Sirokko's page

So I just purchased the reaper line of serpentfolk miniatures for my current gaming group, and couldn't be happier with how them. There is, however, one issue of note: even with all three I'm finding my campaign ultra lacking in serpentfolks.

I'm basically looking for more serpentfolk-esque miniatures... which I suppose means any reptile-folk. Troglodytes came immediately to mind, but they're oddly hard to find!

In particular I'm looking for metal figurines, for the sake of painting.

Also looking for regular snake miniatures, but that's neither here nor there.

So I just finished running Souls for Smuggler's Shiv with my team, and we're right about to jump headfirst into Racing to Ruins. While a lot of the reviews of the campaign seem sort of negative, I'm actually ultra looking forward to it. There's one thing I want to change, however.

Maybe I'm wrong, but the Mwangi seem to be a little bit, well, pushed to the side here? One of the players at my table rolled himself a Taldan bard by the name of Iacobus. Iacobus has a fascination with other cultures, but sort of in a dehumanizing way. He is, to put it one way, a firm believer in that "Noble Savage" archetype, seeing it as quaint and fascinating. The player would ideally want to have native NPCs to run off of. Nkechi certainly provides such an opportunity, sure, but that's a small section of a much larger AP. I'm looking in particular for something more lasting, and while viewing the boards, I've been seeing a lot of people adding Mwangi factions to the campaign. I think I'm going to attempt to do this as well.

In particular, I'm looking to replace the Free Captains with a Mwangi group. Yet, I'm not entirely sure how! I guess I'll post my main concerns/ideas and see what others think, or hopefully what others did, if anyone else went this route.

1. I'm not sure why Mwangi would ever need trailblazers, since they sort of live in these areas and all that, really.

2. I have two thoughts for motive. One would suppose the group joins the Freeman's Brotherhood, who is looking to use the wealth of the temple to establish political control. The other one, probably less shady, would be to have a group of Mwangi looking to prove Mwangi influence in Saventh-Yi. I'm thinking they might be particularly scared that, should another group find it (including even the Pathfinders, but definitely the Sargavan government) that they'll intentionally hide the information in order to marginalize the Mwangi people.

3. So that's probably pretty simple, maybe! But now I'm struggling on sort of creating the units. I want to design them a level 9 leader like the other factions have, as well as those level 4 units. And I'm looking for an image. In both Heart of the Jungle and Sargava: the Lost Colony, I can't find very many Mwangi images at all. I honestly can say I want a headshot like the other groups have because my players are into that sort of thing. I'd love to keep the lead unit female, just because why not. It's been rather difficult to find anything worth using!

4. I thought I had more issues but this is actually it so I'll stop now.

Looking at the forums there have been quite a few threads asking about the Halfling Sling Staff and exactly how it works, rules-wise. I can't find any official (or relatively official) rulings on these matters anywhere, but I feel like the sling staff is such an old weapon (Core rulebook in fact) that there must be something. If not, I'd love to hear some thoughts on all this.

Anyway, some questions:

- Can the halfling sling staff be loaded as a free action with the alternate trait "War Slinger?" On the one hand, it isn't a sling but a sling staff. On the other hand it has sling in the name, and follows the exact same rules as the sling does for reloading and adding strength modifier, implying they're meant to be handled the same. One could argue that the sling staff is a type of sling and thus might qualify.

- Do enhancement bonuses applied to the sling staff modify the weapon as both a ranged and a melee weapon? Some could argue that it would, since the weapon is not a double weapon officially, and doesn't necessarily say it doesn't. Others might argue that it would not, since there are examples of projectile/melee hybrids (mostly firearms with melee weapons attached) that explicitly state that enhancements must be purchased separately. Of course, the counter to that might be that if those weapons do state it, and the sling staff does NOT, then perhaps the sling staff is an exception to that rule. Another argument is the spell bowstaff, which according to fluff only makes the weapon stiff enough to use as a staff, but still transfers enhancement bonuses.

I really thought there were more questions but it turns out that's about it.

So, I'm about to start up a new campaign, and my friend and I are sort of hoping to make characters that can work off each other (while still being effective individually). We're both sort of looking to create support hybrids, with his being more focused on front line fighting and mine being more geared towards ranged combat.

His build is pretty much set: He's going for a cavalier (order of the shield), then into steel falcon as soon as it's available. He took the feat racial heritage (tengu) and intends to eventually take Tengu Wings and Tengu Raven form.

Naturally I want to create a character who can ride on his back.

Right now I'm looking at a halfling paladin, which has a "cheer for the little guy" sort of appeal which is just absolutely heartwarming. Right now I want to try something a little different and go for sling staff/light shield, with the warslinger racial trait. I'd sort of like to be a switch hitter, but I have a feeling with this particular race/class combination it wouldn't be possible. I suppose I'm telling you this because I would be happy to hear general advice, but really I come here with a more specific question.

I can see my little halfling being a valuable teammate right at level 5, when he can have point blank shot, precise shot, and deadly aim. But level 5 is a long time to wait.

So I'm trying to figure out how I would be effective until that point. Divine Hunter seemed like a possibility, but quite frankly I really want some of the vanilla paladin's class features, most notably the divine mount. (It's also incompatible with oath of vengeance, which fits terribly roleplay wise but perfectly mechanics wise.) Another option seems to me to go sort of with a pseudo-switch hitter, using my staff as a melee weapon when all the targets are engaged in melee, taking deadly aim as my first level feat, and delaying precise shot until level 5. A fighter level seems like a valid idea, but then again I love paladin and would rather delay those class features as little as possible.

So anyway, any help that could be offered would be absolutely wonderful, I'll check in here to see how things are going and such periodically.

PS: If it matters we're all using using 15 point buy.

There's the general question, I suppose. I also want to ask a more specific question. Those unaware with the serpent's skull adventure path might want to keep away from this one. The spoiler is extremely mild but it's a spoiler none-the-less.

So I've been running Serpent's skull with a group, and to get ready for that I've been really quickly doing a test run with some other people (taking out the NPC interactions, etc. to learn what might come up in the real game). Anyway, here's the particular scenario:

The party reaches a room where there are four enemies who are basically about to sacrifice some tar covered people by throwing them into a flame. They warn the party that if they attack them, they'll kill the hostages. There's a paladin in the party, so there's no way at all they'll take that risk.

Now, one of the members of the group is a druid (storm druid to be exact, though it's irrelevant to the situation) who was lucky enough to have sleet storm prepared for the day. He figures (and as DM I agree with him) that casting sleet storm would put out the mundane fire and make the situation something less dire.

The question I have is how to resolve this sort of conflict. It's clearly a hostile scenario, but since no one is actually attacking, is initiative rolled? Can he just "have the spell cast" or is there a process to allow him to attempt this? Is there an official ruling for this sort of scenario, and if not how would you rule it personally?

This question is particularly about the yellow Musk creeper, but I suppose it applies to all scenarios like it as well.

So the YMC has a pollen attack, and when effected, a unit must move at its speed towards the creeper and then stop so as to get infected. The question is, what happens if walking one's speed toward the creeper isn't possible? Say, 4 scenarios:

1. The creeper is in the air so that the unit cannot actually make it.
2. The unit and the creeper are separated by a cliff so that walking to it would mean falling to one's death.
3. A wall is blocking the path.
4. A friendly unit is blocking the path.

Would the unit, being under this entrancement, attempt anyway and suffer consequences, stop attempting at the barrier, or would it actively attempt to find a way around said barrier?

Thanks in advance!