The Numerator's page

Thanks all, this is helpful!

I think for the first spoiler tag, that is one they've figured out enough of that I think it won't ruin the fun. I was mostly concerned that it might give away key names, or mention certain accomplishments before the team knows they need to have those as goals. i.e. the Scooby-Doo gang shouldn't know it's Old Man Hurley before the mask gets ripped off, etc.

For the second, we've avoided looking at the spoiler detail provided, but I think if the items are vague enough, it's likely she might not make the connection until we end up getting to it in CC. She seemed to be ok w/ this idea.

Would you be able to list which books from TG that these come up in, and maybe which books from CC they relate to? Since we're running them in different groups, it's possible we could delay that book and pivot to a different AP until the CC group catches up.

Pardon if this has been answered already, but a search of the threads didn't turn up a straight answer on this.

My wife is looking to start prepping Tyrant's Grasp for a solo play-through for the two of us, and as a way to test the waters with GMing a game.

However, we are currently playing through Carrion Crown with a separate group, where I'm GMing and she's one of the players. They're about 2/3rd through book 1, and have already figured out a few of the basic points, namely:

So is there information in the GM materials in the Tyrant's Grasp AP that would cause any major spoilers for her play of Carrion Crown? I'm thinking things like who the major NPCs are that behind the events in CC, some of whom I've already started weaving into the the earlier chapters (as allies). Or possibly some of the other major questions that they need to investigate, or something that would take the magic out of the mysteries they need to solve in CC?

Usually a named or special weapon already has the 3x enhancement bonus built into the check... The 3x rule is only for if there is no CL listed.

Caster Level for Weapons: The caster level of a weapon with a special ability is given in the item description. For an item with only an enhancement bonus and no other abilities, the caster level is three times the enhancement bonus. If an item has both an enhancement bonus and a special ability, the higher of the two caster level requirements must be met.

Also, as a follow up to the earlier questions about the logic flaws, here was how I envisioned the battle flowing (with some fixes based on my own or many other people's ideas from this thread... thanks a ton for those, btw!):

Setup:
In the days before the raid, Skreed was secretly smuggling in a number of orcs/half-orcs and hiding them in his new base of operations in the town (a vacant flop house). When the raid starts, they are already hiding in the inner quarter.

Most of the town was up top for the funeral at sunset, leaving only a skeleton crew on the walls. Shortly before the funeral, a very thick fog rolled in (hinting at storm giant intervention, perhaps a scroll was provided). This allowed the main orc force (of only a few hundred) to get close to the city w/ the siege weapons. Rocks fly, the alarm is sounded, and the main force approaches the front gate.

Most of the on-duty militia heads down to defend the main gate, leaving only a handful behind in the inner quarter gate. The Inner Quarter orcs come out from hiding and split up, some to kill the locals and start fires, and some to take the gate to the lower city (L2e/f). Being overwhelmed, those few militia retreated to L2g and barricaded themselves in that tower.

PCs Arrive at Inner Quarter:
Kurst (mounted, with Omast and a small force of militia) gives the PCs the order to secure the inner quarter, rides through the smoke of the burning trees and past the inner gate. Not seeing militia manning the wall there, he leaves Omast to investigate, and heads to the main gate. When he gets there, he finds out that an advanced party of orc ran ahead of the main group and got through the gate already (and are currently sneaking through the lower city). With not enough fighters to search for them, he sets a rear guard and focuses on keeping the main gate secure from the force outside. So there are 2 separate orc forces in the city already: the saboteurs in the Inner Quarter, and the advance group in the Lower Quarter.

Back at the inner gate, the orcs are up on the wall, trying to get to the militia hiding in the guard tower. Omast, seeing they are distracted, sabotages the door to that tower, trapping them in the northern half of the wall (L2f). He then sneaks into the far side (L2e) and lowers one of the two portcullises, jamming it shut. Omast realizes that these Orcs were keeping this open for a reason, so he heads to L11 to prepare for an assault. He pulls out pre-assembled barricades from where they are normally stashed amidst the houses, and sets them up as best he can.

The PCs secure the inner quarter, arrive at L11 and find Omast ready for the waves of Orcs (which was the advanced force that snuck in prior to Kurst securing the main gate). Once the assault starts, I had the Orcs in the tower (L2f) realize they are trapped and try to break out (adding another threat). Depending on how the battle went, that could be an additional wave at the end, or you can just have the last wave come from the door. Once the orcs are out of the tower, the militia that was hiding up top are able to lower the remaining portcullis, and the inner quarter is secure. Omast says he'll assume command of this gate, and asks the PCs to continue on to the final beacon.

After the Waves:
Kurst, having not heard from Omast, rides back and meets the PCs at the Hopespring after they lit the last beacon. I previously had the PCs do a Perception check to notice that the boulders were no longer being aimed at the inner city, but were flying toward the main gate (so they were already thinking about that danger). Kurst mentions that gate won't withstand many more hits from the Trebuchet at the Barterstones, and asks if they feel a little crazy. He dispatches a fighter to help lower them over the Western Wall (and await their return), and asks them to stop it. They do so, and after the battle I reminded the PCs of the mechanics of manning a siege weapon, the damage it can do, and point out the 300+ orcs swarming the front gate. They took the bait, and started firing at the army. I gave them a few shots and then had the orcs send a mob after them (letting them know they only had time for one more shot before getting away safely). I fudged the rolls a bit, but that final boulder was caught by a very large creature (Crusher), and he then threw it to the main gate (if they rolled a 1 at any point, I was going to have THEM hit the gate).

The last blow opens the main gate enough for Crusher and a small force to get in, and he plows through the defenders and runs to the Hopespring (per orders). The defenders are forced to first fix and barricade the damaged gate, so they cannot pursue him. When the PCs get back over the Western wall, they see at a distance the large creature (which they let in) run towards the Hopespring, giving them the hook to follow. He meets up w/ Skreed there (who had been invisible during the battle, waiting for Crusher), and opens the wall. All the PCs see is a brief disruption of the waterfall, and then are alone w/ Crusher.

After he's taken care of, I had Silvermane appear (fully healed, what?), and he teleported them to an extra dimensional space to rest (Vault of Thorns, per an idea someone posted... thanks again!). Another good idea was a 1/month relic of Iomedae that allows up to 20 people a full night's rest. Either way, they rest, get spells back, and head into the caverns with little time passing. Skreed already knows the raid is busted, so is frantically trying to find the stone and sneak out. The rest was as written.

