amir90's page

Thank you very much the detailed reply Hawkmoon! My friends and I now feel more confident to try the game out again!

Hey guys! I recently bought the S&S set, and my friends and I are loving it!
But we are having trouble understanding some of the basic rules properly.

1) When can you actually help out your companions? Do you need to be at the same location? Also, what kind of card can you use to help your companions? We are aware that you cannot use the same card type.

2) On one of the first scenarios (I think it was the third one, where everyone in the party had to summon and fight a pirate), can you attempt to close the location, where you fighting the pirate, even if he was summoned by another player drawing the bosscard?

3) What cards can we keep after a finished a scenario? Only our deck cards + the reward for finishing the scenario?

4) lastly, does one roll for the plunder on our ship at the start of a scenario, or does that only occur when you aquire a new ship (during a scenario)?

We are so sorry if these questions seems very basic, or even have obvious answers.

I don´t get it, why do I need the addon deck to be able to play a 5 or 6 player game of S&S game? All the scenarios have fixed amount of locations for up to 6 players. And the base set has 7 characters available.

Is there something obvious I am missing here? :o

Looks cool, might pick it up if it arrives at my local gaming shop. Maybe after a couple of reviews as well.

Will there be an iPhone/iPad app for this?

I recently allowed traits for my gaming group, they have to choose 1 combat trait and 1 social trait. One of my favorites are Rich Parents, which gives you an addtional 900gp as starting wealth. What do you consider the best and most useful traits for your characters?

Are there any traits you like that adds to your roleplaying experience?

I have use them, and I like the system. If you allow them as a GM make sure the psionic/magic transparency rule is in place, and make sure the players know the rules.

Also be aware that if you only have one or two fights a day, and/or if you let the players rest in enemy HQ without letting the enemies account for it, then the players may start to Nova.

Once that is done you should be ok.

I just bought the Ultimate Psionics book and I love it! It adds a lot to my gaming table, looking forward to try it in the Emerald Spire superdungeon. One of my players insist on playing a human rather than a psionic race, because humans can do everything!

You can probably expect the 25% merverdiavgift on top of the delivery costs if you go with the physical copies since since I I'm reasonable sure flip-maps qualify as "gaming accessories" instead of "books", but I have no idea how import tax on PDFs would work - it's never been an issue for me since PDFs are typically priced so low the toll is irrelevant.

For printing you basically have two options:

You can divide each map into sections, print them on A4 sheets and cut/tape them together. For 16 maps this is quite work-intensive and the maps will not be very durable. I know people use this method and are perfectly happy with it. Personally I've had poor results with this, especially for maps that are used in multiple sessions. That said, I'm not a "crafty" person so anything that involves a pair of scissors and glue tends to irritate me - YMMV.

You can get them printed in one piece, but this either requires access to a fairly hefty printer (typically only found at photo stores, graphics or printing companies, an art shool etc) or going to a professional printer. The price for getting 16 1x1m color maps printed professionally will most likely be significantly more expensive than just buying the flip-mats.

One last thing - I don't know where in Norway you live so this might not be an option, but in the past Outland have been very helpful for me with importing custom or heavy products - that's how I got all my bestiary/NPC pawn boxes without the otherwise fairly rough shipping costs. If you live near Kr.sand, Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim or Oslo I'd visit or give them a call if you haven't already, they might be able to help you out.

Ohh sorry, I meant my group and I would pay together for a physical copy ^^

I tried printing by scanning the pages from the book, and the results were not great, despite me fixing the resolution.

I live in Kristiansand, and the local Outland shop told me that the flip mats are Paizo exclusive and cannot order it for me.
I usually buy Paizo products from them. I would have done the same for Ultimate Psionics, but that book was so expensive for the physical copy, that I rather buy the pdf version this once. :)
The 120 usd for getting this item from Paizo is a fair prize, if I order it soon (if my group helps me) it will arive when I come back home.

