WotC really don't understand what roleplay is, do they?
They really ARE trying to make a computer game without making a computer game.
When they complained last December (seems like ages ago now, and it was only a month) about D&D being "undermonetized", I'll bet THIS is what they had in mind. Millions of players chained to D&DB, with tiers and microtransactions and "pay to mod" and AI DMs... This is all a system to involuntarily attach their vacuum hoses to our wallets and suck them dry.
When EGG said he never wanted to see a big corporation and/or non-gamers have control over D&D, I doubt he imagined how bad it could really be.
Given all the inherent problems with continuing to level spellcasting classes with no spells available past 4th level ones, you may want to consider just going the full Monty and capping *all* classes at, say, 6th to 8th level...
IOW, why reinvent the wheel when "E6/P6" has already been done and hashed out in thorough detail?
While it won't give you any help mechanics-wise, you may want to take a look at the Red Star graphic novels. They portray magic in a technological world-setting in a somewhat clever way (mostly, bulky technological material components).
I checked out the description for Mythic Monsters: Halloween, and it looks pretty good. I was especially amused by the 'mythic mobs'. I imagine that they're troops?
What leaped to my mind was the museum scene in The Mummy...
IM-HO-TEP!
IM-HO-TEP!
IM-HO-TEP!
Or, substitute the chanted name of your favorite demon lord/Great Old One/BBEG here...
Seven Sins are tangible force, tied to the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Death = Pride other three get 2 sins each, still figuring out who gets what. Tied to Old Gods
Keeping in that spirit, I'd say that Famine should be Greed and Envy, Disease should be Despair and Sloth, and War should be Wrath (naturally). Lust I'm having a hard time fitting into this paradigm.
I count it because it was a stretch goal. You personally may not have paid for one, but it's still part of the overall deal. Just as the additional adventure with the half-God prince needs to count for ToN despite it being an extended chapter unto itself.
Should a stretch goal from an entirely different AP have taken precedent over actual Throne of Night material? Just sayin'. ;-)
I came to realize today that last Saturday (May 7th) was the three year anniversary of the project being funded. Three years, three books.
TWO books. AFAIC, the Way of the Wicked book does *not* count. I didn't pay for it, it's not part of Throne of Night by any stretch of the imagination, therefore it doesn't count (even if he offered it as a gift/bonus).
Those that have purchased Liber Xpansion, or if you are a kickstarter member and received it for free, we are coming to the end of the current phase of the book. So, before we launch a new update, you have a direct choice....
1. Do you want a finished adventurer class like what has been introduced in the book, OR
2. Do you wish to have a "gun mage" as described above?
Due to price point in relation to the size of the book, we can only do one.
(Purchaser here) Adventurer class, if you please. :-)
Turns out I misspoke. I thought it was in one of the updates from Gary, but it looks like it was in one of the emails that Michael replied back to me with. More so it was for him to have hex maps completed, which he did. That was last November though.
Maybe we won't get an April date. I'd still like it to be that.
Wouldn't we all, but if wishes were fishes...
It's now been over two years since we last got a Throne of Night module. It's been over nine months since we heard anything about a release schedule. And it's been almost six months since we heard ANYTHING PERIOD.
In case anyone's been curious, I've been to Michael's site and I've seen a lot of 2016 stamped pictures. At the very least that means that Gary's still commissioning him to continue with the artwork for the book series. That's at least some comfort.
Has Michael himself confirmed this? Because it's entirely possible that he just did a ton of concept work for ToN when it was first commissioned, and is just finishing it out for his own reasons.
And if Gary *did* commission it... why hasn't he bothered to keep us informed (the perennial question in this interminable KS project...)?
Even I have to admit that I'm losing faith. I looked it up. It was Oct 2014 that David first did his own summary of how books 3 through 6 should go. It was around that same time that I discussed various monster adds, and adventure substitutions. That means for a year and a half, I've supplemented the AP and gave it tons of filler. At least David (Weslocke) summed everything up and left it to the GMs on how to finish things. I just padded things and gave false hopes.
Gary's lack of candor and good faith does not invalidate all the hard work you have put into helping those of us stuck in the middle of a (now dead?) adventure path. Your work - and the work of the artist Mike Clarke - is greatly appreciated.
You have ZERO blame here. It's all on Mr. McBride.
While I am not personally a fan of the idea of 'always evil'/fundamentally evil sentient beings, and tend to go in the opposite direction when I'm homebrewing stuff like that, I think this is a pretty slick/more 'truthful' way of handling a world with monsters, which I like. It also very much reminds me of greek myth, where there's *Specific* things that are relating to and creating these dangers - especially Typhon & Echidna. Instead of the fantasy kitchen sink, there's a reason the monsters exist.
Oxylepy wrote:
Definitely a slick move. I'm also on the anti-cumpulsory alignment idea. Too many aspects of alignment are subjective, but at the same time outsiders with alignment subtypes are forced to play within the rules of alignment (lack of free will, often). However even with a non-compulsory alignment system where a Lahmia could protect a village from eradication by zealots, having the monsters in some way linked back to an evil deity (Medusa I would think for this) does explain their typical state of alignment
RE: non-compulsory alignment for monsters - you guys should check out this great blogpost on the subject of religion in the context of a campaign world. The author does a great job of running with this idea, by declaring that monsters are "evil" because their gods are evil, and thus their basic religion will tend to warp them towards evil.
