blackotter's page

About to run this in two weeks. Looking forward to SF and this AP. Just had an idea for an Envoy "Director" NPC who is filming the party's progress after their fame on the Drift Rock.

All of his buffs will be themed on trying to make their fights more exciting for the film. "We need more explosions!" "How about a headshot on that monster?" "This is a bad angle for the camera, move over there!"

Hey all,

I'm about to hit Runeforge with my group and I was wondering if anyone had worked up interesting spellbooks for loot that they'd be willing to share. I'd like to tailor the spellbooks a bit, but I haven't had the time to do so yet. Short term I'll probably hand wave and try to work something out before it's time to sell them, but I thought I'd see if anyone had anything they were willing to share.

Thanks.

I just finished these, put them below. The sad thing is I spent a lot of time working on them and the players just sold them. Hehe...I should have expected it.

If you dispel one of these spells, does it remove it from all recipients? Would it require an area dispel or targeted dispel? Do you have to target the caster or will any of the recipients matter or do you need to dispel each separately?

Hey, quick heads up that I'll be away until Monday.

If we get in a fight, just have tyndal smash things :)

Thank you James! I'll look forward to seeing Golarion's cosmology in the upcoming books.

For myself, I'm probably going to try to adapt the 4e version to my current game. Its much simpler and easier to use, which I enjoy. I like the main planes (Astral Sea, Elemental Chaos, Feywild, and Shadowfell) accessibility, and I can add the weird, dangerous planes as Dominions.

I'm sure there will be plenty from Golarion's version I can adapt as further dominions for the party to explore. One of the things I love about RPGs is that I don't have to stick with anything, that I can take a little bit of everything (Beyond Countless Doorways, PRPG, 4e, my favorite novels, my own imagination) to make something that my group enjoys.

My PCs have reached the level where they want to start using Plane Shift in the game. Does Golarion use the standard Great Wheel cosmology? I figure it does, but the only planes Ive seen mentioned are Leng and Kadath. (I somehow doubt the party want to go there)

For my group, its from a Radiant Servant of Pelor. (PrC from Complete Divine)

Our group has decided that for Greater Turning, the undead saves vs the damage per normal, if it fails, it is destroyed. If it saves, then it take half damage per normal. This keeps Greater Turning from boosting the healing effect (or having to generate two totals, one for healing and one for damage to undead)

A few things I noticed and questions I have:

Undead creatures within the area are healed a like amount by this wave of negative energy. Hit points above the undead’s total are lost. You can choose whether or not to include yourself in this effect.

Why would the Cleric include himself in the area? Could this be read to mean that the Evil Cleric is healed by the negative energy?

A cleric can command any number of undead whose total Hit Dice do not exceed his level.

I'm having a reading comprehension problem with this sentence. Does this mean that an evil cleric can control ANY number of undead as long as each individual undead HD does not exceed the cleric's level OR does it mean the undead's HD are added together for a total that is compared to the Cleric's level?

The reason I ask is because of the Necromancy School Power:

Specialist Bonus: You can control 8 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level.

If the total HD a cleric can control is equal to his level, then the Necromancer (Wizard) is the new lord of the undead. They can control 8 times the HD a cleric can.

(Yes, reading is fundamental, but these sentences are wracking my brain)

Never had my game break at any level. Then again, I keep the reins pretty tight on what I allow to enter in the first place. I keep the PCs magic-light and poor, they find the items I place as treasure, gain the spells that I put in captured spell-books and so forth. If they save their pennies then they can research or craft custom items (always cool) but then I get the chance to review and balance them.

Played the last campaign to 17th level with no problems.

That might be my problem, as I allow most books. But, considering that my players and I have spent $ on them, I don't feel comfortable restricting them. We want options, but unfortunately, those same options lead to the bloated monstrosities that higher-level PCs become.

Here was my totally crazy idea that i posted to my group:

Go through the spells available. Determine if they are of 3 categories. Offense, Defense, or Utility.

Offense Spells: These spells are usually blasting, summoning, or debuffs. Durations, if they have them, are usually 1 round/level, since they are intended to used only in combat.
1)Blasting or Attacks: These spells are a standard action to cast. They usually follow standard rules, either damage and save or attack and no save. Durations usually don't matter here.
2)Summoning: The summoned creature lasts until the encounter ends or the creature dies.
3)Debuffs: They last till the victim saves. They get one save per round.

