Warped Savant's page

Hi Everybody! I've started running a version of Skull & Shackles for my group. I'm making a bunch of changes to it and figured it was worth posting about it on here. I'll be using the first book of Serpent's Skull, all of Skull & Shackles, Plunder & Peril, and a fair bit of Return to Freeport so there will be spoilers for each of those adventures. Stop reading if you don't want those adventures spoilied for you.

I'm not one to go into a lot of details and I'm not going to post after every session, but once or twice a book I'll likely talk about the general things that have happened, which will include the changes I've made. (I have two books worth of stuff to post about so this first post will be longer than future ones).

For the campaign we started with Souls for the Smuggler's Shiv (relocated to the northern edge of the Cannibal Isles). The castaways were the same but I added in Sandara Quinn as a wizard due to it being a 3 player group and one of them was already a healer. Sandara wasn't a GMPC, but was there if the group wanted to bring her along, the same with any of the other NPCs. (Thankfully the group left the NPCs at camp most of the time so I didn't have to worry about running another character during combats.)

To set things up for Skull & Shackles and Plunder & Peril I had the map on Inkskin's back lead to Jemma Redclaw's treasure, mostly because I think she's a great character and wanted to use her for more than just one book. Inkskin was captured and enslaved by one of the other two captains in the backstory of Plunder & Peril but had left the Shackles after the captain had died. She was on her way back to meet up with Varossa Lanteri to go and claim the treasure. Plugg & Scourge boarded the Jenivere in Ilizmagorti and noticed that Inkskin was trying to hide her tattoos and had assumed, because the ship would be near it, that it was for the temple on The Shiv that they were searching for.

The group went through the island about the way I expected them to (very carefully, thoroughly checking things. I had it set up as a hexploration thing as we've used exploration in most campaigns). Plugg and Scourge had traded Inskin to the cannibals for information about the hidden temple once they realized her map wasn't useful for them. Inkskin survived in the tunnels beneath the camp, where the group managed to rescue her. At the end of the book the group found Plugg and Scourge transcribing and taking rubbings of the carvings on the walls. Tjhe group didn't think anything of it and didn't take any of the parchment with them. If they had, they could have learned a little bit about Dark Freeport / Mazin (instead of having the Mazini from Return to Freeport be the bad guys I'm keeping it as Cheliax but changing the original name of Dark Freeport to Mazin as I have it so that it was originally used by the Serpentfolk so "Dark Freeport" as a name doesn't make sense. I also rewrote what it all would've translated to and changed some of the ancient past to suit what I need the history to be for future story points).

After breaking the curse on the island they group managed to flag down a passing ship that was on its way to the Rum Punch Festival in Lilywhite. From there I was able to run Plunder & Peril as written. The survivors from The Shiv went their separate ways, and I've added in some of the encounters from books 1 and 2 of Skull & Shackles as well as most of the NPCs. After thoroughly and quickly defeating the captain of another ship half of the officers from the Magpie Princess took the new ship. Throughout all of this the PCs have been quite popular amoung the crew and officers, which is setting Captain Lanteri a little on edge. One of the PCs made a terrible impression on Slippery Syl so she's been working against the group and has been whispering lies in Lanteri's ear. Caulky Taroon, who's still loyal to her previous captain, is making her own plans as well but is much more cautious than Syl.

After the group was left on Warvil's Folly, along with Inkskin who was bringing them some supplies that the captain said the group needed, the saved some hippocampi and a triton so they were able to make their way to Brightglass Isle after deciphering the map on Inkskin's back, which they finally had a chance to see now that she was willing to show it to them. After reaching the Magpie Princess, which was docked outside of Mancatcher Cove (moved up to Brightglass Isle) the group fought with Syl and a few allies that she had managed to turn against the group. After that was dealt with they explained that they were marooned to the rest of the crew, the crew shared their side of the story. Lanteri instructed the crew to leave the PCs on Warvil's Folly as the PCs were a huge threat to everyone on board and that they were going to steal all of Redclaw's treasure. (She partially believed this due to Syl's whispers).

