Radu the Wanderer's page

Definitely would have made a significant impact!

It's clear to me now that I was not getting a good look at what the true math of the game looks like, but something closer to a campaign capstone, "this is the big one, so pull out the stops" level of encounter. Or at least some encounters closer to that end of things than intended.

At least against threats close to the same level, it looks like characters have a decent chance of making a difference. I don't mind taking a 50/50 or even a 40% shot if it's something that helps set someone else up for success- if I'm the first to go, I'll definitely go for a trip or disarm, for example, even if my odds are worse. The next player then doesn't have as hard of a time with their strikes and it all plays out like an exciting comic battle with one-two combos.

There's definitely a point, however, where no matter the final result it's just not satisfying to take that chance. Perhaps this recent session wasn't the greatest at demonstrating that, so I'll try to adjust my impressions and keep an open mind for the system as a whole. Being honest, however, I can't say I have much emotional space for many encounters like this in the future, so I'm not sure this campaign will be something I'm participating in. It really did feel that bad, though I was brushing it off at the table as "sometimes these things happen."

I think I'm taking a few lessons away for the future from this discussion about tactics and PF2 design philosophy. I don't know yet if I agree or disagree with where the math sits, but I see very clearly that it's pretty tight and yes, indeed, those +1 modifiers do make a difference.

I'm getting that picture! It's still difficult for me to really see the benefit of a 75/25 crit vs an 85/35 crit, but I do see the main issue of "all your numbers are at least 2 points lower than they are expected to be" turning a "slightly harder than usual" encounter into a "you'd best hope RNG goes your way long enough to live, because you're basically screwed!" encounter.

May do some re-thinking and re-tooling and run a swashbuckler tank type, though- that sounds appealing. There's something I like about a tough nut to crack that isn't using the typical route of sword+board and heavy armor...

Oh, by the way, @Quentin Coldwater, cheers, mate! I love "The Magicians", both the books and the show. :) I'd PM you, but I don't know how/if these forums let you do that.

Yeah, I don't know if I got a good example of what an Investigator can actually do. I got to make a few Devise a Strategem rolls, some Recall Knowledge rolls, and even a few failed unarmed strike escape attempts (unarmed strike was higher than athletics on Prof. Bart). I managed to pick out some interesting info on the Krooths who had me in their jaws a turn before they turned my little guy into coleslaw. "Ooh, they go into a blood frenzy when they get hit hard! How inter--oh there goes my arm!"

I'd scarcely call that a representative sample of what the class really does. :)

---

Funnily enough, I came to the table ready to play a team game and to look for chances to buff/debuff/strategize alongside my party. I was excited to use Dirty Trick, Bon Mot, and Demoralize to debuff and use Devise a Strategem, Recall Knowledge, Known Weaknesses, Strategic Assessment, and Shared Strategem to assist the party and hone in our targeting. I built an Investigator specifically because I like playing a party support/force multiplier type, but didn't want to deal with spells.

I don't remember what the full party is like, but I believe we have a barbarian, a sorcerer, my character, and a monk, and they said that there's an occasional bard player, too.

EDIT:

Yeah, it seems like ancient elf into swashbuckler was more of a trap than a benefit, and without gang-up and that dodge reaction feat I'm suffering for it.

After a bit of coffee and some lunch, I'm feeling much more chill about this. Thanks to all who responded- I appreciate your input and perspective.

Pathfinder 2 may be a good GAME for me, but this may not be THE game of Pathfinder that's good for me. I think that jumping in mid-campaign can often be tricky, and a combination of poor rolls, poor attendance, and a misapplication/misunderstanding of some key rules (reactive strike, knockdown, panache generation) I had an especially bad session, and sometimes these things DO happen.

(As an aside, I've also got some personal stuff happening so I will admit it is 100% possible and even likely I'm not in the greatest baseline to judge the impact of this stuff, particularly when I'm looking at the game as a fun escapist hobby and not a source of additional stress.)

I might need to just have a chat with the group and respectfully bow out of this game and join when they begin a new campaign so I can start from the ground floor, and while I'm at it, I may ask if I can re-tool my rogue to be a sniper instead of a melee duelist- quick swap from the Man in Black to Robin Hood, with maybe a Ranger dip instead of Duelist (I was an Ancient heritage Elf).

I notice one other minor detail in that last post, which I don't think would have changed your larger problems, but which you should probably be aware of. You seem to be using an outdated version of how Panache works. If you Fail, but don't Critically Fail a Bravado action (one that can give you Panache, it is now a trait), you gain Panache that will only last until the end of your next turn.

Oh, that is very helpful. Thank you! That will make attempting finishers easier, at least. :)

I think, after reading through this, maybe it's a combination of several factors. One is that when only 3 people show up, the game is tougher anyway.... another is that we appear to be under-leveled for the threats we're facing. Both good points, and I take them under consideration. I did really try to look for ways to debilitate the enemy, whether through feinting to make it off-guard, tripping or disarming to burn actions, and eventually, running away and using my 40 foot move to stay out of its reach. SUPER HEROIC!!! I ran away and did nothing!!! (this is sarcasm, but accurately conveys the emotional truth of my experience.)

I see many many good points being made about the value of tactics, varying your play, and team work, and I take that to heart. I do appreciate that party buffs, debuffs, positioning, and combos are what makes the game hum, and I like that.... to a point.

What I really hate is the feeling that even with the maximum Deception check I could get at level 7, I don't even have a 50/50 chance of doing the thing that I'm best at. That's incredibly demoralizing, and leaves me feeling useless. If I can't feint to get them off-guard and get a panache going, I can't use my finisher, I can't deal sneak attack damage, and I can't even hit! And, of course, I only have a +11 Athletics check, so if a +17 Deception won't work, why would I even BOTHER trying to trip or disarm my opponent? I'm 6 points down from my best skill, which is already going to fail 65% of the time. So... shooting for a nat 20? Really? That's what being a PC in this game is? No, thank you.

If this is what the math truly is, then it may be that this isn't the game for me. I don't need to be an infallible super-hero, but I do feel like numbers need to matter. And I truly don't feel like they do.

Enemies miss so seldomly that there's little point in trying to get your AC high- even if I had a shield, that +2 would have made absolutely ZERO impact. I still would have been hit by that club, still would have been dealt about 40% of my HP from one hit, and still would have been knocked down. I guess all my AC is doing in that case is making it so that I die in 1 1/2 turns instead of in 1, because he needs to hit me (auto success), trip me (auto success), and then MAYBE roll (which will have a decent chance because now I'm prone). Yep. Sure am glad I have that good ol' 25 AC. What's his attack? +22? Oh. Yeah. Nevermind. I'll start working on the next character to die in the first fight, I guess.....

If my best skill only succeeds 35% of the time, why bother investing in any skill at all? I guess the only point is to get access to the trained only actions, because the numbers do not seem make an iota of difference.

It could be that I'm just demoralized from dying and nearly dying while feeling like an absolute useless lump of HP, but at this point, I don't know if Pathfinder is the game for me. I love the character generation, and how many options and feats you get, and all the cool ways you can create synergies.... but none of that matters when you need it to. Does the math really amount to "Unless you're a fighter, don't bother trying to strike. Unless you're a caster, don't bother trying to do anything else?"

This is like the worst "innovation" over 2nd edition dnd ever. I remember playing a thief in those days. I felt just about as useful then as I do now.

Maybe this impression will get better over time. At the moment, I feel overwhelmed with useless options/actions when I look at my character sheet. There's nothing I can count upon as reliable, which is ironic, since I took assurance in skills which I thought I'd be using a lot.

The GM clued me in on trying to use assurance with Deception against the club dude, saying I should roll instead. What I wish I would have known is that it didn't matter what I did, I just needed to not die long enough for the sorcerer to do the work, and literally any character I could have made could do that job. I don't need all the glory... I am glad to share in it... but I want to feel like I'm more than just a talking hp reserve, and so far nothing I've experienced in this game has led me to believe that I have anything like agency, competency, or relevance. I made a rogue/swashbucker for the fantasy of being a dashing "man in black" type from the Princess Bride. I didn't realize I had made a Keystone Cop instead.

Hey, forums.

I'm a long time gamer, 1E veteran, and a player of numerous game systems. I love games, RPGs especially, and I'm a big fan of Paizo. I wanted to say that up front because I'm about to dive into some issues I've been experiencing, and I hope that understanding how I feel helps put things into context.

I have joined up with a new game group recently, and am joining them mid-way through the campaign they are playing. I believe they are doing some variation of one of the AP's- I think maybe Age of Ashes?

At any rate, the party is all level 7, I was given a +1 striking weapon of my choice, a +1 resilient armor of my choice, and 1500 gp budget for items to kit myself out with, which seems pretty fair.

The first character I built was an investigator, Professor Bartholomew Digby, who taught history at a gnomish college and decided to take sabbatical and do some field research. I kitted myself out to be a largely ranged support character, who used the empiricism methodology and various feats to maximize my Recall Knowledge checks and the return I could get. Idea: I strike and/or study the enemy, learn their weaknesses, and provide that to the party. If the enemy stays at range, I support with Devise a Strategem, shortbow strike, and a move action as needed to reposition. If it gets to melee, I have Dirty Trick for some unexpected debuffing and a shortsword. I had great plans of being "Indiana Jones meets Guy Fieri" with an unpredictable mix of erudite professorisms and wild excitement as I encounter something new.

It lasted all of 1 encounter in the first session. I failed an acrobatics check to cross a rickety pier, fell into the water where I was set upon by 3 crocodile-like monsters, and within 2 rounds was brought to Dying 1. I made my recovery check only to be critically hit twice the next round, straight to dying infinity. "Fun."

The next character was an Elf rogue (thief) with some swashbuckler dipping, who I wanted to play as a total goth, full of boredom from such a long life, so off adventuring we go! Lots of daring, thrill of adrenaline type things... in my imagination.

I have a +17 Deception check, but in the first battle against something that (admittedly) was a bit of a solo boss monster, I was only able to successfully Feint with a roll of at least 14. I tried to use Tumble Through, to equally unspectacular results. The enemy's AC was high enough that even if I bluffed, I still had to roll at least a 12 to hit, even with a +16 on my rapier strikes. I never bothered making secondary attacks, preferring to try to debuff, reposition, etc. I had an almost impossible time getting ONE hit in, much less follow up attacks at bigger and bigger penalties.

This enemy had a greatclub, knockdown, and an opportunity attack that meant once he hit (and he basically ALWAYS hit), he got a free trip attempt (which he nearly always made) and did a boatload of damage. WHen you're prone, you can't crawl away or stand because he gets a free attack (which also has knockdown). It only occurred to me later that I could have used my Mobility feat to crawl 10 feet away, then stand, and avoid a hit. In combat I was just frustrated.

My second character didn't die... but in 2 rounds I was dropped to 3 hit points. I very much could have. And the entire game session, I never dealt a single point of damage. I didn't do a single thing that contributed ANYTHING AT ALL except soak up attacks, and that's not really a consolation.

