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In my AoA campaign, one of the players is an oracle who follows Qi Zhong. Qi Zhong's only anathema is inflicting lethal damage on living things and this oracle has definitely done that a few times.

The problem is, not only am I not sure what effect that should have, if it was worth a curse, Qi Zhong doesn't currently have any. (I know the ones that are listed are examples, but I don't know much about this god.)

I'd like to share the progress of my players in Age of Ashes.

First, the cast:
Zim (Spellscale Kobold Fighter) is a "pointy stick" (polearm) specialist with an extreme love of dragons. Following the logic that dragons have treasure, treasure is found by adventurers, and adventurers are sometimes called heroes, he naturally became interested when he heard of a town's "Call for Heroes". His player has been playing since I started GMing last year with Little Trouble in Big Absalom.

Ortzi Crevan (Tiefling Kitsune Life Oracle) is a follower of Qi Zhong plagued by visions that have led him to Breachill. His only knowledge of Tian Xia was through his grandparents, so his knowledge of the language is almost exclusively food. His player is also returning; they joined for the Fall of Plaguestone/The Slithering double-feature.

Orbeck Vitreus (Seer Elf Wizard) is a magic scholar who has studied at Magaambya and follows Nethys. He is surprisingly fond of Telekinetic Projectile. His familiar is Garry the Aeon Wyrd. (He is not Ekujae, as far as I'm aware.) His and the remaining characters' players are new to me.

Gargrun Emberfury (Beastkin Dwarf Fighter) is a Breachill local that has decided to put his curse to use. It took him a bit to figure out what kind of fighter he was: brawler. He may have been in a relationship with Roxie Dean? (If you're going to establish a connection to an existing NPC, please inform your GM BEFORE, not when, the NPC is introduced. Zim: "Could have been worse; could have been Voz.") I believe his player is new to Pathfinder in general.

Epsilon-2 (Alchemical Investigator[-Witch] Artisan Android) is, like Ortzi, driven by visions of fire which drew him to Breachill. He has been contacted (vaguely) by an unknown patron which has given him a poppet familiar resembling his deceased friend, Helena. As expected for an Investigator, he tends to spot things before the rest of the party.

Guest featuring: Roll20's Die Roller that hates PC's animals, companion or summoned. Its opinion on Construct Familiars has not been tested.

The story began with the members of the party-to-be mingling with townsfolk. Orbeck specifically met a nervous goblin, Warbal Bumblebrasher, fretting about her nearby community. The town council meeting soon began, but before Warbal could begin her request, a guard warned of a fire. As the flames, and the Fire Mephit that spread them, burst into the room, so did our heroes-to-be burst into action. The little kobold rushed to confront the elemental near (and soon, unfortunately, IN) the flames, while the rest of the group fired upon it from a distance, the townsfolk panicked, and the council tried to lead toward the exit. Combating the creature was easy, but the flames would not be drowned out. Orbeck suggests to Greta (Head of the Council) to have those fleeing the building form a bucket chain. During the escape, Zim passed out from smoke inhalation, but was saved by Epsilon. Their bravery and ability to think under pressure proven, the group was declared to be the Heroes tasked with helping the Bumblebrashers and with capturing the local that started the fire, a miscreant named Calmont.

The group hiked up to the ruined Citadel Altaerein, aka Hellknight Hill, current of home of the suspiciously quiet goblin clan. They decided that the front door was too obvious and would first circle the perimeter. On the northern wing, they found a corpse on a small mound in a pool of water where part of the citadel's wall once was; when Epsilon attempted to examine it, the mound attacked. (Neither the corpse nor the mound were Calmont, it should be noted; the arsonist is a halfling.) The similar mound further along the wall didn't rise in time to assist it's fellow graveshell (the name of the creature, Epsilon recalled) as the pond-dweller had a head smashed in by a rock from Orbeck. Orbeck threatened the surviving creature that, along with some food from Ortzi, convinced it to inform them of any goblins or halflings it had seen. None, but one human (dead) and some worgs.

