Honestly it's way less about having flight be magic only and way more about how incredibly tough it is for people who can't fly to contribute when flying is involved.
An ogre can carry a longbow, sure. But then he goes from 2d8+7 damage to 2d6 damage (also 3 less to his attack bonus), and any increase in this damage with a +str bow means also increasing the hell out of the bow's cost. Most animals can't fight in the air at all, which is generally fine because they're animals and this should be expected. Maybe in your head it's okay for ogres too. The problem is this also extends to the cavalier. Without flight, he can't fight flying enemies all that well. He may have a bow but without the feat investment in ranged combat (and he doesn't have nearly enough feats for both), his attacks will be much worse in terms of what he has to go against. Similarly, his size and armor is pretty valueless when the flying enemies can literally fly over him. Some people have noted that flying won't be a huge benefit in some environments and situations, such as low ceilings. This is true, and I agree that some classes should thrive more in certain situations. The problem is less that "wizards do better in open spaces where they can fly freely" and more "non-flying melee types can't contribute at all even a little in such spaces."
I've actually found flying to be not that much of an issue for a single low level party member, especially if they're the party's "tank." Leaving your non-flying allies behind to take to the air is pretty damming to the poor pedestrians.
A flying mount is, when you get down to it, a staple of the traditional fantasy story at the high level. When you're fighting powerful evil demons and going into new planes of existence and the like, having a horse that can keep up with you is honestly sort of silly. Imagine a horse fighting and defeating a huge dragon in single combat and it is just bizarre. At that point in the story, a fantasy style mount is just natural, and that mount really should have some sort of fantastic movement. That this is incredibly difficult to get without huge feat investment is a huge disappointment in the main. Especially when you consider that natural flight, such as that of the griffon, is a lot worse than magical flight in general. Anyway hashtag free flying mounts.
So I am DMing this adventure Path. Let me tell you, this campaign is just causing me so much trouble right now, and there are a hundred reasons why to be completely honest. But this thread isn't about a hundred reasons, it's about just a couple. Since I write like an idiot every time I get on a forum board, I'll explain in a series of bullet points.
- I really like the Nessian Spiral bit. To me, it is the perfect culmination of the themes I saw in CoT. Ideally, I'd like the end the campaign with it, really.
- A lot of people out there have talked about doing the books in the order of 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 5/6 -> 4. this fits in perfectly with what I want to do.
- Really, what I want to do is take the Council of Thieves taking control and slow it way down, so that in a way that stuff happens less in books 5 and 6 and more like, throughout books 2 and 3 as well as in books 5 and 6.
- I can't figure out how people do it! People always suggest it but I can't figure out how to make it happen. The encounter modding is no issue at all, but what gets me is, specifically:
- How do you have the mayor go missing and the like without first having the catalyst of the manor exploding? How do you even lead to the manor exploding when the council is done for? How do you make the party care?
This is all sort of stuff the guys above me have said, but I sort of want to make a little guide of it, so I will:
MODIFYING ENCOUNTERS
Modifying an encounter is a great deal of fun and can really help a campaign. It allows you to add your own flavor to a particular scene, build enemies more suited to your group, and patch up less inspiring aspects of larger adventures. Yet, encounter modifying, like encounter building, often contains issues that need to be addressed. Consider the following:
How Prepared is your group? Whenever exchanging a monster for another one, consider how capable your group is of defeating it. Consider for a moment the Rakshasa, a CR 10 monster. The Rakshasa isn't too much of a warrior, but does contain DR 15/good and piercing as well as 25 SR. If your group doesn't have a way to get past those defenses in your toolkit, you're looking at a very difficult fight. Keep in mind this works both ways: A Rakshasa only fights as a 7th level sorcerer and deals a surprisingly small amount of damage. He might not be able to fight the group any more than they're able to fight him.
What's the monster's style/role? You might have gotten annoyed at me with my Rakshasa example. "But Shimnimnim," you'd begin. "Rakshasa aren't meant to fight the party directly! They're all about subterfuge!" And to that I'd say "sure maybe I don't know" because I back down hella fast when opposed. The point I'm trying to make is that you need to know what a monster does. That CR (if we assume it works, which we will even though it doesn't) is based on the idea that the monster is in circumstances that work for it. This is especially true in encounters with multiple units. If you take a fight with one high level bard/fighter and six low level barbarians, and you switch it to be one high level barbarian and six low level bard/fighters, you'll find that encounter suddenly is a lot easier and also what is going on why is everyone singing.
