Nah. I have big feet. I just crush them underfoot and they rebuild themselves in my wake. It's kind of creepy, in fact.
Is Crush Hopes and Dreams a feat, or a class feature you picked up when you PrC'd into Editor-In-Chief?
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... kept interrupting my Battlestar Galactica and Dr. Who last week with emergency weather alerts. Darn that control weather!
The Indiana Jones theme. Indy was my nickname in college, and we played the theme for the recessional at my wedding.
I'm looking for a good, solid superhero game... something d20 based if possible, but I'm willing to consider other systems. While I'm familiar with the tops in fantasy RPG, vampire/gothic games, Cthulu games, and such, I don't know which games are best for general, superheroic action. Any suggestions?
I am shocked by anyone who doesnt like Raiders best but thats just me. When I sit down and look at the Indy movies, I come at them from a perspective of "desert island" movies; i.e. movies you take with you to a desert island, not because they're the best, but because you can watch them over and over and over again. I do agree that Raiders of the Lost Ark (Wife: Hah! You remembered the title that time!) can be seen as cinematically and critically a better movie. However, if I had both movies in hand and had to watch one of them first, it would be Last Crusade, for these reasons: A) Father-Son action. Watching Connery and Ford play off each other is fantastically entertaining; he's not as iconic as Short-Round or as firey as Marion, but he still shines.
It is similar to the original Star Wars discussion (I'm a ROTJ fan, personally... though Empire does have Hoth, which I loved). Each film has its own merits, and they all deserve their places on the top of each individual fan's lists.
Of all four (now) films, I'd put Crystal Skull at: 1. Last Crusade
Several parts in Crystal Skull felt like the creators were really trying to take Indy away from the religious feel of Crusade and Ark, and get heavy into the pulp action. That's why we get Shia Labeouf swinging from a vine, giant insects, those kind of moments. Taking Indy into the Atomic Age was a nice touch; the passage of time parallels how long it's been since we last heard from him. Of course, there will be outcry on teh internetz for a long time because of the "refrigerator scene"... Spoiler:
Indy supposedly lives through a nuclear bomb test by ducking inside a lead-lined refrigerator... which would have a) been incinerated by the heat of the blast, b) only stopped about half the gamma radiaton generated by the bomb, and c) wouldn't have protected Indy when he steps out into the now-irradiated air to pause and appear reflective while wacthing the mushroom cloud. ...but then again, it's Indy, it's pulp, and it's a movie. I'm willing to shake my head and forget about it. Marian Ravenwood is my favorite Indy girl from all the films, so tying her into the film they way it's done is certainly fine by me. She has some very funny exchanges between Mutt and Indy that I enjoyed, and I wish I'd seen her a bit more active than just driving a Russian duck. Mutt as a character is interesting, his action scenes are entertaining, and he provides some interesting perspective... Spoiler:
Most people will see him the way Indy does; a brash, impulsive kid who really should listen to his dad, which makes us rethink how we felt about Indy and Henry, Sr. in Last Crusade. The relic story and enemies were both entertaining and disappointing. The Russians were the perfect villain for the period, but Blanchett's psychic doctor was too much of a softie. Both her, and the movie, seemed far too simplistic; I would have liked to see more mind tricks from her, something besides just waving her hands in front of Indy at the beginning of the film, something that would have cemented some ill will against her. The origins of the Crystal Skull, its purpose, and the consequences of messing with it play out in such a way that you can see it coming from a continent away; the trappings are interesting and quite gorgeous, but in the end the item's significance comes away as less important than Indy's continued family problems. While character development is all fine and dandy, it feels like it's just background music on an elevator ride, while you listen to the couple in the car with you hash out their problems; simplistic, distracting, forgettable. Pay to watch it on the big screen; it's worth the extra few bucks.
As a journalist, I see the worst in people every day. It's threads like this that give me hope for the future of humanity. Seriously. EDIT: It also makes me want to have children that I can turn into gamers, the same way my parents turned me into a neurotic workaholic.
