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My Ysoki Xenodruid mystic seems to be a source of these so far. I've been playing her as a rather stereotypical 'tree hugger' type who prefers diplomacy to fighting, even when it comes to a space goblin invasion, and has a stash of 'herbs' stored in her cheek pouches.

Got a good reaction from the group right at the start of the game when we were going over our roles on the ship and I announced I was the chef, with a specialty of 'steamed bulkhead fungus' that she had collected from the nooks and crannies of the old ship they were traveling on.

Second game, after the ship crashed on a hostile world and the world started going all glitchy (without her having gotten into her stash, mind you), found that it was all a Matrix-like simulation by some drow. Once the party had awoken, memories scrambled, she started going on about whether or not the party actually existed or if they were a new virtual life form come to the real world.

Think the funniest aspect of the last game, though, was the fact that she out-damaged not only the Solarian, but the mechanic AND his combat droid, all combined, due to horrendous rolls on their parts, and no less than two crits with her club against an orc's knees. Then during the boss fight against the drow woman in charge, she began babbling about 'love and peace' (to sum it up briefly) and later about the benefits of 'delicious natural bulkhead fungus', which caused no small amount of brain damage to the boss (it's how I described using the Mind Thrust spell).

Next game, assuming we meet more peaceful and talkative sentient beings, I'm thinking I'll be greeting them as an envoy of the 'Virtual', and am considering trying to start a cult. *shrug* Hey, it's an option.

So, I'm considering running a Saga Edition campaign in the next few weeks, probably just a 6 or so game mini-campaign to change things up a bit to keep things fresh, and was considering one of the most common complaints around my table about the system: the skills. Mainly, everyone seems to feel they're a bit too samey across their characters, or they don't really like how they advance at a set rate instead of applying skill points as they like.

I'm curious to know if anyone has ever toyed with using the Pathfinder-style skill system with Saga Edition. It doesn't seem like that big of a thing to do at first glance, but I'm just wondering about how that would affect certain skills and their DCs and gameplay. My thoughts are basically keep the class skill lists and turning number of trained skills into skill points per level.

After that, there would either be the standard +3 bonus for training, or perhaps keeping the normal saga +5 training bonus, plus their ability modifier.

Skill Focus as the other elephant in the room (especially as it relates to Use the Force), would be handled like Pathfinder as well, either at +3/+6, or keeping with Saga's +2/+5 kind of mechanic. Alternatively, another way I've considered changing it is scaling it every 4 levels, so +1 at 1-4, +2 at 5-8, etc.

Anyone have any experience with something like this, or thoughts about how it could affect the game?

Lovecraftian horror is hard to do in fantasy because PCs have the mindset of being able to take on whatever threat they encounter. So when they eventually do encounter a large threat, make it so they can't easily handle the threat with normal means. Examples: a large group of innocent townsfolk who have been mind controlled and empowered; the mind boggling monster easily shrugs off all attacks and can only be banished by solving a puzzle/ritual.

A few other suggestions:
Slow play the horror as much as possible. Have them spend a good amount of time in the town first as things slowly start getting stranger and stranger.
To increase tension and unease: when some in your group make a save/check and others fail, pass them notes with the info. Have them make saves/checks when one isn't even needed, pass a note saying "Everything is fine". Another option is to have copies of their saves/skills in front of you and make rolls secretly and also roll dice when nothing happens.
Ask them unsettling questions: "Remind me, you all drank the ale at the tavern, right?"

Very good tips; I'd been thinking along similar lines myself, so its good to know I've been on the right track. Basically: ramp up the paranoia and sow uncertainty/mistrust.

Ask, and ye shall receive...

I like what you've got there. Very good inspiration for what I'm hoping to do myself!

So, given that October is here and my gaming group has moved back to Pathfinder after a year trying out 5E, I have been giving some thought to running a mini campaign or a one shot kind of adventure with heavy horror elements (probably using the 3E Ravenloft Fear/Horror/Madness rules). The idea I had last night was something of a Lovecraftian experience in the town of Sandpoint, hence the title of the topic. The town of Sandpoint as presented in Runelords seems like a good place to start for something like this.

