WarEagleMage's page

I rarely post here, but like many of you, I stop by on a regular basis hoping to get my fix with the Pathfinder Battles previews. Unfortunately, the previews are few and far between these days. The previews are a great way to stoke discussion and build excitement for the upcoming releases. I don't want to beat up on Mark, but no previews means diminished anticipation for the next set. Couple this with what in my opinion has been a regression of WizKids' Pathfinder prepaints to the level of the D&D line, and I must admit that my zeal for Pathfinder Battles has taken a significant hit.

Just finished The Cordova Vector and Cordova Incursion by C. Steven Manley. The series is a sci-fi romp in the vein of Firefly, and thoroughly enjoyable. Brace Cordova and his crew manage to find trouble at every turn, and somehow manage to scrape by with their grit and their wit. The books really got me in the mood to try some Starfinder - which is saying something because I've been slow to embrace the new ruleset.

The rule you are looking for is under "Armor Check Penalty" in the Equipment section:
"Sleeping in armor: A character who sleeps in medium or heavy armor is automatically fatigued the next day. He takes a -2 penalty on Strength and Dexterity and can't charge or run. Sleeping in light armor does not cause fatigue."
This can be mitigated with the Endurance Feat as noted above, and also by the magical enhancement Restful Armor from the Advanced Class Guide.

I play some PFS here in town, but I prefer a regular home campaign. I don't mind traveling a reasonable distance, or I can run a game at my home. My teenage daughter wants to play, so I tend to keep things fairly PG-rated in my home games. If you are in the area, and are interested, please let me know. Feel free to reply to the post or email me directly at bkingry1@gmail.com.

My wife and I are from Overland Park and are looking to join a regular Pathfinder campaign. She is new to the game and we would prefer to join a low level or just starting up campaign.

Tyler

Hi Tyler,

Please let me know if you guys are still looking to start a group, or if you've found a local game and need an experienced player.

Thanks,
Bryant

I've been following this thread for a while, and it always stimulates my own creativity. Here's a little something I've been noodling over for a while.

This Thing of Darkness

Location: River Kingdoms

Themes: Betrayal, Manipulation, Annihilation

1. Weeds Spring From Waste – Times are tough for the hamlet of Keely’s Crossing. Bandits plague the roadways, the local humanoid population is unusually active, and local crops and animals are sickly and dying. The party is sent to deal with the problems, and stumbles upon a tragic betrayal, a dark secret beneath a local ruin, and hints of a new generation of evil.

2. This Odious Peace – Someone is stealing bodies from the local graveyard, and tensions in town are rising. Neighbors are accusing each other of witchcraft and some local girls have gone missing. The party must sleuth out the clues from the deceptions, and navigate the surprisingly complicated social structure of Keely’s Crossings. Their discoveries lead them to discover a generations-old conspiracy, a ruthless necromancer, and a vengeful witch whose plot to destroy the village and its citizens is working according to her twisted plans.

3. Season of the Witch – Tracking down a witch is easier said than done – especially when she has the favor of Gyronna, and allies among the followers of Hanspur, including a powerful regional aristocrat. However, the wilderness itself may become the most dangerous enemy of the party – unless they manage to recruit their own allies among the fey and the druidic guardians of the wild.

4. Of War and Wickedness – Powers both temporal and supernatural have taken notice of recent events. Petty rulers are threatening war, but are they being manipulated? By whom, and to what end? The party must win the trust of both sides in order to diffuse a war, all the while searching for the secrets that will expose the real threats – a coven of hag queens, and a group of powerful wizards who oppose them.

5. Moonchild – The war between the hags and the wizards rages on. The party must travel to the hags’ nightmare realm in the Abyss and infiltrate the wizards’ Astral fortress in order to unravel the mysteries surrounding an age-old plot to create a superweapon capable of destroying worlds.

6. This Thing of Darkness – With the coming of the Moonchild, the party must race against time itself to destroy the mythical Doomesday Clock and avert the annihilation of reality.

