Sean_Powell's page

Hello,

For unrelated reasons I was looking at the Shield Augmentation when I noticed something odd.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1430

There are numerous methods to modify shields—snarling rods to catch weapons, bladed edges, padding for nonlethal strikes, and so on—but all share basic functionality. A shield augmentation can be etched with weapon runes, much like a shield boss or shield spikes, but doesn't otherwise alter your shield's statistics. ***A shield bearing an augmentation can't be combined with an attached weapon, like shield spikes.***

A shield augmentation grants your shield one or more weapon traits, chosen when the augmentation is created. You can either choose to add the ***backswing or forceful*** trait, or you can choose two of the following weapon traits: disarm, nonlethal, shove, thrown 10 feet, trip, or ***versatile S.***

Which makes me ask "If you don't have a shield Boss/Spikes, what are you giving the Backswing, Forceful, or Versatile trait to?" Would those only be applicable to specialty or magic shields that already have a damage type. Ie. Throwing Shield could be made Versatile (S) instead of just (B)? That seems a rather specific limitation to not just say so.

I found nothing in the FAQ, Errata or rest of the Forum to address this topic.

Thank you,
Sean

Hello,
I've been listening to Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series and focusing on the "Guards! Guards!" chain of novels and it REALLY makes me want to run a players-as-cops campaign where the first reaction on seeing someone with a drawn weapon isn't to open with fireball and follow-up with frenzied barbarian. Unfortunately everything I've ready about AoE has convinced me that the authors didn't achieve this but it's more of a "hack and slash, loot the corpses, why does the dungeon look like a city street?" game.

Is it worth trying to edit the AP into something where clues matter, reputation with informants matters, social interactions with NPCs matter and following the law (at least when you might get caught) matters? Or is it easier to ditch it all and start from scratch?

Or is there maybe a different AP (even in 1E or that game with 2 Ds in the title that shall not be mentioned) that would be easier to rebuild?

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

I'm hoping to pick up more GMing time at the local game store. I like to run longer campaigns with reoccurring villains and have characters tied to the campaign setting (I miss PF1 and the campaign traits)

Pathfinder Wiki has good lists for which games make up the Pallid Ruins plot arc or the Absalom Arc but about year 4 no one was updating the metaplot tags. I can guess some connections like Dacilane Academe, Arc Lord, Equal Exchanges and Godsrain but others are only obvious AFTER playing the scenario. (which doesn't do me much good)

Has anyone put together or know of a list of Metaplot Arcs that extend to the current season (year 6)? All I am finding are 10 year old lists from PF1. I'd like to propose a series of scenarios where players can experience major connected plot points all with the same character.

Thank you

There's an overview map in the 1e adventure The Harrowing, which I learned about from reading this post in the We Play in a Society blog.

Charlie,

Thank you! That's REALLY helpful to my visual brain.

Sean

Hello,

We are about to start Book 2 chapter 3 and enter the realm of Harrowed Stories (Which I'm referring to our game as the Story realm because it kept getting confused with the Harrow Court)

There is a good description of the Harrowed Realm on page 48 and specific cards will bring them directly to specific locations but if the party travels overland (which they have to do to reach the Fallen Fortress) there is nothing to serve as a guide.

Does someone have a map of the Harrowed Realm they can share? Even if its their own personal scribble?

Thanks,
Sean

If you pick the first level champion feat, Faithful steed, you can select Legchair (grand bazaar) as your steed. Technically it says that

Quote:

Your companion is a strange creature, akin to a chair with bestial legs.

but nobody would probably mind if those legs stand on the slides of the rocking horse, at least it's closer to what you're looking for than a horse.

THAT IS BRILLIANT!!!! Leg chair = rocking chair = rocking horse. No stat or performance change, just what a chair looks like! You may friend are a GENIUS!!!!

I'm currently playing a remastered poppet champion. I'd like him to have a mount. Generally a little fat shaggy icelandic pony that I guide around with a carrot on a fishing pole and it's little legs go pitter-patter-pitter-patter instead of clop-clop-clop. A player asked me why I wasn't riding a rocking horse and I don't know if I could. If it was a home game I think a GM would gladly re-skin but for a society game I don't want to break any rules.

Is there a way to get a poppet (or maybe an automaton?) as a mount? Or is there any way to apply a poppet/automaton modifier to a mount?

Thanks in advance.

Executive summary: Soldier just doesn't feel like playing a soldier should when at the table. Soldier wants to be a Str/Dex class. Solarian wants to be a Con Kineticist with the elements of Light (fire), Gravity, Steel & Earth (matter), radiation (air). That would be a LOT more in line with Pathfinder compatibility.

I understand what Paizo was trying to do with Soldier but I don't think it works. The character isn't engaging. I've played 2 games now with a Human Action-hero using a machinegun at level 1 and 5. My thoughts is that the character just doesn't feel like the walking tank that they are supposed to be. The suppressive fire is 'neat' but but functionally it's a secondary ability.

Combat is like:
Roll Initiative and [Warning Spray]. DM makes 3 saves and player subtracts 6 rounds of ammo.