/applaud
Cyphermages would be cool; something to do with puzzling out secrets. I saw the name mentioned in the Pathfinder Player's Guide, and would love to see a PrC from it. PS: It was cyphermage or riddlemage, or somesuch.. I don't have the text in front of me.
1) I think that being large should be +2 not plus one to one's CMB - thats a very small bonus of only +1 (3.5 rules made large-sized +4 - so even lowering to +2 is a significant reduction. My group ran into similar problems this weekend; an enlarged (Large) dwarf cleric was finding it almost impossible to grapple a Small quasit. We discussed dropping the CMB DC down to 10, but instead applied the regular 3.5 size modifiers and found that worked well instead.
While that's certainly a move in favor of realism, it moves away from the kind of action/adventure/heroism that is meant to set the PCs apart in most campaigns. Also, it makes it much more difficult on new players if their first combats are so lethal they have to start the (to them) long and frustrating path of making a new character all over again after one hit from a longbow. I agree that your way of looking at it makes sense; find an optimal range and design a system that meets it. What Paizo's doing is taking feedback from the community, which to a large part says starting HP is too low, and looking for an easy yet intuitive way to meet that need. I think they're doing a good job on that so far; my playtesting at least has been very positive.
Are we not supposed to add these HP bonuses to the monsters? (Serious question) I don't see any reason to. The main reason that I see for an increase in HP is to make the PCs a little heartier for the first few levels; beyond that, the additional HP should be neglibible. That's exactly the balance I think the racial HP bonus gives; a boost early on, something with a titch of flavor (dwarves stouter than elves), but it's not unbalancing past about 5th level. I sometimes fudge the number when it comes to monster or NPC HP, especially if it's the BBEG; I often use HP to mark the end of the encounter, not necessarily the death of the enemy. For instance, in Nic Logue's 'Chimes at Midnight'... Spoiler:
It's presumed Victor St. Demain is either killed by the players, or leaps to his death rather than be captured. In my game, where I place an emphasis on cinematic action, the PCs dropped Victor to -5 HP right before his next turn; instead of declaring him unconcious, I described the thwarted inquisitive lurching, mortally wounded, to the side of the wall, where he smiled weakly and saluted before pitching himself over the edge. That may not work for your group, but I enjoy the extra flexibility and my players never notice.
Part of the problems with monks (which has been discussed at length elsewhere) is that they're spread thin; they're behind at front-line fighting, they're behind as a skilled character, and their class features at higher levels can be very situational. That, coupled with the reliance on many ability scores, makes them a difficult class at best. Paizo's said monks will be the masters of Combat Maneuvers, which sounds like a smart move. Looking at the barbarian, a monk with Ki points and powers seems like a logical choice if the big guy playtests well and is well-received. I've argued that it's important to decide where the monk falls in terms of combat and utility, and IMHO that brings the decision down to two main factors: BAB/HD, and Skills/Trapfinding. Monks seem like they're in line for a HD boost, since everyone else has been getting one. With the word about Combat Maneuvers, the safe money is BAB will follow suit; Jason (I believe at PaizoCon) said they'll get bonuses to CMB, and a higher BAB would be the place to start. If, however, you want the monk to be a utility (adventurer) class, with some nifty combat abilities as a bonus (like sneak attack is), you almost have to give them trapfinding, better skills, or both to make them competitive. Though monks don't have the same background with dirty tactics and devices that rogues and artificers do, it's easy to stretch their "sixth sense for danger" to include traps as well. You run into problems with how monks deal with the trap once they've found it, but that's a different discussion with my opinion about traps (bypasses need to be easier to deal with).
I told my co-worker friend (also in my gaming group) about PaizoCon, and he looked pretty impressed. Then I told him about 30 people attended, and he said "30 PEOPLE?!?" Then he started researching ticket prices to Seattle from Arkansas.
We've used the "Add your CON score to you HP" method and the racial bonus method (hearty - 8 extra HP; normal - 6 HP; frail - 4 HP). Here's what we found: Rise of the Runelords AP
Session 1 - CON Score
Session 2 - Racial Bonus
We'll be using the Racial bonus for now; everyone at the table enjoys it, and agrees the CON method was a bit of overkill.
