After upgrading to Foundry V13 and the V1.2.1 of the Harrow Deck module, I can no longer show the Harrow Spread to my players.
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A consistent concern I've seen of reviews of this AP is how to motivate the party to pursue the story. Have any of you had an issue with this, and do you have any suggestions as to how to make the players feel the importance of seeking out the cards?
If the ammunition of Eldritch Shot is not the origin point of its released spell, why is a Spell Storing weapon the origin point of its release spell? Honestly, it is getting difficult to follow your ideas here. In the post I was responding to, you were suggesting that "range" was from caster to weapon rune. Now it is from character using the command action to the target?
This doesn't follow. The weapon is not the "target" of the spell. The caster casts the spell into the weapon. The weapon later strikes a creature, an action is spent, and the spell is unleashed with the target of the strike being the target of the spell. There is no text that uses the word "range". The only "target" of the spell is the creature the spell is being released on. If the ammunition of Eldritch Shot is not the origin point of its released spell, why is a Spell Storing weapon the origin point of its release spell?
Touch range specifically says you have to have to touch your target. Since you believe "flies with the ammunition" doesn't affect range requirements, and you've written an analysis of Eldritch Shot and a touch range cantrip, I was just wondering how you saw that working. But OK. Back on topic.
I disagree. While I understand what you are saying, reading through a half dozen discussions of Eldritch Shot and various touch spells, I didn't find anyone else interpreting "flies with the ammunition" the way you are. At most, RAW is ambiguous. I did find a thread where you analyzed a Fighter with Eldritch Shot using Gouging Claw, where you found it to be suboptimal. https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43gdq&page=2?Arcane-Cascade-for-Starlit-Sp an#66 Which raises a question. If "flies with the ammunition" does not affect general range rules, how does Eldritch Shot work with touch-ranged spells? Touch spells require that you, not ammunition, touch the target. Are you casting the spell, imbuing it into the bow, sending it with the ammunition, then reaching out to touch the target? And your ranged attack roll determines if your ranged attack succeeds AND if your spell attack succeeds? What happens if you are using a crossbow, where both your hands are occupied?
It isn't implied. It is stated. "Your spell flies with the ammunition, using your attack roll result to determine the effects of both the Strike and the spell." When a specific rule contradicts a general rule, the specific rule takes precedence. It does not have to declare it is overriding the general rule.
Under "Other Archetypes", Talisman Dabbler: "I’m pretty sure even Grand Talisman Esoterica and Talismanic Sage stack, allowing 4 affixed talismans at once, since they are their own abilities." I believe this is incorrect. Both abilities allow you to treat one item, allowing it to have two talismans. Using both on the same item item would be redundant. Having both abilities would allow you to apply two talismans to two different items, however.
Nonat1s' deep dive Class Guide is up.
Full Thaumaturges yes, but the post I was quoting was discussing archetype Thaumaturges. My apologies!
] You get the implement at 6 according to the preview. The weapon provides a good AoO equivalent for anyone who wants it. My other choice would probably be mirror for the auto flank. Some parties might benefit from tome in the early game for an extra pair of skills but that falls off and would need to be retrained later. The Tome skills are chosen daily, and eventually become Legendary. The Tome grants a circumstance bonus to attacks after a successful, free Recall Knowledge check. Using one or both of those skills for appropriate Lore skills could make the Recall Knowledge checks easier. I think the value of the Tome depends a lot on your GM's style, how they handle Recall Knowledge checks, and how important skill checks are outside of combat. Being able to boost skills to fit your circumstances could be great. Need to know about smuggling? You're an expert! How do you sail that stolen ship? No problem.
I don't think it's that the aging is by a trivial amount. Rather, I think that the aging is normally temporary. You are effected by the curse, and it ages you into an elderly being, but then the curse ends and you de-age back into your normal self..... I don't find that interpretation to be unreasonable. The text is rather unclear as to what is happening narratively. I see the spell as affecting living things differently than objects, but who knows. It does say "briefly ages", which would imply a short process of aging, not a short period of being old. But again, the intent is not clear. I don't really agree with the idea of applying some aspects of aging (wrinkles, bad backs, etc) without other aspects (physical growth, hormonal changes, etc). I would argue that temporarily inflicting old age on an embryo inside an egg would kill it. It would be if had lived a long time, including getting large, and thus breaking the egg. There is still the question as to whether the embryo can be targeted by a touch spell through the egg. I think it can. Touch attacks don't require skin-to-skin contact.
I'd rule that the embryo inside the egg is both alive and targetable by the spell Curse of Lost Time. Ravingdork makes a good point that we generally allow the caster to choose whether they are targetting the armor/clothing of a person or the actual person with a Touch spell. However, the spell only ages the target "briefly", so that it becomes clumsy and enfeebled for a round, an hour, or indefinitely. Since there is no description of how much aging happens, I take that to mean that the aging is pretty trivial, but it throws off the target's system to make it weak for a time. So I'd let them use the spell, make the egg age by less than a day, and give the creature within Enfeebled 1 and Clumsy 1. And those conditions are likely to last until the spell is dispelled, given that an embryo is going to have a fortitude save of zero.
With the Sanguine Mist and Cloudkill ideas, now I want to make a Bones Oracle with a Sylph Versatile Heritage with the Smokesoul and Cloud Gazer feats. I love the idea of a death-connected Oracle standing/walking around in constant fogs. I'm not sure how to expand on the idea though. Maybe some wands/scrolls to get a Obscuring Mist.
Oracles can get an advanced domain spell with domain fluency at 12th level. They start with an initial one based on the 2 domains the mystery gives Ugh. Of course. Sorry for the stupid question.
I really like malignant sustenance for a bones Oracle too, fast healing along with temp HP and damage resistance is awesome. The only way to get a Focus spell from another class is through a archetype dedication, right? (Sorry, been away from the game for a while, and my old brain is bad at remembering.)
I basically agree with all of this. The reason I don't stray from RAW without a good deal of consideration is that stepping on other feats can ruin another player's plans. Thanks all for the insights.
Ok. Makes sense. Thanks. I suspect a GM would want to make a determination based on circumstances. This was born from an idea of dimension dooring to a flying creature, striking, then using a fall mitigation feat. Not a very efficient way of doing things anyway, but I was curious if it was possible.