RE: free will for monsters - dragons are a good example of that in my campaign. They were originally creations of "Lamashtu" (to give my aberration goddess a good parallel Golarion name) for use as shock troops in a divine war. Half of the dragons (the ancestors of the metallics) rebelled outright and switched sides to the Lords of Light. The ancestors of the chromatics stayed on Lamashtu's side during the war, but made it clear that they fought for their own purposes, not hers - and just because she created them didn't mean they owed her any favors. ;-)
In my homebrew, I specifically tie all the monsters (any non-mundane evil creatures) I use to three evil deities, either directly or indirectly. For instance, the evil god of battles and destruction [think Khorne-clone] is the patron/creator of orcs and goblins, giants, and various beastmen/lycanthropes; the goddess of twisted creation for aberrations, dragons, magical beasts, and oozes; and of course, a god of death for undead. The point is, there are no "willy nilly" creatures that just show up with no reason - if it exists, one of the gods (or one of their servants) created it for a specific purpose (perhaps long forgotten). These deities are known by different names to the creatures worshiping them (the aberration-goddess may be known as "Big Mama" to the ogres, but is called "Lolth" by the drow), but they remain the same three gods.
For the opposing good pantheon, I broke out the remaining domains not assigned to the evil deities and grouped them logically, and eventually came up with nine deities (called the Lords of Light), each with three associated domains. I also specifically use the houserule that clerics spontaneously cast domain spells rather than healing spells, to give the pantheon and its associated characters some flavor.
What? Why do I constantly never get any of these? He's released at least three of them and I haven't gotten even one. I feel so left out. So much for being a big supporter. Totally not recognized at all.
Don't feel bad - I haven't received a single one either. In fact, this is the first I have heard of it.
Seems like every bit of news I hear about this lately puts Mr. McBride and FMG in worse and worse light...
Depends on your definition of the word "update". :-/ The last two official updates (August and October 2015) were art-only. The last update on the text was July of last year, where Mr. McBride announced that the last four modules would be released as a package. Before that, he had been promising Module 3 every few months since April 2014.
So, officially, we haven't heard *anything* since October 29th. We last heard about something resembling a production schedule in late July. And we haven't had an actual Throne of Night module released since #2, back in April 2014.
I'm reasonably certain that the only thing legal action against Mr. McBride will accomplish is make sure the project will never get finished.
What certainty do we have *now* that this project will ever get finished? I'm not asking for a vellum-printed copy of all six modules to be hand-delivered to me by the end of the month. All I want is a status update. Give me that, and a good-faith promise from Mr. McBride to be more communicative, and I will happily revert to lurking again.
I'm sorry, but I'm on Lord_Hyperion's side in this. If some people here think it's OK to just toss their money at a Kickstarter with *zero* expectations of any feedback from the creator, let alone a finished product, that's on you. Some of us actually *expect* something for our money. At the very least, actual, detailed updates on a regular basis as to the project's status. Most Kickstarters, even ones that meet unexpected challenges (and who doesn't?), manage to do this. Whatever Mr. McBride's problems are, at the very least he owes us, the funders, an explanation and a real status update, because a Kickstarter project once funded is a legal contract (court rulings have determined this). And by "actual update", I do not mean just an "I'm still working on it!", but progress numbers (text 50% written, X% laid out, etc.) and a decent guesstimate as to completion time. If he would just do THAT on a regular (monthly?) basis, I would be on the side of the folks here who keep saying he can take all the time in the world. But when he takes all the time in the world and *doesn't tell us a thing*? That is NOT cool.
I am now determined that if Mr. McBride doesn't at least post a decent status update by January 31, I will call my state's Attorney General on February 1.
Actualy, EdOWar has already converted almost all of the official Pathfinder classes to Beginner Box format. You can find files for his conversions at his blog's Downloads page.
part of me is wondering/hoping that Book 3 is done, but waiting for Bestiary 5 to be released so he can legally put the book out...
Granted the monster(s) really should have been swapped with something else, but if it's truly the case, you can't always do that. Sometimes you can't rearrange vision.
This may be a fault of mine, but hearing this just makes me angrier. Not only is he not communicating with us, but now he's adding material which, to remain legal, will *add even MORE delays* to the project? At this point, his "vision" is getting in the way. As far as I'm concerned now, he needs to directly communicate with us ASAP with either a decent timetable to deliver the goods, or an offer of a refund.
Imagine a small child, a runaway, dressed in rags and carrying a worn-out but surprisingly sturdy ragdoll or teddy animal. When threatened or frightened, the child will toss the doll at his/her nemesis - and the doll tears them to shreds.
The child is (unbeknownst to him/herself) a summoner, and the ragdoll is their eidolon.
I would take a look at the D30 Sandbox Companion. Although it is technically for OSR/early D&D clones, the mechanics are close enough to PF for government work, and there's no more comprehensive sandbox supplement available anywhere.
Frankly as long as we are getting evidence that work is still progressing (Which I would count what Kevin_video reported as) then I think reporting him to the attorney general is premature and counter productive.
I have not contacted my state's Attorney General about this yet, but I must respectfully disagree with your assertion that this thread counts as "evidence". Will all due respect to kevin_video, I want to hear from the project owner, *directly*, via the Kickstarter notification system, with either a firm timeline for releases or an apology and an offer of a refund. At this point, nothing else would prevent me from making that phone call to the AG.
Sadly, no. The way he's been talking I'd like to assume the end of September.
Nothing I have read in any of the updates gives any indication of a timeframe. After three updates in a row of "Hey look at this neat artwork, more progress coming, stay tuned!" I am quite cynical about when/if we will see anything out of this project.