Per the d20SRD:

beholder
gauth
carrion crawler
displacer beast
githyanki
githzerai
kuo-toa
mind flayer
slaad
umber hulk
yuan-ti

The creativity of this community never ceases to amaze me. Hopefully we can revive this thread, and get some more ideas flowing.

Members of the Paizo staff have posted before that they do not currently forsee doing any more hardback compliations of other APs. RotRL was an exception since it was the first independent Paizo AP.

Vic has mentioned that they don't want to compete with themselves, and that lots of folks would not purchase the subscription (which is Paizo's bread and butter) and just wait for the hardcover. I understand and repsect their viewpoint, however, once the APs are out of print - especially for a couple of years, it might just be worth it to do a run. Hell, fund it on Kickstarter - that way you get the capital up front so it's not such a gamble for the company.

Personally, I am a big fan of the compliations. I bought the hardcover of Shackled City, and cannot tell you how much I wish Paizo could persuade WotC to release the rights for Age of Worms and Savage Tide so they could update them to Pathfinder as beautiful hardcover compilations. It'll never happen, but we can wish, can't we?

I came back to this thread for the awesome campaign ideas, and figured I'd give it a bump to see what folks come up with next. I think I'm going to give the Children of the Revolution idea for a spin for a campaign I'm putting together for the summer.

Just ran across it on Kickstarter myself, and came onto the boards here to plug it. So, at the least, I'll give your post a bump. Very cool concept, and I'm digging the frequent puzzle updates. Right now I'm set at the $20 ebook level, but I'm moving towards upgrading to the physical book as well. Check it out, guys.

I have enjoyed reading the posts so far, and I am pleasantly surprised to see most everyone on topic and respectful of the OP's sincere question. I can only offer my own experience as a lifelong Christian, and a gamer for 30+ years. The game is just a game. I have played in serious RP groups, beer and pretzel groups, online groups, and groups with children. I have also played in groups that made me extremely uncomfortable. It's not the game - it's the people and how they choose to play it. A buddy and I left a group after the DM's wife started incorporating the Book of Vile Darkness and Book of Erotic Fantasy into the game. We actually left on pretty good terms, but made it clear that was not how we enjoyed our hobby. I have found that it is not for me to judge others, but I am responsible for not putting myself in obvious situations that would compromise my faith. My current group is made up of Christians of different stripes, an agnostic, and an avowed atheist, but we are all respectful towards one another, and we play the game in a way that is enjoyable to all of us. Best of luck with your soul-searching, and I hope that everything works out for the best.

Paladin, cleric, and... a summoner, controller build wizard, or controller build bard. The summoner will allow you lots of versatility in handling different encounters, and with only three PCs, the force multiplier would help. The controller wizard (see Treatnmonk's guide) would make the party's life much easier. The controller build bard (again, see Treantmonk's guides) also provides battlefield control, lots of buffs, and a modicum of melee support if you are so inclined. Bottom line is to play something that you enjoy, and to have fun with it. Kingmaker is so sandboxy, your DM should be able to work around any party build to make it fun for your group.

Fake Healer wrote:

@Mr. Schneider, it seems there is a market for more youth-aged appropriate adventures so why not run it by the team and see if anyone wants to start a line of pre-teen safe adventuring modules?

Why not make them work with the Beginner Box?

+1. I am in the same boat as the OP. I wish that I had the time to write my own stuff, but I just don't. First among Paizo's many strengths has been their incredible support of their products. Developing a line of Beginner Box adventures that is designed with younger players in mind would be an awesome way to introduce younger players to the game.

Btw: I did run my kids through Hollows Last Hope and the Crown of the Kobold King, and both were fairly "safe" for them. I edited out the:

I really like the idea that the campaign traits are reasons for their imprisonment. People are always looking for good ideas regarding the old start the campaign as a prisoner cliche', and that's as good as I've heard. In addition to being an excellent role-playing hook, it also gives the PCs a reward of sorts for being in their predicament. Great ideas, guys. Keep em coming.

I figured I'd give this thread a bump. It's got some great ideas, and I'd like to see others weigh in. Personally, I think both of those AP ideas have great potential, and I'm always looking for great plots to work into my home campaign.

