Rynthief's page

Please cancel my Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscription with #144. If you cannot remove #145 from my pending order I understand. If that is the case, please cancel my subscription after #145

Thank you,

Rynthief

Hiya Paizo!

I just renewed by AP subscription after a hiatus of a few years. Is there any way to change my first volume to 121 instead of 122?

-Rynthief

So, I've been wracking my brain trying to remember the rules for missing sleep. I swear I read them once, but now I can't find them anywhere! Even Google has failed me.

Can someone link the rule, before I have to read all the rules books looking for them?

Thanks,

Ryn

How would you handle the ABP and an AoMF? The easiest solution I can think of is to allow the AoMF as one of your attuned weapons. For the monk, it will probably be the solo track, while a druid would have to use the split track to include Wildshape and Non-WS.

Does this make ABP overpowered for unarmed and natural weapons? There was always a reason that the AoMF was so expensive, and that reason presumably was game balance. ABP throws that out the window.

-Rynthief

Dear Paizo,

Thank you for all the years of monthly awesome delivered to my doorstep. I just got married and my wife and I are saving for a house. Unfortunately, my AP subscription is one of the many places we have to trim. Rest assured that both of my gaming groups will continue to enjoy your adventures.

You make our hobby better every year, keep it up!

Sincerely,
Jeff

For now, this is just a list of alterations I have made to the existing module and my initial thoughts. As we move through these encounters I will post feedback from myself and my players.

I will do my best to avoid spoilers, but if you are playing through this adventure and do not want any information on it I suggest you look into other playtest threads.

I switched Roy Flaxbeater from a rogue to a slayer. The initial loss of half of his sneak attack dice looks like it will hurt his design a lot. While there is still some advantage to flank-and-spank tactics, the loss of 2d6 sneak attack and 4 bleed hurts this method, and I now intend to use his spring attack and vital strike feats more, focusing in on his two favored targets for the added hit and damage. I also swapped out two of his feats: Combat Expertise for Power Attack and Combat Reflexes for Improved Vital Strike. With these changes i expect that he can do the one thing that most damage focused rogues wish they could do: stay mobile and not noticeably hurt their DPR. He has gone from a damage tower to a fighter jet.

I switched Larla Clankypump from a bard to a skald. My hope was that ragesong would better augment her minions, as most of her bardic music ability falls by the wayside in her tactics. Statted out at her level, ragesong just isn't as good as inspire courage. +2 Str, Con, and Will saves and -1 AC just can't overcome +2 to hit, damage, and saves vs fear unless they are augmented by Heroism, Good Hope, or similar spells (which don't stack with inspire courage in the first place). I'm a mean DM, so I advanced her two levels. Now her song is better than standard rage (+3 Will saves, -1 AC) and she has Good Hope, but I think I'd be better off just giving her minions a level of barbarian and calling it a day (more HD, bab, saves). That said, I expect my PC's to have a rough fight of it.

I switched Zolerim's levels of Wizard to Arcanist, as I felt that was a great fit for his character. As a side effect, I had to advance him one level so that he didn't lose one cleric caster level. He's a solo encounter, and as previously stated I'm a mean DM. The flexibility of Arcanist casting is something that I greatly look forward to playing around with. Because he can spontaneously cast and add metamagic feats, his spell selection did not suffer from the conversion. Spells that he had memorized multiple times at low levels had their copies replaced by spells he had memorized with metamagic feats at higher levels, so even though his higher levels spells are extremely limited he only lost one or two in the conversion. The real gem, however, is the counterspell arcane exploit. I have thought since the birth of 3.0 that counterspell was a very powerful ability that was often overlooked. Its just not sexy enough to expend a whole action doing it. Many attempts have been made in the past to clean it up and make it attractive, but they were all rather clumsy or feat-intensive. The arcane exploit is almost too good. My plan for it is to use his immediate/swift action to counter any attempt to Dispel his buffs. You cast a Dispel at me, I counter, your action is wasted while mine is basically unaffected. I even had enough space for him to prepare Dispel so that he could get the +5 bonus. Yes, it will burn through his arcane reservoir quickly and use up spell slots, but no faster than augmenting his DC's and quickening spells. Very excited for this fight!

I considered switching Ardathanatus to a warpriest, but it would severely handicap his tactics and the role that he is supposed to play in the climax. Gathuspia almost became a shaman, but the loss of the witch spell list and the addition of the druid list was too heavy a hit. I also didn't change the sinspawn guards from ranger to slayer (it did not fit with their tactics, I preferred to keep favored enemy) or Kob Kog, Luthask, or Sufestra. As I write this, I am considering switching the Pallid Path Cultists' cleric levels to warpriest. Bonus feats are always good.