Suppose you find yourself in midair after an action or two. Could you use your remaining action(s) before dealing with falling and landing? Could you, for example, Dimension Door 120 feet straight up for 2 actions, and then do a ranged strike?
This would mean that half a typical party had pumped up Charisma and invested their skill points into Intimidation. So not only are they doubling up on abilities that will not always benefit from being doubled, they will not have invested in other things, which makes the party weaker. Certainly one can imagine times when 2 characters could be using STD at the same time. But maybe one of them would have have liked to have more hit points, better saves, and Athletics though all those other battles.
STD has been fine in our game. I think between 15th and 18th level, it has killed 3 or 4 creatures that were not really that big of a threat anyway. Balfeful Polymorph has done more. The Rogue that has STD now can just walk through walls, and I kind of love the idea of an enemy anticipating the arrival of a party of demigod-like adventurers, suddenly a voice emerging from the wall behind them proclaiming their doom.
All very good points. I think the situation would be easier for short term agreements. I can very much see a use-case for paid GM's who help new players for 1-4 sessions. I might very well pay to play in various RPG systems under that paradigm.
That all sounds very much like "get to the back of the bus, where you belong" to me. Let's not compare social media sites regulating advertisements to segregation. Thanks.
There may be a "best choice" for an action with a given character in a given situation, if you are judging "best" as that which results in the least usage of resources (such as HP, spell slots, and consumables). But, "best choice" and "good enough choice" are not significantly different in outcome. Obviously, there is essentially no difference in losing 10 more HP over the course of an adventuring day. But I'd argue there is little difference between ending an adventuring day with 100% HP and 1% HP. HP is easy to regenerate, and the game (especially APs) allows you to trade in-game time for in-game healing with little or no in-game consequences. Spell slots refill with time. Consumables should be provided by the GM so that they are sufficient for the flow of the adventure. So even if you could measure what is "the best" action to take, it would not be important to take that action. "Good enough" is good enough. Further, it is generally impossible for the player (or character) to know what "the best" action might be. How many spell slots will be used before rest? How much damage is incoming? Will another player turn a diplomatic encounter into a bloodbath? You don't know what resources to preserve and which can be spent freely. So just be effective enough and play to have fun. There is lots of room for choice.
Thanks all. Very good advice here.
Do your PCs get a free recall knowledge check, or do they have to use an action to ID a creature?
We've been giving every character a free Recall Knowledge check at initiative to learn the name and some common fact about creatures. I don't think this is in accordance with the rules. I'm wondering what other GMs do. Do you just describe the creature? Does it matter how common they are? Surely everyone would recognize a bear or a skeleton, but maybe not the specific type. What do you share with subsequent recall knowledge checks? Do the PC's request some specific bit of info?
One per hour is actually the recommended rate in the book. This has been unclear to me. Is this per person or per group?
The Ancestor Oracle looks like it could be the most fun and frustrating character to play. I imagine trying to step in to melee combat, only to have Grandpa start whispering the finer points of woodworking in your ear.
Oh, that's embarrassing. I didn't bother to look up the Volley tag. I'm dumb. Thanks.
I'm sure it is obvious, but why choose a shortbow instead of longbow?
I suspect that the commonness of grabbing is also dependent on GM style. I don't think I've seen 10 grabs for our party, total, over 16 levels.
I generally dislike awarding Hero Points for impressive play. It is so subjective, and my experience is that GM's tend to be wildly inconsistent (myself included). I also don't like how it excludes shyer players. I tend to be louder, taking my full share plus of table time. That is reward enough in itself. I don't think I should get an extra reward for doing more in the game. I prefer an even distribution of HPs, with extra being awarded for table support (brining treats, managing the loot list, hosting the game, etc).
It is an entirely appropriate comparison. The GM is granting a bonus that player may not feel fits their character vision. Granted, a whole bunch of free feats is much more valuable than a singe weapon, and as such a player who does not partake would be at a larger disadvantage. Here is the reason to give players something else if they don't want the Free Archetype. It makes the game more fun, keeps the characters more balanced, and costs literally nothing. I play with friends, and when I GM, my goal is for everyone at the table to enjoy themselves. I'm not going to presume that a player should want to use archetypes just like I'm not going to presume that a player should want to use swords. If I'm going to give one character a boost towards their vision, I want to give the others an equivalent boost, even if it is not identical. Someone might want a staff instead of a sword. Someone might prefer the Ancestry Paragon variant to the Free Archetype variant. They are similar enough in value and power, and cost me nothing.
Now that would be a GM to avoid at all costs. It is perfectly reasonable for players to want to fulfil their vision for their players AND have similar advantages that were granted to others. If a GM declared everyone was getting a +1 sword at character creation, it would be completely appropriate for a player designing a wizard to ask for something else. No competent GM would consider the sword as a gift in the first place, much less one that could be thrown back in their face. No competent GM would consider it "special treatment" to give boosts based on character design rather than GM whim. This is the sort of thing that a GM and players should discuss before the game starts, because they all should be working together to make a game that is fun for everyone.
I'm giving my players the choice of Free Archetype, Ancestry Paragon, or some in game narrative advantage. I don't want a player to feel like they are missing out, but some may not want the additional complexity of the FA.
Sure, I agree with your entire post. I was trying, maybe poorly, to get at that with my Shove example. This rough models should compare abilities with similar application. But given similar applicability across typical encounters, as a common damage spell and Scare to Death have, looking at average damage levels tells you a lot about balance, where as the specific results of a specific encounter for one single group does not.
Agreed that it is rare. The point I was trying to make is that the results of a specific singular encounter can't be treated as representative. My Heroism encounter was notable for having a series of rolls that made heroism basically perfect for the encounter. But that is not representative of the actual utility of the spell. Your Calikang had the right rolls against the right opponents as well. Lots of abilities are incredible when rolls and circumstances are right. But that is not predicative of future utility. Anyway, I don't think you and I are actually all that far apart. I do think Scare to Death is strong, and is comparable to other strong options. Add Legendary Linguist to the mix, and you can get around the language barrier penalty (for creatures with language). It is certainly among the more appealing of the Legendary Skill Feats.