Is pathfinder even worth playing if you're not a caster? The Sorcerer in the party on a flying broom was the only person who made any impact at all. I don't feel like a hero, I feel like Nodwick the hireling... only not even that. At least Nodwick gets a name. I never even got to introduce myself to the party before dying in my first encounter with my investigator, and the session ended after the last completely unfulfilling, grindy, near tpk encounter with said greatclub boss dude.

So my question is this: What's the point of AC if every enemy basically always hits you? Why bother investing in skills if the one's you're the best at don't even have a 50% chance of success? Who cares what your class DC is- enemies rarely ever fail and never by 10 points so that Critical Failure on spells is essentially only there for PC rolls.

Next game I wanna play as one of the monsters and at least get to feel marginally competent. I've literally had better luck playing Call of Cthulhu characters and level 0 apprentices in prior games, because at least then I didn't kid myself into thinking my character had any real capability.

I'm extremely demoralized and discouraged, and honestly, I don't want to be! I want to be excited about Pathfinder 2 and I just can't find it, which is a shame because 1st edition was amazing and I have some of my fondest gaming memories playing it.

What am I missing? I've got a 25 AC and as high of an attack as I can manage, a +17 to my best skill, +4 Dex, and I still felt worse than useless. Honestly, it would have been a better way to contribute to the fight by NOT trying to attack and staying just outside of the monster's reach- the one thing I DID feel good about was having a 40 foot move and Mobility. Everything aside from that just seemed pointless.

I'm getting Steve Jackson Games flashbacks.... shudder....

I like the tv adaptation of The Mist, as well as From, for the menacing atmosphere.

Add for music, quartet no. 7 by Dimitri Shastakovich is my go to for the Gauntlight. And you may not know the name, but you've heard Le Carnaval des Animaux, mvmt. 7 Aquarium by Saint-Sans before, and it fits. Rachmaninov – The Isle of the Dead is another great mood piece

Also check out the themes from Candyman, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween.

I love instrumentals because I can play it in game and pass the mood onto the players, too!

And here's another quickie, Boss Scrag's scribbled map. Deliberately not to scale between levels, because the Boss thinks he can pull a tricky move on the players. XD

Boss Scrag's Map.

Here's one I whipped up at work this afternoon in paint. It should work well enough for the map of the library Graulgaust gives to the party in case they decide to eliminate the Cult of the Canker.

Graulgaust's map

Feel free to share it with whoever- it's set up so anyone with the link can grab and use it.

I plan on running Menace Under Otari from the Beginner Box as an intro into PF2. As I purchased the digital version of the Beginner Box, I had to re-create the maps which would ordinarily be a flip mat. Not an issue- I love crafts and making physical maps.

When I began to do the same thing for the adventure itself, however....

Well, I don't know if I can fit a map that's literally 4.75 feet by 3.6 feet on my gaming table at all! It's SOOOOO HUGE!!!!

I love large play areas, and I know that not everything needs to be tiny... but the actual physical size of a 1 square = 1 inch translation of these maps requires an enormous amount of space that I simply don't have.

My game crew meets at various locations around town, so the option of "just go digital" doesn't work for us. I'm still burnt out on digital gaming from the pandemic, and despite hearing nothing but praise for Foundry, I just don't want to do that. I'm excited to meet up and play in person with my friends again, and to do that I need physical maps!

Has anyone put in the brain sweat to shrink down some of these enormous areas a bit? I know it won't be necessarily 100% accurate to the original module, but if it means not having to have 17 square feet of space just to put down the map, I'll do the work to make adaptations work!

Thank you!!

I've been building a system cheat sheet that really helped me understand the skill system better, and it looks like I should do the same for the conditions and actions.

Explaining the 3 action economy, critical hits/failures, and multi-attack penalty will be the priority for this first session once characters are made.

Hey Paizo boards!

I'm starting up what I call "session .5" this weekend for a new Abomination Vaults campaign. I grabbed everything I could from the amazing Humble Bundle sale, and it's allowed me to start up a new gaming crew to hopefully turn co-workers into "friends and co-workers."

This weekend, we're doing group character generation. So far, the crew has expressed interest in playing a Catfolk Rogue (probably Thief?), an Android Alchemist (maybe Bomber?), a Half-Orc Dragon Barbarian, a Gnome of some sort, and a class with access to a Turtle pet somehow, either familiar or animal companion.

I have extensive RPG experience, but none with PF2. Any advice on which rules I should have down before I try to walk us all through character generation and the first few sessions? We all committed to this game as a learning game, so mistakes will be made all around, but if there's any particular land mines I should look out for, I'd appreciate your thoughts.

And before I go, I'd like to say thanks for being one of the best gaming communities out there. It means a lot to me that I'm still here 12+ years down the road and that's still true.

One thing to note is that with Reign of Winter, a lot of the encounters are too tough if converted directly to PF2 on a level for level basis because the designers pushed the limits (or maybe that was me because I did some upgrades of my own!). There's less elasticity in PF2, and Severe encounter means SEVERE!

How did you know I paused it in the middle of book 4? Honestly, if I wasn't looking forward to book 5 so much, I'd be much more willing to shelve the campaign and just start a fresh one, but man am I so excited!

I think this is good for 5e converts

Wow. THANK YOU! That is exactly the sort of resource I was hoping to find. I appreciate it!!

I'm expecting my second edition book to arrive in the next few days. Does anyone have some suggestions for good places with new player info/tutorials/explainers to help get me up to speed? I'd like to convert my dnd 5e game to a PF 2.0 game to finish up the rest of the Reign of Winter campagin I've currently got on hiatus....

but to do so, I'd like to get a handle on what the main concepts are so I can better teach them to my players. I'm totally fine with a "we're all new at this" approach, where we learn things gradually, but I'd like to minimize the reading during the session if I can.

If this has already been covered elsewhere, sorry! I'm still getting used to the forums after a fairly long hiatus.

I hereby pledge that when Paizo recognizes the union, I will restart my patronage of Paizo games.

And done!

My hardcover of Pathfinder 2.0 was purchased tonight as soon as I read the news.

The United Paizo Workers Announcement

This is fantastic news. True to my promise, Paizo, I have now purchased the hard cover of Pathfinder 2.0, and I plan on adding more books as my budget allows. Thank you for recognizing the union, thank you for being an example to other gaming companies, and thank you for the decades (!) of amazing experiences.

I've never felt so good about making an RPG purchase before. :)

I am officially resurrecting my old Paizo message handle to voice my complete and enthusiastic support for the union. I have played hundreds of hours of Pathfinder and many of my favorite experiences have happened during various adventure paths (Some great Rise of the Runelords moments, a Carrion Crown game that I was GM of, a Skull and Shackles game, a Reign of Winter game on a temporary hold... there are more)

I hereby pledge that when Paizo recognizes the union, I will restart my patronage of Paizo games. Currently, my limited game budget goes mostly to Hasbro/WotC, as I play dnd 5e online. When the union is recognized, I promise to give that money to Paizo instead and plan on migrating my RPG time and money to Pathfinder/Starfinder and Paizo products.

Don't Split the Party! Paizo, I know you can (and I fully believe you will) do the right thing by all your people. I have only so many free dollars to spend, and I will enthusiastically send them your way when you show me your hearts and minds are in the right place.

To all the Paizo staff involved in making these wonderful products, thank you. I've been a Paizo fan and customer for a long time now, and I think it's time we got to know each other again.

This entire post is going to contain spoilers for portions of Broken Moon, the 3rd module of Carrion Crown.

I have a 7 PC party, built around 15 point buy. We're running through Broken Moon at the moment and we've gotten to the final dramatic confrontation at the Stairs of the Moon. As I've got a heavy number of players (made worse by the fact that one's a summoner and thus effectively 8 players' worth of actions!) I am doing some pretty heavy revamping of all the modules. Technically they're all level 8 by now, but since they haven't rested yet I've asked them to keep their level 7 stats for now. I'm planning on presenting them an obstacle they'll run away from and return to later on.... or else they may be in for a difficult battle. Between fighting the upgraded versions of Mathus Mordrinacht (who I've reworked into a short sword two weapon fighter, using Dazzling Display, Hammer the Gap, Shatter Defenses, and Scent of Fear to gain pretty sizeable advantages based on high attack rates, accurate strikes, and cc), Estovion Lozarov (a higher level conjurer than by book), and Cybrisa (higher level druid, wolf domain, focused on cc and buffs). So fighting all 3 npcs alongside my beefed up Vilkacis will, I hope, encourage the party to run away...... and return at level 8 to fight them all again with a full next level kit.

Advanced Vilkacis (CR 10)
XP 9,600
CE Medium undead (incorporeal)
Init +12; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +21

DEFENSE
AC 24, touch 24, flat-footed 16 (+6 deflection, +8 Dex)
HP 161 (14d8+98)
Fort +10, Ref +14, Will +13
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +2, incorporeal, rejuvenation;
DR 10/silver; Immune cold, undead traits
Weaknesses vulnerability to silver

OFFENSE
Speed fly 50 ft. (perfect)
Melee 2 incorporeal touches +18 (2d6 plus 2d6 cold)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks bestial possession (DC 23), curse of lycanthropy (DC 23)

STATISTICS
Str -, Dex 27/+8, Con -, Int 12/+1, Wis 18/+4, Cha 22/+6
BAB +10; CMB +18; CMD 34 (38 vs. trip)
Feats Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Attack (incorporeal touch), Lightning Reflexes, Lunge, Toughness
Skills Diplomacy +20, Fly +16, Intimidate +23, Perception +21, Stealth +25, Survival +18
Languages Common, Sylvan
SQ Lycanthropic empathy

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Bestial Possession (Su): A vilkacis is a spirit of savagery and can take control of other beings, afflicting them with its savage nature. Once per round, the vilkacis can merge its body with a creature on the Material Plane. This ability is similar to a magic jar spell (caster level 14th), except it does not require a receptacle and lasts for up to 3 hours (or a number of hours equal to the vilkacis’s Charisma modifier, whichever is greater). To use this ability, the vilkacis must be adjacent to the target. The target can resist the attack with a successful DC 18 Will save. A creature that successfully saves is immune to that same vilkacis’s bestial possession for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Upon being possessed by a vilkacis, the target takes on a number of bestial features, most notably growing claws and vicious fangs, and flies into a savage rage. The victim gains two claws and a bite natural attack appropriate to its size (1d4 and 1d6 for Medium creatures; see Natural Attacks for other sizes), and gains a barbarian’s greater rage class ability.
This rage lasts for as long as the victim is being possessed by the vilkacis. After the possession ends, the victim is fatigued for a period of time equal to double the duration of the possession. The victim also gains low-light vision and scent. The possessed creature loses all of these natural attacksa and abilities immediately when the vilkacis leaves its body.

Curse of Lycanthropy (Su): Any humanoid that is bitten by a creature possessed by a vilkacis must make a DC 18 Fortitude save or be infected with lycanthropy as if bitten by a werewolf. If the victim’s size is not within one size category of the possessed creature’s, this ability has no effect. The save DC uses the vilkacis’s ability scores and is Charisma-based.

