Talon's page

I´m looking into starting a Pathfinder Campaign under the sea, using Cerulean Seas from Alluria Publishing (highest recommendations btw!). I´d be delighted If someone could help me with some aspects of this consideration:

First of all, I don´t want to create my own adventures from scratch, but since there are no underwater adventures (as far as I know of, please prove me wrong) I am wondering whether it would be possible to convert a Pathfinder Adventure Path to the Undersea setting. In the world of the Cerulean Seas setting, there is almost no land but there are civilizations of differing humanoid sea creatures in the oceans, complete with cities, trade routes and so on. I have some knowledge about the official Pathfinder Adventure Path but I´m looking for your insights into which of them would best fit for a conversion.

My second question is about Sunken Empires (Open Design), which I do not yet possess but am thinking about obtaining. Could anyone compare this to Cerulean Seas? Is it worth it´s price if I already have the other?

Last but not least I would be very interested in hearing about your undersea campaigns, if any. I am only thinking about campaigns in which the players are natives to the oceans, not ones in which they temporarily enter the depths.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!

In the next session our characters (Lvl 4) are going to plunder a long dead alchemist´s hidden lab. Now I´m thinking what treasures they could find there. Maybe anyone of you has some cool ideas? I´m especially looking for something nice to give to our alchemist player.

After playing nothing for a while now, I´m preparing a Pathfinder campaign and have been reading the Gamemastery Guide. First of all, it has helped me a lot with world creation, and it´s a great read!

What I didn´t like in 3.5 was the magic item economy and it seems to be present in Pathfinder as well. So I´m thinking I´d like to make a low magic campaign (by decreasing magic item availability but leaving class and spell availability as is). Now I´m a little lost on the question whether it is possible or not with Pathfinder RPG. All I could find concerning guidelines was on page 106, "Reducing Magic with Rules Adjustments":

"If you restrict PC access to magic items, be sure to revisit all other aspects of the game system with which they interact. At lower levels, when magic users are somewhat outshined by weapon wielders, you already have a functionally low-magic game and don´t have to change so much".

Could anyone elaborate on my questions regarding this? Specifically, I´m interested in:

- What counts as "lower levels". Would it be ok, for example, to play up to level 4-5 without changing anything?
- What are "all other aspects of the game with which magic items interact"? I´m not so sure what to rebuild, probably because I don´t know the system so well.

O M G it´s Monte!!!

I have to have this.

Hi, I´m new to Pathfinder RPG and want to convert the Greyhawk module "Tammeraut´s Fate" from Dungeon Magazine. Since I neither know Greyhawk nor Golarion very well I´m in the need for help...
So what I´m looking for is Golarion substitutions for the following:

The country Nyrond and the locale of the adventure

The Scarlet Brotherhood

The god Procan

Dagon

Haven´t read all of it yet but that´s what I stumbled upon. Could anyone who knows their Golarion help to fill in these gaps? Thanks in advance!

There seem to be so many threads about Attacks of Opportunity and when they apply that I am asking myself: Why are they even in the game? How do they improve the gaming experience? In my own experience, they´re a cumbersome and unwieldy rule. D20 variants without them seem to flow much nicer.

An additional question for the rules experts: What would happen if I simply threw them out the window in PRPG? Not for grapple attempts, not for sifting through your backpack with Asmodeus in front of you, NEVER?

Whenever I see one I have to click it. And it doesn’t matter what the discussion is about. Maybe I am just weak...

How is it with you?

Oh, and don’t click the following. It contains a heavy spoiler about life after death and is really not intended for anyone at all.

So far, Olangru and his team have captured all the surviving NPCs (and in this order): Urol, Amella, Avner, Tavey.

The player's characters will soon be heading for the shrine of Demogorgon and I feel that I - in my responsibility as a DM - should have Olangru kill off (/sacrifice) at least one of those four to show the players just how brutal Demogorgon's minions really are.

Who should it be? Don't really want the boy to die but otherwise I can't decide. Which of the characters has developed the strongest ties to anyone further on in your campaigns? Who is needed? Or whatever reasons come to your mind to kill one above the other?

I enjoy this adventure but compared to those that came before, it is taking veeeeery long.

