Sean Robson's page

I just wrote a review of Pathfinder Minatures: Goblin Warriors, but the review got eaten and instead, a review of Bendy Dungeon Walls that I wrote in December was put up in its place

I'm confused about how the Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer differs in content from what will appear in the upcoming hardcover Campaign Setting book. Based on the vague product descriptions it sounds as though everything in the Gazetteer will be in the campaign setting. How much, if any, of the Gazetteer will be unique and how much will be reprinted in the campaign setting?

Re: Armor Mastery (fighter class ability, pg. 12)

While I like a lot of the changes that have been made to the fighter class, I have a couple of concerns about this ability.

1) It seems to be stepping on the barbarian's toes a bit too much. I'm not sure if the other classes are going to be reimagined as the base 4 have been, and if so what they might entail, but as the classes stand right now, giving DR to the fighter (albeit not until lvl 19) makes the barbarian all the less attractive. On the other hand you could just throw in a Rage feat and do away with the barbarian class entirely, making it a type of fighter build.

2) Allowing armor to confer DR is conceptually wrong. While many rpg's use a DR system for armor (and for very good reasons) it isn't how armor has ever worked in D&D and I think it is wrong to confuse the mechanics. In D&D armor is understood to increase the wearer's AC, thereby making him harder to hit. Given this core assumption it is difficult to conceive how being an experienced armor-wearer would confer some sort of magical ability to negate damage. The earlier class ability Armor Training (pg. 11) is more consistent with the D&D rules and is a good example of how armor bonus can improve with experience within the existing framework of the ruleset.

Re: Weapon Swap feat (pg. 39)

I have some problems with this feat both conceptually and mechanically. Conceptually I have a hard time picturing whacking an opponent 'x' number of times with one hand then switching hands and whacking him 2 more times with the other. The two-weapon fighting feat is supposed to reflect the difficulty of fighting with two weapons simultaneously. Fighting exclusively first with one hand and then the other is not the same thing because you aren't actually fighting with two weapons, but making some attacks with your off-hand. This might sound like a fine distinction, but why then carry two weapons at all? You could just carry one weapon and pass it to your off hand and get a bunch of extra attacks. This just screams 'wrong' to me.

Mechanically, I think the feat is open to abuse. If, say, one were to combine it with the Monkey Grip feat (Sword and Fist), you could get two offhand attacks with your +5 Greatsword of Uberness.

With all respect this feat looks more like something I'd see on a Munchkin card than in an actual rpg. I'd definitely not allow it (I don't allow Money Grip either for that matter).

I was thinking of running a Ptolus campaign and would like to set in Golarion. Does anyone have any suggestions on where the city would fit best in the world and not conflict with anything?

I have a really cool Ethereal Marauder miniature that I want to use in an upcoming encounter, but I can't figure out how their ethereal jaunt ability is supposed to work, and was hoping someone could explain it.

The rules state that the ethereal marauder can shift from the ethereal plane to the material plane as a free action, and shift back again as a move action. Its described tactics are to locate prey, shift to the material plane and bite its prey, then retreat quickly back to the ethereal plane.

So how does anyone ever defeat it? As I understand the rules, it can shift to the material plane, attack, then shift back during its action and no one will ever get a chance to attack it. Since it is only a CR 3 creature the PC's won't have the ability to attack creatures on the ethereal plane, so its safely out of reach during the PC's actions.

I assume I've misinterpreted the rules. Does anyone know how this works?

Thanks,
Sean

Does anyone know of any website where you can download a printable blank map projection for creating campaign maps?

All I've been able to find are maps of Earth, but there must be blank projections available somewhere.

Cheers,
Sean

I was thinking the other day about the old adventure log that TSR produced back in the '80's. That was a really useful book. Is there any chance of seeing something like that from GameMastery?

What I would love to see in such a book is a "chapter" for each adventure session with a section for the PC's and their relevant abilities (hp, AC, saves, and skills such as spot that the DM sometimes needs to roll in secret for them), a section for encounters overcome (and xp awarded), a list of NPCs encountered (because I can never remember the name of that guy they met 3 sessions ago, whose name I made up on the spot, and want to go see again), and finally space for writing up an adventure synopsis.

I'm always trying to keep track of this information on pieces of paper that I can never find again for the next session, so I'd be very keen on a book like this. Would anyone else find this useful?

I just received my combat pad yesterday, and I think this will be a really useful aid at the game table - I have computer software that handles this (DM's Familiar), but I find that I don't like messing around with a computer at the game table and like a low-tech solution like this.

I do have a couple of suggestions for how to improve the combat pad if a second "edition" is ever produced:

1. My biggest complaint is that the initiative tracking box is just too small. There is room for only 10 magnets. I often play with 6 players and this doesn't leave a lot of room for NPCs, opposition forces, etc. Also the initiative hash marks on the left side only go up to 25. With a high dex and the proper feats it isn't hard to get an initiative bonus of +11 or more, so the hash marks should go to at least 30.