My initial thoughts were to start the game similarly to Burnt Offerings, though when the party arrives there is a decidedly darker atmosphere, and something about the town just isn't quite right. There are plenty of spots around the town for creepy stuff to happen, and being right on the sea, there could be any number of horrors waiting beneath the waves. The NPCs in town would be different, perhaps radically, from how they are presented.

I'm not sure of the exact time of when the darker divergence happens, but I'm thinking right from the start or maybe after the Burnt Offeringss' events have occurred, perhaps a great deal of time later (a few years, even).

I've not got much developed so far, mostly just a few ideas that I'm going to hopefully expand on:
-The haunted mansion, after being cleansed (or perhaps not), was turned into an asylum (maybe ran by the same fellow in the later chapters of Runelords)
-A new cult has taken over Thistletop and is using it for dark rituals
-there is a new serial killer in town, with a new method of killing their victims; most likely its one of the named NPCs in town.
-The Glassworks has been closed down for some time, but there are still strange sounds and odd smells coming from there.

That's pretty much all I've got at the moment, but I'm hoping to expand this out and give it a go in a week or two. Hoping for some feedback/thoughts/suggestions on running something like this. What do you think? Good idea/bad idea? Got some thoughts on how to turn Sandpoint into a hotbed of Lovecraftian horror? Love to hear any thoughts you might have.

I happened to begin my experience with 5E at a rather interesting time. I've pretty much been playing PF since it launched, and have enjoyed it immensely during that time. As the timing goes, I happened to be looking through several different game systems, feeling a bit of system fatigue at playing the same sort of things over and over, namely PF and Star Wars Saga Edition, and indeed, looking for something simpler and faster than the d20 system.

Thus far, I've played half a dozen or so 5E games, and for the most part have enjoyed it. Compared to PF, it is much more streamlined, and for once, I found myself afraid of kobolds. The fact that even the basic little monsters can now be an effective challenge for a party without adding templates and class levels is quite satisfying. So far my group has had one TPK (a game which I didn't play in), and two or three near TPKs, thanks to those lovely Death Saves, with only 1 or 2 members managing to stay conscious to heal the rest. I can't recall having had similar nail-biting experiences with PF (I suppose we "mastered" the 3E/d20 system a long time ago, having been playing it since it launched).

Out of the gate, 5E's character creation options are quite a bit more varied than PF's (PHB vs. Core Rulebook), especially since alignment isn't nearly the restriction it used to be, and there are at least 2 different options for each class. As it stands, I've played a halfling monk and a half-orc barbarian/fighter, and found both to be quite entertaining, with combat being fast and deadly, and quite varied given the different makeup of each of our parties (two different games currently running).

I was initially on the fence about the Advantage/Disadvantage system, but it's grown on me, and I actually find myself liking it quite a bit. It's fast, and it's simple, and that's good.

My issues with 5E compared to PF are on the smaller scale as far as the entire systems are concerned. I like PF's art better overall, though 5E's is quite good, unless you happen to be talking about the halflings...whoever did that art must have hated the short folk...

I'm not really a fan of the 'Lazy DM' damage thing either. It just seems, well, lazy...getting the same damage number on each attack just seems boring and too video game-like for my tastes, and the fact that my DM likes it so much is just a personal annoyance, I suppose.

