Tengu

Talos the Talon!'s page

189 posts. Alias of Indivar.


RSS

1 to 50 of 189 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | next > last >>
Silver Crusade 2/5

Does the full rebuild bit mean I can go back and rebuild this as an Aasimar, which was legal at the time I created my lore warden?

Silver Crusade 2/5

Well thanks I suppose. I'm trying to determine if there are indeed spellbooks on any chronicle sheets. Our area is running Core stuff, and as a treat to our groups wizard, I'm interested in finding the right scenario to run. So, I'm looking to buy stuff.

But, it also seems that the idea that a wizard can only get a non core spell from a scroll (uncommon at best), or spellbook (I've never seen one, but I think I've seen an alchemists formula book) is a hollow statement.

Silver Crusade 2/5

I'm just curious. Are there any chronicle sheets that specifically list wizard spellbooks?

Beyond the yes and no, I'm also curious which ones..

Silver Crusade 2/5

Thanks. Hopefully I edited in the spoiler bits correctly

Silver Crusade 2/5

So, I'm doing a core run of the sanctioned bits of Half Dead City. Spoilers ahead...

Spoiler:
group is about to meet The Scorched Hand at the inn. It leaves it interesting in a few ways.

Spoiler:
1. The Hand is hungry for knowledge, and not looking to make enemies.
2. I've got a wizard in the party that may be looking to swap some spells with these guys. Azaz has Ear Piercing Scream, and Velriana has '3 first level spells of the GM's choice' in her book.

Spoiler:
So, would the Scorched hand trade some spells? Would giving Velriana a non core spells an okay thing, considering it a reward for a resourceful player?

Thanks

Silver Crusade 2/5

Looks like getting disable devise as a class skill is not happening via traits in core?

Silver Crusade

So this rogue talent (The Whole Time)allows a rogue to active various invisibility spell scrolls and wands. Treating the spells as if they were on his spell list.

Obviously, that make wand activation a snap. But a scroll? Is this a UMD check? Some other check? What's the DC?

Silver Crusade

What is the light level in this place?

Silver Crusade 2/5

Well, I've been out of the loop a while, but want to run some games again. I have a comment, and a question.

Firstly, I absolutely hate this website now. It was easy and I was comfortable with it, I turn my back for a year or so, and now it's even worse than the WotC site. Bad form.

Now the question stems from the above. I'd like to run some sanctioned adventure path games, and find I have to mine the site for far too long to get the info I need. Can anyone link me to the page showing which bits of the various paths are pegal for play, and then I would need the chronicle sheets as well. I would hope those 2 items would be on the same page (makes sense right?) but I imagine both are on different pages (likely, based on the level of difficulty I've had with this new design finding anything).

Thanks.

Silver Crusade 2/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I like option 4. Our society died because veterans couldn't replay anything around season 4. I also like option 2, perhaps with a way to get more favored characters...tied to GM glyphs perhaps? You get 1 glyph you can get another favored character? I don't understand what option 3 is.

Maybe there are alot of evergreen scenarios with random encounters or varant encounters. In every 30 scenario year, create 10 evergreens. That in my mind is the best method. Also the most noob and vet friendly.

Another method, which I've long held as as the right way, is to release about 50 scenarios a year. Personally I like the 10 evergreens a year though.

Silver Crusade

Yes. Broken. Played in a society game, where there was a 4th level barbarian wereboar that could solo every melee. Where's the fun in that if your the 2nd level guy?

Silver Crusade 2/5

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Generally, I think after APG, we had enough classes. A great many points were made above about reskinning, and along the way I'd say some pretty broken things have happened. So much so that my final attempt at a campaign is 15 point build core only.

I'd rather Paizo had doubled down of society and hardback adventures rather than just bloat

Silver Crusade

Space!

Silver Crusade

You have the gold for a wand of displacement. UMD that thing.

Silver Crusade

You've got to get that gunslinger mobbed, disarmed and disabled. I would round up every minion I had in the entire complex and find a way to bring them all to bear in 1 big fight. 5 baddies aiding 1 baddie to disarm him followed by 1 other baddie running off with his weapon is an idea.

