a dragon attacks. 72) PCs meet while seeking advice from a retired adventurer, who was an adventurer just like them until she took an arrow to the knee.
Look forward to it. I had tossed a similar idea around in my head and it is a great idea for high CR fights with tactical depth. I have a sliver deck. I combed through it for some ideas, based on the fixed bonus concept put forward by Umbral Reaver. Galerider Sliver Slivers gain 60 ft Fly Speed.
Please let us know what you've got when complete :)
68) PCs meet while in Quarantine.
58) Colossus of the War God In the harbor of the capital city, there is a 200 ft tall copper statue in the shape of the War God. In ages past, the Colossus would come to life to defend the city. It has not come to the city's defense in centuries, but the capital city continually sponsors researchers and adventurers to try to find ways to reactive the great Colossus.
Did everyone take ranks in perform, or were some audible illusions utilized? Both. 61) The PC's all used to work in a restaurant together, until all being fired and replaced with unseen servants by the new boss, an ex-adventurer.
59)There is an open audition for five spots in new boy band (or wotnot), and the PCs must heed the call. Part 1 concludes when they beat out the competition and must choose a band name. Then the trouble begins... In a previous game, our party formed ranks around the bard to form our band, "Pelor and the Sunshine Band".
40) The PC's meet at a speed dating event. An advantage of this one is that it forces the PCs to have a response for questions that other participants would ask - ones that form character background. "Hi! What is your name? Where are you from? What do you do? What's your family like? Do they live near here?" 41) PC's were orphans adopted as children by their guardian. Twist #1 - guardian dies or goes missing at campaign start. Twist #2 - Their guardian is not human (ex. Dragon, hag, giant, worg, celestial, beholder, etc.) 42) The PC's meet because the discover they are all dating/having sex with the same person. It is not yet determined if the person in question is spellcaster, a doppleganger, or if the person is not a person but in fact a spell (an illusion or a summoned creature). 43) The PCs are connected by arranged marriages. 44) The PCs meet at a polyamory meetup. In Golarion, this could be sponsored by Calistria or Desna. 45) The PCs meet at a kink event. In Golarion, this event could have connections to Zon-Kuthon.
25) The PC's have been restored from petrification after a run-in with a Medusa or a Basilisk.
This thread focuses on the nucleus of all adventures and campaigns - where the party starts. The tried and true method is to start in a Tavern, but what if you want to try something else? Presented for your benefit.. 1) PCs are locked in a jail together, with no memory how they got there. 2) PCs are viewing a large protest against occupying military forces when the protest gets ugly. 3) Two separate parties of PCs discuss forming a new adventuring party at the wedding of two NPC party members. The NPCs met while adventuring as a joint two party mission, fell in love, and decided to settle down and start a family, while the other adventuring members are still going to continue adventuring. 4) 2 surviving PC parties discuss plans for rescuing/avenging comrades after an adventure gone wrong. 5) The PCs, currently strangers together on a passenger ship, must work together when pirates attack. 6) The PCs are gathered in a law office or temple to hear the will of a person that has named each PC in the will.
While we wait for Attiles, check this out: photo from the battle that nearly disrupted the birth - the attempted Z-section birth.
Game is today! Any last RSVP's for Tiamat's baby shower? You can play pin the heads on the Queen of Tyranny! I am glad everyone has been entertained by the plot twist in our campaign. Please wish our heroes and expectant father good luck!
That is best idea I've heard for generating a good Kingdom Building map (something I really struggle with). What mods do you use, and are there any other handy tricks? I did something like this, but I adapted mine from a Civ IV map (as the macro scale map) and each square was 45 miles to a side. If you want to generate a campaign world from scratch, assign the starting civs to any culture/race/nation concept you want and let them organically start. Same goes with religions. It's interesting to see unexpected patterns emerge for civilizations (such as Orcs specializing in sailing or Gnomish theocracies). You can also roll dice on the city states to generate interesting sub-cultures. The worlds always feel organic and new. I would add that one should consider underwater, underground and cloud civilizations (if present) when creating your world. It's easy to overlook but knowing what's there is pretty important in a sandbox. Back on topic though, Arcanist arrived after I built my world. I feel the same as Thelemic - I try to make a world that is internally consistent and as reasonable in a real world sense as possible for a fantasy game. I haven't yet decided on this question yet, but my current thought was to have it's "sudden appearance" explained as an emergence from recent obscurity. It was once a more common class, but the arcanist tradition had been in great decline until the past century. Now it is making a comeback.