Lycanthropic Empathy (Ex): A vilkacis or creature possessed by a vilkacis can communicate and empathize with wolves and dire wolves. It can use Diplomacy to alter such an animal’s attitude, and when doing so gains a +4 racial bonus on the check.

Rejuvenation (Su): A vilkacis that is destroyed in combat restores itself after 2d4 days. The only way to permanently do away with a vilkacis is to locate its canopic stone, the occult artifact that binds it to the Material Plane, and then destroy the artifact in the presence of the vilkacis’s mortal remains. Once the canopic stone is destroyed, the vilkacis can no longer rejuvenate and can be destroyed as normal.

Vulnerability to Silver (Su): Vilkacis are particularly susceptible to silver. A vilkacis struck with a silver weapon takes an additional 2d6 points of damage. If a creature under the effects of a vilkacis’s bestial possession is damaged by a silver weapon, it also takes this extra damage and receives another saving throw to resist the bestial possession. If successful, the possession ends, and the vilkacis is driven into an adjacent square and cannot use its bestial possession ability again until the following day.

NOTES:

This is the normal Vilkacis with +4 HD and the Advanced template applied. Instead of increasing the natural armor as the template suggests, I took inspiration from Undead Revisited (which is a phenomenal asset to any GM, particularly for this AP!) and the "distorted shadow" template. Notice the Space/Reach portion of the OFFENSIVE stat block? That's right: 10 foot reach. That, in combination with the incredible Dex mod, Combat Reflexes, and Lunge, should result in me being able to truly terrify many of my players. It's not that I think dishing out lots of damage is terrible.... it's the touch attack and 20' threat range. I should be able to make them think twice about playing some of the tricky maneuvering games they're so fond of. Alternatively, I was thinking about giving it a third natural attack (incorporeal bite) instead of natural armor, reflecting the attacks it grants to someone who is possessed more closely.

Any thoughts? My

Well 2 weeks have finally come and gone and we're on to session 2!

Since the party was so close to leveling up last game, I told them all to create level 2 characters and we'd worry about "catching up" later. Tonight we also introduced our last player, Jitter Ann!

Jitter Ann is a gnome summoner. She's a very aptly named, excitable woman who talks very, VERY fast and is always trying to do things with her hands. She's got pure white hair, a remnant from a prior experience with The Bleaching, and she's got no desire to go through it again. She gives the dearly beloved Professor Lorrimor credit for helping her discover how to summon her eidolon (an electric blue saber toothed cat with a prehensile tail she's named Puffer). Her link to Puffer gives her the emotional peaks she needs to avoid Bleaching.

The party has taken it upon themselves to do a little detective work about town to see if there's any connection between Harrowstone, the recent spooky events, and the townsfolk. They discovered today that there's a certain flesh golem manual for sale at The Unfurling Scroll, and it bears the glyph of one Montaigne Crowl on it, the same as the three books the Professor tasked them to return. They tried to use their muscle as sheriff's deputies to "confiscate" the book as stolen property and we had an interesting experience with Ustalavic... hospitality. My party has a Kelish fighter (who is really a tiefling- much worse!), a half-orc, a half-elf, an elf, and a gnome. There's only 1 "real" citizen in the group, our Varisian cleric of Shelyn. I got to play the "damn foreigners meddling in our affairs" card and the "you're not even real HUMANS!" card, to great effect. The party all but assaulted the man right there.

Wisdom won out in the end and they decided to fetch Benjan, who so far in my game has been portrayed as a man tormented and harried by the stress of serving as the law. His frequent visits to the apothecary have given him quite a drug habit, and so he typically seeks the resolution most likely to avoid conflict or paperwork on his part.

Benjan, hearing that the party seemed to be wantonly abusing their power, stripped them of their deputy badges and assured Alendru that all would be put right. Leading them away, he gave them a stern dressing down, emphasizing how he put his trust in them because the Professor did, and he always respected the man, but he won't stand for his citizens being harassed. The purpose of deputizing them in the first place wast to give them the ability to solve the supernatural hoodoo going on in town without being lynched by nervous Ravengro citizens. The party was less than pleased at this, but took it as a sign that tensions are growing higher and they needed to put a stop to whatever was happening at Harrowstone. (net result: -2 trust)

In the end, they got Alendru to agree to sell them the book for 4000 gp. (I know that's an incredible discount on a powerful item, but I don't think they have any intent to keep it, and while I know they can get 6000 from Crowl when they return it, they don't. They think it's either stolen from the Professor or from Montaigne, and either way want to return it.)

That being done, they thought they'd best lie low for a while and get out of sight of the villagers, so off to Harrowstone it was!

They first circled the entire outer curtain and probed the lake. A brief fight with 4 skeletons ensued, but never lasted long enough for them to catch on fire thanks to a constant Detect Undead infusion from the Alchemist. He maintained concentration on that spell throughout the exploration and relied on the party to navigate him and watch for other dangers. Smart play, as it gave them 2 rounds of warning when a rock thrown in the lake disturbed the skeletons inside.

I had them all roll Perception checks, and had the highest PC hear creaking wagon wheels and clopping hooves. He turned around to see dusty hoofprints rising up in front of fresh wagon tracks. No one else in the party seemed to notice it, and when he was about to point it out, the spookiness vanished. "You look again and it's gone." "Of course it is! Damn creepy prison. (mumble mumble)"

The party decided the best way to proceed was to hire Zokar's son (whose name I can't remember and don't have my book at the moment) to post a notice for a town hall meeting that night.

PERFECT!

I didn't even have to arrange it, so when nastiness happened, it seemed much less suspicious. The fires are pretty nasty, by the way!

Since I have 6 players and they're all veteran gamers, I upped the ante a bit by including 4 burning skulls instead of 2, and randomly placed 5 fires in the room. Every turn each fire square would expand by 1 square, and for convenience sake any townsfolk who was in one dropped unconscious immediately. Though it was a very, VERY close call, with many reflex saves made to avoid catching on fire from the PC's and a few well timed bellowing threats and pleas for order (Intimidate and Diplomacy) the whole town was evacuated safely... unfortunately, by that time the fires had raged out of control and the rest of that night was spent watching the town hall burn down. The players organized a bucket brigade to help out and it was nice to play out the mixed feelings of resentment and hurt at losing the town hall and appreciation for the heroics of the party in saving everyone. (Since I'm doubling trust gains for everything and leaving trust losses the same, it's a wash: +2 for saving everyone, -2 for losing the hall)

That night is the same night that Splatter Man was able to send a vision again. Knowing that Gibbs was unavailable, he found a suitable replacement: Zokar's son. He's waging a dual campaign of terror with this act. Not only does he get to spell out the next letter (S) of Vesorianna, he took advantage of the grief and anguish of the townsfolk and now they're in a state of frenzy. The players are heading into Harrowstone to emerge as heroes or looking down the barrel of a panicked mob of citizens scared beyond reason by powers beyond their control. With this next letter spelled out, the players are absolutely set on ending the Splatter Man's terror campaign for good.

The next morning they returned to the prison. Playing up the tension of the haunts really works quite well- I described them feeling uneasy, like Harrowstone itself was watching them. When the slamming portal haunt triggered it split the party and really scared them though ultimately it was pretty harmless. They dealt with it by simply battering down the doors. Exploring further, they found the Warden's office and spent several hours correlating and organizing all the paperwork in the administrative area. They feel better now about losing the town hall, since I told them the papers would give a +4 bonus on Knowledge checks relating to the prison or prisoners. They don't know that they've discovered everything the module provides and may have more questions, so they can do their research there.... under the watchful eye of the prison... yeah, that'll make them happy.

The cold spot haunt was great. The party neutralized it using a haunt siphon and gave the negative energy bomb to the alchemist. The fight in the training room with two skulls was trivially easy, and helped make the PC's feel pretty confident; Confident enough to continue on to the furnace and face Ember Maw. The scorching rays at this level are really, REALLY lethal. I dropped Ergrag'k down to -7 hp and Genevene to -3. Another swift burst of haunt siphons and disrupt undead cantrips and Ember Maw was once again dormant. As I've been giving out XP per encounter this session thanks to the handy new GM screen I have (THANKS PAIZO!) the players got curious why I wasn't handing out XP for these haunts, too. I suggested they use the spirit planchette to communicate with the spirits of the dead to find out how to put them to rest. After reviving everyone with a few infusions of Cure Light Wounds from the alchemist and some channeled energy from the cleric, that's exactly what they did. Ember Maw won't be haunting anyone else now.

Dealing with many haunts in a row really drained their resources, and so we only got as far as the chapel and the ensuing fight with the spiders before we called it a night. This session was very combat heavy, but the tension of the burning town hall was really great fun and everyone was pretty nervous about the outcome. At times it looked like I'd have a TPK on my hands thanks to the rapidly expanding fires, but they managed to pull through. I think next session they should meet up with Vesorianna and get some more background details on what's going on and how they can proceed. They've got motivation and they've got the tools they need to do the job, but so far they don't have any indicators of how to proceed. I'm hoping they explore the rest of the first level and meet up with her so I can give them that information. Plus, it'll be a great chance to play out a tragic romance and an undying love, and bolster the spirits of the PC's by showing them that their actions have an effect on BOTH worlds. They've already earned the respect and support of many of Ravengro's most notable citizens, and meeting Vesorianna will prove that they've had an effect on the ghosts of Harrowstone as well.

My party is rather large (6 players) so I am having to beef up encounters as I go. Here are a few additional encounters I've come up with:

Harrowstone Zombie CR 2
Male Human (Cursed Relentless Zombie)
NE Medium Undead
Init +1; Senses Darkvision (60 feet), Scent; Perception +0
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 13, touch 11, flat-footed 12. . (+1 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 36 (4d8+4)
Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +4
Immune Undead Traits
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 40 ft., Climbing (20 feet)
Melee Slam (Zombie) +5 (1d6+3/20/x2)
Special Attacks Zombie Curse (Curse) (DC 12)
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 15, Dex 12, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 16
Feats Toughness +4
Skills Modifiers +4 to Survival when tracking by Scent
Languages Hallit
SQ Quick Strikes (Ex)
--------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
--------------------
+4 to Survival when tracking by Scent +4 to Survival when tracking by Scent.
Climbing (20 feet) You have a Climb speed.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Quick Strikes (Ex) Whenever a fast zombie takes a full-attack action, it can make one additional slam attack at its highest base attack bonus.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ feet by sense of smell.
Undead Traits Undead are immune to death effects, disease, mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, phantasms, and patterns), paralysis, poison, sleep, stun, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects
Zombie Curse (Curse) (DC 12) (Su) A cursed zombie gains the curse special attack, delivered with its slam attack. Zombie curse (Su) slam; save Will DC = 10 + 1/2 the zombie’s Hit Dice + the zombie’s Cha modifier; frequency —; effect each round you have a 50% chance to act normally, otherwise you are overcome by pain as you feel your skin burning off; cure —.

Hero Lab® and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Pathfinder® and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC®, and are used under license.