I also like the Uber cheese of a large air elemental whirlwinding the gunslinger and just removing him from the combat.

Persistant heightened glitterdust. Or suggestion.

Silver Crusade

Ok folks! I'm running a home brew, and need a main bad guy. Any of my Stones of Oblivion players.... move along.

So, my bad guy is touted as the Herald of Orcus. At full power, he's CR 20, but when encountered he will be like cr 14 or 15, due to certain binding magics (dampening templates, which I will need). Stripping the dampening templates away allow him to regain his powers, and add CR back.

I'm envisioning some sort of undead/demon type, with clerical casting levels. The special thing is that in its cr 20 form, it is immortal, and I need ideas on that as well. Perhaps, at cr 17 it begins to regain an ability to reform?

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I've gotten around this by custom building the opponents. I use swarms, I attack cmd, use touch attacks, 4 guys aiding 1 guys attacks, or just try building foes with big bonuses to hit by adding class levels (barbarian) and choice templates like half fiend or the like.

Also, I use walls. Pits. Tanglefoot bags. Necklace of fireballs with 1 10 hd fireball. True strike with purple worm poisoned daggers. Monsters with multiple attacks. Last session an eidolon got killed outright by a pouncing fast zombie dire lion (8 attacks at +16 due to haste!).

Overcoming the AC isn't hard, but my job is to not over do it. I still throw stuff at them that lets that AC shine, but they know I've always got something coming, likely later in the round, that can target one of their vulnerabilities.

Silver Crusade

This is indeed interesting. One routine I was using with my twf trip tengu, is to use his bite attack first as a trip attempt, then lay waste with 4 attacks against a prone target...

Silver Crusade

How's about an awakened T rex paladin?

Silver Crusade

I think we have had like 10 characters die in various ways. The most epic way Hellion fell into a pit spell, and someone jumped in on top of him with a bag full of 10 grenades. Others ways varied from lame to funny, and we are currently in the choking tower

Silver Crusade

+1 ghost touch net is pretty solid. Another thing my group has debated is casting mage armor on the incorporeal. Wouldn't that limit it's mobility as far as floating through walls and the like?

But I digress. Disrupt undead, magic missile, protection from evil, mage armor, shield, spiritual weapon, Magic weapon spell, wand of cure light wounds are all various low level ways to fight incorporeal undeads. Ghost salt (or something) weapon blanched on crossbow bolts or arrows is another way that's cheap

Silver Crusade

So I'm running a AP, and have a 5 man party (one with an animal companion ), and even the boss of the next book is going to get nerfed on a roll of about 4.

I don't really want to reengineer the entire campaign any more than I already am...

Silver Crusade

Ok folks this little game breaker seems like it could derail the remainder of my campaign, so I'm grasping at straws here.

The tie up option line states If you are grappling the target, you can attempt to tie him up in ropes, but doing so requires a combat maneuver check at a –10 penalty.

Is that combat manuveur check a simple, flat CMB roll at -10? Any bonuses for improved grapple and/or controlling the grapple yo that roll?

Silver Crusade

The first round, the basilisks emerged from their dens, 1 fairly close. By the end of round 1, the 2 knowledge guys were petrified before they could act (I rolled good for initiative, they rolled bad).

By round 2, 2 more basilisks ran into range, and the remaining party members didn't know to avoid the gaze, and we're turned to statues.

I gave them a choice on how to pick up. Either way, after a few months, a rescue party shows up with a 12th level wizard hired by Ptenenib in tow. I figure maybe none, some, or all of the petrified could survive if desired

Silver Crusade

So, I had a TPK.

Area I in the parched dunes was it. The Basilisks closed qickly, into gaze range, and the overlap of 3 of the beasts caused everyone to turn to stone. Some without even getting to act...

A few people knew where they were going (Ptenenib, and a dwarf that used to fill in), and the mask is resting inside a bag of holding that has been turned to stone.

I can see a possible rescue mission forming in like 2 or 3 months time, which is our new party, but that creates it's own problems. Will the basilisks eat the doomed? If so, I'm figuring the mask will somehow shunt it's way material from its stony extra dimensional prison - it is an artifact after all..

