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I am writing up a series of encounters for my PCs and I would appreciate somebody else checking over my math. Maybe I'm putting too much effort into this, but its my first Starfinder game and I'm still trying to get the hang of the differences from PF.

My players are all first level. Currently, there is an envoy, a vanguard, a mystic, a technomancer, and an operative. The biggest limitation I noticed so far is that they are all using small arms or operative weapons, which lowers their damage output.

The PCs are going to be sent to examine an abandoned ship that is floating in space. When they approach, scans will show that there is no life, power, or atmosphere on the ship. They could try to get access to the ship's computers and reboot the system, but since most of the encounters are mindless, that would affect their tactics. Though, I might use the zero-g rules for the whole ship if they haven't restarted it.

Spread throughout the ship will be 5 encounters. The ship had been traveling through the drift when it encountered a pocket of Negative Energy, killing the crew and turning a few of them into mindless undead.

Encounter 1: Living Dead
The ship's bridge is currently occupied by the bodies of the captain and two officers who have been raised as mindless creatures. There are two "zombies" and one "skeletal sniper".

Encounter 2: Cargo Hold
Three crew were in the cargo hold when they encountered the anomaly, turning two into zombies (stats above) and one into a "Brute."

Encounter 3: Lounge
Several of the crew were in the lounge when they encountered the Negative Energy, but none are animated. Instead, their collective terror and psyche have infused the room with a curse.

Encounter 4: Crew Quarters
The captain's quarters were empty when the anomaly struck, but entering either of the two crew quarters activates another haunting.

Encounter 5: Drift Engine
Some combination of the drift engine itself and the negative energy anomaly has turned the engineer into an intelligent, malevolent drift wraith, filled with hatred of all things living. Since the encounter, the drift wraith has been unable to get warm, and will reach out to draw warmth from the PCs. The drift wraith is accompanied by a "zombie" and a "skeletal sniper"

This should put my players at 2nd level at the end of it, though if they do something especially clever, I'll give them bonus xp along the way. There is an armory on the ship, that will have a couple of level 1 & 2 weapons, including some more autotarget rifles. Even through the captain is a zombie, he might have a level 3 small arm on him as well that they can loot.

I used the AA monster creation rules, but haven't played around a lot with the balance, so I don't want to overwhelm the PCs.

What is really expected from a semester in a magical school (Inner Sea Magic)?
The sidebar suggests that you should have several semesters per level, but for a lot of games, you can easily earn several levels in a single week if there are a lot of encounters. Also, are characters just running out in the world the entire time? Is there no real expectation that they are attending classes of any sort?
I'm not really sure how you would actually tie them into a campaign.

I'm not really sure where Golarion specific questions go.
My players are running around Varisia; have the smaller Settlements, Nybor, Wolf's Ear, Galduria, Ravenmoor, Wartle, etc gotten any treatment in any other PFS scenarios or modules, 1E or 2E? I know Jade Regent goes through them, but they just got a mention. The Magnimar book and Varisia book mention them as well, but again, just as a footnote. Just trying to see where to focus my time.

Since this is still probably the best place.
My players are running around Varisia between chapters, have the smaller Settlements, Nybor, Wolf's Ear, Galduria, Ravenmoor, etc gotten any treatment in any other PFS scenarios or modules? I know Jade Regent goes through them, but they just got a mention.

I’m a little late to the party, but I just came across Rappan Athuk and I’m thinking of running it for a some family that hasn’t played much. Does anybody have any suggestions or advice about the Pathfinder version?
I’m looking at Roll20, but I haven’t done much with it. Does anybody have any experience with Rappan Athuk in Roll20? The tokens and monsters seem easy enough to add, but the maps themselves may be harder.
I’ve done some searches and I can find product pages and advice about the 3.5 version. There was some mention that the Pathfinder version has some rules discrepancies, are they that bad?

I was looking at the Mouth of Doom and there’s some attempt at Dungeon ecology, but it doesn’t actually make complete sense.

Happy Sunday y’all
I’m mulling over some different adventure ideas and I’m wondering how you would respond if your GM did this.
The adventure starts off fairly typical; goblins or bandits or something are riled up and attacking the town or roads. You and your fellow PCs storm off to defeat them. Everything is going according to plan, though there are hints that something is controlling or egging them on. You get past the leader and encounter a high level spellcaster/demon/dragon/undead that casts mass suggestion and tells you all to flee and tell of his coming glory or demand tribute. The DC is high enough that a few PCs will likely fail, even if some pass. The duration may or may not actually take you back to a town, but it will get you out of the dungeon.
Now, you know that there is something big going on, but you have a clear example of how much stronger than you it is.

Would you allow a feat that or other ability that allows damage to be dealt in addition to the normal effects when bullrushing under the power of a jetpack? I was thinking the damage could be equal to a battle glove of the level of armor worn.

I am going to be starting a Starfinder game soon and I would appreciate some advice. Our party will probably consist of three people, possibly with or without a DMPC/hireling. One player is pretty settled on an android ace pilot exocortex mechanic and the second player is undecided. I’ve had an idea since Starfinder was announced that I’d like to make work.

