RizzotheRat's page

I’ve been playing 3/3.5/Pathfinder since the 3rd Edition came out. I started with 1st Ed aged 6. I guess this makes me old! Played my first Playtest chapter today. Initial impressions -

I liked:

* the three action economy. No more swift/move/standard is a huge improvement

* New skills list. More than enough.

* AOO isn’t automatic. This frees up the “board” a lot.

* AC increases as level increases. Your BAB does, why shouldn’t your ability not to get hit?

Things to work out:

* the transition from exploratory to encounter mode is not clear. Not surprise round!

* Resonance wasn’t well understood when I was playing

* spell points seems like the wrong name for this counter

Overall, really enjoyed it and it still felt like Pathfinder to me.

Hey Shifty - Yes, the smoker will be in full force when we are open. It will be all about slow cooked chicken, pork, beef brisket etc. We will be bottling beer soon as well!

Thanks to all who supported Young Henrys in fledgling half finished mode. We look forward to seeing you again when we officially open.

This sort of stuff makes me want to play a paladin. A big dumb zealot of a paladin who only knows one way. There will be on moral dilemmas for this guy.

If you want to pursue that idea you could steal from Monte Cook's Dead Gods. Rather than the player's characters go back in time he had the players roll up different characters and play them in that time zone. He then had the original characters find a magic item that had recorded the different characters' experiences. It was a great way to giving the players valuable plot information and history. To make it a great 'reveal' I had the players run those different characters in a break between chapters well before the magic item could be discovered. To give it a completely different, I had a good friend of mine, who plays with a different group, GM them with the mission the TPK at the end. When they finally found the magic item, many real time months later, is was a great "oooohhh" moment.

"Free actions don’t take any time at all, though there may be limits to the number of free actions you can perform in a turn."

I agree with the sentiment that there should not be any hard limits set. I'd look at what actions made up the whole turn. If player tried something like multiple free actions, a swift action and a full round attack I would be looking at what the free actions were and what I thought was reasonable to achieve within the turn.

I gave them everything but the spoilers (kingdom events etc). I sent them out with the caveats below. I highly recommend this. You don't want to do the admin for the Kingdom. My players went with the optional building upgrade rules. Thus far the Kingdom has progressed at a steady rate with lots of ups and down. It's been a lot of fun. Feel free to steal and modify as you like.

--------

Here are the rules. I'm sharing them with you because:

* I don't want to have to be the rules expert

* You guys as players have the right balance of roll and role playing.
That is, you will choose roles within the Kingdom that you are interesting in exploring rather than just min/maxing the kingdoms rolls. I was open at the start about the fact that one of your stats will heavily influence the rolling so this shouldn't be an issue. Similarly with your choices of buildings, I hope that it doesn't just descend to a numbers game and flavour is forgotten.

* You understand that these are new rules that may need some tweaking as we go along.

The rules themselves seem to switch from GM only to Player open type language and intended audience. I've removed some spoilers from the doco is a very unsubtle fashion, hence the blacked out sections.

There is a mention of Mass Combat rules. We don't have to worry about them until you decide to invade your neighbours or you get big enough to attract attention and be worth invading, which I don't anticipate will happen during your first few founding years. However, the defence modifier will play a role here. Obviously the higher the number, the more impervious to attack you are.

There has been suggested changes and points of order by James Jacobs and Jason Nelson (rules author):

* Graveyard increases loyalty +1 only (economy +1 removed).

* Exotic Craftsman (10 BP): 1 minor item, +1 Economy, +1 Stability.
(Economy replaces Loyalty).

* A Barracks is a pre-req of a Watchtower at a rate of 1:6. Nowhere to house your city guards, no guards to watch in the towers. Doesn't have to be adjacent. This is a house rule I've put in after it was pointed out that the return on BP invested didn't exactly make sense. That
alternativewas to flip the costs which I'm not in favour in doing.

* Unrest from a new building is not ongoing. People get use to it and get on with their lives.<an in-joke after one of us copped some real life bad press about a proposed building>

* Note that there is a difference between exploring/clearing the hex of baddies and claiming a hex. Claiming hexes are the point at which you start sending settlers and citizens and city watch into that hex and they start building homes or whatever. Your can certainly say that you rule over all of the hexes on the map, but until they're officially "claimed" during the proper point during kingdom construction, you are just blowing hot air.

