W. Kristoph Nolen's page

Looks like I'm kicking off this thread, this year!!!
Who's already here in town, and/or at the convention hotel?

I came up for a whole week, so, I'm here from now 'til the 30th!
Great room by the pool, bar, and convention, even near stairs!!

Woot, woot!
Here's to a great weekend!,,

Marvelously written!
Not only is it interesting to see the Traders of the Adventure Card Game, but, also it's interesting to see them all, for the names of the NPCs and their interests and what particular items they trade in, for use in the actual Mummy's Mask AP!

I just started a new Mummy's Mask campaign, and I undoubtedly plan on using these NPCs when the players inevitably go into Wati after exploring the Tomb of Akhentepi, to sell their goods!

Thanks so much for a great article!

So, the past several times I've come on the website to check out my sessions and such, or update my RP descriptions for my characters, I've noticed something odd ...
When I look at the "Aliases" tab, one of my characters, Vincent Ramil, has his name with a line through it. I'm not certain why a strike-through font would've been applied to my character, and I'm not certain what it's s'posed to mean.
The first thing I'd thought of was that the character died. ... but, none of my other characters who've died have had that happen to them. And when he did die, he was immediately raised and I've had eight sessions with him after that.
So ... maybe I'm just confused. Take a look at My Aliases Page, and tell me if y'all see it, too, and if anyone can tell me why it's there, I'd be *super* grateful.

So, there was a discussion in another Pathfinder forum that brought up armor spikes.

Let's say my fighter wanted to add armor spikes to his leather armor or something, and tried feats to go with it, but found he didn't like it and retrained the feat.

Would it be legal to not keep the spikes on the armor, or go to an armor smith and have the spikes removed from the armor and sell them back to a vendor for half price? (Or hang them on a wall for decoration, or whatever?)
Here's the type of armor spikes that I'm thinking of:
Add-on armor spikes

So ... I was going over some of my stuff from PaizoCon, and was looking at my poster of the NPC Codex cover. I was enjoying the thought of how grand the book is going to be, and so I watched some PaizoCon footage of when we were at the Banquet, and the book announcements were being made and what not ... and then I went to look the book up online and whatnot.
There's been a fair amount of talk on the boards about pregens, and applying credits for playing with them, and at what level, and whatnot...

And then ... (duhn-duh-duuuhn!) ... I thought of a question:
Since there's going to be stats for all the NPCs of each base class, at each level, are they going to be legal as PFS pregens? That is, will we have pregens of each class at each level?
I'm *SO* hoping that we'll be able to use them all! Because ... well, because that would rawk, that's why. :D

So ... I was just watching "Serenity" and "Firefly" on Hulu, and I got to thinking, and something popped into my head.
Back in the 3rd Edition days of D&D there was an organization of sorts (and a Prestige Class) called the Reavers. They were a group of insane, savage people devoted to slaughter, for the sake of brutality, and nothing more, really. They weren't entirely unlike the Reavers of Firefly.

So, a question logically followed for me to wonder if there's a group like this in Golarion. I mean, I know there's probably evil religious cults, and whatnot, but I don't think that is what I am really looking for. I'm guess I'm just wondering if there's a sort of nihillistic group of slaughtering-murderers, horri-bad type of group.

So ... I have this character concept ... that's based on Illusions.
There are some illusion spells that are capable of creating real thing with shadow substance, right?
So ... for example, if a person takes a real egg, and cracks it into an illusory frying pan over a camp fire.

So ... I earned a boon at PaizoCon 2012, and I rolled an Ifrit.
Now the question is: What do I do with it?

I'm thinking I kind of want to go full-on Fire. ... some kind of "pyromancer" theme. I thought of a Gunslinger with a theme that his guns make big fiery muzzle-flashes (in addition to bullets) when he shoots. I thought of an Alchemist who specializes in Alchemical Fire-stuff. Maybe a Sorcerer who has an Efreet Bloodline, or something. Don't want to do the Wish-Crafter thing. The Imolator (Inquisitor) sounds kind of cool, but I only know the basics of the class. Clerics, Oracles ... even a witch might be cool to try! I'm trying to decide what would be the most interesting fire-theme. I'd even consider a melee guy, or non-spellcaster if it's a cool enough concept. (Maybe if it's a "hot" enough concept?)