Round 1: (14 bullets remaining)

1 of the bag guys has beaten you with initiative. 50% that they were suppressed from 25ft to 15ft of movement. Of that 50% that it slows them down enough that they lose 1 action charging you. 0% chance that they care if they now move and use a ranged or AOE like 'screeching wail' or something.

Maneuver to get the bad guys in a cone and then 2 actions for auto-fire with 1 primary target. 6 rounds of ammo gone for the autofire, and 1 for the ranged attack. Player rolls 1d20 to strike and 1d10 for damage. Trained not expert in weapon and Dex is 2nd highest stat. 50% chance of rolling d8+no_stat for 4.5 damage. Meanwhile GM rolls 3d20 for saves.

Bad guys move an attack as best their speed allows. Everyone is trained in their armor. Everyone took enough dex that their allowed armor max dex is their dex so everyone HAS THE SAME AC. (Really, unless you are a low dex character without armor, everyone has the same AC) 50% chance you are hit for trivial damage.

Round 2: (7 bullets remaining)

1 action move because a player ran into your cone of fire?
2 action Auto-fire again and 1 primary target. DM rolls 2 to 3 saves. Player rolls d20 and 1d8 for damage. Odds are that if the player hit round 1 they missed round 2 so player has rolled 3 dice to the GMs 6

Soak some damage.

Round 3a: (2 bullets remaining)
2 attacks with MAP and secondary stat with no stat bonus damage. (Why am I using a ranged weapon in melee? Because they don't have reactive strike and my backup is a knife. There isn't even a bayonet option)

Soak some damage.

Round 3b or 4: (0 bullets remaining)
2 action reload (because you took warning spray). Make 1 attack with secondary stat and no stat bonus to damage.

Rounds later: Grab machinegun by the muzzle and beat foes with a club. Oh look d6+Strength damage! With a Str of +2 it does MORE damage than a spray of 7.62mm ammo for $0 in ammo.

Results:

Player has suppressed targets 3 times. First time those that failed used a ranged attack instead. Those with strike penalties may have switched to AOE if it was an option. Player has made 3 strikes at full map and 1 at -5. A pathfinder ranger would have flurried arrows all over the place. A pathfire gunslinger would have gotten off more shots.

DM has rolled 9 saves to the players 4 strikes. The player is stacking dice out of boredom.

The Envoy has ended the fight faster because they debuffed the targets AC, not movement. The Vesk Solarian is annoyed because they had to waste a move going out to the target because the target was too slow to get to the party. The damage reduction from de-buffing the oppositions strike is 50% of 5%. Mostly it just messed with the GMs action economy on round 1 and then everything that wanted to be in melee was.

Player is out 20 credits of their 150 starting credits and can expect to burn through that much each combat. Players AC is no better than the trained of the rest of the party so as long as no one in the party dropped or changed actions to avoid dropping it doesn't matter who took the damage. Mystic transfers that much vitality to whomever and the game continues.

Suggestions:
As a player I would MUCH rather make 4 rolls against a targets reflex save to suppress them than ask the GM to make 4 reflex saves against my class DC. Numerically it's the same but game involvement it's very different. Also I can hero-point my rolls but not his.

Con really DOESN'T help in combat, it allows combat to go longer when the objective is to achieve victory faster. Unless CON bonus can be applied to wearing armor without getting tired, without suffering dex to AC and Dex to skills penalties there is no reason to wear heavier armor than dex allows. Unless Con can be applied to strike or damage rolls all it does is up the class DC for the oppositions saves.

Make Solarian a Kineticist Give them Con. Operatives are Dex, Fine make Soldiers Strength AND tweek it so strength is more important for ranged weapons.

Use Strength to offset some armor Max Dex and Move penalties so soldiers can wear heavier armor. Use Strength to offset some MAP from high recoil weapons so they hit more often rather than do more damage (now that's an interesting juxtaposition melee fighters but it makes fighters less Dex dependent). Have soldiers make ranged suppress rolls like intimidate works so the players are involved. For action heros allow them to spray in UP TO a 90 degree cone to give them more flexibility to not hit party members. Maybe cap number of targets sprayed by Strength stat.

Suppressing a target is not dissimilar to a feint, Bon-Mot or Intimidate. It really deserves to be an option used in select circumstances. Also, much like Paladin retributive strike, targets who are mindless or unaware of the power of modern weapons shouldn't cower from being hit. Targets should have the OPTION to take damage rather than be debuffed.

Those are my thoughts. I'm gonna play an operative next game. Or maybe a Solarian.

I ended up taking a quick stab at a remix, trying to bring out more of that investigative, city-crawling kinda feel - it's definitely pretty rough since I ran this chapter before remixing it haha, but if anyone has yet to run it I hope this is helpful! And if you do try it, let me know how it goes! https://weplayinasociety.blogspot.com/2023/09/stolen-fate-chapter-1-remix.h tml

Thank you for the suggestions! I'm starting this AP on Saturday and was concerned how the influence system would work, especially with the party on a time table. I like your solution. I'll try it and post my feedback here.

