Spyderz's page

I missed the boat on this one. I understand its out. I get that there is probably a finite amount of books...but is there any plans to sell the pdfs anywhere?

I like the variety of changes I'm seeing in magic items. I don't think I like anything about resonance however. I don't see how it adds anything to the game. Sure, it's likely to stop wand spam. But that's about it. Wand spam happens to be one of the things that actually reduces the 10 minute adventuring day. Resonance seems like it's almost certainly going to increase it. Why? Because with limited resonance, generally I would say a permanent item is greater than a limited use item that requires burning resonance. Just like in P1 that having a permanent item usually trumps having a consumable item if I have limited money to spend. Then, with some resources, people tend to have some healing items like potions/wands. Except now if I have limited resonance, they're going to start not working (possibly quite quickly if I have all or most of my resonance spent on permanent items). I can already predict my players being ready to rest when they don't think their healing items are going to work anymore. So now I'm back to creating stories that force time restrictions so they have to go on without the healing items.

Beyond that, the wording of pretty much every single item listed was cludgy and unclear and I would recommend a thorough reworking of how they are listed for clarity of use (and which parts cost resonance). There were several good examples prior to my post.

Think as I understand it, staffs as written will be something I won't ever want. You have limited resonance, and you have to spend 1 to invest the staff..and then 1 each time you cast a spell using a charge (instead of using your own spell slots...which is pretty much always been the point of having a staff), so to get much benefit from a staff, you either need limited numbers of permanent items (so as to have lots of free resonance points) which seems a poor choice or you don't worry about it and use the staff by overspending, in which case the staff barely works.

Ultimately so far, I see nothing about this system that works in any way to positively impact my gaming experience and it comes with a bunch of extra bookkeeping and though it will end wand and potion spam, I find it likely that when the playtest drops, I'll find it makes my parties 10 minute adventuring day come back with a vengeance.

So I've been looking through Lost Lands stuff trying to find out what if anything they have done with planar stuff. Do they have outer planes? Inner Planes? Astral? Ethereal? Shadow? Dream? Other? Sadly I've not found anything really in theirs or older Necromancer Games' stuff. I've not read everything yet...but if anyone knows if they've talked about it at all and where I can find whatever information that exists I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

So any clue when event registration will be open? Links?

I considered Raven (as it's most similar) except the spell mentions Crow has 2 claw attacks...and raven has none. It also give the Crow Improved Steal...but neither has ranks in sleight of hand...so I'm thinking it should maybe get a rank in it...as it's an unusable skill without any ranks.

Inner Sea races has a spell called Murderous Crow which sounds pretty cool...except that there are no stats for a crow that I can find anywhere. I'm tempted to use stats for Eagle...but I was curious if I was blind and just missed it...and if anyone else thinks that's a good choice?

So observation/typo or some such:

Channel Ray is misnamed. Judging from the description/effect it should be Channel Line. Ray requires a ranged touch and hits a single target. Line is an area of effect.

I'd be willing to bet if you just made a poster map of Absalom it'd sell too...or maybe as a bonus in some new book or something.

I don't think there is any specific rules on this but my group houserules to 7 because back in 1e that used to be the most you'd ever see on a scroll.

SO I haven't taken the time to read everyone else's suggestions. I haven't had a chance to look at any of your stuff yet, but were I to like it my suggestion would be to do combined books of like materials such that someone came in late like myself wouldn't have to by dozens of different products to catch up, plus organizing pdfs is easier if I don't have scads on a topic. That said...I'd like Class Acts: Wizards please and I'll see how I feel about your wares.

If you're still looking I have room for 1 or 2 in my Monday or Saturday games. You can email me at aol.com

Dunno if you're still looking...but I've got room for 1 or 2 for my Monday night game. You can email me @aol.com

You were asking about abuses. In the RAW, there's a second level spell (name escapes me at the moment...Heroic Fortune maybe) that grants the caster a hero point. They then have 1 round per level to use it before it goes away. In the RAW, they can use that hero point to recast any spell they've already cast. The abuse is memorizing every spell in 2nd level with that so that they can recast all their higher level spells. Sure...it uses an extra round to do it...but when they might have only 1 5th level spell...and they can blow 4 or 5 2nds to cast it 5 or 6 times. You get the point.