I also had one of my players switch classes. Anya was a level 11 human rogue, but with an archeologist bard in the party she had focused entirely on two-weapon slice and dice. Slayer was a perfect fit.

As I mentioned above, and we playtest through encounters I'll post player and DM feedback here.

-Rynthief

Dear Paizo Team

Just received my order #1789667. "Throne of the Gorilla King" in great condition, but there was a slip-up and I received a second copy of PFAP #50 instead of my copy of #51.

Help!

Ryn, who dreams of crushing PC's with pure stat blocks

Hey Cosmo & Crew,

Order # 1723207 never showed up on my doorstep and is not being held at my local post office. Could you please look into my wayward AP?

Thanks!

Ryn, who loses things

Like many of you, I like to paint minis for important NPC's in my campaigns, and I've hit a wall. I cannot find minis for Aerys, Jask, or Gelick that I am happy with. Female sailors, dreadlock casters, and gnomes of any kind are in short supply. What have you all used?

Ryn, who thinks NPC hostages work better represented by minis than by dice...

This rage power does not spell out what kind of action it is. Does it take a standard action to use, or does it take effect any time an Intimidate check is made to demoralize?

My big scary barbarian would love to know!

Ryn, who's thinking bigger and scarier...

Dear Paizo,

I was wondering if it was too late to apply my in-store credit to the balance on this order.

Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks!

Ryn, who could really use that extra cash

Hello everyone!

I work 2nd shift most Tuesdays and have the night off. I remember hearing about online chats with the designers and was wonndering if these chats were still taking place, and if so where.

More Paizo, more better.

Thanks!

Rynthief, who may have used too many exclamation marks...

Simple post, really. The bard in my group can not get enough bardic performance! In keeping with the "get rid of the 15 min adventuring day" what about 1/level plus charisma mod? This also stays closer to the new rules for Monk Ki, Paladin Lay on Hands, etc.

Ryn, who likes the simple things

I am trying to find the fantastic fan art thread posted here a few weeks back, but by board-fu is weak. Can I gat an assist, please?

Thanks,
Ryn, who is feeling lost

It seems that every time I try and post to these message boards (hopefully not this time) the boards eat my message. I just spent an hour posting the highlights of last nights playtest on the Alpha 3 general board, and when I hit preview the Paizo homepage came up. This is not the first time this has happened. Is there any way that the admin's can save my post (Titled Rynthief's Playtest (Spoilers), or am I hosed?

Ryn, who likes contributing and doesn't type that fast.

So... I had this long eloquent post that the boards just ate, so here's the down and dirty version!

One idea that I had for the 3.p Monk was for Special Monk weapon damage to equal unarmed strike damage. This will allow monks to bypass damage reduction dependent on material, damage type, alignment, etc without losing alot of damage output. It also allows monks to make use of the more interesting weapon enhancements and for legendary/epic monk weapons, which I think would really boost the martial arts feel of the class. While the paladin is out looking for his Holy Sword or the wizard his Staff of Power, the monk can quest for the legendary Kama of the Lost Masters.

The only caveat is that a high level monk with two-weapon fighting and flurry of blows could kick out a LOT of damage, 2d10 base from each of possibly eight attacks for a -4 penalty to hit. To alleviate this you may have to make Flurry and Two-Weapon fighting mutually exclusive.

As an aside, and possibly thread-jacking my own thread, if you add one line to Razor Sharp Chair Leg that makes improvised weapons special monk weapons, you can get a Drunken Master feel without a need for a prestige class.

Ryn, who saved this post as a word document in case the boards are still hungry

I am intrigued by the Harrow Point system introduced in Pathfinder #7. Has anyone tried to adapt it to RotRL?

Though the adventures are not as thematically broken up as CotCT, I was thinking the stat breakup would be:
Burnt Offerings: Cha
The Skinsaw Murders: Wis
Hook Mountain Massacre: Str or Con
Fortress of the Stone Giants: Str or Con
Sins of the Saviors: Int
Spires of Sin Shalast: Dex

Ryn, who can't get enough hours in the day

My Sunday gaming group has decided to split weekends so as to playtest the new PFRPG rules from the beginning.

