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Hey folks, while I appreciate having the blog entries repeated to Twitter, I really don't like that the attached links take me to facebook pages, which then link to the actual blog post. It's not so bad once, but if I try to follow two or three in a row, it gets old really quickly. I realize you're probably using a facebook repeater, but there are plenty of RSS repeaters that feed to Twitter directly.
According to the timeline of holidays in the Campaign Setting, there is a holiday called 'Jestercap' celebrated in Druma, Taldor and Andoran on Lamashan 27. Is is there any information elsewhere on what this holiday or festival might be? It's not mentioned in the entries for those countries ... or maybe it is and I just missed it ...
... well I think it's adorable, but then I had a hand i making it ;). Hopefully it gets the game some more exposure ... though judging by EN World it's already the talk of Gen-Con.
Background: Xqaluk Xquash was the greatest flumph hero the cosmos had ever known. As a
As such a decorated hero, he took it upon himself to hunt and kill the demon lord Andirifkhu, but only got as far as the doorstep before running into problems. As he approached, a terrible trap unleashed a curse upon the flumph, tearing him into pieces and scattering them about. These pieces fled back to their home, and soon discovered themselves unable to merge back into one being. Where once there had been one flumph, now there were eight. Shortly thereafter, a portal opened up, and they were unexpectedly sucked into another world. Oh dear! Character Creation Guide Spoiler:
Each of you is a severed part of the great Xqaluk Xquash.
Abilities - Use standard point buy to generate your ability scores Race - Flumph racial characteristics: • small size
Class - Choose eight class levels from the selection above. You can mix and match, but there may not be more than eight levels in any one class between you. There will be eight flumphs in total no matter how many players are present. Any flumphs not played by a player merge with an active PC to temporarily create a gestalt character. Basically this means in any circumstance where such a character needs to make a check, that player consults both character sheets and chooses the higher modifier. He also has access to all the abilities, feats and skills of both characters. Gestalt flumphs use the higher hit point total of their component characters, and split any damage between them equally when they separate. Equipment - the group my split the following (presumably the armour has been custom-crafted to suit flumphs, and presumably flumphs can wield weapons in their tentacles): +1 evil outsider bane cold iron [melee weapon]
Picture: The Eight Pieces of Xqualuk Xquash Character Roster: Nod Xquash - Abr2/Ftr4/Rgr4
I know Seattle is close to home turf for the Paizo folks, and PAX keeps getting bigger ... ... any chance of an official presence this year? Or a panel? Or just some PFS stuff? I'll mostly be there for video gaming, but will probably hit a pickup game or two if it's anything like last year. Anyone else going and planning on running some Pathfinder?
In case you missed it: Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook PDF will be just $9.99. #pathfinder #pfrpg (SKR) I am floored. Seriously, guys, well done - that's one hell of a lost leader. While I knew I was going to buy the book, I was wondering whether my players were going to be willing to buy-in right away ... now that is no longer in question. My group will be playing this game; please enjoy our money.
We've spent a few weeks in character creation so far, mostly over the internet, though we've done some work in person as well. As we're using the Pathfinder beta, the rules are a bit new to all of us--not entirely new, of course, but new enough that there have been some questions. Part 1: The Guide Here is the guide that I gave the group:
Of course, I made one mistake: while I meant to tell them they could have 15 points for ability scores, I was so used to "standard 3.5 point buy" that I must have written "25 points" by accident. By the time we all got together to talk about characters, many of them had purchased their scores based on these guidelines, and I didn't have the heart to tell them to reroll. Knowing what they will be up against (thanks to the devious gentlemen who wrote it), I doubt this will help them all that much when all is said and done. Part II: The Characters So far our lineup looks like this:
Observant readers will note that of the five characters listed, four chose to play fighters. Their "concept party" idea was that everybody would play a fighter of some sort, and multiclasss to fill another party role (albeit lackingly). Horrified by this idea, the fifth player decided to break the mould in an attempt to cover all the spellcasting bases herself. I look forward to seeing how this party functions in the Greyhawk dungeons, especially if confronted with Will saves. Part III: Questions The following issues or questions were raised by various players over the course of chacter creation. These are summarized below (with my temporary rulings):
That's it for now; more as it develops.
Literal interpretation of the rules would have it that a medium-sized character with Fleet (+5 ft base movement if not carrying a medium or heavy load) still has a movement of 20 in medium or heavy armour, even if he is still lightly encumbered.
Is the speed of a medium character in medium armour 20 ft regardless of other factors? Or is the speed of the a 35 ft base speed character 25 ft in medium armour? What if a small character takes Fleet twice to improve his base speed to 30 ft, then puts on medium armour? Is his speed 20 ft or 15 ft?