The resolution is approximately 3600 x 4500 for the flip mat maps, while the images in the Emerald Spire PDF are ~ 1200 x 1500.

The image quality is similar to other PDF flip-mats - have you had any experience printing other flip-mats?

I have not. But any additional information you can provide would be appriciated.

I am leaning on buying the flipmat from this site, but the whole group will chip in this time. I wonder if this item has to be taxed in Norway or not. An addtional 20 usd is not a lot.

Have any of you who have bought the pdf version tried to print them out yourselves? How is the quality? I tried to print my scans from the superdungeon book (for personal use), but even with photoshop skills, the results were lackluster. I might as well draw on an empty map folio myself.

My local shop cannot order the pysical copy for me, and I think the shipping+taxes for the item would be too much for me (estimated 125USD).

Personally, I would say unless you have a gaming budget that can handle getting both without reservations, go ahead and wait for Skull & Shackles to come and get that first. The first set is still great and if you're still hungry for more after playing Skull & Shackles, definitely get the first set when you can. Just a few things to keep in mind:

-The new set is likely to come out the gate with some more refined rules and can potentially be better put together after learning from the first game.

-The new set will support organized play if that's something you're interested in, but it doesn't look like the old set will be incorporated into that system in any way.

-The new set has a pirate theme complete with ships and guns. The old set on the other hand is more standard fantasy so one or the other might be more suited to your tastes.

-If you're a completist, it may be difficult or nearly impossible to get all of the promo cards for the old set at this point without paying a pretty penny for them while with the new set you can start fresh and do everything you can to get them all.

-All of the chapters of the old set are out NOW. Although they are increasing the release speed with the new set, you'll still be waiting a month for each new chapter. Depending on how much you like the game and how often you are able to play it, having a complete set available to you can be a very good thing to have.

I see. I will have to think about it good.

I was wondering if there was any point in buying the first base set, if I had the patience to wait for this base set to come out? :)

I've used Vitality/Wounds in a Skull & Shackles game to wonderful effect.

The trick is to only stat up boss and elite enemies with Vigor Wounds, the rest can stay on hp so that combats aren't lengthened. It also means that PCs can still get those dramatic critical hits off where the player can yell out the big number and high-fives all around.

The other thing I did was add in some additional houserules:

Catching Your Breath You can spend 15 minutes of uninterrupted rest to regain your vigor once per day.

Healing Magic: When using healing magic the spell heals Vigor and Wounds at the same time, with the dice roll determining vigor healing and the number of dice determining wounds healed. Eg: A 1st level cleric casts CLW, this heals 1d8+1 vigor and 1 wound at the same time.

8 Hour Rest: Characters who take a full-night's rest recover all their vigor and their Constitution modifier in wounds. This can be increased by a further 1 point with a successful DC 20 Heal check.

Both of these were to take some pressure off the primary healer, so they could use more than just Cure magic during a day of adventuring.

Wounds: You use your Constitution score to determine your wounds. When you hit 0 or less you remain conscious but any standard or move action you take requires a Fort Save (DC 10 plus Wounds beyond 0) to stay conscious. (This just made the book-keeping a little easier)
I highly recommend the Vigor/Wounds system.

Ow man, these houserules rocks! This gives me hope for the vigor/wounds system, thank you for taking the time to write this!

I cannot comment anything in particuluar to what you should keep or discard. But I will admit you got me inspired for my homebrew system!
I have alwyas wanted to implement a DR system with dogde/parry etc.
I guess I can recommend reading the warhammer fantasy rules, as they have a dogde parry system there. But they are mostly one time uses (making multiple combatents deadly!) and you roll under your own stat, in this case it is a d100, which means it disregards the opponent's skill in battle.

For the most part, 3-4 rounds seems to be the norm for me, but on high levels, if things goes unexpected, it could last to 10, or even more rounds.