Where are you? This is actually sort of easy to miss: Location is everything in encounter design. In an open room, an animate dream might be a CR 8 encounter. But let's say the party is fighting on a staircase, and that staircase is collapsing below them! The animate dream's confusion and deep slumber spells can suddenly cause a PC death in a single round! Its incorporeal aspect makes it immune to the environment! It is, in short, no longer a CR 8 encounter. A simpler example is the dire eagle in an underwater fight. Keep in mind how the environment will work against both the party and the enemies, and work from there.
Beware templates/class levels Whenever applying a template to a monster to change its power level, take a good look at the monster. Did you make it any weaker or stronger? Young template is a pretty notable version of this: while animals and the like will feel their strength drop substantially, magic using monsters will be virtually unaffected. Be wary here.
Does it really need to change? This one is sort of unrelated, but I often find when I'm reworking encounters that I went overboard, got too excited, until eventually the whole thing was coming down. The quality of a change goes down when you feel obligated to do it. Remember that every change you make is made for the better of your game, and don't try to force it.
Anyway that's all I got for now. I might come back to this one.
Another thing I'm surprised no one mentioned: The Rakshasa.
Now I'm not saying there isn't roleplay potential. Or that these things are particularly strong. But that fighting them isn't particularly fun, which is odd given how popular they are as a creature.
Their spells are 3 levels behind and are a good deal evocation. Even with its high critical hit rate, its attacks are fairly disappointing. And it has DR good AND piercing, and 15 of it at that. And spell resistance. The thing is made to be insanely hard to kill (unless your party has access to bless weapon and good piercing weapons to enhance with it, and even then it's annoying) without having any real offensive options that take advantage of it. Figuring out an ally was a rakshasa all along should be terrifying, but instead it really just means an obnoxiously long fight with a creature that really can't be hurt by much of anything.
A lower CR thing is clerics. An evil cleric can fire off a ton of that channel negative energy. And while the damage might not seem like much, it adds up quickly, specially since medium armor is pretty good protection and the cleric probably isn't alone. Channel negative energy also runs the risk of killing already unconscious PCs who just so happen to be in range. And a cleric can use cure light wounds to heal herself, which is very frustrating in early game where weapons hit less than half the time.
Short version: Can a creature mount a creature that is already mounted?
Long version: "Undersized mount" allows a creature to ride a mount of the same size as the rider. "Gang Up" allows a creature to be considered flanking as long as they are threatened by 3+ creatures with the feat. I'm looking to combine these, and do that thing from the little rascals, having three gnomes stacked on top of each other who all have sneak attack. Please tell me this is a possibility. I know it's possible to do it with just two ratfolk, but that can't be taken to the pathfinder society. Alternate idea: do it with wayang, who have no strength penalty. Maybe dwarf->wayang->halfling.
In Pathfinder, the archer who repeatedly steps 5 feet away from a fighter gets to fire just as many arrows as his foe gets to punch him.
The 5-foot step is inherently really weird and nonsensical. There's a spell that lets a spellcaster 5-foot step twice, implying it's not about the distance of movement at all but the inherent type of motion.
If I'm a gnome monk flanked by two goblins with daggers, and I flurry, I can attack both of them. a gnome's armspan is in no way the 10-15 feet I'd need to reach both squares. Therefor I have to assume the gnome is moving his body to make both attacks. He may not be leaving his square, but he's certainly moving by necessity. Probably as much as 5 ft. Can he five foot step after this?
I'm a colossal titan, and I'm fighting an ant. I can attack two times because of my sword and two slams. The ant also can because it has a bite and a slam or something. I can full attack if I move 5 feet but not if I move 10. I'm 100 ft tall, and stepping only 5 would look look really silly. The ant actually has this same restriction of 5 ft, but it takes the ant 20 seconds just to make that 5 ft. of movement, the equivalent of 3 rounds.