Averaging what an ability can do on its own leads to a skewed idea of strength or weakness. Whereas looking at abilities in finite short-term fights in groups provides better data points for analysis of the strength and weakness of abilities. It is, of course, important to consider how abilities interact, and the outer bounds of abilities in addition to averages. But averages give you the best point of reference when considering balance. When I consider the value of Heroism, I consider its expected utility over time, not that one time when it was perfect. Likewise, that one specific example of Scare to Death with the Calikangs is not illustrative of whether the ability is actually balanced. Unless you expect the typical usage to be against those same opponents in the same situation using the same dice rolls. In our current campaign, my fellow adventurer killed a level-1 creature by pushing it off a cliff using a weapon with the Shove trait. It would have taken at LEAST 4 successful hits with the same weapon to kill the creature. Do we conclude that the shove trait on a weapon is way over-powered, since it essentially caused 4-6 times the damage as the weapon itself? How can the game proceed if he can 1-shot creatures like that? Well, we don't worry about it, because on average, Shove doesn't do much damage at all. In fact, it rarely has enough apparent value to even be used. The average value of having the shove trait on the weapon is actually quite low. And that is FAR more useful to consider in terms of balance than a singular event.
Honestly, looking at averages is FAR more useful than considering one specific run of one specific encounter at one specific table. In my table's last session, our cleric cast Heroism on our Rogue. By happenstance, this turned each of 5 hits into crits, nearly doubling the amount of damage the character did. This additional damage was also more than was done by any other character in the party. So a 2-action spell resulted in more damage than all the actions of a Druid across 2 fights. Should Heroism be nerfed because it was so effective with the specific rolls in this specific example? Or was this case just an extreme case? Averages help us understand the actual strength and balance of various options.
Just for completeness, Air Walk should also be considered. It is the same level as Fly, and does not require hover at all.
Have you seen Ancestry Paragon in play? How does it compare to Free Archetype in terms of power and/or versatility? I'd guess they are similar enough.
Good point. I do not think that. I guess I'm trying to say that they had a rough time trying to describe when it acted as armor and when it didn't. They probably should just have added another armor category to cover clothing, bracers, and whatever might come in the future that fits into that group.
Explorer's Clothing also has the "Comfort" trait, which states The armor is so comfortable that you can rest normally while wearing it. I feel that RAI, Explorer's Clothing is meant to be "armor" in all ways, except that it uses unarmored proficiency. I think the editing just failed to clean up all the language.
I never noticed that Explorer's Clothing is not listed as armor for purposes of talismans. I wonder if that was an intentional design decision. It is hard for me to imagine that you can etch runes into clothes, but can't attach a small item. Some of the armor talismans are literally pins. The Sneaky Key "can be pinned to armor or a sleeve." I suspect RAI is that Explorer's Clothing can accept talismans.
Isn't that exactly what the "Uncommon" tag is for? Uncommon: Something of uncommon rarity requires special training or comes from a particular culture or part of the world. Some character choices give access to uncommon options, and the GM can choose to allow access for anyone. Check with your GM. Maybe you can have it as just one of your standard options. Maybe you can buy it. Maybe you haven't made the right choices to have or buy it. Maybe the whole party can get access to it because of that thing they did. That's "Uncommon". Calling a spell "common", but then saying you need to access it in a different way, though maybe for free if you ask your GM is clunky, and again doesn't fit well with lore.
Even with PFS, there isn't typically an extra in-game cost to access materials from a non-core book. Fighters don't have to pay 16 gold to then be able to buy a 3rd level splat-book shield at the regular price. I personally don't care about the extra costs, or the lack of immediate access for new spells for Clerics. I just hate the inelegance of the mechanics and the lore. Rarity tags have little value if you still have to look up other factors to determine how accessible something is. And how does the lore explain this? Deities grant their clerics the ability to cast certain spells. But some smaller number of spells are only available to those clerics who both please their gods AND have exchanged money with the proprietor of Midtown Spell Shack.
Fair enough, though to my mind the Ancestry Paragon variant doesn't add much complexity. Players don't have to find an extra ancestry to fit their vision. They don't have to worry too much about feat choice efficiency. They just get a handful of extra ancestry feats tacked on to their otherwise normally created character. I've got a new, crazy plan. I'm going to talk to my players.
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Greetings :) I sent an email to the customer service email address a few days ago, but haven't received a reply yet. I never received this order. I thought it was on backorder, but when I went back to check on it, it showed that it had been delivered to my home address. I asked for it to be sent to my PO BOX, but you all sent it via UPS to my home. The tracking number shows it was left on my doorstep in May, but nothing was there. Can you check on this please? Thank you
This is the soon to be active Age of Worms PBP game; all characters start off as dwarven barbarians. Forgotten Realms setting. All players already recruited. I'm NOT running this game, but finally get to play in the Age of Worms.... 
CY 577 7th day of Flocktime. The Overking is gone. He has been gone for several months now. The joy of overthrowing his iron rule was shortlived. Nyrond and other Iron League nations invaded the Great Kingdom, seeking payback for all the depradations they faced for the many decades of rule by the House of Naelax. Count Dunstan of Knurl faces a dangerous situation. Emboldened by the chaos in the south, the humanoid tribes of the Bone March boldly march into the Blemu Hills, seeking to sack the town. Desperate to save his hardy little hold, the Count opened the gates to adventurers, some unsavory, to help stave off the tide of certain doom. You are all gathered in the "Gnoll's Head Inn" in Knurl, along with a crowd of many rough and tumble sell swords, cut purses and spell slingers, ready to hear the Count's announcement tonight. Ale flows freely and rumors of events to the south and the north are thrown about as haphazardly as the darts being played by the trio of drunken dwarves in the corner.
Hi, I sent an e-mail about this to Customer Service a while back, but haven't received a response yet. Please swap my Planet Stories subscription for a Pathfinder Modules subscription instead. Thank you in advance!
Long out of print, I'd love to see Planet Stories take on one of my favorite pulp authors.
The yet unnamed Klingon ship is a K-3 gunboat, crewed by: Lt j/g Karg (1st level expert)
The ship also has a medical officer, an engineer, an assistant engineer and an assistant pilot, plus a science officer.
I had a moment of panic hearing of 4th edition's release--then I realized that when my current GH campaign wraps up, my seven member gaming group still has two full Lvl 1-20 campaigns pending--Age of Worms and Ptolus, which will both be run using 3.5 by DMs other than me!......so I have plenty of time to digest 4th edtion and make an informed decision for my next full length campaign. My 3.5 books won't be obsolete for at least another 3 years!!! Whew....!!!! Maybe 4.5 will even come out before we give up 3.5....
