Varthanna's page

How on earth is this worth a level 14 feat. Not exactly building hype with this.

Can we get a boon granting access to the Russian language?

I would add/expand that boon to any language exposed to in various scenarios that have no access options (eg Ancient Orision, Hallasian )

Poor Sun Fire Boom Boom :(

I am also present and will be playing a pregen! I would like to play Merisiel (she's my spirit animal) or Seoni if that fits the party comp better.

Also, I noticed that aliases needs to be unique to the forum so any tips on how to do a pregen without it being xXxMerisielxXx ?

This is great. Now we (I) need the same thing for Sharn on Eberron. I've always had trouble imagining that city.

This image is the best I've seen to capture Sharn

I seem to recall the Midnight Mauler being light on combat... or am I mistaken?

Varthanna wrote:

Looks a lot like the model I made of Kaer Maga :)

Yes, I saw your model some time back on the message boards, before we started playing in that setting.

When I researched what was written on Kaer Maga, I remembered that your model was much more accurate than the faces-on-the-cliff painting. Probably using the same sources as you, I tired to make my 3D images match the descriptions.

When I first started playing around with Sketchup, the first major thing I made was the Alamo. Then I made a keep for the campaign we were in, and then I decided to make Kaer Maga when we moved the campaign to there. And I did go back and look at your model again when I started making it. :-)

The 3D one definitely captures the complex labrythine layers inside the ring, which is hard to do out of styrofoam, heh.

Looks a lot like the model I made of Kaer Maga :)

A long while back, somebody posted a DIY PFS character sheet/box using one of the boxes from the WoW CCG. I've tried googling and using the board search without any luck.

Anyone know what Im talking about or have a link?

This has to be a troll. I wouldn't just sit by, I'd actively try to kill this character, then inform the OP to create a more modest and appropriate PC that doesn't sound like a showboat.

RE: Familiars and UMD

The Evolved Familiar feat will give your familiar +8 to UMD.

Definitely this March Into Hell

I would say any of the nine possible intersections

It occurred to me, how would one easily tell the difference between a catfolk and a rakshasa?

I mean I know the outsider has backwards hands and all, but a failed perception check and a failed knowledge check (easy to do at lower level) and we have a party running for their lives in a dungeon after encountering a cat folk.

Also couldnt a catfolk with a high bluff and some minor sorcerory skill also pull off posing as one?

Seems too close to eachother IMO. Thats pretty much why I dont like chewbaccas in my millenium falcon.

I always think of rakshasa as looking more like Kilrathi (Wing Commander), so I want my catfolk to be different enough to tell them apart... but you're right. Why so many overlapping creatures? Id rather see an zero HD "lesser" rakshasa, if you want to make them playable.

One of the many reasons why I don't like Ninja. They didn't have magic abilities, they didn't dress in black bathrobes, they didn't have large organizations, and for the most part they never used fancy tools. They were nothing more than assassins. They didn't even have super acrobatics, since all it takes is some woman or man dressed as a servant to sneak up and kill a target. That's it. And as such they are represented just fine by the Assassin prestige class.

But monks totally had magic powers. Totally. Oh yea, and freakin' wizards!

Yes,I require it to make sense.

That's not the question you're really asking, though.

You're asking: Who gets to decide what makes sense and what doesn't?

The player does. If, something is SO egregious, that it disrupts the feel of the story you are COLLABORATIVELY creating, then look to the table for consensus. Does anyone feel that choice would inhibit their fun, verisimilitude, etc? Listen, engage, and discuss. Allow for possible answers. You should WANT them to have an awesome answer as to how they suddenly know magic. Don't dictate player choice. Don't stifle creativity.

Edit: And as an aside on the XP conversation, I am strongly in favor of raw numbers. James Jacbobs has made the compelling case many times in the past.Being transparent with XP and what gets them XP will facilitate the gamestyle you want to see at your table.

"You killed the pack of goblins, 200 XP"
"Man, loved the way you introduced your arcane background by describing how it was triggering flashbacks when you saw the runes etched on the dungeon wall! 200 XP for that."

When you create incentive, you create motivation.

There's a reason all the Nazgul did their coup de graces in unison, right? But really, I'd rule it the shlick of a blade and the gurgle of blood to be the same as whisper, so effectively DC 20 before accounting for distance from target.

Okay, not really... but I was a bit disappointed when I was trying to come up with a character concept for RoW and there aren't really any gods with the icy tundras as their portfolio.

FR had Auril, which is really what I was looking for. I suppose the demon lord Kostchtchie is the closest thing? When I was on PF wiki I realized just how many demon lords, infernal dukes, harbingers, etc there are that grant domains... is that intentional to keep "true" gods to a relatively select few? I was wondering if this was a conscious decision for the world of Golarion, or just sort of how it's worked out.

I am curious why the player's guide suggests cold-theme sorcerers and their ilk, when I'll suspect most of the monsters they will face will be immune (or at least resistant) to cold. Especially dragons, ice trolls, frost giants, probably the undead, etc.

I imagine a fire-themed caster would be a much better fit for this AP, no? At least from the standpoint of not being severely ineffective.