* The "buildings" are meant to be representational. A single "block" in the city grid is ~700 feet to a side so there's a LOT of buildings in there.

* Some building have pre-reqs of adjacent buildings. Anything counts as adjacent; left, right, above, below, diagonal, or even across streets but you can't "double duty". Once it's used as a prerequisite for another building, it can't serve as a prerequisite for a second building.

* There are no limits to the number of districts you can have, but I want a good rational reason for building another one (like all the others are mostly full).

* We'll keep an eye on how we mix BP and Gold. BP isn't just coin in coffers.

* Your first round of kingdom building will skip the upkeep phase. Seems obvious but confused some people.

* Other Kingmaker campaigns seemed to have problems with players using Magic Shops as the PC's personal slot machine. There would obviously be consequences of such heavy handed intervention in the economy by the rulers of the state...

* Depending on how your city expands, I may impose a law of diminishing returns. Too many graveyards and the citizens get creeped out, too many brothels may cause morality crusaders to destabilise the city, too many walls stop the flow of trade and start hampering defensive efforts. You get the idea.

* There are some optional rules for upgrading buildings balanced with the need of further prerequisites for buildings. They were left out for reasons of simplicity. I've attached them as a separate PDF. They do add a layer of complexity but they also add some flexibility and
verisimilitude. If you guys are up for it I'd be happy to use them.

* Note that some people have ignored all these rules entirely and have gone
for a 'kingdom in the background' approach and just got on with exploring
and quests. I suspect you guys will want to get stuck into these new
rules, but if after a time we aren't having fun, I'm happy to put these in place.

Both of this month's scenarios are on track for a Wednesday release.

Awesome. Thanks Liz!

I'm scheduled to Gm this to Mac Con on the 10th. There's a lot of interest in this, my table is full, and we are looking at opening another. Is the release date still on track? Cheers.

I'd forget about the 'tanking' role when playing Pathfinder. If the baddies have the intelligence to employ tactics against your party you cant force them to attack your designated hit taker. Get your controllers to do the disabling whilst you deal out the heavy hits.

Troubleshooter wrote:

I've inserted some, ah, 'intermediary steps' to maintain things and it's worked pretty well.

Would you mind sharing those steps Troubleshooter? I'm preparing to run Kingmaker once we finsh the current campaign, and I'd like to know what other people have done. I'm currently reviewing the same section of the AP, and I foresee simular problems.

Should probably move this to another thread. Spoilers are likely. I'm happy to contribute.

You guys do sound like you're severely underequipped for your level. Talk to your GM about that - the Stag Lord's fort was supposed to bring you guys up to 4th - 5th level equipment, and if he just shrugged and said "you don't find any items", then he's definitely boning you big time.

They burnt it down. Still, there was a bunch of stuff down there that was not exactly flammable...

What happened to the gear the Stag Lord and his minions had?

R.

You have one extra player, but you seem a little low on gear.

The Keep with the quickling is challenging for 5th. Without spoiling there are some tactics described for the quickling et al that mean they don't necessarily work together.

5 PC deaths....well, in the game I'm running we are at a similar place to you. My guys (5 players) are at 6th Level with a lot more gear and I've notched up 2 deaths, and a very nearly. Some encounters have been tough, others have been a bit too easy. They have avoided certainly places knowing they are unpowered and have also run away a few times. No shame there. The players usually work well together. When they don't, or miss some clues on how the combat may play out, the combat is much harder for them. No complaints on the difficulty thus far.

I seemed to have touched a nerve with The Tick!

I was trying to think of a hero who was stupid, his mission for justice was paramount regardless of collateral damage, was righteous, said corny lines etc etc (a bit of an a-hole really, but comic none the less). Maybe the Tick wasn't perfect choice but I always thought anarchy was a by-product of his do gooding, not part of the aim.

Any in case, there should be room for lots of paladin personality types, not just the Saint.

It is about time someone played a Paladin that wasn't cookie cutter, that had flaws and a personality.