The 5-foot step is a tactical idea, and not a logical combat thing. It's designed to give ranged attackers and spellcasters a way out of the reach of the melee types, allow melee types to gain limited mobility while still dealing optimal damage, and make flanking and maneuvering around obstacles more ideal.
There will never be a real agreement on this argument in anything but RAW because the 5-foot step is nonsense.
I have players roll every dice roll, with the exception of rolls the PCs are unaware of, particularly opposed skill checks.
For instance, my PCs take 10 away from their AC, and I add 10 to my attack rolls. Whenever my NPC attacks the PC, the player rolls a d20 and adds it to their new AC. Likewise, I add 10 to NPC saves and the PCs subtract 10 and add d20 to their save DCs.
The pros to this is that the players feel like they're more actively involved in defense. Especially for our defensively focused monk. The other pro is that a player rolling a 1 (the equivalent of the opponent rolling a 20), doesn't feel like they had no choice in this scenario (even though it's the same choice.)
The con is that all the dice are in the open, and also that effects like poison, with effects that last more than a single turn, get sort of confusing.
Sightless (Ex) A sea anemone is blind and is not affected by any effect that relies on sight, such as gaze attacks or blindness.
-- Bestiary 3 page 238
This is the only creature in the game that has the sightless quality.
If this is the case, then the argument for sightless referring to a defined condition would have two implications.
- The writers designed a spell to be immune to a specific ability and not the option of being unable to see. They wrote sightless but not naturally sightless, after all.
- They then proceeded to give this ability to only the sea anemone. The Riptide Horror is, according to its description, also sightless, but this creature does not have the special quality either, and was not given it in any errata. In fact, no creature, no matter how blind, was given the condition.
- The Giant anemone was written two years after the core rulebook was.
- If it refers to the creature condition of sightless, we have to assume the writers were referring to a condition that at the time did not exist, and then only really think it was useful for the sea anemone. Sightless creature can still refer to a creature without sight. No where does it say naturally sightless and it seems silly to suggest it does anywhere.
Kazaan wrote:
When considering the matter, you must keep in mind the principal of Argumentum ad Absurdum. If the blindness caused by the spell causes you to no longer be subject to the spell, it breaks the spell. Given that there are alternate explanations that adequately cover the topic, this cannot be the correct interpretation because it fundamentally causes the spell to not work.
If I'm reading this correctly, the spell is instantaneous, and the "see text" refers to "look, the effects of the spell have durations."
Here's the thing. If you look at the sightless descriptor attached to the sea anemone, it states:
Bestiary III wrote:
A sea anemone is blind and is not affected by any effect that relies on sight, such as gaze attacks or blindness.
So according to the descriptor, the sea anemone is immune to blindness and is also blind. This seems like a paradox, but it isn't necessarily. The sea anemone is immune to blindness because you can't blind something that is blind.
To put it another way, if I eat a sandwhich, the sandwich is suddenly immune to being eaten because there's no longer a sandwich to eat; no matter how hard I try I cannot eat that sandwich again. This sandwich's newfound immunity to being eaten does not put it back on my plate.
A blind person could be immune to the blast of color spray because he was already blind. But becoming blind doesn't retroactively take away the things you have seen and the effects they had. If you drop your weapon because someone used "heat metal", you are suddenly not holding a metal object. This does not make you immune. You can't retroactively gain immunity to a previous effect.
I know this is a little different because the spell's effects have a duration other than instantaneous, but the color burst that caused it IS gone. No one's arguing that blindness makes you immune to the effects of the spell. People are arguing that blindness makes you immune to the actual trigger that causes these effects in the first place.
but a pattern also affects the minds of those who see it or are caught in it because that seems to be extremely relevant.
Honestly, I think the key word to be bolded here should be "or."
There are two types of pattern spells. There are spells like "color spray" which are a 15 ft. cone. Note that people who can see this but are not IN it are NOT effected. Then you have Loathsome veil. This spell effects all who can see it, specified in its rules, and they don't have to be in it. That "or are caught in it" is not saying "Oh all illusion spells work off visual illusions but some don't actually require that", it's saying "Some spells you just have to see, others work when you're in the area of effect."