Though I like the Advantage/Disadvantage system, I'm not sure if it's quite as robust as it could be, especially when it comes to things like poisons and conditions. Basically, at least with what I've experienced thus far, the effects wind up giving you disadvantage (with a few other things in the case of conditions). Granted, it's simple, but it just seems a bit too simple. There's no real variety there, no bleeding damage or ability damage or the like. I dunno, just seems lacking a bit to me.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage with 5E compared to PF is the lack of a digital presence. When I first tried to get a copy of the PHB and kept finding the local gaming store to be sold out, I would have gotten a PDF in a heartbeat. The decision not to offer PDF options for 5E is a pretty big negative, one that will definitely affect my future with the system. Beyond the core books, I'm not entirely sure how far I'll be going with my purchases; as it stands, I'll probably just be sticking with those three. That is one of my favorite things about PF; if I want to read the new book, I can immediately head online, order it and download it in minutes, then order a hardcover version later if I so desire. I can also copy it over to my tablet and have it for quick reference anywhere I go. As old fashioned as I am, I am slowly getting more accustomed to digital purchases (I started running Deadlands Reloaded at about the same time as I started playing 5E, and besides the three core books I needed to run the game, I've purchased everything else digitally, and saved a bundle).

So, there's my thoughts, for what it's worth. 5E certainly grabbed me much better than 4E ever did (canceled my pre-order for the core books once I got a look at what it was really like, and never once played the game), and it does seem like a really great system given my current experience, but I'm not entirely sure I'll be migrating to it from PF. I've got too much invested with PF, and given the literal mountains of content available (plus the OGL 3rd party stuff), I don't think I'll ever run out of stuff to look at.

Another tale from my old DM; got to thinking about the old days after catching up on this thread...this one was in a fairly short-lived evil campaign (and not because the players killed each other; we were actually doing the evil thing well). So, to change things up a bit, my friend decided to play a caster (usually goes the fighter/barbarian route, so this was a big change for him), a Red Wizard, to be more specific, and I'm thinking we started off at 5th or 6th; I know he had 3rd level spells. After a couple short adventures, the party found themselves in combat with a paladin and some of his subordinates outside an old tower.

So, combat goes on, and we actually do pretty well, considering this paladin was beefed up something fierce and most of us were heavily wounded due to his awesomeness. The DM really wanted this guy to survive, though, and I mean, he was cheating for him horribly. Once he was low on HP, we just couldn't actually kill him. He dropped unconscious, and his subordinates (which we mostly ignored, going for the head of the beast instead of the body, so to speak) started shielding him, deflecting our attacks and taking hits meant for the paladin. So, the wizard decides to start throwing AOE spells...which the subordinates likewise somehow manage to block. "They cover him completely, no damage to him" was said a couple times.

While the good guys are starting to retreat, they pass around a wall, like 10 feet tall. Due to the weather, the area was soaking wet, with large water puddles everywhere. Two subordinates and the not-quite dead paladin end their movement in a particularly large puddle. So, our wizard knows he's got them dead to rights with his lightning bolt. Everyone's wet, they're wearing metal, AND they're in a puddle. How much better could the circumstances be? If the subordinates try to take the hit, it's going to flow through everyone there; if they try to dive out of the way, paladin is dead.

But no! The wall is in the way. Okay, simple, the wizard flies up over the wall, to a height of about 100 feet, his targets in the open while the rest of the party harries them with ranged weapons. Next round he gets ready with the lightning bolt...and the DM declares he still can't hit them because the wall was in the way. We all called BS, but the DM was adamant. I even did the math on the battle mat, drew a diagram to show him that he was wrong, but it didn't matter.

Fine; the wizard flies DIRECTLY over them on the next round; these guys should have been dead already, but no, they were holding in there. He launches the lightning bolt right at the guy they're covering. It's going to hit them all, no way they can avoid damage, even if its only half. Then the DM declares "One of the knights leaps in front of it, taking the full brunt of the lightning bolt and sacrificing himself for the others." But he's soaking wet...and in metal armor...in a big puddle...just like the others. This started a big argument, and by the end of it the DM reluctantly declared the paladin and his subordinates dead, and ends the session.

The campaign continued on for a while afterward, amazingly, though my friend was so incensed that he changed his character to an orc barbarian/eye of gruumsh. Which, as the DM would later learn, was not a good thing, and actually led to his campaign ending, but better, a lot of development for stuff that would eventually find its way into my campaign world. But that's a story for another time.