What, this is awesome, I might have to implement this kind of currency in my own game. :)

amir90 wrote:

I feel a bit silly for asking, but I have read the description of this book several times, even gave it a peak at my local hobby story. I am still not sure what this book does, who it is for (I am guessing both GMs and players, because there are monster stats).

Is it a book that gives your heroes and monsters a sort of template? They gain powerful abilities and can withstand more, and you can apply that at very low levels (less than level 5) and epic characters? (15+, even over 20).

At first, I thought it was a book for epic level characters.

I am still not sure, if anyone could clarify this for, I would be very grateful.

It is not rules for epic play (Levels 21+)

It is usable between levels 1-20
every 2 Mythic Tiers is approximately equal to 1 level and there are up to 10 Mythic Tiers.

I hope this helps somewhat :)

A little :)

I won't buy the book untill a couple of months (because of school), but this book seems to change enough of Pathfinder that I need to plan it out a bit, especially since I will combine it with Ultimate Campaign :P

I feel a bit silly for asking, but I have read the description of this book several times, even gave it a peak at my local hobby story. I am still not sure what this book does, who it is for (I am guessing both GMs and players, because there are monster stats).

Is it a book that gives your heroes and monsters a sort of template? They gain powerful abilities and can withstand more, and you can apply that at very low levels (less than level 5) and epic characters? (15+, even over 20).

At first, I thought it was a book for epic level characters.

I am still not sure, if anyone could clarify this for, I would be very grateful.

amir90 wrote:

But kudos to Paizo for doing this, I cannot imagine the math and balance hell to make this.

Considering the game is already not balanced, I don't think it's a huge concern... :(

Okei, relativly balanced, meaning not openly OP or underpowered :P

It wouldn´t be 3.5, if there weren´t any unbalance involved, or I am making an outrageous claim here? xP

More choices? This book will probably be great for players who have played Pathfinder for awhile, but since I keep introducing new players to the game, I think it will be on my bookshelf :)

But kudos to Paizo for doing this, I cannot imagine the math and balance hell to make this.

Even though he is the character that has gone to 0 HP or less the most in our party, I still think that Monk with X amount of styles is pretty powerful.

The WIzards I can handle, I can force him to teleport away if needed.

For some reason I don´t like summoners, I remember reading about them, and then saying "nope, I won@t allow them in my game".

Hello duders!

I seem to have become confused about the attack of opportunity rules.
If I remember correctly (and correct me if I am wrong) the following situations will provoke an AoO:

- An unarmed attack (except those who are monks/taken a feat)
- A spell used in a threatening square
- A move action where you leave a threatening square (with the exception of 5.ft step or withdraw action, or if a character succed on an acrobatics check)

There are two situations I am not quite sure of:
If I am correct, a touch attack does not provoke AoO, however if it is a touch attack as part of a spell being cast, it does. But what if it is a (Su) or a granted power from a cleric domain? Does supernatural abilities count as spell, when it comes to attack of oppertunity?

Hello duders !
I am currently running a campaign where the party is investigating a case where all the alcohol has turned to vinegar. ( a quest inspired from this board :) ) The only alcohol that hasn't been affected are the ones made in the "Underdark" by the Drow and the Duergar. Who are currently making a killer profit (their booze is unaffected).

They have figured that the booze curse is in the air and covers all in the land. Their strongest lead is a giant (storm giant) who recently buried his wife. The ritual involved booze.

Others rumors they haven't persuaded are:
A cleric who commits sin at every opportunity , except alcohol which he hates.
A fey queen has cursed the realm, making the alcohol into fey piss.
The Drow and Duergar have sabotaged the alcohol (this have been disproven)
An antipaladin that wants to mock the god of alcohol (which is his opposite deity).

The giant they are going to interrogate governs a small community of humanoids in the mountain. His partner is a large undead lich, and he has a golem bodyguard.

The storm giant's nemesis is an Malik Efreet, they have fought over the same land for dozens of years. The Malik Efreet have 3 Efreet brothers.