Going prone against ranged attackers. Seriously, everyone gives me crazy eyes when I do it with my life oracle!

"The goblins start shooting arrows at you from atop the bluff!"

"I lay down."

Bam. +4 AC, doesnt hinder my spellcasting.

Oh, I'm behind the fighter? Guess I have Soft cover, too. Another +4 to my AC.

Also, using soft cover to prevent AoOs.

I figured this would be the best place to talk about the Blood Queen.

I think it is totally awesome, and I want to include some of the Kuru surrogates in an upcoming game... my question is how to play of the possession of the Kurus. I want something cinematic to happen so make it obvious they're no longer acting under their own power.

Anybody have ideas on how to make it a creepy awesome transition?

I am having a problem with ship to ship combat. It doesn't keep all of my players entertained. One is really excited about it while the other sits bored until its done. Any suggestions?

Have you asked your players what they dont enjoy about it? Is it because only one person is making the rolls? Honestly, I'm skipping most of it, or diluting it into a series of opposed rolls.

doing this myself, im using the minor artifact Weird Queens magpie from UE and the Clockwork familiar from shattered star book 3 bestiary instead of the clockwork spy template.

Sounds good. If you are looking for an actual adventure sidequest, using River Into Darkness would work up to the jungle elves attacking, perhaps.

Looking for suggestions on what deity a paladin who captains her own ship and hunts for pirates would be.

Narl wrote:

I'm still hoping for any color besides black. I understand you sell more black shirts than anything else, but how about doing a small run of white, grey, or some other color?

It takes us a year to sell through a small run of black. It takes us *several years* to sell through a small run of any color other than black.

Even if they were dark dark grey? I would buy a dark grey shirt but not black. :(

I saw it as pulling from a lot of real life and fantasy fiction cults. The emphasis on the money flow tying into moving up to the next "step" of the religion does bring one particular RL group to mi-POSTER HAS BEEN SUED

Thats the Prophets of Kalistrade, silly.

i went through a phase of clipping mageknight minis off their bases to use for generic fantasy gaming, and in that case I used both washers and something else. Washers were great but sometimes the hole in the middle caused me grief.

Its hard to beat a mini base that costs less than 5 cents and is circle (yes, ladies and gentlemen, a nickle works great). I prime and flock the nickles so there's really no way to tell unless they're upside-down.

Yar, our's be the Dead Eyes! Be it from the 'I' branded on the fair cap'n's face, or the eyeless heads of Plugg and Scourge, whose to say!

Ask your DM, but I'd assume the square they're in, or do it like a missed grenade weapon (roll a d8)

They don't get an attack of opportunity. They have to know what you are doing, and if you are invisible(assuming they can't see you) then they can't react to your action.

All true.

The rules for this are that as invisible you have total concealment. enemies cannot take attacks of opportunity against creatures that have total concealment against them.

I don't follow Golarion as a world but the rimmed in black fire thing stood out from the wiki. I don't know if it's still present, if so:

Quenching the Black Flame

To Quench Blackest Flame

Damnation Extinguished

Crossing the Threshold of Darkness

Abyssal Expectations

Like the black fire thing, too. And still want it to use the word Crusade, so...

Black Flame Crusade

Demon Flame Crusade

etc..

The Demon Pit Crusade

My fav so far. Damn you, Neil.

Why not just drop the "blight" and have The Demon Crusades?

I really like the "Crusades" part, seems evocative of the AP's theme. Some of the historical crusades had other names other than "first" "second" "fifth" etc... The Second Crusades were the Kings' Crusade

Okay, isn't reskinning allowed so long as A) the thing you want to reskin as isn't already available and B) it has no mechanical effect?

How is a paladin of Y reskinned as a paladin of Z any different?

Actually that's what we did, just with seven areas (bow, stern, forward and aft sides, rigging), kept hardness and spell effects vs. different sorts of materials.

And we added a "taking "water" condition, if a section of the hull took more than 60% damage, slowing the ship down and making her less manoueverable...

I like that! Though I'll probably go with 1/2 damage to the quadrant instead of 60%... just easier. How much would you suggest reducing the speed by?

Thread-necro instead of creating a new one.

I'm considering dividing ship hit points into quadrants to add a bit more strategy into manuevering with ship-to-ship combat.

fore/port, fore/starboard, aft/port, aft/starboard. Reducing any one quadrant to 0 gives it the broken condition, Reducing two quadrants to 0 makes it sink.

This essentially halves the HP damage needed to sink a ship (for example, the Sailing Ship has 1620 HP, each quadrant is only 406, so you only need to do 816), but at the same time makes combat more dynamic and potentially the same length as ships position themselves tactically to spread out the damage, shield damage quadrants, etc.

Oh and the underwater combat thing it's very vague in the core book. There has been debate on the boards about it but its kind of cleared up in the gms guide. It states the rules for aquatic adventures in the core book are for non native creatures so aquatic creatures should not get nerfed. I think James has said somewhere that natural weapons are not affected so the reefclaw gets its full attack but a shaughin with trident is still nerfed. As I say it's very vague though.