I’m going to try a different approach to a campaign log with this one. I’m not sure it will work out as well as the narrative approach, but it’ll be quicker to write and serve the purpose of reminding the players and DM of past events as the campaign progresses. I'm offering my players one action point per game session if they post here to fill in some of the detail that my post may lack Sypheros 13, 997 YK
Sypheros 15, 997 YK
Sypheros 16-17, 997 YK
Rain and Geldren Holdfast are the children of Berrik Zerifarn, a renowned bandit lord and mercenary company leader who founded a rogue town on the eastern banks of the Delimbyr near the Far Forest. For years he led attacks and raids on whomever he pleased, forging and breaking alliances with humanoid bands, other bandits and even small communities. He acquired great riches and within a few years had several hundred able warriors, wizards and rogues under his command. He played off Hellgate Keep even, sometimes hiring his troops out to the devils ruling the place until Hellgate Keep was sacked and pacified by Turlang the treant and his forces is DR1368. Berrik Zerifarn's bandit-town, known as the "Holdfast" by his followers, avoided the same fate mainly because it was on the other side of the Delimbiyr river and the treants of the High Forest were loath to cross the waters. King Obould Many Arrows, the orcish barbarian chieftain, became Berrik's newest ally in 1370. Berrik's human raiders often went on missions where orcs couldn't go, deep into the Lords' Alliance territory. During one raid, Berrik and his son Geldren and daughter Rain went along. Geldren and Rain were Berrik's lieutenants and helped run the warband. Usually one of them stayed back in the Holdfast, but this raid was a major expedition to punish enemies of the orcs near Llorkh. Obould used the opportunity to sack the Holdfast and loot it of its riches. He then set up an ambush and destroyed Berrik's warband when it returned. Rain and Geldren barely escaped with a few followers, who drifted off or died off in their escape attempt, chased by Obould's assassins. Rain and Geldren made it to Waterdeep, determined to gather wealth and more followers and exact revenge on Obould and his orcs. They met Liandrin and Daedalus and were hired into their group of adventurers. Both Rain and Geldren thought it was a perfect way to acquire wealth and make contacts. Rain and Geldren changed their last name to Holdfast to reflect their burning desire for vengeance.
Admittedly, I am not a computer game fan. I never got into WoW, Everquest...there are very few computer games I really like. I enjoyed Neverwinter Nights during a time when my paper & pen gaming was on hiatus. I picked up Neverwinter Nights II with breathless anticipation and dived into it. About two weeks later, after trying to play about an hour a day to unwind with a glass of scotch....I no longer play. It's not even mental masturbation like Solitaire or Minesweeper. It's just boring! The stupid quests...the railroading inherent to all computer RPGs....I guess the visuals just don't affect me very much. I haven't played in weeks and every time I start I get frustrated after about 5 minutes because I'm searching some stupid cavern endlessly for some stupid plot necessary thing or person I missed and I can't proceed unless I find that one thing. Graphics? Nice, but baaaahhh humbug!!! I think I'm through with computer RPGs permanently until the next "generation of virtual reality" arrives....anyone else feel this way?
As my very first 3.5 campaign draws to a close in a few months (characters are now 16th level and the game prep and combat has slowed down to the point of virtual unfun) I'm plotting my next campaign. I won't actually DM my next campaign for at least a year, as I'm handing off the DMing reigns to a friend who's going to run Ptolus and our other game is going to switch to Age of Worms when it has run its course. Back on topic--I want to run my next campaign story heavy and magic items lite. Very lite....very lite....I anticpate the PCs maybe having one or two magic items between them by 7th level kind of stuff. Is there a quick and dirty way to adjust CRs for NPCs/Monsters who are stripped of almost all magic? Any advice on converting published adventures to an almost non-existent magic item setting? Why no magic? I'm tired of the math. I'm tired of having to deck out NPCs like Christmas trees just to challenge the PCs. I'm tired of the PCs walking into town with 43 suits of +2 studded leather they took off the dungeon residents, stuffed into a portable hole. All the frickin' calculations....let's just play!!!! Last game we lost almost 3 hours of game time to "shopping, selling and converting magic items." I could say that they can't do any converting, but I'm so sick and tired of the magic item logistics, I just don't give a sh*t. I haven't posted much lately due to work constraints, but I'd sure love some feedback from you guys. PS: I have Iron Heroes and while I like it, my players aren't ready for it yet and the token system annoys me, so that option is out, although I might stripmine it for some features such as the armor system.
I have a theory now about why sometimes Dragon and Dungeon magazines disappear into the void. I got Dragon 351 today....in a plain manila envelope with the address label stapeled to the outside. ....with a scrawled note...."sorry"....... .....I think the post office has a machine somewhere that's eating our Dragons.......and I got a postal employee with a consciensce instead of someone who just pitches the magazine into a trash bin.
Jeremy, I got your e-mail asking me about my manuscript that was due December 1st. I e-mailed it to you on November 28th, but since it may have been eaten, I just resent it to both your e-mail address and to the gatekeeper address, just in case. I just wanted to let you know here on the boards in case there's something blocking my e-mail. I use gmail and never had trouble before sending stuff to you guys. Let me know if you received it, either here or by replying to my e-mail. I'm currently visiting family and they don't have a very good internet connection, but I'll check tomorrow. Thank you! F2K (farewell2kings (at) gmail (dot) com)
I haven't read the whole adventure yet, as I just got the magazine today, but I love the way the NPCs are presented in "The Sea Wyvern's Wake." A very attractive and useful layout, with the NPC in its own different color sidebar with a little portrait on the bottom of a page. I hope that becomes a regular feature in future magazines. It's eye-pleasing and functional. Thanks!!!