K’Thrax’ll was born on Vesk Prime. His mother was an respected member of the military police and his father worked in a weapons factory. His mother brought some amount of honor to their family and a decent living. K’Thrax’ll grew up hearing a great many stories of raids and military actions as well as watching too many crime dramas and reading the odd mystery novel. Throughout school, he performed admirably at all tasks, but never in a way that was expected or celebrated. In sports, he was quick and dexterous, instead of standing up to overwhelming punishment. In academics, he was as likely to figure out what the teachers didn’t say as what they did. While he was never exactly a disappointment, he was never a source of familial pride. As a young adult, he attempted to enroll in the Veskarium Police Academy to follow his mother’s footprints and earn her respect.
While in the Police Academy, he continued his pattern of avoiding rules and finding success every way except the Vesk way. In capture the flag, he was as likely to go through the ducts and through the field. During drills, he paid the bare minimum attention to “probable cause” or “reasonable search,” assuming that a good end justified questionable means. He never quite stepped far enough out of bounds to be discharged, but didn’t make anybody proud. The night before graduation, a sergeant came to him and informed K’Thrax’ll that, due to respect for his mother, he would be allowed to graduate, but if he didn’t want to find himself fragged very quickly, he may want to resign. Therefore as soon as K’Thrax’ll received his enlistment, he resigned.
He’s still not sure how he is going to tell his parents and figures he will think about it while having a drink. While drowning his sorrows, a flyer for the Starfinder Society catches his eye and seems as good an excuse as any to avoid his mother.

As far as personality, K’Thrax’ll follows the Vesk belief that his word is his bond and if he says he will do something, it is as good as done. He’s not as sold on the honor thing, and is more than willing to break some eggs to make an omelette. K’Thrax’ll’s opinion is that the mission can’t get finished if he’s dead.

K’Thrax’ll
Vesk Mercenary Operative - Specialization:Ghost
13/16/12/12/10/10

Skills
Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, Computers, Cultures, Engineering, Intimidate, Perception, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Feats
Improved Initiative (Maybe Fleet or Nimble Moves)

Equipment
Tactical baton
Tactical Semi-Auto Pistol
Second Skin
-Infrared Sensor

Overall, my thought is a general fixer and troubleshooter. I’m thinking something like Michael Westen (Burn Notice) or Reese (Person of Interest).

Does this seem to work? Is there anything I am missing? Would a soldier specialization be better? I know that Vesk isn't the best for Operative, but it seemed to fit the character idea.
I did post something about this last year, but that was before the book was out.

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but my search is not working. I don't have a regular group and I've struggled to keep a consistent schedule for PBP games. I'd be interested in playing a bit by myself "Choose your own adventure" style. Does anything like that exist? I've seen some intro adventures, but most of them seem designed to teach the rules as well.

So, many years ago I read a fantasy series that I’ve been trying to find. It was 20 years ago, so I’m not sure I remember much except a few snippets. Some things I remember

Underground armadillo people.
Dragon riders
Gryphon king playing chess
Abandoned villa in a forest with a dragon trapped in a giant gem

I know it’s not a lot to go off of, but maybe somebody can help me. Or I’m crazy and it is some Frankenstein of books.

What spells/traps would an illusionist use to trap an area? I'm thinking 14th level with access to permancy tried to hide/trap his tomb before he died.

Illusory walls that hide explosive runes so that disbelieving the walls activates the runes.
A maze of illusory walls around scattered spiked pits. Some of the walls cover spiked pits and some of the pits are illusions. Therefore the players can't just jump over the pits they see, but can't depend on them all being real or fake.
Trap that activates phantasmal web or shadow conjuration summon monster.
Maybe a shadow conjuration of a wall over pit so that disbelieving the wall causes it to only hold 1/5 the weight. That would make most PCs fall in.

These are just some thoughts.

I've seen a number of people creating random characters or collections of characters for themselves. I haven't had much of a chance lately to play, so I thought I'd try my hand at it. It ended up with a pretty good low level villain. Let me know if there are better ways to do the formatting. Or any advice for the actual builds or motivations.

I've got a friend who is super excited about Starfinder coming out this summer. I haven't really had the time to look over a lot of the previews, but i've scanned the race/class info. If this is the wrong place for this, let me know. I'm wondering if a character concept would work. I'm thinking of a Vesk Operative that is fairly pragmatic. His word is his bond and once he says he'll do something, he does it. But he isn't picky about how it gets done. From he preview blog, I'm thinking of downplaying the "honorable combat" and "glory-seeker" parts of Vesk and focusing on the get it done. I'll wait to see how the actual specialization turn out, but I'm thinking mostly infiltration type skills, maybe a little demolition and sniper as well. Does this seem to fit with what is known? Would there be room for this kind of character? Is operative an accurate fit or would soldier be closer?

