Lord Raheem Pandisar

The Diplomat's page

Organized Play Member. 253 posts (255 including aliases). 3 reviews. No lists. 1 wishlist. 6 Organized Play characters.


Sovereign Court

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Since it’s going to be quite a wait until the final draft of Player Core 2, and one of the stated goals of this Remastering project is to move away from OGL tropes, I do hope the Monk class will be renamed to “Cultivator”, to be more in keeping with modern Xianxia film and literature.

Aesthetically, little about this class needs to change. I presume we can expect a greater variety of weaponry to become available via the Lost Omens: Tian Xia World Guide. I also understand that there will be some remastering of the Focus Point system, which I fully support. But the name “Monk” as a class is somewhat problematic.

Perhaps “Monk” could be redesigned as a new faction archetype that gels with both the Cultivator and Cleric classes?

Sovereign Court

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Aaron Shanks wrote:
Ezekieru wrote:
Valiance007 wrote:
OrionDrake wrote:
Is this coming to FoundryVTT at some point?
Yes, is it coming to Foundry?
No. Currently, Paizo is working with Sigil to do Gatewalkers (and likely, will continue to work with them on the future AP releases), and the Foundry volunteer team is currently working on Kingmaker. Once Foundry is done with Kingmaker, they'll need to figure out where the highest demand is. Could be Troubles in Otari, could be the new Fists of the Ruby Phoenix compilation. Could be something else entirely!
Yes, this. But let me say that converting as many adventures as possible to VTT is a win-win-win for you, Paizo and the VTT. It just takes time and money. That is the right problem to have.

Prioritising Troubles in Otari makes a lot of sense.

Firstly, Foundry appears to have become the most popular and well respected VTT platform for PF2E. The Pathfinder subreddit has been actively directing new GMs and players to Foundry ahead of all other VTTs.

Secondly, Troubles in Otari is being actively promoted as the next adventure after the Beginner Box. So, regardless of whatever feedback experienced GM may be providing, this will be the next product after the Beginner Box that new GMs to PF2E are likely to want. The sooner it becomes available, the better it will be for them.

Thirdly, this product provides a skill and thematic bridge between the Beginner Box and Abomination Vaults (which has already been developed). So beginner GMs can easily move onto an AP after running this adventure, consolidating their interest in our hobby.

And, finally, this is a much smaller project than any Adventure Path.

All other considerations aside, prioritising this project simply makes sense. It would be much appreciated if this feedback could be forwarded to the Foundry volunteer team.

Sovereign Court

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Look, it's not that hard.

For cheep items, like daggers and arrows, just use the mechanics of the "earn an income" rules, and role play as if that the character had created (an) item(s) up to the value of the income earned.

If a character would take four or more days to earn sufficient income for the item they want to craft then switch to the crafting rules.

Sovereign Court

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It does prevent weird things happened. Like your wizard wearing heavy armour rolls a Natural 20 and is able to climb a sheer wall with no handholds.

In the new rules, if your wizard has STR 0 and is untrained in Athletics his climb would be 0. His heavy armour gives him a check penalty of -3 so his best possible result, on a Natural 20, is 17.

A sheer smooth and slippery surface would be of legendary difficulty, so as GM I’d set the DC at 40.

So the wizard would critically fail and probably injure himself on any roll except a Natural 20. On a Natural 20 he gets lucky and doesn’t totally humiliate himself by his failure. He does not, however, have a 5% chance of miraculous scrambling up the surface like some kind of super monkey.

Sovereign Court

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Can we expect class specific sheets for the four new classes announced for the APG?

Sovereign Court

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Can you please give a good explanation of the new earning income and crafting rules?
Especially, as a GM, how to I set the DCs? Why can't we just have a simple table that relates DC to task level?

Sovereign Court

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Are PF2E dinosaurs, such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, going to have their artwork updated to reflect newer research, such as sporting coloured ridges and feathers?

Sovereign Court

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As it is suggested here, is the inclusion of Spring Attack as a bonus feat for the Gendarme a typo (since none of the prerequisites for this feat are bonus feats)?

If not, and a character doesn't meet the prerequisites, and has no other bonus feats to choose from, what happens?

Sovereign Court

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Have you started using the downtime rules in Ultimate Campaign yet? They might help pull things back into balance. He can choose to spend his downtime crafting, but then his misses out on other things. The rules also let him "boar hunt" for XP, but ensure that things don't get overbalanced.

Sovereign Court

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If you think one of your players is likely to play against the precepts of his or her deity, I'd give them a subtle warning before their first offence (e.g. "would a Cleric of Pharasma usurp the power of life and death from his deity?") and after the session encourage the player to purchase a Phylactery of Faithfulness (Ultimate Equipment p252) to avoid getting into trouble.