We finished There is no honor in six gaming sessions, averaging at about six hours. Bullywug Gambit only took us three sessions (!), and felt refreshing.

With Sea Wyvern's Wake we already played 10 sessions and they have only just reached the Sargasso. There are loads of encounters in this one and many of them require roleplaying, not just dice rolling. By now it seems that my players are getting fed up with the whole sailing trip, so I skipped Renkrue and Ruja.

Hay anyone else experienced this? I'd also be interested in how long your gaming groups took for the adventures after SWW, Tides of dread seems long-lasting too.

Hi there paizo pals,
I have been a long-time reader of dungeon magazine and especially the last years were a joy. It was my secret plan to send in an adventure proposal, but since I'm from Germany I had a hard time to translate them. Well, actually I haven't really written any because even the thought of having to translate them scared me off.
Now that dungeon is moving away from the printed magazine I was wondering: Is there any chance to get my name in the final issue? It doesn't have to be my real name, "Talon" would definitely do. You might even just slip it in there without actually referring to me. It does sound childish but I thought I'd just ask. Thank you for a great time!

Tim

It would be great if Paizo created something like the infamous swashbuckling cards. Please check it out, a balanced set of cards could add so much to the game we all love.

Is anyone of you using the isle of dread poster map from issue 114 as a player's map? I know there was another one published in dragon magazine, but I'd like to use this one since it's such a beauty.

Are there any major spoilers on this map? Or do you know of any other reasons not to go with this one?

Thanks,

Talon.

I thought I might let the ghost of Penkus appear after the player characters kill Vanthus during the Farshore invasion. Penkus would thank them since they finally defeated the one that betrayed him and maybe give them something nice. Can't think of a fitting reward, though. What do you think of the idea?

When describing what happens in the world of the characters, what should a DM skip? Should every shopping encounter be played out? How about travel? Do you think it's best to skip a lot or to play out as many encounters as possible, so the world has a more realistic feel?

I'd be interested to know how you handle it.

I Just wanted to say I absolutely LOVE the dungeoncraft/dungeon columns that were in some of the last dungeon mags, especially Richard Petts "100 useless items" and "100 even less useful items". I use them all the time and my players are alyways fascinated by those strange thingies they find. Our swashbuckler has been adventuring with the "do not open, contains wail of the banshee"-jar for some time now and is so excited about it he sometimes threatens to use it when others get on his nerves.

What is planned for the future? I could imagine a "100 not quite as useless items"-list, just for items one can find in dungeons but that are not quite as odd (some of the items are very hard to use, especially the giants stuff).

Or how about "100 personal pieces of jewelry"? A ring engraved in elven, an orcish diadem...

Or "100 minor illnesses" (which might affect the characters at times)?

Oh, and now comes one every DM needs so much. This is the one I've been looking for all my DM life, cause it would be really useful. Whenever the characters find a bookshelf in any dungeon: "100 book titles".

Maybe this thread could be used to collect even more ideas for this great column.

Sorry for the two threads, I thought it hadn't worked the first time. Could someone please delete the other thread with the same name???

SPOILERS!

Hi,
I'm running the STAP with my group and we're having loads of fun with it, although they only just left Parrot island. I have the magazines up to Here there be monsters so far and I like them all but there is one adventure which I'm just a little disappointed with, the Bullywug Gambit. It is very well written but there's just too much of fighting monsters for my taste in this adventure. The cove and the manor don't seem to be more than simple hackfests to pull the charaters up to fifth level.

What is the important campaign-specific information in this adventure? What has to happen in order for the rest of the path to progress without problems? I can see the following (but please correct me):

- the characters need a ship
- The characters have to learn that Vanthus got away and it is hopeless to follow him further
- The characters should learn something about the black pearl and such and meet Harliss

Now is it just coincidence that the tide is triggered? Or will the characters need the knowledge about this event in later adventures? I think the adventure somehow mentions that the character's fate is somehow tied to these events, which sounds like an excuse for a very strange coincidence.

Have any of you increased the roleplay elements in this adventure? If yes, how?

I'm thinking about changing of even skipping this adventure but I'd like to know what you think of it. Well, as you can see, Die Hard is not one of my favourite movies...