Hello,

I start running this for my group on Saturday. If everyone shows for night 1 we will have 6 players in an AP intended for 4. Someplace in the AP I remember it talking about how to increase the difficulty without getting crazy. Since all but 1 of the players are running fresh built characters I expect there to be fumbling about which ability to use and how so I don't want to over do it and TPK on the first combat.

Can anyone point to where it talks about how to increase the difficulty? Or is there a standard formula for additional characters in all APs?

Thanks in advance.

In the blog post about the field test Thurston Hillman wrote that the devs were interested of adding a Xenometric Android as a versatile heritage in future products. So both of them will be available waiting some time.

I’m not able to link it, but it was on the first page of comments

Someone linked to the thread on Reddit. I'm sharing it here to close the loop. Thank you for your help.

https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sih6?Field-Test-3-That-Cantina-Fe el#9

I'm very much interested in a SF 2ed because I enjoy playing 'crossover' type games because of the fish out of water amusement factor but also because myself and other local players sometimes remember a rule X but it was only X in a different system.

I was looking through the Field test and reading the Android race. There is no longer an option for Xenometric Android which I feel is disappointing as I had androids figure heavily in a home campaign (A BBG was vat-growing Androids to mimic specific politicians and industry leaders to take over a company -> country -> planet -> system -> universe -> Multiverse.)

Anyway, the thought hit that Paizo missed the opportunity for Android to be a Versatile Heritage like Tiefling or Oread. Androids are not written as breeding with any other races BUT all sentient races that trade technology above a certain point would be capable of creating androids in their own image. If versatile heritages exist because they intermingle with other races then it's not particularly logical for Elves to create an android to mimic an elven tiefling and if they did in all likelihood the tiefling features would be cosmetic or addressable with 'adopted ancestry'.

I understand that Paizo needed to make their Starfinder android compatible with their Pathfinder android (Which is GREAT!) and they probably didn't consider the option of a human-android in Numeria might actually be the only yasoki-android from the original crash. Missed opportunity. The benefit to Android as a variable heritage is that each time a (non construct) intelligent races is added to the Starfinder universe the Android doesn't need to be errataed for a new xenometric form. There might even be androids of privative races that can not create their own if other sentients wanted to send observers/infiltrators without disclosing their existence.

Before I attempt to homebrew an Android Versatile Heritage and try to make it as close as possible to the 2E remastered Android Heritage when applied to a Human, has anyone:

1. Previously done this and I'm wasting my time?
2. Got any suggestions?
3. Got any watch outs?
4. Want to help?

Thanks in advance.

Hello. I'm coming to this late and I want to say that your map is an AWESOME tool for someone not deeply familiar with all of the nations of Golarion.

A feature to consider for the future (and I don't even know if it's possible) might be an overlay for languages and an overlay for primary religions and maybe one for races. Every nation has a primary language and additional languages commonly spoken which is great if you start with the nation but not if you want to know where certain languages are spoken. Likewise we can guess where you will find worshipers of Asmodeus as the primary religion but where is he the 2nd or 3rd most common god? And where would you expect to find large concentrations of Dwarves or Gnolls or Orcs in the general population.

This might be more information than you are capable of storing or sharing but I did want to get the idea out there in cases it was as simple as a lookup table for colored regions.

Thank you for listening and thank you for your great map!

I too would have preferred to see more Kellid/Barbarian interactions and more Technic-league then just gas-wizards who had left the league that no one was supposed to be able to leave or the occasional spy. Honestly they could have replaced the middle 2 books with encounters in the barbarian land EXACTLY BECAUSE the Technocracy doesn't go there, thus giving the PC's something to discover that the Technocracy hadn't. Casandalee could have set herself of as a barbarian princess and worker of great magics as she could taught the tribesmen not only how to defeat robots but how to use their technology against the league (by mounting the heavy guns on the backs of dinosaurs)

Unfortunately 'The Dominion of the Black' really won't appeal to my players that much and it doesn't leverage my best DMing abilities either...

Oh well, maybe I'll write something and send it in or post in online.

Sean

I misunderstood Hardness in the beginning as well. I assumed it was like DR and ran them that way. Honestly, treating the robots as DR/Admanmtium is not the end of the world and it encourages the party to find ways to do things other than hit it with a big hammer. (Our lead fighter used a 2-handed crow-bar as her preferred weapon).

I don't remember the collector robot being a tough fight. I think someone magic-missiled it to death. The fight with Haetuth however was almost a TPK.

What this AP needs…

So despite being in Pathfinders generic world I started by describing Torch similar to an old-west boom-town with prospectors searching the hills for nuggets of tech and then refining it at the torch. Bars have saloon doors, the Silver Disk gambling hall had slot machines, pistols at noon is a way to settle disputes and the honor of a man can be found in the size of his hat. The barbarian tribes are somewhat Native American and the Technocracy would pass for ‘dirty businessman’ in any spaghetti western.

It transitioned really well into Scrapwall and Mad-Max on horseback.