Leaving it to its own devices, they continued counter-clockwise around the building; Garry scouting ahead. The next opening they found presented a corpse and rats of unusual size. Zim interacted peacefully with one rat before the party continued. The third hole was into a training room filled with mannequins. These objects were clearly less trustworthy than disease-bearing rodents and the immovability was to be tested... by rocks. A single silver piece fell from one and, intending to return, the noted its position.

In spite of all this caution, they would immediately attempt to open the next door. It was of the southern wing, it was locked or barred, and it had something behind it, something that was now alert. The party's curiosity was peaked and they returned to the training hall with coin untouched. Before they could proceed westward, the heard a commotion in the opposite direction and decided to prioritize it. It was an armored man, a Hellknight named Alak, fighting a group of imps with his strange sword-that-looks-like-a-halberd. Following the party's easy victory, they agreed to assist him in finding his "ring".

The group, with Alak as rearguard, passed through the kitchen without touching anything and barged into the bunkroom. A bed fort with a crude Goblin banner whose inhabitant would have attacked, had she not been smart enough to realize that six-on-one is terrible odds. The party, fortunately, both is not keen on attacking without reason and was on a quest to help goblins, which they believed her to be. The fuzzy, grumpy, goblin-looking thing informed them that she was not a "Bumblebutt" and Ortzi realized this scrawny girl was a bugbear. Regardless, Yoletcha (later found out to be a homeless teenager) told them what they needed to know: the goblins would be underground.

The party's new goal was stairs. To this end, the proceeded counter-clockwise through the citadel, while Alak would double-check around the training room. After deciding to let sleeping Goblin Dogs lie, the heard a commotion from above.

Unknown to the party, it was at this time that Calmont took Helba hostage. He had been waiting near the goblins awaiting an opportunity to appear.

The party decided at a crossroad of exiting out a hole in the structure into the courtyard (where shouting can be heard) or going north (which is a distinctly different direction, incomparable to "above"), they would take that later. This led them to other side of the graveshell's pool and to a surprising discovery: worg puppies! The little creatures were harmless (now), but their yelping alerted the daddy, who broke through a nearby door for dinner. Upon recalling that worgs are intelligent, Orbeck attempted to diffuse the situation; the party meant no harm to the worg or his puppies. The worg did not care... about the puppies. This declaration, alone, led the party to assume (correctly despite having no actual evidence) that worg would be willing to eat the puppies and promptly killed him.

Now the party has a pair of defenseless puppies, what should they do? They can't leave them here; the graveshell will eat them (they incorrectly assumed in spite of reasonable evidence that it cannot enter the room without considerable effort). They can't bring them forward; they might get hurt. That leaves the party with two options.

They can take the puppies to Alak, the Hellknight that was offering them carte blanche on whatever they find if they found his ring and was also willing to help them fight the dangers in the citadel to assist their quest.
• OR
• They go to Yoletcha, the skittish, homeless girl wearing knives who had demonstrated no positive opinions of the party and was of an ancestry specifically known for psychopathy, sadism, and psychotic violence.

While that (rather short) debate was occurring and Gargrun was healed from worg bites, Zim found a book that was possibly written by relative of Alak and the group decided to return that to him. Alak had just entered the bunk chamber, when the party arrived. He was touched by their gift and, seeing their trust in her, he decided to give the bugbear a chance. Yoletcha upon hearing the puppies was immediately interested and gave them unidentified meat. Ortzi requested Yoletcha watch the dogs for him, which she was willing to do.

Once more ignoring the kitchen, the party searched the rooms they had not explored in the southern wing. They discovered a secret trapped room, in which they found, among other things, a hand of the mage which is not mage hand but the severed hand of a mage that will allow one to cast mage hand.