We're using the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder AP, since it's set in Golarion and it helps keep some of the fluffy things in the same place while we work on the crunch. Since ROTR came out in 3.5, it works well as a backwards-compatibility test as well.
On a related note: D&D women have too many rights ;-P Well, you know, it is a FANTASY setting... [/sarcasm] On a side note, check out Amiri's backstory (Pathfinder Iconics, it's on the blog). Girl got GAME.
I also really liked the artificer from ECS, and thought a runescribe could be a way to inroduce a class with somewhat of a focus on items. It wouldn't be the main thing, but rune-enhanced items would be something special that could make the class unique from other casters and tinkers.
How about a Runescribe? Someone skilled in creating runes that give them certain powers, or enhance items they use or make. They could specialize in a specific type of rune (like one aspect of sin magic), much like different schools of magic. A runecrafter's skills and abilities would focus on ancient knowledge, magic, and item creation. Runes would give access to greater power; perhaps instead of verbal and somatic components to cast spells, a runecrafter quickly scratches a rune into a door to ward it, onto a fighter's axe to empower it, or use it as part of item creation to give the item more abilities or greater ones. Simple runes would take a standard action to scribe, and more complex runes or runewords would take a round or longer. An example low-level rune based on wrath magic could be traced onto a fighter's forehead with ashes from a bonfire, granting them a bonus to attack and damage while lowering their AC or Will save. A mid-level rune based on sloth magic could be carved into a runescribe's weapon with faerie wings, allowing him to place someone into a deep slumber with a melee touch attack. A high-level greed rune written onto a magic item could destroy it, subvert it, or even make it into something completely different (like removing a curse). I may have the schools and sins a bit mixed up (my Rise of the Runelords is at home) but I'd like to see something more to do with runes in the game, personally.
I'm working on a redone monk class that borrows from the barbarian rage points hinted at in the Pathfinder blog description of Amiri. It's not nearly done yet, but here are the big changes I'm considering; Ki Points
Same BAB, HD as a fighter
Less Ability Juggling
Trapfinding
Fixed Flurry
Weapon Style
These ideas are raw, and untested; because of that, I do have several concerns:
My wife is playing a monk in our adapted Rise of the Runelords game, so hopefully she won't mind me tweaking her character throughout the campaign. Feel free to comment, try a few things, let me know how they work.
I thought that was the definition of flying...
I have something similar in mind. Instead of one feat allowing access to both a cohort and followers, what if you had several feats allowing variations on it, depending on your use for them? Here's the three I was thinking of as rough examples; a player could take all three if they like, but they'd gain more powerful followers/cohorts if they took the follow-up feats instead. - A feat that gives you one constant, dedicated cohort that remains close to you in relative power level. They have a high profile, almost like another party member. This is the sidekick, the squire, the assistant and companion (Rose Tyler, I'm lookin at you). Follow-up feats give them and your additional bonuses for working together, or let you have one or more companions at increasingly lower level. - Another feat that gives you several followers of lesser power; their uses may vary, but for the most part they can remain in the background providing some sort of support. The guild members, your ship's crew, or your dedicated dojo of students could fit this role. Follow-up feats increase their efficiency or the variety of support they provide. - A third feat that gives many followers, but of extremely low power. They help demonstrate the far-reaching influence you've garnered. These are the soldiers, the peasants in your barony, the followers of your righteous message. Follow-up feats each increase the number of followers (say, 2x the amount per feat), while also awarding titles, land, even a keep or church. Below is one early write-up I'll introduce into my Pathfinder campaign: all references to primary ability scores are chosen by the player when they take the feat, cannot be changed, and refer to unmodified ability scores. I'll include others and follow-up feats as I write them. Mentor - Requires character level 6 - You attract a loyal cohort to follow you. The cohort is two levels below yours, and gains levels when you do. They also gain a bonus to attacks, saves, skill checks, and CMB equal to your primary ability score bonus, as well as additional hit points equal to their HD multiplied by your primary ability score bonus. They join you with a suit of masterwork armor, a masterwork weapon, mundane class equipment (thieves' tools, musical instrument, etc) and no money; all other items needed to be provided by your or your party. Example - A 9th-level paladin takes Mentor, and gains a 7th level bard squire. The paladin chooses Charisma as her primary score (she has a 16), so the bard gains a +3 bonus to attacks, skill checks, saves, and CMB, as well as 21 additional hit points. * Just as a note, I'm using the Constitution method of starting hit points for all PCs, but the standard method for all NPCs, so the squire's additional hit points is around what the players received at first level, or maybe a bit higher. The numbers are very rough, completely untested, so feel free to correct me if the balance is a bit wonky. Cheers!