I replaced the Fearsome Tide was the Eth Abaddon from Return to Freeport (but with a reduced speed; better than most sailing ships, not nearly as fast as it is in Freeport). Both Redclaw and Varossa Lanteri died in the battle against the PCs and it was a very close fight against the incutilis lord, but they pulled through in the end. Once they had a chance to inspect the Fearsome Tide they stood around pondering how to steer a ship that had no obvious way to mount a wheel. Once the entrance had been cleared and the blood and gore in the hidden cave had time to wash away they found an impressive, magical gem in the water which they quickly learned contained an air elemental that could help steer the ship (using what Jalhazar’s wheel grants instead of figuring something out. I'll remove Jalhazar’s wheel from the actual place in the AP as they would most likely sell it and they already have enough treasure as it is).

On their way to Freeport, the capital of the Shackles, they've encountered Whalebone Pilk and the Deathknell. They defeated him and his crew and have taken his treasured bell for their own. While worried about what it may do the captain PC didn't want to hang it on his ship so instead it is being kept in one of the extradimensional areas onboard.

Now they are on their way to pick up the scattered people that they survived with on the Shiv and then dock in Freeport to gain the letter of marque.

My group is nearing the end of our current campaign and I'm planning on running Reign of Winter next. I'm reading through the books and stickied threads on here to prepare but I wanted to ask you wonderful people if you have any advice for running this AP.

Are there any short-comings I should watch out for? Anything that I should modify?
Is there anything you suggest that I cut out or add in?
Are there things in the later books that should be foreshadowed earlier?
Any races or classes that can present problems or unforeseen challenges?

I'm already thinking that I'll portray Baba Yaga as possibly being neutral rather than evil to possibly prevent the "she's evil! Why would we save her? We must be able to find a different way to stop the BBEG!" or "what do you mean we don't get to kill her? She's evil! We can't just let her walk away!"

For perspective: My group has completed Kingmaker, Hell's Rebels, Mummy's Mask and are about to finish Crimson Throne. I'm probably going to go with 20 point buy, core races (but with a change to the stat bonuses to open up possibilities of not pigeon-holing a class to only a couple of races), and it's a 4 person group that (mostly) aren't min-maxxers but build very competent characters.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you have.

I'm thinking of slightly changing how race attribute bonuses work for character creation and I'd like to see what you all think.
Pretty much every race gets +2 to two stats and -2 to one.
And the +2s are to one physical stat (str, dex, con) and the other is to a mental one (int, wis, cha).
So character creation often comes down to "what class do I want to play? What are the two main stats for that class? Which one or two races get bonuses in those stats?"
Instead, I'm thinking, one of the +2s has to go into either of the two stats that the race always gets (Eg: an elf picks int or dex and gets the +2).
The other +2 has to be put into one of the three stats of the other type (physical or mental).
So if someone playing an elf puts +2 into int, the other +2 goes into str, dex, or con. (It could go into con, thereby giving you +2 to int, and the other bonus and negative cancel each other out.)
I think this would open up more race / class combinations. Eg: "I want to play an elf bard, so I'll put the +2 into dex and then the floating +2 into charisma."
(That way you're not "stuck" playing a charisma-based race when playing a bard.)

Thoughts? Opinions?

We all know that a Wall of Force has to be a flat surface, right? It can't turn a corner.
But can you make it taller than 10 feet?

Let's say I'm a level 10 caster. I have ten 10 foot squares. Obviously I can make a wall that's 100' long and 10' high. But can I make one that's 50' long and 20' high?

(For reference, Wall of Ice specifically says you can do that. But I can't figure out if you can do that with a Wall of Force too.)