Silver Crusade

My home brew group just got our arses handed to us by a level 3 half orc cleric, level 1 half orc cleric, and a level 1 half orc cleric. We were 2nd level.

Round 1 murderous command on the fighter, I get attacked and drop on round 1. Round 2, fighter is dropped, I get healed, critted and killed. Our cleric died next,then alchemist dies.

Ferocity is pretty nasty.

Silver Crusade

How about just keeping a 14 in the relative ability? Will it really matter if you get a +4 vs a +5 in the end?

Silver Crusade

I'm thinking dwarf fighter1/beastmorph alchemist 3 for book 2. I'll keep the feral mutagen idea going, and have bombs for back up. Eventually grab tanglefoot bomb for keeping stuff back.

Silver Crusade

Well, we have a cleric (not a big channeller, caster), conjurer, and ranger archer. I want big damage and big AC. Big fan of being enlarged. Druid may not work without wild armor and not enough HP. I'm kind of thinking alchemist fighter now...maybe 2 levels alchemist, the rest fighter? The group scored some magic item/artifact/plot devise gear that they need a proper warrior type to use

Silver Crusade

Well I need a character idea. My feral mutagen swilling alchemist/urban barbarian bit the dust as the curtain closed on book 1. Im bummed and stumped on what to play for book 2. I've got the melee role, but tired of paladins and barbarians. Any ideas? (Nothing from ACG please)

Silver Crusade

I've used combat expertise when I had to. My lore warden (Talos) has had to go toe to toe with nasty incorporeal types, in which case he uses CE And fights defensively, putting his effective AC vs their touch attack at about 21. He ties up the beast while his companions add channel/ magic missiles.

Would I take it just to take it? No. But in the case where you need a good AC it's nice to have.

Silver Crusade

Wouldn't the city and maybe the armies of 50k have access to some powerful high level types to really throw a monkey wrench into the plan?

They may not have a 20th level type, but could they confront the arch mage with 4-6 15th level types? High priest here, master swordsman general there, high court advisor wizard types? Even throw in a few dozen types of various levels at or below 10th, and I would think this becomes much more difficult to simply have your wizard take down in one afternoon.

I know that's not the exercise here, but numbers might support a few choice high level types to challenge the wizards efforts.

Silver Crusade

Mummy's mask, book 3, in the dark depository. Item appears as a headband of vast intellect +4, but is actually a headband of stupidity.

Silver Crusade

Found this item (cursed version of intellect) in a certain AP. What exactly does this do? Lower ones int instead of raise it?

Silver Crusade

This scenario went way off the rails. My party burned down the cults hideout, and a bunch of the cultists and townsfolk came to put out the fire. I had to wing it at this point, as it became the town vs pcs at this point as spelled out in the adventure.

After the fire was out, I hit them will more than a dozen cultists in a bloody scary melee. There was no feast as the mayor labelled the pcs bandits. After more encounters, they retreated into the surrounding wilds to rest some amongst clouds of mosquitos and snakes. I found a way to get the party to the last encounter, which the barbarian made short work of.

All told, it was chaotic, but a total blast!

Silver Crusade

Yes. Eye taker called the party in to defend themselves, surrounded by the his skeleton baliffs. As the face shot down his accusations, I added in that the skeletons crumbled a bit.

I was ready for combat, even changed 2 of the baliffs into skeleton champions tetori monks. The party through back the eye takers accusations and won the day with words and rp!

Silver Crusade 2/5

Last night was really fun. Over time, I've learned how to make a cheesy character if I wanted, but I also recently think I know why to.

We went through the golemworks incident, with the following:

Pregen rogue 7
Pregen ninja 7
witch 7
cleric 6
druid 6 (me)
The pregens were newbys, and I found the most fun in keeping them in the having fun column.I dud what I could to keep them having fun, saw lots of sneak attack dice, so for my time, it was a success.

Silver Crusade

Just build a summoner

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Potion of enlarge person.