I'm not allowing APs, but I might if they are a little more restricted. Having DM'd for three years in Eberron, I have to say Action Points are hit or miss. At higher levels you get so many that as a DM, I was having to add 5 to each DC just to keep it a challenge. Especially in combat, it can turn the encounter from scary to scrapped very easily, since high ACs become much easier to hit reliably. I'd be in favor of scaling APs back; give the players three or four at first level, then one more at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, letting them refresh each level like normal. This also cuts back on some scary abilities like the Extreme Explorer PrC and other feats that allow you to spend APs for extra actions. The AP is supposed to make actions more cinematic and thus used at critical times, but most of the time it just makes things munchy. Restricting them keeps the utility, but heightens their importance when used.
One question is about the noted change to wizard specialization. In the Developer notes, it says you don't get the specialist power if you have a spell from your opposition school prepared. Da Rule:
Spoiler:
* Wizard Class Features (pg 17): Replace the second paragraph of the School Powers class feature with the following paragraph. “Each arcane school grants a number of school powers dependent upon the level of the wizard. In addition, each arcane school (except the universal school) also grants a specialist bonus power so long as the wizard does
not have any spells prepared from his prohibited schools. See the Spells and Magic chapter for more information.” But in the 1.1 ruleset, it says you don't get it if you prepare or cast an opposition spell; at least, that's how I read it. Spoiler:
Wizards may prepare and cast spells from their prohibited schools, but they do not gain the specialist bonus ability of their chosen school for that day if they do so. So, which is it? The big reason I ask is this example: A diviner has necromancy and abjuration as his opposition schools. Could that diviner use and create magic items from the opposition schools, and not lost their specialist ability when doing so, i.e. casting mage armor off a scroll they made. My interpretation is, under the dev. notes, you can do this; however, under the 1.1 ruleset you'd lose the specialist ability by casting or preparing an opposition spell. Thanks for your time; we're starting our campaign next weekend!
Warlocks just rub me the wrong way. Ah, but aren't we supposed to? >-) I really enjoy shatter, as a player, and I agree it doesn't see a lot of use at many tables. Also, as many of us Order of the Stick readers know, fighters are faaaaaaar from helpless if their ickle sword goes SNAP. And don't forget, the players have access to shatter too; what's good for the goose is good for the goblin, after all. Here's an even munchier tactic I've used before: some spells use brittle, non-magical material spell components, like Lightning Bolt (small glass rod). Just as a readied disarm can deprive someone of their needed component, a canny caster can hang back, watch the wizard, then hit them with a Shatter as they're about to cast a spell. The wizard gets to save, but with a low Fort they make a prime target for the spell :D I've done that in duels to counter a caster's spell without having to resort to a Dispel Magic.
My group is currently sitting at me and 2 players, so what I do is buttress them with a DM-played character and provide more opportunities for them to get help from NPCs. I encourage them to hire help, take Leadership, get animal companions, or other actions that will cover the things they're missing; then I slightly boost the treasure output to make sure they're compensated. Also, I make sure they have more chances to retreat, resupply, and rest. I've found that with those preparations, I can design and run encounters intended for four players without too much trouble. If anything, the challenge is greater for the players, and it gives them more of the spotlight (which they enjoy). We are adding an additional two players in the next few weeks, so we'll be at full (recommended) strength. But having DM'd a group of 5-7 people until recently, the change to far fewer players was actually quite fun.
You had me at "With Screams".
