Zed Corvin's page

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I see no ability in either the prestige class or the archetype that grants them an ability to raise the dead. They don't even gain access to them on their spell list.

One of my favorite combinations is something my group took to calling the "EZ Bake Oven".

Wall of Lava + Quickened Wall of Stone.

Here's how it works:
Wall of Lava around a group of opponents. Make sure you leave a 5' gap so they don't get a save for being enclosed. Quickened Wall of Stone over the top to prevent people from flying out and the party tank (ours was my bear) guarding the gap.

For added fun, cast Repel Metal during the second round to fling people into the lava wall if they try to leave.

We started with the rules from the AP, then switched over to the UC rules for kingdom building.

For the most part, the hexes are explored. They did this when trying to find a new home for the Sootscale. But I have been playing rather loose with the hexploration part of things for a while. They have people they can hire for that sort of thing.

They're already familiar with Varn (and a few other players from the Brevoy side of things) and have monthly contact with him. They've even visited Varnholt a time or two, but have yet to invite him to visit them.

In terms of foreshadowing, I scrapped the owlbear encounter at the end of book 2 and replaced it with "Supporters of N have taken over Candelmere and are using it as a staging ground to bring her back. Also, *something* kicked out the trolls to the South, who are now headed North toward your city". I've used Melianse (the nymph with a logging problem) as a mouth piece for the fey community. They'll be putting Tyressia on their small council during next session. They also found a love letter to N from the Stag-Lord when they killed him.

I've not introduce Irovetti at all yet, mostly because the PC kingdom really isn't large enough for him to notice. Though one of the PCs and a potential spymaster are both from Pitax.

The players actually really enjoy the kingdom building aspect of the game and have gotten into heated discussions about what to build and when. I don't want to lose that, and fear I will if we do several months of planning back to back. Plus, I've tried to do a good job of weaving the random events into the narrative so they aren't just "roll some dice and you're done" types of things.

But they haven't expanded much because they haven't needed to. The only real reason to expand is to reduce consumption and, since they have only one city with (at present) no army, they've no need for more farm land to do so. They're going to establish an army during the next month of expenditures, but are still trying to keep things small. I think they might need 1 or 2 more hexes of farmland to support it.

Yes, yes. Move on to book 3, but there's a problem.

Book 3 is supposed to start when the PC's kingdom is large enough that it can connect to, and absorb, Varnholt. Mine are nowhere remotely close to that; I think they have less than a dozen claimed hexes at the moment and little incentive to expand.

So here are my options as I see them...

Option 1: I could continue to give them side quests but then it will take forever to start book 3. Since it has taken so long for the main plot to kick in, many of my players are starting to wonder if the entire AP is nothing *but* side quests.

Option 2: I could run several sessions of nothing but kingdom building. While this would likely get us there the fastest, it also runs the risk of being rather boring for many of the players and doesn't really allow for careful planning from month to month.

Option 3: I start up a second AP (likely Mummy's Mask as a change of pace to Kingmaker) and start each session with a month or two of kingdom building.

I'm currently leaning toward option 3, but wanted to solicit advice before committing to it. I still have several sessions before I'll need to implement a plan as there are some other threats to be dealt with before the kingdom is "safe".

I have found that sitting at a table trying to roleplay a festival or party can get a bit boring. Likely a failing on my part as the DM, but there it is.

The work around I tend to use is to actually throw a party. Recruit a bunch of your friends who are roleplay friendly, but not in the game, to play your important NPCs and then LARP it out.

Then again, I like throwing parties, so I may be a bit biased.

I've been playing around with the Undine Watersinger and have noticed there doesn't seem to be a roll associated with the lifewater ability if used to generate the sickened quality.

Lifewater (Su): At 5th level, the watersinger can spend 1 round of bardic performance as a standard action to manipulate the water, blood, and other fluids within a creature's body, causing the target to become sickened for 1d4 rounds. Alternatively, he may use this ability to attempt a reposition combat maneuver, using his base attack bonus and his Charisma modifier as his CMB. This ability has a range of 30 feet, only works on creatures whose bodies contain fluid, and does not affect creatures that are immune to critical hits.