Hammer5, 1373
My attempts to call attention to the poisoning attempt of Karl by acting like I had been poisoned were discarded by the guards, who told me to get up and knock it off. Soon after breakfast, all the new people, us and Karl Vanderhome were put on the elevator shaft to go the 2nd level. While descending the elevator shift, we heard a sickening grinding of metal on metal and then the elevator floor tilted and we fell. We all managed to hold on except Karl, who fell down the shaft. I tried to grab him, but failed. I quickly changed into dire bat form and dove after him. I tried to cast "baleful polymorph" on him to change him into a raven so he wouldn't fall to his death, but he shook off the spell. Karl saved himself by landing on the 2nd level landing, cracking ribs in the process. I landed next to him and changed back into human form. I felt like I had to get him out of there, though. They were trying to assassinate us and it was time to act. I cast fog cloud on the landing and then changed back into dire bat form, grabbed the semi-conscious Karl Vanderhome and flew out of the mine shaft. One of the guards hit me as I flew past the first level, but I kept going through the pain. I was outside, free, with the bright light of daylight piercing my batform’s vision.
Top ten things if a gamer became President of the U.S. (not a political thread) (Non-U.S.--feel free to insert your own head of state) 10. The Oval Game Room 9. Security at GenCon would be a b%$!& if the Prez ran a table 8. LARPing on the White House Lawn 7. Someone would write an expose' on the influence and hidden agenda of the nerd lobby 6. White House Press Corps would have to roll up characters if they ever wanted a chance to get picked during the press conferences...'cuz the President only calls you by your character name!! 5. "must not giggle and ask how many ranks they have in sense motive when they ask me if I'm bluffing" 4. Intelligence briefings would have to be boiled down to stat blocks 3. Taxpayers would pick up a subscription to Dungeon and Dragon magazine for every ship, squadron or company in the U.S. military 2. President would get all of his dad's 1st edition buddies into his cabinet ;p 1. Monte Cook would give advice on how to handle a difficult congress
I wanted to take a minute to complement Jonathan Drain and Dragon for this short, but very useful article. I've always had trouble with coming up with balanced curse effects, particularly on the fly in the middle of a gaming session. This article helps a lot with this problem and is really useful for me, as a time-harried DM, to help judge curses on the fly. The greater bestow curse is a cool spell as well. I hope that the trend of short, useful articles that detail various niches in the game continues. I don't know if the intent was to write an article that is useful to DMs who are short on time, but I hope the trend continues.
I managed to find a phone number and spoke with his significant other and she told me that he's very busy and going to school and hasn't had much time for anything else. That's what I had initially thought had happened, but then his continued lack of communication got me a bit paranoid. I'm very relieved and decided to post this in a new thread so all those who care about Chris can notice it more readily. I'll apologize to Chris about the intrusion but we love 'ya, man!!! Hopefully I won't end up a victim of "Wingclipper's Revenge."
I had "active shooter" training today. We use simunition wax bullets to practice taking out Columbine style attackers in coordinated building entry and dynamic tactical scenarios. Lot's a fun, lot's of bruises, good training. During one of the scenarios I was supposed to play the part of a hostage who was supposed to run out of a room, screaming, begging for help and then running down a long corridor. I was having fun, so I got into it...let forth some blood curdling screams, begging for help and running down the hallway while shrieking hysterically. The SWAT guys running the training told me "hey, you're a good role-player." What do they know, huh?
My GH campaign is nearing a massive war. I want to do the following: Several of my players also play strategy games. I want to use a modified strategy/board game to "play out" a war in Greyhawk, at about regimental or battalion level. I want to play out the battles in this game over the Internet, between gaming sessions. I would use the 30 mile hex maps from the original GH set to resolve this war, keeping track of all unit locations at my house, with me feeding the players intelligence via e-mail and allowing them to deploy their troops, make their moves the same way, thus creating a nice fog of war. I'm quite willing to modify an existing medieval combat wargame system to fit my needs...but my question is--what game system would you guys recommend? I vaguely remember playing a medieval tabletop wargame with hexes and counters back in the early 80's, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. I don't want to get into tactical nitty gritty too much. I'm thinking one turn = 1 day....something like that. Any ideas or feedback?
I seem to recall a 3.5 spell that allowed wizards to read their spellbooks from a remote location, a divination of spell of some sort that allowed spellbooks to stay in a secure location, yet still be read via a sensor like a scrying sensor....can someone help me out? I searched and flipped pages, but can't seem to find it. Thanks in advance.
Yesterday I was running my players through the first test of the Smoking Eye--the test of Judgment at the blinking in and out of Celestia cathedral. They went down the stairs to find the mummy lord behind his desk. I read out the narrative portion of his statement. I tried to do a raspy, undead type narrative voice. My players wouldn't stop laughing for about 5 minutes and asked me to repeat the narrative a few times, just for extra giggles. "What the hell is so funny?" I asked. "How can he say bebilith like that if he doesn't have a tongue?" Lesson--don't try to do voices. Go read that narrative block and try to do it with what you think a mummy lord would sound like...it is pretty darn funny.
Chris, The were_cabbages are getting a bit worried about you. No one has heard from you since mid May and you haven't been posting here. You're probably busy with school and work down in Galveston, but your utter and very sudden disappearance from all electronic communication has us a bit worried...just drop us a line and let us know you're okay--post here or over at the were_cabbage site. If we've pissed you off and you've stopped corresponding with us or you've finally joined the Peace Corps, that's cool too-just let us know so we don't continue to worry. It's just like you dropped off the face of the Earth (which you have every right to do, but we do get worried when a friend suddenly stops communicating) (We were worried about Ashavan too for a while, but he finally dropped us a line a few weeks ago--real world stuff can sometimes suck the bag)
I'm considering increasing the damage that crossbows do as a house rule. Composite bows can become strength bows because, presumably, a strong person could draw a bow with more draw weight, thus increasing the velocity and stopping power of an arrow. Some medieval heavy crossbows had a draw weight of around 300 lbs, while traditional bows topped out around 150 lbs at most. My only practical experience comes from deer hunting with a Barnett Demon Crossbow with a 200 # draw weight that used to put bolts halfway through a tree while the composite bow I had could never accomplish that feat (maybe because I was a girlie man, who knows?) Why would a crossbow with 300 # draw weight not get a bonus to damage if a composite longbow with a heavy draw weight can give the user strength bonus damage, not to mention multiple shots per round? So, I'm thinking that heavy crossbows should be eligible for the same strength damage bonuses that composite bows can get, for the same cost. The fact that they are a simple weapon would be balanced out by the fact that they take a full round action to reload. Thoughts? Disagreement by those of you with more historical knowledge than me?
