Shadowlance's page

Like the title says, I was thinking I'd give the comic a try. However, in my shopping cart it says that the shipping will be almost $4 even though I have selected to have it shipped with my monthly shipment.

Is it really going to increase the shipping amount like that or is that just the shopping cart not being able to "do the math"?

The primary advantage of this magic item is to save money. It takes a significant wizard cost (100gp per spell level) and cuts it by 90% or more. It has a place in a campaign where magic items cannot be readily purchased, but in the standard campaign it completely trivializes a significant wizard expense. So much so in fact that it is an essential item for any wizard that makes it to even mid-level.

Either the cost of scribing spells is supposed to be a balancing factor or it's not. I suggest one of two solutions....

Reduce the cost of scribing spells into a spell book to 10 gold per page (it effectively is anyway with this item in the game).

OR

Reduce the cost of the Blessed Book (2 to 5k) and remove the cost savings of scribing spells into it. It would maintain it's utility (storing many spells in a small easily carried item) but would no longer eliminate spell scribing costs.

Am I the only one that feels cheated that we didn't get any Wayne Reynolds style half-orc lovin?

Half-orcs got some nice tweaks in the PFRPG, but I fear that the lack of an half-orc iconic is going to leave them woefully underrepresented on the art side of things.

Here' an idea, since it's too late to use one of the core classes, how about an half-orc assassin for the "prestige class" iconic? We got Seltyiel for our "multi-classed" iconic so the precedent has been set...sort of.

Ok, maybe that's overselling it, but I had a thought that could actually address the problem with rules rather than the ole "DM fix it yourself".

First combat encounter after resting -20% xp.
Second combat encounter, standard xp reward.
All further encounters, +10% xp.

This does a few things...

It encourages the party to go for as long as they can.

It specifically encourages the powergamer to put off resting (there's a bonus for not resting!)

It addresses the fact that encounters at the beginning of the day are easier than ones at the end of the day (resources get depleted over the course of the day).

It rewards the book suggested amount of xp if the group fights the book suggested number of encounters each day (-20, +0, +10, +10).

Potential cons...

More work for the DM
-rebuttal: It's a trivial amount of extra work.

Could be abused if the group can reliably do well more than the intended 4 encounters a day.
-rebuttal: Some kind of bonus here is a good thing, that's the whole idea. However, if the group can reliably do significantly more than the suggested number of encounters each day, there is a probably a separate, more important, issue.

If the group insists on sticking to the "1 encounter, rest, 1 encounter, rest" they will fall behind the xp curve over the course of a campaign.
-rebuttal: With this system, resting after each encounter would be represent a poor choice and the game penalizes other bad choices so why not this one too?

So....already been suggested? Horrible idea? I'm a frickin genius? Any anyone have any thoughts?

Ok, my PC thats been doppleganger'd is using this as a chance to switch characters. I've got a chance to script a PC death...and a doppleganger thrown into the mix as well. Currently I'm planning on having the PC have been lobotimized by Telakin's device (adding a mind clone of him to Telakin's treasure) and having him just slump in his chair during the D15 encounter. I really think I could get more mileage out of it though. It's also a pretty painful exit for a character that we all liked.

Anyone have any suggestions?

This is probably more of a general question than an AoW one, but we are playing AoW so I figured I'd ask it here. My group will be growing from 4 players to 5 in the near future. The new character will be joining the keep for the 3rd adventure and, hopefully, will be there til the end.

As I understand it the campaign is designed for 4 players. Won't having 5 upset the balance? It seems that it will either put the characters behind the leveling curve, making things very difficult, or it will make all the encounters a bit too easy...since they'll have more resources to draw upon than anticipated.

Anyone have any thoughts or experiences that they'd like to share related to this? Should I increase the encounter difficulty so that the group will stay leveled up properly and continue to be challenged, or should I leave it as is and trust things to take care of themselves?