Note my previous post. There are other spells that specify you need to be able to SEE the effect. In fact, any illusion spell with an effect of more than instantaneous requires a constant line of sight, and fails if an object blocks the view of the illusion. It's interpreted by the mind but it does so through sight.
But, not to be rude, but I don't think there is a way to justify this to you. There's not really an argument on either side here. The spell's contemporaries ALL suggest it works a certain way that is counter to how you're saying it works. It's the very definition of pattern and figment illusions that they have to actually be observed.
Actually, not really a new take. I made a whole new character, but I kept the name. It's the happiest I've ever been with something I made myself, so I'd like to share it all with you guys.
Background
The original Egzimora is a hag sorceress. She's obsessed with turning people into plants, which is pretty wild. But something about this encounter bugged me to no end. I think it was that verdant sorcerers still don't really feel all that plant themed. Or perhaps that Akarundo also existed, and had a lot more reign to move around the map than the seductress did. But mostly I was bothered that the region best characterized by the alien nature of plant people had as one of its major threats what was essentially very human. I wanted a new enemy instead, which would play up the plant magic idea while also giving a "cold nature of a very nonhuman creature" vibe to things. Here's what I came up with:
History
People from all districts of Saventh-Yhi sometimes talk of Egzimora, the guardian of the jungle. This huge Earth elemental once protected the jungle from those who would harm it, and protected those who would be harmed by it. But recently, she has vanished, and the jungle is no longer safe.
Egzimora is naturally still alive, but on her back is a violet fungus (this particular violet fungus is a violet fungus Druid 7. This allows the creature to actually be two very different creatures, helping the action economy and forcing the PCs to make decisions about what to attack when the battle does come). The PCs might assume the violet fungus is in control of the earth elemental, but further discussion shows that Egzimora is still the one in control (partly so that in combat the group doesn't just target and kill the parasite and call it a day). Egzimora though has gone mad, perhaps do to the parasite but perhaps not. She now believes the jungle must inevitably expand, and that all creatures of the flesh exist solely to fertilize the jungle. A couple other thoughts on the matter:
- Egzimora does not leave the jungle so long as bodies keep coming in to fertilize the plants. She'll bring bodies herself if she needs to, though.
- Our mage flies in the sky and tries to talk sense into her. She does not fight the mage. Why? Because the jungle will inherit the Earth, but never the air. She isn't angry at people. She just believes it is inevitable and believes it is the right thing to do, to kill all the people.
- She refers to all non-plants as "creatures of the flesh".
- When asked about when she became this way, she explained that how things happen is a concern of creatures of the flesh. The plants do not care where they came from or where they'll someday be.
- But what about the people you kill? Do they not matter? She tells the group that creatures of the flesh think that they are somehow special because they possess souls. To the plants, individual life does not matter. The jungle as a whole is the only important thing. She demonstrated this one by picking up a vegepygmy, presenting it for a bit, and then crushing it. She is not loving. She does not believe in liberty or freedom. But she also does not leave the jungle often, which means if the PCs enter too early they can still escape without being also dead.
In combat, she uses her earth glide ability to move around the battlefield, battering her foes with her elemental fist while the parasite on her back casts spells like "entangle" and "Wilderness Soldiers". It's going to be a ton of fun when my group finally does fight. They ran away this time partly because ahhhh but also partly because we did the session they met her in a flashback of sorts (basically one of our members couldn't make it to the day's session, and a month or so ago her character had the plague and was incapacitated for a few days, so we opted to run a session out of order, during those few days).