I don't mind most of the feats that affect hero points...but I banned the spell as written.

So I thought this was to be out November...and it's the middle of January. Any good solid time frame for when I might anticipate this? Also when is the new story meant to start?

In no particular order (except #1...love it), the base ideas for a path I'd like to see:

1) Some sort of plane hopping save the multiverse sort of affair...maybe with some elements like in the Planescape computer game where the party might actually be important and somehow don't recall...

2) City game where all the excitement and adventure happens in (or say within a day or two walk from) some fairly large city (like absalom...magnimar...kaer maga...etc...feel free to use some sort of analogy to indicate good locations)

3) Something dark and Cthulhu in nature...they all exist in Golarion. You don't have to place it...but saving the world similarly to Call of Cthulhu in a fantasy game (insanity abounds) would be fun. Carrion crown touches on it in 1 module, but that's minor to an adventure path.

4) Lost tombs and an evil organization. Think Indiana Jones. You are travelling the world trying to piece something together...an evil organization is there at every turn for the same reason. Perhaps part of it you have to (get to) recover parts taken earlier from you.

5) Institution based campaign...say all focused around a wizard guild/college/church/thieves guild where the players don't all have to be that class...just affiliated with them positively (ain't traits great?) to follow their goals.

6) A new sandbox game like Kingmaker...though perhaps wait until there are new kingdom building rules...or think of another way to sandbox it (perhaps the town already exists...and you can go where you want...and the challenges are placed based on exploration rather than preset so that it's more sandbox than kingmaker was.

7) How about events surrounding the death of a god (set in the past of a generic world where a type of god (Aroden's type would be cool) starting from before it happens to some of the messed up stuff caused by it.

8) WAR!!! early on have the players be scouts or some such...losses induce promotions...they get more control...eventually they get put in charge...hope they win :)

9) Cataclysm. Comet strike/supervolcano/major demon or devil invasion/whatever, perhaps caused by evil sources...survivors try to recover, or win back the lands from the demons.

10) Something Dynastic a la Birthright...only perhaps pass some time and let characters age/retire/kids/etc...

11) Instead of plane hopping, pick 1 or 2 planes...have the entire campaign set there dealing with the intrigues of angels/devils/demons/azata/etc...

I'm sure I could go on...but this is a pretty stout list already.

There's a 3rd party supplement called Trailblazer for 3.5 that has 2 things I use with regularity...though they only had 2 things in it I really liked...and you might find at least 1 of them (maybe both) helpful. I especially find them helpful in large or strong groups or with very skilled players.

They had rules for Elite and Solo monsters. They were intended to be added and subtracted on the fly so that you could make fights more challenging/less anticlimactic.

The Elite template is pretty straight forward. Double it's listed hit points and give it a hero point. I don't always use the hero point for it. If the PCs are having too easy of a time with a fight that you'd intended to be challenging...ta da...they have twice the HP and a hero point to spend. If the fight goes south...you take it back off and the monster is back to the normal HP...and dies..or from the next hit...whichever works for you.

The Solo is same idea...more dangerous. I've only used it 4 times...all as BBEG for a campaign where the party didn't need to kill a bunch of stuff to get to him so they were fresh for the fight. In this case, you multiply it's HP by the number of PCs (dangerous no?) facing it. Give it 1 hero point per PC. Also for the Solo...if a PC goes down...drop it's hp by that fraction (or not...depends on how evil you are)

The other thing that was part of these rules were extra hero points. If you think an extra hero point for the monster might make the fight more memorable for the players, give it one...plus give one of the PCs a hero point (I usually give to either whoever has the least or whoever is the most heroic...depending.)

The purpose is to add dramatic tension...not to make the players crazy at every turn. I find these couple things work really well to make certain fights more fun.

@Brodyz
That's what I was thinking was probably the case, and I might use him as you wrote him...unless they're still doing well on spells...or they do it first...in which case I'll switch him out. Either way, I'll let you know how it goes.

This is excellent. I'm totally going to steal all your hard work probably starting tomorrow when my players finish Broken Moon. I am curious though why you made Crove 5/5/3 instead of 3/3/7 (which would make him a better caster). Does he get something from domains/specialty at 4 or 5 that makes it worth him giving up 5th level spells? Or was it to tone him down a little since he's 13th level?