Back to the OP's question about Intimidate. If you are going to work your build around Demoralizing opponents by using Dazzling Display, etc., then you definitely want to discuss with your DM. There are certain modules and APs (Serpent's Skull comes to mind) where fear or mind-effects are simply a bad choice. I know how it feels to build a cool character concept only to have it simply not work due to monster immunities. Now we always read the AP players guides and run our characters by the DM before we start a new campaign. If something is going to be largely ineffective then he will let us know.

Good catch, Hogarth. Since the good folks at the PFSRD do such an excellent job keeping up with the errata, it is our go-to source for rules questions. Especially since different players have different editions of the books at the table.

Looks like you dual-posted this, so I'll dual-answer it.

He could not apply selective spell to Ice Storm, because under the description of the selective spell feat it may only be used on a spell that has a duration of instantaneous. Ice storm is a round per level spell.

Selective spell. From the PFSRD:

Your allies need not fear friendly fire.

Prerequisite: Spellcraft 10 ranks.

Benefit: When casting a selective spell with an area effect and a duration of instantaneous, you can choose a number of targets in the area equal to the ability score modifier used to determine bonus spells of the same type (Charisma for bards, oracles, paladins, sorcerers, and summoners; Intelligence for witches and wizards; Wisdom for clerics, druids, inquisitors, and rangers). These targets are excluded from the effects of your spell.

Level Increase: +1 (a selective spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual level.)

Spells that do not have an area of effect or a duration of instantaneous do not benefit from this feat.

Selective spell only works on spells with a duration of instantaneous. Ice storm is rnd/lvl.

Templates are a great idea for tweaking common monsters to make memorable ones. You could easily make a fiendish croc - even a were-croc. Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary is probably the best source of monster templates that I have run across - and I use it quite a bit.

Morgen wrote:

As an aside, you can't draw wands with Quick Draw.

Why exactly can't you draw a Wand with quick draw?

Because it specifically says so in the feat description.

Sorry to interrupt the fast food fest, but if you're looking for a really great place to eat at GenCon, then head to Sensu. It's one block behind the St. Elmo's steak house. Our group stumbled upon it quite by accident. It's higher-end, to be sure, but the sushi was delicious, and the Kobe beef ($26) was the best steak that I have ever eaten. The portions are made for sharing with with your group (like the rock shrimp tempura), so everyone can order different things to try. We also eat at St. Elmo's this year, and I was more impressed with the history and atmosphere than I was with the food. You may now resume your Steak and Shake discussion.

Played it Thursday morning at GenCon, and our group had a blast.
Well done!

I played at Thursday 8am and every table was full. Looking at the schedule, nearly every PFS game is sold out with lines of folks with generics hoping to grab a spot. It's pretty crowded in there. Time for a bigger room, guys. At least it's in the new section of the convention center, so it doesn't smell like GenCon...yet.

The way they pitched it today was that it was a special anniversary thing. It also happens to tie in nicely with the upcoming Shattered Star AP. From what Wes said, it is extremely unlikely that they plan to issue hardback compilations of any of the other APs - although as Scott Betts mentioned above - if the RotRL reissue is hugely successful they might be inclined to reconsider.

One other bit of news from the seminar: They floated the idea of strongly discouraging certain classes from playing certain APs in the Player's Guides. Case in point was paladins in Skull and Shackles. It seemed that the Paizo staff may have been divided on the issue, but the seminar room was not - everyone thought it logical that paladins wouldn't make good pirates.

I saw the first batch of the iconic minis at the WizKids booth at GenCon today. My buddies and I were completely blown away. The intial release photos do not do them justice. The level of detail is nothing short of amazing for a prepainted plastic mini. I confess I had my doubts, but now our group is seriously considering ordering a case of the next release.

Just got back to the hotel after the seminar where James, Wes, and crew dropped the knowledge. Jim Groves' summation was right on. Interesting details about armada-building in S&S as well as much cheering upon confirmation of the hardcover updated RotRL.