I’m running ‘Choking Tower’ right now and am really under-enthusiastic about it. Idenveigh is largely Amish in flavor but the players found the well too quickly so all of that RP went out the window. Once they do the Aurora I’m really not that impressed with the choking tower itself. I can see why others thought to shorten it. I get who the Dominion of the Black is and their connection but I honestly doubt that my party will make the connection. Honestly the entire campaign seems like chasing 1 McGuffin to the next with no clue as to WHY it should be done…

So I want to do something fun in the middle and I was trying to think what would go well with Cowboys and Aliens in a world of Wizards and Paladins… Until it hit me! Dinosaurs! This game is missing DINOSAURS! Barbarians riding dinosaurs! Barbarians riding cyber-dinosaurs with laser-cannons!

Oh come on, you know that’s exactly what this AP needs. It’s already so off-the wall that we can add Thundar the Barbarian and the Herculoids without disturbing a thing.

So, where in the AP would it be best to add Barbarians on Cyber Dinosaurs?

(Sorry, can't remember spelling of twon that starts the 3rd chapter)

Party has defeated Hellion and recovered Kulgaras notes and someone else's notebook. Thy have put together the heavy handed plot that there is a 2nd AI out there and a major one underneath Silvermount. Part of the party idea is to trade the info to the Technic league for freedom or at least beneficial treatment of Torch. It's not truely stupid. The idea is "Unity is too powerful for us. If we can get the technic league and unity to fight each other we can defeat the survivors afterwards."

I need a wandering encounter with the technic league that casts them in a very bad light. I'm thinking of encountering the destroyed remain of a barbarian encampment and portraying it like an Indian encampment after Custers arm has come through... But I also want the party to be able to do something about it.

Any ideas?

Sean

Hello,

Please excuse me if this has been answered but I don't frequent these forums often and haven't seen an answer in any of the threads that a search function pulled up.

I'm building a summoner to replace an arcanist who got killed to a point well past resurrection last game session. As such the DM is allowing me to come in with new equipment. I am aware of the magic item slot conflict where a summoner can not wear a belt of +2 dex and the Eidolon can not also wear a belt of +2 Str.

There is also the game balance question of what happens to X when the Eidolon is banished and do you need to spend a few rounds getting your Eidolon dressed each time he is summoned.

BUT there is also the "Inscribe Magic Tattoo feat" which includes the info:
"Magic tattoos must be placed on a part of the body normally able to hold a magic item slot, but they do not count against or interfere with magic items worn on those slots. A single slot can only hold one magical tattoo"

Which seems to me that a if a summoner could wear a +2 dex belt and have a +2 con waist tattoo then he could take off his belt and the Eidolon could wear a +2 Str belt. Furthermore it's logical that the process could be reversed and the Eidolon could just get a +2 Str Tattoo in a band around it's midsection or a +1 protection tattoo around a finger/claw/digit?

Is there a hard ruling on this in either direction?
Have I interpreted the rules correctly as written?
Does this introduce a game-balance issue?
Should we extrapolate that a summoner may not have a waist tattoo and the Eidolon also have a waist tattoo (and that the summoners over-rides as per magic item rules)?

If nothing else it makes for a VERY interesting summoner who has the feat, buys the scrolls and has a VERY tattooed Eidolon.

Thanks,
Sean

I spent a ton of time on the arena in my Roll20 campaign, i plastered a ring around the arena floor with post apocalyptic scenes from movies and art, including the crazy crowd from the Star Trek TNG in the Q trial, a War Rig covered in War Boys, and the Coma-Doof Warrior. Helskarg's chariot as the land pirate ship from Ice Pirates.

My party killed both ogres and Helskarg in one round. :(

eakratz,

I don't suppose you might want to share your map? I'm prepping for the arena fight next and my home-built arenas look crappy. Most are far to Roman Colosseum and not nearly enough Mad Max.

Sean14powell (at) gmail

In my campaign I ruled the chainsaw as both an exotic AND an improvised weapon. While a chainsaw is a deadly device it's just not well balanced or comfortable for fighting. You can't switch your grip like you would on an axe without releasing the trigger. It's designed for a left hand high and perpendicular grip which is awkward for right handed fighter. The 'hilt' is a kickback guard that shuts the blade off. Some of these can be kludged around but that makes it more improvised, not less.

Also I have a fighter who specializes in improvised weapons who normally wouldn't use it because of the noise, energy consumption etc but by making it improvised she won't suffer nearly as much giving up weapon focus and weapon specialization to use it.

YMMV

You could BUT the campaign isn't written that way. Sanvil is a schemer but he works for the Technic league.His job is to remind the players that some friends are enemies. (and flip side, the skulks or even Mayenda can be played that some enemies are friends). For Sanvil to be a reoccurring villain, he needs to show up in Scrapwall which isn't difficult but if he figures out what Hellion is and what he is doing he would logically run off to warn the league. Then he has to follow the party to Choking Tower which makes even less sense unless he is simply heading up a technic posse to hunt them down. It's not a bad plan, just not the way it was written.