I'm going to spoiler the stat blocks I made. I'm not sure if they're any good to be totally honest but my group isn't the best at optimizing so it should be fine. Also the stat blocks are formatted really badly sorry about that :[
Egzimora:
XP 4,800
Elemental, Earth, Huge Fighter (Unarmed Fighter) 2
LN Huge outsider (earth, elemental, extraplanar)
Init -2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft.; Perception +17
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Defense
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AC 19, touch 6, flat-footed 19 (-2 Dex, -2 size, +13 natural)
hp 140 (12d10+74)
Fort +16, Ref +1, Will +9; +1 vs. exhausted, fatigued, staggered, or temporary penalties to ability scores
Defensive Abilities harsh training; DR 5/—; Immune bleeds, critical hits, flanking, paralysis, poison, precision damage, sleep, stunning; Resist acid 12
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft., earth glide
Melee 2 slams +21 (2d8+10) and
unarmed strike +20/+15/+10 (1d6+10)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks earth mastery
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Statistics
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Str 30, Dex 6, Con 23, Int 8, Wis 15, Cha 11
Base Atk +12; CMB +24 (+26 bull rush); CMD 32 (34 vs. bull rush, 32 vs. overrun)
Feats Elemental Fist, Feral Combat Training, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Natural Armor, Improved Unarmed Strike, Punishing Kick, Shaitan Skin, Shaitan Style, Weapon Focus (slam)
Skills Acrobatics +6 (+2 jump), Climb +23, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +3, Knowledge (planes) +3, Perception +17, Stealth +3, Survival +15
Languages Terran
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Special Abilities
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Burrowing (20 feet) You have a Burrow speed.
Damage Reduction (5/-) You have Damage Reduction against all attacks.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Earth Glide Burrow through any earth or stone (except metal) as a fish through water.
Earth Mastery +1 to hit, dam, bull rush, and overrun if both self and foe are on ground, -4 otherwise.
Elemental Fist (1d6) (5/day) You can add 1d6 energy damage to an attack.
Energy Resistance, Acid (12) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Acid attacks.
Feral Combat Training (Slam) Use Improved Unarmed Strike feats with natural weapons
Harsh Training +1 (Ex) +1 Will save vs. effects that cause exhausted, fatigued, or staggered conditions or temporary penalties to ability scores
Immunity to Bleeds You are immune to bleeds.
Immunity to Critical Hits You are immune to Critical Hits
Immunity to Flanking You are immune to flanking.
Immunity to Paralysis You are immune to paralysis.
Immunity to Poison You are immune to poison.
Immunity to Precision Damage You are immune to Precision Damage
Immunity to Sleep You are immune to sleep effects.
Immunity to Stunning You are immune to being stunned.
Improved Bull Rush You don't provoke attacks of opportunity when bull rushing.
Improved Unarmed Strike Unarmed strikes don't cause attacks of opportunity, and can be lethal.
Punishing Kick (Push 5') (3/day) (DC 18) You can push or knock down an opponent with an unarmed attack.
Shaitan Skin Gain +1 use of Elemental Fist per day, and acid resistance
Shaitan Style Gain +1 use of Elemental Fist per day, and deal acid damage
Tremorsense (60 feet) Sense things and creatures without seeing them.
Violet Fungus:
Egzimora, Parasite CR 9
XP 6,400
Violet Fungus Druid 7
N Medium plant
Init -2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +3
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 8, flat-footed 14 (-2 Dex, +6 natural)
hp 100 (11d8+51)
Fort +13, Ref +1 (+2 bonus vs. traps), Will +9; +4 vs. fey and plant-targeted effects
Defensive Abilities trap sense +2; Immune plant traits
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Offense
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Speed 10 ft.
Melee 4 tentacles +10 (1d4+2)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Druid Spells Prepared (CL 7th; concentration +10):
4th—arboreal hammer [D], spike stones [reflavored as thorns] (DC 17)
3rd—burst of nettles (DC 16), fungal infestation (DC 16), lily pad stride, venomous bolt [D] (DC 16)
2nd—tar ball [D], tar ball (2), warp wood (DC 15), wilderness soldiers
1st—detect animals or plants, entangle (2, DC 14), glide [D], ray of sickening (DC 14), stone shield
0 (at will)—detect magic, know direction, resistance, stabilize
[D] Domain spell; Domain Jungle
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Statistics
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Str 14, Dex 6, Con 18, Int —, Wis 16, Cha 13
Base Atk +8; CMB +10; CMD 18
SQ brachiation, nature bonds (druid domain [jungle] domain), place magic, rot, spirit sense
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Special Abilities
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Brachiation (7 rounds/day) (Ex) Free, gain climb speed and a bonus to Acrobatics.
Druid Domain (Jungle) Granted Powers: The spirits of the jungle, both of natural guardians and lost civilizations, whisper in your heart.