So I was reading the spell Call the Void. In the text it says that people adjacent to the caster can't cast spells with somatic components. It also says that they can't speak. I assume that part of this in error. If you can't speak, then you should be able to cast Verbal spells...but Somatic should be okay. Otherwise, it should say that you can't cast verbal or somatic spells.

I didn't mind the death penalty in EQ back in the day...losing xp...and occasionally a level sucked...but it made me cautious. On the other hand...I'd never be willing to PVP in a game like that. I even enjoyed when they had some temporary permadeath servers...but it was all PVE so I could manage my risk. Even with those penalties people managed to go and get other people killed...and that wasn't fun...and dealing with griefers isn't fun either...but I've encountered them on every PVP server in every game I've tried.

Based on what I've read about this game...it looks as if it's set to be similar in nature to a fantasy version of EVE online. I'm curious if my observations are correct. Based on reading of Goblinworks' website...it suggests that it's going to be skill based and that your skills will go up over time (like in EVE...and such that early adopters of the game will always be better than newer players). It will have a player built economy (also as described sounds sort of like EVE). The PVP virtually everywhere again (with penalties in some places) again sounds like EVE...and guarantees the best to the early adopters in a good group.) Lastly...I heard from a friend that they've even talked to the people at CCP about using parts from EVE. Anyone have any input or info??

Sadly...everything I've read and heard suggests to me that this game will basically a fantasy version of EVE online...which unfortunately holds no interest for me.

I don't mind it being skill based in theory...but if I have to click to make thousands of swords to be a skilled weapon smith...forget about it. More likely, judging from some scuttlebutt I've heard...it'll be more like EVE's skills...and I have no interest in having to play forever to get good at anything.

Personally I like RPGs...and MMOs too...because I like to fight the crazy dragon...save the world...and what not. I like the idea of being able to conquer land (from the wilds...not from another player) and building it up and expanding it (again...from the wilds...not from other players) If I have to PVP to do this...or to keep it once I've done it...I don't think I'll be very interested.

Back in 3.0 I ran a planar war type campaign. It started out at lower level with some foreshadowing of a few things. I don't know how I'd run it in PF though as they changed the cosmology somewhat. Mine revolved around the great wheel....and the gist of it is that something sealed off the grey wastes. This created a sudden cease fire to the Blood War...mostly because their favorite battleground got closed. The Demons and Devils suddenly had a lot of free time on their hands. The players got involved because of a major invasion on the prime (I also wanted an excuse to make some major changes in my campaign world after.) This led the party to try to find solutions...and they then discovered that the blood war had spilled over all over...and drew in lots of places (pretty much anywhere and everywhere I felt like using.) Ultimately this led to a discovery of what was behind it and an attempt to fix it. You could skip that part and just have the wars go on if you'd prefer...but I like big heroic endings...and in my case they led to some dead gods, some new gods (including some of the PCs...which the players really liked) Now that I've given you the gist of it...I may have to think about a PF version...and run a similar story...since I've got a new group now.

Sadly, there's not much you can do with inept groups. One of the groups I used to play with was fairly inept...and the GM killed half (or more) almost every session. I think though, that with an inept group, almost every character of most classes is weak (except the alchemist...it's hard to make one of those that can't do a lot of damage in most situations.)

I guess you're right that there has to be opportunity for a rogue to excel. The thing is...if your rogue doesn't ever get a chance to excel, then I think it's players not working together. With all of the groups I play with regularly they always help the rogue to be in flank as often as possible (when he isn't coming out of stealth to attack) because with flanking he is usually the highest damaging character. There are plenty of ways a well organized group can capitalize on this.