Overall, it's a little railroad-ish, but there is a clear motivation or direction for each of the parts of the battle, and I think the flow seemed natural.

I usually don't have mundane items that appear in the Core apply to the purchase limit, with the exception of exotic weapons. Where it gets trickier is if they're looking for something from Ultimate Equipment, particularly some of the more interesting alchemical or culture-specific items. Then I'd apply the 75% chance.

If they are going to want a large number of items, I'd likely run a one shot side quest: escort a Tien blacksmith from a city, or rescue the alchemist who is being held hostage by a goblin tribe for his firework crafting ability... something like that.

Also, if it's a well supplied city like Sandpoint (or even Trunau, since I believe the AP mentions regular trade from Lastwall), I usually follow up a failed 75% chance with an auto-succeed the following week. I think of it like a merchant going back to the larger city and finding it there to bring back for next time, or a local merchant messaging their contact and having it sent via courier. To do this, the PC must pay up front.

For anyone looking for a better handout than the player view in the PDF, I did some editing:

Redlake Fort Player Handout

I started with the player view from the PDF, but cropped it to remove the areas noted in the description (No K4, no K8). I also removed the makeshift bridges between the outbuilding and main building, and will have Calrienne tell them that there is a moat surrounding it and drawbridges that were raised/lowered. That way, when the PCs see the wooden bullwarks around the fort, they will have some confusion.

The only downside is the map still shows the crumbled sections of the northern wall, but I'm going to just instruct my players to ignore that, since obviously any damage to the structure would have happened after the map was made.

For the past few years, our group has been tracking initiative using a small (11"x14") magnetic dry-erase board I picked up at staples (around $25, I think?). I had picked up a flexible magnetic sheet, and cut rectangles on which to write our PC's names. However, the name tags were really hard to move/remove from the board, and there wasn't enough space on the board to have permanent initiative counts: we would just put the PCs in relative order, and three rounds later would forget what the actual initiative counts were. Every so often the board would get knocked off the nail it was on, and we'd spend 15 minutes digging through the couch trying to find the stupid name tags. Lastly, after playing the pirate campaign (and swimming a TON), I decided I wanted to build a depth/height board to easily visualize a third axis for flying/swimming, which is not easily seen on the battle mat.

I priced out a larger magnetic board, but to get one large enough to handle both initiative and the depth chart, it was going to be almost $100! That seemed a bit much, so I figured I'd make one myself. I've been mulling over new solutions, and finally came up with this!

Magnetic Initiative Board and Depth Tracker

Initially I was going to buy a piece of sheet metal and paint it with dry erase paint. However, I recently inherited a set of white 31"x23" magnet boards from Ikea (though I'm not going to leave any wet erase marker on it for long, just to be safe).

I picked up 2 rolls of 1/8" black pin striping (for cars, should find some at any auto store) to make the grid. I carefully measured out 1 & 1/16" from each prior line, and used that as the center for the new stripe; the resulting squares are each exactly 1" inside. When we have someone flying or swimming, we'll just draw a line in wet erase marker to indicate the surface of the water or ground, and put a marker for each person to indicate their vertical position relative to the others. This way, spell/range increments are easy to visualize and calculate.

Then for the initiative board, I made a quick template in Excel (found here, feel free to use) which created 3/4" tall initiative labels. I printed this onto a removable full-sheet label (Avery 6470 for reference), cut the three strips, and carefully layered them on the left side. Another option would be to stick these to the magnetic sheet, listed above, but this seemed easier.

Lastly, for character markers, I wanted something that would be strong enough to resist get knocked off the board, but be movable quickly mid-battle. The solution was a 50 pack of circular flexible magnets (.75"), and a set of 60 square wooden alphabet tiles (also .75"), both found at Michael's for cheap. Some super glue and a day later, and these things work well! I shook the board pretty hard, and they didn't budge, but the corners of the squares allow you to easily pop them off the board with your hand to position them. The only down side was that for some reason, the tile set didn't come with any Ks! 3 Q's, sure, but no Ks... too bad for Kynatheria (one of our PCs).

All in, the project only cost me $19, due to the inherited metal board and glue/labels, which were already here with our home art supplies. If you don't have any materials it would cost around $55, and to make a surface that is definitely wet/dry erase safe would be closer to $65-$70. If you wanted to skip the label sheet and instead print on paper and tape it down, that would bring it closer to $35 (or $50 with paint).

Ikea board ($13),
- or sheet metal ($9) and dry erase paint ($15-$20)
Removable label ($18)
Pinstripe ($3 each, probably could get away w/ 1 but I used 2)
Magnets ($8)
Tiles ($5)
Super Glue ($3)

Thread res on this, but in case people are researching answers for this (as I was today), I thought it best to add what I've found from other threads and reading.

In the GMG, it spells out the impact of the Detect Alignment spell on haunts:

Detect undead or detect alignment spells of the appropriate type allow an observer a chance to notice a haunt even before it manifests (allowing that character the appropriate check to notice the haunt, but at a –4 penalty).

So I'm reading that to mean if they used detect evil as the spell and create the 3 round cone (and they can see the area where the haunt would manifest), the GM should do a blind Perc check against the Haunt's DC to notice it. If the check fails, you tell them the PC does not detect the presence of evil. If passes, then give then the event listed in the notice section of the haunt. But it is not automatic. If they use the SLA version (move action, one item), I'd give them the check if the item they are focusing on is in the area that the haunt manifests.

To the OP question about moving and turning their head, I would not allow that. If they are using the cone version, then the Standard action lets them detect evil in that 60' cone, and it takes three rounds to get all the info. If they turned their head, then that would require a new standard action to concentrate on the new area, and this would re-set the clock on the round counter. This is also how I play the effect of detect magic and invisibility.

And finally, if the haunt is still behind a closed door, then that would break line of effect for the spell or SLA usage. If they peeked out a side window, then I'd give them the check.

As many problems as the downloads are causing, I wanted to give a little different feedback: I really love the new(ish) redesign on the eStore checkout system. I remember (a year ago? two?) when they first did the re-coding, I didn't hear a ton of chatter about the changes, but it is really slick!

