When I go to the page on my profile that shows posts other people have favorited, I encounter a bug in the way the posts are displayed. Next to each post, there would normally be an indicator of how many people favorited the post. However, on the page showing my posts that other people have favorited, there are some posts which appear to not be favorited by anyone.
I noticed this phenomenon shortly before the big site-wide maintenance, and it is still there now.
Today, Steve Jackson Games released a bunch of GURPS PDFs on OneBookShelf/DriveThruRPG/RPGNow. It's a far cry from the much larger library of PDFs they are selling on their own store. Prior to today, Steve Jackson Games sold PDFs exclusively on their own store, making them one of only two moderate-sized RPG publishers not selling through OBS. There is now only one medium-sized RPG publisher who refuses to sell their PDFs through DrivethruRPG: Paizo.
Wizards of the Cost just released a reprint of the Spell Compendium, more than a year after bringing it back as a PDF. As far as I can tell, there are no changes from the 2013 edition. They also released a reprint of the AD&D module I6: Ravenloft.
This represents a minor change in course for WotC. Since 2015, most of their classic reprints have been of AD&D products, and this is only the second "major" 3rd edition hardcover to be reprinted in the last two years (after the Draconomicon) Like with other recent reprints, and like with the PDFs they've been releasing, there was no announcement or publicity effort on WotC's part. Instead, they just quietly added a few more print products to their OneBookShelf library, along with a few more PDFs like they usually do on Tuesdays.
The Spell Compendium is also, as far as I know, the first 3rd edition rulebook to be reprinted twice after the release of 4e.
I think we can probably expect to see continuing slow trickle of the more popular pre-5e D&D books getting reprints, likely without announcements.
Dreamscarred Press have lost their minds with this MADNESS bundle! Over 1300 pages of Pathfinder content, over 700 power and item cards, and their entire 3.5 library! All for under $25!
Included:
Dreamscarred Press's ENTIRE 3.5 library of content
Pathfinder Psionics Content Included:
Ultimate Psionics
Psionic Bestiary
Psionics Embodied
Art of Psionics
The Opened Mind
Psionics Augmented: Seventh Path
Psionics Augmented: Mythic Psionics
Psionics Augmented: Focused Disciplines
Psionics Augmented: Wilders
From the Deep #1: Uncertain Futures
From the Deep #2: Ruling Three
From the Deep #3: Dragon's Orders
Other AWESOME Pathfinder Content Included:
Path of War
Lords of the Night
Bloodforge
Printable Cards & Accessories Included:
Psionic Power Cards
Psionic Item Cards
Psionic Character Sheets
Psionic GM Screen
SUM TOTAL!!!
1300+ pages of Pathfinder content
500+ pages of 3.5 content
700+ cards
The only thing I like about Paizo's Paladin is the Mercy class feature. I'm wondering what methods are available to get Mercy without being a paladin. In other words, I am looking either for another class that gets Mercy by default, another class which can choose Mercy as one of its options, or another class and archetype combination which gets Mercy.
The ways to get Mercy that I am currently aware of are:
1)RJ Grady's Merciful Oracle Curse (though it gives delayed advancement and comes with extra restrictions).
2) Steven Russell's Merciful Inquisitor "simple archetype."
You and your allies have been
troubled by strange and compelling visions every night
when you sleep and dream. In these dream visions,
the tiefling wizard Karavakos appears to you and whispers about the power and secrets waiting
within the Pyramid of Shadows.
The visions have grown more frequent, more urgent,
and you and your group are growing more and more
inclined to set everything aside and seek out the place of
power and Karavakos. Indeed, you often awaken
from the dream vision with a sheet of parchment and a
quill to find notes scribbled over and over that you have no memory of writing. These notes include the oftrepeated
phrases: “Place of power.” “Vast magic for the
taking.” “Seek Karavakos.” There is also a crude sketch of a
map that shows a stylized glowing pyramid deep within a
lush forest about a week’s travel from this location.
Greetings, Paizonians! For a little over two years now, I have been running a Pathfinder game called The Pyramid of Shadows on this forum. For almost the entire time, we have had four players, but one of those four was just recently dropped for reasons completely unrelated to the game
Spoiler:
(they were banned from the paizo.com forums)
. Hence, the three remaining players and I are looking for one new player to join the game.
This campaign is loosely based on the 4e adventure module Pyramid of Shadows. The original module contains almost no plot, or NPC details, and consists mostly of descriptions of locations where an adventure could happen, along with stat-blocks (the latter of which I can't use, since they all use 4e rules). However, the adventure location is sufficiently strong that it inspired me to run a campaign set in the Pyramid of Shadows, but with my own NPCs and plot mixed in. We're just over two years in, and we're probably about half-way done with the adventure/campaign.
The game is set in the Planescape/Spelljammer/D&D universe, but so far has taken place almost entirely inside a demi-plane prison, the titular Pyramid of Shadows, in which the PCs were entrapped at the beginning of the campaign. The Pyramid travels around the Great Wheel, and engulfs unwitting planeswalkers, most of whom assimilate into the Pyramid's internal society. There are no known exits. Your character should either just now be sucked into the Pyramid (so that you can meet up with the other PCs), or you can write the backstory of your character's prior life in the Pyramid up to this point in time. Either way, your character should be willing and able to team up with the three current PCs. As a player, I do not require you to have in-depth knowledge of Planescape.
Wait, so what's going on? What happened in the last two years? What are we trying to do now?
The gameplay thread is currently 55 pages long, and I don't expect you to read the whole thing (though you certainly can if you want to). What follows is my attempt to summarize the main events up to this point, the PCs objectives, and the key NPCs.
The campaign began in Sigil, and the PCs encountered a pair of dragonborn bandits, who claimed that the rest of their group had mysteriously vanished a few weeks earlier. At that point, all the players saw the spectre of a tiefling appear, and the specter spoke separately into each of their minds. The tiefling, who called himself Karavakos, lured the PCs and the dragonborn towards a miniature pyramid, which expaned and engulfed the PCs, trapping them in the extra-dimensional Pyramid of Shadows. Karavakos' specter told the PCs that the only way to escape is to kill him "three times." West of the entry chamber, the PCs made acquaintance with a group of sahuagin and harpies. The sahuagin explained that the Pyramid of Shadows travels around the Great Wheel, entrapping people from various planes. They explain that Karavakos, the Pyramid's first prisoner, can steer its location, and that there are no known ways to escape. No one needs to eat, drink or sleep in the Pyramid, nor do they feel the negative effects of aging. There is an arbitrary convention among the Pyramid's residents dictating which direction "North" and "South" are. The harpies also reveal that the remainder of the dragonborn's group had entered the Pyramid a few weeks earlier, and the dragonborn seperate from the PCs. At the suggestion of the sahuagin, the PCs return to the entry chamber and retrieve an artifact called the Head of Vyrellis.
The Head of Vyrellis is a gem, in which the animated head of an Eladrin can bee seen (and heard). Vyrellis, the eladrin in the gem, told the PCs that she was decapitated by Karavakos, at the exact moment that the Pyramid formed. As a result, her life force was fragmented into three "splinters" which are scattered around the Pyramid, and that condition prevents her from truly dying.