My party saved Sanvil and I used him as a cowardly informant in Scrapwall. He knows that since he failed, if he ever goes back to the league he's a dead man so it behooves him to lay low in scrapwall for a while. That let me control party access to the market and decide what they could and couldn't buy or trade for. I found that there was a lack of details on that and Sanvil did a good job filling it in my campaign.

If you are the DM:

Heck, after the death of an android I have a player coming in as a Kasatha. You think Orcs would get treated poorly? Try growing an extra set or arms!

Sean

I did some hand-waving and pulled up the rules for cooperative item creation. It's presumed that the person with the item creation feat has spellcraft and are hiring the services of a spellcaster but no where does it say that this HAS to be the order. The party Arcanist is providing most of the magic and the spell-craft skill checks while Dinvaya is providing the feats. This works well because the party can't out-strip their own abilities and purchase items higher than their level can create.

As of now most of their purchases have been making MW weapons +1 or a belt/headband of +2 to stat. They have traded a bunch of heavy crap into the local economy (splinted armor, falchions, etc) for components but Dinvaya held out for 'the good stuff' in trade. She got the Neural Inhibitor and the Auto-Grapnel. When the party gets to the arena Dinvaya will be on a palanquin carried by 4 junk golems, 2 of which will be armed with those weapons. :)

Thanks all for the advice!

Hello,

The party is in Scrapwall and having a great time. They met Dinvaya Friday night and made decent friends before going back to Hawks Roost where they have set up camp after killing Birdfood and a bunch or Orcs (and essentially hiring Sevroth and the Steel Hawks to back them up)

The players are noticing that they all have Masterwork weapons and some neat tech but it's high time some of them had a little more magic. They were talking about heading to Chessed to buy and sell and get gear enchanted, then I noticed Dinvaya has Craft Magic Arms and Armor, and Craft Wondrous Item. Cool! A little barter to get her the parts for her improved junk golems and she can upgrade weapons easy peasy...

...except She doesn't have Spellcraft as a skill. Is this a typo? How does one become a spelcaster, even a cleric, without at least a few ranks is spellcraft? Or is this intentional so she only works on items that Craft: Clockwork, Craft: Sculpture, and Knowledge Engineering apply to?

I will probably ret-con this in my game unless smeone strongly believes it will alter game balance too much.

Thanks,
Sean

Depends what effort you put into describing Silver-Disk hall when they visited earlier. I made mine a slot-machine casino where players could play in silver, gold or disks. There was also a nightly 'battle-bots' betting pool with a bot made by Garrit Burwaddle was the reigning champion. To keep the games 'fair' there was a 'witch' dressed all in white with a veil scouting for anyone using magic down below. (possibly Jhestine Imierin in disguise? The party never found out.) Slot machines dump their big winnings down a chute if someone pulls a panic switch.

Remember, you also have the ability to use tech for a defense and probably should. At a minimum a good gambling hall should have some for of detect magic and other magical defenses. Glyphs of warding are a personal favorite. You could introduce your players to grenades early if they lift up the chest a sphere with blinking lights rolls past their feet. Surprisingly Dogs are probably one of the best defense against disguise self spells as they will tune in on scent and command words. A couple of off-duty rope-fist thugs should be around at all times as well.

Either way the payout shouldn't be too great. If Garmin was sitting on a great fortune he wouldn't need to take jobs from scary purple-haired women. Also if he could afford better than a Master-work weapon he would have bought it. I personally wouldn't make the hall worth much more than Garmin has on himself and I'd probably select a guard (with dog), a mechanical/technological trap and a magical trap with a CR that is about equal to defeating Garmin a second time.

I need help crafting an ‘out of body experience’ for a character. Our Android Rogue died to a critical hit from a wandering Gearsman while the party rode to Aldronards Grave. He was saved with a Cardio-Amp and spent the next day in a coma before the party traveled on. I want to use the incident for plot development BUT I’ve only read to the end of Lords of Rust and skimmed Choking Tower. I don’t yet know how Unity is or isn’t working with the technique league in Silver Mount or the exact role Casandalee plays later. I understand from other threads that Unity is working on Techno enhanced gargoyles but no other details. Could any DM’s with more adventure path knowledge proof this for me? I want to give a lot of confusing symbolism that will encourage further investigation without giving the answers away.

“Death isn’t supposed to look or feel like this. Death is just an end. It’s supposed to feel like nothing. It definitely isn’t supposed to be floating in blackness surrounded by stars. Is that what happens to androids who are killed instead of re-booting? Do androids float in empty space while humans travel to their various heavens?

Then again no one ever said anything about riding on the back of a giant beetle with drill-bits for legs through space and how is it walking forward if there is nothing to stand on?

The beetle looks up at the sky and you see a face on its forehead. Gears turn and the race rotates until it looks at you. A strange feminine voice surrounds you with one word. “Learn”.