I really have to compliment Paizo on the awesome Maps of Mystery included in recent issues of Dungeon. The "Cinderforge" in #137 is really nice and "The Forsaken Rift" in #136 was very unique and inspirational. I noticed the maps are related (Cinderforge & Forsaken Rift, that is--nice touch!) I've already used "Vault of the Deathlord" from #131 in my GH campaign as the lair of a Suel lich. Keep it up, those maps make excellent gateways for little mini-adventures or for stocking my campaign world with pre-mapped locations. Great time saver and very attractive maps--I love the sideviews and 3-D maps particularly. I'm assuming Christopher West is doing these maps, as the compass rose is his signature, yes? Great stuff....
Since Paizo carries PDFs from Silven--will you guys also distribute this PDF when it comes out later this month? I love backdrops and I had the honor to have a ringside seat at the creation of this product and I will order the finished version as soon as it is available..hopefully others from the Paizo boards will as well. It will be very, very cool.
I love backdrops and I hope that the Impiltur article is cool and such things will become a regular feature. Will another FR City from Ed Greenwood be in the works soon as well?
I leafed through some old issues of Dragon on my lunch break the other day (issues from the early 80's) and there used to be a lot of non D&D stuff included in the magazine. I understand that Dragon is an "official" support vehicle of WotC's D&D line, but I would really like to see non D&D Wizards D20 products supported (even non Wizards stuff, maybe Wizards/Paizo could get a deal with Green Ronin, Kenser, et al.) Why? Even if you play only D&D, D20 products for other settings can be a great source of ideas. I was really bummed when "Polyhedron" left the pages of Dragon, then Dungeon. I loved that stuff...great variety and inspirational material--the Iron Lords of Jupiter d20 mini-game was just incredible, for example. In the old days, there were "Top Secret" adventures and articles in Dragon, as well as Star Frontiers and even an occasional article supporting a non-TSR game or setting. Even if Dragon just expanded to include an occasional d20 modern article, I would be thrilled. It would add some real nice variety and more spice to the magazine. Most of the d20 modern stuff I've found on the internet is dubious quality at best and I would really love to see some other d20 stuff covered with Paizo's high standards. ...a "class act" style feature to add some spice to the d20 modern base classes would be a really cool thing, for example. I know that there are many third party publishers of d20 modern material out there, but I'd rather get printed copies of high quality stuff every few months from a magazine I already subscribe to than try to hunt down, research and download stuff off the 'net' in PDF format.
I got #345 yesterday and after Oots, I read the Kostchtchie demonicon article and it is very, very cool. I could think of a campaign where the players have to face thralls of Kostchtchie and aspects of Kostchtchie and all this great background data was included. Awesome article!!! The rest of the issue was really good too...I definitely got my $8 worth (oh wait, I subscribe, I definitely got my $3.50 something's worth) The Were_platypus' equipment array class act is a really good idea. I've been kind of doing something similar for several years, but he put more thought and detail into it and it's one of those articles that's instantly useful in any game. The Sea serpent article is something I've been waiting for a long time without knowing it. It would be cool if some of them made an appearance in Savage Tide, but they're really good for any seaborne campaign. Overall, there wasn't any weak area in this magazine. I'm not a hopeless fanboy all the time as I've questioned some things Dragon does before, but this issue is just stuffed with useful material.
Anyone else excited about True Sorcery from Green Ronin, which is pending release? I dislike the predictability of D&D spells and this book appears promising to provide a possible alternative for some more free form style spell casting.
How many of you use or have used Crown Royal bags to store your dice? Are they a cheap cop out to a real dice bag or a gaming staple? I love them...I have a big one for my regular dice and a small one for a spare set to keep with my d20 modern stuff. I'm not much of a whiskey fan, but I personally believe the Crown Royal bag has had an informal but significant presence in the kit of gamers around the world, as I know I can't be the only one using them. In the past I've used commercial dice bags (kept coming open), a well made leather German coin purse (lost it, don't know what happened to it) and suede lined wooden boxes to store my dice, but I always seem to gravitate back to the Crown Royal bag, roomy, tough, light and you can tie it shut securely or loop the string around the top for easy opening. Is it cheesy or classic? What do you guys think?
My first 3.5 campaign has finally reached high level (13+). The party is a meatgrinder. There is only one +5 item in the party, a suit of +5 chainmail and the most powerful weapon is a +3 keen greatsword, so I don't think the magic is too much. ....I'm probably missing something and somebody can point it out to me please, but this high level play...well....it's a bookeeping nightmare. To present a decent challenge, I have to run complex monsters, CR appropriate NPC's with buff spells prepared, magic items, spells to keep track of, damage resistance, spell resistance, etc. etc. etc....the party hasn't seen an orc since 6th level and when they fight...I doze off by the time each one of them has gone through their retinue of full round attacks, each one of which involves 3-4 rolls, then rolls for damage, then adding it all up, keeping track of who got hit, who has what buff spell up, invisibility, blink, the list goes on and on and on.... Sure, the story is fun, but the combats are just a major pain in the ass. If I take shortcuts and try to throw some generic CR appropriate monsters at them, they walk through them like Grant took Richmond. I'm spending a couple of hours of game prep just on studying the stat blocks from Dungeon magazine or preparing my own stat blocks, making cheat sheets to keep track of all the magical effects and enhancements. I love the consistency and the clean mechanics of 3.5, but I don't remember the high level stuff being this much of a pain in the butt when I played 1e/2e...sure, it was complex, but there were no full page stat blocks that I recall. Also, the power curve is intensely different than in AD&D. In AD&D, I could throw 8-12 4th level fighters at a 10th level party and it would be a pretty tough fight with some real risk, but tonight I threw four CR9 supported by eight CR10 creatures at five player characters of 13th level and they hardly broke a sweat. Random encounter tables? I don't want 'em anymore. I can't even imagine trying to run a decent random encounter for a high level party (excuse for me about an hour guys while I study these stat blocks and take notes....screw it, "YOU GUYS ENCOUNTER A DRAGON" flip, flip, flip....here it is in the Monster Manual, all prepared and ready to go--instead of challenging them with good tactics, I'll just keep claw/breathe/bite routine for 3d6+24 pts of damage up. I enjoyed tonight's game for the story and the RP, but I cancelled the final combat encounter and knocked off early because I looked at the stat blocks of the creatures and just got a headache. I tried to adopt some timesaver mechanics, such as duplicating creatures and re-using stat blocks, but the players sense this and make snide comments like "hey, isn't this the barbarian prince from yesterday with a different color helmet? Let me guess, he has barkskin up...yep, he does, it is the same guy!" Anyone have any ideas for remedies for the high level blahs? I don't want to adopt a bunch of variant rules, as I'd like to keep things pretty close to standard 3.5. I
I'm not very fond of the standard d20 modern base classes--they're colorless and bland in my opinion. The prestige classes are generally okay. Are there other sources of d20 modern base classes out there that you have tried and might be able to recommend as an alternative? I'm thinking about making some slight alterations to some of the D&D base classes and using those instead, or allowing players to gestalt d20 modern base classes. I'm either going to run a freewheeling Dark continent exploration game set in the late Victorian era or a gritty sci-fi game of some sort, with d20 modern as the base system.