These zombies don't resemble normal zombies; they look like burnt husks of meat, with smoke rising from in between cracks in their flesh. Anyone struck by them is overcome by flashes of intense pain as they feel the pain of the prisoners burning to death. This is reflected in the zombie curse: if you can't act normally, it is because you feel like you are burning to death.

Take advantage of their scent tracking ability to have them follow players to wherever they are staying, and use their climb skills to have them ambush from the rooftops. Any unusually intelligent tactics can be ascribed to the fell influence of Harrowstone. A pair of harrowstone zombies can make a devastating ambush: have 1 knock on the door (bonus points if it is the Professor's body!) and the other leap down from the roof when the players attack.

Harrowstone Skeleton CR 1
Male Human (Bloody, Burning Skeleton)
NE Medium Undead
Init +5; Senses Darkvision (60 feet); Perception +0
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 13, touch 11, flat-footed 12. . (+1 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 10 (1d8+2); Fast Healing 1
Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +2
Defensive Abilities Channel Resistance +4; DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune fire, Undead Traits
Weakness Vulnerability to Cold
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 30 ft.
Melee Claw x2 (Skeleton) +1 x2 (1d4+1/20/x2)
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 12, Dex 12, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 12
Feats Improved Initiative
SQ Deathless (Su), Fiery Aura (Ex), Fiery Death (DC 12) (Su)
--------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
--------------------
Channel Resistance +4 +4 bonus to save vs. Channel Energy.
Damage Reduction (5/bludgeoning) You have Damage Reduction against all except Bludgeoning attacks.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Deathless (Su) Return to unlife 1 hour after being destroyed.
Fast Healing 1 (Ex) You heal damage every round if you have > 1 HP.
Fiery Aura (Ex) Creatures adjacent to a burning skeleton take 1d6 points of fire damage at the start of their turn. Anyone striking a burning skeleton with an unarmed strike or natural attack takes 1d6 points of fire damage.
Fiery Death (DC 12) (Su) A burning skeleton explodes into a burst of flame when it dies. Anyone adjacent to the skeleton when it is destroyed takes 1d6 points of fire damage per 2 Hit Dice the skeleton possessed (minimum 1d6). A Reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the skeleton's Hit Dice + the skeleton's Charisma modifier) halves this damage.
Immunity to Fire You are immune to fire damage.
Undead Traits Undead are immune to death effects, disease, mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, phantasms, and patterns), paralysis, poison, sleep, stun, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects
Vulnerability to Cold You are vulnerable (+50% damage) to Cold damage.

Hero Lab® and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Pathfinder® and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC®, and are used under license.

These skeletons replace the burning skulls in the town hall encounter. I think 3 of them should make a nasty surprise for the party. Their first clue that something is wrong is when the doors of the town hall burst open at the same time the lamps in the room flare up. They have to deal with the fire and the skeletons at the same time.

Bloody and burning together is easy to parse: describe it as the skeletons continually weeping bloody tears and wailing in unbearable pain. You could describe their bones as crispy and blackened, dripping sizzling gobbets of fat. I think a "frying bacon" smell would really creep players out.

These variant bloody skeletons can only be truly destroyed by cleansing Harrowstone prison of its unholy taint or by sprinkling their remains with water taken from area R10 in Harrowstone (the murky pond) that has been blessed. This quenches the fiery torment of their spirits and allows them to be at peace.

Using the spirit planchette to determine this is a fantastic way to introduce players to its use.

Looks like I forgot a few things, like event 2: the Skipping Song (had the party make their choice of Perception, Perform, or Sense Motive to notice the stirges in event 3 choreographing their movements to the same cadence. Really creeped my players out when I said the flapping wing sounds were the same rhythm.)

After taking Gibbs to the clink, they noticed that when he awoke he seemed to have no idea of what had happened or why he was behind bars, but he grew terrified beyond speech when he saw Ergrag'k scribbling down notes (as he has been doing throughout the whole adventure. He wants to become more famous than Ailson Kindler someday and is taking notes for his as of yet unwritten but too-good-to-fail novels). He collapsed in fright and then rose up suddenly, eyes rolling into the back of his head. I chose to have Splatter man communicate with the party here instead of at the memorial, since I thought it would be far more terrifying. It was. "You cannot stop it! SHE cannot stop it! We are coming!"

Gibbs bit off the top of his index finger and began scribbling a "G" on the wall before the party knocked him out again. Now everyone is TOTALLY rattled.

Skipping forward a few more days, the party has been engaged in furious research, trying to find the last few details about the riots and the fire. They have gained permission from Father Grimburrow to go raid the secret crypt... which is fortunate, as in the intervening days they had already done so, but it's easier to seek forgiveness than permission, right? With a little bit of distraction and a few theatrics, no one is any wiser about the slightly premature crypt raid and now they have all of the ghostbusting equipment the Pharasmin church has to offer. That's good, because as I noted earlier: all the rest of the undead in this adventure will have max HP, and I'm considering maybe giving them a +1 profane bonus to AC and saves to reflect the malicious intelligence the party unknowingly released.

When they purge Harrowstone of its evil, this intelligence, too, will be purged, but until then I am having fun playing up the menace. I describe nearly everything as "you're momentarily distracted by the scent of blood, coming from the Prison, but you snap out of it" or "you can hear sobbing coming from underground. It sounds like someone is screaming to be let loose... but there's no basement in this building."

Since Gibbs is now out of Splatterman's reach, the next few days passed with no more writing. The party was visited in their dreams by the psychopath though. They all gathered around the breakfast table with bandages on their fingers and that's when they realized they all had the same dream: waking up with a start it seemed like they were in their room, until they looked out the window- the barred window, and saw the view was not from their own room. Hearing jangling keys, they saw a rotting hand clutching a keyring sticking through the bars of their... cell? Jail cell? Splatterman's voice rang out, "your name for your freedom. Tell me your name!" They heard themselves speak their name and Splatterman laughed, spelling it back to them instantly. They all woke up to a start to see the first letter of their own names spelled out in their own blood above their beds- they had gnawed through their fingers just like Gibbs. Before the shock wore off they all heard, distantly, "I know your name..."

The last part of the session was spent desperately scrambling to get the final pieces of information on Slatter Man over the next few days, wanting to stay ahead of his (apparently) regular 3 day schedule (I've rolled very consistently on the time frames so far, so it looks like a fixed number and not a variable to the party. Fluke of the dice but fun.) They decided to relocate their camp to the Temple of Pharasma, reasoning that it should have magical defenses against the ghosts of Harrowstone that the Professor's old house lacks. Father Grimburrow agreed, but asked them to please wait until a few hours after sunset so church business was not disrupted and the townsfolk were not unduly alarmed. As the party's bags were just finished packing there was a knock at the door.... Professor Lorrimor had returned home, shattered skull and torso and all, and he brought a few skeletal friends with him. I actually drew a scream out of one of the players when they saw it. A brief fight scene drew the session to a close, with everyone on edge and now desperate to enter Harrowstone and put this business to rest.

Man... these take longer to post than I thought. I'm out of time for right now but there's lots more excitement to come! We're maybe 1/3 through the module and getting ready to assault Harrowstone itself. Stay tuned!

The party retired to the Lorrimor home and read out the will. I had a lot of fun playing up Vashian's stammering surprise as he read aloud, particularly when he got to the part about the books in his chest being entrusted to the party and the incredible reward offered for their delivery.

Taking inspiration from Spacelard's very fine work with the books, here is my elaboration:

Serving Your Hunger: this is essentially as Spacelard posted before (http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventureP ath/carrionCrown/servingYourHunger&page=1&source=search#9)

The Umbral Leaves: This leatherbound book is made from the hide of a shadow mastiff. Holding it in your hands, you become far more aware of the play of light and shadow in the room. At the surface it seems like merely another holy text, but after a week's study previously hidden connections become clear. You gain a +4 insight bonus on Stealth checks, but this knowledge comes with a price: when you first become hidden, you must make a DC 11 Will save, and another each minute thereafter at +1 DC. You become convinced that you are being stalked by a pack of shadow hounds and their baying calls get ever louder the longer you remain hidden. Upon failing your a save you are shaken for as many minutes as you were hidden and cannot use the Stealth skill until you regain composure. It takes another week's worth of study to regain the insight bonus when this happens.

On Verified Madness: This book is bound with some unknown substance- not quite leather, not quite chitin, but definitely something organic. While under direct observation the book is quite plain, when you view it in your peripheral vision it seems to blend into the background somehow. Perhaps that is why the corners were bound with shining mithril, so that the book might be more easily found. It is written in a nigh-indecipherable amalgamation of languages and requires a week's worth of study and 3 separate DC 20 Linguistics checks to decipher the hodgepodge of Aklo and archaic Taldane, but once made the book can be used as a reference for any Knowledge: Dungeoneering check to identify Aberrations or their abilities as well as any Knowledge: The Planes, Knowledge: Arcana, or Knowledge: Religion checks involving The Dark Tapestry or the mysterious Great Old Ones. You can re-roll any failed Knowledge check on these topics once per day after spending 1d4 hours consulting the insane ramblings inside.

In addition to these 3 books, the party found a number of less incendiary treatises on necromancy, anatomy, and magical theory. While taken individually the collection is nothing extraordinary, together with the 3 specific books above it is clear the Professor was researching something truly horrendous, and his please to keep his daughter ignorant of his inquiries is more understandable.

Lastly, concealed in a poorly hidden secret compartment the party found a hideously warped iron box. After wrenching it open, Bahahdur found it contained only a single small sphere of some indeterminate metal. The sphere was unbelievably heavy for its size, and its polished surface reflects a subtly distorted version of its surroundings. The whole thing seems... just wrong. After studying the strange object, Calphes was able to determine it has some sort of influence on the Ethereal plane, but exactly what it does and how is unclear, as it doesn't radiate any magic aura at all.

My players found a ghosttrap, from Monte Cook's excellent book, Chaositech. In my game, chaositech is a "gift" from the Great Old Ones, designed to pave the way for their return from exile in The Dark Tapestry. This particular ghosttrap holds a fragment of a powerful consciousness inside... and my players have inadvertently released it when they figured out how to "open" the trap. From here on out, all undead in Harrowstone have max HP as they are bolstered by the sudden wave of violent emotions. It was great to see their faces. They could tell something terrible had just happened, but didn't know what. I think they fully expected to be murdered in their sleep by a vengeful spirit or something like that.

Cue Event 1!

The players awoke just after dawn the next day to a horrific scream. A local had discovered the desecration of the Harrowstone Memorial on the outskirts of town. Something had caught a rabbit and used its blood to scribe a ragged "V" on the memorial, then scattered its guts about the place. The players arrived on scene to find the Sheriff already there, trying to calm an increasingly agitated press of onlookers while his deputees cleaned up.

Of course, having a bloody big foreigner (Rahahdur), a pointy eared snake oil salesman (Zordlon), and a damn fool witch wearing voodoo robes (Calphas) didn't help matters any, and for their own safety Benjan requested the party accompany him to "the clink." The players were very confused until Benjan explained "there's only 1 Prison in Ravengro, and it ain't nowhere nobody wants to be foolin' with, so we call our jail 'the clink' instead."