Vyrellis also explained the origins of the Pyramid. Karavakos made a deal with a devil, granting him an army of fiends on the condition that he never lose a battle. Karavakos lost, and so the Pyramid was constructed by devils to contain him. She claims that if Karavakos is killed, the Pyramid will be destroyed and allow its inhabitants to escape (since it was only created to hold Karavakos). The PCs were highly suspicious of Vyrellis, with at least one of the PCs postulating that Vyrellis and Karavakos may be the same person. Regardless, they had no other sources to contradict (or confirm) her claims, but took the Head with them.
The PCs proceeded to search for Karavakos, and eventually arrived at a room full of dense vegetation. This room is the edge of the territorry controlled by the arboreans, a race of plant-like creatures trapped in the Pyramid. The arboreans didn't seem to have any interest in escaping the Pyramid, but rather wanted to conquer it for themselves. A trio of arborean guards told the PCs that their leader could help the PCs find Karavakos, but first demanded that the PCs complete one of three tasks for the arboreans: the PCs must bring the arboreans either
i)The staff of Medragal, a maddened mage on the Pyramid's second floor
ii)A living werewolf being held by another group to the north, or
iii)A spike from the tail of Thoraska, a dragon who resides on the second floor.
The PCs left the arboreans and continued exploring the Pyramid. They recovered a moonstone containing one Splinter of Vyrellis, but their confidence in Vyrellis was further shaken when they encountered her headless body, which was animated as a golem and attacked them.
Later on, the PCs encountered a wight, which claimed to have fled domination by a "splinter of Karavakos" on the third floor of the pyramid. The wight's clan was killed and reanimated by a necromancer who now resides on the third floor, and resembles Karavakos. The wight, along with the Head of Vyrellis, explain that Karavakos' essence is splintered much as Vyrellis is. However, unlike the Splinters of Vyrellis, the Splinters of Karavakos are animated sentient constructs with some of Karavakos' power. Vyrellis claims that Karavakos' splinters were created by the Pyramid's architect, a pit fiend, and that if all three splinters are destroyed Karavakos will regain his full power. The PCs still didn't really trust Vyrellis, but noted that Karavakos' demand that the PCs "kill him three times" is consistent with Vyrellis' claims (Karavakos wants the PCs to destroy his three Splinters so that he will be powerful enough to escape the Pyramid).
Needing to rest, the PCs returned to the lair of the sahuagin and harpies, and found that many of their allies were either dead or taken captive. While the PCs were exploring, the dragonborn clan that the PCs heard about earlier raided the sahuagin and took two harpies hostage.
The PCs set off towards the dragonborn's territory in an effort to rescue their allies. Upon arriving, the dragonborn leader, Garash Vren, offered to release his hostages if the PCs could bring him an ancient book called the "Tome of Vecna's Breath," which he said coul be found in the "Library of Whispers," at the north end of the first floor. The PCs agreed, and Vren also sent his former tranee, a dragonborn sorceress named Hozela, to help the PCs.
After fighting numerous monsters guarding the Library, the PCs made it inside. They saw a statue of Vyrellis from when she was alive, and Vyrellis expected the statue to contain one of her splinters, but it didn't. The PCs then encountered the first Splinter of Karavakos, who reveals that many things (including the book Garash Vren wants) were stolen from the library by a group of fey from the second floor, and claims that those fey were agents of Thoraska, a dragon on the second floor. The Splinter and the PCs fight, and the PCs lose, but are not killed. The Splinter takes the Head of Vyrellis from the PCs, but the PCs ultimately escape.
Driven by their two current tasks and the fact that they had explored much of the first floor, the PCs journey to the second floor of the pyramid. The PCs made their way to the Blizzard Caverns, a series of very cold chambers in the Pyramid in which the ice dragon Thoraska resides, along with a retinue of fey.
The PCs stated their intention to curry favor with Thoraska, and the dragon expressed interest in learning more about the arborean's home plane. The PCs told her about the three tasks the arboreans had given them. At this point, Hozela also revealed that the werewolf the arboreans referred to was probably another dragonborn in her tribe. Due to the Pyramid's lack of a lunar cycle, the werewolf has been transforming seemingly at random.
Prompted by the PCs' questioning, Thoraska told them about Medragal and the Sundered Temple. A long time ago, there was a Splinter of Karavakos on the second floor that tried to open a portal to the Far Realm in an effort to escape the Pyramid. The Splinter failed, and instead brought in numerous Far Realm aberrations into the Pyramid, and warping a section of the Pyramid so that anyone who stays there is slowly driven insane. That region, now called the Sundered Temple, is home to a cult led by Medragal, whose staff the arboreans had requested. Since Medragal was also on hostile terms with Thoraska, the PCs concluded they could take care of two birds with one stone by killing Medragal. To help them, Thoraska sent a grig in her service named Sorjla along with the PCs.
The PCs ventured into the Sundered Temple, and fought and killed Medragal. They then ventured further, and found the insane Splinter of Karavakos responsible for forming the Sundered Temple. The PCs fought and destroyed the Splinter, and found that its body contained a magic key to something (they don't know what it unlocks yet). The Splinter's destroyed body also released a blob of energy containing Karavakos' essense, which flew up towards the top of the Pyramid.
The staff of Medragal turned out to be an intelligent item, which pressured the PCs to head to the third floor, but the PCs resisted. The PCs concocted a plan to defeat Karavakos: they would seek to recruit people from various factions of the Pyramid into a cross-factional alliance, which they would lead to face the real Karavakos and/or escape the Pyramid.
With the staff in hand, the PCs returned to the arboreans, and spoke with several arboreans, including their leader Camnor. After turning over the staff, the PCs learned that there may be a schism within the arboreans, as many are unhappy with Camnor's leadership and disagree over what their faction's goals should be. The PCs also find information about the arborean's home plane (as Thoraska requested). Finally, they requested that the arboreans send one of their own to help the PCs, furthering the PCs' goal of a cross-factional alliance. Camnor agreed, and send one arborean follower along with the PCs.
The PCs then returned to Thoraska to share what they had learned, and plan their next move...
and then we lost a real-life player. Now, it is time for YOU to enter the story.
Rules for Character Creation
This campaign uses gestalt rules. Please read them over if you are not already familiar with them.
Level: Your character should be 6th level gestalt. We are not using experience points: leveling happens at appropriate story points.
Ability Scores: Use 20-point-buy, and increase one ability score because you passed level 4.
Sources: You may use options from the following sourcebooks: Core Rulebook/Bestiary, Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Psionics, Ultimate Combat, the Secrets of Adventuring, Path of War, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Equipment, Strange Magic, Occult Adventures, and Ultimate Campaign. Anything else is available by request only. Ask me.
Equipment: You may start with up to 11,000 gp worth of items and wealth drawn from any of the allowed sourcebooks. The current PCs are behind WBL, so you will be as well (to start, anyhow). You cannot start with a single item costing more than 2750 gold pieces.