Domain Spells: 1st - glide**, 2nd - tar ball*, 3rd - venomous bolt**, 4th - arboreal hammer
Immunity to Mind-Affecting effects You are immune to Mind-Affecting effects.
Immunity to Paralysis You are immune to paralysis.
Immunity to Poison You are immune to poison.
Immunity to Polymorph You are immune to Polymorph effects.
Immunity to Sleep You are immune to sleep effects.
Immunity to Stunning You are immune to being stunned.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Place Magic (6/day) (Su) Free, +1 to caster level for 1 round.
Rot (DC 16) (Ex) A creature struck by a violet fungus's tentacle must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or the flesh around the point of contact swiftly begins to rot away, exposing raw bone with shocking swiftness. This hideous affliction causes 1d4 points of Streng
Spirit Sense (Sp) As det. undead, also fey, outsider, astral/ethereal/incorporeal simultaneously.
Trap Sense +2 (Ex) +2 bonus on reflex saves and AC against traps.
PS Another fun thing about City of Seven Spears is that there is bound to be a lot of resting time. There's no reason you have to do everything in chronological order and it can be a bit freeing to do things other ways.
I'm going to give a resounding no to this one. But for different reasons:
The paladin here wanted to do the normal paladin thing, but was convinced not to by an ally. This is actually pretty rare. A lot of people playing paladins are convinced they have to micromanage the decisions of the entire party. As a result, paladins are hated by a lot of people.
What you have here is a paladin who listens to his party, and even modifies his decisions based on their reasoning from time to time. A cooperative paladin! It's rare and it's wonderful.
Don't make the paladin fall, not because of anything in the rules, even, but because by making him fall you discourage further acts of teamwork amongst the PCs and the players behind them. Make the paladin fall here and you'll lose the interesting PC and get that party police you probably weren't looking for.
- Note that my group hasn't explored all the districts yet, so I'm working on fleshing some of them more than the others right now.
- God rid of the Green God. Replaced him with Yogoltha, who is using some illusion spells to appear as the Green God. I also inserted a subplot here, where Ugimmo had made the Green God up (in order to increase his prestige among the boggards.) His mind was taken when he suddenly discovered his creation was real. My group never really got more than a hint that there is a 'green god' or that Ugimmo was mind controlled, because he was such a terrible dude anyway.
- I added a new boggard, named Bullgup. He was Ugimmo's apprentice, a level 4 boggard oracle of waves (haunted curse), and just terribly incompetent. Talks like someone who is constantly scared and nervous, trips frequently. Party took to him immediately. Now that they've killed Ugimmo they've set up Bullgup as the permanent spiritual leader.
- On that note: I made the boggards slightly more open to diplomacy. They are now the PCs allies, though it's rocky, what with their other allies (the Radiant Muse) and them still having a territory dispute.
- Egzimora has been replaced by a big ol' plant with druid levels. I'm not entirely sure I'm liking the build, it could easily be replaced.
- Lessikal and the troglodytes are allied with the Red Mantis. The group knows that this district is very active, I am going to start a-raiding soon.
- Depowered Lessikal a bit, so that he's more on par with the PCs and the faction leaders. Replaced his cleaving scythe with a vicious scythe.
- Empowered a ton of the faction encounters.
- Replaced Akarundo's spell list from his normal array of mind control magic to a bunch of ability drain, control spells, and nonlethal damage spells. I sort of toned down the typical rakshasa cunning and upped the rakshasa love of carnal terror.
- Added a ton of treasure, especially the hyena spirit skin and the returning bolas. Changed the wavecutter to be wood and blue obsidian, changed it from a Wavecutter to THE wavecutter. Also made it rule as a temple sword rather than a longsword (minus the trip bonus), because no one in my entire group could practically use a longsword.
- Changed the city description based on some readings I did of Ancient Aztec and Ancient African civilizations. I wanted it to keep being clear that we were in a Garund campaign, and liked the idea of Mwangi people eventually coming into the city, because ancient white Greek city in Africa isn't quite as fun as something no one had ever discovered before, a mix of world architectures and such.
- There are probably more but I can't remember the rest right now. But I can go into more detail on any particular thing or how it turned out or whatever if you guys want?