As it happened, the Sheriff was trying to save face for himself as well, as I am playing him as something of a drunkard and he had a mammoth hangover. By taking the recent arrivals to jail "for questioning" he bought himself time to sober up and kept the locals from forming a lynch mob out of fear and suspicion.

Another brilliant interlude of off the cuff RP followed, as the party convinced Benjan to make them "officially unofficial deputies of Ravengro." After all, a gang of 5 suspicious outsiders (with halfbreeds and witches and foreigners to boot!) would arouse suspicion, but when Benjan had his deputies introduce the party as "Auxillary Investigators" here to assist him with his duties the attitude of Ravengro brightened considerably. After a three day baby-kissing tour of militant good deeds, I gave the party another Trust point (25 total now) to reflect the new credibility of their (very much made up) office.

(as an aside: the influence of Harrowstone is so strong throughout this adventure I am ignoring the loss of 1 trust point a day, and instead am finding ways to include references to the prison in most descriptions. Since it was built on the highest ground in the area, there is literally nowhere in town you can go to escape seeing it, and regular glances at the corner behind my players while I am playing out NPC interactions keeps drawing their minds back to the prison's silent presence anyway. I KNOW my players are thinking about Harrowstone, and it's too hard to make them CARE about Ravengro the way I want to if they're constantly fighting to maintain the status quo.)

This was my chance to run through the map of Ravengro and point out areas of interest. I wanted to introduce them to the townsfolk and let them know that there were all of the various business and merchants around, as well as give them a chance to do some freeform exploration. Harrowstone is fairly linear and site specific, so letting them drive now will give them a better sense of control. They met Old River, Jorfa, and the proprietors of The Unfurling Scroll, The Silk Purse, and the General Store. They visited the moneylenders and actually purchased some of the jewelry used as collateral. Rather than keep it, they gave it back to the farm family it came from. I gave them 4 trust points for that action after word got out that they had returned an old family heirloom with no strings attached. (Trust total now 29, enough to grant access to most research locations and they don't even know it yet!) During these few days they have been keeping a watch over the Memorial from a distance to see if the desecration happens again.

By this point, Splatter Man had recovered enough to possess Gibbs again, and the party saw him shuffle toward the memorial with a bizarre gait. It became clear why as they ran to get closer- he was struggling to maintain a hold on Old River and keep the dog silent. By the time the party arrived at the memorial, Gibbs/Splatter Man had already killed the dog and was finishing up scrawling an "E" on the monument. Making a Sense Motive check they determined that Gibbs was not in control of his body and in fact seemed sound asleep. A trip and disarm and a few non-lethal strikes and he was out... but Ergrag'k used his bardic performance to bolster the party, giving me a solid gold chance to have Event 3, the stirges, attack at the same time. While the beasts were defeated, the party noticed how they seemed to dance to a strange cadence and were hesitant to attack the bard.

More on the way soon

The story so far:

I posted this on my group's campaign website:

You are still not certain exactly why the Professor was asking for you, specifically, out of all the hundreds- perhaps thousands- of students, partners, employees, and acquaintances he had made over his career, but your heart swells with pride nonetheless. That he would remember you among all the others he had dealt with is, perhaps, a reflection of the deep affection that he held for you and your talents, and of the friendship that developed all those years back when you first met him. You still think back on that first meeting with a bittersweet smile, recalling how out of place the youthful twinkle in Professor Lorrimor's eye seemed in his careworn face. Even then the man would never see sixty again, but he seemed so vibrant and energetic it was hard to keep up at times. You look at his personal seal at the bottom of the note and read it one more time before holding it over your lamp:

"My Dear Friend,

Forgive me for contacting you so abruptly, but current circumstances make haste the superior virtue over propriety, and I strive for virtue in all things. I look back upon our prior association fondly, and, Pharasma wiling, our possible future enterprises, because it is in the spirit of re-kindling an old friendship that I write to you now. I am presently engaged in research of the most fascinating and delicate variety, on the efficacy of certain animal waste products as fertilizer, and how they may best be optimized for greater productivity in the farmlands of Canterwall. I hereby formally invite you to visit me at my new home, where I can share with you the results of my latest line of inquiry. It would surprise me greatly if you did not find it as fascinating as I do. I trust you will find your way to me in due time, and until then I wait with bated breath.

Yours in friendship,
Petros Lorrimor, Prof. Emeritus, University of Lepidstadt, Dept. of Cultural Preservation"

Were it not for the code phrase, "with bated breath," you would never have thought to heat the paper, revealing the secret message Professor Lorrimor encoded therein. Several key letters appear emphasized and previously hidden symbols appear, confirming your suspicions.

Shivering, and not from the chill night air, you cast the paper into the fire and depart for Ravengro the following day, dreading what the Professor couldn't trust, even to a cipher.

Be ready with the lighters for the first session to find out what the Professor's secret message was, players! If lighters won't work, any heat source should suffice- a lightbulb, a hotplate, a heating pad, or maybe even a window if the sun's bright enough. Until then.... enjoy the tease!

The secret message in the professors note warned of great danger and an enemy he could not speak of. It asked them to come to Ravengro as soon as possible.

Conveniently enough, all 5 of the party arrived on the same day, only to learn on arrival that the good Professor had died in a tragic accident only a week before. Gathering at Professor Lorrimor's home they met each other for the first time and learned that their letters seemed suspiciously similar... though they were sent out at different times. Zorlon had the farthest to travel and his letter dates a full 2 weeks before the other missives. The Professor wanted to bring them all here at the same time, obviously, but with his death it isn't clear for what purpose.

The party missed the wake, but could participate in the funeral. Zordlon, Bahahdur, and Calphes all volunteered to be pallbearers for the Professor's casket, and Ergrag'k offered to give the beloved Prof. a eulogy. Encountering the surly locals in the Restlands, the party managed to successfully talk them out of a fight, and by the time Father Grimburrow arrived the thugs had dispersed peaceably. The Father was extremely pleased with them for defusing a potentially violent situation. I awarded the party 2 trust points for their diplomacy (bringing them up to 22)

The burial went well, with Ergrag'k sharing a moving story of how the Professor inspired him to press on and continue his education in the face of unrelenting bigotry at the University. To the departed, Ergrag'k was not a half breed mongrel pantomiming civilized mannerisms, he was a brilliant and insightful young man desperately seeking his place in the world, and the half orc feels a debt to the Professor he knows he will never be able to fully repay. Several other players shared snippets of improvised stories explaining their own connection to Petros, drawing on their choice of campaign traits as inspiration. It was a pretty cool twenty minutes of off the cuff storytelling as everyone took turns improvising details, and a bonding moment among the group. I awarded them 2 more trust points for turning the sorrow of the burial around into a celebration of the Professor's enduring legacy, bringing them up to 24.

At this point, I informed the party of the trust mechanic at work and explained how they had just gained 4 precious points due to their uncommonly good behavior, and cautioned them that trust is far easier to lose than to build.

Following the example of some of the excellent and entertaining campaign logs, I am going to post my own here.

NOTE: This is told from a GM perspective and will have spoilers and my motives behind it.

My party comprises of 5 members:

Bahahdur, a tiefling Fighter from Qadira. His weapon of choice is a truly massive fauchard. While his face and neck are very human-looking, the knotted cords of muscle on his chest, back, and upper arms bristle with almost thorn-like hairs and patches of scaly, reptilian skin. He could never pass for human without his shirt, but between the multi-layered robes and veils of his home country and a bit of applied makeup, he has manage to keep his true race a mystery for the time being.

Ergrag'k, a half orc bard from Ustalav. Ergrag'k is a reserved, thoughtful man, frequently lost in his own thoughts. He was rescued from certain death by Dr. Henri Meirtmane, Dean of Sinkomakti School of Sciences in Versex county, as a very young boy, and raised as the Doctor's own son from that point forward. It was only years later that the half orc learned that his entire upbringing was a gentleman's wager between Meirtmane and a peer intended to settle the question of whether an orc could ever "truly be civilized" or not.

Zordlon, an elf alchemist from Kyonin. While he fancies himself a quite dashing and dapper figure wandering the countryside selling potions and alchemical wonders, Zordlon lacks the social graces to truly pull it off. His primary motivation is to give aid wherever it is needed, attempting to patch the somewhat tarnished reputation of his people in Ustalav and perhaps uncover a few interesting formulae along the way.

Genivene, a human cleric of Shelyn from Ustalav. Genivene is something of a rarity in the Immortal Principality: she survived her childhood with her innocence intact. Her family sold her to a temple when she was very young, as they could not afford to keep her and knew the priests and priestesses would take good care of her. She grew up in the temple of beauty and knows little of the sometimes ugly life that her countrymen lead. Professor Lorrimor was always one of her favorite tutors, and his summons to Ravengro was too strong for the young priestess to ignore.

Calphes, a half elf scrollmaster wizard (generalist) from Ustalav. Calphes is named for the city of Caliphas where he was born. When he displayed a strong potential aptitude for magic, his wealthy parents spared no expense and paid for his education at the University of Lepidstadt where he met Professor Lorrimor. Calphes has a strange sense of humor, and his schoolhouse pranks were legendary. While he doesn't openly consort with evil powers, openly wearing wizardly robes and his unpredictable nature breeds suspicion wherever he goes.

So far the party has managed not to kill each other or engage in infighting- a good first sign!

I love your products, Paizo, and I was curious what your playtesting procedure is. How extensive are each of your modules tested before publishing, and what benchmarks do you use to determine how challenging or balanced something is? I know, for example, the adventure paths are intended for a 4 character party using 15 point buy on the medium XP track. Do you run adventures in house with iconics or pre-gens? Do you farm them out to groups?

If any of this information is integral to your business strategy I can totally respect keeping that information confidential. I'm more curious than anything else. Is there a "How Things Work" style story to tell about the birth of a new module or campaign path?

If your GM is not very liberal with the magic items then I think a lot of the advantage of familiars goes away. Wizards can still pull it off with Scribe Scroll and Craft Wand, but you might be better off looking at another Magus Arcana if that is the case. It's good to know the kind of games you're going to be playing the character through--- some kinds of characters don't work especially well in item starved games, while others will shine just fine.

Get Improved Familiar as soon as possible for a Mephit or other familiar with oppose-able thumbs and speech, get some wands and scrolls with useful spells. Keep your Use Magic Device skill high (you're doing this, right?)

since familiars use your skills this is a great way to have buffs running on you when you need them. A wand of shield is a cheap investment and likely worth having the familiar cast on you every battle. Eventually getting a wand of magic missile at caster level 9 for multiple missiles will pay off, too.

Think of your familiar as essentially getting additional actions a turn at the cost of a few more in game resources, a magus arcana, and a feat. Well worth it.