Some possible characters to model a Paladin's personality on that I reckon would be fun:

Robocop - No emotion, no grey areas

The Tick - Over the top stupid, corny sayings, completely dedicated

Eliot Ness - Incorruptible, steadfast, heavy drinker, divorced

A couple of harsh words (pretty soft really) hardly require atonement. Unfortunately its the DM and other players who are at fault. When they hear Paladin they just think about how to trip the poor player up.

This may help with your design - http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/90/bad-trap-syndrome/

Courts Are For Kings

We are heading towards to the end of RRR and the laminated map of the Stolen Lands has become central to the game. The players love pouring over it, writing in tips they are gleaned from NPCs about what may be out there, placing dot stickers when the claim and build (they have a colour code system for resources, landmarks, farms etc) and just generally plotting their next moves. Do this and your whole sandbox gets so much easier for you and your players.

Other advice -

Get the players to read the Kingmaker Players Guide.

When it comes time, share the Kingdom Building rules with the players (removing spoilers). Way too much for you to manage on your own. It's the players Kingdom after all, they should keep the records.

Read the boards on the Kingdom Building rules and don't be afraid to modify the RAW to suit your groups style of play and how their Kingdom progresses.

I"m sorry I couldn't make it this year. Al sent me regular picture to keep the jealously up. Look forward to bigger and better next year!

Making Craft Work <- This nails down issues with crafting as well as gives really good solutions.

Crafting is more often called out for how bizarre it is. When more complicated items take less time to make and something that's more expensive but very simple takes a long time to make, crafting needs fixing...

Thanks for the link. I've got some players who may be crafting soon, so I think I'll invest the buck.

I respect the work from this site and agree with the points he makes, but the article linked above doesn't even touch on why we all believe Craft is broken - that it takes an unreasonable long amount of time to craft items.

Let's accept that the amount of time is unreasonable for arguments sake. How does this time effect your game play? What is the actual "cost"? If you were making your +4 Mighty Composite Longbow between adventurers surely is going to be ready before you have to save your little part of the world again?

I'm assuming most players take 10 when attempting to craft something? Otherwise you are attempting something that's out of your comfort zone in terms of skill....

The 'profession' part of WoW is the most boring and frustrating part of the game. Grind, grind, grind for what? So you can flog a bunch of half useful stuff at the Auctioneer? I don't think I've ever used anything I've made. The economy gets so out of whack because the players are OCD about levelling that the materials are far more expensive than the finished product. And we want bring elements of this to Pathfinder?

Crafting is meant to be done in the background, during downtime between adventuring (great call on the montage). Players that want to craft should play something like Kingmaker where there is ample time for this to happen. There's nothing more frustrating to a GM than a player who wants to bang out a bunch of horse shoes in the middle a super suspenseful plot thread.

It is all too much like real work. Don't you have enough drudgery in your real life?

No flame wars here. Tony, I'll drop you a line.

I heard a rumour that the people who GMed at Shadow Lodge were told that they would have to pay for the sessions that they GMed if they had been GMing at Sydcon.

No Tony, we weren't told that. I'm happy to give my perspective on the Shadow Lodge / Sydcon schism if the SRGA is interested, either publicly or privately.

Cheers,
Richard
Grandmaster Torch

Low level - Sanctuary (great combat extender)

Mid Level - Suggestion (when was the last time you visited your mother?) or Confusion (random lulz)

High Level - Blasphemy (ouch!), Antilife Shell (ranged or reach for melees), Contingency (lots of great options)

It would take a bit of massage to make it work, but other than the starting premise I can't see too many issues.

Yes. They are both suggested as suitable companions for Druids and Rangers in the Kngmaker Players Guide. It's a free download. Grab it.

As for a Paladin mount: GMs call. Sounds more flavour then crunch to me so I'd run with it.

Thanks Shadow Lodgers. Great turn out. Nice to do it in style. Have a great day tomorrow, I'll try in pop in for a drink in the evening.

Heya Folks,

3) The camouflage and hide in plain sight issue. Wow. Wow. That's all I have to say about that right now.

Ha-ha! Rules that are exception to rules that aren't clear are always going to be a minefield.