What will win my confidence back is *details*. Good details, bad details, it doesn't matter at this point. Even an honest, regularly updated admission of "I am overloaded, I can't make a firm projection, please bear with me" would be better than the long stretches of silence punctuated by links to art. I can't run a campaign on artwork.
FWIW, almost every other forum I know of has some sort of moderator vetting required to join and post. I hate to pile work on the mods here at Paizo, but it looks like these *******s are not going away, and are intent on exploiting the flaws in the current system. Something needs to be done.
On Tuesday, the Necromancers of the Northwest published the Cultist NPC class on their blog. If you haven't seen it yet, go read it now. I'll wait...
Back? Good!
Now, the two example cults they give are for demonic and diabolic patrons, and that's fine as far as it goes. But what is a cultist without a mind-shattering Alien Horror From Beyond to worship? Therefore, I want to use this thread to propose a few new cults to spice up the Cultist class, and really give the devil - or in this case, the Great Old Ones - their due.
To get my feet wet (pun intended), the first attempt will be that perennial favorite, the Esoteric Order of Dagon. The first draft follows inside the spoiler. Any ideas and suggestions welcome. IÄ R'LYEH!
The Esoteric Order of Dagon:
The Esoteric Order of Dagon
The Esoteric Order of Dagon is a cult found in isolated coastal communities throughout the world. It quickly takes root where its promises of precious gold artifacts and restoration of depleted fisheries are desirable to elements in the local community. Part of its eschatology centers on a return of its followers to the water world, accompanied by gradual bodily transformation and an eternal life of sorts. The central beings worshiped by the Order are the Deep Ones, Father Dagon, Mother Hydra, and, to a lesser extent, Cthulhu. The Deep Ones are seen largely as intermediaries between the various gods, rather than as gods themselves. Even so, the cultists sacrifice various locals to the Deep Ones at specific times in exchange for a limitless supply of gold and fish. Interbreeding between the human and amphibian species is also actively encouraged. The Esoteric Order of Dagon has three oaths which members have to take. The first is an oath of secrecy, the second, an oath of loyalty, and the third, an oath to marry a Deep One and bear or sire its child.
Alignment: Members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon cannot be Lawful or Good.
Restricted Spells: Members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon cannot cast spells with the good or lawful descriptors.
Hexes: Members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon can select from the following hexes.
Primeval Resilience (Ex): The cultist gains a +4 bonus on saving throws made to resist poison, and an amount of cold resistance equal to his class level. At 12th level, he gains an amount of acid and electricity resistance equal to 1/3 his class level.
Claws of the Deep (Su): As a move action, the cultist can cause his hands to twist and gnarl into horrible claws. He gains two primary claw natural attacks, which deal 1d6 points of slashing damage on a successful hit (or 1d4 points of slashing damage if the cultist is Small). If the cultist is at least 6th level, he can transform his hands in this way as a swift action, instead. If the cultist is at least 10th level, the critical threat range for the claws increases to 19-20. If the cultist is at least 14th level, the critical multiplier for the claws increases to x3. The cultist can use the claws for a number of minutes per day equal to 1/2 his class level. These minutes need not be consecutive, but must be spent in 1-minute increments.
Corrupting Whisper (Sp): As a standard action, the cultist can mentally compel a single creature within 60 feet to perform a single evil act, such as theft, murder, or other actions that involve hurting another for personal gain or enjoyment. The act in question must be able to be described in 100 words or less, and must take no more than 24 hours to complete. The target is entitled to a Will save to resist this effect, and gains a +4 bonus on the save if performing this action will have obvious negative consequences (such as violating a law in front of the town guard, or breaking an important promise to a loved one). If the target succeeds on the Will save, he identifies the cultist as the source of the mental compulsion. Whether the target succeeds or fails his Will save, he cannot be the target of this hex again for 24 hours. The cultist can use this ability a number of times per day equal to his Charisma modifier.
Insidious Wound (Su): Whenever the cultist scores a critical hit with a melee weapon, he can choose to leave a insidious wound. If he does, the damage inflicted by that critical hit cannot be healed naturally, and even magical healing fails to affect it unless the caster succeeds on a caster level check (DC 11 + the cultist’s class level). A creature that has been affected by this ability cannot be affected by another insidious wound until the first one has been successfully healed.
First Oath of Dagon (Secret of the First Circle) (Ex): Beginning at 1st level, the cultist gains a swim speed of 30 feet.
Second Oath of Dagon (Secret of the Second Circle) (Su): Beginning at 9th level, the cultist gains the amphibious special quality and develops a fat layer that grants a +1 natural armor bonus and resist cold 5 (this stacks with the Primeval Resilience hex). When immersed in water, the cultist gains blindsense 30 feet.
Third Oath of Dagon (Secret of the Third Circle) (Ex): Beginning at 17th level, the cultist gains a swim speed of 60 feet and blindsense of 60 feet in water. Also, his body is covered with fine, slippery scales, granting DR 10/piercing and continuous freedom of movement. Underwater, the cultist gains evasion and blindsight 120 feet, and is immune to pressure damage from deep water.
Ascension: At 20th level, when the cultist becomes an outsider, he gains the chaos, aquatic and evil subtypes, and all the traits associated with those types. If the cultist has the primeval resilience hex, he may immediately replace it with a different hex for which he qualifies. Additionally, once per day, he can summon any mythos creature of CR 20 or less as a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. This summons has a 50% chance of success. The summoned creature serves him faithfully for up to 1 minute, and this otherwise functions as the spell summon monster IX.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think the Pathfinder RPG General Discussion board could benefit from an Unchained subforum, judging by all the user-tagged subject lines that currently dominate it.