I got the bundle, activated the codes in seconds, and the site listed for me exactly which PDFs I didn't already have. This probably saved an hour of me poking through all the PDFs in My Download page trying to find the new ones. That was fabulous! And when it came time to process the Beginner Box, I was able to side-cart it with just a few clicks.

I remember the old system, and I think it would have required a phone call to customer service in order to get it to the side cart properly. It probably hasn't been said enough - the new eStore is great!

Question about the bilges, and the map.

The description says "This 5-foot-wide corridor stretches for 80 feet between two doors. The corridor is filled with sludge and muck to a depth of 2 feet, and counts as a shallow bog (costing 2 squares of movement to enter a square)."

But looking at the map, it looks like there is water 10' out on each side of the corridor. "Corridor" to me implies a hallway with walls, so can a PC see/go in that water? Or is the corridor more of a bridge?

If it's accessible, how did others treat that water... is it a deep bog? Swimming?

I thought if it is accessible, that could give the PCs interesting cover options for the assault of arrows by Melira, at the expense of swimming with the snake...

After reading many of the Tales novels, I've finally put aside the one-off books and have been going through all the David Gross stories (chronologically with the short stories and and AP fiction, thanks to Itchy and others' posts).

First off, I've loved them as much as I'd imagined, based on people's feedback. Great job Dave Gross!!!

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through Queen of Thorns, and I just got the the point where they explain Radovan's devil form, and you see him come back as/with Viridio. However, I was having a hard time imagining him (he sounded very scorpion-like, but that didn't match any of the devils I could remember), so I thought I'd check the bestiaries to ID him. Is Viridio a Bone Devil? That was the one that seemed closest... or is he just a unique devil created for the story?

That got me to thinking: what sort of devil was Norge? Bearded? Barbed? He didn't have a tail, but that could just be flavor, since neither of those types have a tail attack. I do remember him grappling, so Barbed seemed to make sense.

Also, as far as game mechanics terms, is Radovan at this point a Devilbound Creature (from Bestiary 4)?

Sorry if all of this is answered later in this book or the next few... If that's the case, just tell me to keep reading! But I like to peek behind the curtain of the books, so to speak, and see if I can find the strings that make it move ;) I figured it would be fun to hear what others thought when they were reading it too.

Thread Res!

Here's a follow up question: if the trigger is a small area (thinking a very well known AP, where it's often an object or 5' square), and the party doesn't trigger it, should you award XP for avoiding it (as I typically do for traps)?

Update from an earlier topic... because the PCs did so well against Crusher (and I gave them a rest per the scenario that Steel_Wind outlined), I opted to keep in the Shadow Rat Swarm. I softened them up a bit, figuring that Skreed had hit them w/ one of his bombs on his way through (avg dmg). I then had the swarm surprise the PCs in Incorporeal form and move in from the wall. This did some STR damage to 2 PCs in the surprise round, and then in the first full round I had them switch to corporeal.

I gave the PCs a hint by having the ghost of Roderick speak to the PC holding Brinya's Love, and he quickly activated the dagger. Then, between the alchemist fire, unerring grenades, holy water, and bludgeoning weapons, they took out the Rat Swarm in 2 rounds. It was not as catastrophic as people seemed to indicate, and softened them up just a bit.

Oddly enough, my players had a REALLY hard time w/ the next room (spiders and birds). They were rolling terribly, and one fell down into the webs/water below. I had the flood troll come and investigate 1d3 rounds after the splash (which happened to be the same round they killed the last spider), and we paused the session just as she was charging in. More to come next week...

Lastly, I had a brief conversation w/ the group about their thoughts with the plot, story setup, and overall experience. To a one, they said it's been great, and haven't really picked up on many of the "problems" people have been mentioning here. The only issue one player had is that he expected security in the town to be much tighter (don't let in any half-orcs, merchants and visitors must stay out of the city, etc), but he also had misunderstood the relative danger of the town. The main holdings of the Orc Tribes are way to the north, and only small raids have come down this far.

The way I phrased it was in Game of Throne terms: this was less like The Wall and more like Winterfell. Sure, Wildlings are known to come down from time to time, and you don't spend much time outside the city unless you are in a patrol of 10-20 armed people, but the risk of raids is small, and usually it's more dangerous for the Farmers (who would high-tail it to the keep for protection in the event of a raid). The idea of a siege hasn't really happened (until now), and even this siege is limited in scope: one giant, one catapult, maybe a few hundred orcs in total. Not nearly enough to breech/sack the city.

Leveling up doesn't require sleep, but happens as soon as the PC earns enough XP to do so. The start of the Class section mentions that it usually happens at the end of a session, but doesn't need to.

My group used to think that was a rule that it happens after resting, but recently we looked it up and couldn't find that anywhere. Unless we missed it, it was a holdover from older systems or just a house rule with which we had all been playing.

I had my PCs level up right before the waves (happened to be at a session break). This also gave them an extra HD to help them through. They did really well; fabulous timing with the boulder and logs did most of the work for them. Since they still are doing well, I'm going to have them face crusher before giving them the rest. They've been racking up the resolve points, so even if they ignore the catapult, Crusher is at min status.

@Steel - I love the scenario. I think I will do this as soon as they defeat Crusher... but first I need to read more about the Vault!

Funny, my PCs didn't even notice that issue w/ the chest. You could always have it hidden in an alcove, if you're worried about the logical connection.

Glad to get the feedback about resting, Shawn. I actually came here specifically to see how the caves went with parties that didn't rest. So far my party has done well, and I was worried that if I give them a full reset before the cave the alchemist battle will be too easy for them (they crushed the plague house with barely a scratch). I'd love to hear how anyone else's games went in regards to the cave and/or rest.

My original plan was to have the cave happen the day after the siege... the hole opened up, the party vanquished the Cave Giant, and the city posts guards at the opening. Then the next day they are awoken by Kurst, saying that his guards were killed (mauled by wolves), and he thinks someone went in the cave before he could explore it. Behind the curtain, I was going to say that Skreed was (invisibly) watching their battle w/ the cave giant, and when he saw his giant taken down, he slunk back into the city to hole up overnight in his hiding place. The next day, he stealthed through town and surprised the guards at the cave.

Now, I'm wondering if the more appropriate time to re-charge might be after the waves. Maybe the High Priest Varvatos comes through with a relic they had stashed in the temple, which offers a one-time refresh on abilities (and then heals each of them up to full). This way, they have the beacon, the catapult, the cave giant, and the cave encounters in one day.