There are a group of monsters that I wonder how/why they haven't been killed off, or at least kept in check. By most accounts, level 5-8 or so is where the more than mundane becomes commonplace. Higher CR than that, and you are mostly in the realm of things that could never exist and have some pretty major implications; things like dragons, demons, elementals, aberrations, etc. CR 5-8 is where you can still find some mundane animals like elephants, orcas, and polar bears.
In addition, in the real world, people are successfully able to hunt these level of creatures, and have been for many years.
There are a number of low intelligence, mid to high CR creatures that exist solitarily, or at least have a life phase in which they are solitary. In the real world, these creature do not threaten humans too much. Polar bears live primarily in areas that are not well populated by humans and prefer to hunt easier, fatter prey that us. Orcas live in a completely different environment. Etc.
Also, historically speaking, the cost in lives to exterminate all of these animals was cost prohibitive. While people could and did hunt things like polar bears and elephants, hunting all of them just to get rid of them, would have been a ridiculous concept. In modern times, there are various political/social groups that oppose it as well.
In a setting like Golarion and many fantasy worlds though, these creatures much more frequently interfere with human/elf/dwarf/orc expansion. More than mortal abilities also exist much more readily than historically. There are heroes that can survive massive falls, control the elements, summon armies to fight there battles, and whatever other things you can think of. The ability to hunt down and kill a polar bear, is therefore much more common and much less dangerous to those who might undertake it.
Which leads to my thought. Most animals, are still no more dangerous and do not really interfere any more than in the real world. Certain magical creatures though, while nominally of the same danger as real world animals, are more likely to interfere. Creatures like bullettes, gorgons, basilisks, tendriculous, etc would have a greater effect on nearby settlements than their natural equivalent. A bullette moving into the area is going to completely stop trade and travel, whereas a polar bear, unless rabid or a man eater, would be spotted and avoided with a minimum of fuss. And historically, the polar bear would be eliminated if it was a danger.
So, how are these creatures able to become rumor or legend? I admit that there is enough unexplored land to accommodate breeding populations of such creatures, but once they encounter civilization, shouldn't they be eliminated immediately?
I came across this while thinking of a legend of a basilisk lair guarding an ancient wizards keep or burial site. I quickly thought that if there was any truth to such a rumor, some hero would have discovered and looted it long before the PCs are rolled up. If a bullette or gorgon moves into a trade route and starts attacking caravans, then there might be one or two encounters and then a dozen heroes descend on the site.

Wow, that became longer than I expected. TLDR How do mid CR monsters survive long enough to be a rumor/legend/more than a speed bump?

I'm brainstorming some ways to start an adventure. Especially ways that force the party into working together and don't really offer ways to get sidelined. One idea that I'd like some help with may be a little cliche, but is below.

Or something like that. There's the general jest of the intro. The adventure that follows needs to be fleshed out more as well.

I have been playing a combination of Iron Kingdoms, 5E, and Pathfinder with a group for a bit. We started playing Pathfinder mostly after I pushed it. We switched to 5E from Iron Kingdoms after the group struggled to buy in to the system/setting, but I just kept feeling like things were missing. So I've been DMing Pathfinder now and I think its just not for the group. Most of the players struggle to remember the basics of their characters, i.e. How to pick spells or what their primary attack is. Many of them embody the Stormwind Fallacy and actively refuse to make mechanically sound characters. They obviously aren't having fun due to combat being ridiculously long. But they also aren't effective enough to kill goblins in under 10 rounds. There is no sense of party balance. And most actions (in combat and out) are either what would be the most "fun" right this second or what will be the biggest laugh. It just feels like Pathfinder has too many rules and requires too much system mastery to ever be fun with this group.
Now, with that said, I have a lot of other games as well. I own both editions of Serenity/Firefly, Marvel Heroes, Star Wars: Edge of Empires, Burning Wheel, Dresden Files, Savage Worlds, Fiasco, 13th Age, Shadowrun, Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, and Vampire. Plus, I'd be willing to pick up something else if it looked promising.
Does anybody have any suggestions for rule-light RPGs that don't require system mastery? I'm thinking of leaning towards one of the Weis Production games almost since your character sheet tells you what dice to roll and thats it. Or we stick to board games and Fiascol. Half of the group really wants to RP, the other half would probably just be happy playing board games. I struggle to enjoy 5E since I just miss all the options that are in Pathfinder. Any thoughts/ideas?

Good Day y'all. I'm trying to figure out a break DC for a wall of brambles. I can find the table for walls and doors, but I'm having trouble finding break DCs for more naturally occurring obstacles. Specifically, I'm running Rise of the Runelords and I know I have a player that is going to try to cast enlarge person on herself while in the

Should I try to run Shattered Star?

I'm going to be starting a game up soon and I'd like to make things somewhat easy on myself and just run an AP.
I have the first three issues of the adventure path, but I haven't had a chance to read through them because my wife thought she might run it. Since then, she has decided she has no desire to sit on this side of the screen. I didn't get the latter half of the path though, so I can't see how it ends. I've seen a lot of comments that it is dungeon heavy, which I'm happy with.
If I run it, I can't be sure that anybody has played any specific other adventure paths, so I can't depend on any prior knowledge.
Is there anything I need to be super worried about or work around? I've looked through some old posts, but other than dungeon crawl comments, I haven't seen a lot of direct reviews.