Personally, I find combat maneuvers are either never used or the character is specialized in them and therefore used all the time (and very likely to succeed) and can easily shut combat down; most notably Disarm, Trip, and Sunder (even though that last one isn't used as often as it destroys loot). My thought to fix this it to remove the "Improved / Greater [Combat Maneuver]" feats and not have Combat Maneuvers provoke attacks of opportunity. Looking at some random NPCs it looks like they'll typically be slightly more likely to hit with a regular attack. I think, since combat maneuvers impose other penalties which are quite often more detrimental to the victim than getting hit, this might encourage players to use them.
The main thought behind this is that players are more likely to try something that might fail than to try something that will provoke an AoO and if that AoO hits they're almost guaranteed to fail at the Combat Maneuver.

Thoughts? Opinions? Tell me why I'm wrong and why this is a terrible idea.
Or how to improve upon it.

If someone were to make a Mask of a Thousand Tomes invisible would the wearer be able to see normally and still gain the +10 to Knowledge checks?
The blinded condition appears to be from the mask not having eyes in it rather than a supernatural effect.

Thoughts?

As advertised.
If your players misinterpret clues to a mystery do you do anything to correct them? Do you let them run with it and hope that they'll eventually figure it out? Do you tell them out of character what happened? Do you reiterate what they've already ignored? Do you laugh maniacally on this inside?

In my game a cultist was strangled by a skeleton when the cultist opened the sarcophagus. I clearly described that the strangulation marks were from skeletal hands, I said something along the lines of "you can tell he was killed by a skeleton based on the strangulation marks coming for a skeletal hand." But the player decided that didn't make sense because "the skeleton would've attacked with his sword" even after I reiterated it was a skeletal hand that strangled the cultist. Now the group is trying to figure out which hired henchman of the cult is a traitor. (Ultimately it shouldn't take anything in the wrong direction, but they're looking for something that doesn't exist due to an assumption made based on game mechanics rather than story.)

As the title says, what methods do you use?
Point buy (what value?) or rolling?
How many players do you typically have?
Does the GM make adjustments to the monsters to compensate? Do they add more enemies?
Are any classes restricted?
What about races?
Can the players create custom magic items? Can they stack two magical abilities onto one item?
Do you use any house rules/modified rules (eg: from Pathfinder Unchained)?

I assume it changes from AP to AP for people, but I'm curious to see what others do.

I'm going to be starting Mummy's Mask with a group of 4 players and I'm trying to figure out what point buy I should use and what limits I should have in place.
What did you/your GM do for character creation?
And were any changes made to the fights/enemies due to the creation rules used?

I'm thinking 25 point buy and applying the Simple Advanced template to everything (and then possibly adjusting some things like AC back down as needed) but I'd like to hear what other people did and how it worked out for them.

Did you limit races? Classes? Did you allow creation feats/custom magic items? Did you use anything out of Pathfinder Unchained? (eg: Background skills) Anything else I'm not thinking of?

Hi Everyone! I'm looking at running this AP next so I've been looking through threads on here to see how other people have done it/how it's going for different groups. I haven't noticed any short-falls or criticisms being discussed but maybe I'm just missing them.

1) Are there any changes that people have made? Did you notice anything hinky with the AP that a GM should watch out for?
2) Is there anything you'd do differently if you were to run it again?
3) What are your thoughts on the militia system? Did you try using it and wish you hadn't/changed your mind and stopped using it partway through?
4) What races did you allow/disallow or did you stick with core only? Are there any races (other than hobgoblin) that a GM should be wary of allowing? (Beyond obviously over-powered ones)

Every group I've been a part of has had at least one player (and it's usually just one) that is convinced that the AP doesn't account for "unexpected" character actions. This is often expressed by the player saying something along the lines of "Unexpected error; the writers did not think you would do this."
Examples would be things like a player assuming the AP doesn't account for a character learning a secret about someone, using knowledge to their advantage, sneaking into a place, getting into a building earlier than the player thinks they should be able to, etc.

Someone thinking this isn't really a problem, but when they start to sway the group actions and it feels like the group is trying to guess what the AP expects them to do/they start to treat the AP as if it's on rails... that can become a problem.