Defense Spells: These are buffs, and yes, some are offensive in nature. This is controversial, but here's my idea. Make all buffs/defense spells an Immediate Action (I think you only get one of these per round). BUT they only last till your next turn. This keeps the Buffgloat from happening and keeps from casters totally overpowering the melee classes.
(Think about the war-cleric. I don't care how you rationalize it, this combo is ALWAYS going to overshadow a fighter. Spells are just much more powerful than a feat. Dispel Magic is the only counter for an enemy, but its really a wasted action.)
Make them one immediate action, and the cleric can still attack with his buff or give the other characters a quick boost.

Utility Spells: Make these spells all take 10 minutes to cast...but if they have a duration...make them last till either sundown or sunup.

My take on this:

"Hour" durations: 1 hour/lever or until sunset/dawn or midnight/noon.

"Minute" durations: 1 minute/level or a full encounter.

"Second" durations: 1 round/level or 2d4 rounds or until a ST is made.

I think PF could list durations as it is, and let DMs choose if they want the "hard" or the "easy" way. Notice that there's no really easy way to handle the 'second' durations (it always requires either bookeeping or a bunch or dice rolls), but when you're dealing with a highly tactic game as D&D3.X is, there're some sacrifices to be made.

Great suggestions.

Blackotter:

Just to be clear, the alpha rules that we have up right now are only a small part of the Pathfinder RPG rules. Jason is working on more of the rules and we will release them in installments in the coming months. If there are problems with 3.5 that you aren't seeing addressed, there is a very good chance that they will be addressed in an upcoming alpha release. But let your voice be heard on the alpha playtest forums. Trust me, I am constantly badgering Jason about some rule or another that needs to be nerfed!

-Lisa

Thank you for the response Lisa. I'll post my grievances with the current system and see if Jason thinks the same way.

Its this kind of support that makes it very hard to give up on Paizo.

Everything above 12th level breaks my game.

Bingo. Although I would lower the number to 10+.

While I understand why Paizo is doing this, I can't say I really like it. In my opinion, there's just too much wrong with 3.5 that these alpha rules are not addressing. Adding slight rules tweaks and increasing single-class powers is just putting lipstick on a pig...which is my own opinion of 3.5....especially post 10th level play.

Right now I'm trying to decide whether I should cancel my Paizo subscription in light of the recent news. I was hoping that Golarion and the modules would switch to 4e, which I like what I'm hearing of, but its not, so I gotta decide what I want to do. I don't relish the idea of paying money for something I'm going to work on to use. That defeats the whole purpose of buying a module in the first place.

That said, I think Paizo is a great company and I have never seen better customer service from a company. (Gaming or otherwise) Their product support is something that I will definitely miss if I decide to abandon the setting. Business-wise, WotC has screwed the pooch on how they are handling rolling out the 3rd party support, which is sad, but ultimately, I want a different system than 3.5, and I like what I see from 4e.

So its going to be a hard decision for me.

Which is funny considering that Baltin is pretty much in the forefront of every battle. He is the rock on which all their enemies break.

Hoping that all goes well.

My players are looking for ways to get Gargadros corpse back to town, they think its a priceless artifact to be studied. I've told them that its impossible to move a 25000lb slab of frozen meat down the pathways of Hook Mountain, but they're pretty determined.

How would you deal with PC's raising Gargadros or speaking with dead with his corpse? What does he know?(Looking for suggestions)

Jodah,

Thanks for the stat block. I used it last session and it made for a fun, challenging combat, more so than Barl himself. (Barl died very quickly due to a lucky crit by a hippogriff riding lancer)

:)

Tyndal Maelglum wrote:

Let's go see if this taxidermist has one of those bunnies with the horns.

Jackalope?

Yup, Jackalope

I've got this idea that the Order of the Nail all carry long nails in a pouch. When they catch a lawbreaker, they nail (crucify) the lawbreaker to a wall in the town square, as an object lesson to the people. They leave them at that point, for the regular town guards to deal with.

So what product will cover the Hellknights in detail?

Seems somewhat unfair to force you to spend all your hard earned loot on something you'd drown without. Maybe we'll work something out.

That would be cool, but it is pretty cheap (250gp)

Let me know, because I have the money right now.

Dustin's rival: I have a wife and four horses!
Dustin: I have a horse and four wives.
Rival: Yaarrrg!