Interesting thread to be sure. I would have to agree with the OP's conclusion that his class pretty much sucks. I also tend to agree with W.E. Ray about the value of a liberal arts education. Hell, my undergrad history/English degree has served me well in the business world for 15 years. Also, for anyone who enjoys a very readable and well-regarded history, I highly recommend Adrienne Mayor's recent work on Mithradates, The Poison King.

We all play the game a little differently, and I think that backstories are certainly a matter of preference. Two quick points from my own experience:
1) Backstories shouldn't be a chore. Instead of the "I require a backstory or else" approach, take a positive tack and maybe reward backstories with a bonus trait if the player ties it into his/her backstory.
2) We've all had the player at the table who plays the same character every game. Oh they have different names, and even different classes, but it's the same character. Having that player sit down and come up with a backstory is a great way to have them break out of the same old rut.
Otherwise, have fun with them. Character creation should be a fun experience, and if a backstory enhances that experience then go for it.

James, I'm working my way through the Dark Tower novels, and noticed a similarity in the opening scene of Drawing of the Three and the start of Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (which our group is really digging so far, btw). Just a happy coincidence, or a little homage to Stephen King?

Just started Drawing of the Three in King's Dark Tower series. Loved the grit of the first one, and am digging this one, too. BTW, anyone notice a similarity in the opening scene and the opening of Smuggler's Shiv - lobstrocities indeed! Also, for us fantasy types, this is a heck of a month - Dance With Dragons (Song of Ice and Fire), Ghost Story (Dresden Files), and Monster Hunter International - Alpha to name a few. Glad my birthday is in July - plenty to spend my gift cards on.

I thought that I would revisit this thread to remind all the monster hunters out there that MHI Alpha releases in two weeks.

Check out the Skirmisher Ranger from the APG for a Ranger without spells, and the Warrior of the Holy Light for a Paldin without spells.

I just finished both books, and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed them. Of course, I'm a longtime Lovecraft fan, and I like the way Correia worked the Old Ones into his story. That said, I wouldn't argue that they are any kind of "literature", but they made for a fun weekend read with some genuinely laugh out loud moments. Of course, the fact that I was born and raised in Alabama (where much of the story takes place) helps in that regard.

Regarding the Mary Sue references above: I can see that. As a matter of fact, if you visit Correia's website, I'm pretty sure he almost admits as much. That said, it's no more Mary Sue than the Dresden Files (of which I am a card-carrying fan), and Butcher has not only gotten himself a string of best-sellers, but even a TV show (sadly short-lived). The second book is better than the first, IMO.

So, if you like modern urban (in this case, rural) fantasy, guns, Cthulu, and a little humor with your pulp, then this book might be one for you.

I beleive in fairness and equality. Therefore, I propose that we apply the same visitation and immigration policies on ALL foreign nationals that their country applies to US citizens. Now I realize that this is not at all feasible, but do a little internet searching and check out some foreign immigration laws. I took a quick look at some of Mexico's, and their standards are not much different than our own.

Is this link broken?

Click Pathfinder in the left menu, then Encounters & Creatures. Boggards is in the dropdown menu under Encounters and NPC's at the top.

EDIT: And what on earth in in the skyline behind the city?

Homage to China Mieville's Bas Lag, perhaps?

We're all about 8th lvl now, but so far we're all still alive. Jollydoc hasn't managed to kill us yet.

Donal - Human Priest(Tome of Secrets)of Milani. Fat, old, cranky, flaming revolutionary. Has an Inquisitor cohort.
Dmitri - Tiefling Summoner. Angst-ridden noble bastard.
William - Human Monk. Likes to smash things.
Columbo - Human Fighter. A demon-infused ranseur with feet.
DJ - Elf Rogue. Now you see me, now you're dead.
Tal - Human Paladin. not-so-loyal Dottari.

Cure Minor Wounds was eliminated from the PFRPG, primarily due to the fact that clerics get unlimited use of orisons (zero level spells). So, no, I don't think the trait is overpowered. Of course, you have those who argue that Create Water is broken...

Interesting, now that the license is freed up... how about Star Wars Paizo style? That would be epic.

Excellent job, Joe. Kat's epilogue will be along shortly.