Traits and Drawbacks: You can take up to three Drawbacks, and gain an equal number of Traits from Ultimate Campaign. You will also get one homebrew Campaign Trait that I will write after you submit your character. If you don't want any Drawbacks, then your campaign trait will be the only trait you get.
Favored Class Bonus: You can use your FCBs to improve either hit-points or skill-points as described in the Core Rulebook. Race-specific FCBs are not allowed.
Clerics and deities: For classes to which patron deities are important, such as the cleric, select any deity from either the Pathfinder Core Rulebook or the 3.5 Player's Handbook. Clerics of a pantheon or ideal are also allowed, as described in the Core Rulebook.
House Rules: You can find this campaign's house rules on the campaign info tab. Notably, the "detect alignment" spells are removed from the game. Other stuff: Please include a description of your character's backstory, a few goals they have, and state your character's greatest fear(s).
I'm looking for someone who can continue to play in this game until its conclusion, which is likely at least two-three years away.
There are two big options you have for your character's background. The first (and easiest) is that your character is just now being brought into the Pyramid, in the same way the current PCs were at the beginning of the game. You have a great deal of freedom in deciding what your character experienced before becoming trapped in the Pyramid.
The other option is that your character has already been in the Pyramid of Shadows for some time, but you are just now going to team up with the other PCs. Your character might have been part of an existing faction within the Pyramid, or you could have been independent from the factions. Feel free to ask me for more information concerning the Pyramid's residents and features, but also feel free to use your own ideas.
When will recruitment end?
I do not have a fixed timetable. I am only looking for one new player, but that one player must fit with the rest of the group. Recruitment will end when there is a character submission that satisfies me and the other current players. If several people have mostly-completed submissions, I will give a bit of time for you to finish.
In this game, you must come up with entertaining, sarcastic, and comedic reasons for Paizo to hate various things. In each post, you should state a thing for Paizo to hate. In every post except for the first one, you should explain why Paizo hates the thing stated in the post above yours. So, the thread should go like this:
First Post: Paizo hates A!
Second Post: Paizo hates A because B.
Paizo Hates C!
Third Post: Paizo hates C because D.
Paizo hates E!
Fourth post: Paizo hates E because F.
Paizo hates G!
etc.
VERY IMPORTANT RULES
1. Explanations must be humorous! Please do not try to turn this thread into an argument, or propose "real" reasons Paizo might actually "hate" something. Even if you can think of a serious reason Paizo might hate something, don't say it: give a sarcastic and/or comedic reason instead.
For example, if someone says "Paizo Hates Onyx Path Publishing," then a WRONG response would be "Paizo hates Onyx Path Publishing because CoD and WoDC take players (and hence customers) away from Pathfinder." Whether or not you think Paizo actually "hates" their competitors, that answer is not funny and is likely to start a flame war.
A much better answer would be "Paizo hates Onyx Path Publishing because their favorite Raichu was defeated by an Onyx."
2. Explanations should be unexpected!
Similar to the "corrupt a wish" thread, when someone proposes an object of hate, try to explain why Paizo hates that thing in a way the previous poster did not expect. You could intentionally misinterpret what the object of hate is, or be clever in your explanation, or both.
3. Do not insult other players, or any other real people.
4. Declarations of hate may be followed by an exclamation point (i.e. "Paizo hates X!"), but it is not required.
5. By posting in this thread, you implicitly agree to the Terms and Conditions of this thread. Terms may include sending anonymous usage data to a server for analysis, forfeiture of soul, and anything else I haven't bothered to say. A complete list of the Terms and Conditions may be found at www.realsarcasmdragon.137ben.gov/threads/let-the-hate-flow-through-you/term sofuse/souls.
Bundle of Holding is doing a massive discount bundle on Mongoose Legend PDFs for the next two weeks. $6 gets you the core rules of Legend along with several supplements, and $14 gets a bunch more supplements.
For those unfamiliar with the system, Mongoose Legend is a d100-based fantasy RPG system (though it is a lot more universal than other "fantasy" systems). It is distantly related to the Basic Roleplaying system used in CoC, and also related to some editions of Runequest.
Much like with Pathfinder, many of the supplements are usually quite a bit more expensive than the core rules, to let people get into core easily. While the Bundle of Holding offer is open, though, you can get almost all the supplements cheap. Also, 100% of the rules of Legend are Open Gaming Content.
Bundle of Holding is doing two massively-discounted bundles of Monte Cook/Malhavoc Press d20 products. If you aren't familiar with Bundle of Holding, it is a lot like the Humble Bundle Paizo did recently, but BoH deals exclusively with tabletop RPG bundles
The first, the Ptolus and Malhavoc bundle, includes both Monte Cook's Ptolus: City by the Spire (which normally costs $60 even for a PDF) and the Ptolus Player's Guide for only $20. If you pay $25, you also get the "bonus collection" which includes several other Monte Cook supplements written for D&D 3.5.
At the same time, they are doing another bundle of Malhavoc products, Malhavoc Arcana, which collects Arcana Evolved and some other 3.5 and d20 products by Monte Cook, Mike Mearls, Bruce Cordell and Wolfgang Baur.
Greetings Paizonians,
I am looking for additional players to join my long-running game, Chaos in Sarlona. It started back in August 2014 with six players. Of those six, one dropped out early due to not working well with the rest of the group, while four have since dropped out for real-life reasons. In October 2014, I did another recruitment thread and recruited three more players. The second recruitment was more successful, in that two of the three players stayed for a long time. Nearly two years later, two of those players have dropped due to real life reasons. I am down to a group of two (not including me), with one player (Te’Shen) having been in this game since the beginning, and the other player (mdt) joined in a couple months later in October 2014. I was discouraged by the large number of players who dropped out (though I’m pretty sure the players I lost dropped out of all there games, not just mine). Nevertheless, the two remaining players and I agreed that we want to keep going with this game, but with a bigger group. Although this game has been going on for quite some time, we are right at a major transition point in the story so far, and this time is ideal for bringing new people into the game. I am looking to refill the group with up to four additional players, though I could squeeze in a seventh person if there is an unexpectedly large amount of demand. I’m really hoping that this time people won’t come down with sudden cases of real life, and we can keep a decent sized group for a long time. Hopefully the third time recruiting will be the charm…..
The world and setting:
This game is set in the Eberron Campaign Setting, on the continent of Sarlona. I will expect you to have at least some familiarity with the setting. Eberron Wiki is a decent free resource for information on the world of Eberron. The best introduction to the setting is the original Eberron Campaign Setting book (first published for 3.5 in 2003 as a hardcover, but released as a PDF in 2014). That book mainly focuses on Khorvaire, though, with only a brief overview of Sarlona. The definitive reference for Sarlona is Secrets of Sarlona. If you character is from Khorvaire and has only arrived in Sarlona recently, your character probably won’t know much of the secrets in Secrets of Sarlona.
Wait, what happened in the last two years of the game?
