Taedin's page

My group is currently playing through Life's Long Shadows and are just making their way through the first aeon tower. I've been giving a lot of thought to the character of Thessekka, the xulgath in charge of local tower business, and I feel like I really want to play up her intelligence and curiosity towards such intriguing test subjects.

When they find her chambers in the forest tower it will be filled with calculations and analysis of their combat styles. Diagrams of the barbarian's theorized muscle structure. Attempts to recreate the alchemist's frozen ooze pops. Everything dissected and examined.

The conundrum I face is how to actually reflect this in combat? Give her a bunch of items specifically designed to counter them? That seems like a cop-out, and not terribly fun for them. Plus, she's all about mutagens and genetic manipulation, so something themed that way. I'm already running a four-person campaign with five players, so I don't feel like a little something more would throw them in the dumpster. And maybe it'll show them that hey, they can do more than just one thing!

The idea my brain keeps coming back to is giving her a special action (possibly a bonus action or reaction?) called Countermeasures, where she picks one of the heroes and gets some kind of bonus against their most common attack style for one round.

Rogue- resistance against precision damage. Barbarian- spikes to discourage grappling.
Alchemist- half-damage from periodic effects
Oracle- I dunno, he mostly animates dead and uses telekinetic blast
Monk- resistance to slashing (tiger stance)

The trick is that I want this to be memorable, like 'Holy crabapples, this thing knows everything about how we fight!' but I don't want them to feel like they're being punished for playing the way they are. Also, learning to adapt to an unfavourable situation is important.

Any thoughts? Advice? Is this a no-good bad-dumb stop-it kind of idea?

I just got my copy of Edgewatch #1, and I just wanted to show my appreciation for the included Interactive Maps! I've been running my games of Extinction Curse online, but even when I ran in person I used digital maps and these ones are GORGEOUS (especially after the admittedly disappointing quality of the Interactive Maps for Extinction Curse. Unless that was ever fixed, in which case I apologize and will happily re-download them.)

The first thing that stuck out for me was the lines. Everything is crisp and sharp, which is a godsend for things like placing dynamic lighting. I won't be able to tell until I get it in a VTT whether the grids are square or not, but even just at first glance they look MUCH better than I'm used to. Also awesome? I can turn off secret doors! That's always a pain in the neck, because while the base images in the PDF don't include the room numbers and such, that big S was always baked straight into the map and I had to poorly edit it out. Being able to do that with the click of a button will be a lifesaver.

Overall I just get the instant impression that Paizo is trying to make things easier and cleaner on us digital folks, especially with the times being what they are. If just these maps are any indicator of the quality of the rest of this campaign, you guys are going to knock this out of the park.

Again, thank you so much, I am so excited for this AP and this just made things 10,000 times better.

SPOILER WARNINGS. DM MUSINGS. NO ENTRY FOR PLAYERS.

My group is almost done with the Erran Tower and just faced off against Balenni the succubus, which ended in her escape. I've been trying to figure out what to do with her from now on, and I think I've come up with some neat areas to insinuate her further into the story rather than being just a one-off bad guy.

My basic thinking is: what does she want with the aeon orbs? I feel like she has great potential to represent a 'third party' trying to gain the resonant reflections and twist the orbs to their own uses. So I'm trying to figure out how to make that organic. Here's some ideas I had:

When she reached the Erran Tower she was bound by Cavnakash to gain her help in destroying the orb, which left her weak (thus the weak status when they met her) After Cavnakash's defeat, she made her way to Escadar to investigate Moonstone Hall to learn more about these orbs and where they could be found.

With the memory fresh in her mind of being bound against her will, she instead approached an intermediary to gain entrance to Moonstone Hall and gain information for her. Enter Mistress Dusklight. The two of them quickly reached an accord, Dusklight making contact with the xulgaths and sneaking out what information she could (and valuable relics for resale, though that wasn't part of the bargain) and Balenni providing her with protection from her enemies (primarily by charming Darricus Stallit of the city guard, gaining her inside knowledge of the organization's inner workings). Once she gains the knowledge of where the remaining orbs are, however, Balenni moves on to the next stage.

For Part 3 I feel like Balenni could approach the heroes proactively midway through to drop hints about the hag, as she's a bit salty about the Chaotic Evil souls getting snapped up rather than drifting down to the Abyss where they should be. Not sure where else I could squeeze her in, but the idea is that she's also going around collecting the resonant reflections and powering up.

My big issue is I'm not sure how to bring this all to a conclusion. Ultimately, what does she want? I thought of her wanting to taint the orbs somehow to slowly warp the Isle of Kortos into a reflection of the Abyss i.e. the Sarkoris Scar, but am open to better ideas. Maybe the big final battle becomes a three-way melee, everyone trying to wrest control of the orbs from each other? Also looking for more areas to carefully insert her into the background of what's going on. Ultimately I want her to be a rival for the power of the orbs, while also an ally against the xulgaths who are trying to destroy them. Sort of a back-and-forth relationship. Does anyone else have any ideas? Think this sounds like a promising development? I feel like it could be fun.

Please cancel this order! I requested earlier this week that my Rulebook subscription be canceled (see https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42okb?Cancel-Rulebook-Subscription) and I have already bought the PDF versions of the 2e Core Rulebook and Bestiary and do NOT need these physical copies! I hope we can get this sorted out soon.

Please cancel my Rulebook subscription, it's stuck on Planar Adventures and I already caved and bought the 2e PDFs.

Hey! I ran into a little trouble with my credit card (someone who was decidedly NOT me making all kinds of purchases) so I had to get it cancelled and wait for a new one. Naturally, my subscriptions went into Pending state during that week I was cardless. I've updated my payment method to the new card, but does anything need to happen on your end to that Pending order before it'll ship, or do I just need to wait for it to actually try to charge? Really looking forward to those books :D

Please cancel my Gamemastery Cards Subscription. Thanks!

Hi! Earlier today I purchased several of the Syrinscape Sound Sets, but two of them seem to be having issues. The "Swarm Attack Soundset" appears in the My Downloads tab, but it says "Serial Number: unavailable, please check back in a minute." It may just be me being impatient, but I'm starting to get concerned after six hours worth of minutes! Meanwhile, the "Earth Elemental Soundset" shows up under the "The following products have been added to your account, but are not currently available for download" section. I assume it's probably being held up by whatever is getting in the way of the Swarm Attack. Naturally, the Earth Elemental is the one I actually wanted out of all the sets. Any help would be greatly appreciated!