The thing is, it has to be legal for Pathfinder Society play. I'm asking here, because I think that I might get more input on a build that can kick butt. But, remember, in this case theme and story are significantly important, too. I want something a little out of the ordinary. But, I am just not great at knowing all the rules and options, and how to combine them.

So ... suggestions for an ifrit build?

I thought of this during PaizoCon last week, but, when I checked, I must have misread, because I thought that he didn't.

I just re-checked, and realized that Kyle Baird *did* write Rats of Round Mountain, Part I!!! So, while Kyle wasn't running the scenario personally, I am still holding him directly responsible for the death!

Even though he denied me my claim on the glory of a kill: (here)

W. Kristoph Nolen wrote:

... And soon, I am certain that I shall die, and be able to take the title "the Risen" with Resurrection for only 8PP. (any takers? Kyle?)

I don't want players who want their characters to die, their lack of tears is depressing.

... it still counts, in my book!!

The funny thing is that I wanted my Living Monolith to be able to claim the right to the title "the Risen". So, when Mat Black accidentlly almost let some damage slide, I pointed out to him that he hadn't rolled it all, and that I was going to take 20 more damage from reducing in size after Risghteous Might ended, as well.
I cheered! I was thrilled. Ecstatic, even.
I mean, it was bound to happen eventually, and I got to use a boon to become part of the Pharaoh's personal guard! I already carry a personal favor of the Pharaoh, the Ruby Prince himself, (the Pharaoh's Crook of Order from Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible), so, this made it especially cool!

So, there, Kyle! I died, and it's all your fault!
Do I get Prestige Points for this?

So, I have a monk who is themed as a fisticuffs/bare knuckle brawler kind of guy. (think "Gangs of New York" here.)
One thing that I have always avoided is getting him brass knuckles or cesti because they do less damage than a monk's Unarmed Strike. I don't really get the way that works, or why they were added as monk weapons. I can't understand why anyone would use them, in that case. I understand that a cestus can do piercing damage, but, that doesn't seem all that worth it, unless one happens to be fighting a whole lot of skeletons or something.

In a recent thread (that sort of got derailed), Saint Caleth and I were having an interesting sideline discussion, and I thought I would open it up to a new thread.
After talking about how to identify a race with an Alternate Racial Trait, we sort of came to the conclusion that a Knowledge(Local) check DC10 (on which a PC can Take 10) would be appropriate. All that would identify was the base race, though, and not other things about the character.

Wow ... funny thing ... In looking in the Core Rulebook, I just found that "Identify a creature’s ethnicity or accent" is a DC10 Knowledge(Geography) check. Odd, that.

That is interesting. I should read up on all the knowledges and what exactly they cover. I'd go with Knowledge(Local) since that its what identifies humanoid races.

Yeah, I think that had I not read it, I would've picked (Local), too. It's an interesting distinction that (Geography) specifically says:

PFRPG Core Rulebook wrote:

Geography (lands, terrain, climate, people)

Obviously the emphasis is mine, but, it's making the distinction between "people", and "humanoids".

I think the difference is that Local can identify the "race" as in species while Geography can identify the "race" as in ethnicity.

Geography tells you that the Sorcerer unfurling his wings before you is from Tianjing (and gives you a huge clue that he is probably celestial). Local tells you that he is human and not assimar or a celestial like you might expect of someone from Tianjing.

So now, my line of reasoning goes toward the distinction between race, ethnicity, and nationality. I think that (Geography)would be used to determine something like what particular form of a race is being seen. For example, Tian-Shu, as opposed to Tian-sing. ... or Hill Dwarf as opposed to Mountain Dwarf; high elf vs. artic elf; etc.

Any thought on how these apply, and how they can be confused in game-play?

