Thomas Austin's page

How many PCs is this optimized for? (I may have a small party of new players, and don't want to have to pad it too much with NPCs. )

What's the balance between RP and combat?

Thanks for any opinions; this adventure sounds really fascinating!

Shalafi2412 wrote:

Will there be info on how to play it sans mythic?

EDIT: To make it a little more clear... you can play characters who aren't mythic in this adventure, and that will put very little onus on the player side of the screen, but the GM will need to do a fair bit more work. Mythic Adventures is VERY tied into this adventure path, in that the Worldwound has been intended, more or less from inception, to be a high-level adventuring site. Furthermore, this AP will be the one that spends the most time off the Material Plane yet—the Abyss is going to play a big role!

In terms of playing difficulty, does the high-level nature make this AP less suited for players new to the game?

Would removing the Mythic aspect make this even more challenging for inexperienced players?

I love swashbucklers, so that might convince me to allow guns in my campaign. Makes me think of two things:

1)Solomon Kane!

2) "Froggy went a' courtin' and he did ride, sword and pistol by his side mmmm-hhhmmmm."

One question regards how Paizo is going to handle this new element in the game - Is it as an uncommon optional thing to spice it up, or a foundational part of the world?

Let's say I don't want guns in my PF. If there's an AP set entirely in Alkenstar, I can just choose not to run it. No sweat, doesn't hurt me any.

However, if I have to rewrite several NPCs in each Paizo adventure because gunslingers are popping up everywhere, or if Part #3 of an otherwise core AP becomes unusable because it revolves around a conflict over gunpowder resources, that makes a major dent in my enjoyment that's hard to avoid.

I'd also note that "Sixguns and Sorcery" and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks were written as excursions from the norm, not customary elements of AD&D. Ditto for "How effective is a Panzerfaust against a troll, Heinz?"

The thing I like about Paizo? dude took that much time out of his day to explain their reason, and didn't just say "because we said so" like 99% of any kind of company would do.

Heck yeah.

This is one of the things I always mention when I'm pimping Pathfinder at the FLGSs.

One other point -when you buy Paizo @ the FLGS, the owner makes money.
If Paizo stuff makes him lots of money, he'll probably carry more of it.
If he carries more of it on the shelf, that increases Paizo's exposure to new potential customers. ]

Then Paizo makes more money, too and we have more potential folks to game with. Good for everybody.

Two things -
1. There's already a ton of material available for RPGs in Middle Earth. I really like the old MERP.

2. Read DM of The Rings for some pointers about how stories don't always make good RPGs. (And some serious funniness!)

As a DM, class bloat is much easier to deal with than feat bloat.

Thanks!

On page 425 there's a haunting, evocative painting of a green dragon in some sort of forest ruins.

Is that taken from another Paizo product? If so, I want to run it!

I DM for my teenage daughter and her friends. One kid's parents wouldn't let him play "D&D", but they were just fine with him playing "Pathfinder".

Hmmm....

Lesson Learned: Don't Fall In Love With Your Item

This is a balance thing, because you want to create something you can get excited about, but don't let it blind you.

My item was a SIAC, but I liked my mental image of it so much that I kept saying to myself, "But it's such a COOL Spell in a Can! They'll have to love it!"

Concur, thanks. The judges' comments were very similar to my concerns about my item, so this was an excellent calibration check for my instincts.

The time that this takes is GREATLY appreciated.

OK, I know one thing - I didn't clearly specify that this was a consumable item.
But here goes:

Let me have it!

Shroud of the Immolator
Aura Moderate evocation; CL 7th
Slot shoulders; Price 1,400 gp; Weight 3 lbs.
Description
The shroud of the immolator most often appears as a full-length black cloak of heavy, rich fabric, hooded and clasped at the neck with bronze hooks and a large central stone - most often a deep red garnet or tourmaline.
The wearer can, as a swift action, crush the clasp stone. Doing so causes the shroud to burst into a conflagration that burns its surroundings but spares the wearer. The flames of the shroud vary with its creator - some are white-hot and incandescent, others are smoky and reek of brimstone. (Crushing the gem need not be done with the hand; a bound wearer could use her chin or a nearby solid object to accomplish this).
The shroud burns for seven rounds; while it burns:
- The wearer gains a +4 circumstance bonus on Intimidate checks*.
- Attackers making melee, unarmed or natural weapon attacks take 1d6+7 fire damage.
- Creatures or materials in full contact with the wearer take 3d6 damage per round that contact is maintained. This could include grappling attackers, ropes binding the wearer, or a beast that has swallowed her.