I'm sure people have thought of this, but my search-fu is weak and I'm just missing it. Has anybody used the We Be Goblins pregens during the Licktoad encampment? My characters are using rolled stats, so they are above average and I have 5. In the town, I'm thinking of leaving Chief Gutwad with 3 goblins, but the other 4 groups of 3 goblins replacing one in each group with 1 of the four pregens, possibly advanced to 2nd level.
Anybody done anything like this? Did it work out?

My wife wants to play a Bloodrager in our upcoming campaign. She asked me to run some numbers and compare damage options. She is deciding between sticking with natural weapons and using a two-handed weapon.

This chart shows the 8th level options trying to compare a Bloodrager (arcane) to a Bloodrager (draconic)/Dragon Disciple.
For the Arcane Bloodrager, I've included a +2 Greatsword and strength bonuses for 4th and 8th level and magic item, as well as Haste Bloodrage.
The Draconic Bloodrager includes Amulet of Mighty Fists and strength enhancements for level, magic items, and Dragon Disciple, as well as the Improved Natural Attack feat.

All of the attack options are with and without Power Attack. The options I have listed are:
Pure Natural Attack (Claw/Claw/Bite)
Bastard Sword (Sword/Sword/Claw/Bite)
Bastard Sword two-handed (Sword/Sword/Bite)
Greatsword (Sword/Sword/Sword)

I attempted to find the average damage for each weapon type. I then found the average chance of hitting each AC from 1-25. I assumed a 20 always hits and a 1 always misses. Then I multiplied the two together. I think that finds the average damage per round for each weapon type vs AC 1-25.

PDF View

If anybody has any suggestions, comments, or concerns I would love to hear them. If I made some glaring mistake or assumption I didn't realize.

If I've got it correct, then two-handed is really the best option.

Edit: Though maybe this works better somewhere else. Advice?

How much do you allow new characters to start with? First level equipment is fairly inconsequential over the lifespan of a character, but do you set any restrictions on it? Do you use PFS standard gp, roll for it by class, or some other formula? Do you allow the Rich parent trait or other traits that increase starting equipment?

I typically go with the max gold allowed per class. In general, that allows the characters that need an extra weapon or heavier armor the ability to afford it, while still not allowing characters to just go hogwild. I have had players though, that struggle to spend more than 100gp and players that chafe at less than 300gp.

I guess related to that; When you make characters, how much detail do you include in their starting equipment and mundane gear? I usually spend every copper piece I can and go through the equipment section with a fine-toothed comb. I have a spreadsheet of items and usually mundane gear takes up 50-60 lines.

My wife has been binge-watching Downton Abbey and finished it up. Since then, she has been searching for other period dramas to watch. It got me thinking about nobles around Sandpoint. In Magnimar and Sandpoint, it seems like most of them are more merchant princes or "new money." It doesn't appear that any of them are the classic landowners that tax peasants just for working on the land.
Sandpoint is les than 50 years old and Magnimar is only a hundred years older than that. Unless the families came from Korvosa or Cheliax, there isn't much time fo

For Sandpoint in particular;
Kaijitsu family is nothing more than wealthy tradesmen with a name.

So, where do these families come from? How do they become nobles? Do they have the same prejudices regarding new money and old money?

Maybe people have different strategies, so I'd like some different perspectives. How much effort do you put in describing where "treasure" and monster equipment comes from?
When statting up a tribe or cult, do you make decisions about where masterwork items and magical items come from?
I'm designing some goblin encounters and my mind starts wondering, where did this goblin get a masterwork horsechopper. Or what does a masterwork horsechopper even look like? Who made the potions?
When designing low-level NPC encounters, it seems the rings of protection, cloaks of resistance, cure potions, and masterwork weapons/armor seem to be so easy to hand out, but who is making them? Do you really care? Do you find that the players ever ask?
I've got a Druid in the tribe, so I could give the Druid the right feats, but then I'm decreasing combat effectiveness when the players invariably try to slaughter it. Also the players never see the stat block, so it's not like it has to be set in stone.

I'm not sure if this is where this question belongs, but my search-fu is failing, so here goes.
I've been looking through things about Varisia and I found reference to the Red Bishop. I've tried doing some searches, but can't find anything. There do appear to be some references to Paizocon a few years ago and the HumbleBundle that alluded to Wrath of the Red Bishop. What is this? Does it exist anywhere, or was it something exclusive? Thanks for the info