The extra wives were all his original wife's widowed sisters. But he was expected to "keep them all happy", which he found tough to do by the time he got to wife #4. Poor Dustin.

Dustin's Rival: A winner is you!

Unfortunately, an item like that is sorta a necessity for a tank in an aquatic dnd game. Need the heavy armor...don't want to drown :)

The hunter in my group makes a habit of leaving heads on the doorstep of his beloved.

I'll take the rope and a share of the cash. Got a pretty armor crystal in mind and need money for it.

For the GM, I'm looking for a Least Crystal of Aquatic Action, so I don't drown wearing my armor. Its from the Magic Item Compendium, negates swim check penalties for wearing the armor its affixed to.

We still need identification of the magic items as well.

Nothing like a good old Geoffish drinking song.

Yes! Excellent song!

Loot division works for me.

That's awesome!

My wife loves the music...where's it from?

Got mine earlier today, just spent two hours reading it. Awesome!

I love the quote right before Karzoug's writeup, not a nice guy to work for. :)

Its mentioned in PF #6 that Karzoug's awakening is just the beginning of all of the Runelords coming back. Will Paizo be using the other Runelords in future adventures or paths? Or is that just thrown in there for the GMs to run with?

Well, everyone except Tyndal's.

Me? What did I do? :P

I would prefer to stay fighter. I don't have a problem with a npc trapspringer myself. What about Queer Little Man?

I can multiclass into Rogue or Scout. Fits Tyndal's concept fine, but I would have rather done it at first level (Skill points out the wazoo)

Actually, I was just looking for brainstorming on how other GMs would handle it. Just to get some ideas. I have the feeling that the PCs are going to whack Ironbriar because they think that he was a murderer prior to being charmed. (They're right of course)

I'm fine with whatever they do, I just wanted ideas should they turn him in.

"I wonder what would happen if I say 'guy made of bees' five times in front of a mirror?"

Tony Todd would show up?

Jareth: You remind me of the babe.
Goblin: What babe?
Jareth: The babe with the power.
Goblin: What power?
Jareth: The power of voodoo.
Goblin: Who do?
Jareth: You do.
Goblin: Do what?
Jareth: Remind me of the babe.

Question to Richard Pett: Was HP Lovecraft's The Rats in the Walls one of your inspirations in writing the Manor? I just reread the story and it has a ton of similarities.

Good suggestions..thank you. I've got a plan for next session now, just have to see if the pcs decide to execute him right away or wait.

So last night my players defeated the Skinsaw Men and currently have one of the mooks and Ironbriar captured. Since they dispelled the Charm spell, Ironbriar offered to tell them about Xanesha, but only in exchange for 12 hours to run. The party refused, and now are trying to decide whether to mete out justice immediately or take him in to the authorities.

Now my party is very socially-inept. In almost all social skills, Ironbriar beats them. He also has clout in the city, while the pcs have none.

Any thoughts on how to handle turning him in to the authorities?

Hi Yasha...glad you are enjoying the story. I know that Im enjoying running the game. Thanks for the compliments, but most of the kudos belong with paizo for providing such a great adventure to run.

About the Deathlord thing...its just a superstition to keep the locals in line. (They had mentioned some local superstitions about Nualia, so i figured those would also apply to Alton)

If you want to read more about it, check out the Ties that Bind Campaign Journal, one of my players is doing a great job converting the game to a fun read.

Shameless Plug

At least you don't have a Shoanti hunter in your group that has taken to leaving the heads of his enemies on the Vinders' doorstep to impress Shayliss. Boy, did it complicate matters in Episode 2.

:)

I'm back! Hanging with family is fun, but am I glad to be home!

For those without the Eberron books, they are available on the SRD as well:

Action Points

I use them for my table top game and they work pretty well.

Have you considered any action points or a similar mechanic? It could help us in these tense moments.

Just a fyi...I'm heading out for the holiday this afternoon. I'll be out of reach of a computer until Sunday night. Feel free to add any snarky comments or butt-kicking goodness for Tyndal.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Seann Eoghan wrote:

puce.

Nice! I love puce, ever since that weird Santa movie.

Hehe...i saw that in the theatre so long ago :)

Of course I will find a copy of Dueling Banjos to play while they investigate the Graul Farmstead.

Any other suggestions?