Almost precisely nine minutes into the latest episode of Commodore Hustle (LoadingReadyRun.com's web sitcom) is a D&D scene featuring a strikingly familiar adventure . . . and a similarly familiar deck of cards. Check it out! (Warning: Entombed with the Pharaohs spoilers!) Yes, it's out: LoadingReadyRun love them some Pathfinder.
While I realize the relevance of this post is questionable, as the Beta is already at the printer, I figure since my group is using the alpha, I might as well write it up. I just got back from our second session; we are playing Hollow's last Hope at level one. Some general observations: • CoDzilla is in full effect. Chrissie, the cleric of Nethys, uses her hand of the acolyte to dominate melees from afar. While spiritual weapon was already powerful (for using the cleric's Wisdom bonus to hit and damage instead of strength, and for allowing her to effectively make ranged attacks that ignore both cover and other melee opponents), the ability to use it at willmakes it just nasty at first level. In fact, Chrissie's damage output is so high that the group has adopted a new and very effective effective (while slow and boring) process for clearing the dungeon: Calum, the fighter (who used to actually use his two-handed sword), stands just outside a doorway where he can bottleneck whatever attackers are after him, and uses total defense. Chrissie then squishes the enemies over the course of the next several rounds with her hand of the acolyte. Thees players are not normally power-gamers, so it's surprising to see them adopt such tactics--especially ones that leave the sorcerer and rogue mostly useless (beyond firing range attacks through Calum at -8 to hit whatever he is presently tanking). Interestingly, I don't see Chrissie using a lot of her spells at all. She's been channeling energy to heal a fair bit, and using her hand for damage . . . but not a lot else. • Stella, our sorceress, very much enjoys her unlimited cantrips. Actually, the only issue with this is that they have made her extremely unwilling to use her first-level spells unless absolutely necessary, and goes entire days using only acid splashes and such. This isn't a bad thing--it's probably more a matter of getting a feel for the new game's rhythm--but considering she's been doing a lot of shooting from behind Calum, some magic missles may have been more effective. While Stella's dragon claws seemed effective at first, her low strength means she rarely hits with them, and her relatively low hp makes that a dangerous venture anyway. I llok forward to seeing her get cooler dragon abilities as she advances. • Calum is an effective two-handed swordsman, but he gets a bit upstaged by Chrissie. This is something that has the potential to work itself out over time--as his BAB breaks away--but at first level, its pretty clear that Chrissie is a more effective and consistent damage dealer, and he's sort of been reduced to a damage sponge. • CMB seems to work well for things like tripping . . . it certainly reduces rolls, and has prevented random combat maneuver lookups. Calum's Defensive Combat Expertise feat was very effective against some wolves. :). • I'm not sold on the new skill system's approach to "dabbling" as choosing skills at first level (where background-related dabbling is most prevalent) still choice seems like an all-or-nothing deal. I realize this will get better at second level (where class-centric skills get easier to pick up) but there have been some annoyed comments about it.
***Note 1 - these characters have fairly intricate backgrounds, which I wont fully detail unless my free time drastically increases. Their players could jump in themselves to do this for me, but I am leaving that up to them. For a quick summary, you can read the timeline behind the spoiler tag*** Spoiler:
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•Syrdu and Vunelda (Calum's parents) elope to Falcon's Hollow •Syrdu becomes sergeant of the watch •Stella is born to her elven mother Liandri, and human father,Kallan; The Elder Darkwood is struck by lightning •Shara's brother Ronald is born. 4686
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***Note 2 - Given the above, my players may read this thread, so please hide any comment regarding possible future events behind spoiler tags*** Calum's birthday had never been a cause for celebration. Years of experience had taught him that if anyone close to him was to die a horrible death, be tricked into killing a friend, or get turned into a silent, frozen spectre damned to an existence of eternal pain and misery, it was going to happen on his birthday and he was going to get blamed. He was, after all, born under a bad sign. Today, however, started without incident. On his sister Dosa's request Calum set out to Jabbs' Meats to deliver some freshly killed chicken-lizards for preparation and sale. After having a short conversation with Jabbs, he ran into his friends Chrissie and Stella, who began acting suspicious, and invited themselves back to his house. Like Calum, both Chrissie and Stella had been born under ill omens, and all three had grown up familiar with sharp looks and suspicious musings from their more superstitious neighbours. Recently, they had fallen under suspicion as vectors for the wheezing death, an often-fatal respiratory plague that had recently besieged Falcon's Hollow. Upon arrival at Calum's farm, Chrissie and Stella revealed their true motives for following him. Dosa kicked off a surprise birthday party as they entered, and the four of them feasted on chicken-lizard, while catching up on current events. Dosa gave her brother a sword from the local