I don’t expect you to read the entire gameplay thread. Your character wouldn’t necessarily know everything that has happened to the previous PCs, anyways. If you want to tie your character’s backstory to events or characters that were previously introduced in this game, though, it would be helpful to have some idea of what has gone on so far.
The campaign so far has taken place mostly in Adar, and concerned the Adarian struggles against constant Riedran invasion. However, I expect the campaign to move into a new phase centered in Syrkarn. Syrkarn is an odd place in Sarlona, because it could be conquered easily by Riedra, but Riedra has chosen not to do so, and Adar has not made any effort to stop Riedra from conquering Syrkarn.
What follows is my attempt at a reasonably concise summary of the key events in this game so far, along with information about the world (not covered in the published books) that the PCs have learned and that I expect to be relevant in the game going forwards:
Campaign summary begins here:
For centuries, Adar has been sealed off from the rest of Sarlona, and from Khorvaire. Recently, however, the Adarans have decided to allow a single ship from Khorvaire to land in the coastal town of Dvaarnava. The Khorvairian passangers were given considerable screening to ensure that none of them were under Quori influence. Among the passengers from Khorvaire were Esmeralda, Haazek, Gedeon, and Revion four of the original six PCs.
Upon landing in Dvaarnava, those four were quickly diverted from the other arriving passengers and were ushered into a hidden cavern. Seemingly by chance, also arriving in the cavern were Helac the kalashtar and Acorn the oakling, both of whom were previous residents of Adar. These were the other two original PCs. Once all six adventurers were together, a kalashtar named Qara (or ‘Q’) revealed herself. Qara explained that she and her partner had orchestrated their arrival in Adar and at this location in particular to recruit them for an important task. Qara claims to be an ally of the Summit Road, a group of Adarans dedicated to protecting their land from Riedra. She also explains that a Riedran conquest would be devastating not just for Adar, but for Khorvaire as well.
Qara initially sends the PCs to investigate an anomalous confluence of extra-planar portals detected in Syrkarn, which she fears could be turned into a weapon by the Inspired. Qara’s partner, a xeph named Sidrian (or ‘S’), psychoports the PCs to an area near the western border of Adar, from which the PCs have to proceed on foot. (Neither Q nor S can go with the PCs, as their intelligence suggests they will be needed to ward off an open invasion from Riedra along the eastern border. S couldn’t teleport the PCs directly to where they needed to go because the Shroud restricts teleportation within Adar.)
The PCs never actually left Adar, though, as they were quickly side-tracked into another adventure. The PCs found that an Inspired lord had managed to sneak into Adar for the first time in centuries, but that he had already been killed. His killer was not a defender of Adar, but a group of yuan-ti from Syrkarn with unknown motives. The PCs investigated these yuan-ti further, and discovered that they were searching for something called the Tremble Tooth, after previously obtaining the Shadow Tooth.
Upon further investigation, the PCs eventually discovered an ancient city buried deep underground in Adar. The city had been inhabited by yuan-ti thousands of years earlier. By the time they had arrived at the city, however, Acorn, Esmeralda, and Haazek had been separated from the other three. Esmeralda’s player announced that they had had a change in work schedule and so needed to drop out of almost all pbps. Haazek’s player disappeared completely without prior notice, and stopped posting anywhere on Paizo.com. Acorn’s player stated that he really disliked psionics and didn’t want to play in a game in which psionics would play a large role (I think he was previously unfamiliar with Eberron, or he would have known not to sign up for a game set in Sarlona.) Those three were made NPCs, separated from the group, and have not been seen in-character since.
At this time, the three remaining PCs encountered three others: Kiana, Nik’o, and Tierney the new PCs arrived on the outskirts of the underground city shortly after Helac, Gedeon, and Revion. These three had also been recruited by Q and S, but they had actually been sent to this area. Qara soon contacted all six of the PCs telepathically, and asked them to find the Tremble Tooth from the Starlight Tomb in the center of the city.
Along the way, the PCs witnessed a halfling named Charivia being brought back to life by a shapeshifter for unknown purposes. They also encountered a bunch of yuan-ti, all with Syrk accents, in the “abandoned” city. By the time the PCs found and entered the Starlight Tomb, both Gedeon and Tierney had been separated from the group. Tierney’s player posted saying they would no longer be able to access the forum regularly, and so dropped out of all games. Gedeon’s player just vanished without a word, and stopped posting anywhere on this website and didn’t respond to PMs.
Once they were inside the Starlight Tomb, the PCs encountered two other groups that had arrived slightly ahead of them. The first was a small group of the Harmonious Shield, led by a changeling named Leehlan. Leehlan and his followers had come to Adar and broken in to the Starlight Tomb to acquire an artifact from the Age of Giants.
The other group they encountered in the Tomb were part of a Syrk tribe called the Prugshuuns, consisting of a mix of yuan-ti, eneko, and humans. They are also looking for the Tremble Tooth, but they are just as hostile to the Riedrans as they are to the PCs.
The PC learn that the Prugshuun are part of a three-way rivalry among the major Syrk tribes. One of their enemies is the Shaaral tribe from norther Syrkarn, and the Shaaral are widely believed to be under the influence of the Inspired. Kiana also realizes that her family was killed by the Shaaral. The Syrk also claim that their Queen is a direct decended of Fremaryllis, the ancient king who was buried in this tomb.
To get into the vault with the Tremble Tooth, the PCs needed to collect four Keys hidden throughout the tomb, as well as a “living key.” They discover through eavesdropping that the leader of the group of Prugshuun, called Lord Anesti, has gone to search outside of the tomb for the living key. The PCs ultimately get the four keys, and drive off or kill most of the Harmonious Shield soldiers (but not the leader).
Anesti returns to the Tomb and negotiates with the PCs over the Tremble Tooth. He agrees to let the PCs get the tooth if they can bring him a locket held by Leehlan (the leader of the Riedrans who are in the tomb). The PCs ultimately fight Leehlan and get his locket, but the changeling himself escapes alive.
Once they have the locket, Anesti reveals that he was the one who brought Charivia back to life: she had been the living key before her death 100 years earlier. Bringing her back restored the Key, but also transferred it to Nik’o, making him the living key. Anesti’s followers are abruptly sent back to Syrkarn to deal with an event occurring there, but Anesti himself remains in Adar. With all the keys in tow, the PCs and Anesti enter the vault to encounter the ghost of King Fremaryllis and search for the Tremble Tooth….
Campaign summary ends here
And here’s where you come in…
Although the PCs are currently in Adar, they will soon exit the Starlight Tomb. When they do, they will be given a strong incentive to go to southern Syrkarn, near the port town of Ardhmen. If your character is from Khorvaire, you could be just getting off of a boat at Ardhmen. If your character is native to Sarlona, or immigrated to Sarlona long before the campaign starts, then you will need to decide on another reason your character is in or around Ardhmen. Maybe you were secretly hired by Qara and Sidrian, just as the other PCs were. Maybe you are affiliated with some other faction that has a stake in the battle between Adarians and Riedrans over Syrkarn. Maybe it was just luck that you will end up meeting the other PCs….