EXAMPLE 2: A party is resting for the evening. The party consists of 4 characters, one of whom is a druid with an animal companion with Scent as an ability. The animal is asleep as is the druid. An enemy is using stealth to infiltrate the camp but the character on watch fails to "notice" the enemy sneaking in.

Q1. Does the Scent ability "switch off" when a creature with that ability is asleep?
Q2. If so, does the Perception check from the animal gain any bonus versus the opposed Stealth check?

My understanding of studies on sleeping humans and strong odour (rotten eggs was used in one study) is that it will effect dreams but not wake. I'd rule the same for animals unless someone can prove otherwise.

Thanks for this change in the stealth rule. To pick up on the HiPS discussion, we are now saying that:

HiPS is done are part of an action as any Stealth check
A successful opposed stealth check using HiPS gains the Hidden condition

?

If so, that clears up a lot of the extra sensory perception questions, except for one: Darkvision.

Any chance of clearing that one up once and for all?

Stephen White wrote:

Drandle Dreng - I try my best Sean Connery voice, but a little more old and doddery. Sean Connery is pretty easy to imitate, just speak in a deep voice and replace all your S's with Zh's.

That's funny! Until the events of Season 1, I used my Sean Connery voice for Adril Hestram... for Drandle Dreng I used my Christopher LLoyd "Doc Brown" voice! And for Azram, I use a Morgan Freeman voice reminiscent of his "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" character.

Some great ideas here. I'm thinking Sean Connery/Celebrity Jeopardy for Dreng:

"The game is afoot!"

"We meet again"

"Well, you were wrong, you mountebank. I pose a conundrum to ya, I riddle if you will"

"I've spent five years of my life trying to invent Mcguffin X, failing to do so is my greatest regret".

"The day is mine!"

Anything for The Hunt For Red October would also work well...

I lot of the animal encounters I play as non combat. Elks, a small pack of wolves etc aren't going to risk taking on a group on horse back (my group also have 5 dogs) for little reward. If the PCs spot the animal(s) from a distance and maintain that distance, I usually play that they don't engage. Similarly, if there is combat, they won't fight to the death.

I think you are doing the right things in terms of chat. If the hex (or a nearby hex) had a magical beast of some kind in it, there is no harm in rewarding the player for his thinking by doing some foreshadowing...

"Don't go there, big scary lives there. Smells bad. Eats you it will" etc

If you are catching public transport, the 470 Bus stops 10m for the door on St Johns Rd:

http://www.sydneybuses.info/routes/timetables-route-maps

It's disappointing things didn't turn out differently. I know of a few players who were turned off by the 3 hour sessions times and weird connecting sessions. Can't say I'll miss the supermarket pies half thawed in the microwave though....

Could you elaborate on that a bit?

Here's what I imagined you imagining.....

So if I have a consumption of say 6 in the summer, (counting reductions from farms already), I could say "increase consumption to 8 this month" so as to add "2 in the granary" for winter.

Then winter when Consumption goes up to 12 because my three farm hexes have reduced their output by 2 each, I can "withdraw" from the granary the 2 and make the consumption "10 for this month".???

Robert

I was thinking along the lines that if your Summer farm production reduced consumption to a negative level, that surplus could be stored in the granary to be used later.

You could, however, change the farms contribution from a reduction of consumption to an addition of BP. BP from farms have to be used that month to meet consumption unless you have a granary. This is probably neater.

Can anyone explain to me how this would be less relevant than comparing "Role playing" to optimization?

I take the point a few posters have made that some players design their character and play the game to 'win', player V GM style, let's break your game, my characters awesome and I don't care if anyone else gets a chance to shine, rather than be a team player that helps everyone have fun. These type of players are generally also optimisers. However, not all optimisers are like that.

I get annoyed with players who don't have a strong character concept and don't inject any personality into their play. Worst still are players who write pages and pages of character background yet don't reveal anything about their character over many sessions of play. However, my real pet gripe, at least in 3rd Ed, were players who went off and chased multiple prestige classes in order to build "interesting characters" which rarely made sense from a background or game experience level, and as a consequence didn't hold down their end when it came to their role. There is nothing worse than a dysfunctional adventuring party with a Rogue who has no chance of finding the traps, a Cleric who can heal enough HP, a fighter who doesn't hit hard or frequently enough, or a Wizard who doesn't have access to those high levels spells required in game because the Mod assumes a certain level of proficiency.