So, I'm thinking of rerunning the adventure path. The last group that I started got into Hook Mountain Massacre before dissolving. From what the players said though, I'd like to adjust BO a little before trying it again.
One major complaint that I heard was "You are told you are heroes, but nobody cares about the goblins." I've played BO once and ran it twice, and I feel like every time there has been a similar complaint. Following the initial attack on the festival, players are always ready and raring to go in hunting down goblins. But the adventure kind of just ..pauses..
As a player, they know something more must be going on, but the characters are told to just chill. It has made Part II drag every time.
The other effect is that it seems to make Ameiko, Sheriff Hemlock, Shalelu, etc seem pretty useless since they keep going to the party for help.
My thought is that I will play up that the PCs are "heroes" to some of the citizens that were at the festival, including Aldern. I'll have the PCs save a few of the tents at the festival, etc. The design of the festival doesn't really seem like it could support all 1,000+ people within eye-shot of the PCS, so I will focus more on a couple dozen people who specifically witness and are saved by them.
This will then allow the Sheriff and Mayor to "thank" the PCs, but when they push to investigate any sort of plot, they are laughed off. The PCs are still heroes to some, but the powers that be assume there is no larger plot to worry about. By the time the Characters have enough information to convince the problem will be out of hand and need to be dealt with.
I will need to slightly adjust the first meeting with Shalelu. I don't really feel like the Sheriff would depend on a bunch of random adventurers, especially when he has corporals referenced later in the Path. I wonder if maybe Shalelu will use the opportunity to stress that the PCs are outmatched and need to stay in Sandpoint where its safe? While hemlock goes to Magnimar.

I'm kind of just brainstorming this as I go. I need to reread the adventure and really get it down pat, but I'm wondering what y'all think. Or how have you been able to control the pacing in an enjoyable manner?

I'm trying to design a group of encounters for a dungeon and I'm hitting a brick wall. I've drawn up an abandoned dwarven citadel that has fallen to the belief of Droskar. The leader is a warpriest10, and most of the followers are fighter3 or cleric3. I want to include a small subfaction that believes more in the toil of self perfection and are wizard/monks, or something similar. Is there any way to design a 5th level and/or 8th level wizard/monk that is not completely useless?

I was thinking of a CR 9 encounter that was a group of 5th level monk/wizards? on balance beams or some other favoring terrain.
Then a "mini-boss" that was 8th level and had 2 or 3 bodyguards or something. Maybe shadow mastiffs, hell hounds, or some other CR 4 creature.

Eh, something like that. I was super stoked to have a dwarven dungeon, especially since I have a bunch of dwarf models, but then I had a really stressful week at work and got burnt out.

The overall dungeon is for 7th level characters.

Is there a feat that allows an individual to ignore an ally when attacking with a reach weapon? Would such a feat be overpowered? I want to design an encounter in which a group of soldiers are arranged in two lines. The front soldier has a shield and the rear soldier has a polearm of some sort. But the soft cover rule kind of makes that not work well.

I'm running Rise of the Runelords and they are almost finished with Skinsaw Murders.

They also got the city watch involved when they

So they've only been in Magnimar 24 hours, but it seems like they may be making waves already. I also would like to point out to them that they are in a large city and cannot just run around kicking down doors and killing people. Especially when they take all the evil magic items and immediately go sell them.

Any ideas?

My players are travelling from Sandpoint to Magnimar and I would like to through a semi-random encounter at them. They are 6th level, 5 players with 25 point buy, so they end up about apl 7.5. I'm thinking a group of 4 ogres including 1 spellcaster that have taken some slaves. I also want this encounter to start with the PCs having ample time to decide how to handle it, so on a relatively open stretch of plain. This leads to 2 questions.

1) what spellcasting class is best for the ogre? The +4 for a classed npc will bring its wisdom up to a 14, while Int or Cha max at 10 and 11. This seems like cleric or druid would be best, though empyreal blood sorcerer could work. Finally, I could just use the scarred witch despite it not being an orc. I figure 4 levels of spellcaster.

2) encounter distance? According to the corebook, the Max encounter distance in a plain is 1400 feet. The best perception check, including penalties for size, allows the ranger to see them at 400, which seems a little close. I was thinking that he could possibly see a couple hundred more feet, but would only be able to identify that there was something moving. At 500 feet or so, he can identify that there are large and medium creatures in a group.

I apologize for any typos. I'm typing on a kindle fire which is pretty bad for autocorrect.

I've got three problems (sort of) that I'd like to alleviate.
I am GMing a group that is running through one of the APs. I have 5 players:

Halfling Rogue6 dual wielding daggers
Half-Elf Ranger6 Archery
Dwarf Cleric6 (Crusader) the others forget he isn't a fighter
Human Barbarian6 Nodachi and combat reflexes
Gnome Sorcerer6 blaster/evoker

They all rolled stats, which I prefer, and ended up with about 25 point buy. I know that they are a lot stronger than the AP expects, as well as having more players, but I can handle that.

So far though, they have been able to overly depend on their starting stats. Their hp, saving throws, damage, etc are all a little higher, and up until 5th level, and extra +1 or +2 can make a huge difference. Because they have been able to depend on their stats, they haven't been paying much attention to loot. They are almost to 7th level, and most of them have about 6k or 7k in gear, except the dwarf who has been "in charge" of loot distribution.
I let my players handle how loot is distributed, though I have tried to bring up the disparity once. The group was not too concerned.
I'd like to get some additional gear in their hands, and I'd like to pick items that they need or can use. Many of the players are new to Pathfinder and so they don't quite know what sort of items even exist. My goal is to provide the group with these items:
belt of giant strength +2
small mithril armor
lesser bracers of archery
efficient quiver
belt of dexterity +2
I've also given the NPCs some items that they should have to do their job anyway.