What are others' thoughts on this? Did anyone who had a group rest before the caves find it too easy? Would it be better to recharge before Part 3, or after Event 5?

You weren't there when the casting began. You were on your way there, but you weren't there. Just because it is a turn based system doesn't mean things don't happen simultaneously... the turn based nature just organizes how things resolve. Time does not stop while you resolve your action...the actions happen simultaneously, and the readied action resolves first. Thus, your movement resolves before the spell is resolved, so if you are now out of range of the spell, bravo! If you are now next to the caster and cause it to shift the cone to you instead of your friend, then the resolution of your move was important to happen first. It just does not hold up that you are in place to benefit from the event that triggered your movement in the first place!

All this hinges on reading of one line "the action occurs just before the event that triggers it". The rest of the text of that section infers this only has to do with placement in initiative and resolving the actions.

The Ready An Action section also mentions that if your READIED ACTION interrupts another character's action, that they are interrupted. If you wanted to be pedantic, you could say that the fighter's readied action is a move, and a move would not itself interrupt the casting of the spell, so the action is not interrupted.

Further, if you go down just a little more in that section, it spells out exactly how to distract a spell caster: "You can ready an attack against a spellcaster with the trigger “if she starts casting a spell.”" You ready an attack. Which means you need to be in place to deliver said attack. This strict interpretation of "occurs just before" is just a way to get around a rule that addresses just this very thing! It just doesn't pass the smell test, and seems a stretch.

I actually would disagree that RAW this is allowable. I would think it would hinge on the reading of beginning to cast and continuing the action.

From Ready: "Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action."

The trigger of the move is the wizard begins to cast. So the fighter then gets her move action, and that action (only the move, not an AoO) is resolved. So now she's next to the caster, and the caster then continues to cast the spell. The caster does not begin to cast the spell once more... the spell casting has already begun. Time does not stop, the rules simply say one action resolves before another. So the move action resolves, and then the spell resolves. Since beginning to cast the spell is the only thing that would provoke the AoO, no AoO is provoked from continuing and resolving that action.

I think this is exactly why the rules state that beginning to cast the spell is what provokes... if you don't threaten at the beginning, then no AoO.

Update!

They already hit the first stretch goal (a dice pouch), and have added a goblin themed d20 as the 125k stretch goal. You can vote for the color scheme on their site (I like the green-black myself). Rumor has it that they will add more of the goblin dice as other stretch goals.

This too is my first set of metal dice, so I'm excited for them. It's been quiet the last day or so, sitting just under 100k. Let's keep it moving!

RAW, I think Shroud has it right. The magical knack specifically says it raises the caster level of that class, while the rogue talent says that the CL for the ability is equal to your rogue class level (not that it creates a rogue caster level). The Rogue class does not grant caster levels. Magical knack does not modify your class level. Therefore the level that acts as the CL for the SLA is not modified by the trait.

That said, I think as a GM I'd allow this. The spirit of the Magical Knack trait is that if a caster wants to multi-class, it helps mitigate the penalty. It's capped at 2 levels, so at most you are giving the caster an extra damage die, an extra +2 to damage, or maybe an extra two rounds or minutes for a spell duration. It's a great trait to have a low levels, but fairly weak at high levels. Overall, it's not that game breaking.

So if a rogue wants to devote two talents so that they can gain two spells to cast, and also wants to multi-class for 2 levels, I don't think I'd have an issue with giving him 2 extra rounds of vanish in exchange for a trait.

Being disabled with chronic pain and clinical depression, I'd probably be a sad, dirty beggar. Ideally, I'd be an archivist.

You used to be an adventurer like me, but then you took an arrow in the knee...

I'd say Divination Wizard 5 / Cleric of Abadar 3: currently employed by the Church of Sarenrae in Taldor.

(IRL I'm an Actuarial Analyst, building/maintaining predictive models for financial forecasts used in health insurance in the US).

Already in for the early bird!

That copper set looks pretty cool...

The Kickstarter is live, and they've confirmed they are not hollow, but solid metal.

Here's the link to the KS... already 1/3 to the first stretch goal (dice pouch)

Get Me Some Dice!

Thanks all for your input! I'm glad to have gotten confirmation on the definitions of the attacks required for the amulet (and you probably gave my player new ideas for their dragon-blooded sorcerer).

Deific Obedience is from Inner Sea Gods, and has a different benefit for each of the core deities. Once per day you need to have some sort of prayer time devoted to the deity, which takes no more than 1 hour to perform. You then get the benefit for the rest of the day. For Pharasma, as mentioned the initial benefit is a +2 sacred or profane bonus to attacks w/ daggers. You then can get some (sp) and (su) abilities if you were to take one of the prestige classes in the book.

The Evangelist is one of the more attractive prestige classes, mostly because you lag behind one level, and then you continue to get the benefits from your main class at each new level... but I digress...

This came up in my (non-PFS) game recently: a PC purchased an amulet of mighty fists, but instead of +1 it just has the Spell Storing special ability. During the last combat, the PC had shocking grasp stored in it, and then cast shocking grasp as a touch spell on the BBEG... hit the baddie with the free touch attack as part of the casting, and then used that touch attack to discharge the stored shocking grasp. In essence, casting 2 spells in the same round.

So can a touch attack be used to deliver the Spell Storing? Or maybe looking at it another way, does the Amulet of Mighty Fists apply to touch attacks?

Here's what I could find from the rules (emphasis mine):

Spell Storing: A spell storing weapon allows a spellcaster to store a single targeted spell of up to 3rd level in the weapon. (The spell must have a casting time of 1 standard action.) Anytime the weapon strikes a creature and the creature takes damage from it, the weapon can immediately cast the spell on that creature as a free action if the wielder desires.

AMULET OF MIGHTY FISTS:

This amulet grants an enhancement bonus of +1 to +5 on attack and damage rolls with unarmed attacks and natural weapons.

Alternatively, this amulet can grant melee weapon special abilities, so long as they can be applied to unarmed attacks. See Table: Melee Weapon Special Abilities for a list of abilities.

Unarmed Attacks: Striking for damage with punches, kicks, and head butts is...