Thanks!

If this is not planned, please add one or two to the coming adventures. It's a classic and at least one should pop up in every great d&d campaign! Well, me thinks anyway...

I'm looking for something to speed up combat encounters and to give them a more realistic feel.

Has anyone of you gained experience with the "Vitality and wound points" or the "injury" option from unearthed arcana? If you don't know what I mean, check out the SRD:

http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/variantAdventuring.htm

Thanks!

Hi everybody,
we're starting the Savage tide adventure path soon and I'm the DM. One of my players wants to play in the Forgotten Realms, the other hasn't decided what he wants. As much as I like the Realms, I don't want to play there.

First reason is, I want to be able to use those neat maps that are provided with the magazines, for example the superb Sasserine map.
Second, as most of the campaign is in the wild, I don't think it really matters that much anyway. I just don't want to change everything when it's much easier just taking it as it is. If I tell the player we'll go to the Realms, he might expect lots of realms stuff and will then probably be dissappointed.
Third, I'm fairly confident with the Realms but I haven't played there for several years. Plus I'm really not so fancy on reading the books again. This player knows a lot about the setting, much more than me. I'm already getting a headache when I think of having to argue about unimportant Realmy-lore with him.
Fourth, I simply prefer Greyhawk for it's style.

So what shall I tell him? He says he prefers the Realms for the intrigue, the interesting organisations and all the secrets. The setting and gods of Oerth bore him. I don't think he really knows that much about Greyhawk though...

I've just read the STAP preview in dungeon #138 and it made me wonder: Are there no appearances of dragons in this adventure path? I couldn't imagine a whole campaign without any!

They can be found here:

http://www.scratchfactory.com/Games.php

I think they might be fun to use with the STAP but I'm not sure...

We're playing a heavy modified SCAP and will be using no other than Graz'zt himself as the BBEG. Right now I'm looking for suggestions on the final adventure in which the characters travel to Azzagrat and confront him (at about 20th level).

Have you got any ideas how to make this adventure memorable?? Cool characters, plot hooks, means of defense or magic items?

Thanks!

I created an old sewer system for my SCAP game, mainly because I wanted the PCs to have alternative entrances to house Rhiavadi and the temple of Wee Jas.

A (simple) map can be downloaded here:

http://therpgenius.com/shackledcity/AreaMaps/General/tabid/97/Default.aspx

I'm using the "Sewer stronghold of the thieves guild" Map of Mystery from dungeon magazine 128 as the Last Laugh's guild house, connecting to the Slippery Eel tavern above via the tavern's cellar.

Has anyone of you done something similar?

I'm currently searching for 3.0 or 3.5 adventures printed in dungeon magazine that include plane-hopping or take place entirely on other planes than the material plane. I'm especially (but not only) interested in ones that include any layer of the Abyss.

As my collection of dungeon mags isn't that great I can only recall the one in the first adventure path and the one with the Goristro demon and the King Kong-inspired magazine cover.

I'd be thankful for your help!

Sorry to bother but I couldn't find the answer to this in the hardcover.

This is a quick question and the fastest to answer can win my smiley: What experience level should the party have by the beginning of Zenith trajectory? I suppose it is 6...

One of my players rolled for the local trait "mark of the beast" (Shackled city HC page 402). I don't think I understood how it works:
Does the benefit count for all animals or only the one kind of predatory animal that the character chooses? If it counts for all, what does the "mystic bond" do?
THANKS!

What impact do the traits have on the storylines of your campaigns? I think there ought to be a moment for every character at which his trait makes him special (the wyrm blooded meeting Dorloth for example) but I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

In my SCAP campaign the following where chosen:

- Dream haunted for the elven scout
- Nobility for the human mage (member of the Vanderboren family)
- Long shadowed for the human cleric
- Scion of Surabar for the human rogue
- Wyrm Blooded for the human hexblade

I know for sure that my players are frequenting these boards. Leave, boys. And believe me, it's better for you!

MANY MANY SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! DON'T KEEP ON READING OR YOU'LL KNOW LOTS OF CAMPAIGN DETAILS AND SPOIL YOURSELF ALL THE FUN!

