Summon Monster VI's page

One of my players plans to switch characters after the party defeats the giant owlbear at the end of Rivers Run Red next session. He uses a character builder program and while building his new character (a summoner) he noticed the Cyclopes language among his options and decided that he must have it because of how ridiculous it was. Unknown to him is that Cyclopes is actually a relevant language in the next module, The Varnhold Vanishing.

Does it make any sense for a PC to have this language? Even in a world where people can learn the languages of angels, devils, elementals, and all kinds of other crazy creatures, I feel like this might be stretching it a bit for some reason. It could be that I'm just reluctant to allow it because it's almost too perfect to be coincidence (even though I'm sure it is) :|

In the next campaign I'm playing in, each of the PCs is supposed to be some kind of specialist called in for a job Ocean's 11 style. I want to play a shapeshifting specialist who uses transmutation spells for disguise and out of combat utility purposes. The idea is to take every shapeshift spell I possibly can (alter self, beast shape, elemental body, plant shape, form of the dragon, giant form, the works) so I have a very wide variety of things to turn into to fit the situation at hand.

Is there any way to make this at all combat viable using only core Pathfinder materials? I was a big fan of the Master of Many Forms class in 3.5, but never really got to play one in a serious campaign so I guess I'm trying to recreate that as much as possible with Pathfinder.

The two options I see are either an aberrant bloodline sorcerer or a transmutation wizard. I was leaning more towards the sorcerer because I tend to dislike prepared casters and also really like the idea of being able to turn into whatever I need on the fly. The wizard, however, has a huge advantage in that he doesn't end up with a bunch of disappointing spell slots when he gets higher ranks of the spells since a sorcerer can't unlearn enough spells as he levels to ditch all the lower ranks as he gains levels and thus ends up with a lot of redundant spells known. Not to mention that he gets bonuses to physical stats. Druid is out since they're limited to animals, magical beasts, elementals, and plants and don't gain a thousand faces until 13th level (not only is that very late to get to turn into other humanoids, but the game is planned to end at 12th level).

Is there anything brilliant I'm missing here that would make this work better? Is wizard the only real option? I'd much prefer to be a spontaneous caster, but I'll consider all options for the sake of the rest of the party.

I'm sure it's been done before, but here is what I changed when one of my players wanted to have a warforged character:

+2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Cha. I know it goes against the usual pattern of a + to each a physical and a mental stat, but this just seemed to fit better.

Light Fortification is also obsolete in Pathfinder due to constructs not being crit immune anymore so I removed this feature. This is also why I didn't feel guilty about giving him bonuses to two physical stats.

I left everything else as written.

I also decided that I didn't want him to have the Mithral Body feat (Eberron Campaign Setting) at 1st level (which is technically a 1st level only feat) but I promised him that I'd find a way to upgrade him with something like it later in the adventure when the rest of the party starts getting magical armor.

I'm thinking about giving him low-light or dark vision or something to make up for the loss of Light Fortification. Thoughts?

I just DMed my first real session last night. I personally feel that I did an awful job, but my players said they had fun and are willing to work with me while I improve my technique. I'm going to tell my story here and would love any kind of feedback that will help me do my players justice with this campaign.

Characters:
-Ichigo, human fighter. The player wants to play a character who evolves from kid from a small town to true hero. He lives with his little sister named Mia and his grandpa, who is another player character, Mr. Crane.
-Mr. Crane, human bard. He is an old man who gives his grandson, Ichigo a hard time, drops to the floor every time something dangerous might happen, and is always looking out for opportunity to profit.
-Archimedes, warforged alchemist. I updated the race a little for Pathfinder because the player had the great idea that he could flavor his potions and such as instead being small gears and parts he uses to alter his mechanics temporarily. I also added the "Repair" line of spells from 3.5 to his formulae list at the same levels he gets the respective "Cure" spells. He was built by an eccentric old man living in town who's original name seems to have been replaced with Doc Brown by my players. I accepted this name change willingly.
-Huck, human rogue. He's only been living in town for about a week, but he's already swindled his way into the house of Sheena, a somewhat rich, but incredibly naive lady. He's pretty much the last person she should ever trust, but he's a practiced con artist and like I said, she is incredibly naive. If you didn't guess yet, he intends to somehow get his hands on her small fortune.
-Chyuu, human (kind of) monk. This player is actually the little sister of Archimedes' player and frequently has anime conventions to go to on Saturday nights when we play. Because of this, I thought of the idea that she could play a summoned entity of some kind, who is summoned from a magical harp whenever she happens to be at the table. When she can't make it to the game, the harp needs to recharge or something and conveniently is ready to be played again the next time she is present. This allows her to customize her character in a way she finds exciting with silly animal ears, strange hair colors, tails, etc, without it being as strange as it would be under normal circumstances, and it also helps her frequent absences make sense in the context of the story.

The town these characters live in is small and situated in a slightly wooded area at the base of a mountain containing a shrine dedicated to the wind. I wasn't prepared with a good name for it, so Chyuu's player started calling it Townsville. I have a feeling this name will stick.

Next post: the campaign begins! D: