TheCleanHippie's page

Since it seems clear that you don't want to run this anti-Scarzni game, the easiest thing to do for your players is to simply state that. Something like "I appreciate that you are getting into the backstory of character and the wider world, but I am not planning on or interested in running a diversion from the published campaign like that."

Simple, to the point. Don't bother arguing how easy or hard it would be to wipe out the Scarzni, if he argues just reiterate that you want to keep to the basic plot points published in the AP, and that that is what you will be running.

Yeah, this is probably what I'll have to do. Thanks for your well-thought out and to-the-point post. (Obviously thanks to all responders a million times over.)

I appreciate what you said about spoilers as well and agree but just to clarify: This player doesn't GM, this is the only Golarion campaign they have ever played in, and the info he has he only has because he looked into it specifically for this scenario. That is to say - he didn't run into it because he was learning the setting or reading a novel. He looked it up specifically with the full knowledge that he intends to try and wipe them out in-game.

He seems OK with the idea of waiting until after the AP is done (and who knows his PC might even die before the end anyway) but the idea of running this adventure at all bores me on multiple levels. For one, I feel like his reasons aren't the strongest or most well-thought out. I also honestly don't feel like I'd have fun running this adventure. Finally, should he manage to succeed, the world loses an interesting group I'll have to find some way to replace or mitigate. It all seems so boring and pointless to me especially when you factor in that this player is much more of a roll-player than a role-player.

He's talked about supplanting the leadership as well and taking control but for a magus with no rogue levels whose only criminal experience was being one of the lowest-level toughs for the Scarzni for like a year when he was a teen that's not really feasible to me. In the wise words of Mike from Breaking Bad: "Just because you shot Jesse James, don't make you Jesse James."

Torbyne - That's correct, although I think he vastly misjudges the size and scale of them. He seems to think they exist only in Magnimar.

GeneticDrift - I haven't read the novel so, no. The specific people who framed him were honestly never even named (in part because his character may not know). I treated his whole affiliation with them more as plot device than anything else and intended to focus on the Black Arrows and his Sandpoint ties - which I have quite a bit. In retrospect, despite this player being the biggest min-maxing murderhobo in my party they have somehow had more main story tie-ins than my RP-loving players.

2ndGen - I've thought of that and honestly at this point I would have to change them to even run it. Him getting his butt kicked is the most appealing to me as the GM but I don't want him cheesed off either.

He literally offered to simply write up an account of him taking charge if we didn't have time to run it properly. As if it would be so easy.

Saldiven - I'm pretty old school as well so I am pretty upset he'd casually look something like that up. On top of this I'm no so sure I really want to build them up from scratch either.

Wei Ji - We are just starting Sins of the Saviors. The sinkhole should be occurring soon.

I need some advice on a player's whose expectations seem to have gotten a little blown out of proportion. I'm running RotRL right now and we are just at the start of book 5. One character came to the party in book 2 and to give him a tie-in later I suggested he be one of the Black Arrows sent to take care of some business in Sandpoint. My player decided he wanted to have come to the Arrows against his will and we decided he had been a very low-level player in the Scarzni as a teenager and they used him as a fall-guy for the the murder of his mentor. This was mostly used as a plot device to get him in with the Arrows despite being a bit roguish at the time. After this it didn't come up again for quite a while. In the meantime, he's had plenty of personal RP opportunity in books 3 and 4 (he's also the son of Ven Vinder and so even had a lot of his own stuff to deal with in book 2 with the murder of Katrine).

Now, despite it having no tangible connection to the adventure we are playing he wants to take time off to wipe the Scarzni off the map. I've explained to him that that's not in the scope of this adventure but that maybe once the sixth book is complete we can try something. I've also said to him though, that I think he misjudges the scope of the organization. I tried to get him to understand that I'd be more than happy to craft an adventure centered around him taking out those who wronged him specifically but that the Scarzni as a whole are a lot bigger than he realizes and that they are fairly important to the setting and I'm not really willing to have them killed off at a whim.

The plot here thickens when this player informs me he's already done his own research and that they aren't really that large and imposing and he should be able to do it based on that. Now, we've been playing for over a year and I've made it abundantly clear that spoilers are an absolute no-no and if you look up spoilers to the path you are effectively cheating. This isn't quite that severe as it's only really setting spoilers but I'm still rubbed entirely the wrong way by it. Honestly, I'm stumped as to how to move forward without stubbing any toes. I'm not sure if that's even possible. Any advice on what to do would be much appreciated.