Sub-optimised characters can be just as game breaking as cardboard cut out dungeon slayers.

The Dancing Lady has been outcast from the first world and has been seeking a way home and needs to sacrifice a good fey to complete the ritual to send them home. She trades the PC's lives for the life of Tiressia. Tiressia volunteers herself to be sacrificed for two reasons. To repay the life debt and to give the evil fey a way home so they would no longer prey upon the innocent people of the Narlmarches.

This left them without their +2 stability and feeling crappy for her death, but alive and moving forward. Since then, they have been much more careful about preparing before entering places.

So, in my opinion it turned out pretty well.

Nice one. I'll keep that in my back pocket just in case.

In terms of where you are up to, my players:

Captured Happs and co, questioned them and then hung them for unrepentant banditry.
Killed of Kressle's group but captured her. Took her back to Oleg's for questioning and handed her over to Kesten to work off her crimes against Oleg and Svetlana. Faced with the prospect of certain death, Kressle seems to be towing the line.
Negotiated with the Kobolds at the Beet field.

There is a lot of opportunity for a good aligned party to avoid combat and/or take prisoners for redemption is this sandpit adventure. If you treat your captives well, spend time talking with them about their wrongs and teach them the folly or their ways, show them they can be a valuable member of your fledging kingdom, let them earn your trust etc etc, any decent GM is going to have their alignment swing around.

I'd appeal to any DMs that have players treating their prisoners well and genuinely seeking to redeem enemy NPCs not to punish them for their actions. There also the temptation to further sub-plots by having NPCs betray the party at a later stage, but this just railroads players into killing all the baddies because it's just safe and easier. Dumb play IMHO.

Great ideas Robert and Diego.

I'm going to run with :

Summer: 3BP
Autumn: 2BP
Winter: 1BP
Spring: 2BP

Building a Granary will allow the Kingdom to store BP generated by Farms for consumption later.

I've had a think about the 'resource' hexes and development of mines. The +1 Economy isn't really doing for me or the group, nor are the Mine bonuses suggested. I think you should only be able to build a Mine where a precious metal or mineral resources are located. A Mine costs 6BP to develop and provides +1 BP if the Kingdom succeeds it's Economy check in Step 4 (Generate Income) of the Income Phase.

The reason being is that a Farm Hex essentially generates 2BP via it's reduction in consumption. Also, exploitation of Mines is limited to the resources available on the map.

Thoughts?

I"m currently half way through RRR and have taken some foreshadowing here on board. Thanks guys.

ALL SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU REALLY SHOULD NOT BE READING THIS THREAD IF YOU ARE A PLAYER ANYWAY!

I'm not running with Doom Crow's monster kingdom, the uniting of disparite monster races under the one banner didn't sit well with me and the PCs have been very diplomatic in all their encounters, but have adopted a lot of ideas from that thread (thanks to you guys too). I agreed that the human element in the enraging of the Owlbear seemed out of place so have gone with direct action by the Trolls and their halfling slaves (some of which ended up on the Troll's dinner plate when they had outlived their usefulness). I've had the Trolls intimidating and standing over the other monster NPCs that are allied to the new Kingdom. The PCs were pretty freaked out by the Unicorn is are on the look out for what may have done this. The Trolls will be the first direct strike by Nyrissa's minions (the Stag didn't appear to have any connection to her by the PCs).

I've been playing up the fey connection to the Stolen Lands. Old Beldame got the party tripping balls on Black Cap mushroom tea and incited the Carroll's Jabberwocky to them. The next morning they asked about the Jabberwocky, the Tane and learnt that the border between the First World and the Stolen Lands was particularly thin.