In any case, would it have mattered had the cleric known the sheriff's alignment? Does evil deserve to die more than good? How could your cleric presume to know the mind of the Lady of Graves as to whether the sheriff's time has come? The Lady's way is to withhold judgement until life runs its proper course (ref Faiths of Balance p16).

Sovereign Court

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Sean K Reynolds wrote:
We're making sure that each of the main deity writeups has all of the same structural elements (a priest's role, dogma, relations with other religions).

Will this also include things like hierarchy and structure, clerical titles, premier shrines, etc.?

Sovereign Court

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I completely forgot about black powder inquisitor!

I'd suggest Black Powder Inquisitor of Asmodeus going into Hellknight.

Sovereign Court

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Whoops, got the times wrong.

So the question changes to:

4x25min serials vs. 45min self-contained episodes vs. 90min self-contained episodes - discuss

Sovereign Court

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Twigs wrote:
I'd thought as much! Thanks for the reply. If I can get my players to invest enough time to SEE a rune giant... well, I figure wizkids can have some of my money at that point. :P

I have the WizKids Rune Giant and it is awesome. However, if you still want to go on the cheep, there is a rune giant paper mini in the Paper Minis RotRL Bestiary.

Sovereign Court

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City of Golden Death concluded with

Spoiler:
the players returning the Kassen and putting the spirits of Ekat and Asar to rest.

Picking up from that ending, if I were writing the sequel here's what I might do:
My Players NO:
First part is a travel story:
  • Perhaps a year as passed since the events of CoGD
  • Cygar Anravis expresses how he is impressed with the heroes' achievements and recommends them to join the Pathfinder Society. He buys them passage to Absalom.
  • The route that barge captain Walren is taking is to skirt the southern shore of Lake Encarthan, stopping at Tamran, Detmer, Kerse, and Greengold for supplies and trading, then barging it down the Glass, West Sellen and Sellen Rivers.
  • Lake Encarthan has been unusually calm as a result of the events of the last module, and they are able to sail accross the lake uneventfully, although encounters can be added as necessary. Add events at the various stop-overs as required.
  • The barge is stopped at Xer where Evlar Thilisson (from MotLG) is now stationed as a Priest of the Third Step (if he is still alive). The barge is stopped and questioned by the Razmirites. If Evlar was on good terms with the heroes he doesn't raise an alarm, otherwise they either need to bluff or fight their way past. Either way, there is some general nastiness that the heroes have to face, such as enormous customs duties or confiscation of some of the cargo.
  • The barge continues down the river. Maybe they face river pirates as they pass the River Kingdoms, and have to deal with territorial elves as the pass Kyonin. There might be an incident with revolutionaries as they pass by Galt. They could be questioned by Andoran boarder-guards as they stop in Bellis, and they finally make port in Cassomir, where Walren fares them well.
  • Final showdown is with a group of cultists lead by a Mask of the Twelfth Step that has been shadowing them since Xer.
  • The heroes to board ship for Absalom, where they are finally inducted into the Pathfinder Society. Thus ends the first part.

Second story is a diplomatic/counterespionage mission:
  • One of the Venture-Captains recognises the heroes' experience dealing with the Church of Razmir. He informs them that his sources indicate that the Razmirites are going to make a move to acquire a live specimen of the sun orchid. He dispatches them to Merab with an order to thwart the cultists without creating an international incident. He inserts them into the diplomatic party that will be accompanying Absalom's ambassador.
  • The heroes arrive in Merab, which is hosting the auction for the sun orchid elixir this year.
  • They have to figure out that one of the other diplomatic parties (i.e. not the official Razmiran party) has been infiltrated by Razmirites.
  • The mission might take them into the interior of Thuvia, where they have to face of bandits and elementals while on their quest.
  • The heroes then have to stop the Razmirites and return to Absalom in one piece without being noticed.
  • Final showdown is with a Vision of the Fifteenth Step, who is the senior ambassador leading Razmiran's official mission.

Third story is an infiltration/assasination mission:
    After analysing the documents the heroes recovered in the last mission the Decemvirate discover that Razmir is, in fact, a fraud. They decide that his presence in the Inner Sea Region doesn't coincide with the goals of the Society and order him to be removed. Due to their experience the heroes are chosen to disguise themselves as pilgrims of the Living God's faithful and see it done.
  • If they were on good terms with Evlar they are ordered to reestablish contact with him and have him escort them along the pilgrimage route; if not they ought to disguise themselves as a priest with a group of acolytes and attempt it themselves.
  • The begin their "pilgrimage" at Xer and travel up the coast to Pilgrimage and on to Thronestep, with various encounters on the way.
  • Upon arrival at Thronestep they are shocked by wealth disparity between the Steps and the Stones.
  • Somehow or another they need to get an audience with the Living God (details to be worked out).
  • Final showdown of the series is on the 31 Steps of the Throne of the Living God with the false god himself.