But this extends to almost every AP. You're providing a plot hook. If the players don't want to go for it, you've got a story that's over. Some notes about this:
- Book One is a very fun standalone adventure. If they don't take the city bait, then hell, at least they got to play Book 1.
- Yes, the story ends if the party doesn't go for it, but you can provide plenty of reasons based on what you know about your character motives. Discovery, power, and riches are a couple. Defeating the serpentfolk empire is another one. Following a likable NPC, perhaps. Or establishing a new homeland for the Mwangi people. Or a new homeland for you as a ruler. Or, well, anything.
- Tell your players right away that they're going to need to make characters who will want to go on an Indiana Jones type adventure. Don't let them make characters who won't want to do the adventure.
- If you're really so worried that they won't continue the story, ignoring the path to wealth, glory, and power, than fine. You could easily just start them at book 3, at level 7. 4 explorers working with the X faction (you could let them pick which one), who have just discovered an ancient city with all sorts of fun things in it. There, now they don't need to go their because they're there.
But seriously, I talked around here somewhere before about how it just feels weird to me that everyone in the world can, theoretically, dodge bullets. I'd rather have sturdier armor than give everyone with a DEX or Dodge bonus to AC into Neo.
I think this issue goes away when we stop thinking about it so much as dodging bullets and more as avoiding the shooter.
Any self defense course will tell you to run from someone with a gun in any way but a straight line, because it'll make it very hard for the shooter to hit you. While bullets do indeed move very fast, aiming is not nearly as simple a business as it seems, especially with the less accurate firearms of the time (represented by the generally lower range increment and the touch leaving the weapon by the first one). We've seen plenty of examples in fiction and video games, and even heard of examples in real life. A bullet isn't necessarily dodged, but certainly moving away is a superior tactic to tanking fire.
That said: I've always been on the side that shield AC should count towards touch AC. Shields are bulkier than your typical armor, and it's always struck me as weird that it doesn't work, especially since the image of the knight using his shield against the fire breath of a dragon is so iconic.
I find knowing the particular villain is a big part of this. Some concepts:
- Keep in mind that villains aren't always going to always insult a PC based on something the PCs find insulting. Often enough, they'll use things that they personally consider harsh. Many villains find cowardice worthy of contempt, but just as many might consider heroism to be a form of weakness. They might think beauty is the only thing that matters, even though the party barbarian could really care less. Perhaps intelligence, devotion, or even freedom is what matters. Orcs might see the grace of the party bard as being wimpy and effeminate, while other creatures will consider those same traits worthy of praise.
- Sometimes NOT insulting your PCs will be even more impactful than berating them. Consider: a sadistic mage uses a pain inflicting spell. The mage can do several things. If the mage gloats, that's one thing. But consider having the mage apologize for the spell, insincerely or otherwise, and you have the idea of someone who really doesn't seem to know better. Having the mage act as if he's done something GOOD for the team could be even more impactful, for the sake of contrast. My point is that sometimes not taunting is even worse than taunting.
Well, of course, you could always use bluff yourself. If you convince someone they are not dominated or charmed, they won't be acting, is the way I see it.
The "convincing lie" rogue talent will let them all buff really well about it, if you want them to bluff about it.
People keep suggesting that because an eidolon can be banished that a synthesist is not overpowered. I insist that this is not the case.
Yes, an eidolon can be banished. But doing so requires a DM design encounters with this in mind, and doing so means completely demolishing the build. You're left with a series of encounters where either the synthesist is overpowered or the synthesist is underpowered, and that isn't fair at all to anyone on the team.
Note that the worst things about the synthesist comes from its other, summoner abilities. It's full of, we'll call them traps.
- A summoner has only 6th level spellcasting, which makes people think it has spellcasting equivalent to the bard. This is not true. The summoner gains a huge number of spells at earlier levels than wizards, gaining what are often the wizard equivalent of 8th and even 9th level spells. They get these significantly cheaper when using scrolls, wands, etc, and that too can cause some huge problems.
The sythesist takes what is a very capable spellcaster and adds some very, very solid physical power to that. It's an issue for new players especially, who do not know how to optimize. You'll find the sythesist will sort of optimize itself.
