Its a beautiful spring morning day in Oppara! The dawn's mist has finally burnt away from the River Porthmos and by the docks the day's catch is being enthusiastically hawked from booths to passers by. Everywhere the wide avenues and grand plazas are filled with the bustle of commerce and law. As the sun rises in an azure sky towards its zenith the the air becomes warm enough for long coats to be discarded by the well dressed and sophisticated inhabitants. The glinting sun lends a golden air to the city so as long as you didn't look too closely you could be forgiven for believing that gilt still adorned the still imposing government buildings.
Tomorrow is the Day of the Grand Exaltation, where the Taldan nobility will don their finery and make an extravagant show of accepting a commoner into their ranks. Meanwhile, they will put far more effort into furthering their own agendas before the Senate convenes. In a pageant of elegant fashions, they will be vying for advantage. During a sumptuous buffet, they will be jockeying for position. And while Lords and Ladies twirl to magnificent music, who knows what strange bedfellows may arise!
I'd like to do a little session zero stuff before we start, to make sure we're all on the same page and that we've got a good spread of skills and that I fully understand your characters. If based on party composition you want to make any changes to builds or backgrounds or to purchase equipment (maybe some of you know each other) now's the time!
I'm going to try and build each of your characters in hero lab, so I may ask some questions here or in PMs. You don't have to use the herolab format in your profile but I'm more than happy to provide it (and the save files) for you if you'd like.
Some of you have already made profiles which is great, could everyone please try to get that done soon. Also could you please put hp, ac, skills and saves in your status lines for quick reference. Here's an example.
In Llewellyn's profile he has this (without the spaces for the tags)
Race: Half Orc Chelish Diva Bard 7 | HP 50 / 52 AC 23 T13 FF21 | CMB +9 CMD 22 | F +8 R +10 W +8 | init +2 | [ url= ...]Resource Tracker[/url]
Ever since young Prince Carrius II died in a riding accident the question of who will succeed Grand Prince Stavian III has kept loyal Taldans awake at night. Attempts at resurrection failed and Stavian separated from his wife Etroffe and refused to remarry, leaving no direct male heir. After Stavian would the crown really pass to a distant and untested cousin? What of Princess Eutropia, his estranged daughter, could she beat the odds and change the law of succession?
You begin as undercover agents of Lady Martella Lotheed, the illegitimate daughter of the prestigious Lotheed noble family and burgeoning spymaster. She has hired you to perform various missions during a large ball to celebrate the Grand Day of Exaltation. This is the biggest date in the Taldan calendar, a culmination of a week-long holiday whereby by tradition The Grand Prince elevates a commoner to the ranks of nobility.
This year's Grand Day of Exaltation is poised to mark a historic shift in the governance of the empire. Stavian's only daughter and eldest child Princess Eutropia has forged a powerful coalition of senators, aiming to reform four thousand years of inconsistent and often sexist laws. The reform effort kicks off with a vote to repeal the ancient law of agnatic primogeniture. The law states that royal power can pass only to a male heir. Lotheed supports Eutropia and needs your help to ensure the vote goes off without a hitch.
What sort of AP is this?:
This AP caters to the secret agent / power behind the throne fantasy. The PCs are Taldan loyalists, who are deeply invested in reforming Taldan and helping Eutropia claim the crown. This is the most RP heavy AP that Paizo have published, although there is still a fair bit of combat (much of which is indoors). In addition to physical combat expect social combat (verbal duels!)
Please note the way you go about things directly influences the kind of ruler Eutropia ends up becoming.
NB this AP is not supposed to be a commentary on US politics, I don't live in the US and have no interest in US politics.
I’m proposing to run an abridged War for the Crown, books 1-4 doubling down on the central conflict which is the battle for emancipation of female rights (plus sweeping reforms to four thousand years of archaic and contradictory laws) in the face of traditionalism bordering on fascism.
I aim for this to take three to four years in total.
Why abridged:
There’s a few reasons for this:
*I believe the arc of books 1-4 provides a fulfilling story with a few tweaks to Book 4. Books 5-6 feel like the sequel to a novel that wasn’t really needed. In addition Book 5 has a plot device that's likely to annoy most players.
*I aim to finish what I start and very few full APs have been run on these boards. The odds of completing the story arc are much greater if we aim for something a bit shorter.
*APs have quite a bit of filler content to give enough XP for party's to level up as expected. This harm's PbP pacing so I'll merge/skip encounters that are not important for the plot.
* Pathfinder 1st edition
* Level 1
* 20pt buy, attributes in the range [7..18] after racial adjustments
* All CRB races and others on a case by case basis. Taldor is primarily a human nation and at least half the party will be human or pass for human
* All classes except summoner are allowed, where applicable unchained is preferred
* Paizo material only with one exception: Elephant in the room feat taxes.
* Two traits, one must be a campaign trait. No drawbacks.
* Background skills = yes
* VMC is allowed
* Max starting gold for your class
* Firearms = emerging
* Max HP level at 1, average rounded up for subsequent levels
* Allowed alignments: LG, NG, CG, LN, N
* Your character is likely Taldan or has spent most of their life in Taldor, beyond that almost any background could work, bearded or otherwise.