Interested in thoughts, critiques, etc.

Sovereign Court

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My party is nearly finished with Masks of the Living God, and I've been having the same thoughts. I've been thinking of creating my own follow-up adventures in which the players follow their Pathfinder Society contacts to Absalom and maybe even join the Society themselves. The Society could send them back to the Lake Encarthan region to investigate moves by the Church of Razmir to infiltrate other nations of the Lake Encarthan / River Kingdoms region. Perhaps they've already got the Molthune government firmly in their pocket. In any case, it surely has to end with a big showdown in Thronestep with the Living God himself!

Personally, I'm hoping that with the new 64-page module format that someone will design a module that can lead to such a showdown.

Sovereign Court

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I think a Faiths of the Inner Sea book in the Campaign Setting line would be highly desirable for GMs, containing all the background and history of the different faiths. I'd like to hear more about hierarchy and the different orders of Paladin that exist within the Church of Iomedae, for example.
It's nice to see another Player's Companion book devoted to religion coming out, but I hope there isn't much overlap with Faiths of Purity/Balance.

Sovereign Court

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Mechalibur wrote:
The focus on atheism (which doesn't have the real-world meaning in Golarion, obviously) probably has to do with Rahadoum.

I'm hoping there is stuff about the Church of Razmir.

Sovereign Court

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In a previous campaign I ran using a different D20 game I used the story-based advancement method and it worked perfectly well within the context of that campaign.

In the current Pathfinder campaign I'm running I used XP-based advancement and it works perfectly well for this campaign.

Adamantine Dragon wrote:

Token XP awards potentially create disparity between player characters and can be frequent causes for accusations of GM favoritism.

Arbitrary XP awards based on GM whim might cause players to wonder how to play to please the GM, as opposed to simply playing their characters.

Counting XP risks having players thinking about their next level instead of playing to their current abilities.

Tradition only matters when the traditional thing is a good thing. Bad traditions simply perpetuate bad things.

To address your points:

- I haven't had any accusations of favouritism - the GM has to be seen as impartial and players will accept whatever decisions are handed down.
- I keep track of awards so as to keep disparity to a minimum - current disparity in my campaign is 50XP. Disparity might widen as the campaign goes on but so does XP required for next level, so it tends to even out.
- Different encounter outcomes are not "arbitrary" - they are predetermined. The players generally know what they're supposed to do. If they're told to capture someone but end up killing them they don't deserve as much XP. As an example, in this scenario I might set XP award for a CR4 encounter if they kill the opponant and XP for a CR6 encounter for capturing, since capturing often is more difficult.
- Yes, players think about the next level. So what? I don't think it's effected anyone's ability to play their character's current abilities. I really don't see what you're trying to get at with this point.
- The reason many players have opted to play Pathfinder, as opposed to 4E or many of the other wonderful systems out there, is because they're driven by a sense of nostalgia. If something is a bad tradition, sure, dump it, but there simply isn't any evidence that XP-based advancement is a bad tradition. It's just a mechanic that some people are bad at managing. Others make it work perfectly fine.

I'd suggest you look at your particular campaign and ask yourself what works best. But keep in mind that what works well in a particular campaign doesn't necessarily work as well in a different campaign.

Sovereign Court

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I personally have no problem about people who don't want to use XP in their campaign. You can easily create a mechanic where characters level whenever they achieve a particular plot element.

I use XP because my players expect it. Advantages of using XP:
- You can give out token XP awards for good roleplaying (and penalties for bad roleplaying).
- You can set a different XP reward depending on the type of solution to an encounter (e.g. you might give the players an additional XP bonus for finding a diplomatic solution rather than hack 'n slash).
- Players like counting how much XP they have and, therefore, seeing how far they are to the next level - it gives them something to aim for.
- Tradition does matter!

My players know that if they haven't hit a certain XP target by a certain point in the plot they'll have to deal with random encounters to make up the difference. It gives them a bit of added incentive to immerse themselves in the present story more thoroughly before moving on to ensure they've squeezed as much XP as they can from it so they don't have as many random encounters to deal with later (story XP is usually easier and more fun to collect then random encounter XP).

Sovereign Court

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My preferences:

1. Taldor
2. Taldor
3. Taldor
4. Taldor
5. Taldor
6. Qadira, on the Taldan boarder

Sovereign Court

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If you want "realism", try using the alternate rules from Ultimate Combat p206.