I'm playing the rogue. For the first 2-3 levels...my damage was definitely not up to the druid and his animal companion...though superior to everyone else. Later we added an alchemist but it wasn't until after 10th...whenever he got the 2nd bomb that he even got close to my damage. I'm dual wield finesse fight so I hit often (though my strength was nothing until recently) but I get several attacks (5 now..6 if I'm hasted)and the only time I'm not flanking is if I'm alone and fighting from stealth...though not much can take the over 100hp I do in a round...but if anything did...I'd use the twilight knife spell I have in my spell storing weapon. At earlier levels I did less damage..but at 5th I was averaging maybe 35 points a round. In the group, the party makes sure I get flanking because nothing can match my damage output on a single target. If I can't manage to get behind something to flank...then it's summon time...or spiritual ally to give it to me. On groups, then the case is usually they have less hp and the casters nuke em (and I kill the survivors from stealth...and short of scent or blindsense or tremorsense, very few things can match my stealth skill.) No one else is sub par...the alchemist has always been consistent damage because of the touch attack nature of his bombs...now that he gets 2 (or 3 when hasted) he can certainly out damage me...especially since his bombs are lingering...so they do damage again next round...plus he gets splash. The wizard does plenty with spells...though not always...only so many high level spells...though also has undead with us...and his skeletons and zombies can (depending on what he's animated) do decent damage. The cleric is mostly useless for damage...but that's her build...healing and enchantment type effects. The druid and animal companion do lots of damage...and since they're both large or huge they tend to draw fire...but their lot's is half what I (and the alchemist do) and the guy playing the fighter quit playing the fighter because he felt useless...and made an even more useless character...but I think that was his point.

I just don't seem to have the trouble everyone else seems to have with my rogue. I've even wasted some talents and feats because I wasn't sure where I was going with it. In my current game the only person that can come close to my damage output is the alchemist...and it only since 11th level. Now at 12th level I consistently do over 100hp a round damage. It's not that hard to arrange flanking consistently...or attack from stealth. In Serpent's Skull I've twice stealthed into a major encampment and killed the boss without him even acting, then managed to get out and rejoin my group to make an assault now with them leaderless. The GM isn't afraid to kill PCs either...he lets the dice fall where they will. My stealth is high enough that very few things can even perceive me unless they have scent or blindsense or some such...and even those don't prevent my attacking from stealth..it just means they know what square I'm in. Even soloing I can manage to arrange flanking...spell storing weapon with a Twilight Knife spell...and now I'm flanking for several rounds. In the group...if no one can get into flanking with me...the cleric casts spiritual ally..or the wizards summons a monster (or several off a lower chart so I'll have spares in case the big bad monster kills the thing that's behind it instead of the thing that's actually killing it)...and I'm flanking...I've got enough acrobatics skill to consistently tumble past monsters to be easily able to flank with the party. Even healing isn't really a problem since the cleric has channel and quick channel. The only time I (and now the alchemist) don't do the majority of the damage...is if there are a lot of opponents...and then the casters just blast em with area of effect stuff that hits many or all.

I was researching Regen/Fast Heal for something the other day for something similar...and there was no answer per RAW that I could find...however the ruling I made was that since any healing stops bleed, the fact that though regen is applied whenever (I usually do at the beginning of their turn) it's effectively healing non stop...so I just ruled that regen trumps bleed so it never happens. Ditto with fast heal. Sure it weakens bleed abilities, but that's the benefit of a fast heal or regen mob....and like the regen...it also weakens all damage dealt not of the flavor that stops its regen.

I've run RotRL, Kingmaker, currently running CotCT and SS (plus all the ones from Dungeon...but that was pre PF), and for all but CotCT I allowed 25 point builds (32 point back in 3.5.) My players rarely take feats or options that would be described as roleplay or suboptimal. I don't make many changes (except that if I have more than 4 players, I up the HP closer to or = to max) and I find that there are plenty of encounters where they get to steamroller the monsters...and plenty where they are lucky to have survivors at all. Once in a while if there's an encounter that I don't want to be an anti climactic fight...I steal an idea from the Trailblazer book...they have elite and solo templates. I use the elite at least once per book...for a fight that I feel should be climactic and more challenging. I've used the Solo template 3 times...and 2 of those times I dropped pulled the template part way through the fight (after it was suitably climactic.) Maybe I play the smart monsters smarter than they're written...because I often ignore listed tactics.

Oh...another idea...FYI...a non undead/outsider/cleric/paladin don't even detect as evil until level 5 or 6 (depending on which way your DM reads the typo on the table...which hasn't been fixed in 4 printings.) Also there's a cheap UA item in Curse of the Crimson Throne Seven days to the grave.