* A profile is not required for submission but I want to see fully developed characters and builds with an idea of where you’d like to take them over the next few levels (i.e. are you building towards a prestige class or particular feats?) Gameplay hooks are appreciated.
Expectations:
* An AP is a multi-year commitment and keeping it going is a team effort. I’ll do everything I can as a GM to make combats smooth and the NPCs engaging but you need to put the effort in too. On average please try to post daily during the week and once per weekend. I understand real life happens so no worries if you go on holiday etc and can’t post for a while but I’d like to have a heads up on absences and a BOT ME section in your character profile to make life easier for me. This is especially important for casters.
* I will try to recreate your characters in herolab and will provide you the bb code upon request. I’m used to the herolab format although it does lack detail in some areas (e.g. FCBs and alternative racial abilities).
* I don't use XP in my games, you'll level up at the appropriate story points.
* I’d like to see RP and party banter and not just at the beginning. I want to know what your character thinks about the situations they’re in even if it’s not something they’d say out loud. Make this a game you and I want to engage with!
* Expect Verbal duels! (I grant situational bonuses for good RP)
* I use Google Sheets (+photoshop) for maps and for this game I’m going to require that you’re able to move your character yourself (or even better draw a line showing the movement you plan so I can figure out AOOs) most of the time. Google Sheets has a good Android App which allows editing from a phone. I don’t mind moving things for you occasionally but please not every combat!
* Please keep a status line up to date on your forum profile, showing current AC, saves etc including effects from buffs. Example
* There are ways of manipulating the dice roller, please don’t. Please be consistent in the order in which you roll dice for your abilities. E.g. the order in which you roll for crits.
About Me:
I’ve been running games on these boards since 2015. In that time I’ve run Cult of the Ebon Destroyers, Strange Aeons up to Book 3 (my players didn’t really like the dream quests so we decided to try some homebrew instead), Shards of Oberon (ongoing homebrew campaign), Ruins of Adventure (loosely based on the 1E FR module) which will finish sometime in the next six months.
I will select 5 players (possibly 6 if we have strong submissions) in two weeks from now at 9pm GMT on September 10th. Good luck!
This is NOT a recruitment thread but if there’s sufficient interest I will start one!
Ever since young Prince Carrius II died in a riding accident the question of who will succeed Grand Prince Stavian III has kept loyal Taldans awake at night. Attempts at resurrection failed and Stavian separated from his wife Etroffe and refused to remarry, leaving no direct male heir. After Stavian would the crown really pass to a distant and untested cousin? What of Princess Eutropia, his estranged daughter, could she beat the odds and change the law of succession?
What sort of AP is this?:
This AP caters to the secret agent / power behind the throne fantasy. The PCs are Taldan loyalists, who are deeply invested in helping Eutropia claim the crown. This is the most RP heavy AP that Paizo have published, although there is still a fair bit of combat (much of which is indoors). Please note the way you go about things directly influences the kind of ruler Eutropia ends up becoming.
NB this AP is not supposed to be a commentary on US politics, I don't live in the US and have no interest in US politics.
My Ruins of Adventure game will be wrapping up in the next few months and I’m thinking about what to run next, and War for the Crown caught my eye.
I’m proposing to run an abridged War for the Crown, books 1-4 doubling down on the central conflict which is the battle for emancipation of female rights (plus sweeping reforms to four thousand years of often contradictory laws) in the face of traditionalism bordering on fascism.
I aim for this to take three to four years in total. To do this I’ll need to ruthlessly cut extraneous content.
I'm interested by anything that can increase the penalties imposed by the Satire ability of the Court Bard.
I'm aware of Three Reasons to Live is there anything else? Most of the usual suspects for bard optimisation (e.g. Banner of the Ancient Kings, Master & Grand Mater Performer) only affect inspire courage.
PbP is slow and many games die in the first six months so as a natural consequence most of us are in multiple games.
I don't really have a problem with it but its come to my attention that some prolific posters are in 15+ games. I wonder how on earth can you keep up with that many story threads at the same time? I know I couldn't do it :) I think I'd struggle to keep even half that many personalities in my head without them all blending into one.
You are part of the Faculty of Archeology at the Miskatronic University located at Arkham in Essex Island. Originally Essex was an istmus attached to the stable Core but three hundred years ago huge chunks of rock during a particularly vicious upwelling storm eroded the land bridge away. What was Essex county became Essex Island.The Miskatronic University is one of the top three anywhere in the Shards of Oberon. You are either a post-grad student studying for your PhD, a lecturer or part of the University security staff. Usually days pass uneventfully and but today is different, an excited crowd of undergrads has formed the departmental notice board. It takes you some minutes to jostle your way to the front where you're able to read the note for yourself and discover what all the shouting is about.
An Expedition to the newly discovered and uncharted Xunlai archipelago! Dr Munroe Esq will lead the expedition, aiming to depart on 7/7. Seeking dig qualified archeologists (under & post grad), grade III certified airship pilot, lift crystal certified airship engineer and security personnel. Prospect of pre-sundering artefacts and uncontacted natives. Expected duration one semester, danger pay, double course credit! Enquires at the department office.