TL/DR: My player wants to casually wipe out the Scarzni despite it being way out of the scope of the adventure we are running and has looked up spoilers in order to facilitate his argument as to why he should be able to. Halp.

Name of PC: Orik Vancaskerkin (cohort)
Class/Level: Goblin Fighter 9 Ranger 1
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: A party overwhelmed by enemies, lamias
Story:

As the group was making their way towards the library level they happened upon the hallway with the two trolls. Having not yet encountered the two lamias up the hall they heard the commotion and decided to come and join the fun. To make matters worse, the round they finished dispatching the trolls Lokansir showed up for some revenge. All told they ended up fleeing with dimension door but not before poor Orik was felled by the lamias who had been concentrating their blows on the little fighter. Ayla, the party cleric hit him with Breath of Life though and all was ok.

Name of PC: Iza Olely (cohort)
Class/Level: Human Warpriestess of Pharasma 10
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants
Catalyst: Bad timing, a collapsed ceiling, and dragon's fire
Story:

After escaping the previous debacle the party rested until nightfall so they could recuperate before they assaulted again. When they returned they found the hallway guarded by the one remaining lamia and Lokansir. In the first round of the battle that broke out they brought ole Lokey practically to his knees through focusing fire, just low enough that he would panic and begin stomping and smashing around using his earthquake ability. This caused huge chunks of stone to fall from the ceiling of the cave and pin most of the party. In the rounds following this the dragons from the next room made their appearance and began cursing and breathing fire on the rubble and the pinned party underneath. Unfortunately for Iza, trapped in the rubble, this would cause her enough damage to bring her death.

In our group in order to give death more weight we have outlawed the use of low level rez spells such as Raise Dead and Reincarnation in lieu of Hero Points. Cohorts do not gain HP but I've ruled a character can use their own reserve on their cohort or animal companion (or what-have-you) if they so choose. Iza's mistress, Ayla, felt a surge of wild divine force expel from both herself and another character to shield Iza from death (at the cost of 2 HP).

Including this as a death because HP aren't exactly core material and without them this would have resulted in a death.

By RAW he can't revive the fallen stone giants because they have to have been dead a very short time. The cauldron's description reads that they have to be killed then very quickly immersed in the cauldron.

Either way, I just had the remaining enemies (dragons, lamia, Lokansir) all take part in the same combat and it made for a tough encounter in which a character would have died if not for Hero Points. In Round 1 they beat up Lokansir terribly to the point where he used his earthquake ability, pinning most of the party. The next turn the dragons breathed on the entire hallway. Ouch.

Now they are on the library level making their way toward Mok. I'm satisfied with how it's turned out. Thanks all for your advice!

You are correct about the harpies, Zhangar.

Yeah, one of my PC's is actually a red draconic bloodline sorcerer/dragon disciple who received training in unlocking his powers from Longtooth. During the raid on Sandpoint he managed to escape despite taking a beating from the cleric's cold spells. Once they arrived at Jorgenfist they scouted all the possible entrances by flying while invisible and the first they tried was the cliff entrance to the small tunnels - completely skipping meeting him a second time.

The fact that Longtooth trained the PC will likely amp up the drama a bit. He'll likely try to sway the PC to change sides. Doubt it will have much effect but we shall see!

I'll be GMing this tonight so I'll make sure to check back in tomorrow and let everyone know how it went. Any more bits of advice till then are certainly welcome!

They've killed Enga, all of the unnamed stone giants, the 3 ogre fighters, one of the lamias, Galenmir, the two trolls.

That leaves Lokansir (who they have fought twice, once until he melded with earth and once until they had to dimension door to safety), the lamia who survived, and the two red dragons.

They were fighting the trolls when the lamias heard and came to help, then just as they managed to slay the trolls their old friend Lokansir came back for more.

What about different enemies from outside? Longtooth? The harpy monks? I'll do a quick re-read and see where their loyalties ultimately lie.

My players went a little too gung ho on their trek into Jorgenfist and used many of their better resources early on. They let more than a few enemies run away as well and they came back to haunt them. They ended up dimension dooring the hell outta there and now I'm not sure how to run their 2nd attempt.