This can be solved by eliminating the unnecessarily large margins at the top and bottom of the pad. A full 1.5 inches is devoted to the Combat Pad label in large font. Is this really necessary? We already know it is a combat pad. Likewise, 1.25 inches at the bottom is occupied wasted by a vertically printed Open Mind Games logo in the left corner. If this were either printed horizontally or shifted to the left margin a lot of space would be saved. Combined the top and bottom margins take up 2.75 inches (25% of the entire combat pad!). Using this space to increase the length of the Initiative and Notes boxes would improve the functionality of the pad tremendously.

2. In addition to the readying and delaying bars on the right hand side, I think it would be useful to also have a refocusing bar to denote characters spending a turn to improve their initiative - there is already enough room in the right margin to include this.

3. Do the two "Next Round" magnets serve any useful purpose? When you get to the bottom of the intiative list that's the end of the round. Including a magnet to tell you so is a bit redundant, like writing "The End" on the last page of a novel.

I've just been reading over Sea Wyvern's Wake and noticed a few factual errors regarding aspects of seamanship and navigation in the adventure. If my criticisms seem overly pedantic, please forgive me - after 20 years as a naval officer I'm probably more inclined than other people to notice these things.

1. Navigating. The adventure recommends an increasing DC after each successive navigation check failure while in the open sea. This isn't realistic. It is no more difficult to recheck the ship's position after a failure than before it. I suggest keeping the DC the same regardless of previous check results. Furthermore, each character is allowed a Survival check to notice if the expedition has become lost. Any area of open sea looks exactly like any other. No one, other than the navigator, has any chance whatsoever of noticing that the ship is not on track. Before the ship sets sail the navigator plots tracks on a nautical chart from point of departure to point of arrival. The ship's position is frequently checked against these tracks to ensure that the ship is where it should be. In the open ocean, without landmarks to navigate by, the only way of doing this is by celestial navigation. This is done three times per day: the sun's position is checked at zenith (noon), and three stars are triangulated once at evening twilight, and once at morning twilight. If the sky is overcast then it isn't possible to get a fix, and you must wait until the sky clears. If overcast conditions last for several days running it is possible to get seriously off track (having been set by current and wind) and the ship could hit a shoal or seamount. Other than that there is no real danger in being off course and as soon as the weather clears the navigator can easily fix the position and get back on track. It really isn't possible for the exedition to become lost unless either the charts or the navigator's sextant are lost or destroyed. Navigating seems awfully complex to the uninitiated, but like most things in life its pretty simple once you know how.

2. Rowyn's plan to cut the rope supporting the net chair is doomed to fail. The method of transfering people between ships proposed in the adventure is called a jackstay transfer. What happens is two ships position themselves alongside one another while underway and maintain station. (This is a very tricky bit of shiphandling and should require the officer of the watch or helmsman to make a DC 15 profession (sailor) check to succeed). A heaving line is sent from the supplying ship to the receiving ship and the end of the heaving line is tied to the heavy jackstay hawser. The receiving ship hauls the hawser onboard and passes the end through a pulley attached to the mast then ties the end to a hardpoint on the deck. The supplying ship keeps the hawser in hand (not attached) so that slack can be given or taken up as need to keep the line taut during the transfer. The rope chair is attached to a pulley with two light lines attached (one end held by either ship so the chair can be pulled back and forth between the ships on the jackstay hawser). Once the evolution is complete the jackstay is disassembled and hauled back onto the supplying ships and the equipment is stowed. The adventure assumes that the equipment is left set up, which is simply not done. It is completely impractical for the ships to maintain such precise station-keeping for the duration of dinner, and the supplying end of the hawser cannot be safely tied off while the ships are under way. Any wave or gust of wind could seperate the ships, causing the hawser to part under strain, quite possibly maiming or killing crewmen on deck (decapitations have been known to occur this way). No bosun or ship's captain would ever tolerate ropes and gear lying around on deck and would require them to be stowed between evolutions. So, in fact, the jackstay will be re-established after dinner. Rowyn could cut the hawser after its been stowed in the cable locker, but this would almost certainly be noticed when the hawser is layed out on deck in prepartion for the jackstay (say DC 5 spot check to notice). Even if the crew somehow fails this check, then they will definitely notice when the hawser is passed, hand over hand to the receiving ship (DC 0). Rowyn may, indeed, attempt this, not knowing how nautical transfers are performed, but the end result will be to alert the crew to the presence of a sabateur onboard. The jackstay would be called off, and the diners transfered via ship's boat.

Of course most players will never notice the difference if you run these events as written, so you may not want to bother with my suggestions, but I can't bring myself to not run things correctly if possible.

I'm trying to place Sasserine's history into Eberron, but I'm not familiar with the Greyhawk calendar. Does anyone know what the "current" year is in Greyhawk, so I can figure out how many years ago certain events occurred? (e.g. the Scarlet Brotherhood assassinated the Sea Princes in 584 CY - how long ago was that?)