I've been toying around with making an Aldori Swordlord myself. After looking at the archetype, the feats, etc, this is what I've come up with:

There are really 2 versions of this, depending on whether the Kensai (Magus) archetype or Free Hand Fighter (fighter) is more appealing. I can see the benefits of playing either, though for the Kensai I might suggest a slightly different route (which I will get to later)

THE PREFIX (for both builds)

Human Master of Many Styles 2 (monk archetype)
Feats: Crane Style (1st level Monk bonus), Weapon Finesse (1st level), Quick Draw (human bonus), and either Crane Wing or Snake Style (2nd level Monk bonus)

REASONING:
In addition to phenomenal starting saves, Evasion, and a good unarmed strike damage, it will get you 2 free style feats WHICH YOU DON'T HAVE TO MEET THE PREREQUISITES FOR.

I have found that for a Swordlord character, a heavy emphasis on defense is ideal, and so my personal favorite is to take Crane Style and combine it with Snake Style, though you could swap out Snake Style to get Crane Wing at level 2 if you'd prefer. I'm partial to getting both style feats because they dovetail WONDERFULLY together, and you can use Snake Style to help mitigate ranged and melee attacks until you get Crane Wing later on. Plus, as a Master of Many Styles you can combine 2 stances in 1 anyway and you gave up Flurry of Blows for it, so you may as well have 2 complementary styles!

Why quick draw and weapon finesse right away? Because at these levels, you're relying on unarmed strikes and ranged weapon attacks (don't forget you can use javelins! Daggers work well with finesse and can be thrown if need be as well.)

This leads into.....

OPTION A: THE FREE HAND FIGHTER

At 3rd level you go into Free Hand Fighter, where you remain for the rest of your career. If you'd like to rush into Aldori Dueling Mastery right away, take EWP: Aldori Dueling Sword and WF: Aldori Dueling sword now, then pick up Aldori Dueling Mastery next level with your fighter bonus feat.

From then on, you're free to pursue whatever feats you'd like, and there's already been some great ideas on how to expand the archetype. Look into getting Improved and Greater Disarm when you can, and picking up Crane Wing and Crane Riposte are sound choices as well. It's possible to get an AC in the 30's without wearing armor by combining Combat Expertise, fighting defensively, and the natural dodge bonus you get from the Free Hand Fighter archetype.

OPTION B: THE KENSAI

At 3rd level, pick up Kensai, where you remain for the rest of your career. Obviously you'll get proficiency in the Aldori Dueling Sword (and get WF to boot), so with this version you can get Aldori Dueling Mastery immediately at 3rd level.

Picking up Maneuver Mastery (disarm) is a good choice, because Combat Expertise dovetails really nicely with this type of build.

If your campaign uses traits, you don't even need to lag behind in caster level if you take Magical Knack: Magus as one of them.

.... but my favorite so far is

OPTION C: THE KENSAI DERVISH

For this one, ignore the Aldori Dueling Sword completely. Instead of Quick Draw, take Combat Expertise at level 1 and be a Kensai proficient with the scimitar. Your 3rd level feat should be Dervish Dance.

Now we're talking! You could potentially get Wis, Int, and Dex to AC, Dex to attack and damage, the best critical range in the game for spell combat/spellstrike purposes, and still have great defenses between good AC and a free hand to use Crane Wing and Snake Style. Since you'll always have a free hand open, if you'd like another layer of protection it's child's play to pick up Deflect Arrows if you need it.

I like to pick Threatening Defender and Magical Knack: Magus with this build, since you can be using Combat Expertise and Crane Style together from level 1 and suffer only a -2 penalty. In return you get a +4 dodge bonus to your AC, which is huge at level 1.

It's not unreasonable to have an 18 Dex at level 1 though not required... and even before factoring in Canny Defense or the Monk AC bonus you could have an AC of 18 unarmored. With even a modest Wis (say 12) and a reasonable Int (say 14) that goes up to 21 AC at 1st level. Your enemies will have a hard time getting an attack through from the get-go and you have really solid saves, so it's a very survivable build at low levels and becomes quite fun later on even if it's not a powerhouse of damage initially.... you're still serving a valuable role in being a nimble tank and soaking attacks others might have taken.

A few options I've thought about using are:

*Give the rogue a rogue talent every level. There are enough now to make it worthwhile for many different styles, and more cool tricks help restore rogues to the role of a skill specialist.

*Increase sneak attack damage to 1d8.

*Instead of limited Trap Sense, make it a luck bonus and apply it to saving throws, AC, Sense Motive, and Initiative. Call it Danger Sense now, as it's more of a "preternatural alertness" type ability. Other classes that get trap sense are unchanged.

*Instead of Trap Sense, give them maneuver training just like the Monk.

*change sneak attack so that you get +1 base damage per sneak attack die when you crit, on top of your normal damage. EX: if you strike with a short sword for 1d6 and have 3d6 sneak attack damagage, you deal 2d6+6 damage + 3d6 sneak attack damage (1d6+3, shortsword has a x2 modifier)

*instead of Trap Sense (noticing a theme here? It's their weakest feature) let them re-roll a d20 once per day per bonus trap sense normally grants. Maybe cap it at 5 rerolls a day at level 15 and let them force someone else to reroll at level 18? I don't know. But it would certainly help with any build to be able to re-roll, even if you're not a combat type.

*let them add their Int or Cha mod to base damage. Maybe cap it by level like the Duelist ability? Mining the Duelist prestige class for abilities to give the rogue isn't a bad idea, actually.

*increase the range you can deal ranged sneak attacks to 60'.

I'm not suggesting implementing ALL of these, but they're ideas I've been pondering, and I may experiment with some or all of them and post how that's gone.

You deal with enemies with fortification the same way you deal with any enemy immune to critical hits: energy damage, persistent normal attacks, grapple+pin+rope, save or dies, mental control, walls, sundering their armor or shield, shatter....

there's lot of options at your disposal. Critical hits and sneak attack are nice, but hardly leave you toothless in the face of the enemy.

Oh, it works amazingly!

I'm playing an Oracle of Battle right now, and about a 1/3 of my character is devoted to exploiting the intimidate skill.

Dazzling Display, Cornugon Smash, Intimidating Prowess, and Shatter Defenses all dovetail wonderfully with each other.

Will it work all the time, every time? No. But it's a free check every time you hit, and if you get Shatter Defenses it can be brutal, particularly since Intimidating Prowess means every strength buff is also an Intimidate buff, making you more likely to hit, dealing more damage, and being scarier all at once.

EDIT: ninja'd by Shadow above, but we totally agree.

As I said, these are my rules and guidelines. They've done me well in the past, but they should absolutely NOT be confused with inflexible mandates.

As Captain Barbosa in the Pirates of the Caribbean says, "they're more.... guidelines."

Some groups have more of a beer-n-pretzels approach to gaming, others a deep roleplay total immersion style. Most typically fall in between.

If there are any specific points you take objection to, I would say that's not cause for an argument but a point to bring up to make sure everyone's on the same page. As long as the first three rules are solid, you can pretty much do whatever you'd like, because the whole fun of the game sometimes is getting together with your mates and sharing a beer, some pizza, rolling some dice (or not) and having a laugh. If the whole game becomes a series of Conan and Star Trek quotes, but smiles were had and no hard feelings generated, then regardless of what happened with the game I'd still consider that night well spent.

Originally this post was in the Pathfinder General forum, and was a direct result of reading a thread on anti-social rogue characters. (I believe if you look for "skimming from the party" or something similar you'll find it.)

It got me thinking about what I consider the most important axioms of good interpersonal relations at the game table are and why I think they're important. It took me a while to come up with those 8 guidelines and find the right way to phrase them. Originally I was going to post something far more nebulous, but I reconsidered. I think it's easier to respond to numbered points, because you can take issue with a rule and call out specifically what aspect you disagree with, like you did with number 4.

I can respect that not all groups have the same needs. You've got kids and that has to come first without a doubt. What I had in mind while writing these out was more along the lines of someone who's constantly fiddling with their phone or ipad during play. If we were in a game I would never presume to tell you what to do, but if it became a frequent issue that was actually disruptive to the game we might have to figure out better arrangements. Maybe I should add a "0" to the list above and say that all of these points are STARTING POINTS for a discussion, not absolutes.

As the only member of my game crew WITHOUT kids, I'd be in a bad way if I tried to seriously hold anyone's feet to the fire over being reachable by phone at the game table!

I've seen a number of threads lately discussing various aspects of character development and player behavior. I'd like to add my thoughts on this, as well as hear your own. This is intended to address issues of interparty conflict (in and out of character), ethics and alignment, house rules, and player expectation. In short, the areas where I see most real-world player conflict develop.

RADU'S GUIDES TO HAPPY ROLEPLAYING

1) You are here to have fun.

This is really a no-brainer. Pathfinder and other RPG's are made to be entertaining games. If you're not being entertained, something is wrong... BUT REMEMBER:

2) You are here to help EVERYONE ELSE have fun, too.

This is really a corollary to rule 1, but it bears saying- this is not a solo experience. If something you're doing is contributing to someone else's unhappiness or giving them a negative experience, you need to figure out what it is and make adjustments accordingly. This is a game, but it is a group activity, not "The Me Show." Directly tied in with this is the concept of playing a character who has a reason to adventure and a reason the other characters adventure with them. Don't bring the Norgorber holy assassin character to the Party of Light trying to cleanse the Worldwound. Don't bring the Judge Dredd Inquisitor to the party of pirates, cuthroats and scoundrels. Don't bring the Lastwall crusader to the party of Apsis Consortium slavers. Be a team player, both in and out of character.

3) Stay engaged and interested, even when your character isn't present.

Cheer at natural 20's and high damage rolls. Groan in sympathy when someone fails a save. Look up rules for players when it's not your turn. In other words: be an active contributor to the game, even when your character isn't. This applies to all situations, combat and non. Stay interested and involved. Take notes, even if your character wouldn't. Why? Because while I may enjoy the 20 int bard, I don't have a perfect memory, and I surely appreciate it when someone can remind me of details my character wouldn't have forgotten but I as a player have.

4) No texting, web surfing, or angry birds.

Really this should go without saying. RPG sessions are for playing RPG's, not for fiddling with tablets, smartphones, and laptops. Don't check your email or facebook during the GM's narration. Don't text when your spellcaster's turn isn't up. PLAY THE GAME you came to play, and save all the toys and distractions for later.

5) Mistakes happen. Accept them and move on.

This is a biggie. Players and GM alike *WILL* make mistakes. We all try to avoid them, but they happen. Don't be resentful or irritable about it. Persistently making the same mistake might be cause for concern, but most of the time it is better to have a short (SHORT!) discussion about things, find a resolution, and agree to address the issue out of game for the next session. Even if you KNOW something is being handled incorrectly it is better to address it in a way that doesn't torpedo the rest of the game night in a rules debate.

6) Spellcaster, Know Thy Spells!

This could be re-phrased as "PC, Know Thyself!" Know your character's capabilities. Class features, feats, skills, magic items- there's a lot to keep track of. Perhaps making some note-cards or putting sticky notes in your rulebooks would help. It is up to you to know and remember what your character can do or be willing and able to look up those rules. Nothing in my experience slows down a game more than someone constantly having to look up what Beast Shape 3 does or forgetting what a feat does... but keep in mind rule 5 as well. Human fallibility happens, and so you should brush off the occasional memory glitches and focus on the chronic amnesiacs in the group.