My other plot driving tool becomes from one of my players's characters, the summoner. He had a twin who was still born at birth. His parents where distraught and tried on bring his brother back to life by burying him in a Fey mound and reciting a ritual given to them by the local herbalist and midwife (a hag in disguise). The ritual didn't work but the surviving son always thought there was something missing, a presence just out of reach. He researched and trained for many years before he was finally able to manifest his long lost brother in physical form (a biped eidolon). His brother grew up in a wild, wicked and terrifying land were he is routined hunted and often captured and tortured to death, only to reform and rise again the next day to suffer the same fate. He is grateful to his brother for giving him some relief but is resentful when he has to return to "the other place". Since forming the kingdom the persecution and torment has gone up a notch and one particularly gruesome death (which supported one of the eidolon's evolutions but that's another story) came with a warning that if his brother really loved him, he would stop playing Kings in a land where he didn't belong and pack up and go home. The PCs are now freaking out.

The other place is the First World, I may even make it ThousandBreaths. I was also thinking of have the brother's soul trapped in a soul jar (similar to Vordakai's) sitting as a trophy in the House at the Edge of Time. How I resolve this when it is discovered I'm not sure....

I think I'll also knock off the bottle idea by making one of the yet unexplored Hexes in the south unusually barren with a pervading background aura of Transmutation magic. I might put the bottle in Irovetti's castle.

As someone who has been mainly a GM for the past couple of years I can tell you the Monk's main role is to make the GM miserable.

In my experience Pyrrhic is spot on. In so many scenarios, the Monk will be still up and at them, not dealing the pain like the main fighter, but contributing when the others can't.

In terms of roleplaying, your 'role' is an interesting one. Why is someone who joined an cloistered religious institution out adventuring? What is the motivation? Why did they become a monk to start with? Are the Zen-like or Zealot? Are they naive of the ways of the world? Do they drop esoteric pearls of wisdom or let their fists do the talking?

Jabberwocky is a poem for those that might not be aware. And the game designer was doing his best to make a creature that fit the...

I guess you didn't read my post...

There are always gaps in the rules when the GM has to step in and adjudicate.

I probably would have run with the tactics as written before being presented with the argument why vital strike would not work with the eye rays. And look, the arguments are good. The entry for the Jabberwork says to activate the two beams is a standard action. However, it says nothing about one beam. Then again, all the reading I've done around the FAQ of Vital Strike leads me to think that it was designed for mundane type of attacks. In the end, GMs call.

Just looking at it now, I'm asking myself what is the range of the eye rays? How would you determine this? Any ideas?

Moving on to the other hot topic, the DR/Vorpal is an interesting one. I think the entry for Smite Evil is pretty clear. If DR/Vorpal was definite is probably should have said "even Smite Evil". The arguments of which came first and who new what don't really lead us anywhere. I say it's interesting because whole term "Vorpal" comes from a Lewis Carroll poen within Through the Looking Glass called "Jabberwocky"

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

Carroll made the term up. It appears in this poem first.

The very reason the Vorpal Sword exists is to slay the Jabberwock. As the Briar awakens to it's full potential, it gains this quality. One would say it's fated to be in the hands of the heroes when they face this great evil. I would be quite cool with the GM ruling that only a Vorpal weapon could defeat the Jabberwock's DR if the PCs had the weapon in their hands at the time of this battle. Even if the sole reason was just to honour the term's history.

My guys did very well.