Probably the best fit for JC would be the Occultist archetype for the Daredevil anachronistic class by Rogue Genius Games. The PDF also includes rules for ritualistic magic (which he does far more often than "fire and forget" PF type spells).
I came up with my own "patch" for coinage in my house rules for E6/P6. The two premises are A) the base is silver, not gold; and B) coins step up in factors of 50 (i.e. 50 CPs are worth one SP, 50 SP are worth one GP), and any 50 coins weigh a pound. This is not exact historically, but it's much more accurate than the RAW d20/PF system.
How this works in mechanical terms is actually simple. For the book/RAW price in GP, simply read it as SP. Multiply the book/RAW price in SP by five to get the price in new CP. And if the book/RAW price is in CP, divide by two (round UP) for the cost in new CP.
This also has the effect of making copper actually worth something, and assumes most of the populace uses CP for almost all transactions. Silver is something special, and gold is the province of kings and merchant princes.
Needless to say, this will significantly alter the way treasure is handed out. ;-) I'm still playing with the ratios, but for the gritty atmosphere I'm aiming for, I'd probably cut coin amounts in treasures by half (after converting it to the new system above).
Hi there, was just looking at the current alpha you've got up on your site and was wondering what the status on the rest of it is? What you've got up there is fantastic, I'd just love to see what you've got in mind for the Rogue/Sorcerer/Wizard classes!
I was reorganizing my OGL files and came across a copy of this compendium. I don't remember when I downloaded it, or if it is the most "current" version, but it weighs in at 55 pages. If no one else can find a more recent version, I can email this one out to anyone who is interested.
I don't honestly know why I am writing this. I have left this place, and I have been content about leaving. Still... I just read the stuff JP went public with, and I guess I feel compelled to comment.
It is easy to imagine, as a focused consumer of products from a specific company, that you have a notion about the people working there. You feel that the stuff they produce is great, and they should be good people accordingly. But as things work, companies are companies, and bad things are everywhere. As such, the things JP wrote do not surprise me. There are enough shitty stories about every other RPG company out there to match. Profit margins are hair-thin, people are underpaid... it's what you should expect.
Of course, it might be the case that JP is doing this to enact some form of personal revenge. I have no idea. It seems, though, from the responses that has been made, that she is on point.
However: What stays with me in all this is simply that a union would be a good thing. Coming from Sweden, where unions are everywhere, and have leverage to bring to bear if necessary, it surprises me that the US is so negative to them. A Paizo union would be a great thing for the workplace, and I wish those organizing one success, and all the best. Whether or not the dirt brought up is all true or not, a union will improve the situation of those who work there, which will in turn bring us better RPG books.
This year has been a bloody misery. My mother died in august, and things have since been rather hectic, with work demanding more of my time. When the redesign of this site hit, it took just that bit of more energy that I didn't have to come here. So, I found out now that I just haven't.
It is better to say goodbye than to just vanish. I have left already, but it may of course be that I come back at some point. I would like to thank all the lovely people here for making this board my online home for about a decade of my life.
Single female w/ great body, looking for long-term relationship with statuesque male partner. Must like veils and snakes and be willing to relocate to ruined temple in the wilderness.
(Welcome, everyone, to the recording of a very avant-garde artsy art film of oppressive suffering, unstated feelings, vaguely explainable actions, non-sequitur scene shifts, deep meanings, and long gazes. Do not forget the clash of new and old, death and sex, individual and collective. Just remember: It all has to be deathly serious. Oh, and since this is a French-American coproduction, we speak english.)
A small room. It seems to be a cheap apartment in a big city. The wallpaper is actually a shoddy green, but the monochrome visuals don't let us see that. A slightly wrinkled woman in her forties sits in a cheap sofa, by an equally cheap table. On the table is a book, a rather large, bound one. It is closed. For a long time, the woman sits there staring at the wall. We can see her sweating. She takes up a cigarette, lights it, and smokes. No music can be heard. A knocking sound can be heard, two sharp thuds. The woman takes another pull on the cigarette.
Found this pretty awesome concept for a Strange Aeons game. My question is, if I want to make it effective, how do I do it? It seems to me it gives up most its power for a gimmick. How does it match up at later levels? Is there an obvious multiclass I want to explore for it? Or, could I keep the concept but make it another class, for which the clearest options would be magus or paladin?
Any insight welcome, but please no spoilers for Strange Aeons.
I got an iPhone 3 along with everyone else. Then I discovered that it wouldn't let me transfer files from it to my PC no matter what I did (and don't say iTunes to me, okay? It didn't do shit after I agreed to its completely psychotic EULA of 75 pages...) which was a deal breaker. So next up was a Samsung galaxy S2. That was a great phone, but it has aged, and eventually didn't have enough battery. So I picked up an S6 instead, inspired by brand loyalty.
That was a cold shower. The first thing I noticed was that I could no longer open the phone using only a pattern, they had recently added the swipe lock in before the pattern lock. And surprise, surprise, the only way not to have the swipe was to use fingerprint lock instead.
Well, I have kept using it, even despite the lock issue, but now they have sent a firmware update that seems to be excremental, shooting down your battery time, adding in apps you can't remove, ads, overheat while charging, etc etc etc., and I have no idea what to think.