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Ah well, I'm having a few problems with the adventures...

It is written in chapter 1 that Jenya (the priestess of St. Cuthbert) is in fact the mind flayer Ulzursta'ik. How does she maintain this ruse? There is nothing mentioned in the Scap volume. Also, does she teleport to Sasserine to inform their superiors regularly? When and for how long does she stay away?

I think Irstwik, the head of the evil aquatic druid cultists that dwell in the crater lake and pray to the Morkoth has incorrect stats. He should have a touch AC of 14, not 16 as given on page 153 of the HC. He is also missing the invisibility spell in his spell list. In chapter 3, he couldn't possibly spy on the characters in the Tipped tankard without it, I believe. Was this a simple typo?

Finally, I have a problem with chapter 8. The map detailing the battle that erupts when the cannibals led by Terseon Skellerang try to invade Cauldron. Is the red house marked on the battle map of any significance? I believe it is the house of Kalius, the silver dragon that informs the PCs at the beginning of the chapter, but I might be wrong. I'm also having a problem with the cannibals themselves, are their bite attacks really at +12 to attack?

Thanks!

Would someone please explain the ever-present joke about this thing to me? It seems to pop up everywhere but I just don't understand what's so funny about it (if anything at all).
Sorry for asking stupid questions, maybe this is a well known joke in the US and I don't get it cause I'm from Europe?

I quit playing in our game tonight after arguing with the other players and the DM. This is a description of our game from my point-of-view. I‘d be glad for any comments.

- We create characters at first level. One player wants to play an elf. Our DM says „no way, play something different, you always play elves“ (which is true). Nevertheless, the player wants an elf cause he loves elves. The DM says „No, in this campaign, I don‘t allow elves. There are no elves in the region where we start. Play a human“. The player wants to play a half-elf. The DM looks at the half-elf in the PHB then decides that he doesn‘t want half-elves in our game. „Play a human, play something ordinary“ he repeatedly says. „Why can‘t I play an elf?“ the player asks. „I don‘t allow any races that have better sight than humans have. It‘s much cooler this way, believe me. No elves allowed. Oh, and no half-orcs and dwarves of course. C‘mon guys, play humans.“ I throw away the sketch of the cool half-orc monk I wanted to play. „Can I play a halfling?“ I ask him. „You can of course... you can play anything you want. But believe me, everyone in my world HATES halflings so you‘ll have a hard time. And you‘ll be the only halfling you ever meet in my world, believe me. Everyone‘s a darn racist when it comes to halflings“. So I play a human. I want to play a paladin but they are forbidden. „No paladins, sorry. We start in a small village where you all come from. There are no paladins there, they just don‘t exist. Either you start there and play something ordinary or you start at the other side of the world as a paladin but never reach the others cause that‘s the only place in my world where paladins exist“ Monks? Forbidden. Sorcerers? Well they‘re also forbidden because the player that wants to play an elf wants to play a sorcerer too. I decide to play a cleric. „Yeah that‘s okay“ the DM says. „But you‘ll have to play a cleric of the one homebrewed deity I give you as no other deities are known in this region. But believe me, you‘ll have fun this way, it‘s a cool deity. Oh, and your alignment is chaotic-neutral. Why? Well, it just has to. But that‘s okay, believe me. It‘ll be fun.“

- We start the game. In the local tavern we hear some cool rumours about an invasion of bugbears and that someone in our small village was attacked. Our characters make some fun play with each other in the tavern, drinking and hanging around, there‘s some nice role-playing and everything is fine. Suddenly uber-epic npc comes inside and greets us. He‘s a shady, extremely suspicious fighter type that‘s able to cast 5th level spells. But we are meant to like him. Every other npc likes him. Epic-boy tells us that he needs to check out the neighbouring village. He asks us to follow him around, we don‘t like him but suddenly the DM says „so you part ways with Dorgal and go to the village“ and my cleric can‘t say anything as he is suddenly there. In the neoghbouring town epic-boy tells us we need to shop so we follow him to the market place. Actually we don‘t say we follow him. Instead the DM says „yeah you follow him all the way through the harbour area and to the market place“. It‘s declared done as no one shouts out and says „NO WAY, I‘M NOT DOING THIS!“ (but why should anyone?) A shop keeper starts to talk to us. „What do ye want, adventurrrrrers?“ he asks. Well, we don‘t know. We look at the DM. „What does epic-boy want, DM?“ - „AAAAAW, c‘mon guys, you all know what you need. There will be an invasion, you need weapons. Think guys, think.“ We order some weapons. Epic-boy nods knowingly (that‘s something he does all the time). We don‘t have any money to pay as the DM used houserules to define our starting gear and money. No monetary problems, however. Epic-boy pulls out a huge box full of platinum-coins he was hiding under his full-plate and pays everything we want.