I've noticed that in all of the 3 D&D campaigns I run or play in, there is only one character (seventeen total) that wears heavy armor. No one wants those armor check penalties and speed reduction. Is this a common phenomenon? Could it be that just about everyone that I game with is obsessed with high dexterity scores? It really came to my attention when the party found a suit of +3 plate armor recently and no one wanted it. It doesn't help that there's only one true fighter and one true cleric among the bunch--everyone else is a barbarian/ranger/rogue something or other. Has your experience with this differed or been the same or have you not noticed this?
How about Paizo publish no campaign world specific conversion notes for the Savage Tide adventure path? Instead, Paizo has a contest among Dungeon readers for FR, Eberron and GH conversion notes, say 3000 words for each setting. Announce the contest early in the AP, so that DMs can ready their campaign specific conversions for the contest. Publish conversion notes guidelines on the website. The most entertaining, as judged by the editors, for each setting, gets published in the hardcover. The winner gets the standard writer's publication renumeration and credit. I think that might be fun and generate additional buzz about the product.
SPOILERS FOR #131 HATEFUL LEGACY Tonight was one of those classic D&D moments that will be remembered by my players for decades to come. I was running my bi-weekly GH game and running the party through "Hateful Legacy" from Dungeon #131. The party was trying to free a noble captured by the big bad evil guys, Kazgorva and Urgush (sp?). Anyway, this noble was strapped to a windmill behind the mud pits hiding the undead bad guys and was being dipped into the boiling waters of the lake behind him every minute, with a curse on him that kept regenerating him just enough so he'd feel the pain of being roasted alive every minute. The party was so freaked out by this scene, they used a wand of fly to fly up the wheel en masse to untie the noble and rescue him. Only one person was watching the shoreline--the barbarian/cleric. Kazgorva stepped out of his position of hiding and cast a flamestrike on the party, nearly killing the sorceror and wounding about half of them. Our hero, the barbarian 4/cleric 8 of Pelor flew towards the mummy monster, unlimbering his greatsword. Kazgorva cast "baleful polymorph" and turned the barbarian into a toad. Undeterred, our hero "raged" and "enlarged" (even though I know that he couldn't really use his domain and barbarian powers, but he was so into it, I didn't have the heart to tell him no) and declared that he was going to "bull rush" in flying toad form, hoping to distract the creature from casting any more spells. Unfortunately, he didn't know that the BBEG had an anti-life shell on him. The poor toad impacted the barrier and slid down to the ground with a sickening thwock....... ...oh, the poor player is going to have to endure months of toad jokes from the others. They ended up winning the battle (barely), but the flying kamikaze toad barbarian is already being talked about as a possible prestige class :)
Wouldn't that be cool? I haven't read the AoW because I'm going to get a chance to play in it. I would like a HC so our gaming group can give it to our DM because I don't want to lend him my magazines for that long. There are many adventures in those particular issues that I am running or going to run and I don't want to lend them out. So, for purely selfish and self-centered reasons, an AOW HC would be an immediate purchase for our group.
Thinking about this, it would probably be better placed in a Campaign Workbook in Dungeon......but still...I'd love to see it.
What did you guys think of this series? I thought it was okay, certainly better than the D&D movies, although the acting was still pretty lame. The story had a lot of potential, but it seemed a little mishandled. I liked the late Roman/Dark Ages backdrop with mild sorcery...nice longship scenes and okay battle sequences. The actor for the main character, the blacksmith dragon slayer, was in my opinion, the low point of the series. I also didn't care for the implied "social" lesson in how wealth and power corrupts, but perhaps I'm just being too harsh. Max von Sydow was the high point....the queen of Iceland was okay too, but the king and the stereotypical scarred evil advisor were just a bit too cliche'. For a Sci-Fi channel miniseries, it was pretty good overall, IMO. Not as good as Dune, but watchable (once).
I just noticed something and wanted to start this totally off the wall thread about it--well, because there could be some theory there. All my gaming friends carry some sort of "preparedness" accoutrement. I have a swiss army knife on my key chain, for example. Others in my circle of gaming friends carry, Leatherman tools, Fairbairn combat knives, Gerber utility knives, other swiss army knives and similar things. By carry---I mean, they have these things with them no matter what.... Most of my friends who are not RPG gamers do not carry such things... Are we gamers secretly fascinated with the multi-purpose tools that don't increase our encumbrance category and allow us to tackle those little things in life that need to be tackled with the right little tool at hand? Is the Swiss Army Knife our secret set of thieves' tools? What do you guys routinely carry with you or in your vehicle? Is this just an aberration of statistics or am I on to something? Here's what's in my truck at all times: .357 revolver with spare ammo(I'm legal in all 50 states)
I'm not a survivalist or subscriber to "Bomb Shelter Monthly" but I've come to realize that for the last 20 years, I've always filled up the empty spaces in my vehicle and pockets with things that are handy to have "just in case." Has playing RPG's, where lots of time is spent on preparedness inventories for characters, predisposed my brain to think like I need to be ready to go "adventure" at the drop of a hat--totally subconsciously? Am I just a big weirdo? Probably.....