Large corporate banks are run by many types. Primarily though, they are run by people who seek to benefit themselves, their friends and investors. The current era of finance highlights all of the companies who have been shady in their dealings in the media. We may hear about cover ups as well. The reasons and circumstances for cover ups are songs good intentioned (save a friend) and sometimes not (avoid getting yourself sacked for being criminal or stupid). The corporate structure prefers it's Chaotic aligned people at the top that are flexible strong leaders, whereas the lower ranks are filled with relatively content Lawful aligned people and frustrated Chaotics. The evil/good axis on banks is less clear. Exploiting "Muppets" is ill- intentioned, and sometimes illegal. OTOH, there exist very strongly Good- aligned people from top to bottom. They do good for people inside and outside the bank (charity, going beyond your job requirements to help, promoting political reform). If sleazy attitudes characterize the organization, these people either try harder to make up for their bank's incompetence or become frustrated with being unable to change things positvely, like Voska66 has pointed out. My experience in banking shows that harm is more often from incompetence as from malice, and that cover ups usually start from a small group covering something up rather than the organization conspiring for evil. I argue that corporate banks are more often led by Chaotic leaders, but run as Lawful Stupid. We inside the organization empathize with customers and clients, and be unable to help due to legal and regulatory reasons. Tl; dr - not all bankers on wall street are evil, but we hear the most about the evil and chaotic ones because they make the news.
1 - Future Predictor's Shrine/House/Tent - Adepts, Diviners, Oracles, Clerics, Shamans, or fraudulent fortune tellers. Resources - divination spells of levels up to settlement's max spellcasting available here. The future teller will also have information on who else has procured his/her services. Likely to have contacts/superiors that they pass information on too. May also perform free services for ceremonies and religious/civil services.
Thanks Nessus. My first campaign in 3.5 had fun with this item - converted a NE Entropomancer boss character to NG. I pose this question because I have designed a utopian country in my world that is dogmatically lawful good and have a lawful good state religion ruled by divine right given by said lawful good deity. The country's government detects alignments everywhere in public. Neutral characters are tolerated, but evil characters are treated with disdain and sometimes bigotry. Social pressure in the form of extra friendly neighbors bothering you about your lifestyle (think Ned Flanders), and if necessary, scheduled counseling. People who are convicted of breaking laws (violence, theft) may be confined for rehabilitation, whether in a resort, a jail, or an asylum. Chaotic Neutral or Evil characters who enter rehabilitation that aren't converted to at least neutral get the helmet to the head. Should that somehow not work and the soul can't be saved from the cycle of evil souls going to hell, they turn them to stone. Deep in the earth, there are thousands of petrified evil folk, most of which are old and on the verge of dying of old age.
Suppose a Paladin in the course of her adventures finds a helm of opposite alignment. 1)If the Paladin uses the helm on another being against their will, does it violate the Paladin's code of conduct? 2)Can a Paladin associate with others who use the helm in this fashion? 3)Is use of this item against any alignment? See Helm's stats below.
People rarely mention the existence of petroleum or natural gas in fantasy, due to its association with modern tech. They could use it for arcane purposes. One piece of science fiction from the 20th century posited that petroleum was sentient ooze that wanted to corrupt mankind with its black darkness. You don't need an industrial revolution - remember that crude oil, coal, and natural gas were once dead organic matter - concentrated necromantic fuel. That could fit with a sciency-Drow culture. A different line of thought - some religions have antagonistic figures (God & Satan, Gruumsh and Corellon, Tiamat and Bahamut). Would your Drow have an "Anti" or "Other" deity that opposes the central Drow God(s)/ cultural concept, and if so, would that other be from Surface Elves? Water creatures are fairly normal cave creatures though they tend to be blind. I would be terrified of a non - cave fish as the central Drow animal - Angler fish.
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