Tukadian's page

Okay so I was looking at the Alien Archives monster creation and I'm a little stumped on how to handle dragons, and where the size characteristic is determined.
I know the first step for creating a normal monster is to take an array, so let's say I want a mainly spellcasting red dragon; then I take the spellcaster array and then add on the appropriate, Dragon Type, the Red dragon Graft from the Dragon entry, and any sorcerer class level grafts if needed.
Now, I can't see at any point in there where you determine the dragons size. Or for any other monster. Is it just a "Make it what you feel makes sense" kind of thing?

I've been recently working on fleshing out the taverns, inns and shops in Korvosa, and I find one of the simplest things to do to give the setting some flair is adding in the little details that make it distinct. The named wines and ales, specific fashions that are all the rage, common jewelry, common foods and delicacies and so on. I was wondering if anyone else put any thought into this kind of thing?
So far I have used the following; Abken Apple Brandy, Auroch Steak, Spiced Bulette Jerky, Shoanti Cinderwine and Goblin's Milk (Fermented Goat Milk).
I have the Crested Falcon offering menu items like; Jigsaw Shark, Pheasant, Thileu Bark, Clams and Alikan oysters, all Local dishes.
I have also made use of the three items Immora made up in her game, one of my players absolutely loves Guardso.

Mare Sweat
Mare sweat is the colorful nickname for a brew the church of Cayden Cailean makes to aid those unfortunate patrons who cannot afford magical healing and cures. The drink is a fermented mixture of potent herbs that makes the mind sluggish while encouraging bloodflow. It is often given to insomniacs as a sleep aid, or to the sick or injured to help them rest. A full draught (about half a pint) will encourage a long, peaceful rest, free of bad dreams (granting a +2 to save against such effects). If left undisturbed, the imbiber will sleep twelve to fourteen hours, and heal as if they’d taken a full day’s rest. Remaining awake isn’t difficult, but the Mare Sweat still makes a man groggy, inflicting a -2 penalty to all Wisdom-based skill checks for 12 hours. Mare Sweat has a distinctive, terrible flavor that can’t even be concealed with low-level magic, and hence is almost impossible to feed someone unawares. Cost: 5SP. Craft (Brewing) DC: 20

Guardso
Another innovation from the church of Cayden Cailean, Guardso (or “Guard’s Own) is so named because of it’s popularity with the Korvosan City Guard. This strange take on coffee uses a gnomish contraption to push high-pressure, boiling water through tightly-packed grounds, creating a bitter brew that can keep even the most weary guard on his feat. One small cup will eliminate fatigue for 1D4 hours and grant a +2 bonus to Spot and Listen checks for the same amount of time. Afterwards, the imbiber must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or take 1D4 points of Wisdom damage from “the crash”. Guardso is becoming popular with young nobles as well, who brew endless variations using various sweetners and spices to conceal the bitter flavor. Cost: 6CP a cup, though the noble variations can cost ten times that. Craft (Brewing) DC: 14

Imp’s Tail Salve
Stinking of animal urine and sulfer, this alchemical concoction is nonetheless a staple in the saddlebags of Sable Company Marines. It is brewed to counteract the numbing poison injected by imps, and while of limited use in most areas, it sees constant application among the military and wealthy of Korvosa. When spread over an imp sting and coupled with a good eight-hour rest, each dose of salve restores one additional point of Dexterity damage. It is typically sold in pots of five doses, and is useless for restoring ability damage from any source beyond an imp’ sting. Cost: 75GP per pot. Craft (Alchemy) DC: 25

So, anyone else have little things that I can use to give my campaign some flavor? I'll add more of what I come up with as I go.

Okay, so here's the deal. I have a player who wants to play a Chelaxian Dragon Shaman, the class from PHB 2. To do so you must pick a specific totem dragon, to which he picked Brass. Now, according to Dragons Revisited, Brass Dragons are sort of ADD socialite manipulators, not really something his character aspires to so I can't see him choosing the breed as a whole as his totem.
So instead we went with the notion that there is instead a specific Brass in the area of Korvosa, which inspires him and taught him the route to personal power, as a sort of personal paladin in training. I think we're going to go with the story that the Brass saved our young noble hero from some less than hospitable creatures and then tutored him while letting the Shaman-in-traing help guard his lair.
Now for the real fun part, I need to invent a dragon which would fit into the Korvosan area well. With them being socialites, I'm sure that at least one would be interested in the political intrigue of Korvosa, and perhaps even have something to do with some of the future events? Maybe even placing the Dragon Shaman, unbeknownst to him, for the specific purpose of bringing someone to power that the Brass approves of.
I'm thinking the Dragon's lair could be in the Cinderlands somewhere, and I would like the dragon to be older, but only old enough that he knows about Kazavon through stories. I'm also thinking about maybe a minor affiliation in the area amongst the Brass's contacts.
So that's what I have so far, what I would like for some suggesions is A) A name for my big bad Brass (I'm terrible at naming dragons), B)Some ways for him to be inserted into Korvosa's happenings, mostly unobtrusively obviously. and C) Some opinions on the aforementioned affiliation.
Thanks again, you guys on this site are awesome.

Okay, I have just started running the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP and this is my first ever published adventure I have ever run so I'm a little unfamiliar with using prepared material like this. Obviously the campaign has been designed with 4 players in mind, but as mentioned in the title, I have six players who want to play in the campaign and I'm not sure how to modify the AP so that it provides an adequate challenge and doesn't let my players become a rolling death-ball crashing through the adventures.
We had our first game last night and it didn't quite go as planned out in the book.
SPOILER WARNING
The players crashed in the front door of the Fishery, found and incapacitated all three of the minor bosses and most of the orphans in around 6 rounds. The scout then snuck down to the basement and they brutally murdered Lamm before he even had a chance to speak and then went their seperate ways. Now the scout wants to return the amulet that he looted to the queen and claim the reward for himself and let the rest of the party do what they want to do.
So any ideas about how I can A) modify the campaign a little to present more of a challenge, and B) get the campaign back on track?

Okay, so I have a couple questions regarding the legalese behind the Open Gaming License from WotC, the Pathfinder Community Use License and the material that the community is thereby allowed to use.
I am currently creating a wiki which is to become a sort of "living Campaign world" and I am trying to make it as absolutely legal as possible, which means no use of product identity or anything not covered under the OGL or PF Community Use License. This is proving to be slightly harder than I imagined, and I would appreciate it if anyone knew of any third party publishers who designated their work as OGL and free for the community to use.
What I have found so far is that which was put out by Wizards of the Coast, on the website www.d20srd.org. Also I believe that the Advanced Bestiary is also OGL. Does anyone else know of any resources I can use? Those regarding monsters, magic or equipment would be particularly helpful.
And one final question about feats. This seems to be a very complicated issue as there are so many feats out there. Say I were to need to use a feat for a character, like Augmented Alchemy for example, but Augmented Alchemy is not one of the OGL feats. I still need something similar to the effects of the feat to make my character, the Alchemist. Do I need to make a new feat with slightly different name and details on it's use, or is that still infringing upon the trademark? Would I then need to contact Wizards of the Coast every time I needed to use a non-OGL feat like that?