Space is replaces with a light so bright it has flavor and a noise so loud it can be smelled. The light fades to mist and in the distant mist you see a wounded wolf trapped in a metal web and tortured by metal spiders. The wolf grows wings but they are bent and misshapen. It cannot fly away from its web and the spiders continue to bite. The wolf belches forth a white egg with turns into a swan and flies away to hide behind a wall of antlers. Again the wolf tries and belches forth a black egg after the swan but it turns into a black scorpion and also runs away. Then the winged wolf belches forth a rock which stays. The wolf kicks and scratches at the rock and with each swipe rock is removed showing metal beneath but the spiders continue to bite. The metal rock breaks and the wolf tries again and again, each time making a larger rock with more metal but each time failing to create the thing it desires.

The scorpion crawls into a hole. When it emerges it resembles a horned demon with a scorpion tail. The demon sneaks up behind the winged wolf and past the spiders. A shadow follows in the demons wake. The wolf is far larger but with one sting the wolf dies and is replace by the scorpion tailed demon. The shadow covers the spiders which stop attacking the demon and instead spread out across the land carrying shadows with them. The rocks grow arms, legs and wings, free the demon from the web and the shadows become infinite blackness.

The blackness appears to be the reflective surface of a giant beetle with drills for legs and a human face in its head. The face speaks again. “This must not happen. Go back. You have use.” Pain stabs into your chest and for the first time since wonder what death is you feel the very painful first beat of a heart.

You awaken on your back in the countryside north of Torch. Someone has peeled back your armor and Gemi has stabbed you in the chest with a syringe. You try to speak but only manage a feeble “Ouch” before falling back into a darkness that is decidedly not death and much more sleep.”

Thanks in advance,
Sean

I love how different DM's run this module and different ways in which players de-rail it.

Easiest solution would have been to not allow them to track the power or for it to be pointing towards the ground or the eruption point of the torch itself. Too late there.

2nd easiest is for them to search the warehouse and not find the transmitter. 3rd is find it but not be able to turn it off without a white key-card. This does risk them destroying it with main force however.

If they do find it and turn it off it could be conveniently stolen while they are looking for Kohnir. There could be a number of false leads like "Why is Garrit Burwaddle so interested in scrap technology?" and "Why were so many rope-fist thugs lurking around the town council hall right before it was stolen?" or "Someone saw a purple haired women lurking around the town council hall". Now they need to find who kidnapped Kohnir AND who stole (and turned the transmitter back on).

Then move it to a different warehouse or under silver-disk hall. It gets them back on track easiest. If they destroy the McGuffin transmitter then they still need to rescue Kohnir, stop Meyenda, re-start the torch, and avoid complications with Sanvil Trent and Garmin Ulreth. Instead of using the transmitter to lead the party to Scrapwall the details will all have to come from Meyenda and/or the scrapwall fanatics.

So, We are getting back to our Iron-gods campaign which runs alternately with Mummy Mask so the DM's don't burn out. We hit a snag in Mummy-Mask and I'm looking at Oron Gods and wondering if we are about to hit the same snag again.

The only arcane caster in 'Lords of Rust' is Marrow. That means that there is only 1 spell book and if I'm anticipating things properly the party probably won't take out the Smilers until just before making a final move on Hellion.

Has anyone thought of any way to balance the treasure for book-based arcane casters? With every new character class introduced it seems that old-fashioned wizards get more and more under-represented in campaigns and players with characters which require spell-books get burned as a result.

End result was the party engaged poorly and without a plan. The melee fighters got to it before the casters could hit it with AOE. It was almost a TPK. I had to have a NPC who was fighting the other gearsmen bail them out with a trip to keep it down while they pummeled on it.

First round of combat nat 20 to hit the rogue, nat 20 to confirm crit and near max damage on all dice with the crit was not an auspicious start. At least the party knows what a Cardioamp does now.

Hmmm. I don't want to give the party Meyendas pistol, and then a TW laser pistol before they even get to Alderonds grave. The "No looting integrated weapons" is already partially broken as I allowed one character to scavenge a net-gun and re-mount it on a rifle stock... but I don't have a logical reason why a Gearman would have a primitive ranged weapon like a crossbow.

Of well I may just have him throw rocks or something. If the party is smart enough to try and kill him from range then they deserve the rewards from being smart.

Hello,

I need to kill time with my party while they are heading to Alderons grave and Scrapwall, plus I won't have the full party. I was thinking that a wandering encounter with 2 gearsmen and a pack of ghost-wolves barbarians would be a good mix. It gives them a combat and a roll-play when the (wounded) ghost wolves are suspicious of their technology.

The only ranged attack a gearsman has is throwing it's spear... That's kind of a crappy way to build a robot IMHO. I'd like to make their cyclopean eye the equivalent of a laser pistol. I was also debating giving it a +2 strike bonus for a full round action (if it stands still).

I have skimmed "Choking Tower" and am re-reading "Lords of Rust" but have gotten no further. I know that Gearsmen figure heavily in later modules... Am I going to screw things up with this addition? Is there a reason Gearsmen don't have ranged weapons?

Thanks,
Sean

IMHO it isn't necessary but it could be fun, especially as it results in characters knowing each other before Torch. Other than the 1 or 2 who know Kohnir and may therefore have met each other in the past it can some times be difficult to convince players that wandering into a deadly situation that not even the town guards will attempt without railroading them into the plot.