The second sort of issue, is that of challenge. Due to their stats, many early parts of the AP have been fairly easy. But I haven't been able to add too much, due to xp and leveling too quickly. We have dropped down to the medium xp track, and so I think I can start adding more to each combat. Many of the combats have also been single threat, so the players are able to stack up against one foe. I'd like to use an outdoor encounter with a lot of terrain and multiple enemies of varying strengths and abilities to challenge them with.

So, early in the adventure, they sacked a temple to Lamashtu. I'd like a cult that worships Lamashtu to hunt down and ambush the PCs. I decided that the cult is led by Tzeena, a 6th level tiefling cleric that was born to pair of halfling nomads. The red skin and horns sort of scared them, and Tzeena was abandoned. She has been raised by a priestess of Lamashtu. The mentor recently passed away, and now Tzeena is trying to prove that she can lead a cult.

Tzeena met Draxel, another tiefling born to halfling parents. The two have become lovers and sort of act as matriarch and patriarch to the cult, for now. Draxel's most notable features are the fine fur covering most of his body and his oddly jointed hands.

The third major member of the cult is a half-orc slayer by the name of Yugnark. Yugnark was raised by two relatively human looking half-orcs. His overly orcish appearance crushed any hope they had of assimilating into human culture. Therefore they banished him at an early age.

Finally, the group struggled to find the party, so they hired a morally depraved tracker/poacher by the name of Tik. Tik loves money and his horse, in that order. He is willing to do just about anything for coin. He prefers to stay as far away from combat as he can though.

Charger the horse animal companion

The group will be leading a cult of almost 20. The other 20 will be a mix of humans, half-elves, half-orcs, and tieflings, though the race classes though. I'm thinking I will use the skulking brute, poacher, and war priest from the npc codex.

This encounter will be the only encounter for the day, so the characters will have all of the hp, abilities, and spells. I'd like it to be a little challenging, both in tactics and individually. Have I gone over the top?

My idea is to have a couple of the low level NPCs, scouring the town for the party. When one of them finds the party, they try to surreptitiously observe them, primarily trying to figure out when they will leave town. When the party leaves town, whichever NPC was tailing them has a horse waiting at the town gate, and will attempt to ride ahead and alert the ambush. This does present an opportunity for the PCs to get a heads up, but they won't know where the ambush is taking place. Even the tail can't describe the ambush site, since he has been in town trailing the PCs while it is set up.

I'll have the rogues and those with a higher stealth check set up behind some trees. About 100 feet beyond them are the less sneaky types. The sneaky ones will try to wait until the party is mostly passed them, before beginning to fire arrows into them. The group still ahead of the party will use that as the signal to charge.

Is this just waiting for a TPK? Give me your advice. I don't really have a map drawn out yet, so I need to figure out the exact arrangement of the ambush.

Thanks.

So, I've been looking over the monster manual trying to plot and plan adventures, and I had a thought.

Many of the low CRs, 0-3, can be thrown in pretty easy. Goblins, orcs, gnolls, etc all have a pretty basic place in adventures and Golarion. People aren't too surprised to see a band of orcs in the area or even a few wandering ogres.

In addition, most of the CR 10+ monsters are constructs, outsiders, dragons, or otherwise highly unique and special creatures that have a definite place. These creatures are fairly easy to work into a compelling story and aren't just wandering around.

The problem I have is with the in between. Monsters between CR 3 or 4 and 10. These creatures include bulettes, gorgons, chul, and behir. Many of these seem like creatures that should be feared and well known, and therefore easy prey for adventures. In addition, creatures like the bulette state that they drive off most other predators. This means its very hard to justify more than a 15 minute adventuring day to go kill a bulette.

I would like to start seeding some rumors of some of these creatures. But it seems like my only two choices are single encounter days, or create a herd/village/band of one type of creature with sentries and a higher CR nucleus.

It just seems like there are many CR 5-10 creatures that are supposed to be naturally (relatively) occurring in the wild, but are so territorial or solitary that they limit their use.

I'm not sure if this rambling thought made much sense, but if you can help with any ideas for adding to CR 5-10 encounters I would appreciate it.

So this seems like it should be a fairly basic adventure, so if it already exists and somebody could direct me towards it, that would be great. Otherwise, I may right up a few encounters of my own.

So I'd like to have a brief side-quest for my party vs the fey. A group of loggers are having trouble in an area and think it is haunted. Trails change, tools have gone missing, animals have gotten in their food, loggers keep falling asleep, sounds surround the campsite at night, they keep seeing ghostly figures in the distance, groups of trees move in the night, and fires turn into smoke. etc. and multiple suggestions to tell the loggers that trees have already been cut down, trails go different directions, orders were different, etc. So far 5 loggers have gone missing, plus one has been found dead.

A group of 6 dryads reside 1/3 mile(?) away from where the loggers are logging and along with a couple of satyrs, and a small horde of atomies, sprites, and grigs are trying to scare them away. I'd like to keep at some to most of the fey good, to really open the possibility of dialogue. It might make some of the characters really question how much violence. So far the fey have only killed one person, and everybody agrees he was a notorious bully.