- We want to visit the tavern in this town (probably because most of us remember how much fun we had in the other tavern when there was no such thing as „adventure“). „What‘s that tavern called, DM?“ - „Well, I can‘t find it in my notes, it just has some name, you know. The name sound, erm, dirty. It‘s located next to the harbour. It‘s a dangerous place. As you enter (huh?) you see shady figures everywhere, looking at you. Epic-boy speaks: It‘s dangerous here, we can‘t stay! so you leave.“ We stare irritated but epic-boy nods knowingly as we leave the tavern. „What‘s that tavern called again, DM?“ - „I told you the name, dammit! Write the names down, I don‘t want to repeat myself a thousand times.“

- After following epic-boy back to our town, then through an unbelievably boring dungeon (epic-boy kills most of the orcs by throwing fireballs at them) we head back to the village again. We wander over the mountains and meet strange monsters that are written in no monster manual whatsoever. In fights, our DM doesn‘t need any stats. Sometimes I hit the human-with-blue-ears-thingy when rolling a 14, sometimes I don‘t. The DM rolls really well at the beginning of our glorious battles. When he realizes that he‘s killing off the entire party the monsters start fudging all the time. When we drop into the minuses, we always stabilize as the DM rolls the stabilize-rolls.
Just once I got killed but because epic-boy is also a druid and we fought the baddies on a forrest clearing I suddenly resurrected through the healing energies that were flowing all over the place and came back as a different race (I rolled for a half-orc but had to reroll as the DM doesn‘t allow them, they have darkvision).

- The monsters we face have enormous challenge ratings but they're poor as beggars. After one session I tell the DM that we're already 7th level and my character has no magic items. "Oh, they're very seldom in my world". I accept. The next session however, epic-boy gives out gifts for our honourable doings. Every character gets five to ten magic items, including some DM-created thingies that don't fit into any rules system but are as powerful as artifacts. I get a +4 whip that I can use to polymorph and cast charm monster at will. The DM houserules that I have the weapon proficiency: whip after I practice using it for a few minutes.

- I get fed up with epic-boy. I try to sneak into his chamber at night. I want to do a clean coup de grace and solve our problem forever. As I reach epic-boys' door some guards come by and manage to stop me. Strange, they're the first ones I ever see in front of epic-boys chamber. Indeed I thought our characters were his guards(?). The DM doesn‘t roll a single die in the grapple with the guards and the whole fights goes really fast. Epic-boy comes out of his chamber and looks down at my poor cleric whos pinned to the floor by some statless guard. „What are you doing?“ he asks. „We‘ll, I was trying to kill you, YOU ($“§=(„$ !!!“ my cleric responds. Epic-boy stares knowingly „Oh boy, that shows that you‘re still a beginner. Don‘t make a fool of yourself. But don‘t worry. I‘ll throw you in the cells for tonight and tomorrow I‘m giving you a second chance. Watch me and learn in the future“.

- I get fed up with the game. As a true gamer, I try to solve it in-game. My character yells at the others and tells them that he feels like epic-boys' henchman. One of them whispers in my characters' ears „I know, I also don‘t trust him. But let‘s follow him around for some time until we have enough evidence against him“. My character responds: „Alright guys, me or epic-boy. Either he leaves the group or I leave. This is not the way my deity wants me to go“. They‘re against me. One of the other characters (and his player) gets all angry and says I shouldn‘t create a problem where there is none. „When you leave I‘m going to shoot you in the back with my crossbow“ he says. My character leaves. He fires with his crossbow - but misses. „Darn, he‘s lucky“ his character says. Epic-boy nods knowingly. "He'll come back" he says.
I leave the gaming table and ask myself how I spent a whole year in this group. I weap for the lost time and wish I had done something meaningful instead.