For my next phone, which is not due just yet since I did not install the update, what kind of phone??? IPhone remains a no. Easy compatibility to PC is a must. What else is out there? What is good?
Okay... we can all agree that Sweden got put on the world map with the POTUS telling everyone about what happened yesterday... the only question is... WHAT happened? Something nobody noticed? Post your theories! We need some answers, dammit!
A spinoff from an earlier discussion that touched but did not cover the afterlife. I hope we can all try to be civil, and remember that on metaphysical issues, nobody can force you to believe differently. It eventually boils down to personal beliefs, but what those beliefs are is interesting.
For myself, being a firm atheist, I see very little that says there is an afterlife. Indeed, the findings in neuroscience speak rather strongly for the concept that if there is an afterlife, it is very different from what it is usually described as. See, neurological damage such as a stroke will destroy functions of the brain as brain tissue dies. Someone could lose the ability to form sentences, their awareness of sight, or the ability to recognize faces. And so on. It is possible that there is some core to us that doesn't correspond to areas in the brain, but if so, we have not found it yet. In a very real sense, it seems the brain is all we are, and just as much can be lost.
I see this life as the one I have. When I die, I am gone. I have no fear of punishment or hope of a reward. The rewards, as it were, have to come in this life to be relevant. As a corollary, too, something doesn't need to be eternal to be important. I do not fear death. I just hope that when it comes, it goes quickly, and that my loved ones will be able to move on.
You know the drill. Everything is going to hell in a handbasket, so it is up to us to imagine what may come.
Rules are: It must be measurable (usually meaning an end date), it must be about public stuff, stuff you personally can't feasibly affect, and it can't be happening in less than one week. Also do not make it terrible stuff about murders, crimes, harassment, or the like.
Right, time to start. The price of crude oil will be less at midnight dec 31/jan 1 than it is as I post this.
While it IS an interesting adventure as written, and it has lavish art and is admirably well presented, there is just so much that does not add up.
First and foremost, I know this is not the first time it's been said, it spends a huge number of pages on stuff the players are not even expected to deal with. The three different attacks on cities, and the five different giant lord domains, and you're only supposed to use one of each? For replay value, seriously? This is a serious problem, and compounded by the problem that if you do want them to do more than one, you have a lot of scenarios of identical levels... but the key issue is more insidious than that: All you do in the early parts of the adventure is trying to get your hands on a way to get to the storm giants and the ending. Shouldn't the heroes willing to stand up to the rampaging giants have more invested in the battle?
It begins right at the start. The heroes find Nightstone, and are thrown a great plot hook - the ancient artifact has been stolen by cloud giants! Only those never appear again. Then they find the townsfolk, and one of them asks them to carry the news of someone's death to one of the three towns that will be attacked - in one of the cases, halfway across the world! Please go to Icewind dale! I can just see my players' eyes darken at this idea. But! There is a friendly caricature of a cloud giant wizard with a flying tower WITH A HAT! who will take them there. Well, kind giant sir wizard, maybe you could take us to the ones who stole the nightstone, they are sort of getting away? Ummmm, ooops, I took you to Icewind dale instead, sorry. And so it goes on. As it does, the plot hooks do seem to get better, though.
There are also a variety of bad situations that have not been accounted for. The kindly wizard giant, for example, has a staff of the magi. And then the tower is attacked, at least once by people ready and willing to kill the giant. I really can't see that ending well without the heroes getting the staff and the tower, unless the players are paragons of virtue. Not to mention, "Fifty foot tall adamantine doors, you say? What is the sale price of adamantine this week, guys?"
Next up: The heroes talk to the all-knowing giant oracle. They get the job of going to every single tribal place of worship among the Uthgardt barbarians and dig it up to find a huge giant relic of some sort. What are they supposed to say? Sorry, we just have to excavate your holiest of holy places because some giant oracle told us to do it? Again, this is made easier to travel the massive distances required because they get a flying ride in an airship by a dragon to do it, hmmm. And the dead giant, the good ghostly giant they meet who was slain by his evil father demonstrates his nobility by sending the heroes to assassinate his father in return. Really? Not to mention that this sends the heroes to the final chapter of one of the other 5th edition adventures...
When the heroes finally have their conch, and go to the storm giants, they will die. See, the storm giants live at a depth which means pressure will cause 2d6 damage per turn to all creatures not giants, whales or the like. The conches do nothing to prevent this, and can't be used to get away. *sigh* So eventually they find the villain of the adventure, and they could have to figure this out, but no, the image of her in the book has a great big honking blue dragon horn, if the giant oracle hadn't already told the heroes that she was the problem. Then the storm giant king, arguably the most powerful giant on the planet, is set as a victim for them to rescue.
And then, the heroes are put in a fight they have no real hope of winning, against an ancient blue dragon - only they get huge help from the storm giants so they can still do it YAY!!! Again, that feels like one of the most stupid cop-outs around. If you want your heroes to fight a dragon, let them fight one they can kill themselves, don't put in some mega-NPC to kill it for them, does that sentence feel familiar from any DM tips? Not to mention that if the heroes had been going through all the content in the book, adapted to appropriate levels, they would have HAD a chance against the dragon.
I really, really want this to work... so, help, I guess?
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The recent FAQ
FAQ wrote:
Metamagic: At what spell level does the spell count for concentration DCs, magus spell recall, or a pearl of power?
The spell counts as the level of the spell slot necessary to cast it.