They had taken down the Bandit camp some time before and captured Kressle. They had the passwords and some Stag Lord amulets, so disguised themselves as bandits and marched up to the front door. Akiros came and checked them out, but after they delivered the booze to the Stag Lord and some 'booty from thieving', he left them alone and went back to his room (as did the Stag Lord to get drunk). They hung out with the rest of the bandits then handed around some extra whisky they had brought (they were using it to bribe all the fey they encountered) to befriend their new colleagues and to help them sleep. They ate, drank and chatted into the night. After a few bottles had been consumed and all the bandits were passed out, they snuck into the basement. The bard of the party disguised himself as the Stag Lord but they old man saw through it - "You aren't my son...?!?!" They took him down without too much trouble. The bard, still disguised, then went back up and led a couple of the bandits, one by one, down to the basement for "reward" where they were knocked out and tied up (the bandits were far less perceptive than the Stag Lord's father). During this time Dovan, who wasn't drinking that hard, woke up and became suspicious. He moved towards the Stag Lord's room to check if he was there but was intercepted by Akiros. Akiros had been awake the whole time, worked out what was going on as he hadn't seen the Stag Lord leave his room and decided then and there to switch sides. He loudly woke up the rest of the bandits, telling them to meet the Stag Lord in the basement. The PCs had no idea what to do. The Bard panicked and ditched the disguise. Confronted with the bandit camp, they failed to bluff their way out of trouble and Dovan exclaimed "and so the stink marks the jackal in the wolves den" (I had to use that line). Weapons were drawn and Akiros yelled "you fools, why didn't you keep up the ruse!" to the PCs and joined their side in combat. Most of the party went for higher ground whilst the melee fighters and Akiros started hacking into the bandits. Dovan went and released Beaky then ran around the back of the fort to climb the upper level from the south. Beaky caused mayhem, laying into PCs and bandits alike. After a few rounds, the Stag Lord entered the fray with a sneak attack from below. A little later, Dovan did the same from above with his throwing daggers. Several rounds later, the Stag Lord had sniped a few of the party, Akiros was down, all of the bandits were down, two of the party were close to death, the Summoner's Eidolon had returned to its plane and Dovan had been held and dispatched. With only Beaky and the Stag Lord still going, the Stag Lord decided to urge on his pet. This caused the Owlbear to turn on it's master. The Stag Lord took Beaky down only to see it healed by the party's Cleric. Twice. Beaky finally went down for good and the Stag Lord was distraught. Akiros was healed and directed the melee combatants to close on the Stag Lord so he couldn't use his bow. Three of them surrounded the bandit leader and after a few founds of close combat took him down.

Epic battle, lots of tactics and intrigue. A lot of fun.

5. My player playing the duke cannot see any problem taking an entire retinue with him wherever he goes. Eg they just left for Varnhold and he wanted to take a squad of troops with him everywhere. The other players had to talk really hard to talk him out of it. But realistically they were metagaming with the whole thought of just that the encounters would not be geared to having 20 1st level fighters on hotrseback with them. Not to mention he then complained that this is exactly the sort of danger a duke would not put himself in... He would send out hirelings to do this investigating for him.
Any Ideas?

My players were pretty funny about that. First adventuring after founding the kingdom the conversation went something like this:

Baron: Are we taking standard bearers, heralds, guards and trackers with us?

GM (me): Well, you're only a fledging kingdom and those people are needed to protect it whilst you are away.

Baron: So you are saying it is sensible to send the most important people in the kingdom, all of them, out into the wilderness where there are known dangers to look for a missing boy and tame some of the native beasts...on their own?!?!?

Councillor (helping me out): We need to lead by example.

Barons: So we have the same policy as the Starship Enterprise? A ship with hundreds of crew yet they beam down the Captain and and his Officers on to an unknown planet to face certain peril. Every. Single. Time?

Councillor: Yes. Yes we do.

<much laughter and shaking of heads>

Sorted. They did buy a bunch of trained dogs before heading out though.

As Chris says, you are all responsible for the game. GMing does take a lot of work. I know I've forgotten a bunch of BBEG special attacks, defences and like in the heat of battle, only to read back after and slap my forehead. Help a brother out!

Squeezing as much advantage out of your turn to the point of breaking the rules is short changing everybody at the table. As does looking the other way when the GM unwittingly disadvantages your opposition.

If this was a one off, then only this encounter suffered, but If you have more fizzle and than fun then I'd suggest have a chat around the table about your groups style of running combat and your shared understanding of how encounters start. Run some PFS mods and swap up who GMs for a few sessions. Swapping roles will make you a better all round gamers. Just some thoughts. Take it or leave it.

If a character wielded two swords I'd let them draw both as free actions. I wouldn't let them draw one, use a swift action, drop and draw another and get a full round action in. Too much. You also activated your boots or speed and activated smite evil. That's way too much.

Really, your Ranger had so much prep time he could have had the rod out ready to use before the Jaberwocky "appeared" 60 feet away.

The problem is, you didn't use the rules at your disposal, you broke them. Two swift actions is against the rules. The GM didn't pick it up but it shouldn't be entirely up to he/she do to make sure your turn is legal.

As I said earlier, the GM dropped the ball, but you also got away with murder.