Am I reading that correctly? Did I miss something?

Just finished the last Wheel of Time novel and would love to toss one of the rings the Bloodknives have into a game I'm running. Here's what I'm thinking:

+4 STR (untyped)
+4 DEX (untyped)
+10' move speed
+10 Stealth

-1 CON every 24 hours worn. Cannot be healed save through the use of a wish or miracle spell.
-1 CON every 3 days if removed. Cannot be healed save through the use of a wish or miracle spell.

Yes, I know this will kill the wearer at lower levels. That's somewhat the point. Is there anything I'm missing or anything that should be altered?

Sheesh. Long title, but I wanted to be as descriptive as possible. If you're not interested in the background, feel free to jump down to the end of the post. That's where the questions lie.

Some background first... Also, anyone in the NoVA area planning to attack the Stag Lord this Friday (Jan 25) should probably stop reading.

The first time the party attempted this, they were trying to rescue Svetlana and got her out, but lost one of their number in the process. The ranger jumped into a well to try to hide; it didn't work well. After being captured and tortured for several weeks, Akiros broke her out and took her to Oleg's.

Unfortunately, the PCs didn't know this when they assaulted the fort for the second time. This one was a mix. The PCs managed to defeat Auchs and kill the Owlbear but suffered rather heavy losses to their kobold allies. This led to very demoralized PCs returning to Oleg's trading post and a happy reunion with what remained of the ranger. She eventually got healed courtesy of the Witch Market, but it cost her more than she currently understands.

Later, as they explored the southern edge of the territory, the ranger fell into the pit containing a hungry and confused thyrcene. A Benny Hill montage later, the cavalier is dead having jumped down to rescue the ranger. It was quite beautiful, really. The two players stood there saluting each other as the dice decided who would live and who would die.

The point is, after a little over a year of play, my PCs are finally ready to assault the Stag Lord's camp for realsies.

There are five PCs: a blind oracle, a frost sorceror gearing up for dragon disciple, an urban barbarian, a natural weapons ranger, and a chirurgeon alchemist going for Master Chymist (I think). They've hired nine level 1 warriors and Akiros to help in the attack. It's taken a little more than two weeks to have the word sent out and folks trickle in.

Meanwhile, the bandits are preparing...

Currently, the bandits still have the zombies in the moat (Auchs might show up here), the lieutenants (minus Akiros and Auchs), a good chunk of bandits (since they get something crazy like d4 per day), level 3 Happs (who is #1 on the party hit list), and the Stag Lord himself. I don't plan to change anything about the guy in the basement.

With the PCs advertising for mercs, I figure the bandits could fairly easily hear about this and would start preparing for the attack. Heck, the Stag Lord might even try to stop drinking for a few nights(try being the operative word). However, other than posting bandits in the guard towers and lining the rest in the yard and having them riddle anything that comes through the door with bolts, I'm somewhat at a loss for what their strategy should be.

Any thoughts?

How does this RAW handle scenarios where a goodly cleric summons evil devils/demons in order to extract information from them?

If I remember correctly, there are ways to summon demons/devils without the use of Summon Monster. These tend to be more of a ritual, though, not simply "I need a meat shield. Summon Monster, I choose you!"

You'll need things like a true name, or some other means of attracting attention, a summoning circle, things the target fears on the outside of said circle.

Book of the Damned, is the series to look at for this sort of thing.

As an exercise I am trying to price up a tattoo that will grant fire, acid, cold, and lightning resist 10. Here's how I see it:

Cost to buy a ring of elemental resist:__12000
double to make it a slotless item:______24000
add second element (+24000 * .75):___18000
add third element (+24000 * .50):_____12000
add fourth element (+24000 * .50):____12000

Total cost to purchase:______________66000
Total cost to craft:__________________33000

Since the item is slotless and the abilities are similar, I figure it falls under the rules presented at the bottom of the estimating magic item value table.