For example, an empowered burning hands uses a 3rd-level spell slot, counts as a 3rd-level spell for making concentration checks, counts as a 3rd-level spell for a magus's spell recall or a pearl of power.
In general, use the (normal, lower) spell level or the (higher) spell slot level, whichever is more of a disadvantage for the caster. The advantages of the metamagic feat are spelled out in the Benefits section of the feat, and the increased spell slot level is a disadvantage.
Heighten Spell is really the only metamagic feat that makes using a higher-level spell slot an advantage instead of a disadvantage.
is unclear. There is an interpretation that it changes everything about metamagic according to what you write in the FAQ. Which would mean that metamagic rods operated off the new slot level of the spell with metamagic applied. As an example, a fireball (level 3) modified by the Quicken Spell feat (+4 levels) would require a greater rod of metamagic, empower, to empower, instead of a lesser rod as before. Is this what you intended? Or does the FAQ only apply to questions of concentration DCs, pearls of power, and the magus spell recall ability?
Second, the text in the FAQ starting with "The advantages of the..." to the end is unclear as to its purpose. Why was it included?
Third, if you intend for this FAQ to change the rules regarding metamagic feats that thoroughly, would not an errata be a better place to do it?
Just read this comic adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short story of the same name. Beautifully drawn by Moon/Ba, I think their names are. It was time and money very well spent, plus I get a sense that it is a bit more complex than it seems. Also, it seems it is about to get made into a movie.
Ok, just because this is something I do not understand. "Caucasian" is used in America instead of "white". Why caucasian, though? Is there some major group of immigrants to the US from Caucasus that I am not aware of? Does this have anything to do with Georgia, which admittedly exists in both the US and in Caucasus?
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I can't really understand how it's supposed to work.
Trample wrote:
As a full-round action, a creature with the trample ability can attempt to overrun any creature that is at least one size category Smaller than itself. This works just like the overrun combat maneuver, but the trampling creature does not need to make a check, it merely has to move over opponents in its path. Targets of a trample take an amount of damage equal to the trampling creature’s slam damage + 1-1/2 times its Str modifier. Targets of a trample can make an attack of opportunity, but at a –4 penalty. If targets forgo an attack of opportunity, they can attempt to avoid the trampling creature and receive a Reflex save to take half damage. The save DC against a creature’s trample attack is 10 + 1/2 the creature’s HD + the creature’s Str modifier (the exact DC is given in the creature’s descriptive text). A trampling creature can only deal trampling damage to each target once per round, no matter how many times its movement takes it over a target creature.
Stampede wrote:
A stampede occurs if three or more creatures with stampede make a trample attack while remaining adjacent to each other. While stampeding, the creatures can trample foes of their size or smaller, and the trample's save DC increases by +2.
Soooo... if you have three aurochs next to one another in a line, they can do a stampede. However... the timing of this becomes insane. Each of the aurochs gets a round, even if these are on the same initiative, they would do their rounds one after the other. They wouldn't stay next to one another. Sure, you could come up with move patterns that would let them stay adjacent, but those will include moving only a few squares per round, not the trampling stampede of death people imagine.
The game consists of squares 5x5'. But how high is the standard cell? Is a standard medium creature 5x5x5'? Do the rules say? For consideration, the 5x5' square has room to maneuver in, does this also apply to height?
Regarding the recent thread about Supreme Court justice Scalia's death that got locked, I found parts of it to be interesting reading. So, I would like to try to continue the decent part of that discussion: What duty do we have to respect the dead? How should we speak of someone we despised who has died? Does someone being famous change any of it?
Please, I implore you guys, don't keep discussing Scalia. I understand full well why Paizo is not comfortable with that.
A number of years ago, one of the major financial guys in Sweden, Stenbeck, died. He was in his fifties, and sharply overweight. He was a man with a very rough, rather abrasive public persona. He was, by some accounts, brilliant. He was seen by others as a parasite and an awful human being. What felt very strange to me at the time was that when he had died, long-standing political enemies of his spoke at length of how admirable he had been, how impressive his life's work had been, and so on. It felt mostly like them saying "now that you're dead, I can say whatever I like about you, and it just got safe to praise you now that it means nothing."
Oh, and the Havamal quote is harsher than written in the other thread: "Folk dör, fä dör, själv dör du. Men ett vet jag som aldrig dör: dom över död man.", roughly translated to "People die, cattle die, you die yourself. But one thing I know which never dies: judgement of a dead man."
At last count, we have, um... An umpty-bazillion monsters to choose from, going only by the Bestiaries. And yet, when looking through modules and APs, it is the same critters most of the time. This is not inherently a bad thing. After all, there are only so many monsters you have time to use, and the ones chosen reflect the setting used pretty well.
But from time to time, you want something different.
So what is your favourite? Which little-used monsters have you had good experiences with? Which were easy to build off? Which ones got a place in your setting, and how did they change the place?
Since this morning, schlockmercenary.com has been a "is this your domain?" page. The icon in the tab remains. Is this on my part? If not, it is sharply out of character for Howard. Anyone know what is up?
If you have a seriously, utterly wealthy NPC, say, the king of a huge merchant kingdom, who should have truly astounding access to money, how should you deal with that in game? Not necessarily for fighting the PCs, you know, more like finding out his general capabilities, for things like information gathering, defenses against prying eyes, and the like? The most simple solution seems to be to increase the CR, but at some point that is not going to be enough.
Trying to avoid further derailment of the Charles Manson has a date. What's your excuse? thread, here is a thread for debate about the love lives of the single (and double) goblin.