Or...making any potion an oil instead. Action economy is king, so smear the oil of fly on your fighter friend and watch him go after the bbeg on his next turn instead of downing a potion

Silver Crusade

Ano interesting campaign, would be one in which Isger breaks away from Cheliax. This need not exactly be a traditional hero based campaign, but rather could be really dark considering the area and it's people's and faiths. Imagine a darkness vs darkness campaign.

Silver Crusade

Yes. But have to wait until we get out of the bandit 'town' to buy them. There are no outlets/ amenities

Silver Crusade

Grease and glitterdust sound like winners. I Will have to depend on vanish until I can get mirror image.

Our party has an alchemist that supplies us with enlarge potions, and our main martial does in fact have a reach weapon. We also have a burned cursed life oracle.

Silver Crusade

So I will keep the current situation vague so I don't put spoilers out.

Our group is exploring a bandit town and need to overthrow its leaders. We known who they are, and it looks like the majority of our opponents are humanoid.

My sorcerer is an air elementalist, and almost 5th level. I have shield, burning hands, magic missile, color spray, obscuring mist and create pit. I get scorching ray next level ( and have precise shot and pbs). I carry a wand of mage armor, and scribe scrolls. Stats are S12, D12, C14, I12, W10, 18Ch.

The mist spell has saved us, and the color spray is still very handy. I am more than happy to pick up another 1st level spell with FCB. We will likely be in close quarters, so vanish is on my to get list with FCB.

That leaves a first and a second. Thoughts? Summon monster 2? Grease? Sleep? Mirror image? Glitterdust?

Silver Crusade 2/5

Still very bitter about being on the bad end of this scenario. Tpk in first encounter.

Should have only played this with veterans, not just whoever showed...

Still the worst gaming experience since I started gaming in '82

Silver Crusade

My party is close to obtaining the mask. Since detect magic does not work on it, how do they identify the magical properties? Will the identify spell work? They might just sell it!

Or, is it simply the big mystery of 'what is this?' That prompts them to head across the river to the library? Should I up the heat of the cult if they flaunt the item ( like spending all day in the market showing it off looking for clues)? I also know once the city dies down they will likely want to spend weeks crafting, so I could see the cult showing up poking around, especially if word gets out the mask is found.

Silver Crusade

Name: Torc
Race: human
Class: monk 6
Adventure: empty graves
Location: Q2
Catalyst: meret's summon

:
I changed the encounter here quite a bit. The zombies were fast zombies, the cultists were level 3 maguses, and Meret is a level 1 bard/5 summoner. All were carefully reworked statwise to be the same CR.

The monk was already beat up from zombies and a magus shocking grasp, and got critter by the stinger from Merets eidolon. Instant death.

Silver Crusade

I really like this guide, and it was helpful. I am making a DD for iron gods, after my previous character died. The build so far ( only 3rd level)
Looks like this.

1. Human, urban barbarian1; Power Attack, technologist.
2. Vivisectionist 1;
3. Vivisectionist 2; combat reflexes, feral mutagen
4. Draconic (gold) sorcerer 1
5. Sorcerer 2; arcane strike
6. DD 1
7. DD 2. ?

At 7th level and beyond, I am open to suggestion on feats. I see the character as a melee type, and am open to loosing technologist and/or combat reflexes.

Thanks!

Silver Crusade 2/5

There was a runelord in this somewhere?

Silver Crusade

The only MR I saw was a druid with an elephant. It was really really effective. So much so, I was inspired to make my own. My druid has a rhino, building towards strongjaw/vital strike/improved natural attack shenanigans.

Silver Crusade

Without spoiling to much, my party had a cleric, rogue, monk, and paladin for a while. They lamented lack of control effects and knowledge skills, but could heal quite well. Arcane types will do well in this AP, and there are moments where things can be settled with words.

Basically this is a well rounded campaign. If you lack certain abilities it will come back to bite you.