Natural Attacks: Attacks made with natural weapons, such as claws and bites, are melee attacks that can be made against any creature within your reach

Touch Attacks: Touching an opponent with a touch spell is considered to be an armed attack and therefore does not provoke attacks of opportunity

So trying to connect the dots, it sounds like the requirement for spell storing is that the attack with which it is delivered damage the creature on its own. Additionally, the spell storing amulet only modifies unarmed strikes and natural attacks (which becomes the "weapon" for the special ability), both of which are defined in Combat as their own attacks that do damage. Combat then defines a touch attack in its own right, and since the amulet description does not list touch attacks with the Unarmed Strike/Natural Attack, it would then not modify the touch attack (unless there is a held charge that is discharged in subsequent rounds as part of a unarmed strike or natural attack). In addition, the fact that a touch attack is considered armed would also lend weight to the fact that it is not considered an unarmed strike.

However, am I being too literal in how these are defined? Is it supposed to be just common sense that an Amulet of Mighty Fists modifies touch attacks, since they are using hands and not weapons?

Currently, I'm leaning toward ruling that in order for the amulet to discharge the spell, the PC must use an actual unarmed strike or natural attack (against full AC, not touch) but I'd really like to hear from other players on my interpretation of the rules above.

Our party just got done w/ the looting houses, and the druid is already drained of spells. The Pearl of Power they got from the dwarf helps, so that is a decent option... Also, I'm planning on adding in a 40ish charge Wand of CLW at either the Tower with the Orc Drum, or the Ranger in the burning trees (whichever they do first).

But it sounds like this battle is doing exactly what you'd want... making it very hopeless for the PCs, and keeping them on the cusp of barely making it. I always think back to the Battle of Helm's Deep as inspiration, and try to impress that the town is teetering on the edge, and that every victory leads them to another challenge.

The other idea I'm toying with is, since they already have their backup characters established, if their main characters are drained and almost dead, allow for them to retreat to the back lines (play up a serious wound) and be replaced once by their backup. This could keep the momentum moving, and is more realistic to a large scale battle. Or option B, once it gets time to take out the trebuche, have them pause their main characters and switch completely to their backups waiting at the gate, with Kurst giving them the mission to take it out. Obviously this could be abused (re: pile of bards), but if it keeps the battle fun for the players, it's worth it.

One poster suggested that there is thick fog on the night of the attack (courtesy of the Storm Tyrant). I ran with that.

Also, it doesn't have to be a total surprise... they could have been spotted, and by the time the first runners got to the top of the hill to sound the alarm, the spies attacked the gate from within and let in the initial forces before the gates got reinforcements. I also played up the idea that quite a few half-orcs have been smuggled into town these past few days, so most if not all of the fires and battles inside the city were from that group.

For problem 6, it shouldn't be that hard to get them to want to take out the trebuche... just have them make a general CMD or Perc to figure out the targets, and find a hook that works for a party member: the church is right below the cliff, the waterfall will be ruined (will work for the druid in our game), the watch tower has a friend on it, etc. Or you could have them spot a group of militia (perhaps w/ a known friend) get taken down on their way to the trebuche, and make it a rescue mission.

Quick update on how this resolved:

So I opted for the "ghost puppy" approach, aided by the fact that the player of the Cleric had real life get in the way, and bowed out of the game (so he became an NPC for a few sessions). I role played that he was hearing voices, and then started asking the group to find items:

So regarding the binding, in the spell it mentions that often the caster can make some sort of trigger to release the binding. Having all this time, perhaps Mal had been able to figure out the basics of the trigger, and I leveraged that into a riddle for the party... the strength of the spell is drawn from 4 components, and each needs to be subverted in some way: the physical walls, the magical forces, the caster who created the binding, and the portal that locked it shut. That was all Mal gave them.

To break the binding, they had to search for items that subverted each of these powers: for the walls, a piece of the architects from the room w/ the Shadows; for the magical force, the Sihedron medallion; for the caster they needed a symbol of someone with authority over him (the image of Karz on the gold coins from the treasury, or just having the far door open to the projected image); for the portal, the key to the room.

This also forced them to clean out the rest of the level, which put them in a position of needing rest and healing before opening the door (the players suspected something afoul). They found all the pieces and went back to town, and their friend's sanity seemed to take a turn for the worst. While they were at Magnimar spending their Thistletop money, the Cleric escaped the temple he was being treated at, and was caught ransacking their rooms (they thought to keep the 4 pieces with them). Balor had the cleric sent to the mental hospital (introducing that for the next AP) and the PCs though the only way to help their friend was to free and/or defeat Mal.

It was a fun battle, with one PC dropping (but not dying), the other front-liner down to 6 HP before delivering a double shocking grasp via a spell storing amulet of mighty fists (and dropping Mal from half to less than 10 HP). At that point, Mal used dimension door to get to the far side of the hallway, and the PCs had a rough choice... try to get one last shot in (and risk opening themselves up to a killing blow), or let him go. They decided to pursue, and dropped him that round.

I took some liberties w/ the rules in regards to the binding and the mental affects on the cleric, but it resulted in a pretty fun side-quest!

Hey all!

I just created this Town Stat Tool on the fly tonight, and figured I'd share for any GMs that are interested. It's an excel tool in which you input a few key items, and it re-formats the info into a town stat block. I also included a small FAQ about what checks the town stats modify... I figure this can work as a decent handout to my players, for when they get to a new town.

Just a side note, google drive is doing odd things in the preview window with the print layout. The actual file prints onto a single page, once you download it.

This version requires you to put most values in manually, but eventually I'm going to try to work in some functions that adjust the Crime, Corruption, etc stats automatically once you choose the town features.

Any feedback is appreciated. Enjoy!

Chris

Never played PFS before, so I'm not sure if custom magic items are allowed, but I had a stealthy character that benefited by a ring which cast Vanish 6/day at CL3 (so 3 rounds). It was crafted by the party wizard, and it made sneaking much easier, and didn't require me to level dip.

The other advice is read up on rules for blinding. I carried a shield w/ the blinding enchantment just so I could get an extra sneak attack here and there. Also, dirty tricks work well to give you a chance to hide mid-combat (I carried a pouch of sand for just such times... dirty trick to blind the caster for 1 round, get to a place of concealment w/ my move action, and start the next round w/ the possibility for sneak attack).

For anyone that ran the battle already, did anyone succeed at saving Sara?

