So I started my subscription after the PDF's for Player Core 1 was going out, starting it with Rage of Elements. I've gotten Rage of Elements, but there's no sign of my getting either Player Core 1 or GM Core. I sent an email to the customer service account, but haven't gotten a response. I assume things are just backlogged with holidays and such, but I'd like to know for sure. Any help?
Customer Service is working though an increased number of tickets as quickly as we can. We will get your books to you.
Followup to this, sort of. Got my books a week or so ago, so thanks you for that. After having read via the PDF, I was paging through my physical Player Core today, and saw some damage in the middle of one page that confused me. On page 97 (where the Bard Spells per day are), right on the 5th rank level 17 "3" that I'm assuming should be there, is a hole. The paper is ripped, looking like someone dropped a big pile on a corner of a table or something. That same page has some discoloration next to the binding. The rip goes through to page 99 slightly, making a divot I can feel but not see in the Key terms binding sidebar.
It's certainly not a big deal. Just something that might want to be passed through to printing houses and such as a "hey, may want to make sure you're not doing this".
So I started my subscription after the PDF's for Player Core 1 was going out, starting it with Rage of Elements. I've gotten Rage of Elements, but there's no sign of my getting either Player Core 1 or GM Core. I sent an email to the customer service account, but haven't gotten a response. I assume things are just backlogged with holidays and such, but I'd like to know for sure. Any help?
Been reading through the player's guide, and I'm curious about the thought process behind one particular rule. In Leadership Activities, it gives each PC in a leadership role 2 or 3 activities. Why is this based on PC or not as opposed to, say, invested roles? Maybe those actions aren't terribly influential, but it would seem to give larger parties (my group is likely to be 6, for instance) a distinct advantage over smaller parties.
In the Undiomede House. Party has just dealt with Albor Voltiaro, in all of his various forms, and decide to move on to the library they'd seen from below earlier. They step in the room, open to the elements, and see a couple of incorporeal figures.
Knowledge check reveals the Spectres in all their glory. I'm reading through the headings. Get to "Powerless in sunlight".
All pause. Players: "Aren't we here during the day?"
Well, that was an easy bit of experience. Only because it was late did I give it to them, but still. Putting creatures powerless in sunlight in a room open to the elements? Made us all laugh.
As related in my obituary post, Auren Vrood dominated the party thanks to good perception and low save rolls. After retreating, they holed up with the Prince's Wolves for a night or so (while waiting for replacement party members to wander through Feldgrau).
Since the book says that the Way is getting ready to leave, I said that Auren headed out, leaving the acolytes to try to move the skeleton 'army' across the land.
And then I re-read stuff. Is it really the case that the *only* way to direct the party onto the next book is by bringing Auren's head to the ghost? My party has avoided that particular building thus far--I could easily see other parties doing the same, and destroying Auren's body before speaking with the ghost.
Am I missing another way? Anyone have any suggestions as to another way to direct them on?
Best critical hit I've ever seen was against a PC. Our (enlarged) bugbear barbarian with a maul was the subject of a mirror of opposition--and took a critical hit (open ended) that dealt some near triple digit damage when he had around 90 total hit points. The PC survived, barely...and from then on out had a massive ego. "Damn, I hit HARD!"
My group has been playing with the open-ended critical hits for years. Only requires threats to continue, but the excitement level with each consecutive is wondrous to behold. And I think it's far more balanced than an instant-kill, anyway.
The Gory Details: The party has decided to take out the cultists as quickly as possible before facing off against the Demon Wolves. They've just recovered the heart of the packlord, and decide to use their rope of climbing to go up the back side of the old tower. The skeletons on the top of the tower spot them, and a brief combat ensues...but comes to an end when Simon uses Stone Call to drop a rain of stones on top of the building.
They then enter through the top of the tower, climbing down the rickety stairs to the bottom. Auren Vrood sees the first one (an elven mage) coming around the corner and promptly throws a Circle of Death in the middle of the tower. Three bodies just drop dead...and with a failed spellcraft check, there's no known cause. A quick retreat back down the rope occurs.
RJ: I have no problem with letting them do so. I think it might be fun. But I also don't want to force it on them, as the rules seem to indicate--once you have it, you have it.
TD: It's the character who wants it, not really the player. But again, at that point, it's too late.
Included in spoilers just because. Dale, if you are reading this, stop here.
Spoiler:
Throughout Broken Moon, four of the five PCs have contracted lycanthropy. Thus far, the full moon hasn't hit, but it's about three days away (should hit just about the time they make it to Feldgrau).