Scarab Sages

So in our last game the party came across the absent-minded extra-planar catfish named Hummelgau. He's decided to stick around for awhile, partially because he seems to keep forgetting that he's getting ready to leave. My party primarily consists of a bunch of gnomes and the silly fish seems to be a good match. We even have a fishergnome alchemist in the party. Has anyone just left him in their group? My wife is playing a winged aasimar-gnome paladin named Eros that is currently riding around on him. For some reason this is a "thing":

photo
photo
photo
photo

I already loved that crazy fish, but now I just can't see getting rid of him. Anyone else decide to have him hang around?

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Last Friday I ran a party through level 1 of Thornkeep completely comprised of ACG classes. We used Pathfinder Society rules so we could both get credit as well as have a good baseline to compare against.

Our party consisted of a hunter, shaman, swashbuckler, slayer and warpriest. All players were pretty seasoned with Pathfinder.

Here's a quick breakdown of my perceptions:

hunter - Felt like a ranger. The player chose a wolf animal companion and a melee build. Primarily he used his wolf for flanks and used magic sparingly. He did start using magic more as we went shilelagh and some heals. Having a 0 BAB is a little tough for someone playing as a frontliner. At the same time he had a dex build and was the party scout. I'm not 100% sure what role the hunter was envisioned to play, but the name makes me think of an offensive one.

shaman - Felt like a cleric. I don't really get what's particularly witch -like about this class. Calling their oracle mysteries "hexes" just seems confusing. The shaman took the life mystery and focused on channels and healing. She had a longspear to try and help out in combat, but with a 0 BAB and 10STR wasn't very effective. This class uses WIS/CHA and CON (for life link) so feels a little spread out. They don't get a "hex" until level 2 so really it was a weak cleric with only 1+CHA channels a day.

swashbuckler - Felt like a swashbucker... :) My friend has been trying to make a swashbucker from day one so this was a welcome addition. At level 1 the swashbuckler could make some pretty impressive acrobatic checks using panache and was all over the field. I'd imagine once they get mobility this will be a pretty crazy class for a support fighter. I'm not sure if their damage will scale effectively to be the primary fighter, but they're wherever they need to be at a given time. Climbing up ropes and jumping all around the battlefield.

slayer - Felt like a rogue? Hard to say on this one. They get a mark that gives them some bonuses to attack. I kept getting a 4th edition feel on this character. The player built her as a ranged fighter. Her dice went cold towards the end of the night so I didn't get a lot of insight on what the class could do. I didn't realize she had a 1 BAB because of the rogue vibe the character gave off. Just an assumption on my part.

warpriest - Felt like a warpriest (battle cleric). The player used a great sword and ran around bashing stuff. He used the flexible buff system a few times and while it didn't seem earth shattering I liked it. I'm a fan of the inquisitor and this just seems to be a variation on that. He didn't take any sort of healing ability so focused on some self buffs and smashing things.

My general conclusion is at level 1 most of the hybrids seem to represent one of their 2 parts more strongly. That could be my perception or the way players approach them. With the above list we didn't have anyone who was particularly perceptive or able to do anything about traps. We also didn't have anyone with any knowledge or magical skills. Nobody was particularly awesome at anything except for acrobatics/climb on the part of the swashbuckler. On the other hand, had the feeling of being a pretty well-balanced party. Several people could heal, most people had some ability in combat and the party as a whole was pretty mobile.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Seoni needs to summon up a pair of pants. That cover is pretty stupid.

Scarab Sages 5/5

I'm super excited to announce that Indiana VC, Tracy Windeknecht, just hit her 4th star. Some two years ago Tracy came along with me to a homebrew Pathfinder game and spent most of the session reading Harry Potter. However, after the game she asked me to help her make her first character, Olga the drunken barbarian. Some 6 months later she took over the reins for Mark Garringer when he stepped down. Now, she's the 3rd person to hit 4-stars in Indiana and is well on her way to hit 5! Congrats to my very special lady!

On a sad note, she failed to kill my totally awesome inquisitor, Keurig, who managed to hit 12th level.

Scarab Sages

For big dollar items we usually shop our FLGS, so my wife just picked up the Rise of the Runelords case last week as an early Xmas gift to ourselves. However, the store had apparently sold the Rune Giant separately, which is cool or whatever, but it seems that the only way to get it at this point is when you buy an entire case. Is there a way for Paizo to confirm with my local store that we did indeed by an entire case and then let us order the giant? I'm dying for that thing and otherwise we'll only be missing 2 more minis (Lucrecia and the Stone Karzoug statue). I did check with another local game store (also friendly), but other than meeting the guy who bought their giant had no luck.