I was just thinking through this... smoke inhalation (w/ a fairly high Fort DC for low level PCs) causes PCs to do nothing but choke for a round, but the rescue requires 2 PCs and Agrit to use full round actions for 2 consecutive rounds... if any fail that check, then wouldn't that require you to start again w/ the 2 consecutive rounds? The attacking Orcs make it likely that a party of 4 would have 2 hold off the Orcs, while 2 lift the wreckage... so you need 6 fairly lucky rolls, and one fail out of 4 would mean starting over.

Since the house collapses in 8 rounds, then basically they'd get 4 chances to hit 6 consecutive good rolls... seems a fairly unlikely situation, no?

I'm not trying to be a nay-sayer, I'm mostly just thinking through how I should handle the choking (like if they all pass one round, but then one passes and the others fail, can they "maintain" what they've done and only have to hit one more round?)

Follow up Shadow Rat question:

When not in their incorporeal form but using the Shadow Blend, does that 50% miss chance still apply to PCs with Darkvision? My PCs are a Half-orc, 2 dwarves, and a Tiefling, so all 4 have darkvision. Does the fact that it's an (su) ability make darkvision moot (the same way a light spell doesn't negate it)?

So a note on the assassins... we played that event last week, and here is how I modified it:

Since some of the PCs were established in town and some were new, they were planning on splitting up for the night. I had Kurst get a message to them that afternoon to tell them that, while he was helping his father at a family friend's house, they could have leave to stay in his and his father's private rooms off the side of the longhouse (which put all the PCs in the same building, with 4 small rooms). The party quickly decided that they did not need to set a guard (partly because they felt safe in town, and partly because the wolf encounter was that evening, so they thought they were "past" the fight for that day).

None of them passed a perception check (only one even could have, with a 20), so they were asleep when the battle started. I estimated a Coup-de-grace would be too much (3d6+4 would probably kill them all), so instead I figured the assassins each would delay an attack until one gave a signal. I also removed the sneak attack damage. Lastly, I decided to make the damage 1d3+2, rather than 1d6+2 (partly because I rolled a 5,6,4,6 on the attacks). This put each of the PCs at around half, with an AoO about to happen as they got up from their beds. Even nerfing the damage in the surprise round like that, the party barely made it out... really, they were saved because they had a witch with the sleep hex, and he put 2 of the assassins to sleep while the others coordinated to have them tied up before they awoke. Add to that one crit, and the last assassin fled.

The interrogation that followed was fun! I had the assassins tell the PCs that they were told to kill the people staying in those rooms... since the rooms were usually occupied by the Grath family, now the PCs aren't sure if they were the targets, or Kurst and Jagrim!

All in all, it was a tough battle, and the players had a very strong relief when they made it through. It also taught them that they are not safe in the city.

Is that a reference to the Scott Lynch books? I have not read those, but based on the description that city sounds very similar to Numeria: an arrangement w the Duke's gvn't which allows a criminal enterprise to be run... Only swap the Duke with the Sovereign, and the criminal org with The Technic League.

A Gnomish Paladin whose obsession had to do with maintaining traffic flow.... Think CHiPS meets the Lost Coast Road.

On a more serious note, do any stories have a Bleachling, or one trying to stop or reverse the process? That could be interesting to see a gnome die the slow, sad death to their sense of wonder, perhaps through the viewpoint of a LN Hellknight or a selfish CG rogue.

Also, more Red Mantis Assissins, from their POV. I want to see their inner circle, and learn more about their org. Robin Laws gave us a tease, but I want to see much more!

In general, I love when we see the major Golarion factions woven into the stories. Even in small ways, the presence of Hellknights, Aspis agents, Pathfinders, etc make the stories much richer.

This moment had me giddy when I read it...

“...Who do we know who could help us out, Genthia, in terms of leading another team?"

The pirate captain cocked her head, musing. "Well, there's always Gad..."
Skiver shook his head. "Nah, he'd want to take over and run the whole thing his own way. Not to say he couldn't, I've never known a better man when it comes to conjuring up a plan, but I've already got ideas about how to do this thing, and adding Gad would be too many cooks in the kitchen. What about Rodrick and Hrym? Didn't I hear they were blundering around in the north recently?"
The name Rodrick rang a faint bell for Alaeron, though he wasn't sure why. Genthia shook her head anyway. "No, I heard they took passage down south to some island in the Obari Ocean, working on yet another scheme to get rich or die trying, I'm sure. They're too far away to do us any good...”

Excerpt From: Pratt, Tim. “Reign of Stars.” Paizo Inc., 2014-08. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Firstly, it's fun when an author references characters from another of their books, and I loved Liar's Blade. Even more, he references the web fiction that introduced the main characters from both books (and was very true to Alaeron's arrogance, not even remembering the guy he left for dead to escape an awakened Linnorm!). But then he gives us (I think) a FABULOUS teaser for the upcoming Rodrick and Hrym book!

Best of all, he references Gad, beloved rogue and schemer from Robin Laws' books, AP, and web fiction! This was a fabulous touch, and made this world seem that much more realistic.

Turning the "here's the plan" exposition into a who's who of Golarion's criminal masterminds... brilliant!

VERY excited about that! I'm running RotR right now, and love the AP.

That said, Itchy is in my game, and he devours all the Tales he can. Are the Easter eggs possible spoilers at all for someone not yet familiar with the story I the AP?

Makes sense...

That said, Mr Sutter, I would have a great interest in seeing if Paizo could work out a digital subscription for the line. Work and kids make it very hard to keep up with all the publications, and I use the subscription in lieu of research (i.e. I know a new book is out when it arrives in the mail). In addition, I love having all of my Pathfinder downloads in one place.

I wouldn't want to know about how all the monies work in the new deal, but I typically like buying my Pathfinder loot directly from Paizo. I could get many of the books cheaper on Amazon, but I don't mind paying a little extra knowing that I'm helping to support the company, and that Paizo is not having to share a part with a large retailer. I'd imagine that would be the same if you still sell the ePubs of the new Tales. Do you have any idea when you may know if an ePub subscription would be possible?

That's funny Ross, I had the exact same experience!

Before subscribing to the Tales line, I was an outspoken critic of eBooks... I believed (and still do to some extent) that print is important to maintain, and it is up to us bookworms to vote with our dollars in order to ensure publishers have a market. I had an SFBC subscription for years, with the intent that eventually I'd just auto-buy at lease one book each month (but found I rarely had the interest in many of the books to justify the expanse). Once I found the Tales line (thanks Itchy!), I found the venue I was hoping for in the SFBC.