Beyond suggesting that players should read an AP (obviously not the one they're playing through) so that they can understand how they're written and trying to explain that the Paizo writers have no preconceived notions about what abilities any particular group will have, does anyone have any advice on how to avoid this particular problem?

Phantasmal Reminder from Magic Tactics Toolbox says "Saving Throw: Will disbelief, then Fortitude partial; see text;" but then the text doesn't say anything about what the 'partial' would be... Is the "partial" wrong or is something missing from the spell description?

D20PFSRD Link
Archives of Nethys Link

Instead of everything being a feat could we change the word depending on what it's associated with?
As it stands, the various charts showing what the classes gain per level seem to have the term "feat" every two or three words.

Perhaps something like:
Ancestral Trait
Background Training
Class Ability
General Feat
Skill Specialty

It would make it so that there's not 2,000+ instances of the word "Feat" in the rulebook.

In preparation for next week's session I've asked my players what their current goals are. Last session ended with them exploring the [REDACTED] at the very end of book 3. One of my players has mentioned attacking both the church of Asmodeus (I'm fairly certain I know how I'll handle that) as well as the Shadowsquare (church of Zon Kuthon). I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that one yet.

I'm thinking of having some low level clergy in there, possibly put Aluceda Zhol there so they can confront her early. Hopefully she can flee and be confronted later on to build up some anticipation.

Does anyone have suggestions on other things I could do? (Or anyoe that gcan help me flesh out my current idea?) Has anyone else's group attacked the Shadowsquare?
Any ideas where I might be able to find a map I could use?

At first I thought it was really impressive that Paizo has the statement of "Your character might challenge binary gender notions..." but then later, on page 164, there's the skill feat called 'Close Match' which says "You’re androgynous, look a bit older or younger than you are, or look like you might have an ancestry other than your own. Choose a different gender, an age other than your own, or an ancestry the same size as yours..." which makes it sound like you can challenge binary gender notions but you still have to appear as either male or female unless you take a feat.

You may want to change the wording on the feat, Paizo. And probably the name of it. May I suggest:
"You look a bit older or younger than you are, or look like you might have an ancestry other than your own. Choose a different age other than your own, or an ancestry the same size as yours..." (Basically, remove the gender detail from the feat so that you're not contradicting yourselves.)

Hi everybody!

I'm starting to think about what I might run next for my group. So far we've played through Kingmaker and Hell's Rebels.
The group likes:
-Decent mix of roleplaying and fighting (similar to that of Hell's Rebels)
-Freedom to kill the bad guys without worrying (much) about making NPCs squeamish (brutally/unnecessarily killing bad guy in both KM and HR has had at least some noticeable affect on the general populace) Maybe the NPCs are more reliant on the PCs so are willing to put up with more or perhaps the NPCs agree with the killings as the bad guys are obviously bad guys?
-Exploration random encounters are rather boring/pointless (I simply left them out of KM, for the most part)
-Not evil characters (there's enough bad stuff in the world, why pretend to be bad people in our spare time?)
-Being able to play most any race/class without fear of judgement from the NPCs (unique/rare races stand out too much in Hell's Rebels, 'creepy' classes aren't a great fit for Kingmaker)
-Possibly something with some undead but not neccessary

My thoughts are Ironfang Invasion, Ruins of Azlant, or possibly Iron Gods.

Would you all mind sharing your thoughts on which AP I should go with? Any that you would suggest that I didn't mention?

Thanks!

Does anyone see a problem with changing Deepmar to a mountainous island that is still used as a prison?
I'm thinking to have the entrance be the Menador gap and the main target (as written) instead be a "high security" cell with Jackdaw being held there (would I have to make Jackdaw incomprehensible until she appears as written in the AP?). Possibly add a few other NPCs like Strea Vestori there as well (change the fight under the Silver Star to simply be something for the PCs to clear out.)
Maybe use a rumour along the lines of "Thrune keeps high profile prisoners there. Gold to grubs that's where Jilia is being held!" (false rumour).
Since the main target is in the keep it makes it so that if the PCs try to bypass it by climbing over a different part of the island they still have to go to the keep to get who they really came for. I'd use No Response from Deepmar for the maps and prison but probably without the derro.