These also represent a perfect opportunity to test your player's alignment choices, if you prefer to muck about with them. If a lawful party chooses to go along with a plan like fixing the ballots, you might warn them that doing so would clearly be a chaotic act. Muckraking could go several ways; if they want people to see Avner for what he really is because he's a cad, that could be seen as a good act. Doing it just to annoy him or spite his uncle... maybe not so good. Because so many of those choices may be subjective to different people, it's important to make clear what you as the DM feel works as lawful and chaotic, good and evil, before doing anything like that.
Boccob's Blessed Book is always a winner for me, you could throw on some extra effects to make it more viable at high-level. Highly-modified crystal balls also make good gifts, though you might want to test-drive one first to make sure it's not a lemon. Emissaries of Boccob might also want a player to get ahold of Demo's massive shadow pearl somehow (or the residue of one) to conduct some epic experiment on it in one of his many plans to save the magic of Oerth. (I'm not too up on Greyhawk lore, but if memory serves that's what his ultimate goal is.) The emissary could offer a Staff of Power with the offer of turning it into a Staff of the Magi if the player succeeds.
In Chuck We Trust The Chuck Domain: Special Ability: Roundhouse kick to the face - No, you don't get to roundhouse kick people... you're not that cool. Instead, the Chuck himself smites the poor blasphemous sod with his heel. FROM HEAVEN. (As smite evil, but works against anything with a defined face). Domain Spells;
**** I'm sorry, that picture made me go a little crazy there for a bit. Anyway, fantastic art all around!
Bugbear BONGO-GRAMS! Yes, I just watched "George of the Jungle". Sue me.
Goblins flee and goblins run,
Boggy ground and boggy air,
Trappers now the trapped they be,
Aren't there conversion notes by Keith Baker anywhere? I remember seeing those for AoW. I thought there'd be notes for the STAP for Eberron and FR as well... They're usually included in the web enhancements... which haven't been put out for some time, since the staff is understandably under a tight schedule for the last few months with the end of the mags and the start of Pathfinder. I'm particularly interested in seeing Keith Baker's take on the planar shenanigans, so I'm looking excitedly almost every day to see if they'll pop up.
I have to admit, KL, I like your idea of Styx-as-bloodstream for Kyber. As far as the cosmology, there are some pretty interesting hoops DMs need to jump through, but I choose to look at it as a creative challenge instead of a stumbling block. Besides, it's MUCH easier (imho) to bring stuff into Eberron than take it out (Try running Chimes of Midnight in Greyhawk... lightning rails, dragonmarks and inquisitives, oh my!). As far as Iggwilv, I like the idea of making her Sora Kell; after all, there's more to a book than its cover, and hags are known for their powerful illusions. Then again, there's nothing that says Iggwilv can't be the single most powerful human in existence; perhaps she has Sora Kell bound into a powerful Khyber shard, and has used the hag as an erstwhile mentor (a la Bob from the Dresden Files). Perhaps she's been a thorn in the Chamber's side, pulling rakshasa rajahs out of their gulags to learn their secrets, then sending them right back where they came from after she's done with them, regardless of the consequences it has on Eberron. You could easily tie her "dalliances" to a number of different calamities that befell Eberron, such as the Mourning (secret tampering with Cannith experiments), the death of King Jarot (a rajah's influence after she let him loose), or other notable tragedies in your campaign or player's backgrounds.
Tomorrow night I will pit my party against the Crimson Fleet at Farshore. Right now I am saying 50% chance to TPK. They have all the tools they need to succeed, whether or not they use them correctly is the key. I'm about halway through that module. The group just got to the Temple of the Jaguar. I had an elf druid bite it while fighting the T-Rex (pun intended - she was bitten in half), and she was reincarnated as a phanaton... I had rolled "halfling" on the table, and thought it was a good fit.
I gotta admit, I don't really know all that much about Iggwilv; she's in one of those corners of the DnD multiverse I haven't fully delved into. Any suggestions on where to find more material about her, so as to make the right (i.e. terrifying) first impression?