Initially the ePubs were just a novelty, and I really just wanted the hard copy to read. I had an iPad I would use to GM, but rarely read the fiction out of it. Then I went on a cruise, and decided to try out the ePubs in lieu of packing (and probably destroying) my brand new books. That week, I skimmed Inner Sea Gods, the NPC Codex, Ultimate Campaign, and 3 Tales Novels in one week (and thanks to that thread about Calibre, I even had the web fiction that tied into each of the Novels). I haven't looked back!

Since then, like you my hard copies are now mostly shelf decorations, and if I needed to choose a format would 100% go ePub. I love the flexibility of switching between prepping an AP, reviewing a new Rule book, or diving into a Novel without needing to worry about which book I am slowly destroying when I'm out and about. Also, my CRB is thankful, as I'm not sure its spine could take much more travel!

One series I enjoyed which played around with the concept of a sympathetic antagonist was Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders Trillogy. I read it quite a few years ago, so the details are a little fuzzy, but I recall that she wrote quite a bit of POV sections from the primary antagonist, a Pirate named Kennit.
Through his sections, you learn not only about his ambitions, but also about his...

I remember the culminating scene being very powerful, as you get a great sense of the knife edge on which Kennit walked, where one side led to redemption, and the other to pure evil and damnation.

Also, A Song of Ice and Fire has some of the best antagonists ever, and none of them are the cliche maniacal wizard types. Just like IRL, the best way to sympathize with a person is to humanize their choices. Jaime early on is set up as a heartless monster, but by the third book you get a glimpse into why he made the decisions that led him to be known as an honorless Kingslayer. Once you see the burden he bore, and continues to bear due to pride, his role as antagonist flips. Heck, even Cercei can gain a little pity when viewed as a mother trying to protect her children. A heartless, evil mother to that little s..., but you kind of get it...

As a subscriber, I'm fine with the switch. Getting both physical and digital copies has been FABULOUS in the past, but truthfully I'm surprised that deal has remained as long as it has (which to me shows Paizo's loyalty to their fans). Where else do you get both types for the price of one? Music, Bluray, B&N, Amazon... All of them make you buy both formats separately, or perhaps bundle both together for 30-60% more than the price of physical alone. But here, I have dozens of essentially free ePubs, for which I am thankful.

But people are correct: for the current subscriber, this isn't a better deal than what we've had. But this deal with Tor isn't about the current subscribers. It's about getting the Pathfinder brand to thousands of Fantasy fans worldwide, many of whom don't even know Golarion exists (err... sort of exists?). This can only strengthen Paizo's support base, which will ensure that we continue to get many more years' worth of awesome, high quality fiction in this world we've all come to love!

How many of us were introduced to TTRPGs through the old Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, or Ravenloft novels? That was my original inlet (here's to you Fizban!), and I see this deal as positioning Pathfinder Tales as potentially being bigger than the D&D brands of the 80s and 90s. That would be fabulous for our game and the future of our fiction line.

So in the short term, "what's in it for me" sense, the deal isn't great for us. But if having to choose only one format for my subscription means that I can have conversations with random strangers about Radovan & Jeggare, Salim, Rodrick & Hrym, and Torius Vin, simply because I'm wearing a Pathfinder tee shirt (which, oddly enough, happened to me today), then that is very good news for all of us!

So a PC in my Runelords game is becoming a Hellknight.

I've got a really fun scenario I'm adapting from here on the boards (courtesy of James B. Cline), though in that he has the PC fighting a Dretch Demon, not a devil. I wanted to swap it out w/ a Devil, but I've never run a solo scenario, and I don't want to kill my PC (or make it a cakewalk).

So, do you think it more appropriate to use a CR3 Zebub Devil against a lvl 4 Two Handed specialist armored fighter (played by an experienced gamer)? Or should I push and go with a Bearded Devil (CR5)?

I had heard that a solo encounter should be APL-3, so that really puts him as a lvl 1 party. Given that, a CR3 would be a difficult but winnable battle.

My hesitancy is that one crit from him could almost drop the Zebub (30 HP). He's got Overhand Chop, power attack, and weapon focus, so his normal bonus dmg is +12 when he hits. Plus, the Zebub's AC is 17, so I'm thinking he'll only last 2-3 rounds. The environment won't allow the demon's flight to help it that much, so the best tactic I could think of would be use grease to limit his movement while invisible, then get it position, attack, and fly away (giving one AoO). However, after the first time, he's going to just ready to attack when he appears, so again, 1-2 rounds and he should be dropped.

But when I look at the Bearded Devil, the AC/HP seemed more like a challenge, but I didn't know if the damage it deals could too easily drop the PC. From the CR guidance above, I'm not sure I'd want to give a CR5 to a group of lvl 1 PCs... so I'm torn.

Thoughts?

Sorry for the delay, but I have some pics of our setup to share!

To answer the question on Parallax, I'm projecting down onto a sheet of 1/8" plexiglass (with white contact paper on the far side), and we haven't had any noticeable issues with image distortion. However, we do find it amusing that we have a much BIGGER projection of the map on the ceiling, from the reflection off the plastic!

Also, we use minis on our map, and the projection over them is not very noticeable nor does it cause a distraction.

Here is a link to our setup.
(minor location spoilers if you haven't played Burnt Offerings)

The first two pictures show how the projected map looks. Brightness has not been an issue. The first has fog of war active, the second with no fog (to show the full dimensions that we get from the distance we have, and how the color looks).

The third pic shows the projector/mirror mount. My friend didn't want to drill into the ceiling (he's renting), so instead we built a temporary rig using 2x4s, and it sits over the gaming table. We're going to make a prettier version that is not in the way at some point, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

The fourth and fifth give a wide view of the whole area, and give perspective on scale and lighting. We mounted a monitor to the rig (next to the GM chair), used for GM reveals and/or players who are remote for a session. The fifth picture also shows some of the mirror rig behind the couch. There is also another armchair to the left of the GM spot, but I realized the pics didn't catch that.

Lastly, for fun I threw in a pic of our wall o' minis! I do love me some Pathfinder Battles...

If your friend can get a larger mirror for cheap, let me know! I may be interested in investing...