This fixes the problem of the players asking "why would Thrune ignore his island prison becoming quiet?" as well as taking Jackdaw out of Kintargo where it doesn't make sense that Jilia (or previous lord-mayors) completely ignored the jail in their town just because.

Possibly have it so that Tiarise had been in charge of the prison but that recently changed due to Barzillai needing her in town more. (Or should I move Tiarise, who has become a hated character by the PCs, to the boss of Menador Gap now prison? Would she be too difficult of a fight? Maybe have her flee so they hate her even more!)

Does anyone see any potential problems with this?
Anything you would suggest doing differently?

Has anyone given any thought to what the Ethereal Realm would look like around Kintargo? As the players progress through the levels it's common enough that someone will start to peer into it and I'd like to be prepared with something to describe.
Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

My players are most of the way through book 2 and I've been able to introduce all of the missions without someone walking up and giving it to them. (Eg: players wanted to look into the burned-out buildings, a PC was arrested so heard the rumour about mercenaries being in the Salt Works, other PC is a tiefling so kept tabs on things in Redroof and found out about the murders, other PC worked at Clenchjaw's so realised something was going on... things like that.)
But now the 10th Proclamation has been released. My plan is for the players to get Marquel and bring him to Cassius (because I don't want Ella Nones to show up out of nowhere and say "I know everything about you even though you do everything you can to hide who you are!"). One of the PCs knows Marquel but hasn't thought about going to visit him since the newest proclamation.
Does anyone have other ideas on how to introduce this particular mission?

I figure Marquel's parents are keeping him isolated so another one of his friends coming to the PCs would seem weird... but maybe a sympathetic house servant has clued in a little as to what's going on in the house and gets a message to one of Marquel's friends? (Maybe the servant doesn't like the new political leanings of Mr & Mrs Aulorian).
Oh! What if Ella came to get Marquel but was turned away. Afterwards she meets some people that know both Marquel and the PC so Ella could pointed towards Longroads? (Or somewhere else that the PC is known to frequent.) Having Laria give the PCs the message of "The second in command of the Scourge of Belial was here looking for you" could get the PCs to go there...

Right, so, may players are/were convinced that the entire AP is about going up against the government and fighting them every step of the way. After talking to them and letting them know that it's more about getting the support of the Kintargan citizens and helping people in bad situations most of them seem to pretty much understand that.
But one player is convinced that they're going to run around being a terrorist the entire time and somehow thinks that the Player's Guide says that that's what they should be doing. (He seems to not be getting it even when I tell him flat out what the AP is about and that his impression is wrong.)
We haven't started yet but will be very soon.

If they're still trying to go and kill everyone when the game starts any suggestions on how to gently let them know that it won't work and that if they draw too much attention to themselves Barzillai can send some of his stupidly high leveled henchmen after them?
Because, really, I don't want Barzillai to send a bunch of high level clerics and hellknights after them in the second book...

I'm getting ready to run Hell's Rebels. For my games I use Combat Manager (LINK) but have noticed that some of the monsters are missing from it. (I haven't gone through it too carefully yet, but it appears that the monsters listed in the Bestiary haven't been entered into Combat Manager).
I'm wondering if anyone else has used this program and created custom monsters based on the books and, if so, would they mind sharing the export files?

(If not, I'll start doing this soon because running combat is much easier for me using the program.)

Hi everybody!
I've been running Kingmaker for the better part of a year and I'm starting to get the maps together for the final book. Does anyone have suggestions or links to anything that might be suitable?
I've found the thread where OldManJim links to most of the maps for the glades over here but I'm hoping for more suggestions/the rest of the glades.

Thanks in advance.