Sovereign Court

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hershaddow wrote:

Thanks for the advise everyone. To be fair, I am uncertain if the details of the pt buy were passed when he was invited to play, I didn't know he was coming until about an hour before. I will ask him to redo his character and see if we can work something out.

Just out of curiosity, what ways do you use in game to circumvent these types of things? Something other than double check everything on each character sheet. I don't really know the game well enough for a short glance to tell me these things, it would take me close to an hour to check each sheet. As we are just beginning, we do not have a solid group yet, and who is playing has been in a state of flux. Many of the players are also switching from the pregenerated ones to PC that they build. That would mean a lot of extra time on my part. Thanks again.

I believe in finding in-game solutions to problems whenever possible. Here is what I would do:

When Roldare teleported back to town, the Mayor managed to get a story out of him. When the party gets back, they will find that the mayor, Captain Wisslo and Golfond Kir are waiting to arrest Jay for murder and attempted murder, as well as to welcome back and congratulate the others. Perhaps have Sir Dramott hanging around in the background being "casual" in case things get out of hand. If Jay resists arrest, that should be enough indication that he doesn't belong in the group, as well as an easy in-game way to get rid of him.

Otherwise ... the mayor gives the party a secondary mission for the next module. They are to escort Prisoner Jay to Tamran and hand him over to the Church of Pharasma where he will be tried for the sacrilegous act of "playing Pharasma" - i.e. for assuming that he has a power over life and death that belongs exclusivly to the goddess. If he is willing to confess and make atonement, the Church rules that his punishment is to undergo a religious ritiual and results in a permenant 10pt ability score drain. If he refuses to confess, then he will be "sent to Pharasma" by his religious superiors.

Sovereign Court

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Can we get a "Legends of Golarion" Adventure Path set during the Age of Legends?

Sovereign Court

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Tacticslion wrote:
Reference the position of Azlant v. the Inner Sea (where Aroden found the Star Stone), two other suggestions/thoughts include: perhaps it's due either to the original meteor being broken up upon entry (and the Star Stone is just what survived), or perhaps it literally "bounced" and was deflected off of whatever magical wards ancient Azlant had... still causing untold destruction, but deflecting the actual stone into a side-path, causing it to carve a deep rift and thus create the Inner Sea. Or perhaps both! Or perhaps it was a summoning of many smaller meteors, too! We don't know for sure, and it's great for GMs (as mentioned by Star Shadow! I have original ideas, I swear! :D).

As I referenced before, the Inner Sea World Guide does actually speak of "a shower of great stones tumbling from space" (ISWG 211). Whether this shower tracked east to west or west to east we don't know, but presumably the path of the fall streatched from Azlant to what is now Absalom. They must have been pretty huge rocks to split apart a continant and open up the Inner Sea. Whether the Starstone was unique or whether each rock has the same properties but only one of them was actually dredged up remains unknown.

Sovereign Court

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Star Shadow wrote:

It becomes confusing when Paizo uses Starfall to mean a crashed spaceship and to use it interchangeable with Earthfall.

Have we been mislead? A meteor hit the Azanti, but also in Inner Sea and if you look at the Varisian Gulf. It does say in one of the books that some people believe that more than one meteor hit the world. So maybe the Aboleths had nothing to do with it.

Alot of loose strings. It allows the GM to make his world different than someone elses, by which one the GM decides is true.

Campaign Setting spoiler:
Earthfall occured in -5293 when the Starstone hit Golarian, created the Inner Sea, and heralded the Age of Darkness (Inner Sea World Guide p33).

"In preemptive retaliation for their disloyalty, the aboleths looked to the stars, uniting in an unspeakable ritual that brought a shower of great stones tumbling from space. The resulting catastrophe shattered the island of Azlant, wiping out its people and creating a ruin-laden maze of crumbling sea canyons where once a mighty empire had stood." (Inner Sea World Guide p211)

Aroden later brings the Starstone up from the depths of the Inner Sea and founds Absalom to bring in the Age of Enthronement (Inner Sea World Guide p35), so I think it's fair to assume that the Earthfall event's epicentre was near the current location of Absalom. The impact created the Inner Sea but was also powerful enough to sink most of Azlant and fragment the rest.

Sovereign Court

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If you take a stroll through an Australian forest, beware of drop bears. They climb trees and wait for unsuspecting tourists to walk past so they can drop onto their heads. Despite the misleading name, drop bears are not actually bears - they are marsupials.

Sovereign Court

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Aranna wrote:
Well Disney wouldn't be a monopoly yet...

No, but they'd own the rights to Monopoly! (Surprised no one jumped on this earlier).