So is there anywhere that someone could actually purchase a pdf of the adventures mentioned in this book? Castle Shadowcrag, Empire of Ghouls, etc? Thus far my searches haven't uncovered anything. Or is anyone who just picked this book up and had never heard of the Open Design patron system before just out of luck when it comes to viewing these adventures?

This isn't about my GM...he used to be my GM, then I got smart and left and have yet to regret it. This is some stuff I heard last night from a friend who still plays under the guy...for some reason.

Supposedly this was a 'hardcore' game...which, in the DM's mind, apparently meant that he gets to be a jerk and get away with it.

Now, as a DM, I've always thought it was their job to tell the PCs what they're experiencing, such as any strange feelings or odd sounds they may hear. One of the 'rules' of this 'hardcore' game is that if you don't say you're doing it, then your character didn't do it. This includes eating (and I would imagine using the privy afterward, but this wasn't brought up). The party wizard, who just discovered a new spellbook in the most recent loot, starts studying it, and, apparently, forgot to eat or drink because he was so absorbed in it...for six whole days. Now, there was never an indication from the DM that he was feeling weak, or that he or anyone else heard his stomach complaining due to lack of food, or that he was looking ill, nothing at all...until those six days had passed and the party got into a fight. All of a sudden, the wizard has massive negatives to his stats and abilities, and he only then realized that he was starving.

From the DM's description after this was found out, the wizard was so hungry that he could barely control himself as the fight was finished; he needed food, and he needed it now! It was a matter of survival. So, going with that mindset, the maddening hunger, the PC had the character tear into the freshly killed bandit corpse in front of him to sate his hunger. So, the DM dropped his alignment to chaotic evil for this act, which the DM was responsible for...

In the same game, another player, who is playing the brother of the wizard, a giant of a man (7' 10" or so, so I'm figuring half giant or something, with at least a 20 strength) who was a heavily armored defensive fighter, specializing in protecting the wizard (though apparently not from starvation), had this happen. He and the wizard have stayed back in a ruin to study some of the inscriptions there when a few cultists attack. The wizard manages to beat down one or two of them with his staff, while the fighter is still struggling with his first one. He's hit the cultist every round, but as the DM put it, he "just wasn't dealing as much damage" for some reason.

The reason? The fighter had never said he had been keeping his weapons in shape (even though he had said he was maintaining his gear, apparently 'gear' doesn't include weapons), so his large-sized gladius was dealing 1 point of damage per hit. His strength bonus wasn't included in the damage either because it was in such a bad shape...what was it? A wet noodle?

And a related story about this wet-noodle gladius...before the game even started, the player wanted a large gladius, you know, because he's large. The DM said that it would still only do 1d6 damage, because if you made it larger, it would become too unwieldy for him to use without using both hands and he would get penalties for using it one handed...even though it was made for a character of his size.

Needles to say, these players are getting VERY upset at this current campaign.

I could go on with examples from this campaign, or from the ones I've experienced under this guy before, but I'll stop here for now and give someone else the floor for a bit ;)

Thanks for the help, guys; I really appreciate it.

Hmmm, okay, that sounds pretty reasonable.

Any thoughts on conversion information for a full fledged fang dragon?

Is he a 1/2 dragon or full dragon?

Currently, just a normal human; I suppose I should have said that its more of a plot point that comes around eventually that they become a full fang dragon once certain things come to pass.

So, I'm getting ready to start up a new campaign using the Pathfinder rules set in my own world, and I'm bringing over some old stuff from a previous campaign. One of these things happens to be a sorceress character who happens to be a Fang Dragon from one of the 3E FR supplements.

Has anyone done a conversion for this dragon type for Pathfinder? Or the other dragons found there for that matter?

And secondly, how would you modify the draconic bloodline for the sorcerer to have features of the fang dragons?