My GM disagrees. He feels it should go like this:

Cost to buy a ring of elemental resist:__12000
add second element (+12000 * 1.5):___18000
add third element (+12000 * 1.5):_____18000
add fourth element (+12000 * 1.5):____18000

Total cost to purchase:______________66000
Double to make it a slotless item:_____132000
Total cost to craft:__________________66000

He feels the doubling for the slotless item doesn't come until the very end, so the tattoo is not subject to the discount given to slotless items with similar abilities as it isn't a slotless item until the very end of the process.

We're both ignoring the *1.5 modifier based on the duration of the endure elements spell because it was ignored when determining the price of a ring of resist elements.

Anyway, thoughts?

I assume you meant Weapon Adept rather than Kensai as there is no Kensai archetype and the Weapon Adept is what the Kensai was in 3.5 (or at least close to it). If this is the case, you cannot combine the two archetypes as they both replace Perfect Self and Timeless Body.

If you meant the Sensei archetype, they do stack, but I don't know that they'd be overly effective together. Not saying they won't be, but I don't see it.

As to the Ki question, it's nigh uselss to you. As a rogue you can spend ki to:
Gain a +10 enhancement bonus to your speed for the round (spend 1 point)
Gain a +4 on stealth checks (spend 1 point)
Treat any jump as if you had a running start (have 1 point in reserve)

And that's all. You would then have to spend your rogue talents on Ninja Trick to pick up other Ki based abilities.

I realize you would need to add yet another stat dependence, but why go rogue and not ninja? You'd already have the ki pool built into the class.

Hope this helps.

Gentlemen,

Things have spiraled rather far afield, so I thought I should step in.

Item 1: The bandit in question is a level 2 fighter (archer type) that has been plaguing the party for a little while. He also has a level 1 warrior with him.

Item 2: The horses to be stolen are 4 riding horses, that belonged to the bandits in the first place, and a single warhorse bonded to a level 2 cavalier.

While the bandit in question may not know the thing is bonded or that the PC is a cavalier, but he does know that its quite capable in a fight and has killed a number of his men single hooved.

My current plan is for him to attempt to take the horses. He can get the riding horses easily, but the warhorse will likely give him some trouble. I'll have to see how the dice play out, but it may wind up having to flee after killing the warrior but taking several arrows in the process. I'm also using the event as a way for the PCs to get some information about the equipment the bandits have access to.

Edit: No, having the horse kill him is not an option. The players would rise up and slay me if I did that. They're looking forward to killing him themselves.

Sorry for the confusion.

He's stolen all the horses *other than* the bonded mount before. Twice before, actually. The mount is currently in GUARD, so we'll have to see.

I'll see about stealing the mount. See how that plays out.

The only issue I have with the bandit stealing the mount is that it's a trained warhorse. It's not going to just let itself be stolen. It will fight back and may leave the bandits no choice but to kill it. Plus, it's already killed several of the bandits during previous encounters.

Bit of a GM advice question. Not quite sure where to put it.

Anyway, the party I GM for chased some mounted bandits overland to a kobold cave. The party scared off the bandits' mounts, then tied up their own to investigate the cave.

Long story short, a long running enemy of the party has escaped from the kobold caves and the PCs are stuck tending to their wounded. He's going to steal the PCs' mounts; he's done this before, so they should be used to it. I'm torn, though, on whether or not he should kill the cavalier's bonded mount.

The PC's are nowhere near leveling, so the cavalier would be inconvenienced for a good long while, but I feel it would be an appropriate thing to have happen.

Thoughts?

Yes, it would. If you gain the grappled condition, and are in control of the grapple, you cannot use the full attack action. (Though you can if you're not in control of the grapple, which always seemed odd)

If you wanted to grab and then continue with a full attack, you would need to make a grapple check at -20 to do so as you're limiting the use of your limbs. Your attack routine would look something like this:

Attack
Decide to attempt a grab or not

No grab attempt? Continue attack routine.
Grab attempt? Decide to continue attacking or not.

Stop attacking? Grapple made at full bonus.
Keep attacking? Grapple made at -20.

Hopefully my poor attempt at a flow chart makes sense.

To my knowledge the only AP getting this treatment is Rise of the Runelords. And the only reason it's happening at all is for the anniversary celebration.