The players (and PCs) are pretty sure that they'd been infected. So, the resident wizard has been spamming Remove Curse like mad, two to three a day. They have not yet tried any of the wolfsbane despite my suggestions. They also haven't picked up on my suggestions (from both Cybrisa and the Prince's Wolves) to seek a cleric ASAP if they don't wish to join their tribes--since it needs it cast by a 12th level cleric to cure.
Now, I really don't want the game to end because the majority of the party goes beast. I also don't want to ignore the curse completely (and indeed, one of the PC's is actually looking forward to the change). So I'm looking for suggestions for post-change cures.
The one thing I've come up with so far is "a dose of wolfsbane every night at midnight for one month"...which obviously would be problematic as they'd be wolf-form for three of those periods and not wanting to take the cure.
The Lodge went pretty well for my group, though they heavily questioned the spider's lodgings and how it got out during it's attack. Basically just let them go as they wished, keep track of how much Estovion knows about them, and deal with it that way. The key is that you have to give them a reason to *want* to go to the temple--my players pointed out at one point that they knew that was the next stop but had no reason to go there.
Of course, that was before the deaths occurred.
As a somewhat related aside, they took on the Vilkacis in the shrine last night. Afterwards, I noted that it is noted as 9600 XP but CR 7--values that do not match. From the results of the fight (one character should have died, but since it was from the V leaving the body and the rage ending, I handwaved and allowed a stabilization check at -MAX; another in single digits, and a third pretty beat up), I decided to keep the XP and pretend it was a CR10. My guess is that was the intention.
I'd suggest if you're going to do something like that, have it based on the Fly skill rather than concentration. That is, essentially, what it was made for, I would think.
Tiran has a point, but I thought of a different problem. That basically amounts to aging.
If there are a limited number of building spots, then theoretically they'll all be claimed at some point. Even if they aren't all claimed, it's likely that most building points within any given area would be.
Imagine a new player six months to 2 years into the life of the game, lured in by the idea of being able to build stuff and actually shape the state of the game. He comes in, wanders around, looking for a good building spot. But everywhere he looks is already occupied. Sure, there are plenty of inns for him to rest in, a fort or two, but no place to call his own.
I imagine that player would be disheartened fairly quickly. Far from the 'make your own mark on the world' as advertised, he's found that all possible marks have already been made. At best, he's going to be able to hang out with others that have already made their mark, possibly help them in their own fights.
Does anyone know if queen ileosa's conversion match up with the corrections on the main thread? like her AC?
While I'm actually unaware of those particular conversations, I did all the math myself, ignoring the values that existed in the book. So they *should* be accurate.
One of my players *always* rolls low. Seriously, she had a character with a 6 and an 8 once, with a high of 15...on 4d6 drop the lowest. On the other hand, I have a player who *always* rolls high. I don't think I've ever seen a character of his without at least two stats of 16 or higher.
This even goes if they roll for each other, which we've tried.
So I'm looking at changing things up for the next campaign. Going to try a matrix--there are six players at the table (counting the GM). Everyone rolls a set of stats (according to whatever method you desire). Arrange in a matrix:
In the past I have used an attack of opportunity to snag a potion from the hand of the cleric about to drink it. On my turn, I backed away and drank it myself--free healing!
I have also used my arcane bond to use feather fall on a thunderstone that was supposed to be an alarm. That particular alchemical item is still in my inventory.
I've also seen a coup de grace attack deal some incredible damage (to a held but not unconscious pc). If I recall correctly, the requisite fort save ended up being a DC 89. Of course, she rolls a natural 20.
So stats 11, 17, 14, 14, 13, 16, the feats and skills as listed, BAB +5, 37HP.
Also, keep in mind the stats in the book are assumed to be the average of the race, so making him take those stats would be as if you made a normal human take all 10s and 11s. What would be "expected" is that the stats would be +6 Dex, +4 Con, +4 Int, +2 Wis, +6 Cha but otherwise rolling normally.
Not saying forcing the stats to stay the same is wrong, but they're a matter of convenience for representing the average racial specimen.
Herbalist and Charlatan are pretty good. I didn't use "Doctor" because it sounded a little modern. I opted for "Healer" as a "low-magic" or "non-magical" healing class title.
Could also use Chirurgeon if you want a more exotic-looking name. I've always been partial to it as a non-magical healing profession in game.
Simple question: can a creature with regeneration die from Constitution damage?