The party then found a gate leading out to the courtyard. The commotion since had quieted down, which had led to a certain creature losing interest one more until a group scurried out in front of it. This crocodile-esque creature is a grauladon, a distant relative of dragons, much to Zim's disappointment. Zim, it should be noted, is hard to chew, much to the grauladon's disappointment. Zim's soul was caught in a tug-of-war between Ortzi and that which is not a real dragon, so it is only fitting that Zim's pointy stick would slay the beast.

This reignited the stand-off between Calmont and the Bumblebrashers on the barrister, which the party would immediately climb onto. In all the excitement, Gargrun temporarily forgot that the party had been sent to help the goblins. He and Zim rushed the halfling, attempting to hold him down, while their colleagues pelted him with projectiles. He eventually surrendered.

Interrogating Calmont and interviewing Helba, the leader of the goblins, gave the party several interesting pieces of information. First, Calmont was also after a "ring" which the goblins knew nothing about. Second, the not-dragon had chased the goblins upstairs when it and several other monsters emerged from the basement of the basement. Third, Calmont's ring was a series of "elf gates" which the party assumed to be the origin point of the homewreckers. Finally, the attackers called themselves Cinderclaws and they were delivering violence and screaming and not holiday cheer.

Leaving Calmont under the watch of the now-armed Bumblebrashers, the party set forth to loot secure the remainder of the citadel's ground floor. The group distracted the previously encountered rats with food, so as to grab the belongings of the likewise previously encountered deceased fellow. In another room, there was an unlucky encounter with a giant bat. Unlucky for it, as when it flew into the faces of the party, Zim and Gargrun reacted by flailing their weapons wildly; Gargrun's clan dagger pierced its heart.

Afterward, the reached what seemed to be the final room: a small jail with four long dead bodies. They did not remain dead for long. Then, they did not remain undead for long. Orbeck realized the energies that had arisen the dead was coming from beneath them. Thus, the party finished looting- wait, no. Thus, the party remembered they never searched the kitchen. They found something surprising: spiders. Then they found something actually surprising: arsenic! Which is a real item in this game, with stats and everything.

The party then brought Calmont to justice and summarized the events to Greta. The councilwoman was understandably concerned, monsters from another land, necromantic energy, and demons? The group was paid for the arsonist's arrest, but was requested to return into the depths of the citadel to tackle these threats to Breachill and to assist this effort, the town's wares and services would be discounted for them.

That closed the first two chapters and sessions. This post is long enough and took longer to write than I expected, so I'll save the remainder for another post. I hope you had fun reading about my party's interesting decisions. Also, I only listed the interesting items found; it'd clog up the flow to list all the unremarkable stuff that they'd just end up selling.

For the purpose of the Create Food spell, are children of Medium ancestries considered Small? Also, the titular question, are the children of Small ancestries just defaulted to Small too? They're too big for Tiny, I think.

Are there specific rules for how much water a humanoid needs to survive? The extreme minimum for an adult man is around a litre, I've heard, so would a halfling be the same?

Is there an official way to handle enemies that flee from battle at a certain threshold of damage? Specifically, in modules and scenarios, where the enemy ceases to be relevant. Is it instant as if a reaction or is it supposed to be using its next turn? Does this effect XP, as if the enemy were defeated? Am I supposed to hint that the enemy is no longer a threat or be more blatant?

Similarly, in at least one module (no spoilers) there is a late, optional fight that players can trigger, that has a "surrender or flee" threshold as well. Would a surrendering enemy follow those same rules? (To repeat: instant? XP? hint or declare?)

The ending encounters section doesn't go into details on that, just how to handle pursuit and attacking a fleeing target. I'm not sure if this section was intended for modules; it seems more relevant to self-made encounters.

The setting I'm making has an overabundance of magical power, so the Ancestral Paragon variant rule sounded like a solid starting point. My main idea was to allow the players to take two heritages, limited to one versatile for everyone and one half-elf/orc for humans. (That means Half-Orc Human Dhampir is legal.) Two heritages that counteract each other are blocked, but I don't see anyone doing that on purpose.