But that's not a close real world analogue; that's three nations and the conventions of a Renn festival hardly correspond to that of any of them at any specific time. Galt corresponds to a very specific decade in French history. If you look at Tien, it's not some super-idealized east Asia area; there are close copies of Vietnam, immediately post-Maoist China, etc. It makes the pieces stand out more and feel less as an organic whole.
I find Garund does a great job of subverting this... at least right up until Osirion, which is just silly in a way. I found the Mwangi Expanse to have variety, unique ideas, etc etc.
I think my major issue with the real world analogues is very specifically their names for the most part. Osirion is so clearly named after Osirus; you know it's Egypt before you read anything about it. Galt as a whole bothers me. Its name is essentially France, and the idea of it being a land eternally in the French Revolution is just so much of an analogue that it's tough to look away. Andoren would have been just separate enough of an idea if not for the Eagle worship and someone actually named Lady Liberty.
That said, I love that it has so much going on. Sometimes I want to play a samurai, and I'm glad the world makes that completely conceivable. My group right now is in the Mwangi Expanse, and there's something very appealing about how different things are from the typical Western Fantasy.
Some other things that bug me:
- Drow have always been a thing I can't stand. They reek of a very specific aspect of D&D, I guess. I especially can't take their dark skin. Creatures in a place without sunshine shouldn't have pigment at all, really, especially when pretty much everything around them has darkvision anyway. It feels very much to me like a "dark things bad", especially when the surface elves are all beautiful and pale.
- On that note, one thing I noticed reading a list of inspirations for Serpent's Skull is that a ton of them were by Europeans writing about Africa and sometimes India or South America. I find the idea of cultural ideals that are difficult to understand to be fascinating, and real world ancient cultures are full of that. Instead we tend to get a very European idea of "these are the bad ones; they worship evil demons and are bad. Here are the good ones, they like us and are not antagonistic to us." Honestly, so much of the Sargava and Jungle books we were given seem to focus more on the dinosaur aspect than the people aspect, and it's amazing how few mwangi faces show up in the book dedicated to them.
- I wish a couple species of monster (Aboleth, serpentfolk) had spell-casting rather than spell-like abilities. Aboleth are meant to be such a big deal world-wise, but they're just frustratingly difficult to advance. The crunch doesn't seem to match the fluff.
- The world never seems sure if it's a high power fantasy or a low power fantasy. There's an inconsistency to how powerful things should be, I suppose.
- There aren't enough evil halflings and gnomes, maybe. Or dwarves. It seems like every evil "civilized" race is human or half-elf.
- I like a lot of the Lovecraftian elements in the game, but the inclusions of Great Old Ones takes things too far for me. I've never been too fond of powers all that much beyond the Gods, I guess. And I feel the directly Cthulu Mythos names are a little too far.
- Golarion's Solar system is built exactly like the real world Earth's. This is beyond real world analogue. Did Desna put the stars in the sky and then put them hella far away? Not a fan of having both a mythological account of the cosmos and a scientific account, especially if they're both written as if they're objectively true.
- Last analogue to bother me: Golarion's Calendar is exactly the same as Earth's Calendar. It has fewer leap years, but otherwise is exactly the same. It even copies the worst and oddest aspects of the Earth Calendar, like the year changing mid-season, the "not all months have the same number of days", etc etc. The days of the week even sound almost exactly the same. It's hard to get someone to say Moonday instead of Monday. It's hard because it sounds absolutely silly.
- Is 10,000 years reasonable? Maybe this is just me, but that's always seemed like way too long for things to get rolling, especially with technology seeming essentially in stasis for so long (based on Azlanti findings). Maybe this is inevitably a flaw of having an ancient magical society and also a modern one, but 10,00 years just seems like such a huge gap? Could be wrong.
It's weird; all the things I dislike about Golarion are side effects of things I love about it (except the Calendar). When all's said and done the setting is what made me switch from D&D 3.5 and have no intention of going to any other system.
A little outside of the current direction of the discussion, but technically there's still nothing preventing a shadowdancer from having an undead shade companion of any alignment at all. I'm not sure if this is an oversight or if the undead shade isn't necessarily supposed to be an actual undead creature.