I am thinking about replacing some of the magic items that the players can find in the campaign as most of them are rather generic and boring for experienced players. My players know most of the stuff from the DMG so I am thinking about using items and weapons from other sources, maybe replacing Alakast and including some cooler intelligent weapon/thing that's available at an earlier level or even an artifact. Maybe even using some Weapons of Legacy or stuff from other sources such as the BOVD.

What kind of memorable items/weapons did you replace the ones given in the adventures with?

I'm not sure if I should include the action point system in my running SCAP game. Do you like it and how does it change the game?

Which system is the best, the one from Eberron, the DMG2 etc?

Also, how should I explain the sudden usability of the points in-game?

For some reason my players always think they can handle mostly anything I throw at them as a DM. Maybe they have enormous egos or it's my style of gaming. Players in my games almost never run away from monsters which leads to lots of PC deaths. This sometimes even results in campaigns where at fifth level, none of the characters from first level are still alive, and it all becomes very unbelievable as you can think.
I try to play by the RAW. However, I do sometimes fudge a roll, but always in favour of the characters, e.g. when they're just out of luck. I thought that it may be something about the way I roleplay the monsters/foes. I get the impression that I play them so evil that the PLAYERS want them dead at any cost. When this happens, their characters handle monsters reckless and many of them die in sometimes heroic but mostly just needless ways. My players seem to be so involved in the game that they forget about the option of running away...

Do some of you have similar problems in your game? What should I change? I seem to have this problem in most of the campaigns I run and I ran several groups with different players.

Well, not quite yet. After they cleared almost the entire Malachite Fortress, my weakened PCs headed for Kazmojens chamber. They managed to interrogate with him and buy Terrem (although he knew what they had done - I was generous with that). Then they demanded the other kids and kept on insulting Kazmojen. Eventually, he had enough and attacked. He brought everyone below -5 quickly which makes this a TPK.
I really don't want to restart with new characters and I dislike the "other party comes and helps last one"-twist. I figured maybe some of the PCs might stabilize while others could be healed by Kazmojen. Afterwards, he would sell them to Pyllrak or another slaver from the underdark.

But what could happen then?

How shall I procede, shall they be brought to the cells and given the chance to free themselves? Or should they have to free themselves from some Underdark mines?

Eventually, how can I bring up the situation with the big round guy (you know, Mr. V) ???

Arr, I wish I had fudged a few rolls for them. This sucks.

Hello! I started running the SCAP hardcover last week and we're already having loads of fun with it. There are a few minor problems I haven't solved yet - some of the issues have been discussed in other threads, I know... (sorry for my English btw, it's my 2nd language)

SPOILERS

- I'd either drop Drakthar's way or make something different out of it, concentrating more on the mystery and investigation factor than the dungeon romp (my players tend to get bored by too many dungeons). Has anyone replaced this adventure or used it in a different way than it is intended? I do like the goblins and Drakthar himself but can't figure out how to reshape the adventure appropriately.
- on some thread someone wrote about using "mad god's key". Just wanted to ask how the person used it in the campaign, e.g. at what point of the campaign and how it works without repeating the uniqueness of the whole business of the key(s) that opens any locks in town, an idea that's sort of similar in both adventures. I am also thinking about using it cause it's so great.
- why are plot-relevant places printed on the poster map? I can't show it to my players when it says "lava tube entrance" on there - they'll check this out for sure. Was that intended???
- our rogue wants to become a member of the last laugh. Has anyone in your groups done sth. similar? How did you solve it? What initiation tests did he/she have to do in order to become a member - what were his duties? Is there a fitting PrC?
- what are the little modron-like thingies on the illustration of the cathedral of wee jas (the ones circling the cathedral)?? Huh? Must have missed something there.
- Im not planning to play the last two modules, instead stopping after thirteen cages. Are there any problems with that or things to handle differently?
- what dungeon adventures would fit for a good side trek that leads into the jungle? I read something about Elephant's graveyard but I can't get a hold of that one.

THANKS!