The first of the other ideas I had was to allow someone to replace the second heritage (and the second 1st level ancestry feat) with an archetype dedication (only 2nd level). My main question on this is: would allowing them to take the class feats of that dedication in place of AP's additional ancestry feats (3, 7, 11, 15, 19) be too strong by comparison to the extra heritage? I think it is, but I'm not sure how to tone it down. Maybe limit it to only two in ancestry "slots"?

The second idea is to allow a mutation heritage as replacement to the versatile one. The character has been born with a physical characteristic of a different born ancestry (no Leshies or other made ancestries) and can then take physical/biological/magical feats of that ancestry (the opposite of Adopted Ancestry) as normal. That gives us mutants like Unbreakable Kobold and Taloned Elf.

I feel the mutant one is safe, but I might be overlooking something. Anyone have thoughts about this?

With knowledge that both an ancestry guide and the Mwangi Expanse are coming with at least 3 new ancestries, I want to know what kind of new ancestries people are thinking about. Not necessarily what you think ARE going to be in, just what you'd like or would stand out.

I hope this thread doesn't become a list of animals, though. I like animals and the xfolk ancestries, but that seems too easy to just go, "Yo, give me squirrels".

I would like quadrupeds that change their movement based on what they're holding in their hands (which could be squirrels).

I don't know how to activate the free subscription. Is there something I am suppose to do beyond having 4 ongoing?

I've been putting together my own setting, but one thing has got me concerned, as the title says, Gods. More specifically, it is how integral they are to basic Cleric abilities and spells. I'd like some feedback on if my ideas are too loose or too specific.

My arrangement has nine gods with somewhat broad interpretations in/from different locations/cultures. They each have six or seven domains, but the player selects four from that list or take three and select any one domain they can justify (Giving the Nature God water is obvious, giving the Chaos God tyranny is not).

Only five of the gods care about alignment, banning their opposite; i.e God of Chaos has no time for mindless obedience (nor mindless contrarianism, but that's a different issue).

I feel good about the flexibility I have going, but Weapons and Spells are harder.
For weapons, I figured that any single common weapon could be justified, but I might be overlooking something. Uncommon weapons have three rules: no advanced weapons, ancestry weapons only if you actually have that ancestry, and they have to be in the God's weapon group.

The Enchanting God of Desire (E) has Ambition, Confidence, Indulgence, Pain, Passion, and Sorrow and favors Flails like the naughty Scorpion Whip.

The Dimensional God of Order (L) rules Cities, Duty, Toil, Travel, Tyranny, Vigil, and Zeal and likes Clubs like the Nightstick, but the image of Nunchaku-wielding Paladin/Monks is too fun to pass up.

The Elusive God of Mystery runs Creation, Glyph, Darkness, Knowledge, Secrecy, and Trickery and favors Knives like the deceptive Fighting Fan.

The Natural God of... Nature (not big on words) is about Family, Healing, Nature, Plague, Protection, and Swarm and goes for Natural Weapons and Brawling.

The Prismatic God of Dragons (and head god) (N) maintains Magic, Perfection, Repose, Void, Wealth, and Wyrmkin and prefers Swords like the blatantly symbolic Nine-rings Sword.

The Energetic God of Force hits with Air, Cold, Earth, Fire, Lightning, and Water is open to Axes, Hammers, or Picks like the this-just-looks-painful Mambele.

The Temporal God of Destiny (G) knows Fate, Time, Might, Moon, Star, Sun, and Truth and favors Swords like the Anachronistic Polytool.

The Morphic God of Chaos (C) is into Change, Delirium, Dreams, Freedom, Luck, and Nightmares and it likes it when people throw things (Bows*, Darts, and Slings), but isn't actually biased to Halflings.

The Mortal God of Death (Yes, this one specifically can die; it comes back.) is Death, Decay, Destruction, Dust, Soul, and Undeath and takes Polearms and Spears, like the Scythe.
*There are no uncommon bows right now.

I'm not sure what to do with spells at all though.

There's more to them, but this is the mechanical info I'm needing an outside opinion on, but other advice is welcome.