Character Creation
First and foremost, your character ought to have a compelling background and motivations that connect them with Sarlona. If your character is not originally from Sarlona, what drove them to come here? What are they trying to accomplish? If your character is from Sarlona, what are their standings with respect to the major Sarlonan nations (Adar, Reidra, Syrkarn, and the Tashana Tundra)? Is your character affiliated with an existing faction within Sarlonan society? For bonus points, include two things your character is deeply afraid of.
I WILL MAKE MY BEST EFFORT TO INCLUDE YOUR CHARACTER’S BACKSTORY AND GOALS IN THE PLOT OF THIS CAMPAIGN, so please do put thought into them.
Now, let’s move on to the crunch of your character. The PCs already in the game are currently level five (we are using the fast xp track), so you should create 5th level characters. I use a single xp value for all everyone, so you will start with the same xp total as the other PCs (currently 13,135).
Ability Scores: Generate your character’s starting ability scores using 20 point-buy (and increase one ability score from levels, since you are starting at level 5).
Classes and Races: Any classes and races from the list of pre-approved sourcebooks (see below) are allowed. For anything outside the list, ask.
Traits: You can start with two traits from any of the pre-approved sourcebooks. You can also take up to two drawbacks for extra traits. No campaign traits are allowed, even if they are in a pre-approved sourcebook.
Magic items and equipment: You may start with your choice of gear with a total value of up to 14,000 gp. That is a little more than normal 5th level WBL, because you are effectively starting about half-way through level five. You may not start with any single item whose worth is more than 3,000 gp. Other than that restriction, your starting gear can consist of any items from the pre-approved sourcebook list (for anything else, just ask me).
Pre-approved sourcebooks:
--Pathfinder Core Rulebook and Bestiary
--The Secrets of Adventuring
--Pathfinder Bestiaries 2, 3, 4, and 5
--Ultimate Psionics
--Advanced Players Guide
--Path of War
--Ultimate Combat
--Strange Magic
--Ultimate Magic
--Ultimate Antipodism
--Ultimate Equipment
--1001 Spells
--In the Company of Monsters
--Pathfinder Advanced Race Guide
--All official Eberron products written for 3.5: conversions for some content from 3.5 to Pathfinder can be found in the “campaign info” tab. For conversions of all other Eberron content into Pathfinder, ask me.
…Oh, and since this fact caused some confusion for one of the original players who wasn’t familiar with the setting: Sarlona is the continent in Eberron with the most psions and psionics users. There will be many psionics-using NPCs, in addition to at least one psionics-using PC. If you are one of those people who doesn’t want psionics to be a part of your D&D games, this campaign probably isn’t for you.
The Second Edition of Mage: The Awakening was released today in PDF form. Mage: The Awakening is the third Chronicles of Darkness (formerly nWoD) game to get a second edition, after Vampire: The Requiem and Werewolf: The Forsaken (not counting the core Chronicles of Darkness rulebook). This release comes almost eleven years after the original Mage: the Awakening, and more than 20 years after the original Mage: The Ascension.
Personally I've never cared much for the Mage line of WW/OPP products, so I'll probably skip this one, or at least wait for a sale.
Do y'all have recommendations for someone who is primarily not a 5e player? A bunch of the top-selling products in this sale are conversions of earlier products from one or more of 3.5, 4e, PF, Savage Worlds, Fate, and 13th Age. A smaller portion of them seem to be 5e-only (and those are the ones I'd be more likely to want to buy and use in a non-5e game).
Yesterday, the long-awaited Exalted 3rd Edition core rulebook was released to non-backers. This 659 page tome is available in PDF and hardcover. It reached the Gold best-seller status almost immediately, and I suspect it won't be long before it reaches Platinum. I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet, though I hear it is good.
If you haven't been following things in the CoD world, Beast: The Primordial is the newest stand-alone game in the Chronicles of Darkness world and franchise. With this release, there are now a grand total of 10 game lines for CoD, twice as many as for WoD Classic. (Overviews of the other nine CoD lines can of course be found on the main Chronicles of Darkness website.)
Speaking personally, Beast doesn't sound as appealing to me as many of the previous CoD lines. I didn't back the Kickstarter for it, so I don't have any sort of early access. From what I hear, it can work well for crossover campaigns with other CoD lines, but I don't know the specifics.
Today, Additional Archetypes reached the level of platinum best-seller on the DMs Guild, the highest level on OBS. How big a deal is it? First, keep in mind that OBS medals only count the number of copies sold, so a $1 product reaching platinum isn't as big a deal as a $25 reaching platinum. They also don't tell us how may sales are required to reach each level. We can get a sense of the significance, however, by looking at other OBS sites. All OneBookShelf stores use the same system for best-seller medals, but they track sales separately across each site.
On the DrivethruRPG, which sells products from every RPG company except Paizo and Steve Jackson Games, there are 265 platinum sellers as of this writing. Almost all of them are core rulebooks, and most took years to reach platinum status. The fastest that I know of any product reaching platinum was Onyx Path's Chronicles of Darkness core rule book, which took about three weeks to hit platinum.
Supplements hit gold and platinum status much less frequently, and third party products do so even less frequently. For Pathfinder, for example, there are only two Platinum sellers in the entire store! Both of them (Kobold Press' Midgard Campaign Setting and Rite Publishing's Book of Monster Templates) are from well-recognized brands, and both took years to get there.
On the DMG, Additional Archetypes was written by an unknown author without any brand recognition, and it managed to reach platinum in just under two months. It is actually the third DMG product to reach platinum status, but the other two are free (and since the number of copies sold is the only thing being counted by the medal system, free products have an obvious advantage over non-free products). At any rate, the fact that we already have a new third party writer getting to platinum shows that there are a lot of people paying attention to the dmsguild, and the 5e third-party scene in general. While I am not personally invested or even really interested in 5e, I believe having more people involved in the indie-developer segment of this hobby is a good thing (and I suspect WotC is glad that they followed Apple's method of capitalizing on third party sales).
Dodge Bonuses: Dodge bonuses represent actively avoiding blows. Any situation that denies you your Dexterity bonus also denies you dodge bonuses. (Wearing armor, however, does not limit these bonuses the way it limits a Dexterity bonus to AC.) Unlike most sorts of bonuses, dodge bonuses stack with each other.
The magic chapter "combining magical effects" section, however, states
Core Rulebook wrote:
Same Effect More than Once in Different Strengths: In cases when two or more identical spells are operating in the same area or on the same target, but at different strengths, only the one with the highest strength applies.
Haste grants a +1 dodge bonus to AC. If you repeatedly caste haste, the intro to the magic chapter says that the dodge bonuses don't stack, even though dodge bonuses normally stack. Specific overrides general, so going by the Core Rulebook alone, repeated casting of haste does not grant you an arbitrarily high AC, as the dodge bonuses from each casting of haste do not stack.
However, Ultimate Magic contradicts this line of reasoning. In the Designing Spells section, Ultimate Magic states
Quote:
Spells and magic items should never grant dodge bonuses because dodge bonuses always stack, and it would be a simple matter to stack various low-power items or spells with small dodge bonuses and get an incredibly high Armor Class more cheaply than by achieving that AC using the armor, deflection, enhancement, and natural armor bonuses in the game.