I think that most fey would not want to put too many animals in danger, so they might be using a few racoons and squirrels to help destroy food. Moles and badgers might also burrow under the tents or loosen stakes. I'm thinking of having one or two combat encounters with a bear, an elk or two. I've just got to string it all together now.

My idea is to have the party start at the logging camp. They can ask around and at least find out what has happened. As soon as they enter the forest proper, the atomies and sprites try to use dancing lights to seperate the party and lead them into a bees hive or a bog. That night, a couple of atomies try to shrink item and steal some of their items. The atomie might also try to encourage the horses to revolt. Grigs will keep using pyrotechnics to make keeping a fire impossible. With invisibility and/or stealth +19, plus distance and other factors, I doubt the players will observe them. If they continue, the satyrs show up and use ghost sound or suggestion, along with dancing lights from the atomies and sprites. I don't think the grig will use entangle too much, since that sort of seems like overplaying her hand.

What other sort of suggestions could the satyr use? Go this direction, go back, (side note, does the recipient have to see the caster to be affected?)
If they need to, 1 or 2 of the dryads could suffer sickness to travel further away from their trees and use wood shape and treeshape to confuse the party as well. Go to sleep under a copse of trees and then have it move. Go to sleep in a clearing and wake up in trees. The party will be immune to the satyrs sleep spell, but the dryads have deep slumber.

If the party has been relatively peaceful so far, and they do reach the dryads' grove, they find the missing loggers charmed, but otherwise unharmed. They have room for peaceful negotiations now.
I believe my players will just slaughter them as they see them, but I'd like to make some incentive for them not to. Hopefully the lack of killing so far and the good aligned fey will help that.

Or I could give a couple of the fey class levels as well.

What would a reasonable number of fey be? They won't all be encountered at once. 6 dryads, 3 or 4 satyrs, and about 10 each sprites, grigs, atomies?
If they continue on after that, the satyrs show up

My wife is playing a barbarian and just hit level 4. Its her 3rd or 4th character, but only her first that has actually leveled up at all (multiple false starts of campaigns). She has taken combat reflexes, lesser animal totem, and knockback in addition to power attack and raging vitality. She has commented that she has not been able to use the first three at all so far. We are playing Rise of the Runelords

A lot of the encounters so far have been in enclosed spaces, so 1 or 2 PCs have been able to block hallways and doors and prevent monsters from surrounding them. She also likes the higher damage of the earthbreaker over a longspear.

She really enjoys the massive hitpoints, raging, and DR (invulnerable rager), but she does become a little bored at the lack of options. I've told her that there will be a big pay-off soon. I've also tried telling her to use her animal totem to make two attacks, but she isn't fond of the lower damage.

What kind of advice should I give to her? I think the biggest might be, "use a longspear more." She is playing a Shoanti barbarian, and has so far tried to stick to the RP of tribal type weapons, so she hasn't been interested in a lot of the polearms.
I tried to suggest having the party wizard know enlarge person but then he never cast it. I could suggest or allow her to find an item that casts enlarge person a set number of times per day (or does one already exist?) or start carrying enlarge person potions.

I am DMing Rise of the Runelords witha party of 6 and I have one player who I am trying to help. He is fairly new to roleplaying and very new to pathfinder. He says that he has played a few times before, but they were either 4E or "just messing around" and not to careful with the rules.
When we started his first words regarding a character were, "My favorite character was a thief/fighter," quickly followed by, "halfling."
We have played 1 session, so he has to keep the halfling, but I will be allowing him to move some other things around if he wants to.
When asked about what he actually wants to be able to do, he stated;
master thief and long ranged crossbow attacks. Scales buildings, sneaks into the king's treasure, kills the evil guards, and sneaks away with all the lewt.
So, what options should I show him for his character. I'm trying to steer him away from splitting too many abilities, but I haven't played this sort of rogue before. Our party already has a ranger that is also focusing on archery and wilderness skills.

I thought about showing him urban ranger, but I don't think he cares about spells. I could see if he likes skirmisher to replace spells. The party does expect him to be able to disarm traps.

I think that's the info I got. Are there any suggestions for archetypes, classes, racial abilities? I'll let anything from PRD go fine. If its on d20pfsrd, its still gotta be Paizo. No 3rd-party.

So, I have ran the beginning of Burnt Offerings twice and both times the players chomp at the bit to go after the goblins. I have tried to run some of the mini encounters, but the entire group is very suspicious of the goblins and just want to figure out what's going on. Do you have any suggestions, or should I just let it speed up?

I am running my wife through Crown of the Kobold King alone. She is playing a Dwarven Paladin who left the Five Kingdoms because her father tried to restart the cult of Droskag. She has no idea what is coming. On to the advice part. She has just started and has met Jeva.

My in-laws computer is behaving oddly and it is very annoying. The mouse double clicks all the time on single click. Its extremely difficult to move windows around or use the mouse at all. I'm not sure everything they have set up, but does anybody have any suggestions for things to look at?