I'm considering picking up the Thieves World D20 books from Green Ronin to use for my next campaign. Are they any good? I loved the short stories and am getting ready to read the novel that came out a few years ago. I'm also thinking of placing Sanctuary in Greyhawk. I was thinking on the Wild Coast ca. CY580 before the Greyhawk Wars, about where Fax is now....make Greyhawk be the "kingdom" that Sanctuary is located in. I know it'll take some shoehorning. Any other locations for Sanctuary in GH that might be suitable? I don't recall there being a lot of detail of the area around the city...just a map of a peninsula and a few locations scattered about. I don't seem to remember that it would have been too difficult, terrain wise, to drop into an existing campaign, but like I said--I haven't read the D20 book on Thieves' World. I like the idea of putting Sanctuary close to the City of Greyhawk as kind of its dirty rival and the orc hordes of the Pomarj stirring to the south....plus the slavers are nearby....I really think it might be cool. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and feedback...
I see some topics twice. I tried to reply to a post and found that the post I quoted was a totally different one that the one I had hit "reply" on. Then when I went back to look, the post that was included in my reply wasn't even posted on that thread.
I'm pretty easy-going, especially on criticism of Paizo, but really: "Bow down before Baphomet, Demon Prince of Beasts" Hmmmm.....I'm a parent taking my teenager to the FLGS because they've been bugging me to buy them some D&D stuff. I'm a little nervous because I'm not in a traditional store, there's some weird stuff floating around....but it seems okay until......I read the cover of Dragon 341. Hmmmmm....I'm a parent going through my teenager's room looking for condoms or pot, stumble across his or her D&D collection and then......I read the cover of Dragon 341. Do we really have to make it that easy to make the ignorant attack our hobby? If you think I'm off base here, I welcome and want to hear your counteropinion. I know that someone might buy the magazine just because of the "in your face" article title, but are the additional sales that might generate worth the unwarranted and "off-the cuff" dismissive criticism? Maybe it is, please tell me if you know. I recently brought two high school kids into the hobby. The only reason they were allowed to play is because the parents know me and trust me and I gave them the whole "it's just a game sales pitch." This magazine, had they seen it at that time, would have probably ruined that.
I'm currently reading two books: The Triumph of the Sun by Wilbur Smith (Fall of Khartoum, 1885 in the Sudan, fictional heroic adventure novel set with the Mahdist-British war as a background) Day of Infamy by Harry Turtledove, what if alternate history book about what would have happened had the Japanese followed up the Pearl Harbor attack with a seaborne invasion of Hawaii.
One more thing that I just remembered--is one of the reasons the magazine is printed in such bold color throughout now because a B&W magazine could be too easily scanned and digitized by copyright thieves/pirates?....'cuz if that's one of the reasons, then I understand completely.
I just read Hateful Legacy in #131 and I really think it's a potentially great adventure. I loved the setting--very unique. The bad guys are pretty memorable, too. I actually plan on using it in about 3-4 weeks, maybe sooner, depending on the events of my next gaming session. However, I plan to change the setting of the valley to the Southern Hestmark Highlands that border the Vast Swamp. I will use an alternative adventure hook that ties into my own campaign instead of linking this adventure to the Hateful Wars. I don't anticipate that this will be a problem, but if any of you Greyhawk afficionados have an opinion, I'd appreciate the feedback.
What trips have you taken or what places have you visited that really got your creative thoughts flowing? What places in the real world made you think of how cool a place like this would be for D&D? I'll start-- Schloss Windeck near my old hometown in Germany..it's a ruined castle that's not on most tourist maps. When I visited there with my family in 2000, there was no one else around and the castle was fog shrouded. We parked our car at the base of the hill that the castle sat on, in the town of Windeck near Eitorf/Siegburg about 35km from Cologne, Germany. My wife, daughter and I climbed up to the castle through the cold, clammy fog and spent over an hour climbing around the ruins, discovering medieval graffiti carvings, 500 year old scorch damage and thinking about D&D a lot!!! From what I remember, the Archbishop of Cologne had a whole series of castles and strongholds that used to communicate via light flashes and could get messages around the whole region within a few minutes using that system. Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Probably the most awesome D&D inspirational location I have been to. Descend straight downwards via switchback trails...go when few other tourists are around and half-close your eyes and imagine drow peeking around the stalactites. Smell the bat guano and sit outside the main cavern entrance at dusk when the bats take flight. Think about what it would be like to have to climb down into the cavern with just a rope, a torch and your sword to keep you company....faint dripping of water, distant hollow voices, fantastic natural scenery...one of my favorite places in the world. Four Corners area--Shiprock, Mesa Verde, San Juan Mountains--you go from a "Dark Sun" stark desert with monumental vistas and rock formations up into pine-forest mountains. Cliff-dwellings, primeval forests. The Durango-Silverton railroad trip made me think of the Misty Mountains and stone-hurling giants (maybe because it was thundering at the time.) Tangier, Morocco--I didn't play D&D yet when I visited there with my family when I was a little kid, but the narrow streets, street vendors, stalls, white washed buildings, camels, throngs of humanity, the exotic smells, the yelling hagglers, the snake charmers and sword swallowers sent to entertain the gawking European visitors, the harbor...I still remember it clearly. The "Hexenbaum" in the Nutscheid Forest on a ridge overlooking my old hometown of Waldbroel, Germany--an ancient oak tree rumored to have been used to hang witches back in the 17th century (probably not true, but scary enough for a 10 year old). My friends and I used to bicycle up there just around dusk...to stand there and touch the witch's tree as the sun disappeared and the dark forest got even darker...to ride home as fast as our legs could with only our little bicycle dynamo powered lights...the shadows playing tricks on your mind and imagining wart covered hags chasing us all the way back home.....
Does the protection from evil spell and similar effects only provide protection against creatures with the evil subtype (such as evil outsiders, etc), blackguards and evil clerics or does it work against any creature with an evil alignment? I searched the core books and couldn't find a clear rule on this. Can anyone tell me where the rule is or enlighten me? Thanks in advance!
I'm a bit stressed for time and could use a little suggestion or pointer. I have all Dungeon issues from #83 on and I need an idea for a good swamp adventure for 10th level characters. My party is getting ready to hit the Vast Swamp south of the County of Sunndi and I want to have something on the back burner in case they turn in an unexpected direction.
This may have been requested before, but here it goes: Since Paizo can publish non-OGL material and WotC proprietary material , how about comprehensive encounter tables including creatures from Dragon, Dragon compendiums and all the WotC proprietary monster manuals included in a future issue or series of issues? THAT would totally kick ass, because encounter tables that incorporate non-OGL material now are severely lacking. I really enjoyed the d8/d12 system by terrain type and climate that was presented in 1st edition MMII.
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