Personally, I'd probably go with a middle of the road solution. The creature doesn't die at 0 con, despite the rule...until they're even threatened by something that bypasses their regeneration. An attack roll would normally be made, then they die instantly.
The DM in our Kingmaker game pulled something like this, and got crucified by the players. As a player in a game, you don't want your character to die from something that you feel you have no control over. Even two fort saves (one from the coup de grace, one from the death attack) isn't enough when most threats of death come from combat.
I agree that it's legitimate, but play it cautiously. In the end, you know your players better than anyone else, so you're the best judge of how it will turn out.
The fallen that whispered in Harry's ear. I immediately thought of Nicodemus, but surely him sending his shadow self to do that wouldn't be cheating? So did old Nick's fallen break the rules by whispering? Or was it Lashiel cheating since he rejected her?
I definitely think it was Lasciel. Butcher's all but confirmed her story isn't done...and just because Lash hasn't been around doesn't mean that Lasciel is completely gone. And what better way to influence someone?
Quote:
Can Bob beat evil Bob? Or will the end result be the two spirits reform into one?
It'll be close. And somehow I'd forgotten that this was left hanging at the end of the story. I think they'll reform--Harry'll need Evil Bob's info at some point. And spirits without parts of themselves just aren't the same being--their Name would have changed.
Quote:
Was Mab the one killing all the mortals as the 'rag lady'? i.e. Did Molly not break the laws of magic?
Lea was probably the one doing much of the killing. Molly didn't kill anyone directly...but those she tricked to her death would certainly be enough to invoke the Doom of Damocles if the council finds out.
My guess is that somehow with Rick, his illness caused the skitters to delve further into his brain. So, despite the fact that he's been unharnessed, he's still attached to them.
I also think the harnesses are actually larvae of some sort--would potentially explain why the skitters invade.
One of my first times GMing, back in 2nd edition. PCs were waylaid by a party of drow. Completely surprised, over a dozen drow step out from their hiding spots ready to kill the players.
And I roll 14 straight 1's. To this day I've never seen a run of luck (good or bad) like that. And so, the crack drow suicide squad steps out, jabs swords into each other's guts, and fall over dead in front of the party.
--
Same campaign. I'd taken a page from Indiana Jones and had an invisible bridge across a chasm. Young GM, I'd given no clues to it of course. But, there was a player who'd wanted to play a new character, and I'd told him when he died he could. So his necromancer became obsessed with killing himself. He sees this chasm, and steps out into it, ready to die. Only to find himself on the invisible bridge. Poor guy never did manage to kill himself.
--
More recently, our group of adventurers was completely stymied by a five-foot hole along a mountainous path. Not even a "it's a long way down" hole, but a 15 foot deep pit. A couple small/weak characters who can't make the jump, armor check penalties causing others to have issue. We ended up with one character climbing into the pit and over to the other side, laying the full-plated cleric out across the pit (six feet tall and strong is good for something), and having the small characters use him as a bridge. Never thought something so simple could be so much trouble.
I am a new gm and new player. I will be running crypt of the ever flame module and the other two for a mini AP. After that I wanted to run the shackled city ap I bought. I was hoping I could just drop PFRPF on top of it because I do not have any of the 3.0 or 3.5 books.
Can I just replace the monsters in the AP with ones from PFRPG? Can I just drag and drop the PFRPG right on top of the shackled city?
Any one got any advice?
There is one repeat villain in particular that wouldn't be included in the PFRPG Bestiary, and without the 3.0/3.5 books, you'd have nothing to base his stat blocks off. It's been a while since I looked, but I'm pretty sure at least his early appearances are default and don't include complete stat blocks, which may cause issue.
That said, I'm sure you can find a replacement for him somewhere on these forums, or at the very least can get help in crafting a replacement.
They are 6 players of 6th level. The monster was of CR 6. On top of that, the players have their tactics down. they can easily handle something 2 crs higher with little difficulty. they more or less have the bestiaries memoeized. they do however tend to have more trouble when the monster appears only in the adventure, which is the case this time.
Aww, poor Kevin. So maligned in your posts, Dale. :)
CR 6 against a group of 6 Level 6 characters, yes. But the beastie was an aquatic creature that attacked us from beneath a frozen lake. Dragged down one of our full-plate wearing fighters after about half a dozen rounds of combat. We freed her and got out of there, while it likewise retreated to lick its wounds (apparently we were within a single attack of killing it when the mutual retreat happened). So, really--we were running from the circumstance more than the creature.