*At the DM's option, creatures with the (Fire) subtype would be immune to the Intimidate effect, but the wearer would instead enjoy a +4 bonus to Diplomacy checks.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, fire shield; Cost 700 gp

The Bandit Outpost Flip-Mat is exactly the same as Oleg's Trading Post. Well worth the $$.

Consider this yoinked.

* Used the name Murbella for a Sacred Prostitute PC
* This is also probably one of my favorite characters I have ever run. The fact that she went from a two dimensional joke to a fully developed character that actually drove a lot of the campaign she was in!

I've seen that myself. It's awesome that it happens so often!

Just to clarify, it seems to me that none of the extant material listed under "Archetypes" for the Wizard would have qualified for Round 2, as those are all new schools, not archetypes.

Right?

As is mine - here's hoping that "simple and elegant" is an acceptable variant of "Superstar".

They had said that they only want archetypes, not new bloodlines, domains, schools, etc.

Interesting, as those are all listed under "Archetypes" in the SRD.

The end of the year is a good time to look back on your life and see what might have gone better, so open up, you're among friends here.

*What's the worst gaming thing you've ever done?

*The most munchkin-ed PC you've run?

*Worst rule misinterpretation you went with for years?

*OOC behavior at the table that makes you cringe now?

*Shameless plagiarism you passed off as original? (I'm looking at you, Driz'zt clones!)

*Character concept you're most ashamed of?

I'll start:

I DM'ed a group of players that killed Asmodeus (1E version) in about a half-hour adventure. I let the party gate right into his throne room, neglected to have any minions around, forgot about magic resistance and let them strangle him with Bigby's Crushing Hand.

You could just buy THESE .

GM's Aid III: Monster Knowledge Cards Volume I—Aboleth to Fungus (OGL) PDF
4 Winds Fantasy Gaming
List Price: $3.99
Sale Price: $3.19
Add To Cart

With GM’s Aid III: Monster Knowledge Cards Volume I—Aboleth to Fungus, your job as GM just got easier. There is a card for each of the OGL monsters from Aboleth to Fungus in the SRD, and each includes a number of facts about that particular creature. Each fact is tied to an increasingly higher Knowledge check DC. When the players characters are faced with a creature, whip out the appropriate card, have the players make rolls, and tell them what they know.

The cards have been formatted to print on any standard-size business card paper, or you can just print them on cardstock and cut them out using the lines as guides

First off, I loved the Sarnath reference in "The Doom that Came to Varnhold"!

Serious question: What has happened to the various messengers that have been described as being sent to check up on Varnhold? Since Vordakai's abduction was a one-time event, did the spriggans kill them? Maybe a Soul Eater attack?

Trying to solve problems in-game when a simple, honest OOC conversation could have fixed it.

Example:
(What should have happened)
"Tommy, that armor that makes you totally invulnerable to everything is making the game a lot less fun for everybody else. Let's figure out a way to scale it back some. I'm sorry to do this, but now I see that I never should have stuck that treasure in the adventure."

Instead of imposing some Xeno's Paradox thing where an even-more-invulnerable opponent appears out of nowhere and neutralizes the armor, leaving the player angry and bitter.

I'm sticking several of these 25 Reskinned Creatures of the Margreve in my Kingmaker campaign, as the flavor is well-nigh perfect.

Just wanted to throw this out there ... I completely respect that there are those that like guns in their fantasy but please put me down on the the side that pretty much hates the idea of guns in D&D

That's where I am, too.

Some folks like blondes, some like redheads.

Oooh. I like the opposed diplomacy.