Thanks!

Scarab Sages 5/5

In all the games I've been in I've seen one hellknight, one winter witch and a synthesist (oh and a martial artist!). For various reasons archetypes and PrCs don't seem overly popular in PFS. The main reason is probably because they give up flexibility for a very situational ability. An archer gives up close-range combat to essentially gain a poor version of trip/disarm.

Generic archetypes aside there are some that seem pretty steeped in the lore and help ground the game in Golarion. I'm thinking of the Swordlord and the Cyphermage just to name two. Unfortunately, the former uses the dueling mechanic which isn't used in PFS and the latter is very reliant on scroll scribing. What are some untapped options out there I can use for a character that might be interesting for the party yet aren't hamstrung in PFS? I still might make by Aldori Swordlord, but he's feat starved and not very useful in a ranged combat.

Scarab Sages 5/5

Specifically I'm looking for how the chase mechanics could/should work. I'm fairly sure I'm running these right or close to right, but talking to other GMs/players it's clear that people are doing whatever they want for the big chase. When I played in this last year as a special event the GM wasn't familiar with the Gamemastery rules for a chase. I'm hoping to clarify everything just a bit since I'll probably run this scenario again.

The basic mechanics -- I prepped my players that the chase used special mechanics and things wouldn't necessarily make sense compared to a normal encounter. Players move through "cards", then perform a skill check (may also be a saving throw or BAB check) to exit the card. All distance is hand-waved at around 30' per card with slower players getting a -2 penalty for every 10' below 30' and +2 for every 10' over 30' speed they possess.

Spells like fly don't automatically "win" a chase, the player still needs to make a climb DC, but would get a +10 bonus. So with a DC15 climb they're generally going to make it, but you sorta rationalize this that it's a chase and they're bobbing and weaving. In a non-Society game I'd probably have them roll a Fly skill instead. Spells like teleport would let them bypass the skill check altogether, but being a chase it's not like they could just teleport to the end unless that was a known location. Also presumably if a challenge is CMB 12 'Force a Door' each player has to force the door. Rationalize as need..maybe the door shuts or just represents that they're not all running the same route and are dealing with different doors.

Where the rules get a little more clunky is the full-round action option. The players are generally already making a move and an action to leave a square so this should probably be called 'tossing the dice' or 'getting the lead out'. This lets the players move ahead "3 cards" by completing both skill checks on the card they're leaving.

(For completion's sake I should mention that failing one roll be <5 results in only moving one card. By failing by more they don't move. By failing both rolls the player loses their next turn.)

So this can be interpreted a ton of ways and basically I did a trial run before running the scenario and we tried a couple variations until it seemed right to us. As written I'd take it to mean you do the 2 challenges in your current card, do the 2 challenges in the next card then you'd land in the 3rd card. The interpretation we went to was you pass the 2 of the initial card you're leaving and land 2 cards later. I had a player afterwards insist you'd land 3 cards later, but that doesn't sound correct.

So here's an example from Midnight Mauler:

Merisiel and Valeros start on the Collapsed Structure with 'Force the Door (CMB DC 12) and Clamber Over (Climb DC 15). Merisiel decided to climb since she's not super strong. Valeros on the other hand is fairly strong and fairly agile so he goes for both. Let's say they both make it.

Merisiel is in the next card 'Overgrown Greenbelt'. By my interpretation Valeros is at the 'Crumbling Bridge' or basically in the same square as the Mauler starts out. There's also some ambiguity if he's just entering the card or if he's at the far end of it.

The next question would be let's say that Valeros manages to pull ahead of the Mauler after a couple rounds. Could he ready an action to tackle the guy as he moves through the card? That'd make sense if the Mauler only moved one card, but if he moved multiple cards he seems to leap ahead. This is also where the abstraction of the card mechanic clashes with the normal rules.