If Ultimate Magic is correct, then repeated castings of Haste would have their dodge bonuses stack (the speed bonus still wouldn't stack, because that is an Enhancement bonus, and enhancement bonuses never stack with each other). If Ultimate Magic is correct, then both the CRB magic introduction and the Haste spell are in error. On the other hand, if the CRB is correct, then the line in UM stating that spells never grant dodge bonuses due to potential stacking abuse is wrong.
At least two other spells are potentially affected by any ruling on this contradiction. Blessing of Fervor (Advanced Player's Guide) and Extreme Flexibility (Advanced Class Guide) both grant dodge bonuses. Extreme Flexibility was written after UM, suggesting either that it is a mistake, or that the UM rule has been overturned (if UM was ever even correct in the first place).
Also, WotC has updated things to allow Dungeon Masters Guild products for Ravenloft, and released their own guide to writing in Ravenloft for DMG authors. In the past couple of days, a Ravenloft product has become the #1 DMG product on the hottest sellers. I'm hoping the other WotC-owned campaign worlds will follow....
Back when WotC was releasing the so-called "Premium Reprints" of older products, they stopped selling PDFs of the products that were up for reprint, presumably to help boost sales of the print products. The only two 3.5 supplements which got Premium Reprints were the Magic Item Compendium and the Spell Compendium.
Now, three years, later, WotC has resumed sales of the Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium as PDFs. The new PDFs are supposedly based on the premium reprints. Previously when they re-released PDFs, people who had previously purchased the PDFs got them re-added to their library automatically, though sometimes with a delay. I don't know if they are doing it this time.
Speaking as someone who has both books in print, I can say that the Magic Item Compendium is a must-have for anyone serious about running D&D 3rd edition or Pathfinder. Aside from a huge collection of magic items, the book presents new optional subsystems for combining and enhancing existing magic items. IMO, it is one of the best supplements I have ever used.
The Spell Compendium is...far less spectacular. It's primarily just a big collection of spells, with some setting-specific names stripped out. While there were supposedly revisions to older spells, in reality very few were changed in more than name, except for 3.0 spells which were updated. The Spell Compendium is also far less "complete" than the MiC, as the SpC was released in 2005 and there are three years worth of supplements that weren't included in it. Some people think it's worth it just to have more spells in one place, others don't. In terms of digital products, it might be worth getting for the searcability that comes with digitization...or not.
EN Publishing, the publishing arm of the ENWorld website, has just released a Pathfinder conversion of Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns! The original was released nearly 14 years ago and has gotten mostly good reviews (average 4.3/5 on OBS with 50 ratings).
I can't tell from the description if there is any actual new content or whether it is just converted to use Pathfinder rules where applicable.
Shadowrun 5e products are half off on OBS for the rest of December!
Do y'all have suggestions as to which ones to get? Particularly suggestions for somewhat with relatively little shadowrun experience (like me)....
There's been a recent trend of "what happened to <person who used to post a lot but stopped recently>?" threads, so I thought I'd continue the pattern.
Until recently, LazarX was a frequent forumite who posted here almost every day. He was around in the forum years before me, and had 34,000 posts.
Now, his posts are still visible, but clicking on his username returns an error, and his profile does not show up in the Paizo.com search for users.
Has anyone heard anything about where he went? I sorta miss having him around.
Bundle of Holding is selling a bunch of PDFs useful for GMs and world-creaters for a large discount. Most of the titles are system-neutral, but a couple of them are aimed specifically at d20 rules. You can either get the whole bundle for $18 (the total price would be $110 without the bundle), or just three of the PDFs for $7. This bundle appears to be aimed at those looking to improve their GMing skills.
10% of the revenue goes to Doctors Without Borders.
Prior to seeing this bundle, I didn't know about any of the products in it. I'm reading through now, slowly, with more thorough comments and/or reviews possibly coming in the future.
This bundle is also the first BoH I have purchased that did not contain any Kobold Press products....
I feel like I'd need quite a bit more information before purchasing.
Is this a general guide to a new demiplane/plane?
What classes get archetypes?
Could you describe the plane a bit more in the product description?
Could you give like one sentence descriptions of each of the races? A made up word no one has ever heard before isn't very informative.
Page count?
24 people marked this as FAQ candidate. Answered in the FAQ.
2 people marked this as a favorite.
In the "random weapon" chart of the Ultimate Equipment appendix, the table determining which type of mundane weapon is generated has a gap. The table jumps straight from 65 to 85.
As a customer at the time, I recall that the charts showed up in a preview, and Jason released a fill-in for the missing section of that chart in the preview thread (iirc before the book came out):
66 sai
67 sap
68-69 scythe
70-73 shortbow
74-75 shortspear
76-80 shortsword
81 shuriken
82 sickle
83–84 sling
It was suggested in that thread that the "missing" portion of the table should be in the FAQ, to make it easier to find.
So the question is,
What weapon type is generated by a roll between 66 and 84 on the Random Weapon chart in Ultimate Equipment?
So if you care, FAQ away!
And if you don't care, you can still click "FAQ". Or not, since you don't care.
Back on page 157, however, Body Purification is listed under 3rd level Vitalist powers.
Which is it supposed to be? Is it supposed to be a third level power like it is for the other 9th level manifesters (psion/wilder), or is it supposed to be a 2nd level Vitalist power like it is for the partial manifesters?
So, as of this writing, it appears that a large portion of Purple Duck Games' Pathfinder products are marked down between 20% and 30% in the OBS store. The price reductions are not currently mirrored in the Paizo store. I can't find any announcement about this sale, or how long it will last. Anyone know anything about it?
More than ten years after its print release, WotC has finally decided to release the core rules for d20 modern digitally. They might be taking a nod from Paizo in pricing it at a measly ten dollars. Or, it could just be the price they came up with on their own.
As someone who's played very little d20 modern, I don't have much else to say on this subject. Do y'all think it is worth getting to mine for potential 3.5 house rules?
PathlessBeth Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9
So, last year there was one cull during the open call round. What is the schedule for item culls this year? What portion of the items will be removed each cull?
This thread started in Pathfinder/Pathfinder RPG/General Discussion and was moved to 'Paizo Products'.
This thread with the exact same topic involving a lot of the same people and following a near identical discussion trajectory was moved to Pathfinder/Pathfinder RPG/General Discussion.
Is there a substantive difference requiring the two threads to be on different forums? Or is it just the result of having multiple human moderators?
Today, finally, WotC has finally seen fit to digitally rerelease the 1979 edition of the DMG. They released the 1e monster manual one week ago, and the 1e PHB two weeks ago.
So at long last, people who still prefer to play 1e but hate physical books (or can't find copies to scan) can legally play.
I'm going to guess that this rerelease mans WotC is not planning on reprinting the 1e core rules in the immediate future. Or, if they are, then they don't expect to sell them in the brick-and-mortar game stores, in keeping with the pro-local-store strategy they follow for Magic: The Gathering.