Here are some of mine (many of which have been stolen from other forum members' suggestions!):

Characters:
• Fast XP progression 1st to 2nd level; Medium thereafter
• 1 skill point per level in “impractical” Knowledge/Profession/Craft/Perform (e.g., Bards can't take it in Perform, Wizards can't take Knowledge(Arcana), but could take Knowledge(Lepidoptery))

Magic:
• No Raise Dead/Resurrection (True Resurrection is the only option), negative Total HP = death
• Divine spellcasters are spontaneous casters
• No clerical scrolls
• Many Divine potions are at least aligned; some are deity-specific
• Potions, wondrous items and some scrolls are only magic items commonly available for sale- most everything else is custom work (can still be bought, but there's usually RP required)
• Alchemy doesn’t work reliably (no alchemists, limited alchemical items)

Combat
• Two-handed weapon = -1 Initiative; Light Weapon = +1 Initiative
• Readied crossbow moves you to the top of initiative order after surprise round (if any)

This is far better than what I had before, which was a photocopy of the color map cut around the edges with my wife's pinking shears.

Well done, sir!

Thinking about the vulnerability of spellbooks and the importance of having a spare, I can't help but be reminded of all the warnings about backing up your hard drive.

It's cheap, it's easy, and if you don't, it almost a guarantee that sooner or later, you're gonna be hosed.

If a DM is considering these tactics (and he never has before), I'd think that a warning shot would be fair to the players. Have some mooks try (and fail) to Sunder a weapon or wand, or have the PC's catch a thief in the act of stealing the spellbook. After that, they ought to get the hint that "wow, I'd have been sunk if that attempt had succeeded!"

If they still fail to prepare backups after that, shame on them.

(Now I gotta go home and make sure my external hard drive is working right- haven't checked it in a while.....)

Also, for 3E, Stormwrack has lots of good stuff for maritime settings and characters.

Thanks, guys. I was wondering about this, because I'm rereading the Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser books and I was thinking just that, though in 3E/PF terms, the Mouser has one or two levels of Wizard vice UMD....

I appreciate the thoughts. It makes me more comfortable with the flavor of having my rogues use UMD.

I'm trying to understand the thinking behind making UMD part of the rogue's abilities - I grew up in 1E and I don't remember it being a part of the class back then.

Is it crunch-based (gives them an extra benefit to balance out other classes) or fluff-based (rogues are deceptive, so they can "fool" a magic device)? I can't think of examples of this kind of skill in much fantasy literature, so I wonder where it came from.

Pro Tip: This is NOT the Stag Lord.

The way I read this encounter, it's going to get much tougher if any of the trolls work together instead of staying in their lairs and letting the party pick them off one by one.

The text seems to be intended to downplay their cooperative abilities, but even one or two of the heavies rushing to the sound of a fight (and likely catching the party from another direction) could change the equation appreciably.

Looking through my ancient and battered copy of Deities and Demigods (the original 1E printing), I saw in the Celtic Mythos section the entry for the Wild Hunt and realized that it would be a great addition to Kingmaker.

I see that there are stats for a CR27 (!) version of it HERE, but the original 1E Huntsman was a 15th-Level Ranger with 20 hounds of about 6-10 HD each, so that's a little more in line with the power level of this AP.

Anyone out there built some Pathfinder stats for this force of Nature?

Now I just have to figure out when to put it into the campaign....(rubs hands gleefully)

41. Track bowstrings.

150. Over-Pythoning.
151. Pointless anachronism - e.g., ordering "Coors Light" in a tavern

For the distracted player problem, that's one of my house rules: If you don't know what your character is going to do when your turn comes around, you lose the action. (This is flexible for newbs.)

Also note that completing one of the major quests (I think it's the trolls) sets Unrest all the way back to Zero.

That may be a way out of it for you PCs - if you think they deserve it.

I'm re-arranging the Events table to put Bad Events as lower rolls and Good Events higher )but keeping the same percentages for each event. This allows me to say, impose a 5% penalty on these rolls to make bad things more likely if the rulers do dumb things that don't quite fit into a penalty to Unrest, Economy or Stability.

Also, I'm inverting the ruler's ability to affect the different scores. At Barony, he can influence all three, while Kingdom he can only affect one. This simulates the fact that it's harder for one person to influence multiple areas of a larger community, and makes the PC's rely on their officeholders more as time goes by.

Perram,

Great tool, plus you're being exceptionally patient with everyone's criticisms, suggestions and feature requests.

Could you please come run my organization's IT department?