Any cool suggestion to what I can add to the quest? Any cool battle tactics or RP moments? I usually just make up as I go. But many of these creatures are CR13 each, and the party consists of players at level 10. They are quite creative as a group, and they know when to run, and when to fight.

I am quite lousy at making battles a bit more varied, fighting on open planes with no terrain.

Setting: it resembles forgotten realms with some few minor exceptions:
- half of the dwarves are hippies, they hate metal, mountains and unescessary violence. The other half is like traditional dwarves.
- elves were the dominant race of the realm, but lost their position after an uprising from the other race. (Think the Roman Empire) they have also been affected by a curse which affects their mortality, which have been reduced to 250 years.
- drows are the dominant race of the underworld (Underdark). They are so powerful that they could in theory take over the realm under the sun. But currently they have a non violent agreement .

Thanks duders :P

Chaotic neutral, sometimes neutral good.
I am never 100% lawful :)

Dot.

Holy shit, I am so going to use this on my next session! :D

What prime moral law are you talking about? Religion or civil law?

In the second paragrahp you are talking about moral relativism, which is generally immoral. We can however gain some sort of understanding why people would do such actions (bad or good). But doesn't make it moral.

There are no such thing as a absolute morality, but it is easy to argue why lying and murdering is wrong, even biologically arguments for it.

Why is cursing wrong? Isn't the whole concept of cursing that you give words powers, a meaning beyond a sound? Do women deserve more respect than men? Isn't that sexist? There is a standard, the civil law. Are you hinting that we should follow a deity, this smells like religious morality preaching, but I might be wrong.

Common decency? Be specific.

"Argue against that if you will, but it's the truth", ehh, what? Why would write something if you aren't going to listen to other arguments?

I agree with you on the 2nd last paragraph, way too many paladin clones, there are many ways to roleplay a paladin. But I wouldn't point out indviduality as the reason why, maybe hypothetical morality situation doesn't just have one right or wrong answer.

As a GM, I would give the paladin a warning after doing something that would be a immoral, unless it's hororific beyond belief.

amir90 wrote:

Blueluck wrote:

amir90 wrote:

I thought you couldn't attack against touch AC with feats, when using firearms :o

"When firing an early firearm, the attack resolves against the target’s touch AC when the target is within the first range increment of the weapon, but this type of attack is not considered a touch attack for the purposes of feats and abilities such as Deadly Aim."

Isn't that what I said?

That text means that you can use Deadly Aim since the attack is not considered a touch attack.

Ohh, silly me.

amir90 wrote:

I thought you couldn't attack against touch AC with feats, when using firearms :o

"When firing an early firearm, the attack resolves against the target’s touch AC when the target is within the first range increment of the weapon, but this type of attack is not considered a touch attack for the purposes of feats and abilities such as Deadly Aim."

Isn't that what I said?

I thought you couldn't attack against touch AC with feats, when using firearms :o

In my honest opinion, a bodyguard would intercept even if the attack wouldn´t hit, unless the bodyguard feat would give the person foresight when a hit actually happens :P
But then again, rules are rules.

"Cloak of many things"
1/day, the wearer may reach in the pocket of the cloak and throw set item out.
Roll a d100 and use the cloak of many things table.

Anything from a silver dagger to a big fat cow.

You would have to make the d100 table yourself though, I personally never got the time to do it myself :P

"Lucky clover"
A four leaf clover that can be activated once a day to re-roll a skill check, the player have to pick that new result.

Thanks guys once again for the clarification. You guys are a well of knowledge!

P.s. It's been a tough job basically starting from scratch to learn a totally new game (noob when it comes to tabletop RPGs).

Don´t give up, you will get there eventually :D

I make a few key points beforehand, but 90% is improvised during play.
And that seems to work for me ;p

1d100 → [33] = (33) Svinferblin
1d100 → [46] = (46)Albino feys
1d100 → [61] = (61) Sahuragans
1d100 → [7] = (7) Gnomes
1d100 → [1] = (1) Humans

Interesting :)

Mass combat rules?
All right :D

It is actually a good question.