7) Accept the die roll and resist the temptation to "adjust"

It helps to have a clear understanding of how to handle dice. Some games have a "cock die" rule about dice that land oddly or are strangely balanced on objects on the game table. Some have rules about dice that fall off the table. Figure that out, and then accept whatever roll comes up. Yes, a natural 1 can be terrible sometimes... but it happens. It's going to happen about 5% of the time, in fact. Don't forget that natural 20's happen about 5% of the time, too.

8) No Summoner Geeks at the table!

Or Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or... you get the idea. Different groups have different tolerances for this sort of thing, but generally keeping table talk about extraneous topics, even ones as amusing as Monty Python, to a minim is usually best. In my experience games take a long enough time to get underway that you don't want to derail that process with idle banter. YMMV, and so long as your group agrees with, enjoys, and embraces that style of play I say, "lay on, MacDuff!"

In general, these have done me well. If you object to, disagree with, or have an alternative opinion I'd love to discuss them further. What are your guidelines?

That's a good point. Maybe I can ask my GM if I can swap out something for Make Whole. I've got Endurance, a Ring of Sustenance, and Mithril Plate, so I can sleep in my armor and only need 2 hours of shuteye.... 6 hours in which to cast make whole and spam mending sounds fine.

With Darkvision, a maximized Perception score, and Warsight I make a damn fine lookout, and this gives me something else to do while I guard everyone who needs sleep.

Hey man just chill out it isn't that big of a deal no one is trying to be nit picky (and if they are its in a playful lighthearted manner).

Sorry for the venom. I didn't intend to be snappish. I was reacting mostly to how the other player responded to the loss of less than 300 gp a piece when I broke the greatsword. Some context:

We are playing through Rise of the Runelords, and there is a portion where we were fighting a lot of mooks. In a medium sized rectangular room there were about 6 melee monsters and 6 supporting caster/melee hybrids. We decided that, having just come out of a fight with a flying iron golem, it would be fun to "flex the muscle" in this mook fight.

With some good initiative rolls the cleric threw up a blade barrier in front of the mooks, breaking any line of charges. My oracle threw a wall of fire behind them, facing towards us, so they were forced to choose between slow roasting by staying put, or walking through either the wall of fire or blade barrier to escape. A wall of iron and a one-two combo of dismissing the blade barrier and tipping the wall over took the mooks out of commission. It was great fun.

Since we had dropped a blade barrier, black tentacles, wall of fire, and wall of iron already, I decided to finish the fight off by greater sundering one of the gish types' greatsword. I didn't know it was magic until after wards, whereupon learning that I had destroyed the weapon the party wizard gave me an earful.

I remember how fun it was to just unleash on those guys... we really went for overkill. But, since my overkill ended up costing the party about 300 gp a piece, I'm the bad guy. It made me a little irritated. I feel somewhat like I have "wasted" my Oracle of Battle revelation (Maneuver Mastery: Sunder) since the only time I'm "allowed" to use it is in incidental fights. I suppose the problem isn't with sunder, it's with Greater Sunder and deliberately shattering a weapon. It wasn't an issue when I destroyed two glaives wielded by demonesses last encounter, but they were "only" masterwork items.

...

Sorry for the grousing and the long post, but I guess I'm still a bit annoyed at having my hands tied. My whole character build is based on a few themes: demoralizing through intimidation, crowd control through fog, silence, walls, etc, and de-clawing through sunder.
I've got Power Attack, Intimidating Prowess, Greater Sunder, Shatter Defenses, and Cornugon Smash. They all dovetail very nicely... when I shatter a weapon using sunder while power attacking, the extra damage carries over. Since the attack was a power attack I get a free Demoralize check from Cornugon Smash. I have a fantastic Intimidate score, so usually succeed, even 2 or 3 times in a row. The now shaken, weapon-less enemy is flat-footed against any follow-up strikes until the end of my next turn. Everything builds into everything else. Even the falchion was chosen to maximize critical hits for when I get Sundering Strike next level.

Now, unfortunately, I feel like I've had half my build stripped out. Neither sunder nor demoralize are enough to make a viable build by themselves- I feel it makes you a one trick pony. Having the ability to do both, with spell support, makes me a viable primary combatant and caster. I *LOVE* the Oracle of Battle. It is *EXACTLY* what I enjoy playing, from a mechanics and flavor perspective.

Part of me feels like I have to ask for permission before having the kind of fun I'd like to have. I don't think this is quite the same thing as bringing the assassin character to the Party of Light or the Paladin to the Axis of Evil. I haven't ever groused at the wizard for being a Transmuter and having no evocation blasts. I haven't ever gotten miffed at the rogue for using a bladed scarf. I'm not angry at the cleric for the heavy spell overlap between us... his channel energy makes my free cure spells seem paltry in comparison.... but that's his forte! I think he SHOULD be better. That's his niche, and something he's invested some resources into. I think he SHOULD outshine me in that department.

By the same token, I don't ever complain when the rogue wants to disable a lock instead of letting me smash it. Yeah, I have that half-orc racial sub that gives me +2 to Sunder and +2 to Str on breaking objects, and I have an adamantine weapon..... but the rogue has maxed Disable Device and the Trapspotter rogue talent for a reason as well. I say, "Here's the limelight! It's a trap/lock/device. I could smash it, but it's better if you disable it." If they can't, I can always be a plan B, and I'm happy to give them their moment.

... So I return to the basic question:

Do you think Sunder is a poor option, and why? Would you ban it from your game? Discourage its use? How do you deal with situations like this?

I feel like it might need a little co-operation and communication in the party, but no more so than someone who plays a monk instead of a fighter. Or a party with a druid and alchemist, but no wizard or cleric. Or a party with an investigator type bard instead of a social manipulator.

In other words:

Sunder is no different from any other option, in that you should make allowances for it. Embrace the option, plan your tactics around it, and use it to your advantage. Grousing the player who chooses this option feels no different to me than getting irritated at a cleric who channels negative energy instead of positive. It feels... Gygaxian to me, in that it inspires adversarial thinking. It's like, when the party gets fireball or fly, you never see enemies in clusters and all your battlefields are claustrophobic mineshafts. Or, when the party gets teleport or dimension door your enemies suddenly all have dimensional anchor scrolls. Players should be able to use their abilities and feel like they are contributing, rather than having their abilities diminished or nullified by the environment or by other players shaming them out of those tactics.

I hereby cede the soapbox. Thanks for your time.

Ok, right. fine.

I destroyed 293 gp, 7 sp, and 5 cp worth of treasure a piece. Yes, at level 12, that is insignificant.

I think that my standard procedure going forward is to continue to sunder when I want to (ie: when I think it is advantageous) and if someone (like, say, the greed-I mean, thrifty wizard) wants to have a detect magic up and running to tell me what not to strike, that's fine.

I've got the feats. I'm not going to stop using them. I have yet to sunder any actual, useful item. I've broken a couple of polearms to destroy a phalanx, shattered some stone giant great clubs (dropping their damage capacity down a lot), and that's about it. This "super valuable" +1 greatsword is the first "loot" item I've destroyed, and we lost out on an utterly insignificant amount of wealth because of it.

I didn't start paying DND to build a business or micromanage my wealth. I can do that in real life. I can't wander across the battlefield dispensing liberal doses of smackdown in real life. If the other party members really object to it, I will reign it in a bit, but I bought the stupid feats, so I should be able to use them!

I like the sunder combat maneuver. I've got an oracle of battle who runs around with an adamantine falchion and greater sunder, and I love being able to shatter weapons and armor completely in one strike. Enemy has a nasty magic weapon? Break it!

Some of the other players have gotten angry at me for "destroying loot" when I have done this. We ran into some mooks lately who had +1 greatswords. I just flat out broke one and thanks to greater sunder the damage that carried over was enough to kill the dude. I crit'ed on the sunder, so it was somewhere in the realm of 50 damage or so. (We're level 12 and by this point I'm running around with 28 strength in most battles)

Do you use sunder? Do you like it? Are your players discouraged from using it because they don't like the thought of losing out on loot?

At level 12, destroying a +1 magical weapon is piffling. Even had we sold it it's only 250 gp a piece. Is losing out on an insignificant amount of gold and an item no one in the party will use worth me being too afraid of making everyone else mad to use the feats I bought? What is the most fair way to address this?

I'd like to jump on board the "I love Dave Gross" train.

I finished reading Prince of Wolves in one marathon sitting a few weekends ago. I meant to do a little "light reading" while my roommate was out. It was Saturday morning and we had some tentative plans... which I totally forgot about, since I was engrossed in the book.

By the time I came up for air, it was six in the evening. It's been a long time since I've gotten so involved in a book. I think when I first read "The Hobbit" I felt like that, so kudos to you, Mr. Gross.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Radovan and Jeggare, though at first I found it a little confusing with the switching of voices. I had never read any of the other material they are in before this. I realized they were different narrators, but it took a little bit before I was able to switch back and forth between the two styles without being slightly disoriented, but even with this minor critique I still found the book highly entertaining.

I love the nods to Golarion as a living, breathing place of its own, and I'm particularly glad I spent so much time perusing the Rule of Fear sourcebook, because I could recognize many of the locations and really liked how the atmosphere of Ustalav shines through. As I am planning on running the Carrion Crown AP when our current GM wants to rotate out, I think it is telling that as I was reading I kept thinking, "oh that's great! I'm so stealing that [description/mood/character] for use in the game!"

Pathfinder Tales are fictional works, but they take place in the same world that we play in, so it was an entirely pleasant surprise to see how well Dave Gross pulls off the not insignificant task of making an enjoyable work of fiction while still remaining true to the roots of the Pathfinder RPG and Golarion. Well done, sir! I especially enjoyed your portrayal of Caliphas social life, with all the courtly intrigue and double meanings, the Monastery of the Veil, and the really nasty way Urgathoa came across.

If this is an indicator of the quality I can expect from the other Pathfinder Tales, I think Paizo has just found itself a new subscriber.

After reading through the module, I think there are a few good places to insert the Harrowing.

What I'm going to do in my campaign is to have Madame Ivanja do a Harrow reading for the group after they finish the segment around Highthrone. The current upheaval at Ascanor Lodge has finally convinced her to find work elsewhere, and she's going to take Naima along with her. As a thank you she offers "a freebie" (Harrow reading, of course!) to the party with her own harrow deck- a hand-painted deck crafted by Sonnrae herself which has somehow made its way into the hands of the Madame.

Everyone gets sucked into the Harrowed Realm, but Madame, as the owner, is diverted and becomes a prisoner instead of the sage whose name I can't remember. The party has to rescue her and in return she gifts them with the Deck and also gives them a series of tokens and phrases that let any Sczarni know they are allies and should be aided, not hindered. Among other things, this means the Prince's Wolves are now allies instead of opponents, and the party is immune to Sczarni interference for the rest of the campaign.

I had similar plans myself. I think the best place to slot it would be to replace the vision of Desna granted by activation of the Dusk Moth with "The Harrowing," and after they conclude that adventure they get some insight into the future. I think I'm going to give them a +1 inherent bonus to Wis AND Cha as an added reward.