Should I replace downed enemies with stone giants? Should the enemies use some special tactics? They know that they came in through the small tunnels and that that is likely where the party is hiding out now.

Thoughts?

Oriandian, Stone Giant ranger 4 CR 12
XP 4,800
CN Large humanoid (giant)
Init +2 (+4 in mountains); Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +19 (+21 in mountains)

DEFENSE
AC 24, touch 11, flat-footed 22 (+2 Dex, +2 armor, +11 natural, –1 size)
hp 138 (4d10+12d8+64)
Fort +16, Ref +11, Will +8
Defensive Abilities improved rock catching

OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee greatclub +20/+15/+10 (2d8+12) or 2 slams +20 (1d8+8)
Ranged +1 Composite Longbow +18/+13/+8 (2d6+9) (x3 Crit.) or rock +16/+11/+6 (1d8+12)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks: rock throwing (180 ft.)

STATISTICS
Str 27, Dex 16, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +13; CMB +22; CMD 34
Feats Iron Will, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Medium Armor Proficiency, Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Endurance, Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow), Deadly Aim
Skills Climb +19, Intimidate +12, Perception +19 (+21 in mountains), Survival +8(+10 in mountains, extra +2 when tracking), Handle Animal +7, Knowledge Nature +7, Stealth +12 (+22 in rocky terrain and mountains); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in rocky terrain
Languages Common, Giant

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Improved Rock Catching (Ex): A stone giant gains a +4 racial bonus on its Reflex save when attempting to catch a thrown rock with rock catching. This ability otherwise works like the rock catching ability.
Favored Enemy: Animal
Favored Terrain: Mountains
Wild Empathy

TREASURE
Leather armor, +1 Comp. (+8) longbow

ANIMAL COMPANION
Toothe, Wolf Animal Companion
N Medium animal
Init +6; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8

DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 13 (2d8+4)
Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +1

OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +3 (1d6+1 plus trip)

STATISTICS
Str 13, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 15 (19 vs. trip)
Feats Skill Focus (Perception), Improved Initiative
Skills Perception +9, Stealth +6, Survival +2 (+6 scent tracking); Racial Modifiers +4 Survival when tracking by scent

Drogart, Stone Giant fighter 3 CR 11
XP 12,800
CE Large humanoid (giant)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +12

DEFENSE
AC 30, touch 11, flat-footed 28 (+2 Dex, +8 armor, +11 natural, –1 size)
hp 144 (3d10+12d8+75)
Fort +15, Ref +7, Will +8 (+9 vs. fear)
Defensive Abilities: improved rock catching

OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee: mwk greatclub +21/+16/+11 (2d8+12) or 2 slams +19 (1d8+8)
Ranged: rock +14/+9/+4 (1d8+12)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks: rock throwing (180 ft.)

STATISTICS
Str 27, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +12; CMB +21; CMD 33
Feats Iron Will, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Heavy Armor Proficiency, Shield Proficiency, Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Cleave, Weapon Focus (greatclub), Toughness, Improved Initiative
Skills Climb +14, Intimidate +18, Perception +12, Stealth +0 (+8 in rocky terrain); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in rocky terrain
Languages Common, Giant

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Improved Rock Catching (Ex): A stone giant gains a +4 racial bonus on its Reflex save when attempting to catch a thrown rock with rock catching. This ability otherwise works like the rock catching ability.

TREASURE
Mwk greatclub, +1 banded mail

Zinderall, Stone Giant fighter 1 CR 9
XP 6,400
CE Large humanoid (giant)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +12

DEFENSE
AC 27, touch 11, flat-footed 25 (+2 Dex, +5 armor, +11 natural, –1 size)
hp 111 (1d10 +12d8+52)
Fort +14, Ref +6, Will +7
Defensive Abilities: improved rock catching

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk greataxe +19/+14 (3d6+12) (x3 crit.) or 2 slams +17 (1d8+8)
Ranged rock +12/+7 (1d8+12)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks: rock throwing (180 ft.)

STATISTICS
Str 27, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +10; CMB +19; CMD 31
Feats Iron Will, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Heavy Armor Proficiency, All Shield Proficiencies, Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Cleave, Weapon Focus (greataxe)
Skills Climb +12, Intimidate +16, Perception +12, Stealth +0 (+8 in rocky terrain); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in rocky terrain
Languages Common, Giant

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Improved Rock Catching (Ex)
A stone giant gains a +4 racial bonus on its Reflex save when attempting to catch a thrown rock with rock catching. This ability otherwise works like the rock catching ability.