It would be, based on your information:

First shot+4 (If it hits, 2 arrow damage), second shot -1 (1 arrow damage) third shot +4 (1 arrow) this third shot is the rapid shot one. I think only the very first shot can have 2 arrows (Manyshot).

If you had deadly aim as well, it would be:
+2 (2 arrows +2 damage on each) -3 (arrow + 2 damage) and +2 (arrow +2 damage)

That is at least my interperation from the forums here.

Weapon Enchantment that removes certain DR.
Houseruled that immediately, however, I agree that +5 should remove certain DRs. But not alignment based.

Weapon finesse does nothing for your DAMAGE.

It only affects your roll TO HIT. With a 3 Str, you are at -4 on melee damage.

So you might be level 2 with +6 to hit with Weapon Finesse 17 Dex, Masterwork small rapier (weight!), small size and +1 BAB, but you are doing d4-4 dmg per hit...min 1 pt, so, 1 pt a thrust.

If you want Dex to damage...you're talking specific feats (Dervish Dancer) or the Agile weapon property, which you can't afford until you can afford a +2 weapon.

So, you MUST rely on stuff that doesn't rely on Strength to do damage. A crossbow would be one way, but probably blows your carrying capability away.

==Aelryinth

I thought agile weapons were at +1 bonus price.

Bashing Light Shield will do 1d6.

All right, thanks for the replies.

So that means the calculation was correct?
And that he can use light spike shield untill level 11? Just to be able to do 1d6 damage?

Which stores are you going to?
Those prices aren't even that crazy high in Norway.

I envy the US prices.

Hey guys!
My little cousin wants a badass TWF shield + sword kind of guy.
I used a guide I found on the "Guide to the class guides", he choose the longsword with a spiked light shield.

Here is where things gets a bit complicated for me to calculate, I will add the info on his character so that you can see what he has available:

Level 7 Fighter, Human
STR 18
DEX 17
CON 16
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 8

Weapon Training: Close (for his shield)

Feats:
TWF
Improved Shield Bash
Power ATK
Weapon Focus (longsword)
Toughness
Step Up
Dodge
Improved TWF
Shield Slam

So, what I need help with is the calculation of the atk bonus and damage with this setup. Also how bashing + shield spikes works.

What I think the correct calculation are:
Longsword 1st atk: +11 (mwk, wp focus, str, BaB, -2 TWF)
LongSword 2nd atk: +6
Shield Bash, free atk: +12 (magic, wpn training, str, BaB, -2 TWF)
Shield Bash, 2nd free atk: +7 (same as above -5)

If I have read correctly, shield spikes increase damage, as though it was one size larger, and Bashed magic effect increases the damage two size larger.
Does that mean his bash attack does d8+1 damage (without any other mod)?

Almost half of my battles have lasted about 8 rounds.
The other half was done in 2 rounds.

Sometimes the players are clever, sometimes they are stupid :P

General advice?

Create your own world, then you can "bullshit" through anything, and decide what the history is and how the relationship between races etc.

If you don't want to spend several weeks or months creating the lore, you can just create the cities and NPCs that are close to the first encounters.

I personally don't like modules or adventure paths, despite them being very well made, I like to improvise a lot. Only writing a few keypoints for an encounter and certain NPC stats.

Reading the game master part from the core rulebook, or the gamemastery guide book from Paizo is a good way to get your creative juices going.

Through experience, you can learn a lot about yourself as a GM, always ask your players for feedback.

Prepare the setting, do you have guns? Is magic common? Uncommon? Does dragons exist? How does the material plane work? Does all fantasy races exist in your world?

Nice story Covent.

I did something similiar recently, though, they ended up attacking their savior.
Tis was hilarious.

Rules are guidelines to have fun, always feel free to houserule whatever you want, especially the miniscule ones.

Don't count out the old 3.0-3.5 books, they can still be quite useful.