Occasionally, when I make a post with a spoiler-box, the spoiler cannot be opened. Clicking on 'show' has no effect. If I edit the post, the text inside the spoiler is still there, but if I wait an hour until I can no longer edit, the text inside the spoiler box is inaccessible to everyone.
This happens only rarely, and if I catch it in the first hour, I can just repost and it is usually gone.
The most recent time it happened to me was this post, where the second nested spoiler (titled 'giant') does not open.
The first time it happened to me (IIRC) was last September. That time, though, I caught it before the first hour was up and edited, and the glitch went away.
Has anyone else experienced this glitch? Does anyone with knowledge of the forum's code know why it might be occurring?
I use firefox and Windows 8.1, although when I experience this glitch, the glitched spoiler box remains un-openable in other browsers (Chrome, IE, and Safari on my IPhone).
A little while ago, I created a silly/joke thread. It was locked a mere 20 minutes after creation, and all replies were deleted.
While it is the first time this happened to me, it is not the first time I have seen silly threads get locked almost immediately. Hence, the inquiry in the topic of this thread: is there a forum rule against satirical/comical threads? Are such threads required to be in a specific subforum?
If such a rule does exist, I request that it be stated in the Community Guidelines, or somewhere else visible to the public. I believe making the 'real' forum rules (i.e., the rules being enforced) match the publicly stated forum rules would make it easier for users to comply with the rules.
So, Paizo just recently announced that they are coming out with a fifth bestiary, along with yet another softcover bestiary to tie into Occult Adventures. This is all too much! There's no way I can keep track of every monster in all the books. And it's not just five bestiaries--I also have the Monster Codex, Midgard Bestiary, the Mythic Monster Manual, the Inner Sea Bestiary, ToHC, the Advanced Bestiary, the Book of Monster Templates, 101 Not so Simple Templates, AND the psionic bestiary. And now the occult bestiary and B5.
Add in 3.5 monster books and it's even more obscenely bloated--MM 1, 3, 4, and 5, two Fiendish Codices, LoM, Book of Templates, and Dragonomicon. And 3.0 monster books, MM2 and fiend folio.
There's just no way anyone who doesn't spend their entire life on this game can hope to keep track of and use every monster. I didn't even want any of them beyond the first bestiary, but I had to waste money on them to keep playing the game!
And that's not even counting the insane brokenness and bloat of templates. With just one book full of templates and one bestiary there are more combinations than I could every use. But there isn't just one book of templates, there's several. And several books of base monsters. And they keep getting more complicated with each new tome of bloat. It's too many rules to keep track of when I just want to play a game without having to comb through tens of thousands of pages of cheese.
It's even worse due to the absurd levels of power creep. Just compare any bestiary 4 monster to a same-CR bestiary 1 monster. The new one is obviously far more powerful. Yes, obviously: I shouldn't need to explain what about the new monsters is more powerful, they just are. If you can't see the obvious power creep you aren't looking hard enough. The power creep makes everything in all the old monster books TOTALLY UNUSABLE!
I feel like Paizo lied to us. Way back when they first introduced pathfinder, Paizo promised that they would avoid Bloating the game with power creep and an overabundance of splats. That was suppose to get us to buy into pathfinder. Lisa Stevens promised me, personally, that after the Bestiary 1 they would never release any content every again to avoid bloat. She said that that way, I could buy the core rulebook and bestiary without being forced to throw money away at a never ending stream of more bestiaries. That way, Pathfinder could remain a Living, Supported system without any new content to bloat it up.
Now allegedly, Erik Mona announced as early as January 2009 that they'd be releasing several hardcovers of bloat every year, including bestiary bloat. But that information was hidden. There should have been a warning on the first Bestiary cover saying "DISCLAIMER: IF YOU BUY THIS, YOU WILL BE FORCED TO BUY A NEVER-ENDING STREAM OF MORE BESTIARIES OR THIS BOOK WILL BECOME UNUSABLE!"
It's time for a new edition of the Bestiary to clean up the bloat. Frankly, I think it's long overdue. In the new edition, there should just be like three monsters total. Munchkins who want more can make them themselves--no need to ruin the game with bloat for the rest of us who just want to play normally.
I'm pretty sure I remember threads about D&D 6e before the 5e playtest was even released.
IIRC there were threads about D&D 5e pretty early into 4e, as well.
I wasn't paying attention to discussions about pathfinder back in 2009, since as far as I knew at the time, Paizo had gone out of business following the loss of the license to Dragon and Dungeon, and I didn't hear about pathfinder as a separately-marketed game until someone described the then-upcoming Ultimate Campaign to me.
So for those of you who've been here longer, when was the first time the forums became flooded with threads about a new edition of pathfinder? Was it around the release of the Advanced Player's Guide? The Gamemastery Guide? The Core rulebook? Even earlier?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Well, one inquiring mind, anyways.
OneBookShelf is doing a "Celebration of tabletop gaming sale, with an assortment of products 75% off. Among these are Rite Publishing's Heroes of the Jade Oath, by Frank Carr. If you like eastern-themed settings in your d20 games, it's a really good deal. If you don't like eastern-themed settings, a decent amount of the rules are still worth considering.
The website gives no indication (that I can see?) as to how long the sale is for.
Just thought I'd point this out for anyone interested, since I didn't see the usual "sales announcement" thread that someone usually starts when they are having a sale.
I was looking through OBS, and noticed a new adventure by Keith Baker, the author of Eberron, released less than a week ago. An additional search reveals that Baker has contributed to three other supplements with the same publisher in the last two weeks.
I hadn't heard of Atlas Games until just now. Curiously, there is no mention of any of these supplements on Baker's blog.
So, the questions I have for the forum are
1)Has anyone else seen this adventure?
2)Does anyone know if it or the other new books linked to above are any good?
3)Does anyone know anything else about Atlas Games (beyond the obvious information from the OBS store)?
4)Is this something I should be interested in by virtue of being an Eberron fan?
So, there's been a lot of talk the the boards lately* about having too many rules in Pathfinder and needing to ban** a lot of content. Hence, I thought I'd make a thread for people*** to share which content they currently ban.
Without further ado, I present my ban list:
--Weapon Specialization
--Rangers
--Half-humans
--Magus
--Electronic character sheets
--Bull Rush
--Summoning spells
--Ultimate Combat in its entirety
--Paper Character Sheets****
--When using Ultimate Campaign, the entire Mana resource
--NPCs
--Nonracial Hitdice
--Elves*****
--Spell Component Pouches
--PCs
--Dice for which I can't easily see the numbers
--Spell Focus
--Greater Spell Focus
--Dazing Spell
--Animated Objects
--Metamagic cost reducers******
--Dr'zz't*******
--Participants of the "would you rather" thread on this forum
--Greatswords
--Chain Lightning
--Wizards
--Anyone who posts serious responses to fun and/or silly threads********
*Constantly for at least the last five years.