TREASURE
Large mwk greataxe, large scalemail

Hey all,

So I may have overlooked something (and please link to it if I have) but I can't seem to find stats for the different Stone Giant generals and clan leaders hanging out outside Jorgenfist. I know most parties of competent adventurers skip right past them. Even the AP assumes this. I felt like statting some of them up however and figured I'd post them here for other's use.

So far I've only finished Vlorian, leader of the Jormunsir. Have a looksee and tell me what you think.

Vlorian, Stone Giant Ranger 3 CR 11
XP 12,800
NE Large humanoid (giant)
Init +2 (+4 in mountains); Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +18 (+20 in mountains)

DEFENSE
AC 29, touch 12, flat-footed 26 (+2 Dex, +6 armor, +11 natural, +1 dodge, –1 size)
hp 129 (12d8+3d10+60)
Fort +15, Ref +9, Will +8
Defensive Abilities: Improved Rock Catching

OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee glaive +19/+14+9 (2d8+12) (x3 crit) or 2 slams +19 (1d8+8)
Ranged rock +14/+9/+4 (1d8+12)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with Glaive, 20 ft. with Lunge)
Special Attacks: Rock Throwing (180 ft.)

STATISTICS
Str 27, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +12; CMB +21; CMD 33
Feats Iron Will, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Medium Armor Proficiency, Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Dodge, Lunge, Cleave, Endurance
Skills Climb +15, Intimidate +18, Perception +18 (20 mountains), Stealth +7 (+17 in rocky terrain/mountain) Survival + 7 (+9 mountains, extra +1 when tracking), Knowledge (geography) +6 (+8 mountains); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in rocky terrain
Languages Common, Giant

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Improved Rock Catching (Ex)
A stone giant gains a +4 racial bonus on its Reflex save when attempting to catch a thrown rock with rock catching. This ability otherwise works like the rock catching ability.
Favored Enemy Human: +2/hit, +2/dmg.
Favored Terrain: Mountain/Rocky Terrain

TREASURE
Large Mwk glaive, large +1 horn lamellar armor

I like the idea of simply letting players decide one way or the other but (and maybe I'm a sadist) I really enjoy the realism involved when a character dies against his player's wishes. Sure, you can argue that these games are for a player's pure enjoyment but some of my favorite stories in-game came from character loss and tragedy that I wholeheartedly tried to prevent but just couldn't quite manage to stop.

Then again, I shouldn't be (and am not) GMing just for my own enjoyment. I have the enjoyment of the group to consider as well.

Thanks everyone for all of the suggestions. I'm currently presenting a number of options to the group telling them things will only change with a unanimous choice. I really appreciate all of the ideas. If anyone has any more I'd be glad to hear.

So, lately in my RotRL campaign there have been quite a lot of character deaths and it's created a strange schism among my players. This schism has to do with the availability of resurrection magic at their current level. They are at a point where reincarnate and raise dead are easily cast for them so death has practically reached a point where it's more an annoyance than well, death.

Half of my group has come out in favor of our game utilizing perma-death in order to allow for greater role-playing opportunities, character development, and sense of danger, darkness, or grit. The other half of my group is against this because they have become so attached to their characters for all the story and character building they've put in that they would hate being forced to play as a different character, especially this far into the AP.

This has been a tough thing to reconcile for me, as GM. I understand both sides' concerns and empathize with both. Thus far I have told them that they can make the decision for themselves: if you want your characters res'd they can be. If you'd like perma-death for your own characters that's fine too. This, however, aggravates some already present continuity issues. Why do they res character A but not character B? Why hasn't Tiny res'd his best friend Cal who died at 2nd level?

More recently I have been giving thought to the idea of banning resurrection as anything but a plot device or Act of God but allowing Hero Points or some other system to mitigate deaths. This could make it so character death is more avoidable without sapping all of the weight out of character death when it does occur.

Thoughts? Ideas? If this has already been covered in another thread please link to it and I apologize for wasting your time.