In my experience, channel energy is nice to have outside of combat, but really makes its presence known during the flow of battle. That's when having a few less channels per day but each channel healing a few more HP really makes a difference.

Outside combat, a wand of cure light wounds will eventually take care of any amount of lost HP, and the cohort can already do that. Just buy them a wand.

I'd recommend sticking to straight cleric in this case, since while technically you get more HD worth of healing from the combo, it's not really about how many d6 you're rolling TOTAL as much as how many you get from EACH CHANNEL that really make a difference, and I think that the trade-off in terms of weaker caster level, redundant spell lists between Oracle and Cleric, and loss of additional channel dice per use are not worth getting 10 more d6 worth of channels. I'd rather have 11 channels which cure 17.5 hp on average than have 11 channels a day cure 14 and 7 channels a day cure 10.5, even though more HP are healed by the second option.

Don't forget- support can also come in the form of dispel magic, remove blindness/deafness, bless, prayer, aid.... there's no shortage of great cleric buff and support spells (not surprisingly) and getting access to higher level spells typically will give a more noticeable benefit than having a TON of level 1 spells you can cast between cleric and oracle levels, since they are all drawn from the same list. There just aren't many cases where you'll need THAT MANY protection from evil spells, for example. Rather than getting a bunch more level 1 spells and a few channels, I'd rather have the cohort toss out a Magic Circle Against Evil or Prayer.

Hi everyone,
Has Paizo provided any guidance on how or if you can use both the Pathfinder Compatibility License and Logo along with the ORC license?

This would need to only contain/refer to remastered content released under the ORC license. However, everything on the Compatibility License page for second edition still refers to only the OGL.

If Paizo has provided information in this regard, I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks,
Wren

I didn't really want to post this in an open forum, but I have tried to contact Paizo several times over the last few months on both the customer service and consignment emails and have received no response. I need you to shut down my consignment account for Rusted Iron Games for selling PDFs on paizo.com.

Thanks,
Russ Brown
Rusted Iron Games

Hi,
Can you let me know what is going on with my subscription order? It has been in pending since February 10th. I have received the bestiary battle cards, but the rest of the order does not seem to have shipped yet.

Russ Brown

Howdy Partners!

Rusted Iron Games is developing Tombstone, an alternate-history weird, wild west setting for Pathfinder Second Edition. The main book for the setting, the Tombstone Gazetteer will be coming out soon, but we have already released five Ancestries of Tombstone products to provide new ancestry options for the setting. However, the ancestries are fully compatible with Pathfinder Second Edition and could be used in other settings as well.

Ancestries of Tombstone Centaur
Ancestries of Tombstone Chupacabra
Ancestries of Tombstone Corvus
Ancestries of Tombstone Jackalope
Ancestries of Tombstone Rougarou

What is Tombstone?

Tombstone is a gritty alternate history wild west setting with elements of anime, fantasy, and gothic horror. The year is 1871 and the world is full of monsters and magic but it diverges from traditional fantasy settings in a number of ways. First of all, the world of Tombstone is our earth, or at least an alternate version of it. This allows us to assume a baseline of actual history — for example, the city of Las Vegas, Nevada won't be founded until 1905 — except for the details that are called out as being different. Secondly, the ancestries of Tombstone are not the ones found in traditional fantasy settings. There are no elves, dwarves, gnomes or halflings in the world of Tombstone. Instead, humans live alongside centaurs, jackalopes, rougarou, and the secretive chupacabra.

Magic has always existed but was much less common and much less powerful until the summer solstice of 1847 saw a surge of magical power unheard of since the time of King Artur. Since then, instead of quickly falling back to normal levels as is expected with magical spikes, magical power levels have been slowly but steadily building. Magical scholars have taken to calling this event the Resurgence.

The Southwestern Territories are also facing a new threat in the form of The Blighted. A shooting star landed in the barren wastes of West Texas and now strange mutants are coming out of the desert...

Tombstone is a campaign setting for Pathfinder Second Edition. This means that you need the Pathfinder Core Rulebook (Second Edition) to play games in the world of Tombstone.

Hi There,
My current subscription order has some dungeon tiles that are pre-ordered for March 2020. Can you just move those back to my side cart and let the rest of the order ship now?

Thanks!
Russ

Hi There,
I got an email for Order 8021120 that added 3 PFS scenarios to my account for my subscriptions. It shows I purchased them, but I cannot download the PDFS, they do not show up under the download tab.

Also are scenario 1-00 and Quest 1A supposed to be included with the subscription as well?

Thanks
Russ

Hi!
Please cancel my Starfinder Accessories Subscription only.
I would like to keep all of my other current subscriptions active.

Thanks,
Russ Brown

Hi Everyone!

I have been away for a while, but I am happy to announce several new releases from Rusted Iron Games.

First we have the Deadly Gardens Collection. This product gathers all the material from the 25 volume series into one place.

Also there is Roll With It! Villager Names. This free GM aid allows you to generate names for villagers with a few dice rolls.

The most recent release is Race Options: Gillmen by Joshua Hennington. This provides new options for you Gillmen characters.

The above links go to the products here on the Paizo site, but in general all of our products can be found at the following places.
Here on the Paizo site.
On the Rusted Iron Games website.
On DriveThruRPG site.

Hi Folks,
I am happy to announce that the Deadly Gardens Collection is now available from Rusted Iron Games. It collects all the material from the 25 Volumes of the Deadly Gardens series into one handy source.

It's available here at Paizo and on DriveThruRPG.

I also want to thank all the folks who helped make this product possible.
The excellent writers and game designers: Matthew Carroll, Kim Frandsen, Jeff Gomez, Chris Hunt, Sam Kaplan, Joe Kondrak, Jacob W. Michaels, Stephen Stack, Andrew Umphrey, Isaac Volynskiy and Mike Welham.

The fantastic artists who have provided original art: Becca Bean, Jeremy Corff, Liz Courts, Graeme Cunningham, Christian Dragos, J.H. Martin, and Keith Wood.

Finally I would like to thank my friend Caio Schmidt who designed the Rusted Iron Games logo, provided the original art design and layout for our products and taught me the basics of using InDesign.

Hi There,
I currently have two sets of the Urban Flip Tile Starter set in my side cart. I only need 1 but apparently ordered 2 by mistake. Can you please remove 1 set from my side cart?

Thanks,
Russ Brown

Okay as my first P2E Playtest character I was trying to make a tank-style fighter that uses high AC an a lot of HP to be good at taking hits. However it seems like it is impossible to make a 1st level character with an 18 Constitution using the playtest rules.

Here is a quick summary of how to generate your ability scores. Please let me know if I am missing something.
1. You start with a 10 in all abilities.
2. You apply ability boosts to increase an ability by 2 (when less than 18)
3. You gain ability boosts from 4 sources, being 1st level, your Ancestry, your Background, and your Class.
4. When you gain multiple boosts at the same time (i.e. from the same source) each must be applied to a different ability.

So to get an 18 in any ability you must make the appropriate choices that allow you to apply 4 boosts, one from each source, to a single ability.

The problem comes in when choosing your class. The ability boost from your class must be applied to (one of) the class' Key Abilities. However, none of the playtest classes have Constitution as a Key Ability. This makes it impossible to get an 18 constitution at 1st level.

Am I missing something? If not, is this an oversight or a deliberate design choice? It seems like an oversight as all other abilities can be 18 at first level. Also given their martial nature, barbarians, fighters and rangers should be able to have an 18 Con at first level.

Hi, I am happy to announce that we have a new release!

Deadly Gardens: Cinder-Heart Treant is now available here at Paizo! It is also available at RPG Now!

Written by Russ Brown and Kim Frandsen
Art by Graeme Cunningham

This is the penultimate release of the regular 99¢ Deadly Gardens volumes. Look for Verdaxag, King of Trees to be relased soon.

I am happy to announce the newest product release from Rusted Iron Games!

Deadly Gardens: Wandering Sundew is now available here at Paizo.com. Also available at RPGNow.

Written by Russ Brown, Kim Frandsen and Joe Kondrak.
Art by Jeremy Corff.

This is the first of the last three volumes of the Deadly Gardens series. Look for the two remaining volumes Deadly Gardens: Cinder-Heart Treant and Deadly Gardens: Verdaxag, King of Trees to be released soon™ from Rusted Iron Games.

New Today! Template Races: Half-Humans

Half-elves and Half-orcs have been a staple of fantasy game worlds for a long time. But why limit our games to just those two human crossbreed races? Why not half-dwarves, half-gnomes or half-hobgoblins? That's where the the half-human race template comes in, you can create any human crossbreed races that you need for your game.

Written by Russ Brown.
Art by Liz Courts.

Hello!

We have a new release in our Deadly Gardens Series.

Deadly Gardens: Hungry Pit

Written by Russ Brown, Kim Frandsen, and Joe Kondrak

Art by Jeremy Corff

Also check out the reviews from Endzeitgeist for some of our recent releases.
Deadly Gardens: Catchweed - 5 Stars
Deadly Gardens: Faerie Circle Stalker - 5 Stars
Deadly Gardens: Greenscream Trumpet - 5 Stars
Deadly Gardens: Grovemaker - 4 Stars
Deadly Gardens: Stiletto Palm - 4 Stars
Deadly Gardens: Razorleaf Swarm - 5 Stars

So we will be doing Starfinder compatible products, likely starting with some monster products. However we are open to suggestions at this point. What types of products do you want to see for Starfinder?

Hello!
Once again we have two new Deadly Gardens products releasing this week!

First we have Deadly Gardens: Stiletto Palm
Written by Joe Kondrak, Matthew Carroll & Mike Welham.
Art by Liz Courts.

Next up is Deadly Gardens: Razorleaf Swarm
Written by Chris Hunt, Jeff Gomez & Mike Welham.
Art by Liz Courts.

Other upcoming releases in the Deadly Gardens series include:

Deadly Gardens: Grovemaker
Written by Mike Welham. Art by Becca Bean.

Deadly Gardens: Greenscream Trumpet
Written by Sam Kaplan, Matthew Carroll & Mike Welham.
Art by Liz Courts.

Deadly Gardens: Faerie Circle Stalker
Written by Jacob W. Michaels, Mike Welham & Isaac Volynskiy.
Art by Becca Bean.

Deadly Gardens: Hungry Pit
Written by Russ Brown. Art by Jeremy Corff.

Now available from Rusted Iron Games - Race Options: Svirfneblin!

Written by Mike Welham, Art by Jeremy Corff.

Additional options for Svirfneblin PC characters.

Thanks for the mention!

Anyone interested in reviewing any of our products, send me a PM.

Hello!

There are two new product releases in our Deadly Gardens series. Deadly Gardens each feature new plant monsters and supporting material with a wilderness theme.

Now available from here on Pazio.com as well as DriveThruRPG/RPGNow.

Deadly Gardens: Petrified Plants by Joe Kondrak.

Deadly Gardens: Catchweed by Russ Brown and Matthew Carroll.