I had a 5-person group take him on, and he downed (unconcious) three, before the other two were able to kite him through the dungeon and take him out with ranged attacks. What really hurt was the bar-lguras, which kept abducting one player and re-appearing outside the dungeon, hanging off the ruin's spire and dropping the unlucky PC they had in their hands to splatter on the ground below (at least, that was the idea... curse you, feather fall!). It took a couple of them out of the fight for quite some time before the lemorian was even loose.
An alternative alternative... is to permit item crafting characters to 'convert' the enchantments on the various items of schwag into 'potential' which they can transfer to an existing magical item... Artificers can do this, via Retain Essence (I think that's what it's called), they destroy an item and retain its XP potential as a craft reserve. It doesn't retain the material cost, but it's still quite a boost (my artificer is particularly fond of sucking down loot wands like they were Pixie Stix).
Any of the available druid prestige classes halt progression in one of these talent trees, if you will. I run into the same problem playing an artificer. There are some very interesting and powerful PrC's, but I don't really want to give up what I would be getting in favor of some nifty tricks. I'll echo the comments for Master of Many forms, the druid in our campaign will be taking it pretty soon.
If, however, said wyverns occupy a certain area of the isle, it might just work. The Wyvern Cliffs? Wyverntop Rock? Wyverns' Cove? I particularly like the last one as a place to build a secret base for the Sea Wyvern. It seems like everything on the Isle is part of one big survival-of-the-fittest food chain; anything smaller than you, gets eaten. I think there's enough monsters on the island to go around; who knows, maybe the players see an injured or starving allosaur get run into the open, and the wyverns take him to pieces like so many seagulls. That'd keep me in the trees for a loooong time.
Another great template to add is the Horrid animal template from the Eberron campaign setting. Acid damage added to the bite, a massive bonus to natural armor, all those can make any animal quite a bit nastier. I threw a Horrid T-Rex and some Horrid Terror Birds at the party for the beggining of HTBM just to boost the XP they'd get (they were a little light... big party), and found they went a long way making the Isle a more terrifying place.
Just now checked the thread, the day before our next session. I did have several crafty ideas in mind, including a swarm of gargoyles running the halfing to ground inland, only to have him wind up "stuck" as the players are halfway through. The rest of the party will catch up eventually. My big concern is presenting it in a way that doesn't make it feel like I'm railroading. After all, the character's choices were a legitimate option, and have proven very helpful to the crew's survival; who am I to punish him for his decision to make a very mobile (and effective) character? James' suggestion to skip the mod entirely was one I hadn't considered, but maybe should have. I can say that so far, the player's proven instrumental in keeping people alive, such as spotting the monstrous centipede attack before they could munch one or two NPC's. If anything, his choices are making me reconsider how the players will approach any given situation, and that's making me a better DM, I think. Now I have to go back and review my rules for combat in three dimensions, again. They're facing the gargoyles probably first thing when we start. Giving them some longbows, entropic warding spells, and weighted nets should prove pretty handy in making the player reconsider going it on his own. :)
Good to see TINH still in the lead. Nothing like a horrendously deadly first-level adventure to start a campaign off right.
I inherited the DM duties of our ST campaign, which is set in Eberron. One of the characters is playing a halfling druid/scout, and since it's Eberron, he chose to get a glidewing (pterodactyl) as his companion/mount. While on the ocean, he served as the party's main scout/ranged fighter. Once the ship crashed into the Isle of Dread, and the players were facing a ten-day march to Farshore, he asked why he couldn't fly there, leaving the party behind, to get a boat to come rescue them. I had the gnome expert on the Isle tell him many predators on the Isle were much more dangerous that what he was used ton on the Talenta Plains, and going alone would be tantamount to suicide. Being rash (character flaw), he was raring to go, confident he was fast enough to outrun anything thrown at him. In the back of my mind, I was prepared to show him what the Isle has to offer, if he went... particularly the naties waiting halfway through the module. But he relented, saying he'd stick with the party since flying away would "break the module". So my question is, what can be done to take into account flight on the Isle of Dread? His mount allows him to theoretically skirt across the Island in a day (though he'd get caught in the interior, the same way the players will). It just provides some different problems, both travel-wise and encounter-wise, and I'm looking to head off any future problems. EDIT: And yes, he already wants a horrid T-Rex as an animal companion. That's a whole other headache I have to worry about later.