Name of PC: Sigmund Vinder
Race/Class/Level: Human Magus 7 Eldritch Knight 2
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Skull Ripper...
Story: The party narrowly escaped certain death at the hands of Black Magga and so set off to open the floodgates at Skull's Crossing. Everything was going swimmingly (pun intended) as they killed all the ogres, trolls, and even Grazuul with a good deal of ease. The Skull Ripper was a different story, however. Tiny, the party fighter and tank, was affected by it's fear ability and ran away. This meant that Sig was the lone melee character left to engage and it... didn't go so well for him. On the first round of attacks he was clawed, grappled, and stung. On round 2 his head was popped off by good ole Skull Ripper and that was that. Thankfully Ayla, the party cleric had a Breath of Life prepared and I ruled that his head would be magically reattached.

Name of PC: Sigmund Vinder
Race/Class/Level: Human Magus 7 Eldritch Knight 2
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Skull Ripper's poison
Story: Upon being revived Sigmund ran out into Grazuul's chamber and immediately began failing his fort. saves to resist the Skull Ripper's poison. He had forgotten about the poison completely. Not long after the whole party ran away from the the Ripper in order to fight another day but no matter how hard they tried to keep him alive Sig was doomed to die from con damage. Afterwards, they successfully dealt with Avexial by lying to his face and watching him get dusted. With that ordeal finished they turned their interests back to recouping their losses at Fort Rannick and Magnimar. Sigmund was eventually reincarnated as a half-elf which is, funnily enough, his original race. Unfortunately for Sigmund, after being traumatized with his death so many times his cohort-love interest Shalelu decided she couldn't handle the emotional strain any longer and broke off their relationship. She will still, however, adventure with the party.

Name of PC: Orik Vancaskerkin (cohort)
Class/Level: Fighter 4 Ranger 1
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Harlock "Hookmaw" Kreeg and... mistakes.
Story: Following the events of AP1 Orik was sent to the Black Arrows as punishment for his involvement. He was then later encountered with the rest of the survivors at the Graul Farm and took part in the retaking of Fort Rannick. In my game Orik is a really lovable sort of character. I play him as fairly self-deprecating and tragic in the "Man, I can't ever do anything right" sort of way. The party has really liked him from the start and pleaded with Ironbriar to go easy on him. Because of the good treatment shown to him following Thistletop he feels some loyalty to the party and was willing to become our sorceror's bodyguard cohort should he be released from the Black Arrows.

Anyway, during the assault on Rannick everything was going rather well. The party had managed to unleash the shocker lizards and burn the new barracks. They had already caused Lucrecia to flee and were tearing through the ogres. Eventually they reached the upper floor where Jaagrath, Dorella, and Hookmaw were. Because they were expecting all the ogres on this floor to come running as soon as combat started they opened all the doors on the first round of combat. Including the chapel doors where Jaagrath laired. What began as a fight with two normal ogres quickly escalated. Despite some very close calls no PCs perished. Orik, however, met his end with Hookmaw's hook wrapped around his spinal cord.

However, this was not the end for poor Orik as later that day he was reincarnated. As. A. Goblin. Poor, poor Orik. Talk about PTSD.

Name of PC: Sigmund Vinder
Class/Level: Magus 7 Ranger 1
Adventure: Hook Mountain Massacre
Catalyst: Minktuck Kreeg and overconfidence
Story: Sig was the party's resident shock-happy dervish dancer. He's not quite beefy enough to qualify as a tank but he can take some hits and he can definitely dish the damage. Following the party's defeat of Jaagrath and other ogre leadership they decided that instead of intimidating the remaining ogres into running away they would eradicate them by leading them into an ambush. This way the Kreeg clan would never again cause harm to those in the mountain or valley. They planted all of the ranged characters and spellcasters on the wall of the cleared keep and called out for all those brave enough to face them. They planted the melee characters down below to attract the ogres attention. Now, they had managed to whittle down the ogres quite a bit. All that remained were Karly-Lop, Jolly, Minktuck, and maybe 2 or 3 run of the mill ogres. They did manage to make it out mostly unscathed (a free round of ranged attacks on the now outnumbered ogres can do that) but Sigmund was not so lucky. He was in over his head, and for that transgression he more or less lost it. Minktuck did his gleeful work, tearing Sig's throat out with his hook, laughing all the while. I can still see the squirrels dancing on his jowls as the rest of the party cut him down in retribution.

Later that day Sig was reincarnated as a human, much to the party's (and his love interest Shalelu's) relief.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate both the clarification and the suggestion.