Hey there.
I saw on the Open Event trading boards that you wanted "Madman at the Bridge" ... but you got "Bite the Tadpole", or something similar. (A Shadowrun event.)
I figured that since I was going to give up the slot, someone might as well get it that wanted it. I got two events in the Lottery, but, gave them both away. The Madman event sounded fun, but I wanted to go to "The Art of Pathfinder" for professional reasons (I'm an artist).
So, I traded, and then gave up the Tadple slot ... I hope you don't mind.
Enjoy "Madman", and if you see me around the Con, come by and say, "hi". Don't forget to slay something for me! :D
Good gaming!

So, I was just looking at the PaizoCon pages for signup for the events ... the links that were there for the "trading" page, and to "begin signup" for open events don't seem to be showing anymore. It explicitly says that the tading and signup for events doesn't end 'til Friday, but, it won't let me update my schedule to go to the banquet (trading for a ticket with another person, or drop an event that I won in the lottery, or trade for other events. There aren't any check boxes whatsoever.

Am I missing something obvious, or is there a reported bug that I haven't found in the forums, or is it just me?

Well, it seems that every time that I visit the Goblinworks website, I first have to go through a page that reads "There is a problem with this website's security certificate."

It's getting rather annoying, and I don't praticularly want to change my security settings, but, I'm not really concerned about it - since I know and trust the website.
More than anything, I was wondering if anyone else has had the issue, and if the fine folks at Goblinworks have heard anyone else report it, and if they can do anything to fix such a thing on their end.

Thanks!

Just a quick question here ... I want to make certain that I am not misreading something. I want to be careful -in advance- of table variance, especially if there's a PFS ruling on it.
In the description for the Overhand Chop ability it says that the fighter adds double their Strength modifier to their damage.
Now, this isn't *instead of* the normal 1 1/2 Strength bonus for swinging a two-handed weapon, right? It doesn't say anything to that effect in the ability, but, I think that it's a pretty groovy thing, so I figured it's gotta be too good to be true, right?

My fighter is about to have another stat bump at 8th level, and that will make him have a Strength of 22. (yes, sadly, he has a stat dump to get it). But, that would mean that he adds a +12 to his damage for every attack action? I know its only a single attack, but still. Seems to be a pretty good trade off if he's only making one attack anyway.

So, maybe I'm just daft ...
I would like to think that since there's such a well-known faction that bases their name of of the weapon, there would be weapon stats for a scourge?
Am I missing it somewhere, or is there really no in-game scourge? Maybe there's just a listed equivalency for it? Treated as a whilp, or something?

Thanks, in advance, if your search-fu is better than mine.

Alright, so, with all of thePFO talk, I am totally thinking about my characters, and how I would want to play. The thing of it is that I am a WoW player. I have a character concept that only ever used to exist as a character for the World of Greyhawk. But, I started playing WoW years ago, and started the character in WoW. I've always written his character background (and short stories) as not being set in Azeroth (WoW), but rather in WoG .... But now I am thinking that I would like to make the pen and paper version of him fit into PFS.
The only problem is that he became a member of the Scarlet Crusade, which is a group of totally fanatical zealots that think that they are doing right and good, but, they are crusaders that often cause more harm than good. Its like the Spanish Inquisition x10. They're also comparable to the Light's army in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
Anyway, I was wondering if there's anyone that would have an idea of what faction and whatnot to make this character for PFS. He's a paladin who fell away fro a typical knighthood, and went to join the bizarrely zealous Scarlet Crusade.
I would possibly say Aspis, but they're not playable. Or possibly the Silver Crusade (which I can't help but associate with the Argent Crusade in WoW), but they're not really the right kind of freakishly violent and over the top. I wish I could mesh the Silver Crusade, Nazi's and the Spanish Inquisition, and that would be them.

So, any suggestions on making this character into a "real" character, instead of just an online one?

Alright all you power-bilding guys and gals!

I'm building a gypsy-type character, and I want to update him to Pathfinder RPG. ... originally, he was a "Lasher", with all of the attendant whip-tricks and such. He was an Agility Fighter/Rogue. The build concept was proving to another player that a fighter was just as viable with an agility build, and he was based specifically on the ability to trip with his whip and then quick-draw a handaxe and hit the tripped foe with it. In 3.5, I used a "Exotic Weapons Master" from the Complete series to simulate a build for him that never got played.