I noticed that the requirements for Marshal and Warden have been switched.
Was this on purpose or a typo?
It's not a typo. Traditionally, a warden is a rural defender and a marshal is a city defender. It was a complaint among history buffs, so we switched them.
Be honest, it was a complaint within your group. :-P
Death Spells: I have reverted every spell that does 10 damage per level of the caster with the death effect into a save or die spell.
(This was one of the few things I didn't like with the pathfinder changes, I liked the risk of death at that level of play to be constantly in the air.)
I kind of went middle ground on this. I made a house rule that basically says any [death] spell or effect, you make a save every round (suffering the damage each time) until you either pass the save or die.
Just throw nothing but lamias (with fighter or monk levels as needed) at them. After their 4th character each falls unconscious from having their Wisdom drained to 0 through touch attacks, they'll beg you to use monsters from elsewhere. :)
LOL *Evil Grin* Steev, did you read that? Guess what's coming tomorrow! >:D
Hey, you leave me out of it! I'm not the one who complains. :)
Fresh off the formation of the village council, scandal rocks the town when the young and decidedly unwed daughter of Devin and Banetta can no longer hide her pregnancy. While the young girl manages to conceal the identity of the father, most eyes in the village look to Conroy Buslem as the likely culprit; for Conroy's part, he accuses one of the Crompton boys.
Devin, meanwhile, retreated into prayer, leaving much of the grunt work in the village to the others. Without his stabilizing influence, tensions continued to grow, much as the young Wortherson's belly. Banetta, on the other hand, took to her impending grandmother status immediately, and was able to convince the others to spend additional time building a smaller hut next to her own for the new family.
The month ends with Lysanthir and the new uncle returning to the village; they closet themselves with the council for a while reporting on their findings.
Total Population 22.5
Buildings
Cabins (6)
Simple Shrine to Erastil (1)
Well-hut (1)
Growing but not perfectly attended crops.
Major Characters
Ottar Velsking (LN human warrior 1/expert 3)
Lysanthir Mistmorn (NG half-elf ranger 3)
Bornel Buslem (N human aristocrat 1/expert 2)
Devin Wortherson (LG human cleric(Sarenrae)1/expert 1)
I actually spent the time to make a Powerpoint slide that I update as we play; but then, all of my character information is on my computer as well, so it's convenient to have it all in one spot.
I'd also agree with the Hexographer comment, at least as a base. You'd still have to play with it for hex markings though.
Short answer, you are flanking when an invisible line drawn from the center of your square to the center of your co-flankers square crosses through opposite sides of the flanked creature's square.
In your first case, a line drawn from the center of P to the center of UR M would pass through the bottom and right sides, so would not be flanking.
As promised earlier today in the other thread, I've uploaded my conversions for Crown of Fangs. Rather than continue in that thread (unfortunately titled as just Escape conversions), I created a new one.
While I've seen gaming paper around the internet, I've never seen any in person. So I have a question about these--would they be suitable for long-term use with or without laminate? I've got this idea of a cheap file folder with a bunch of common shapes in it that I can use dwarven forge-style. I've just never found a good (cheap) base for it.
actually it can be done either way and its up to the dm to decide which method they want to use.
if the creatures are played smart, as a unit, working with each other, flanking, aiding, ect, give the cr +6
if its a bunch of individuals fighting for themselves, give the 8 1/3rds xp
The lack of a perfect system kills me. Doing a different kind of math for each encounter is probably what bugs me the most.
Basically what you said is what I'm going to do. If it was my own campaign I'd be fine with my own judgement. The fact it is premade, and the kind of person I am and the players I play with, we'd just hate to have the PCs win a hard fight because they were a level higher or lose because they were a level lower.
The bottom left of page 399;
Quote:
Keep a list of the CRs of all the monsters, traps, obstacles,
and roleplaying encounters the PCs overcome.
You award xp based on the individual creatures. The encounter CR is used to 'budget' the creatures/etc. in your encounter only.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the fractional CR's are just that--fractional. If you notice, it takes 4 CR 1/4s to equal a CR 1. 3 CR 1/3 to equal a CR 1. So the 8 Creatures = CR +5 doesn't really work at that point. Your 8 creatures would be 2 2/3 CR 1's...or about (but a little under) a CR 4. That would be 1,200 xp, which the 1,080 is closer to.