I can only guess what the last week has been like for your IT department, hopefully things are stabilizing now and everyone made it through OK. Anyway once the dust has settled, I’d like to encourage you to (at least internally) write a postmortem. This isn’t about apportioning blame, rather it’s an exercise to learn what went wrong, what went well and to ensure measures are in place to prevent future outages.
Intended as constructive criticism:
Something in your process needs to change, multi-day outages really should not be happening in 2018. My day job is in software engineering, and where I work we’ve (mostly) eliminate such outages. The process we use is kind of heavyweight in terms of manpower but it works:
* Big changes must pass a formal design review before implementation starts.
* All new features are developed behind an experiment flag whose config can be updated as a data push to the servers (i.e. misbehaving features can be typically turned off in moments). To spell this out: during development the server (including backing DB) and the client code will support both old style and new style $THING. This is key to stability.
* All changes are code reviewed, and every code change must include tests.
* All patches are submitted via a pre-submit bot and all tests must pass, direct commits only in emergency.
* (For simple projects) every evening, the last known good build (which passes all tests) is promoted to canary for internal testing. In addition a fixed percentage of live traffic (typically 1%) is routed to the canary.
* The release engineer pushes internal candidates to live several times a week (never on Friday), provided signals from the canary look good.
* During development, new features are whitelisted to internal users (typically on the canary fork of the website. This is typically backed by a copy of user data. In addition non-senesitve features may use visible on the beta channel of the website. Feature launches are gated behind a formal process (involving sign off from security, legal, testing, leadership).
* During feature roll out we ramp the launch experiment from (say) 1% of traffic slowly up to 100%. Some rolls outs take weeks, others a few hours depending on what the launch is and how much data we need before we’re comfortable with it.
* After launch the experiment code is ripped out. Again all patches are code reviewed and must submitted to the CQ and pass tests.
Of course mistakes happen…
* We monitor all sorts of signals from our servers and our web apps, and we have alerting which based various conditions pages the current person on call if it looks like something bad is happening.
* They would look up the alert playbook, which in the case of a major outage would instruct them to perform an automatic rollback. They’d watch the monitoring console (and test the website) to confirm the situation has stabilized, pulling in additional people as needed. The design of the system must always allow new features to be rolled back.
* The on call dev would file bugs as needed to inform the dev team of the problem who fix it in normal office hours.
* For customer visible outages we write a post mortem.
Some sorcerer bloodlines grant two level one abilities, what happens if you take a bloodline mutation? Are both abilities replaced or just one?
Blood Havoc:
Whenever you cast a bloodrager or sorcerer spell that deals damage, add 1 point of damage per die rolled. This benefit applies only to damaging spells that belong to schools you have selected with Spell Focus or that are bloodline spells for your bloodline.
This ability replaces the sorcerer’s 1st-level bloodline power or the bloodrager’s 4th-level bloodline power.
HERE YE! HERE YE! Let it be known that the City Council of New Phlan is seeking heroes to free the city from the evil hordes!
RICHES! FAME! GLORY!
The City Council seeks heroes of all kinds to battle for fame and fortune. Legends will be written about these adventurers...
See the New Phlan City Council for more information!
Long ago there was a computer game and a book called called Pools of Radiance. There was also a module (called ruins of adventure) I never did get to play, which I'd like to fix here :)
Recruitment will run until Sunday 1st October 2017, 10 am GMT. Shortly after I will be selecting 5 players. While I hope it won’t be necessary, if I need to re-recruit, first refusal shall be given to anyone who has posted a submission here.