Vale Temros from HMM has both TWF and Double Slice despite not meeting the prereqs for either of them. One of them is covered by his bonus fighting style feat, the other is not.

I'm wondering how this is possible... I might not have even noticed it if not statting him up in HeroLab. There are other threads talking about whether rangers can take any feats from their fighting style without the prereqs or if they are only able to when picking the style feats specifically. RAW seems to support the "Style feats only" argument.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, guys.

PC Name: Aurora (cohort)
Race/Class/Level: Half-elf bard (Negotiator) 5
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: That darn bell trap...

Aurora is the half-elf lover and cohort of Tiny, the party tank and general murder-machine. Having just reached level 7 before the final showdown with Xanesha he picked up his boo and we were ready to rock.

Now, Aurora was built to mainly be used off screen as a way for us hand-wave the selling of loot and such. She is a merchant's daughter and a smuggler who always has max ranks in bluff, appraise, etc. In combat she was meant to be 100% support staff - a healer, buffer/debuffer who stayed as far away from the melee as possible. This was largely because of how protective Tiny is of her as well as because of the absolutely pitiful amount of hit points she has.

Regardless, up the clocktower they were climbing. When Xanesha's Faceless Stalker buddies dropped the bell everyone managed to dodge it somehow - except for the new cohorts. Iza, the warpriest cohort took the hit and lived. Aurora, on the other hand, fell victim to a natural 20 on the bell's attack roll. The resulting damage was enough to kill her instantly, even before factoring in fall damage.

After rage-murdering the crud out of Xanesha Tiny began a short period of mourning after which Aurora was reincarnated as a human.

Man, Tiny has had the worst luck in this campaign. He has died twice. Both his lover (Aurora) and his best friend (Cal) have died as well. It's actually become a running joke in our group that he has to die once per book. Perhaps now someone close to him must also die once per book?

Name of PC: Tiny
Class/Level: Fighter (unbreakable) 6
Adventure: The Skinsaw Murders
Catalyst: Suicide Compulsion Haunt and a Natural 1
Story: After uncovering the culprit behind the murders and finding Foxglove Manor the party began to skulk the halls uncovering haunts and other frights. Before too long they came across Traver and Cyralie's marital bedroom. Upon spying the "dagger" lying on the desk Tiny became certain he had killed his one true love. One failed will save later and he had drawn it swiftly across his neck. Due to his high strength and high rolls he dealt a solid 20 damage. He then managed to roll a natural 1 on his fortitude save to not die instantly. He died instantly. Thankfully, Tiny has Tenacious Survivor. He was up a few rounds later with a negative level.

Thanks,

Figured it out when I saw it said "optional".

Thanks for your help!

So, I'm a little confused on how Martial Flexibility works. It seems to me that you can use it to gain any feat you have the prereqs for and that it also how most people seem to read it. However, on HeroLab I have to choose specific feats to use with it ahead of time.

So, I guess I'm confused on whether the ability grants you the use of any feat or just certain ones you pick ahead of time.

I started out GMing the Beginner Box for some friends of mine and since then we have made the leap to the full game - to differing levels of success for some.

Most of us have learned the core rules for the most part and are rather proficient in them but one of my players more or less dropped out when realizing the scope of the non-BB rules. His first PC died at low levels and in an initiative to get him learn the game properly I told him he'd have to prepare his own character rather than be handheld by the GM the whole way. I guess that was too much for him because I haven't heard from him in a month (we play weekly).

Different games for different people, I guess.

They don't work like ammunition in any rules-meaningful sense, sadly. You'll just have to keep a lot of daggers handy. Better yet, pick up a blinkback belt.

WOW! That's awesome. I was going to make them returning daggers later on but that is just fantastic. Thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks guys.

It makes sense in retrospect I just wanted to double-check.

It's a thrilling prospect - dealing 1d8 (or more!) per hit while dual-wielding. Thrown weapons aren't traditionally very feasible but I'm hopeful the damage boost from Warpriest might make it more worthwhile.

Can Abundant Ammunition be cast on a dagger belt?

I am working on a warpriest of Pharasma who throws daggers and I'm curious.

True, I suppose it would be Ironbriar himself who would take Orik in that scenario. Hmm... I've read your ideas on Orik Story Archer and I like them quite a bit.

I don't really think Ironbriar would go out on such a limb as to try and use or abuse either Lyrie or Orik considering he gets by in his double-life by being very careful and not overstepping his boundaries too much.