To be fair, he was always the last one off the battlefield. There's a difference between "turning craven" and "tactical withdrawal".

The first time it was him and 3 bandits vs the PCs and the PCs made an impressive show of force, so they left.

The second time the bandits left when reinforcements for the PCs showed up. Though he did manage to steal a set of horses on his way out.

During the encounter at the River camp, the PCs got Kressle with a bomb as she was retreating. Nothing Happs could do about that and he left shortly afterward. Again after stealing the PCs horses.

Yes, he "lost" a hostage. But it was one the Stag Lord didn't know he had, and he gained one of the people killing the Stag Lord's men as a hostage instead. Even managed it without any bandit deaths this time.

Plus, there's only so much you can do when you fail two saves against "cause fear".

They scared him off the first time. A few days later he came back with friends.

The PCs managed to fight them off with lots of casualties on the bandit side and the near death of a PC which allowed Happs to sneak away.

He was also at the Thorne River camp when the PCs stumbled into it. The PCs managed to kill most of the bandits there, including the chick with the hatchets whose name I can't remember, but Happs escaped once again to report to the Stag Lord after stealing horses from the party during the night.

Since then he's laid low and hasn't made much trouble. But with the Stag Lord away he decided to make a raid on Oleg's.

Here's how it all played out.

The PCs got lucky on the random encounter table and had a hunter go through their camp headed toward the bandit fort with furs to trade. (Yes, I know they could simply kill the hunter and take his stuff, but then they'd have to go get their own furs/food/etc.)

The PCs buy the furs (for 250gp) and use that as a cover to have the cavalier go up to the fort. This allows them to see what some of the inside of the fort looks like and get a little bit of intel. He even managed to sell the furs for 225gp.

The cavalier returns to the group and reports his findings. They decide to hit the fort that night (they found out the night before that they don't keep good watch at night)and try to sneak the ranger in and Svetlana out without getting caught.

The sneaking in goes well and the ranger is moving about the fort when she trips, makes a fair amount of noise and drops her light source (bandit beat her stealth check by 10). She tries (unsuccessfully) to bluff herself as one of the bandits making his way to the crapper and the bandit runs off to waken the rest of the fort. The ranger, meanwhile, signals the rest of the party that s#~% has gone wrong and she needs to be extracted.

The rest of the party charges the front gate, but gets waylaid by the zombies in the moat. The ranger gets surrounded by the bandits and decides to escape by jumping down the well.

After dealing with the zombies, the alchemist in the group drinks his mutagen, which turns him somewhat scaly and draconic. The sorceress, after enlarging the alchemist, convinces the bandits that the alchemist is the avatar of the kobold god come to claim the woman for unspeakable rituals. This worked only because the bandits kept failing their saves against cause fear and the sorceress rolled really well on her intimidate checks.

The party was given Svetlana, told to tell the Sootscale the bandits were coming for them, and took off. The ranger eventually came out of the well about 15 minutes later only to find the bandits waiting for her. She immediately surrendered and was placed in the owlbear cage to await the return of the Stag Lord.

The way I worked it, ol' Staggy is out gathering equipment (beast bane arrows, alchemist fire, owlbear etc.) with his lieutenants and left Happs in charge. He will return in about 8 days, though, which gives the PCs plenty of time to attempt a rescue. Unfortunately, if the PCs don't rescue the ranger by then, she'll likely be interrogated, tortured, and killed. Auchs needs a new playmate, after all.

All in all, things went very well for the bandits. Yes, they lost a few zombies, but none of their people got terribly injured and they exchanged Svetlana for a PC.

Thanks for the advice from earlier. Any thoughts on what to do now?

At the moment, I'm thinking the bandits will wait a day or two after the Stag Lord gets back, then move on the kobold tribe as promised. No clue how/if the PCs are going to try to get back their comrade.

Hi guys just wandering if any of you have this situation of the kingdoms auto passing any check they need to make. I know a 1 is an auto fail. But my pcs economy is at 102 and the kingdom is 5 years old

That's impressive. How in the wide world of sports did they manage that?