Player’s Guide:
Background
It has been 50 years since the city of Phlan was a small but growing city on the shores of the great MoonSea. Trade sailed into to Phlan, past the fortress of Sokal Keep where the watch scanned the sea for pirates, into the small harbor at the mouth of the Stojanow River. Galleys, pinks, cogs, and schooners came from the merchants to the south, braving the sea to this small northern port. Townsmen offloaded pungent spices, dark woods, reptilian leathers, filmy cloth, gnarled barks, hammered steel, veined marbles—the riches of the southern shores. From the north came thick bearded men—men of the bitter plains, granite mountains, and icy swamps beyond, leading caravans burdened with silky furs, heavy wools, rare ores, straight-beamed woods, and the ivories of beasts long forgotten in lands further south. Slowly, with patience and endurance, the caravans plodded to Phlan meeting others, friends in the dwarves of the Dragonspine and elves of the Quivering Forest, foes in the orcs who came from the Tweenhill gap or the reptilian race of the swamps. In Phlan northman and southerner met, haggling, cheating, lying and drinking. Phlan was well on its way to becoming a prosperous trading town. And then the dragons and their armies came. At first the men of distant villages stopped trekking to Phlan. No trader came back with tales of new discoveries. The distant outposts slowly disappeared. Then refugees began to arrive. At first they were solitary survivors straggling in to lose themselves in the maze of the slums. Then families arrived perched on plodding wagons. They told stories of neighboring villages set to the torch, the humans slaughtered—or worse. Trade dropped off. Fewer caravans arrived. Fewer ships came to collect the scanty cargoes. The merchants were concerned. Scouts were sent. They returned telling of hordes of orcs, goblins, ogres, and giants doing what they had never done before— marching as armies with order and discipline. It was the fear of their commanders, fearsome dragons, that held them together. Towns closer and closer to Phlan fell, the stream of refugees increased. Cautious merchants packed their goods and left. Greedy merchants hurriedly amassed fortunes from the frightened people while keeping one eye always on the door. The Council fretted and fussed. Some wanted appeasement, some favored an army, and still others poured money into the walls of Phlan. But no strategy was ever agreed upon. When the armies finally came, Phlan was simply not prepared. For a day the Council watched the lines drawn up outside the walls—ranks of leering, skull-painted beasts dragging obscene machines of war. They could not surrender, for they knew there would be no mercy from these cohorts. Valiantly, but futilely, they mustered their men. Their spearmen were ready to meet the charge. From the start of the attack, the humans were defeated. They were out-numbered, out-fought and out-generalled. The first wave struck from the air—wheeling flights of dragons after dragons swept over the rooftops, setting ablaze vast portions of the city. As the flames licked over the chimneys, the attackers charged into the trapped militia. The Battle of Phlan was a massacre. In 50 years, however, the dragon armies have flowed and ebbed, leaving behind pockets of despair and desolation. These isolated domains cannot withstand the unstoppable flood of human dominance. Men have returned north of the MoonSea and are determined to reclaim their lost homes. Such is the case in Phlan. Although the city proper—its districts and its fortresses—are still held by the twisted offspring of the original conquerors, good men have managed to gain a foothold in the ruined city. Fired by the feelings of destiny and progress, they have set their sights on reclaiming all of Phlan and restoring it to its former glory. To this end, they are backed by a new Council, a consortium of the children of the original merchants of Phlan and new, eager speculators.
About the setting
* The game is set in the Year of the Lion, 1340 DR. It’s currently the month of Ches. This is before the time of troubles.
* Deities, Faerun has a lot of them! You may worship any non-evil deity. Pathfinderising their stats is a bunch of work. When in doubt start from the 3.5 stats for Deities and work backwards. Obviously before the time of troubles Mystra, Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul are still around. Cyric and Midnight are currently nobodys. If you have any questions just ask.
* The city of Phlan is a port of the Moonsea.
* A map of area around Phlan.
* An artist’s impression of Phlan Note this map is not accurate.
* During the prologues you will arrive at New Phlan via sea. The land route is too dangerous at first and the Stojanow River is dreadfully polluted with something that eats away wood and flesh alike.
* www.candlekeep.com good source for general Forgotten Realms lore.
What to Expect
* A campaign inspired by Ruins of Adventure (Pools of Radiance) and if all goes well The Azure Bonds. The original adventure needs substantial modification to adapt it for Pathfinder and PbP. While I hope to retain the atmosphere and overall plot, many elements will be changed to better match the format, including all of the dungeons which will be shortened.
* We shall start with prologues which will guide the party together before the proper adventure begins. This is an example of what I mean.
* There will be some political machinations but the main focus is a mix of wilderness and dungeon exploration, hack and slash against hordes of weaker monsters, and occasional boss fights.
* The game will have sandbox elements although just like a Paizo AP there is an overarching plot.
* Adventuring days will tend to be on the long side with relatively little downtime, the forces of evil are not going to stand idle...
* I will automate a lot of boring stuff for you. E.g. I shall roll initiatives and the majority of saves on your behalf. In addition I shall track hit points, loot, buffs and debuffs.
* We will not use XP, rather you will level up when it makes sense for the plot.
* Maps will be in google docs, I very much prefer if you can draw arrows to indicate movements and draw circles and so on to indicate spell effects.
* For an example of how I run combats, take a look at this. Players can post in any order but I will try to run the combat in initiative order. Players will get botted if I have to wait on them for more than 24 hours.
* You can expect consistent daily posts from me. I have a full time job, and two kids but I’ve been doing this for years and don’t foresee anything which will change my circumstances. I’m careful not to take on more than I can manage, while I’m in quite a few games, many are slow paced. If push comes to shove I’ll drop games I’m playing in rather than DMing.
Character Creation
* 20 pt buy, no stats less than 8 after racials.
* We will be starting at level 2.
* Max HP per level.
* Two traits, no drawbacks.
* Paizo material only (we can reskin feats and traits to match the Forgotten Realms).
* No technology (including guns).
* No Eidolons.
* Unchained classes are allowed but not required.
* Background Skills, Skill Unlocks will be used. Fighters get Comabt Stamina for free.
* Core races only, sorry.
* Alignments: CG, NG, LG, LN, LE only. To be clear I want civic minded heroes. LE characters can work, but I’ll only accept one and none if there’s a Paladin in the party. PvP is not welcome.
* 1000g of gear
* An alias isn’t necessary for submission but you will need to make one if selected.