The FFXIII game has six roles, Commando (melee striker), Ravager (magic blaster), Sentinel (tank), Medic (healer), Synergist (buffer) and Saboteur (debuffer). Most of these are pretty straightforward, but I feel the Saboteur has a few interesting points. Most notably, their debuffs cause damage when they hit, and one of their spells lower the max hp of the target (Wound). What this does is it makes it feasible as a real class, able to stand on its own. The Wound mechanic should also be possible to integrate into PF with few problems.
As of yet, I am unsure of what to do with this, but I would like some thoughts on it.
In my group, we have a paladin of Torag, with intelligence 9. When first meeting the Queen, he swore himself to her service. *sigh*
We have now played EoA and SDttG. The heroes are pretty certain that the Queen is behind the plague and large amounts of other wickedness.
So... Where does this leave our paladin? The Queen is becoming aware that the heroes, who did a splendid job of fighting the plague, are her enemies. She has not yet ordered the paladin to do anything but go to Cressida and see what she needs help with, as per EoA. Nor is it likely that she will be able to do so, at least not for a good while.
The paladin thought about it, and considers it a serious problem. For the moment, I think that is quite enough. But actively not obeying an order to someone sworn to you is about as clear cut a chaotic act as can be. Avoiding her is pretty much a borderline case. Then again, obeying a known monstrous evil person's orders is very much an evil act.
I do not want to screw the player over for playing his character. At the time, he had no way to know who the Queen really was. Any thoughts?
In the process of converting a 2nd edition AD&D Dungeon Adventure, I have ended up with a serious problem. One of the villains is a Pureblood Yuan-Ti wizard, powerful enough to cast level 4 spells (at least). I would prefer to make it a sorcerer, which adds up to level 8... and the Pureblood is CR 3 in itself. Deduct two levels because pureblood ends up as "special" creature, and you still have a CR 9 to work with. Considering that the toughest encounters otherwise end up at CR 7, this patently doesn't work. So, is it enough flavour-wise to have a human with serpentine bloodline at level 8?
Second, the adventure has an important location covered in a hallucinatory terrain effect, cast by said wizard. In Pathfinder, the spell no longer changes equipment, creatures and buildings, only the natural terrain. Do you have any suggestions?
Flashes against darkness illuminate a dragon's head. Classical-ish music starts pumping. Two swords clash.
Darkness.
A red haired thief hides behind a few barrels, clutching a dagger.
IN A WORLD OF MAGIC..
A stream of darkness envelops a man, and we see his pained face.
A knight is out walking in the woods.
ONE MAN...
A princess walks through a gate followed by monks, her hands bound.
AND ONE WOMAN...
The knight rushes through a wall of fire in slow motion.
MUST DARE THE UNTHINKABLE...
They are torn from each other's arms by monks.
IN THE NAME OF LOVE.
Music calms down. We see the knight staring at the portrait of the woman.
The princess is crying.
The knight hands over his sword.
The red haired thief is playing a set of pipes.
Evil, scantily-clad queen looks evil.
A bird flies.
Music picks up speed.
FROM PAIZOBOARD STUDIOS...
A huge temple in a thunderstorm.
COMES THE GREATEST ADVENTURE OF ALL...
Fighting. Explosion. Sword. Someone falls into water seen from below. Fire.
A JERRY BRUCKHEIMER MOVIE...
Thief backstabs someone who looks evil.
THE MAGIC FLUTE
Fade.
COMING 2014
Got this game for christmas. Thought I'd try playing it solo to start getting familiar with it. Set everything up, chose Seoni, and gathered together the suggested cards for her deck, and set up the locations etc for Brigandoom!
Round 1: Encountered a Xulgath at the farm. 9. 1d12+1d6+2 should do it, and it did. Sure, it cost me a card, but that ended up at the back of my deck, so no problems. Feeling confident!
Round 2: Werewolf. Blessing of the Gods out. Seoni gets roflstomped, discards all her cards.
Round 3: Oh well, Seoni has new cards now. She'll kick their butts! New Blessing of the Gods, and the same werewolf! Dammit! Invisibility saves Seoni from a humiliating replay.
Round 4: Seoni encounters a Warlord! This time 1d12+1d6+2 turns out to be 1+1+2, modified by the Warlord to 0+0+2. Another roflstomp. This time, there are no more cards to draw. Death ensues.
Yeah, the game is far too easy. :(
I am sure I missed something or a lot, but man, that was brutal!
In this day and age, we are bombarded with stupid morals in every major movie we see, every episode of a TV series, every book we read. Apparently, the age of the faerie tale is not over. So, with this in mind, I propose a new game thread: Find the moral of the short story presented in the previous post, then write a short story for the next person.
So...
The mighty gnome sorcerer Flim Bocknoggle XVI used his painstakingly crafted silver summoning circle, his unicorn tallow candles, his Book of Vile Darkness and the sacrifice of a flumph to summon a succubus. He dealt with her with all his skill and all his power, and got her to agree to serve him without protesting. Once she let him out of the circle, she did. With tomato sauce, fried potatoes and some fava beans.