So ... can some of you out there make suggestions for a build in PFS? Especially a PRC? I'd like to have him be able to do some decent DPR, but the primary focus is the gypsy whip-wielder theme, especially being able to do tricks.

Just for fun and reference, *here's* an illustration of the character that I drew. It might help with the theme.

So, my GF was perusing the Paizo store for stuff to buy me, and knows I like Osirion stuff, when she stumbled across a book I already have: Pathfinder Companion: Osirion, Land of the Pharoahs. The only thing is, it doesnt look like the book I have. The cover's completely different. It's entirely new art. Another thing is that she found one copy on Amazon, and the other on the Paizo offical website. So ... Hmm.

This is the comparison of the cover art:
This is the "new" one ... as opposed to This one.
So, my question is, what gives? Is this a revised version of the book? Is it just a reprint with a new cover? Is the whole thing got a newer layout with the same content?

Anyone with insight or input is appreciated. ... Or even wild speculation if you like. ;)

" ... I have no rival, no man can be my equal! Take me to the future of your world! Born to be Kings ... Princes of the Universe ... "

<ahem> Alright, sorry about the 20-year-old theme song.
The question that I want to put to to the PFS members is about the Living Monolith class. The reason that I am asking here rather than in rules is that I don't want homebrew answers, I want an answer specific to the organization in which I play. I don't want suposition, I am looking for a quorum in the version of the game I actually play.

So ... in the Living Monolith PRC, from Osiorion, Land of the Pharoahs, p.22, the Monolith gains a 10th level ability that makes him immortal. Yes. You read that right. They are immortal. As in: they do not die. They become living statues that are entirely ageless. My question is what that realistically means in game terms. There's a provision that the Monolith can be killed, but, it's just a generally vague thing. The text reads as follows:

Master Ka Stone (Su): At 10th level, a living monolith must undergo a final Ka stone ritual, replacing his current stone with one worth at least 10,000 gp. Upon completing this ritual, the living monolith becomes immortal. He ceases aging (though any aging effects already accrued remain in place) and becomes immune to energy drain and death effects, though he can still be killed by other means.

So ... how does this affect my character (Qa'pelos) when he gains the level (which should hopefully not be inthe not-too-distant future). how does immortality work? (Ask a Highleander, right?) Obviously, combat can kill him. How about starvation? Does he still eat and drink normally? How about sleep? Can he use his statue spell-like ability to rest? Or does he still require normal sleep? ... is it the same as being mortal, only without the aging that goes along with it?

I'm sure this may seem obvious to some, but, I often write short stories for my characters, and I am trying to get into the fluff so that I can really write the character well, and use that to RP at the table. Depending on the response to the thread, I may expand it to discuss the rules applications of other class abilities.

Oh, and thanks for the help and fun suggestions!

So, I play an Osirion fighter/Living Monolith. ... and he carries a great big sword. Two-handed Osirion Khopesh, to be precise.

As I understand it, with the printing of the new Setting book for Golarion, the older one is going away - because it was written under 3.5 rules, as I understand it. In 3.5 the khopesh was a standard weapon in the PHB. And the Osirion Khopesh was in the Osirion chronicles book.

At any rate, the "regular" Khopesh (read as: one-handed) is reprinted in the Adventurer's Armory, I think, but, there's no Osirion Khopesh in the new books. Now, I know that my PFS character's weapon is grandfathered in ... but, I am wondering if I am just missing the weapon in a book I don't have, or if, perhaps, it's coming out in some other book soon?

Let's all indulge ourselves, and little a engage in a fun round of baseless speculation, shall we?! <impish wink>

Alright ... first, I want to say that the concept of revising the Rapid Reload feat is a marvelous idea to include other weapons that take longer to load than typical bows.