Oh, I just noticed that you didn't scale the non-monster opponents up one level, but just simply lowered the CR of all those encounters by one. Hm, I'll have to correct that, since I don't want my players to start lagging in their XP. Eh, easy enough. :)
I've actually found that it seems to be working out ok. My players are remaining the appropriate level for the encounters for the most part--the encounter at the gatehouse of Scarwall, for example, was just vicious enough to threaten, but not to take them down.
Hm, shouldn't succeeding encounters with less XP rewards result in a net lower level for your party?
I'll scale the encounters anyway, since I got a pretty powerful set-up for my guys ( Paladin, Wizard, Sorcerer, Inquisitor, Rogue ), but I am just wondering.
Yes, a net lower level--but the challenges are (for much of the path) effectively a lower CR. So it self-balances in that stance. Scarwall may prove to be an exception to the rule (since it's so many unique monsters with fewer classed humanoids), but we're just past the third encounter at the moment, so I can't say for sure.
For the record, my group (currently) consists of a paladin, a druid, a cleric, an eldritch knight, and an alchemist, with Trinia thrown in as a free cohort. We've lost along the way a fighter, a bard, and a sorcerer (all fun deaths--the fighter ran through a bunch of rogues unarmored, the bard got caught solo by one of the massive traps in the labyrinth, and the sorcerer got taken out by a red mantis prayer attack).
Oh, I just noticed that you didn't scale the non-monster opponents up one level, but just simply lowered the CR of all those encounters by one. Hm, I'll have to correct that, since I don't want my players to start lagging in their XP. Eh, easy enough. :)
I've actually found that it seems to be working out ok. My players are remaining the appropriate level for the encounters for the most part--the encounter at the gatehouse of Scarwall, for example, was just vicious enough to threaten, but not to take them down.
Personally, I have two potential theories for the ending shot.
One; it's Lara. Thomas seems to be playing ball, and Harry just proved that he can be a threat to Thomas. So, she decides to take him out to eliminate that threat. And she'd be the kind to use Kincaid's method, too.
Two; Black Council. Harry kind of ruined Cristos' show in Edinburgh, and with all of Harry's supporters (mostly the younger wardens) being imprisoned or 'disappeared', it seems that they're trying to eliminate that threat. The gunshot makes it seem less likely that this is the case--but then, maybe they decided to follow the laws of magic on this one.
I don't think it's Kincaid--the red herring is calling out too strongly for that. And I just can't see Summer (anyone in Summer) taking the shot--they know for a fact that the balance needs to be maintained.
Included in this one is a full conversion of the Umbral Dragon from PF #17. I've also made a lot of notes in this one, since it contains a whole lot of monsters from the Tome of Horrors series and the Advanced Bestiary, neither of which I actually own--so there's some fudging involved, and I tried to make note of where it was happening.
One thing I've only recently noticed was that none of the prestige classes within the Core Rulebook have their own spell progression. Either spells were removed (as in the case of the Assassin), or all spells were "+1 level of existing class."
I was wondering if this was an intentional design choice--is it likely that we'll never see a PrC with it's own spell lists and progressions? Personally, I think that's an excellent idea, as minor class spell lists rarely get new spells added to the list.
This came up as I was looking at the Red Mantis Assassin prestige class from the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP. They have their own spell progression, their own spell lists, and I realized at that point that it felt weird after looking at the core PrCs.
So, I guess as a followup question--if this is a design choice (or for those who don't know this answer, if you assume it as such), what sort of things would you give to previously existing PrC's to make up for removing their individual spell lists? Would you just give a '+1 to existing spells, if any', or try to give minor boosts to the powers of that class?
In my case, I did some minor tweaks to the RMA; their Red Shroud ability is now a rounds/day (like rage/bardic performance) and the dodge bonus increases according to level; I made the prayer attack get quicker to start/maintain as they gain levels, and gave extra uses of the call mantis ability. However, at lower levels of the class, it seems like the entire change amounts to 'remove the spells'.
Previous modules had been converted under the Beta rules, though I do have a version of Seven Days that converts to final from Jolistina onwards, if anyone is interested.
I was reading through my recently-arrived Bestiary today, and found some misprints. Misbinding is probably a better term. Page 136 leads into a repeat of page 129; straight through to 136 again. After that is page 153, meaning I'm missing 137-152. 153-160 are fine, but then get repeated (though no missing pages after that one.)
If it weren't for the missing pages, I would be fine, and could deal with duplicates. Since I am, can I request the process of replacing my copy be started?
I will put a replacement in with your next subscription shipment.
Thanks,
cos
Thanks a bunch.
Will return instructions be included with that for the defective one?