Just sat down to try to compile the stuff that exists about summoned monsters. Haven't included the stuff for specific gods and the like, just Core Rulebook and Champions of Purity, among other things trying to find what, if any, languages you need as a monster summoning class. The results are:
Abyssal Babau, Bebelith, Dretch, Glabrezu, Hezrou, Nalfeshnee
Auran Air elementals
Aquan Water elementals
Celestial Babau, Glabrezu, Hezrou, Nalfeshnee
Draconic Babau, Glabrezu, Hezrou, Nalfeshnee, Pseudodragon
Ignan Fire elementals
Infernal Hell hound
Sylvan Blink dog
Terran Earth elementals
Soooo... if you get Draconic, you get all the bigtime demons and the pseudodragon. Add Abyssal for the bebelith and dretch, then choose if you want to give specific orders to what kind of elementals, and whether you care about summoning dogs. Also note that the demons and the pseudodragon have telepathy, but the rules do not say if you can start telepathic conversations with creatures who have telepathy, so it may not be useful for giving orders.
*Sits down at the head of the table, checking to see if any nurses are nearby. Seeing none of them, he scratches his beard and takes out his dice bag and a well-noted ancient copy of Tome of Horrors*
Hey! You guys!
Yeah, you. Come on, let's play some D&D! I got the...
*looks carefully at his adventure, then stretches his arms to see better*
...Tomb of... Ummm... Borrors here. Yeah, you can borrow my dice.
*pours out a bunch of miserably useless dice of severely mismatched colours*
Now, you will need a character, or you can't play! Lunch won't be for a while yet, so I think we are safe for a while. C'mon, a bit of age is no obstacle to playing!
This was an idea put forth by someone in another thread. It's a beautiful idea.
It's simple: Here go general discussion and comments about signs that civilization is degenerating. It is not a thread for what to do about it, merely observations and general comments about such observations.
I'll start: Turns out 64% of all garbage on the streets here is used cigarettes. I remember when it was just 53%. Darn smokers.
Okay, there was a discussion about this series in the RPG Superstar forum thread Feminine wiles. I think it would be a better idea to discuss the books in question here. Considering the nature of the series, again, a dedicated thread is a better idea.
My personal view is pretty simple: It's not the first literary description of an utterly failed BDSM relationship to make high profile. I am talking about The Story of O, of course. 50SoG can't do much to warp the view of BDSM that O didn't already do.
To be honest, though, the writing is abysmal, and my interest is pretty much nil.
As a place to consider threads that are no longer with us, I would like to dedicate this thread to the illustrious history of these boards. The rules are simple: Post a link to a thread you enjoyed, whether you were in it or not, that has not been written in for at least a year. The sub-forum it appeared in is of no consequence.
I have been thinking about this on and off for some time. The fact is that the spell lists of Dungeons & Dragons, and by extension all descendants of those games, are riddled with old, faithful spells that have become the "expected core" of the magic system in every setting for the games. Magic missile, fireball, lightning bolt, invisibility, fly, haste, hold person, charm person, detect magic, know alignment, featherfall, protection from evil, mirror image, mage armor, shield are some of the more classic offenders. I can understand why, they give you a feel of familiarity.
However, sometimes, that's not what you want after a long time playing. I have had thoughts about making a setting where the elements matter far more than they usually do... and I run into magic missile, mage armor and shield. Force spells remain a staple of every low-level wizard's repertoire.
Another consideration is that these spells are often badly written due to not being seriously updated since the dawn of time.
So... what can be done? What happens if I just exclude them? What other spells will take up the slack? Is it okay to do this? Will the price in added confusion be worth the contribution it can make to a setting? Will removing a few, generally low-level, spells change the power level of the various spellcasting classes, and is this a bad idea?
I hope this is in the right forum, and I apologize for the coming wall of text.
I am, if I say so myself, a pretty experienced game master. I have been running campaigns on and off for a very long time now. Last few years, I have done Shackled city, Rise of the runelords and Curse of the crimson throne, with breaks due to work and family taking too much time. I have also been playing in others' campaigns, a variety of RPGs including Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire slayer, GURPS, d20 Modern, Dark heresy, and some others. I have also run a number of shorter games... but all of them published adventures.
Now, I have felt somewhat burnt out on D&D-like games. We stopped Curse of the crimson throne after episode 2, because I felt I couldn't play it as it deserved. I have played, which has been good.
I set my sights on Exalted. I wanted to make a somewhat simple campaign, start as heroic mortals, then only solars, in the western direction. I freed up time, I read... and something happens. Writer's block, perhaps. I feel like all my ideas are pointless. Most of the time, it feels like there are NO ideas. There is a lot of text involved in the setting, and I am no slouch at plowing through text, but right now it feels like I can't make sense of it.
At this point I don't know what to think. I haven't created for a game for years... but I so want to.
Please, paizonians... do you have any suggestions? I apologize if this is too rambling or personal, but I suspect there are others out there who have dealt with this.
Well this is a fine mess I got myself into. We played the end of Edge of Anarchy, and the heroes were mystified when the queen held an execution - because they had the executionee in their custody. Having hidden Trinia away, they still went to the execution and found that the queen sent another woman to be executed. Cue Blackjack and one dramatic rescue, and the heroes have now ended up with two young women on their hands: Trinia, and another, feebleminded, woman who nobody knows who it is.
Feeblemind is a brutal spell. It is permanent and not removable without at least a level 6 spell (Heal), something that only three clerics in Korvosa would be able to deal with. None of those clerics (high priests of Asmodeus, Abadar and Pharasma) are people the PCs want to talk to about this, considering the delicate situation.
Thus, they sent the women off into the countryside, but one day they will solve the issue by casting that spell, and I will be faced with a woman the queen found in the dungeons of the castle. Anyone have a suggestion as to who this might be? Any way to tie this woman to the plotline?