The first action the party's mage did was to hurl a sack of chili powder at the beholder - a sack of burning, stinging, irritating, eye watering chili powder. THAT IS HILARIOUS! It also sounds like something that would be a good addition to the alchemical items in Complete Adventurer, like the gutmites (jar of bugs that cause things that swallow PCs to puke them back up). You might need to add a bit more kick to it, alchemically speaking, to make it more potent and "fantastic", but sometimes the simplest plans are the best ones. Consider it swiped! And I wholeheartedly approve of your attempts to not railroad your players; it's an issue I struggle with every session. So long as you create a world for them that continues to react to their decisions, and makes them react in kind, you're not railroading. But don't go overboard letting them get away with it. :)
Anyone reading Rich Burlew's Order of the stick has seen a very well-rounded view of how paladins can be handled. They can be deceptive yet noble, and even choose discretion over valor if necessary. Sometimes the most potent sacrifice may be knowing when to simply do nothing.
Playing in Eberron, I made the pirates Seren barbarians and added barb. levels to each of them, enough to give them a rage. I also handed out potions of Jump to the entire crew, so once the ship got within grapple range the entire contingent leaped onto the boat and raged. It had quite an effect, even though half of them died before getting to the ship. Just enough to make them beefier than normal pirates. I agree that this should be a fight the players should be able to cut loose on; I used it as an opportunity to test my players' morale. When given an opponent of obvious lesser skill, how do you conduct yourselves? Do you give no quarter, capture them and offer them jobs, or hold them to give to the authorities? They killed the pirates to a man and stole their ships, so I informed them that they shifted alignment slightly toward chaotic and evil; not enough to change anything (the pirates were the aggressors), but enough they should watch out if they didn't want to actually take a shift.
Adventure - Sea Wyvern's Wake
Mr. Smite cheated death once in Bullywug Gambit, being laid low by the savage dinosaur and living only through a technicality (AP's) that let him stabilize at -9. So, death returning to collect it's due was not unforseen. The crew was visiting the bat-ruins that Urol wanted to see, and Smite took the brunt of the damage going in. After nearly defeating the winged demon single-handedly, and suriving its death throe, he was felled by a 16-point shock to the chest from the Will O' Wisp, which had remained hidden until it could enjoy the sweet taste of defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. But as Mr. Smite went toward the light, the sweet voice of Malcanthet purred (anonymously) into his ear that it didn't have to be this way... accept her help, and he could go on to the great destiny she had forseen. He, being afraid of death, agreed, and was granted her boon: a kiss to the back of the neck, giving him life and an invisible brand shaped like a pair of lips pierced by a spike... a decision that could have planes-shaking consequences in the future.
I'd say 7th level DM. I just took Leadership (my wife is my cohort), and have 2 successful Adventure Paths under my belt. I've maxed out my Sense Munchkin, Knowledge(bulls***), and Bluff, as well as dabbling in Craft(background) and Profession(world builder). My bonus feat for 6th level was Evil Genius(Vile, of course), and I also have Improved DM's Friend (my modifiers are +/- 4 instead of 2), Plot Twist, and Cleave PC. I think I'll pick up 8th level once I get a Thrall of Malcanthet to infiltrate our STAP party as a cohort :)
These will mostly fall under the "bad jokes" heading... A half-orc was riding by a field of grain when he spotted an orc in a boat, rowing his heart out in the middle of the dry field. The half-breed stared at him for a moment, then bellowed "You ignorant savage! It's because of morons like you that we half-orcs don't get any respect! If I could swim, I'd come out there and pound your face in!" /rimshot As told by orcish bard: "Why dead human cross road? BECAUSE I KICKED HIM!" /rimshot How many elves does it take to light a brazier?
How many dwarves does it take to light a brazier?
How many halflings does it take to light a brazier?
How many half-orcs does it take to light a brazier?
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