Also IMHO I don't think you necessarily need to give the players better equipment for dealing with Hetuath. It's not like he is DR10/magic only. He just happens to have a high damage output from dual wielding. A few bad rolls can end a character quickly. The only item that might be useful for Hetuath would be a holy-grenade that stuns him or causes him to loose actions. And odds are that players would used them against the earlier undead anyway.

I'm kind of with impureascetic adn Solomani on this one. I dislike red herrings when I'm trying to build a story. As we only play 4 hours once per week and alternate DM's AND adventure paths at the end of books, it's easy for players to get distracted. This was a missed opportunity to deal with the technic league in an area of Numeria where they don't have control. Honestly I think the whole book needs a re-write.

At the moment, using an 1&2=man vs machine but 3&4=man vs alien I'm thinking of having an immortal alien who remembers the divinity crash and maybe knows a few things about Casandalee, Hellion and Unity... but I haven't read book 4 and am only starting to run book 2 so opinions may change.

Hetuath was almost a TPK for my party. 20 point buy, 5 players. some are optimized but hard to be very optimized at 2nd level. Everyone but the rogue/gunslinger was down. She ran. By coincidence the party had already rebooted the hologram environment so the moment Hetuath hit his desert environment he stopped and 're-died'. The other undead never never got a chance to re-spawn.

I tend to run my adventures more like a story. If it's a tough boss fight I want at least one character knocked out or low enough that they personally try to retreat. If the boss fight hasn't lasted that long then the boss suddenly gets some extra HP or does extra damage until it does. I have rarely had to downgrade bad guys but they have made tactically poor decisions of ignoring the wounded paladin and charging the caster past the rogue allowing an attack of opportunity which spread around the damage the PC's took and got more characters into the fray.

Pretty much rules 0 says The DM's word is law and all rules that follow are at the option of the DM. If a TPK happens it's because the DM allows it to happen and if the monsters are a push-over it's because the DM allowed it to happen. Some times it's not a bad decision to let the party get killed, but I find it disrupts the story.

Sorry if I'm asking simple questions. Last post for a while and probably not a specific to Iron Gods question.

Torch is listed as:
Base Value 2,400 gp; Purchase Limit 5,000 gp;
Spellcasting 3rd
Minor Items 3d4; Medium Items 1d6 (plus see areas 2,
13, 17, and 21 for more specific items)

A player has asked about the availability of a specific magic item that is within the price range. It should be a fairly commonly requested item. (like a +1 battle axe or +1 shield) and it falls (barely) within the 2,400 gp limit. I haven't been rolling random minor and medium items regularly because it's not like they have had much money to spend anyway.

Is there a guideline for availability that should be followed? I was thinking
25% + 75% * (1-(item value/base value)) for common items and
75% * (1-(item value/base value)) for uncommon items.

That means a 25gp healing potion is available 99% of the time. A +1 long sword about 26% of the time but something bizarre like a Scabbard of Vigor will also be available 25% of the time.

Does anyone have any other rule of thumb for availability or does everyone just wing it?

Thanks,
Sean

As our gunslinger is only level 3 and I need to squeeze in some random encounters before scrapwall I'm gifting her with a dozen glaucite bullets that have half the penetration power of admantine. I figure that between that and the inferno pistol (which I retconned to take charges from batteries not nanites) she will have some options until she is adding Dex to damage and rolling for all attacks and combining them into a single shot. As it happens she is a tech-slinger (And we have a cool background including a technic league assassin who killed her father to take the laser rifle back to the league and is not a recurring villain hunting her) so I suspect she will be using the inferno pistol more anyway.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Sean_Powell wrote:

Hello,

I like to add 1d4 spells per spell level.

Beyond that, are there any spells you think they should have that they don't already?

As I don't have the arcanist spell book in front of me that would be hard to say. I think they have gone the entire FoC without realizing that robots are vulnerable to electricity. It might come up if one of them actually decides to try a knowledge engineering check on a robot before attacking it (or it attacking them). I'm tempted to slip in an electricity spell to see if they find it through trial and error.

Mostly I was looking for guidelines. It seemed cheesy for a wizard or magus to only have the spells that they have memorized and all of the cantrips.

Honestly 1d4 seems high for the highest level and insufficient for low levels... but it appears that there isn't a guideline for DM's so I'm good with faking it.

Hello,

Just finished FoC. Party wizard has Sanvils spell-book and is on very good terms with Kohnir to the point where he can probably copy spells. The adventure path does a good job of saying what spells they have memorized at the time but now what other spells they may have in their spellbooks? Any advice on how to flesh it out? I don't want to give out too much or too little. By my understanding there will be limited opportunities to buy scrolls or similar in scrapwall so the players really need to be prepared before going (or take a detour to Chessed)

Thanks in advance,
Sean

Could be. There is a cross-over ammunition, the Minié ball. It is bullet shaped with rings to engage rifle barrels when the hollow back is expanded by the gunpowder but before shooting it's smaller size makes it easy to muzzle load. To the best of my knowledge you can shoot minié balls out of anything that can be muzzle loaded.