I am looking for advice on how to handle Orik beyond simply his appearance in Burnt Offerings. In Burnt Offerings I played up his "clueless mercenary in over his head" bit quite a bit and he not only led the PCs to Nualia but aided them in the fight. Despite this my players refused to lie to the Sandpoint authorities and still turned him in to the Sheriff. Now, I plan to introduce Ironbriar during Orik and Lyrie's trial and I know Lyrie will likely receive jail-time. Orik, however, I am a little unsure of.

Option one would be to have him turned over to the Black Arrows and have him reappear later as a possible cohort when rescued from the farm in HMM(I only generally allow existing NPCs to become cohorts in my games). I've seen many people do this already.

I have my own idea as well though. Seeing as he flat out betrayed Nualia I figure Xanesha might not be too happy with him. I hatched an idea for her to kidnap him from prison and use him to her own benefit. I thought that perhaps she'd use him as spare parts for the Scarecrow. This would certainly up the horror factor in that part of the path. I mean, imagine the players' surprise at seeing this hulking beast with Orik's head on its shoulders?

Thoughts?

Maybe you can kill him, i mean not deliberetely kill him, but doing silly things is 99% sure a recipe for a disaster just dont help his antics, he´ll kill himself. First talk to him explain him your game is serious and why is this and how your table like serious games.

His roplaying style is not wrong its jus the way he rolls, for instance i think he would make a fun person at my table albeit playing a fighter, that is. But also im not so serious at my table, but always neutral, so if he realeased a lof of rabbits for no reason i would be like what? oh ok i guess its time for enemies to attack?

Also who on earth says lol in real life?

I mean, his original character is already dead. Just via the way things turned out. No passive-aggressiveness or anything of the sort. Not 30 minutes had gone by in the session after the bunnies incident and his character was dead.

He was the party rogue and so was checking every door for traps even though he has the Trap Spotter talent. He got to a point where he'd do the check and just burst through the door anyway without even waiting for the results. And that obviously came back to bite him.

Didn't manage to talk to him one on one tonight but I did get a chance to ask him if he had put any work or thought at all about the new character and he said he hadn't but that being a "gunslinging Paladin was gonna be awesome." Also said something about wanting to ascend to godhood. Great.

Sounds good to me.

As a side note, if he's a problem player, you shouldn't let him play a paladin, the poster child for in-game disruption.

Think so? I was thinking it might help to curb the disruptive behavior by holding him strictly to being lawful good. But I see what you mean, now that you say it.

I guess I'll speak to him tonight and see how he takes it.

wait he said lol like it was a word

Yes. Yes, he did.

As for everyone else - I really appreciate the advice. Another character is being rolled for the next session he can attend as the troublemaking one met an ultimely (or timely depending on your perception) death.

He wants to play a gunslithing catfolk paladin. I am looking forward to him playing a paladin and it should hopefully fix some of the problems. I'm wary of letting him play a catfolk, however, as he very rarely reads into anything and I'd rather not have it as an afterthought.

I think he cares about hanging out with us and having a good time but much less about the game. I've recommended a few times he at least skims the Core Rulebook we have lying around the house so he understands all of his class features as well as the bare rules of the game. Each time he has more or less refused and implied he just doesn't feel like it. I've explained that by knowing his own stuff and by knowing the rules he would help to speed things up on his turn a great deal but that didn't seem to sway him. I've given him other supplements in the past to read as well and he never seems to get around to it. So I'm really starting to think the issue is more that we have different ideas of what we want out of the game. He wants a night to relax with friends and the rest of us are looking for a more immersive gaming experience. I think that is the core of the discussion I will have with him.

Thoughts?

I have a player in my RotRL campaign who has slowly been giving me more and more trouble as a GM and I'm not quite sure of the appropriate way to handle it.

From day one he's been fuzzy on his backstory and we have a group that is very roleplay-centric. I had to handhold him through the meager background he did eventually stick to but all that eventually became for him was even less than window-dressing. It all took a backseat to his desire to play a "young Han Solo" - someone who "doesn't take any crap from anyone". That sounds fine and all but it was his execution that was lacking. In game this translated to him causing much more party strife than was necessary, threatening the lives of important townsfolk for no reason at the most inopportune moments and being generally disruptive to the smooth flow of things.