* Please format your PC using the normal Paizo statblock, HeroLab’s output is fine.
What I’m looking for from you
* Consistent posting (an average 1/day minimum please, even if it’s just banter or internal monologue). Remember PbP is all about momentum. Always be pushing.
* A good strong background, this is very important - I will primarily be selecting players based on your writing skills and your posting consistency. Your character needs a strong reason for caring about Phlan. Whatever the reason, even if it’s a lust for wealth and fame, make it convincing! Oh and don’t make your background too long :) We’re starting at level 2, you can’t have done all that much yet!
* Good descriptive writing, not just dice rolls.
* Party banter! Tell me what your character is thinking, give me some plot hooks!
I have some new players with no D&D experience interested in trying a Pathfinder game but there are a bewildering array of classes and something like this would be handy. Has anyone tried to come up with something like that for Pathfinder?
I'm not convinced this is a particularly practical build, especially at low level. Still after level 7 the LoH and Channel heals start to get fairly nuts, thanks to the level 2 Order of the Star bonus. I wonder how high can the heals can go? Do things stack in the way I think they do?
Build: Tiefling Sacred Servant Paladin (for FCB), VMC Order of the Star Cavalier, Fey Foundling, Bracers of the Merciful knight, Phylactery of Positive Channeling.
“That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.”
This is a closed recruitment thread for Strange Aeons.
Hi everyone this AP looks like a corker! I'm really looking forward to it and I'm aiming to start on September Friday 16th. Note: please trust your GM, your characters are going to get savaged but with a bit of luck they'll pull through, and what a story they'll have to tell!
Character creation:
Any paizo sources
15 pt buy
No ability score below 8 before racial modifiers
Three traits, one must be from the Player's Guide. One drawback must be taken and RP'd to the hilt :)
Average staring gold
Animal companions are fine, but are legitimate targets.
Fighters have free stamina, other classes gain access via a feat
Both Occult and Unchained skill unlocks are allowed in this game. But, unless you’re an Unchained Rogue, or an Occult Character, you must take the required feat to access the unlocks.
No 9th level casters (i.e. no wizards, clerics, druids, etc...)
No eidolons
No evil alignments
Automatic Bonus Progression, with one tweak: You may choose to get the physical stat boost before the mental one.
I'd suggest sticking to core races, or something that could pass for one (true-sight is a thing)
Hero lab encouraged (I'm happy to help here)
Normally I'd ask for a strong background, however your PC starts in a fuge state (amnesia) and doesn't even remember their own name. Instead I'd like you to describe their appearance, mannerisms and personality.
Note the various campaign traits suggest you have a vague sense that you did something bad, but its all forgiven now. Not in this campaign. You screwed up big time, and you're not forgiven! It appears the fates have shown you some mercy (you're alive, and receive spells etc) but you did something very very wrong, even though you don’t remember it. As far as any gods or sponsors go, you start off on your last warning.
Posting expectations:
Realistically this is in for the long haul. I want to keep as much momentum up as possible without us burning out. Lets aim for a minimum of post 1/day with weekends being best effort (i.e. no worries if you're away). If you're going to be away week days please let us know so I can bot you, or eventually I'll have to find a replacement.
Most of you do this already but remember: Always Be Pushing. It really helps me and everyone else if your posts always contain a hook to help move things forwards.
Combats:
I think most of you have played with me before. I'll try and be super-organized in combats to make it very clear where we are in the initiative order. I'm also working on a fancy spreadsheet to keep track of HP and buffs, it'll generate a status block which I'll add in spoilers.
Readied actions are encouraged, the enemy will be using them against you too :P
Just like Niles does, I'll be using google docs for the maps. Please don't move characters yourself, instead draw movement arrows. Feel free to add shapes to represent spell effects or summoned creatures etc...
Fear and Madness Checks:
We're going to use the Ravenloft Fear and madness rules. The Cthulhu mythos isn't quite the same as Ravenloft, but atmosphere is very similar and these rules seem quite appropriate for the setting. Don't worry this is supposed to be fun, if your character starts to get too badly affected we'll discuss it and arrange something.
Dream Sequences:
The AP calls for various dream sequences. I've just found out it's possible to have more than one gameplay thread, as an experiment I'll be taking advantage of that to run dream encounters since I don't want to bog down the main thread with 1 on 1 encounters.
For the last few weeks you’ve all been passengers in the Tea Clipper Endurance sailing direct from Absalom to Niswan. Apart from a few squalls and a distant sighting of the occasional whale pod, the journey has been uneventful. You arrive in Niswan with the morning tide. Before long the Endurance is safely berthed and the ship's complement is unloading its cargo of wool with great alacrity. As you walk down the ramp to dry land, it feels momentarily strange that the ground is not swaying. As you look around you see a huge pile of crates ready for loading. The ships master Alliorm plans to return with the tide to Absalom with a hold full of the finest Jalmeray tea, from plantations deep in the interior.