I feel they have a connection to their customers, unlike most websites I am a member of.

I like how they encourage the RPG PDF market.

The artwork, ohh man. This style of art is now my favorite ones in RPGs, almost all of my players love the artwork!

Golarion seems like a wonderfully crafted world, but I rather just use my own homemade and wing it whenever I feel like it.

Hey guys!

I am GM for two groups, one is quite small (3 players accompanied with an NPC) and a big one (6 players, quite powerful.)

They are all level 7, and we are hyped to some sort of halloween ish themed session. I am not certain I will be able to make a decent session with this theme, or in time for that matter, so I am thinking of buying a module for this occasion. Not more than 10-15 USD if possible.

Preferably, this shouldn't last more than one session, which is maximum 5 hours, but if the module is good enough, I can push it to two whole sessions (maximum 10 hours).

So, is there any halloween themed modules you recommend?
It can either be mimicry of famous halloween movie starts such as Frankenstein, Dracula, Freddy Krueger etc.
Or using undeads, werewolves or other iconic "scary monsters".

:)

I don't bother with encumbrance unless it is blatantly obvious that the person is over-encumbered.

A bigger question would be, is it logical that a person wielding a breastplate gets the same movement penalty as one wearing a full plate armor? If any penalty at all?

Have any of you ever used "deus ex machina" to save a party or to do some convenient plot tool to advance the party further?

I was thinking about something more than cheating with dice rolls :)

I told my group that I will only use one "deus ex machina" as long as I am a GM :) After that, no convenient "several city guards with silver spears and arrows save you from the lycanthrop ambush" save.

Cool article

1. I agree, though my players seems to know when to ask for details or not.
2. Actually, this is where my improv skills go in. There has been so many situations where I have improved a cool NPC just because one of the PCs bothered to ask them about something. It has truly created some memorable moments.
3. Again, improv skills :P Though I must admit, I haven't gotten in a "middle of a very important segment" situation just yet.
4. If said player was in my group, I would suggest him to make his own group, or let him GM every now and then. I had little to no problem in convincing 3.5 players to play Pathfinder :)
5. Great advice!
6. I agree 100%, but maybe he should have mentioned that players should level up for the next session. Or create a new character for next time.
7. Talking about other subjects is a bigger problem in my opinion. But if I as a GM notice that certain players are inpatient because of all the bad jokes, I make sure everyone know's that it is time to move on.
8. I consider RPG sessions to be causal, but not that causal :P
9. That is actually a problem at my table, but a minor one imo.
10. Because my world is under construction, many of the options are viable, however, I flat out say NO to certain races/classes, but I usually follow it up with a good explanation.
11. This is actually something bot me (the gm) and the players have embraced, however, they are quick at using that against me, as well as me, against them.
12. My party did that on their last session, two of them ended up dead, but it was HILARIOUS!

1) Thanks for clarifying :) I might houserule the high weapon enhancement that bypasses DR (I am aware that there is a scale)

2B) Does the grappled creature lose all his weapons/items he was currently holding? Thanks for clarifying the damage, I didn't see the big point about grab at first.

3D) I am so stupid, the DC was 15... The NPC card actually specifically said that...

4A) sorry about that, hehe :)
I reckon if he skips one/two rounds, he can still cast a lightning bolt as a standard action?

5A) Witch Class 3rd Party

6) I misread on the "target any withing 30 feet".
So I guess the only use of this spell is to spam it at one person to make him become unconscious? If I remember correctly, one has to do nonlethal damage equal to the amount of the Total HP (not current) and he will become unconscious? Even if that wasn't the case, it is not worth the standard action it requires. If the penalty to atk rolls lasted longer and buffed the lightning bolt damage (I know it doesn't, I am only thinking out loud :P) it might have been worth it.

Anyways, if you could answer my follow up questions, that would be great. Also thank you very much for taking your time to answer my questions, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get the rules right by Wednesday (I have two different groups that more or less play the same encounter each group)