The Minié ball is circa American civil war or 1861 while musket balls are more rev-war in 1775 and the 3 Musketeers is 1660-ish. D&D guns are post musketeer matchlocks but I suppose minié balls are just too late an adaptation, especially as a saboted round.

Still, Glaucite is much more common in Numeria than pure admantine. It's only 3 times as expensive to make things from glaucite rather than 61 times for admantine. Glaucite is as hard as steel and as dense as lead. Admantine bullets do exist in the rules. Seems that Glaucite balls are about the only useful thing you could make from the material (other than wanting a strong as steel space-ship hull that is as dense as lead to protect against space radiation or that some how needs the mass for artificial gravity, both of which are possible reasons for it to be used to build starships.)

Ok, the down side to being an engineer is the brain starts thinking about stuff like this and won't stop. My party is finishing "Fires of Creation" tomorrow and I want to give them some rewards other than: Here is 400K, split it and spend it. We have a gunslinger in the party who was very ineffective against a robot and the gargoyle because she couldn't break it's DR. (not like you can power-attack with a pistol)

I noticed the following: Glaucite is only as hard as steel. Glaucite is 150% the weight of steel which makes it a hair denser than lead. Glaucite can be shaped once the torch is turned back on. Firing a steel bullet in a primitive gun is dangerous because of imperfect fit BUT a lead jacketed round would function the same as a solid lead round. (Not a musket ball but a shaped bullet)

So, I'm thinking that without changing the weight of the projectile an intelligent gunsmith could make a 'lead jacketed sharpened glaucite core' projectile that would mushroom and act similar to regular projectile on soft targets but would shed the lead like a sabot and the glaucite would act like a depleated Uranium tank-buster (Without the issues of radiation poison).

A solid Admantine bullet (which should score up the barrel badly but who is counting) ignored DR 20. I was thinking Glaucite bullets might be good for 5 or 10, not sure which.

What say you all? Cool idea or just a gun-nut playing D&D?

Historically speaking they should allow a Lance Arret modification to a breastplate or other solid armor as upping the damage with a lance... or maybe it's assume that's where the amage bonus comes from. The arret transmits the shock of impact into the chest rather then the arm so there is less motion to absorb impact.

Of course to be purely technical rider strength only matters I the abdomen, not arm when jousting with an arret. It's probably a special enough case for DM's to just wing it within the campaign though.

Sean

Zhayne (nice Icon BTW, playing a kitsune?) I understand it affects a spell not a feat but the point was a lot of metamagic feats are only useful to small sets of spells. Even if a sorcerer concentrates on kaboom type spells he may not take any 2nd level AOE spells or no fire spells or something else. That means especially at low levels metamagic feats may only apply to 1 or 2 spells in an arsenal.

Scavion. Interesting. I hadn't gone through to see which spells had the force descriptor. tripping magic missiles could be very effective but the game would be boring if everyone did. MM tends to be the only first level combat spell used at higher levels. Sleep and Color Spray usually don't affect high enough hit dice and if a blaster is intentionally getting close enough for touch or burning hands spells then they are likely a drain on the party cleric if not professional daisy pusher.

Net result is: I can see the benefit to magical lineage at higher levels but it essentially needs to be taken at 1st level. (and I was corrected, only 1 magic trait so it's only ever one spell. Can't take a feat to select 2 more) At an estimated 3 gaming nights per level it's 18 game-nights to hit 6th when a sorcerer gets fire-ball or burning hands might jump to 6D4. We alternate 2 campaigns to give DM's down time so 36 weeks from now, maybe 40 with some vacation time, there starts to be some return on investment.

Do people really sacrifice a trait at 1st level for a spell their character may not survive long enough to even cast?

Sean

Hello,

I'm just starting an Ifrit Sorcerer Wishcrafter in the Mummys Mask campaign setting. I've been reading all of the build guides which have been really helpful... However there is one thing I'm REALLY not getting.

It seems the master combination for sorcerer builds is to mix Magical Lineage Trait with the appropriate Meta-Magic Feat. From 6th to 10th level an Intensified burning hands is a very nice 1st level spell. But until then Intensified is a waste of a feat. Selective requires 10 Spellcraft which comes at later levels. Piercing isn't useful until higher levels when enemies have SR. Lingering has limited use. Still and Silent even more limited use. I'm not impressed with many of the others. The best combination I can see is Focused for raising the DC of 1 target in the AOE of burning hands and then picking up Intensified later... but a technical reading of the rules says that if there is only one target in the AOE it doesn't suffer a +2 DC.

BUT Unless you burn a feat for 2 more traits characters can only select Magical Lineage at 1st level.

So what's the secret? Burn 2/3rds of your feats on meta-magic and 1/3rd to get magical lineage traits? And is there any way this is useful at lower levels or just gut it out until 5th? Sorcerers get such a small selection of spells that you want to be able to make they flexible with meta-magic but it seems like players will be taking meta-magic feats that are useful with only 1 or 2 spells (and the rods are VERY expensive)

What am I missing here?
Sean