As you walk down the jetty, you are assaulted with a sense of otherness. Everyone is wearing strange clothes suited for the hot and steamy climate, the men in loose fitting toga style cotton robes and pristine white turbans, and the women in beautifully patterned silken saris. There is a bustle of activity as dock hands and stevedores rush two and throw with large crates of goods. The hubbub of a hundred tongues greets your ears all in exotic languages, accents unfamiliar to most of you. Numerous street children crowd around you and the various other sailors on shore leave, yammering something excitedly in heavily accented Vudrani, apparently they attempting to sell everything from spices and tea, to fruit, small macaque monkeys, the location of upmarket restaurants and inns, and even tours of the red light district.
Welcome to sun-blessed Niswan! As you push your way through the crowd, you realize you are hot, hungry and have no where to stay. Before you left the Endurance, master Alliorm recommend an inn called Sāgara kā ināma, although he warned it would be pricey, what with the week long traditional Yolarati festival starting tomorrow.
Knowledge Religion DC 15:
The Yolarati is the traditional Vudrani Festival of Colors, the practice has died out in Vudra proper but it remembered here.
Knowledge Religion DC 20:
During the Yolarati the locals are seen wearing robes that were once white, but are now smeared with a myriad of colored dye. The normally reserved Vudrani citizens rub multi-hued powders on each other’s faces and yell exuberant, joyful blessings. Elaborate illusions of rainbow patterns, flowing auroras, and sparkling bursts fill the sky or liven otherwise blank walls. Laughing children splash each other with dyed water. The air is a heady cloud of fragrant flavors, and sounds of music and celebration are all around. Mouth-watering delights are generously available, as well as large mugs of thandi, a local drink, to wash them down.
Knowledge Religion DC 25:
The third day of the Yolarati is known as the Ātmā'ōṁ kī parēḍa or theParade of souls in common.
Knowledge Geography DC 20:
The Sāgara kā ināma is in the northern part of the city, well away from the docks.
Knowledge Geography DC 25:
The Sāgara kā ināma is located in the exclusive Maurya-Rahm ward with convenient access to the legendary houses of perfection.
Perception DC 15:
A swarthy man is loitering by a coil of rope. Unlike all the busy stevedores and street hawkers he appears to be reading a book.
The Isle of Jalmeray, a former outpost of the faraway kingdoms of Vudra, has long been an isolated pocket of Vudrani culture in the Inner Sea. Of the hundreds of gods worshiped in the island nation, the dark deity Dhalavei is among the most sinister, her cultists hiding among structures of power and established organizations and rotting them from within. Known as the Ebon Destroyers, Dhalavei's cult is growing in the Kingdom of the Impossible, and seeks to gain control of the Jalmeri government through fear, subterfuge, and murder. The thakur of Jalmeray has outlawed the cult, and in turn been threatened with assassination. Now is the time to bring down the Ebon Destroyers. But who among the Jalmeri can be trusted against a cult known for infiltrating even the most secure organizations?
This is a stand alone adventure for five 8th level characters (33000 gp of gear, 10000gp max item price). Rule set will be PFS legal, for non-evil characters (it looks like we have at least one player wanting to build a Paladin). I'm open to other content if it's well balanced (please ask).
Since this is a one shot lets keep the back story to 1-2 paragraphs per character, focusing on what you've done recently. Herolab character sheet preferred (here's an example of what I'm looking for). All the PCs know each other (how well is up to you), but by and large the islanders have never heard of you before. None of you are from Jalmeray, in fact you've just stepped off the boat to Niswan. Fair warning, the combats will be hard (but by no means impossible) and the party needs a good selection of social and other skills. Hardly anyone on Jalmeray speaks common, most of them speak Vudrani (please explain how you know Vudrani if it's a language you speak).
I'd like this to be a fast running game, I'm going to post at least twice each week day and I'll aim for one per day at the weekends. If everything goes well I'll run a full AP afterwards and you'll have first refusal on a spot.
I hope to start by Fri 30th Jan, but we can start sooner if everyone is ready.
I'm interested in building an Illusionist that works well from level 1-15 ish. I've never tried this in pathfinder and could do with a hand with sifting through the options :)
Build parameters: Ideally PFS legal, but this is for an AP (maybe Iron Gods) in a home game. Bonus points if it can be done with a single class and non-gnome (Not a hard requirement, I'm still interested if gnome is simply way better than the other races).
Should I initially focus on color spray? What after that? Is Shadow Conjunction worth building for?
It's always nice to have more spells per day, I know of a few methods for a bard to get more but, is there anything I missed?
1. Runestones of Power let you cast one extra spell per day
2. High charisma gives bonus spells, but you need a very high casting stat to get much out of this.
3. Arcane bond item (via Archetype or Eldritch Heritage Arcane) lets you cast one extra spell per day.
4. Indirectly via wands, scrolls etc...
5. Indirectly via Eldritch Heritage Arcane and Improved familiar (+ Fairy Dragon)
At low levels caster bards seem to work OK, although they don't get many spells per day. At higher levels that's less of an issue, however as a 2/3 casting class they casting 4th level spells when wizards are casting 6th so they'd need Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus just to keep the DCs up with a wizard who didn't take those (and the Wizard probably did take those).