Yea, the sentence "Land-based creatures can have considerable difficulty when fighting in water." doesnt do enough to make it clear the table is just for land-based creatures, but if its not RAW its at least a very common house rule around here that it doesnt apply to sea creatures.

I had a PC attacked by a DM when he was down and as a result, killed.

And this is a group with no healers so there'd been no 'up down yoyoing'.

And I hadn't hurt the BBEG at all.

And the NPC's tactics say nothing about focusing down and killing one PC above all others.

And my PC hadn't really done much the whole mod (it's not like he'd shown himself to be a threat via scrying or something).

And the DM in question was a Venture Captain.

Needless to say, I do not play at that Venture Captain's conventions anymore and, in general, avoid playing within their region.

My first experience playing PFS was at PaizoCon, I played at a table ran by a Venture Captain who had a monk Flurry of Blows on a downed PCs. So... yea. Certainly happens. That said, I -think- the PC in question was being yo-yo'd out of negatives, not sure, though in which case it is more understandable but still not great to do, imo. (I think it should only happen for IC reasons, Lordzum's list is spot on for me)

I spent a good long time looking at the underwater rules before running that encounter. I actually think it's pretty ingenious from a design perspective in that it gets the PCs (and DMs) feet wet with the rules before tackling the portions of the adventure later on (pun intended, btw). It also goes to show how brutal water combat can be. The rogue in our party was exhausted and exclaimed "What? A full round action to move 5 feet? Ugh." Needless to say, he wasn't terribly useful in combat.

Once a reefclaw grabbed a hold of someone, they spent their following actions pulling them away from the rest of the group. Even at half speed from being in a grapple (20 feet), other swimming characters couldn't keep up using full round movement (15 feet). It certainly gave a feeling of helplessness which really added to that encounter.

Dang. This just highlights the importance of knowing the rules. I think I went REALLY easy on my PCs in that encounter just by being ignorant (even so, I had one PC in neg and one at 0 at the end... probably would have been a TPK)

Varthanna - According to the book all the locks are simple locks, which means 1 round to open. Makes sense for the footlockers 1 per action, but what does that have to do with the stuff in the quartermaster stores? If you've already made the required stealth, why not just loot the room while your there? Also, according to our dm, there is no rules in the book for npcs who notice you've gained back your gear. So if that is a houserule of yours, we wouldn't adopt it. It makes sense to follow the AP RAW for our group.

You're either following RAW or not. RAW is that you get to open one lock per Ship Action (so 1/night unless you want to be fatigued, then its 2/night).

NPC reactions: That is not a matter of RAW/not RAW. That is a matter of turning NPCs from dynamic thinking individuals into mindless zombies. It also doesn't say that Harrigan wont poop gold bricks and fly away into the sun, so clearly, he would. That said, the AP "RAW" as you insist explicitly says the PCs should not be "foolhardy" in stealing from the stores, and further details potential punishments (taking 20 to search the entire ship, keelhauling for thieves and Grok alike, etc).

Your DM should realize that there are simply not enough pages in an AP to detail every NPC response to every PC action in minutia.

I'm more concerned with some things that already make me think the AP isnt being followed. Only one chest should be able to be opened per ship action. Furthermore, its absurd to think that none of that gear would be noticed missing/being used by the PCs.

From what you've said, I am certainly alarmed as it seems like your DM isnt having the crew/ship/adventure react dynamically to what your group has done.

One could almost hazard a thought that Gary Gygax was on to something when he named the game "Dungeons and Dragons"...

Except this is just Dungeons and DUNGEONS!!!! Not even remotely balanced between site-based (Dungeons) and event-based (Dragons).

Timothy Hanson wrote:

I see a lot of people saying how the love Shatter Star and how it is getting back to the roots of dungeon crawling and it frustrates me a little because I do not really see when or where the APs have ever really gotten away from Dungeon Crawling. Skull and Shackles seems like it could be very much like Shatter Star except the mode of transportation is boat.

This really really bears repeating. This is a (disturbing) trend seen in many of Paizo's APs, especially their most recent ones.

Back to the roots of dungeon crawling? It always been dungeons! Too many of them! Even when grossly inappropriate!

+1

without taking about a month of traveling back and forth?

...Why not take a month? I dont think there is a time limit. Its a natural pausing point between books. Let the world advance, change, grow, have sidequests blossom. Great opportunity to get crafting and the like done, as well.

Look forward to the Crew part and how you've replaced Disrepute

To recharge a staff, you have to use up a spell slot of the highest spell in the staff. What if the staff's spells have multiple levels?

To be specific, the Staff of Heaven and Earth has Control Winds which is either a 5th or 6th level spell.

I am playing a sorcerer who took Gust of Wind so he can recharge it, and use the non-sorc spells via UMD, but I just dont know what spell slot I expend.

I am making a ninja NPC that works for the Aspis Consortium and would love to have her similiar to the character Tira from Soul Calibur. What would you use for the weapon's stats?

Here's my go:
Battle Hoop
Exotic Two-Handed Weapon 1d10 19-20x2 Disarm, Performance, Monk

Just looking for a status update. Has this been sent? Eagerly awaiting!