**With various arguments about whether banning is the Correct word to use or whether it should be called "not including"
***Along with bots and any other nonperson entities capable of posting on this thread
****Paper refers to wood pulp, papyrus, and clay tablets
*****But not Fire Elves, Aquatic Elves, or Arctic Elves (from UA)
******Some of these are true
*******But not his clones
********Which, in case you hadn't noticed, includes this thread.
I've had three people drop out of a current campaign, and I am looking for replacements.
The remainder of the party consists of an inquisitor, a vitalist, and a magus.
Original recruitment thread Gameplay thread Discussion thread Information from the previous recruitment thread:
Setting:This game will be set in the Eberron campaign setting, originally written for 3.5. While it will start in Dvaarnava, it won't stay there, and I expect the game will go to a wide range of locations in Adar, Riedra, and Syrkarn. Familiarity with the setting is recommended, though not required. Eberron Wiki is a good free resource for information about the setting. The books Eberron Campaign Setting and Secrets of Sarlona are more comprehensive.
Introduction:
A world away from the rest Eberron, Sarlona remains a land of mystery. It holds the secrets of the origins of humans. And an increasing number of scholars in both Khorvaire and Argonesson now believe that the source of the Mourning lies somewhere in Sarlona.
For the first time in more than a thousand years, the formerly secret port-city of Dvaarnava is being opened to Khorvairian ships. Dvaarnava is in a part of Sarlona which is largely shielded from the influence of the Inspired. But it is under constant threat of an attack from Riedra.
Within Riedra, not everyone is as unified as they appear. There is a rift within the ranks of the Inspired, and the two groups have very different goals. Moreover, rumors persist of a far more sinister, hidden group operating across Sarlona.
Original recruitment thread wrote:
Character Creation:
What I am looking for:
First and foremost I am looking for commitment. Given the slow pace of pbps, this game could run for years into the future. Secondly, I am looking for interesting characters. Well-written backstories, personalities, and motivations will improve your chance of being
Character story stuff: Submissions should include a backstory, your character's goals/motivations, and a brief description of your character's personality. Optionally, include your characters greatest fears.
Starting level: 3
Ability scores: 20 point buy
Allowable books/sources:
Pathfinder books: Core, APG, UM, UC, ultimate psionics, path of war, and ARG are preapproved. All Rite Publishing books are also allowed.
3.5 books: All the Eberron books are preapproved. If you are unsure of how to convert something to pathfinder rules, ask.
Anything else is available by request.
Your character should have action points (as explained in ECS, pg 45).
Favored Class Bonus: No race-specific FCBs. You can spend your FCBs on extra hp, skill points, or pp as normal.
Traits: Two bonus traits. No campaign traits.
Starting gear/wealth: Standard 3rd level wealth (3000 gold pieces, spent however you want.)
"Wait! What happened since the campaign started?":
Well, you can read through the gameplay thread. But here is the TL, DR version:
Most of the PCs arrived in Sarlona by boat (two were already there). After meeting up, they were recruited by a group of kalashtar fighting against the Dreaming Dark. The group was traveling to Sykarn to investigate some unusual phenomenon, but got sidetracked by a mysterious group of yuan-ti. The yuan-ti seem to be opposed both to the Dreaming Dark and to the kalashtar, and their motivations are currently unclear to the party. The party found an ancient 'abandoned' city underground from before humans and kalashtar occupied the region. They've just discovered that the city is not actually abandoned, and were about to search it for someone who they think is hiding there...
...and then three of the players contracted severe cases of Real Life.
It's been a long journey, but it is finally coming to an end. The Lhazaarian ship is overcrowded, with people from all over Khorvaire, and representatives of all of the dragonmarked houses. All heading to the same place: Dvaarnava, Adar. The last part of the voyage had to be made without any navigational tools, magical or mundane, guided by an Adarian ship through a maze of caverns.
"We will dock momentarily!"
The cry from behind the wheel continues
"Have your belongings ready to leave the vessel and enter the city."
"City" is not a word which would normally describe what you can see. Narrow passages along cliffs hanging above turbulent waves. Occasional holes in the cliffs allow passage by foot the mountains, if any city is here it is in these caves. A drawbridge extends from the vessel to one of the rugged paths, and a tall, elderly kalashtar stands at the end, ready to screen passengers for Quori influence.
Helac:
To return to Dvaarnava after so long away. And for what? A vision? Every night for the past week, you have had a similar dream.
"Someone from your past shall soon enter through the port of Adar."
"Soon, very soon."
"Tomorrow, someone from your past shall arrive."
The source of the message is never heard, but it resembles a high-pitched kalashtar's voice.
Dvaarnava is barely a city--it is more like a scattering of villages throughout a series of caves.
Almost immediately upon arrival, you notice a note attached to your bag. It's not something you put there, it just appeared spontaneously. Or someone put it there without you noticing.
Meet me in the Thunderous Cavern. I have some allies for you.
--Q
Acorn:
The caves of Dvaarnava are quite different from the forest. Nevertheless, it is far from being a large city, and there is plenty of plant life to go around. Nothing like the grand trees of Acorn's home forest, but cave moss.
Today something weird has happened to the moss on a nearby cave wall. It has been rearranged just as it comes into Acorn's view, into a message.
"Allies of the forest await you in the Thunderous Cavern.
--Q"
Oddly, the message is written in Sylvan, not plant or something you would expect moss to use.
Posts that are mostly or entirely out of character should go here. The only exception are certain mechanics (e.g., attack rolls), which can go in the main gameplay thread.
I expect you to be able to post at least once every 24 hours. That doesn't mean you actually need to post every day, but it means we shouldn't need to wait more than 24 hours for you to respond to something directed at you or for you to take your turn in a turn-based combat.
Exceptions for real life issues can be made, of course. If you know you will be unable to post for a certain amount of time, please try to tell us ahead of time in this thread.
A world away from the rest Eberron, Sarlona remains a land of mystery. It holds the secrets of the origins of humans. And an increasing number of scholars in both Khorvaire and Argonesson now believe that the source of the Mourning lies somewhere in Sarlona.
For the first time in more than a thousand years, the formerly secret port-city of Dvaarnava is being opened to Khorvairian ships. Dvaarnava is in a part of Sarlona which is largely shielded from the influence of the Inspired. But it is under constant threat of an attack from Riedra.
Within Riedra, not everyone is as unified as they appear. There is a rift within the ranks of the Inspired, and the two groups have very different goals. Moreover, rumors persist of a far more sinister, hidden group operating across Sarlona.
This is an interest check for an Eberron campaign that has been bouncing around my head and notes for awhile that is finally ready to be run. I expect most of the PCs to be from Khorvaire, and the group will just be arriving in Dvaarnava when the campaign starts. However, if you want to make a character native to Sarlona, you might be able to provided you have a sufficiently compelling background for your character. In any case, you should give a reason why your character has come to Dvaarnava.
Setting: This game will be set in the Eberron campaign setting, originally written for 3.5. While it will start in Dvaarnava, it won't stay there, and I expect the game will go to a wide range of locations in Adar, Riedra, and Syrkarn.