There's Varisian Tattoo and Bloodmage Initiate to boost CL by 2, apart from traits is there any other way of boosting CL / DCs I missed?
There is Dirge of Doom at level 8 for the Debuff, but that means you're not running inspire.
I'm quite a fan of the Eldritch Heritage feat chains (the whole unlocking inner powers thing is interesting to RP). I was wondering if anyone had any viable builds that use two (or more) bloodlines?
As an example, this stealthy fighter can hide in plain sight and in combat grow to large size channeling his inner orc. Obviously having decent Cha for Eldritch Heritage is not optimal for on a Fighter, but I think it would be more fun to play.
With 16 str at level 1 that would be +6 to hit (+3 from 16 str, +2 from luck and +1 from flagbearer) and +7 damage (+3 *1.5 from 16 str, +2 from luck and +1 from flagbearer) which isn't bad.
Should it be a human for the bonus feat or another race that gives a bonus to luck duration as a favored class bonus? Should you go for Eldridge Heritage: Orc? Does that affect the choice of race due to humans having Focused Study or does the Archaeologist have enough skills anyway?
Focused Study:
All humans are skillful, but some, rather than being generalists, tend to specialize in a handful of skills. At 1st, 8th, and 16th level, such humans gain Skill Focus in a skill of their choice as a bonus feat. This racial trait replaces the bonus feat trait.
All these feats trigger on a critical hit and say "if your confirmation roll exceeds your opponent’s CMD, you may X".
Which, if any, of the following bonuses apply to the confirmation roll for the purposes of the CMD check?
i) +2 CMB bonus from Improved Sunder
ii) CMB bonus from weapons with sundering property
iii) +4 from Critical Focus?
iv) Penalties from power attack
v) Penalties from iterative attacks
v) To hit bonus from strength and bab
I suspect they all apply except Critical Focus, but the Feat's wording doesn't make the design intent clear :(
EDIT - I'm assuming this feat is reusing the crit confirmation roll, am I wrong there?
There's been much talk of how bad combat healing is of late. In combat healing doesn't have to be a wasted action, it's possible to build healers that can do much more than just heal.
There's a number of ways of doing that, and this paladin healer is one. This fella would use a pearl of power to put Shield Other on two players, and keeps himself up with Lay On Hands + Fey Foundling. Memorizing Hero's Defiance is recommended useful when using Shield other :)
Party healing should not be needed every round, but when it is needed quick channel provides an AoE heal as a move action doing 4d6 healing (or 5d6 depending on how your table rules the interaction of Magical Knack and Hospitaler) so you can probably still do standard attack.
Hospitaler build:
Unnamed Hero
Human Paladin (Hospitaler) 7
LG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10 (+1 Dex)
hp 65 (7d10+7)
Fort +9, Ref +7, Will +7; +2 vs. death
Immune disease, fear
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Special Attacks smite evil (2/day)
Spell-Like Abilities Detect Evil (At will)
Paladin (Hospitaler) Spells Prepared (CL 6):
2 (1/day) Shield Other
1 (2/day) Grace, Hero's Defiance
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Statistics
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Str 16, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 16
Base Atk +7; CMB +10; CMD 21
Feats Deadly Aim -2/+4, Fey Foundling, Power Attack -2/+4, Quick Channel, Selective Channeling
Traits Deft Dodger, Magical Knack (Paladin [Hospitaler])
Skills Knowledge (nobility) +10, Knowledge (religion) +10, Perception +6, Sense Motive +9
Languages Common
SQ aura of courage, aura of good, divine bonds (weapon [1/day]), lay on hands (3d6) (6/day), mercies (mercy [sickened], mercy [staggered]), paladin channel positive energy 4d6 (6/day) (dc 15
Combat Gear Pearl of power (2nd level) (1/day); Other Gear Phylactery of positive channeling, 150 GP
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Special Abilities
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Aura of Courage +4 (10' radius) (Su) You are immune to Fear. Allies within aura gain a morale bonus to saves vs Fear.
Aura of Good (Ex) The paladin has an Aura of Good with power equal to her class level.
Deadly Aim -2/+4 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Detect Evil (At will) (Sp) You can use detect evil at will (as the spell).
Divine Bond (Weapon +1) (7 minutes) (1/day) (Sp) Weapon shines with light and gains enhancement bonuses or chosen properties.
Fey Foundling Magical healing works better on you
Immunity to Disease You are immune to diseases.
Immunity to Fear (Ex) You are immune to all fear effects.
Lay on Hands (3d6) (6/day) (Su) You can heal 3d6 damage, 6/day
Magical Knack (Paladin [Hospitaler]) +2 CL for a specific class, to a max of your HD.
Mercy (Sickened) (Su) When you use your lay on hands ability, it also removes the sickened condition.
Mercy (Staggered) (Su) When you use your lay on hands ability, it also removes the staggered condition. This does not help if the target is at 0 HP.
Paladin Channel Positive Energy 4d6 (6/day) (DC 15) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Quick Channel Channel energy faster by expending more uses
Selective Channeling Exclude targets from the area of your Channel Energy.