Interesting ideas. I don't understand why people think the rogue is weak though. I've got a rogue in campaign at the moment...Serpent's Skull...and the only character that comes close in damage is the alchemist...who does a bit more...and everyone else far behind in damage dealing.

I ran a campaign a few years ago where the players had been pestering me because I don't normally allow evil characters. I agreed to their request and the whole party was Lawful Evil. We talked about it..and since they were playing evil characters, I didn't start off with a set story in mind. They got together and came up with a brilliantly evil plan...and set off to fulfill it. To this end...they acted more Lawful Good than any group I've ever run with before or since (and I've been gaming 35 years.) In towns they volunteered to help out with problems. They refused rewards for their good deeds. They hunted down the vile and evil and put a stop to them. They also did lots of recruiting of the vile and evil outside of the eyesight of the average people. You could do the same sort of thing with a LE character running with a paladin...be more LG than he is...make him feel bad that he's not living up to your standards...make all of the people love you...and bide your time working towards your great evil goal. I recommend coming up with one that won't affect the paladin's good standing...maybe find a nice country to take over (from the evil forces running it...and then build it's army to crush other big evils. Make sure you're working to convert the bad guys to your way of thinking...be lawful...be organized...hide the evil until the grand reveal. If you're the only evil character, have the DM on the inside of your plan...and maybe turn your character over to the DM to become the BBG for the next campaign (or the continuation of this one.)

good point...totally spaced that part out for some reason. Was having flashbacks to the end of kingmaker because when they caught the villainess..she was indoors and not out of reach of one. Sure she had watched them and prepared for her tactics...but they had never used any tactics even relating to that...so I'd set up big indoor thing in her castle and was caught off guard.

Okay...so my PCs are coming up on Mhar Massif...so they'll be facing Karzoug shortly. I've tried to run this campaign pretty faithfully to what is written...and have had a few PC deaths on the way. I don't really want to retool Karzoug much or the encounter...but I expect my PC's will attack him by having their Wizard cast anti magice field and doing his best to follow Karzoug around. Any good suggestions to deal with this trick?

Thanks. Never really read the oracle...in my game I allow most anything and after browsing my books...the guy playing an oracle whined that there were no new spells...clearly I either need to babysit his characters (not going to happen) or leave him to figure this out himself. As an aside...if they use cleric spells...wouldn't it make sense to change the lists to Cleric/Oracle similar to Sorcerer/Wizard?

Was unaware of that...but if that's the case...why isn't it listed as oracle/cleric like the arcane gets sorcerer/wizard? Just saying...and as an aside...I don't play an oracle...the question came from one of my players...and I generally trust them to handle their class without my input.

So I picked up Ultimate Combat and Inner Sea Magic yesterday. Really liked them...but I noticed out of all the new spells, all the spell casting classes got some spells...except the oracle. Deliberate omission or mistake?

So I was looking at the new spells in UC...and noticed that of all the classes...the Oracle got no new spells. Even spells that went to every other divine class didn't go to the oracle. Mistake or lack of oralce love?

I had a campaign once centered around various alternate worlds. The campaign started with the characters all waking up inside a henge...they never met before or knew where they were know. I let them all have whatever background they wanted from whichever world they thought they should be from.

Seems to me the creation of the crossbow was the downfall of the longbowmen...because it took years to train an archer and day to train a crossbowman. Consequently I have a hard time with a crossbow as an exotic weapon proficiency. Really the big game difference between bow and crossbow is the threat/crit ratings...and the fact that in general a bow can be fired faster. With rapid reload though you can use a light crossbow pretty much like a longbow...and then the difference becomes whether you want 20/x3 or 19-20/x2. If you want there to be more reason to use a crossbow...shift up the reload speeds on crossbows in your game...then with rapid reload you could use a heavy crossbow.

All this for only +2? What were they thinking?

I know....right? I made it a +4 when I had it in a 3e game of mine.

Aside from that...if the template is for a monster/npc no need for a change. If you were planning on letting a PC take it, I'd recommend major changes as you turn it into a prestige class...maybe 5 levels.