Apparently I hate the US postal service.
Tracking information shows that order #2207384 was handed off to the Post Office on the 19th, but my local Post Office has no record of the package. When I contact UPS they say its the sender or Post Office's responsibility, but when I contact USPS there is no postal id for them to find the package.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

We started playing Skull and Shackles a few weeks ago and have so far played three sessions. We just finished up day 7 and my players have too many friends. At this point Grok, Fishguts, Owlbear, and all but 6 NPC crew members are friendly or helpful. The few NPCs that are still hostile are the 5 that started hostile and attacked the players. I am running with 6 people, but so far I've only had 4 or 5 at any one session. They haven't been doing a lot of gambling or exploring, primarily focusing on influencing so far. I also have two characters that are focused pretty strongly on charisma skills. I have a sorcerer, bard, rogue, barbarian, fighter, and oracle. The sorcerer, bard, and oracle all have high charisma and ranks in social skills and the rogue, fighter, and barbarian have ranks in intimidate as well. When they aid another, they can swing hostile to unfriendly or even indifferent, and a few times 2 or 3 steps on the chart. I'm not sure if I should have Plug try to influence them away, or just end with allowing influencing for the rest of the 20 days. How quickly have your players made friends on the ship.

And some of them did start by failing multiple checks against people that turned them hostile that the bard was able to recover from.

My order arrived and I found that I mistakenly received a copy of Pathfinder Module D4: Hungry are the Dead instead of GameMastery Module TC1: Into the Haunted Forest. Everything else was fine in the order.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

I'm struggling to deal with a minor situation one of my players threw at me. One of my players is playing an Ulfen ex-slave. Another player is playing a gnome from Mwangi and attempted to influence Shavikah. She rolled poorly and Shivakah's response was "Gnomes were too much trouble as slaves and are too much trouble on the ship." The ex-slave heard this and punched Shavikah. She then won initiative and got to act in the surprise round and first round before Shavikah and knocked Shavikah out. Since the fight was so quick, nobody else had time to respond or get involved. Cog, Sandara, Maheem, and the gnome were the only ones close enough to witness what happened. Sandara is already friendly, but Maheem and Cog are both unfriendly. I gave her a bonus to try to intimidate Cog, but she rolled pretty poorly. I'm not sure what response I should have. I'd like to continue the bonus to Cog for a day, but I'm wondering if having Shavikah join Narwhale and the anti-party is enough of a response.

I'm just starting the Skull and Shackles adventure path and I have almost all new players. I'm trying to help them with feat, class, and skillnchoices to get what they want. SRD is open, as is the Inner Sea Primer and Inner Sea World Guide. Those are the only books I own, so that's all I can suggest.
We played a session already, but I am allowing players pretty free reign right now to switch their character around since they are all new and many of them did not know what choices they were making. I've got a girl who started out as a half-elf witch with the darkness patron, a cat, the coulrdon hex, and the ward hex. She was talking to my wife and said she wants to be able to summon monsters and/or create undead.

What are the best ways to suggest she succeed at her goal? I don't really want to suggest Summoner, because they have so many caveats and exceptions. I am afraid that for someone who has never played before it could get confusing or overwhelming. I know there are ways to get animate dead or create undead on the witch or oracle spell list. Wizards and clerics also have the spells. Currently she is the only person in the party that has any healing.

Thanks for the help. I hope I gave enough information.

Its been three days since my order was shipped and tracking data is still unavailable. UPS-MI says check with the shipper after three days if data is not available. I'm not really concerned when it gets here, I know it will get here when it does. I just may be going out of town for a few days and would like to know if it is close, if I need to have somebody else pick it up for me, etc.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

I just was quickly flipping through The Price of Infamy to glance at Harrigan's stats and some of the other Wormwood Crew and noticed areas D5 and D6 in Harrigan's Fortress.

By this point I guess the PCs are already out to kill Harrigan, but I imagine this will just push some players over the edge, especially those that befriended Grok.

This changes some things in Wormwood Mutiny though. Glad I have the first 5 before I start running, it will make some things easier.

I had a GM recently tell me that a rogue cannot sneak attack as an AoO. I can't remember this being true in 3.x and I wasn't able to find it quickly when perusing the core book. The rogue in question was flanking when the monster moved out of the threatened square and the monster was not otherwise immune to sneak attacks.

Hopefully this goes here. If not, hopefully it gets moved where it belongs.

I have not had a chance to DM in awhile and I'm getting back in with the Skull and Shackles AP. Back when I DMed, I used note cards with PC and NPC info during combat as a short reference for myself. I kept them in initiative order and just flipped the cards. It also allowed me to write hp, current effects, etc on the card. Finally, I could use them for spot/listen (as an example of how long ago) checks, will saves for illusions, and some other checks that I didn't necessarily want players knowing how well they rolled. I seem to have lost any examples of these cards and I'm struggling to remember what I put on them. I don't want to include entire NPC stat-blocks, because then it isn't quite as useful.

Has anybody done anything similar to these, and what do you put on them. I just want the most common stuff as a quick reference. For a lot of in-detail info, I can always refer to character sheets or NPC stat-blocks.

Thank you for your time and consideration.