Numeria offers plenty of options for a great campaign. I would suggest checking out the Campaign Setting for some great ideas in Numeria and in some of the nearby countries. For example, there is lots of open and not-so-open hostility between the Kellid tribes and the Technic League. You could almost get into an Avatar-type campaign with the savage Kellids vs the technologically-advanced League. Starmetal is highly valued across Golarion, and various interests such as foreign powers, the Pathfinders, the Aspis Consortium, are all vying to get the upper hand in the trade. Of course, the Worldwound borders Numeria to the North. Your party could join in the crusade against the demonic hosts there. If you favor Gothic horror, you could nudge them towards Ustalav. Of course, for something completely different, you could have them explore the fallen starship for a "Barrier Peaks" type of fantasy/sci-fi thing. The most important thing is to just have fun and enjoy the wonders of Golarion. Good luck to you and your group.

Charm Person can be such a gamechanger of a spell that I would rule fairly strictly on it. I know that the OP said he did not want a philosophical answer, but here the interpretation of "threatening" is important. It seems to me that if an ally threatens the enemy - even if the caster is invisible - the enemy is now "on guard" and should probably be afforded the +5 bonus. That's certainly open to discussion, but it's my 2 cp.

In the second situation involving the rogue, his intent was to attack the guard/caster and therefore already viewed him as a threat. The rogue should certainly have recieved the +5 bonus.

Actually, as I recall from the session, Raelak had already used his redraw when he got sucked away by the Tyrant. Kat used his/her wish to get him back. Of course, that's been a while now. I could be wrong. I also recall that we had a rash of terrible die rolls during the invasion of Castle Korvosa. Bad luck has killed more PCs of mine than anything else. I should actually write Kat's epilogue for you, Joe. Who knows, she may change back yet...

First off, I will say that I have enjoyed playing monks (my latest was during PFRPG Beta - Adso In JollyDoc's RotRL campaign). Second, I will say that if you're looking to play an uber-optimized character, then you've got the wrong class. A straight monk is fun as hell to play because they have so many options for many different situations. You can tumble, grapple, trip, and disarm better than any other class in the game if you build your character that way. Now, you're not going to be the primary damage-dealer or anything, but from a tactical perspective the possibilities are vast.

While I enjoy Treantmonk's opt guides, I'm not going to do that here. My monk had Str as his primary stat, then Wis, then Dex/Con. An amulet of holy fists was great, as was the monk's robe. It's worth investing in a wand of enlarge person to give to one of the party casters to have your own personal buff-stick. You not only get the +2 Str boost, but your unarmed strike damage increases as well (see p58) and your CMB goes up. Also, silenced, invisible monks are nasty, nasty. One thing that is not strictly legal core, but that you might get a sympathetic DM to work with you on, is to take the Disruptive feat. You're already going wreak havoc on spellcasters and this fits right into the build.

I enjoyed playing a monk simply because of the many options available in a given situation, and the fact that it allowed me to be creative and to influence combats in so many ways. Stick with it, and have fun!

You will keep them from firing, you keep them from casting spells, you keep them from going anywhere - in so many ways. They better have good fort saves and combat manoeuvre defences (yes, the AND is important there), or they'll be in trouble.

Dittos to all of KaeYoss' comments. Want to have some real fun? Cast Silence on the monk and then let him tumble into the back ranks with the enemy casters. Playing a monk well requires considerable creativity, and it always helps to have good party tactics so the monk can help flank, provide cover for your own squishies, etc.

All this discussion is why the Bestiary says, "Monsters are not designed with the rules for players in mind" (313). From a mechanical perspective, I'd say house rule whatever you and your group feel to be balanced. That may well have to be handled on a case-by-case basis such as nerfing the lizard and buffing the kobold. From a roleplaying perspective, I'd make the player come up with a darn good backstory, and a reason why the other PCs would allow a cannibal (195) to adventure with them.

It's 1d6 healed or damaged per target. It is a fairly powerful ability against minor undead, but it's a situational type of thing and any creatures taking damage do get a will save. In my group, we use it almost exclusively for healing so that the cleric can actually cast some buff spells and doesn't have to be just a heal-bot.