Hakken wrote:

1. If you have a high enough UMD to succeed even if you roll a 1 and roll a natural 1, do you succeed? Or are you locked out for 24 hours. The rules say if you roll a 1 AND fail.

There is no rule of auto-failing your skill check on a 1. So, if a 1 is enough numerically, you've just successfully activated the device.

(Actually, you can declare to 'take 1', aka not roll at all, if there is no chance of failure).

Hakken wrote:

2. What would the DC be for a 9th level Magus trying to use a wand to cast a level 4 spell that will be on it's list, (however it can only currently cast level 3 spells)? Is it a 20? the same as a level 1 rogue who would never get that spell? I don't see a DC for trying to emulate a level.

If the spell is on your list, there is no need for UMD. There is zero necessity to be of the required level, to have the required stat, or whatever.

If the spell, for whatever reason, is not on your class list, the DC for a wand is a flat 20. There is no need for emulating a level, a stat, or whatever.

*le sigh* Ninjas everywhere...

So if a 1st level character comes across a wand containing a 9th level spell there's no check involved at all? That seems... silly to me.

Sadly, they have. They kinda stumbled into it fairly early, actually. That's a really good idea about having folks off raiding other areas. Perhaps the PCs can find a note or something foreshadowing the troubles in store for the other colonies.

I'm running Kingmaker#1 at the moment and have run into a wall I made for myself.

While the party was out exploring the Stolen Lands, I've had the bandits (specifically, the archer from the first encounter) pop in and out as periodic threats because I didn't want them to simply retreat to their fort and sit there for a month or two waiting for the PCs to arrive.

The bandits have stolen horses and other supplies from Oleg, stolen horses from the party during the night, and, in their most recent raid, kidnapped Svetlana.

The party has determined that the bandits are now too much of a threat if they managed to accomplish this and is going directly to the Stag Lord's fort. They're currently second level (with a 1st level oracle that started late) and I'd rather not TPK this early in the game.

So here's my thinking:

The PCs can have their raid, but arrange it so that the Stag Lord (and most of his lieutenants) is absent. He's gone off to a meeting with other folks (perhaps even the BBEG herself), or is out gathering supplies of his own, and has left a skeleton crew manning the fort. He's likely not even aware his crew made that attack.

Thoughts? Suggestions for a better way to fix to predicament?

How do you figure that? Thye eidolon does not die (it is not at negative HP) it is just unsummkoned. I'm pretty sure that summoning it again is an option.

If the eidolon is sent back to its home plane due to death, it cannot be summoned again until the following day

This is from the middle of the second paragraph under the "Eidolon" class feature.

Question 1: Do the bonuses from wild shape add to the druid or to the creature the druid changed into?

The bonuses from wild shape add to the druid's base scores. So you could wind up with a very weak T-rex if your druid is Dex based.

Question 2: What happens to the bonus from the belt of physical perfection after 24 hours?

The bonus is considered temporary for the first 24 hours; after that, it's permanent. I believe this is a carry over from the headbands of INT, WIS, or CHA which don't grant bonus spells until 24 hours have passed.

Hope this helps.

There is a cavalier in one of my games contemplating the Improved Overrun feat for use from horseback. Unfortunately, neither of us can figure out how the heck this is supposed to work. Here's how I envision it:

Scenario #1

For this experiment, the horse has Improved Overrun, but the cavalier does not.

Step 1: Cavalier declares overrun as part of a charge. (no problems here)

Step 2: The horse does not provoke an AoO because it has Improved Overrun. The horse gets its attack. (no problems here)

Step 3: The cavalier does provoke an AoO because he does not have Improved Overrun. The cavalier gets his charge attack as per normal. (Maybe? This is where we get lost. Does the cavalier need Improved Overrun to avoid the AoO?)

Scenario #2

For this experiment, Improved Overrun doesn't matter.

Step 1: Cavalier declares Overrun as part of a charge. (no problems here)

Step 2: Target declines the AoO and steps out of the way. (no problems here)

Step 3: Cavaliers charge attack happens. Horse's charge attack happens. (no problems here)

Step 4: Target gets an AoO on both the horse and the rider as they move through his threatened squares. (maybe?)

Thanks in advance for the help.