Smite Evil (2/day) (Su) +3 to hit, +7 to damage, +3 deflection bonus to AC when used.
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In home games I've always ruled that DR applies to the weapon damage plus any extra damage from the likes of Flaming Weapon / Inspire Courage / Sneak attack etc...
I wanted to check this is actually correct, since the rules say: Spells, spell-like abilities, and energy attacks (even non-magical fire) ignore damage reduction.
Have I been doing it wrong? Should the extra damage from Shocking / Flaming weapon enchantments bypass DR?
If you're flanking somebody with outflank and they're just hit you, and now you've crit them does that still provoke an aoo from your ally? It looks like it does, but I was hoping for a second opinion :)
Thanks!
Flanking Foil:
Whenever you hit an adjacent opponent with a melee attack, until the start of your next turn, that opponent does not gain any flanking bonus on attack rolls while it is flanking you and cannot deal sneak attack damage to you. It can still provide a flank for its allies.
Out Flank:
Whenever you and an ally who also has this feat are flanking the same creature, your flanking bonus on attack rolls increases to +4. In addition, whenever you score a critical hit against the flanked creature, it provokes an attack of opportunity from your ally.
I'm trying to understand what should happen if a charge action is interrupted for some reason, e.g. by triggering an AOO from a monster with grab. There's quite a few possible stations, here's a few I'd like to discuss:
Situation 1: Equip a two handed weapon and charge a monster with 10ft reach and grab
Player exists a square that is 10ft from the monster. Since the monster threatens that square it gets an AOO which (for sake of argument) hits, grab is triggered (assume successfully), player is adjacent to the monster but is grappled and can't attack with the 2h weapon.
What would happen if the player had quick draw, could they still make an attack? Presumably not with the +2 to hit from charge if an attack was somehow possible. (This situation came up recently in a home game and our DM was kind enough to give a 50% chance for the attack to land anyway. I quite like this house rule.)
Situation 2: Equip a one handed weapon and charge a monster with 10ft reach and grab
Player exists a square that is 10ft from the monster. Since the monster threatens that square it gets an AOO which (for sake of argument) hits, grab is triggered (assume successfully), player is now adjacent to the monster and grappled. The player can attack, but do they still get the +2 to hit from charge? (If so that would cancel out the -2 from grapple)
Situation 3: Equip a one handed weapon and charge a monster with 15ft reach and grab
Player exists a square that is 15ft from the monster. Since the monster threatens that square it gets an AOO which (for sake of argument) hits, grab is triggered (assume successfully), player is 10 ft from the monster and can't make a melee attack since they don't have range. (Presumably the monster is holding them with some appendage, so perhaps they can still attack?)
What happens if the player has Lunge? Presumably they'd have to declare they where using that before charging for it to kick in.
What happens if they where charging with a 1h weapon that could be thrown (e.g. a dagger) can they decide to throw it instead of using a melee attack? If they are able to throw it, they can't get a +2 to hit without Charging Hurler.
Situation 4: Equip a one handed weapon and charge a at some other target, but through a square threatened by monster with reach and grab
The player never reaches the intended target, can they make at attack on the third party that intercepted them? Presumably if this was possible they don't get the +2 to hit. Presumably in all these situations they suffer the -2 to AC for the round.
So in one of the games I'm playing I have a soon to be level 5 Paladin with a great big Falchion and so far it's working great, possibly a little bit too great - not all the characters are particularly well optimized. I'm looking for advice on how I can tweak my Character to Synergize with the other players to make the party greater than the sum of it's parts.
One idea is to help the Ninja get more sneak attacks
a) Get Intimidating Prowess & Cornugon Smash then perhaps Furious Focus and Dreadful Carnage and Persuade the Ninja to get Shatter Defences chain?
b) Get Outflank, and ask the Fighter and Ninja to do so too. One concern is I'm currently clanking around in half plate which slows me down and makes setting up flanks harder.
What else can I do? The fighter seems pretty effective but he's not as durable as me (no LoH), in a few levels I'll be able to cast Shield Other on him but not yet. Are there any feat synergies we could set set up that would help him? I'm particularly wondering about team work feats bur I rarely see those discussed.
If it helps we're expecting a long period in the underdark next.
The party, all just about level 5:
Vanilla Human Paladin (2h weapons)
1 Fey Foundling, Power Attack
3 Greater Mercy
Hi all, I'm currently playing a lvl 3 melee Paladin with a big Falchion. So far that's working out very nicely. I expect the campaign to run to about level 15, perhaps 17 if the DM stretches it out. I really like utility the following feats give but I'm wondering if it's worthwhile taking a 1 level fighter dip somewhere between level 8 and 13 to get Improved Critical/Staggering Critical earlier?
Human Bonus - Fey Foundling
1 - Power Attack
3 - Greater Mercy
5 - Furious Focus (min bab 1)
7 - Improved Sunder (min bab 1)
9 - Sundering Strike (min bab 9)
11 - Improved Critical: Falchion (min bab 8)
13 - Critical Focus (min bab 9)
15 - Staggering Critical (min bab 13)
17 - Stunning Critical (min bab 17)