Now, you might say that as a GM it's my job to roll with the punches but its become apparent to me that he simply doesn't care about the game as much as myself or my other players. For us its a serious endeavor that we've put hours or days into preparing and for him its a fun distraction on a Saturday night. That's fine and all but I'm beginning to sense a distinct feeling of discord amongst my other players. I've even had a couple players approach me saying they were getting sick of his antics and tendency to cause party-drama as they felt it was starting to distract from the story of the AP - something I feel as well. At last week's session he went the next step though from troublemaker to "lolimrandumb" when, after discovering the goblin dog exercise yard at Thistletop he released dozens of rabbits into the courtyard with a live and very spookable Shadowmist. When I asked him why on earth his character would do that he replied grinning "I don't know, lol."

That is literally what he said.

...

This was the tipping point for me. This was the moment when I knew he didn't really care the same way we did.

Now, you might ask why I haven't just asked him to leave?

He's a close friend of myself and all my other players and is currently living at my house while he finds his own place. That is what makes this tricky.

Anyway... long story and all... Advice?

Name of PC: Caladral Forgedawn
Class/Race/Level: Half-elf Rogue 2, Ranger 1
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Bruthazmus and annoying overconfidence

After a long night of dungeon crawling Cal's player was much too over confident during his usual check for traps routine. After finding no traps on any of the doors in Thistletop he began declaring that there were no traps on the doors before the check had actually been conducted in a very flippant way. After three or four times of shrugging this off I decided I was sick of his attitude and placed a trap of my own creation above Ripnugget's chamber door. When tripped by an unsuspecting Cal, who's player had declared the door trapless and opened it before I could even roll a check, a rusty horse-chopper flew down and brought him to -1 HP. He was then revived to 7HP.

Later the party was arguing with Cal over his many transgressions towards the party and citizens of Sandpoint. His player has committed many role-playing faux-pas over the course of the AP including threatening the lives of citizens, threatening death on the party sorceror for no good reason, and being an all around jerk to pretty much everyone. This all added up to make him the most hated PC by all and the inner-party strife was seriously taking away from the AP's story enough that a few of my players were starting to be really bothered by it - especially when you consider that the offending player didn't even really seem to care that much. So anyway - all of this arguing in character was taking place just outside of the chamber with Ripnugget's wives and Bruthazmus. Upon making the correct checks to hear them Bruthazmus readied his bow and prepared to fire at the first PC to enter the room. He had heard stories from the goblins that one of the heroes was an elf so he readied both a normal and an elf-bane arrow just in case.

As soon as Cal opened the door he was more or less blown away by Bruthazmus with one shot of an elf-bane arrow bringing him to -11 HP and killing him instantly.

The entire group (including myself and Cal's player) then breathed a huge sigh of relief that he was finally dead and this ordeal over.

How did they get past the four goblin dogs in the thicket? It's not much of a "tunnel" to them, more of just "an opening".

The goblin dogs were tied down with fraying rope and didn't notice the PCs until they had turned their attention away to move on. I ruled that they would break free to attack them in 4-5 rounds. By the time they had broken free the alarm had been raised.

Name of PC: Tiny
Race/Class/Level: Half-orc Fighter (Unbreakable) 3
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: Tanglefoot
Story:

After finding Thistletop in the Nettlewood without too much trouble the party began to skulk through the goblin thistle tunnels led by Tiny with his darkvision. Somehow they managed to navigate the tunnels without happening across any resistance. At one point Tiny peered down a tunnel and saw the four goblin dogs but they opted to simply leave them be and continue searching for an exit. Upon finding the bridge the party rogue found and disabled the trap. They then launched a surprise attack on the "killgull" goblins and the martials all raced out to wage a fight on the bridge. Meanwhile the alarm had been raised and everyone they had passed by came to meet them on the bridge including the refugees, dogs, and Gogmurt.

To make a long story short they miraculously defeated this deadly (and CR 8) encounter thanks to the bridge only being two squares wide and forcing a bottleneck with the goblins as well as a well-timed fireball from the sorcerer but not before poor Tiny had his throat ripped out by the druid's animal companion. His death was short-lived, however, as he has the Tenacious Survivor feat and was quickly revived by the sorcerer with a wand of CLW.

Funnily enough, the character concept is to create a character who simply will not die. One who is unbreakable and unkillable. Good job so far.