Underling,

I haven't yet. My players are still working through their intro scenario (where they all meet). After that, they'll make the decisions that either lead them to Sasserine, Brevoy, or a little town that's my own creation. Right now, I'm hoping they head north, but we'll see. If they do, I'll be sure to have a great fight planned, thanks to all this great input!

It's a great idea, and I wouldn't get hung up on the numbers. The EL feature matters the most at the early levels, I think.

The humanoids don't even have to be evil. Imagine a group of Erastil-worshiping Orcs who want to start a new life away from the bestial world of their old tribes.

I'm thinking of yoinking this, though probably not for the PCs. In my world, Hobbos are a race on the brink of becoming civilized, settling down from a nomadic life based on raiding and conquest. Making one of the other colonizing teams be from the Invincible Legion (the hobgoblin kingdom's army) would highlight their movement in this direction.

I'm conflating Lily with Naleska, the Lady of Negotiable Virtue from the Hirelings free pdf.. I think they're pretty much the same personality.

Which scene is on Rivers Run Red? I can't think of any encounters that involve three green skinned enemies in a rowboat.

I love the druids action pose, sadly I can't help but remember she only does 1-2 damage with the sickle :(

I'm glad you asked that question, SdF, as I was wondering when RRR featured cavity creeps attacking a bridge (or maybe it's a skate park).

And the little druid looks like she's about to get spitted like a cocktail weenie on that sword.

When I go to the B& N, I always move the Pathfinder books up onto the main shelf in front of the 4E books.

Just sayin'.

Good point, DoS. I can use the sandbox design to drop the attack on them if they waste time and invite it, making it dependent on their actions.

I also think that with either scenario, the PC's success may have brought new people to the region, thus there'll be noncombatants taking shelter in the stockade that the PC's will need to defend.

If it's the trolls, the prep time the PCs get will be balanced out by the fact that they'll be getting hit with all of the trolls at once.

Thought:

Currently, Rulers can apply their bonuses to one score (Econ, Stability, Loyalty) at Barony level, two scores at Duchy and all three at Kingdom.

Suggestion: Reverse that. The logic is that an individual can influence many parts of a small organization, but he's much more limited as the bureaucracy grows. This will also serve to make the ruler depend more on his staff as the realm gets bigger and require him to develop them instead of micromanaging the kingdom (abstracted, of course).

Is there a game balance reason why this is bad that's already been hashed out in playtesting or that is obvious and I'm missing?

I'm a sucker for static defense problems, everything from Rorke's Drift to the defense of Minas Tirith. I'd love to plan something like that for the early chapters of KM. (Before the mass combat rules are introduced, as I want max player involvement so they enjoy it as much as I will.)

Here are the two options that come to mind:

- At the end of KM #1,
--Site: Oleg's
--Enemy: Humanoid Bandits (after the defeat of the Stag Lord, or maybe with him leading the bandit assault)

- Near the end of KM #2
--Site: Oleg's or the Stag Lord's fort (whichever one isn't a city yet)
--Enemy: Hargulka and his troll band (This would replace the crawl through the troll outpost.)

I'll need to establish a motivation for the enemy and get the PCs just enough warning to prepare, but not enough to move major forces around the map.

Thoughts welcome.

As I see is, Law and Chaos are more statements of the means of achieving the ends specified by Good or Evil.

LN and CN are more likely to view order or freedom as ends in their own right. Neither should be about personal habits or desires; a CN character could suffer from OCD and a LN character could be a slob.

A character who can't control his impulses isn't showing that he's CN; he's showing that he has a low Wisdom score.

(Though it's more likely that his player's the one who chose Wisdom as his dump stat. )

Redemption on this scale is a work of Divine intervention. It could be a mighty work for a cleric of a good deity to undertake, with high stakes, as the Stag Lord's attributes could make him a powerful servant of Good if he did convert. Maybe that helm's ties to Erastil are deeper than just improving archery? RRR says that Erastil has polymorphed some wayward folks into more "useful" things. Might a month or two as a beast of burden teach the Stag Lord about the value of service?

Another thought - his father is the root of the problem. Redeeming or destroying that influence might be the first step.

Also, his bio hints at Nyrissa's involvement. She'll surely try to stop any efforts to save him.