Now, that being said, I think that there's a tweak that could be made to the specific language. It's tiny, and it's pedantic, so please, bear with me.
Essentially, it's being revised because when originally written (even back in 3.5) the only thing in the world that took longer to reload was the crossbows. Now, when another fine idea like firearms came along, it needed a tweak. But, fact of the matter is - firearms were there from the beginning in the DMG, just tucked away in a little used section. At any rate ... no one ever thought of it, and so now ... a little tweak. .... and that's cool and everything, but, what if it happens again?

Basically, the whole place where this is coming from, is that there was a weapon back in 3.5 that was called an Elven Double Bow. ... two strings, second was a move action to load. Now every DM I have ever played with (in non-organized-play) allowed me to use Rapid Reload, even though it specified crossbows. But, with this new revision of the Rapid Reload feat, it made me get a little ebullient about the idea that maybe I had gotten it right, after all.
I think that it's perfectly written, but, I was wondering if it might not be a good idea to make the wording less weapon-specific. Note that a prerequisite is proficiency, describe how it lowers the reload time by one "step" ... but, where it says "one- or two-handed firearm" could it not just as easily read "... two-handed ranged weapon"? And keep the wording that says, "you may fire that weapon as many times in a full-attack action as you could attack if you were using a bow." Or, you know, something like that. It would allow DMs a little more leeway in their homegames, and make it clear that Rapid Reload can be for any weapon ... even the ones that the writers never knew would exist later on.

Just a thought to help out with the Playtest and the revision of the stuff. <two pennies click in the bottom of the jar>

I'm interested in a little bit of RP information.
There's a lot of Prestige Classes out there, nowadays, and I am curious about ones being played by Osirion players. Specifically, I play a Fighter who is taking levels in the Living Monolith Prestige class. What I am trying to do is fill in some of the history and roleplaying notes that aren't able to be played in the PFS scenarios, because there's not a whole lot of RP that can always be added in organized play.

The Living Monolith has a prerequisite (that is hand-waved in PFS) that requires a ceremony that must be attended by another Living Monolith (or a sphinx). I think that it would be rather cool to find out if there are other Living Monoliths in the PFS, and perhaps be able to add them into the stories that I write for my PC.

So, all of you Osirion faction players sound off! Let's see what the most popular Prestige Classes are for our faction, especially if there's Living Monoliths. Don' be afraid to "snitch" on a fellow player ... if you know someone who's playing a Living Monolith in the PFS, shout it out loud! ... and if you are really pleased with the Prestige class you play, feel free to note that as well!

For the Ruby Prince, for the Ancestors gone before us, and for the great land of Osirion!

This came up at ComicPalooza this weekend while my Osirion warrior was leveling up into his first levels of his Prestige Class ... Living Monolith.

In most descriptions of Prestige Classes or other places one might find Spell-like abilities, it generally notes what one should use for the caster level of when using the ability. With monsters, it's often their HD. With Prestige classes, it's often either the Prestige class level or the PCs HD. I was surprised when the Living Monolith didn't give any indication for any of its spell-like abilities what should be used. So, I looked it up. Much to my surprise, I couldn't find it anywhere in PF RPG that it gave a default answer. Then I realized that "Osirion: Land of the Pharoahs" was published under the OGL beta-test rules (which were, by default, 3.5 edition rules). So, I pulled out my older D&D material and looked it up. I found that it specifies that "If no caster level is specified, the caster level is equal to the creature’s Hit Dice."

My question is a simple one: Is there a rule for this in PFS, and if not, is the 3.5 rule assumed to be accurate, since there isn't any errata for the book that would cover this?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and commentary.

I'm a player, looking for a little help for my GM. I am very fond of Osirion, and am playing an Osirion fighter that I plan on making into a Living Monolith (the prestige class). Two of the prerequisites are RP requirements that are essentially hand-waved for PS play, but I would like to have them in my character's history nonetheless.

What I am looking for is the name of a mod to give to my GM, so that I might meet either a) another Living Monolith, or b) a sphinx, or c) the mod is set in Osirion. Does anyone know of a mod that has one of these in it? (No spoilers here, please.) I would just like to be able to say that my character did things the "old fashioned way" and learned the language of the Sphinx from an "authentic" source.

Thanks for the help in defining my character in the setting. :)