If I could get a larger mirror, I had thought about gutting the center of the table, replacing it with white coated plastic, and mounting the mirror UNDER the table. That way, the projector is not mounted, just knee high off to the side (or even built into the area below the table). But because the distance between the mirror and game surface is shrunk, the mirror would have to be almost as big as the surface itself.

My other idea was to gut the table, lay down 48" LDC tv into it, and cover the screen w/ plastic for protection. The issue there would be air flow, as I've heard TVs lying down screen up tend to overheat...

I use a Viewsonic PJD5223 XGA DLP Projector, 2700 lumens 3000:1 DCR, 120Hz. At the time they were just coming out with the newer model, so this one was on sale at Amazon for 300 (retail was around 600). We've been using it for almost 2 years for a weekly game, with no lamp problems yet. I've been thinking about getting a backup lamp soon though, just in case.

Because it was an older model, the inputs are a little outdated (no HDMI), but I think the newer versions have HDMI ports.

The hardest thing was getting a cheap first surface mirror. Ideally I'd like to have one that is 2' wide, but there were no glass places around me that did first surface mirrors (only traditional). I found a seller on Amazon that had an 8x12 one for sale, and I got that for around $30. Other places would cut/ship custom mirrors, but they were over $200 for a 16"x24" sheet. Evidently hobbyists who make kaleidoscopes are one of the cheaper markets, but they usually come pre-cut into small squares. If you can find a hobby shop that caters to them, they may be able to get an uncut sheet from their distributors. I had also thought about trying out an aluminum reflective sheet at some point, but for right now the mirror has been working.

We meet in my friends basement (cliche, I know, but it's the farthest place from the sleeping kids!), and the lighting is mostly lamps (a little dim for atmosphere). We built a rig that goes over our gaming area, and have 2 Ikea coffee tables put together for our gaming table. The mirror is just about 7' off the table, and the projector is about 2' from it (I mounted them both with swivel mounts on boards that can slide to bring them closer/further as needed). The play area ends up being just about 3.5' wide, and since we can slide the map around in the program (or zoom out for larger views), it hasn't been problematic. I project onto a plain white surface. I'll try to take a few pics tonight when we're gaming and post a link tomorrow.

Aside from battles, the projector also really helped for larger scale maps, like when they were investigating around Sandpoint: I just projected the map of the city down and said "you are here right now, where do you want to go"... they asked for directions to the local tavern, and as they wandered down streets, I described the people/places they saw. It made it much more real for them, and they understood the context and layout of the city right away.

Tangent - re:Game Space, last I heard it wasn't dead, but it sounded like their developers were re-prioritized to other projects. Here was a thread where Vic mentions it's officially on the back burner for now... for now maptools has been stable, and works on all our computers. I may try out TTop or Roll20 soon.

I currently use Maptools, with a projection down onto a table (using a first surface mirror mounted above it). I will probably transition to Roll20 once we start the next book (I'm fully mapped for current book).

Prior to that, I had a creative alternative... I purchased thin plexi-glass sheets at Lowe's, and had them cut them into 3x2 sections (cutting was free, cost about $100 total). I had 4 sections, and I would pre-draw the dungeon onto it at home using wet erase marker. We could fit 2 of the sections on our chessex mat (for the grid), so if we needed to transition to a 2nd one (or if it was a REALLY big room), I just put them side by side. I also would cover the map with black construction paper to create a simple fog of war.

That said, I love the projection/VTT we have now. We still can use minis, and the detail in the Paizo maps adds much to the experience. I would not go back.

Getting close to the end of BO with my group, and I had a fun idea with Malfeshnekor, but I'd love to get some advice from the RotR vets out there!

The Party - 5 experienced players in a well-balanced party (already at lvl 4). They had been steamrolling encounters prior to meeting Nualia w/ limited resources... a crit from Bruthazmus' bow dropped one PC, and they fled.

Assuming that the party handles Nualia ok after coming back w/ full resources, I was brainstorming how to handle Malfeshnekor. They know that Nualia was looking to find a secret weapon down here, but that's about all.

I was thinking when the party finds the door, that Mal could have shape shifted into a Direwolf, and try to bluff his way out of his prison... realizing that his hope for release left with Nualia, he could use guile to get them to release him. He could try to convince them that he was an Awakened Direwolf, who fought as a General for the kind and gentle Lady Alaznist in the great wars. He was captured by her foul enemies, and imprisoned here all this time. The magic of the statue has sustained him (they already ID'd that there is some sort of magic air cleaning system), and he longs for release.

The other tactic would be that since Wisdom is needed for him to communicate, he can only speak w/ the Cleric of the party (who is a CN Necromancer who specializes in Command Undead Channeling). I thought Mal could pretend to be a spirit of a wolf, killed in the cataclysm 1000 years ago and his soul has been trapped here. That would very much play into the cleric's MO (his undead are his only friends), and I can't imagine that he's pass up the chance to get a "ghost puppy". It would alsy be funny for the rest of the party, since only he can hear it (they already think he's crazy).

In any case, I'd try to throw in just enough clues to make them wary, but with his bluff he could convince them. After he's released, he'd try to eat them, and at half HP decide to run away. He could then be a nice red herring for the Skinsaw Murders...

However, in doing this I'd completely lose the element of surprise. I do like the idea of the PCs finding a locked room, open the door with the key, see it's empty (Mal being Invisible) and just walking in to loot it. That's a great setup for Dominate in surprise round, full attack round 2. But if I go w/ either bluff tactic and they don't choose to release him, then they will know something is in the room and be wary if it looks empty.

It seems like Mal would value freedom over a quick slaughter, but I didn't know if I'm giving away too much but trying to communicate with the party first. Thoughts?

Thread Res!

One note that may change the consensus above... you can use Metamagic Feats when creating potions, scrolls, and wands:

Magic Items and Metamagic Spells: With the right item creation feat, you can store a metamagic version of a spell in a scroll, potion, or wand. Level limits for potions and wands apply to the spell's higher spell level (after the application of the metamagic feat). A character doesn't need the metamagic feat to activate an item storing a metamagic version of a spell.

So if you can make a potion with a Metamagic Feat, and if Extracts are similar to potions, then that would imply that you *could* use a metamagic feat to extend or empower an extract. It's not straight RAW, but as a GM I'd probably allow it.