blacksmith that had been enchanted to look magic, while Chrissie gave him a fancy cummerbund. Although Stella didn't have a gift, she was happy to have several shoes returned to her, which she had left at Calum and Dosa's over the prior weeks. Celebrations were cut short as both Dosa and Stella were reduced to fits of hacking and sputtering indicative of the wheezing death. While Chrissie suggested consulting Laurel, the local herbalist, Dosa expressed concern that Laurel might, in fact, be a doppleganger, and therefore untrustworthy--Dosa's own fiancee having turned out to be a doppleganger only months before. She revealed that Laurel had in fact, come looking for Calum while he was out, but that she had rebuffed her for not knowing an up-to-date doppleganger password. Putting aside fears of rampant shapechangers, Stella, Calum and Chrissie set off to discover what Laurel had wanted, only to find her shop closed, and surrounded by a crowd of desperate plague victims. Wading through the crowd and telling those gathered that they were there to help cure the plague, Calum knocked on Laurel's door and and announced their presence. Laurel let them in, amid a coughing fit of her own, and sat them down in the parlour. Stella used her magics to shield herself and her friends from the horrid smell that permeated the house as they listened intently to Laurel's explanation of the plague. As it turned out, Laurel revealed, the outbreak of plague had been caused by a fungal infestation of one of the local springs. While she believed that she had most of the makings for a cure, she found herself lacking some ingredients that she had hoped Stella, Chrissie and Calum could retrieve from the Darkmoon Wood. Specifically, she needed elderwood moss, ironbloom mushrooms and a substance called rats' tail, which she believed to be in the pantry of the Witch of the woods. The group agreed to help, and set about gathering supplies for a trip to the woods. This done, the three proceeded to their first stop: imposing themselves on Thuldrin Kreed's easternmost cutyard, they bribed the thugs at the gate and pulled woodsman Milon Rhoddham away from a meeting to mine him for information. Upon hearing the gravity of their situation, he pledged to help them, and mapped out the locations of their targets: the Forest's Elder Tree, the Witch of the Woods, and an old dwarven monastery. Leaving the camp behind them, the group headed into Darkmon forest, where they were quickly halted for lack of daylight, and forced to set up camp. Their first night in the woods was uneventful but for some drunken carousers, who invaded their campsite in hopes of swapping stories, and reveling amongst company. Chrissie, who was not keen on reveling, sent the inebriated loggers on their way. Rising late the next day Stella set about guiding her friends towards the Darkmoon's Elder Tree. The tree, said to have spawned the Darkwwod itself, was struck by lightning on the day od Stella's birth, and while some of its boughs had been partially immolated, the fire had not been able to fell the heart of the ancient darkwood. Stella, feeling a kinship with the tree, had camped under its branches in the past, and knew the secrets of its location. En route, however, the group heard the crying of an animal from over a bank to the west. Climbing down the embankment, the Calum spotted a small firefoot caught in a cruel, hunter's trap. As he and his friends ran to free the animal, Stella saw a flash of metal in the foliage behind them, which was promptly followed by an arrow. This flew from the trees, accompanied by two large, nasty-looking crows. While Calum suffered the sting of arrows, Chrissie bid Nethys carry her mace to mash the head of their hidden source. Meanwhile, Stella showed her ancient dragon ancestry by downing a crow with a set of hidden claws. Even as their assailant fled, Chrissie took down the second crow with her levitating weapon, and thus ended the battle. While Calum destroyed the trap, Chrissie and Stella bound the fox's leg, and began nursing him back to health. They left him with a delicious razorcrow lunch, and continued their trip towards the Elder Tree. Here, despite encroaching darkness, Stella was able to spot what must be the blue, elderwood moss. As Calum climbed to collect some, however, he was attacked by a large lizard, which swung from a branch on its prehensile tail propelling itself towards him at a high speed. Fortunately, the lizard was not able to gain purchase as it tried to grab him, and fell prone to the ground, even as Calum jumped from the tree in an attempt at a leaping, overhand chop--which might have severed the beast's head, had it connected. Stella and Chrissie unleashed their powerful magics, and before long the lizard was felled. More careuful scrutiny revealed that the creature was a type of dragon called a tatzylwyrm, and that it was edible if prepared correctly. As such, the group dined well that evening under the Elder Tree, and was able to pack some meat for the next day's lunch. Chrissie used her holy energies to heal her friends, who were happy for some relief after a long and arduous day. While the night passed quietly, Stella awoke to discover strange, cloven hoofprints around their campsite. As the sun began its ascent, Calum climbed the elder tree in hopes of spotting a clearing that would indicate the cabin of the Witch of the Woods. Sure enough, about half a day away, he was able to spot a small hut right around where Milon said it should be. Thus, they packed up their things, and soon found themselves staring head-on at the very same domicile, which looked wild and partially taken by the woods.