Every off weekend we will be running the RotRL Adventure Path. Characters were generated using a 32 point buy and the double hit point option at first level. In addition, we will be using an old house rule of ours, granting each character a set amount of hit points at every level rather than rolling ( 1/2 hitdice rounded up + Con, so for a d8 it is 5+Con).

Our first session was largely character generation and party origins. Initial reaction was good all around.

List of Characters:
Leon "the Lightning Mace" Mitchell, human fighter, two weapon spec:
More feats, more better! He is also happy with the new armor and weapon optimization, though I do not think that is why he is staying fighter for the long haul.

Daryl Rockbiter, gnome illusionist:
The Illusionist was enthused by the new specialization rules, but not enough to stay with wizard over the Master Specialist prc. His stance is that the spell like abilities are good, but fail to hit the flavor of the school. He would much rather have the +DC to his spells and other school specific bonuses than the more generic powers across the board.

Kinnat, elf rogue:
Much more flexibility in skills, almost too much. With her 14 Int she had a hard time picking her last couple skills, let alone the ones she is to gain at later levels. Also, we house ruled the "Speak Languages" skill back into the game, as she would otherwise have started knowing 14 languages, with more to come.

Desre, human cleric of Pharasma, healing and repose domains:
The new domain and turn undead rules really liven up the class. She has no need of the Stabilize spell because of her healing domain, and chose Extra Turning at first level for even more healing outside of her spell list.

Harsk, dwarf ranger/fighter, crossbow spec:
Eagerly awaiting the "new" ranger, he is currently stated out as Ranger10/Fighter5 to take advantage of the new Fighter weapon optimization rules. Current build has a one level "dip" into Ranger for the skills at first level, then four straight levels of fighter. The opportunity to abuse the skill system at first level is definitely there.

As-yet-unnamed, human bard:
This player was absent from our first meeting, but as the DM I am looking forward to the "new" bard and a social encounter system a little more dramatic than the existing diplomacy rules.

The session ended with the consecration of Sandpoint's new cathedral, so expect some initial combat feedback early next week.

Ryn, working hard for the game we all deserve

I unveiled the PRPG grapple rules to my roommate's saturday gaming group in the form of a couple Dire Lions. While there were sighs of relief at the fact that no one changes spaces, and a general feeling of "this could be better," there were a few issues.

First, the group knows and exploits the 3.5 rules well enough to not have a problem with them, and stumbled over the question of do the people involved in a grapple still threaten squares. We ruled that it does not say that they don't, so they do (unless involved in a pin).

Second was the issue of grapple-er to grapple-ee. As I understood the rules grapple is no longer a mutual condition. One person is being held/grabbed/grappled/pinned, while the other is doing the holding/etc. How does this affect ending a grapple? Can the grapple-er just drop the grapple-ee? Does the grapple-ee have any way of trying to maintain the grapple against the grapple-er's wishes? As the rules are written, it seems like someone held or grabbed could grapple back on their round, making both creatures involved grapple-ers, but a pinned creature gets no option. This should probably be stated somewhere, or perhaps an addition made to the existing rules on who has the advantage (or is the grapple-er) and who doesn't (the grapple-ee).

Ryn, who gets edition rules mixed up

I recently recieved my copy of Dragon 338 and jumped straight to the Wormfood article to get a look at the Wormhunter prestige class. I liked what I saw: The class has great flavor supported by even better mechanics, but who would take levels in it?

My main problem with the class is the Regained Lore, Spiritual Conduit and Increased Spellcasting Gifts of the Worm. Both of these can serve to make the class highly adaptable, but are limited by only being able to choose the gifts once and the gifts not growing with the class.

My solution was to make Increased Spellcasting and Spiritual Conduit grow with the other Gifts recieved by the Wormhunter. This makes the class more attractive to casters, who are usually loathe to give up caster levels, and in an undead heavy campaign clerics will want to hold onto thier turning levels.

While growing with the other Gifts works for the two caster based Gifts of the Worm, Regained Lore quickly gets out of hand using this technique. Any fighter-type would drool over being able to retain their bonus feats and get other abilities to boot. They are also, however, not going to benefit as much from the other Gifts, unlike a cleric or other caster, and are thus not likely to persue Wormhunter past first or second level. For these reasons I am considering making Regained Lore stackable. Each time to take the Gift, you gain a free feat (and a form of Madness). This would replace the current text of "You gain a number of bonus feats equal to the number of Gifts of the Worm you currently posess".

These are my thoughts, what are yours?

-Ryn