So here's my problem. In my game the ruler is a priest of Gorum. He's been asking about armies since he started building. I put him off for quite a while with "kingdom not big enough to support any worthwhile army" so instead he's been making sure all the towns have good defensive buildings (castles, walls, watchtowers, etc.) and have been saving up a war fund as he's been wanting to build and army and attack...waiting for being attacked be damned. So now having started Blood for Blood and had his town be attacked (though with all the defensive buildings it was a joke fight anyhow) the players have gotten a little annoyed.

Needless to say they immediately wanted to begin building an army...and have armies being trained in every town. They have decided that they need to preemptively strike at their enemies.

While the armies were being trained, they took out Fort Drelev and Armag (which almost derailed everything when the General got Ovinrrbaane since he's a Gorumite also).

Now that is finished they want to start a war on another country because it's what Gorum would want...and based on their knowledge their closest options are Brevoy or Pitax...and they are still allied with Brevoy and Pitax is just a random country over there that should be part of their country.

Any suggestions?

Party used dispel magic...several in fact. Sadly at L6 they get a d20 +6 vs a target of 19. Less than 50% chance to take anything down. With dispel magic in PF, you don't get to roll against multiple spells...so if you try an area, you get 1 roll and if it fails to take out the highest level spell, if they are all cast by the same caster, then you fail to take out anything. On a targetted dispel you only have to roll the DC...and that is higher for higher level spells. They only thing they succesfully dispelled was the mirror image...which actually enabled them to do a little damage.

Stinking cloud might've been a good idea since it would've ignored SR, however since she can fly she'd have just moved out. Even with nausea still would've been hard to hit though it might've been unanswered if she failed her saves vs it. Though with a +13 vs poison, she probably would've saved against it.

You are half right about the alchemist. It did the most damage. It got killed first.

Sadly my search fu is weak.

Perhaps it normally does stat blocks that way...but in her stat block...it includes +1 AC from her tunic but none from the mage armor spell which would increase it by 3 more, there is not listed in her stat block for the shield spell, which is another 4, and there is none listed for haste which is another 1. This nets her buffed AC as 34, not the 26 listed.

I actually used a GM caveat to not end the story there since they had discovered that the place was apt to fall at any time and had the falling bell weaken the structure so it collapse. Still most everyone was dead by then.

If you're hoping for a TPK, Xanesha is the fight for it. She's virtually unkillable by a party of L6 characters, even with good tactics because her AC makes her almost unhittable (she buffs to a 34...which will require most of your players need a natural 20 to hit) and even if you do hit...it's just going to hit an image probably. On top of that, all but a High AC target is apt to be hit 3 times a round (out of 4 swings) doing 48 points of damage on average killing pretty much any character at this level except the high AC/high HP tank.

There was no kinda TPK against the Lamia. I ran this encounter yesterday. The only survivor was the player who couldn't make it yesterday. She's virtually unkillable by the party at a CR 4 above the party level...my party was L6...they'd have made L7 at the end. The tank...when he was flanking, hasted, and above her...needed a 15 to hit...and that was after having his Str buffed to a 26. Everyone else needed a natural 20 to hit. She does after all have an AC of 34. It's listed as 26 in her stat block, but given she buffs with Mage Armor, Shield, and Haste that aren't part of that 26, it goes up by 8 (she already had 1 point of AC.) On top of that she's immune to mind affecting...which shut down the fey blood sorcerer, who only had a couple other spells to attempt that weren't. One was magic missile...shut off by the shield...the other was shut off by the SR18...which at 6th level with bonuses still left only a 50/50 shot of getting a spell off on them. On top of all that...even when she was hit (rarely) the mirror images applied. So then when it was her turn to attack, she averaged 3 hits a round (out of her 4 attacks) which had her doing an average of 48 points a round on a player, so she killed one person a round except the round she stopped to recast (recasted haste after it was dispelled). I ran it as written and even played her less smart than I might've, and it was still a slaughter.

Having read through the entirety of RotRL, there are only 5 other opponents with an AC that rivals hers. 1 being the other lamia matriarch, 1 being the creature from the Stoval Deeps, 2 being Dragons, and Karzoug. At the end of the campaign when the party is 10 levels higher, she still wouldn't be an easy hit for any but the fighters.

I'm curious how nice the DMs must've been on any run through that the party won...since I know that at least have of my players are fairly hard core about maxing out their characters abilities. I'm also curious how any group of the 4 iconics could manage it.