The Rouse and Mike Mearls reveal the true nature of Fourth Edition. I knew it all along ;). Check it out :) => Inside Fourth Edition with Scott Rouse and Mike Mearls
I'm considering running E1 for a group of players who I don't think will take well to the generally visceral nature of its horror scenes. I like the module a lot, but I think the table will turn against me if I present them with the abattoir described. Any ideas on scaling back the general level of graphic nastiness while keeping things scary? Some of my initial thoughts: CT1: Death masks are replaced with hanging, wreaths of skulls, and tickets are still made of parchment, but are written in blood. Inside the ticket booths are buckets of blood, and some corpses that, on closer examination, have been bled like stuck pigs, though this does not happen on camera. CT2: As described (most of the horror here happens off-camera anyway), though Sathelbry's entire body is dragged on a length of rope, and most of his injuries are from blunt trauma (he is still dead, obviously). CT5: Instead of the nasty squishyness described, the brownies are tying victims to the wheel and spinning it, while other villagers take pot shots at the victims with crossbows in a nasty parody of the archery contest. CT6: As written; the trees are not incredibly anthropomorphic after they are changed. CT8: A number of brownies bring"trees" from CT6, while newcomers are offered free beers; Victims fed into the machines have already been turned into trees, and meet a nasty, but less sticky end. CT15: Instead of being incased in ice, the villagers have been turned into ice, and can be shattered or broken, or whatnot without things getting too gooey. This is tricky, as I'm not sure what could have caused such a transformation. Theoretically, I could modify the chiselers to allow them to do this, but maybe a better idea is to give one of them a different kind of Cerulean Ice Shard that makes this possible. If I make the chiselers able to "ice" victims, I run the risk of making them too powerful; if I use a shard to do it, I run the risk of confusing the PCs into thinking it is the ice shard . . . which could yield odd results Anyone else have other thoughts? Just to restate, the last thing I want to do is castrate the module's scare factor, but I think scenes of violent torture will probably illicit poor reactions from some of my more conservative players.
So something I've seen experimented with in other Organized Play campaigns is the concept of interstitial adventures . . . something that would allow players to play their PCs between "official" modules. The way I have seen this executed in the past is basically summed up as:
The idea here would be to give players the chance to roleplay, develop their characters, and establish friendships and backstories in a familiar setting. Such a thing would also (on a more personal note) allow me to run new Pathfinder material at my local game store as often as I like ;). It would be very cool to see such a program built into the Pathfinder Society from the get-go. Xendrik Expeditions experimented with a similar concept with its "DM's Mark" adventures. I never really got to play or run one of those, but (as I understand it) they allowed GMs to make up whatever kinds of adventures they liked, providing they followed a specific reward structure. This also seems like a cool idea for empowering local GMs to develop stories around their preferred play styles, and around the characters in their communities . . and that just seems cool :).
I can see a lot of incentive to go Rogue before taking almost any other class, if only for the skill selection. Fo example, if I create a first-level human rogue with an Int of 10, I can deck him out with nine skills. Let's say I take the following: Acrobatics (C), Appraise (C), Craft (C), Fly (cc), Knowledge (arcana) (cc), Linguistics (C), Profession (C), and Search (C) and Spellcraft (cc). Now I take a level of Wizard, and chose Escape Artist as my skill pick. It is a class skill because I have a level of Rogue. Now My skill list looks like this: Acrobatics (C), Appraise (C), Craft (C), Escape Artist (C), Fly (C), Knowledge (arcana) (C), Linguistics (C), Profession (C), and Search (C) and Spellcraft (C). So I now have a wizard who can tumble just as well as a rogue of his level, use escape artist as well as a rogue of his level, and search for high DC traps as well as a rogue of his level. Hey if he's got an Int of at least 12, why not give him Theft as well so that he can disarm traps and open locks as well as a rogue of his wizard level. Plus, he has the maximum possible bonus for every skill on the Wizard skill list. Ouch! Of course, I haven't playtested any of this yet, so maybe it will come out in the wash somehow . . . |
