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I was reading through the beginning of Spires yesterday trying to prepare for the first session with this book.

I'm reading the anniversary edition pdf..

I simply couldn't get to grips with that cabin.. Maybe it's me being non-english speaking or something, but to me it seemed like it wasn't quite clear how this cabin looked or was placed.

First of all.. Is it build on a cliff face (in my mind at the bottom of a cliff, up against the cliff). Or is build on a cliff edge (top of a cliff hanging out over it)..

The map makes NO sense to me.. The "bottom" part is much smaller than the top part, and has the horror tree standing outside, but some mine-looking tunnels to the "north)..
The top part describes a staircase outside leading down, but the top part is much larger than the bottom part.. Making me think of a really odd looking house.. Then it kinda looks like the top part is build into the cliff, but it's not clearly described, and it's still not clear exactly how this cabin is placed..

The best way I can see this is the cabin being build half inside a cliffside.. So only a small part is actually a wooden cabin. This could be an extra "danger" once the Wendigo starts tearing into the house, since the pc's can't escape out the back so to speak..

So I'm sorry if this has been answered a ton of times before, I really had no idea how to get anything useful out of a search.

Anyway.. My group is finishing up Sins of the saviors right now, and it's becoming an increasing pain to find complete and high quality Pathfinder versions of the encounters, and I really don't have the time to do them myself (or the skill!).

With the pathfinder version coming up in a complete bound version, will you be releasing the statblocks for the encounters for people with the old versions? I really don't feel like buying the whole thing once more, just for the Spires part.

If you will release the statblocks I will wait with Spires part until you release them.. If not, I will go through with gimped encounter stats..

I'm confused about the wording of the divine defenders divine bond ability. It says I can put an enhancement bonus on my armor, up to a maximum of +6 at lvl 20. It then says it stacks with other enhancement bonuses up to +3!?..

So as I read it it would create the following paradox:

I can have the paladin buy a masterwork platemail which he can boost to a +6 at lvl 20.
OR he can buy a +1 platemail, but he will ever only be able to boost that to +3 even at level 20!?
That makes little sense..

Or am I supposed to read it so that it will stack with anything up to a +3.. So if he has a platemail +3, it could stack to +9 at lvl 20.. But if he picked up a +5 plate he would only be able to boost that to +9 as well at 20th (as if the armor was +3 to begin with)

If so, what happens at lvl where he could make a +3 enhancement like that.. He picks up a +5 armor.. Would he be able to boost that to +8 or only to +6 (+3 maximum used from the +5 armor, plus his +3 divine bond enhancement)

It's darn confusing..

So I'm sitting contemplating a summoning heavy Wizard, pretty close to what treantmonks guide suggests.. But how on earth should the "creatures summoned this way can't use spells or spell-like abilities that duplicate spells with expensive material cost" be handled? What is "expensive" in this line?..

It ofcourse doesn't come into play until fairly high level, as there are no high level spells availiable from summons until then.

Also, is there an errata somewhere with bestiary 2 and 3 monsters incl. in the summoning choices?

Searching the forum didn't reveal much..

Can a sorceress who casts elemental body on herself still casts spells while in that shape?

So the only thread I could find about this is this one:

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/rules/largeCreaturesReach&page=1&source=search#0

But something doesn't quite make sense to me.. And I wonder if anyone else has had this clarified, or play it differently than the above thread..

So a standard reach weapon used by a medium size creature reaches the 2nd square away from the character.

Now in many stat blocks for large creature it states "reach 10", which makes me think that "Reach" pr. standard is reach 5..

So if reach is 5 and threatens 2nd square away. Wouldn't a reach 10 stat mean they threaten 3 squares away?.

The reason being that we're fighting a lot of giants at the moment, and the better fighters among them would always try to be at range.. As we play it right now, the player characters can still just take a 5ft step and hit the giant with a full attack.. I want them to feel the danger from the AoO and not have the ability for a full attack. It just seems more "fighting a giant"'ish :D..

Has anyone playtested this? It may make the giants MUCH more difficult.

First off the Nat. weapons with Haste question.

So as I understand Haste a character with +6/+1 with haste gets a full attack of +6/+6/+1 Right?

So I have a creature that has (numbers are just examples, I don't remember the real values)

Tail +5 AND 2 claws +4 AND bite +7

That would leave a normal full attack as +5/+4/+4/+6 right?

Now what happens when that creature is Hasted? 2 bites? at +6 plus all the other attacks?

Then the Mirror Image..

I have a monster that has Mirror Image as an At Will cast.. Isn't that pretty much invulnerability?

So the Saving Shield feat from APG states that you can grant an adjacant ally +2 shield bonus to ac as an immediation action, when said ally is attacked.

What it doesn't really clarify is how long this lasts.. Is it only for that 1 attack - meaning that the next time in the same round a boogyman hits the ally, does the +2 still affect her? If so, does the effect last as long as they stay adjacent to eachother?

If read literally it could mean that by the end of the fight, everyone could have gotten next to the character with the feat and enjoy the +2 bonus.. (other stacking rules permitting).

Okay, so under Belt of giant strenght it says that after 24 hours of wear the ability bonus turns into a permanent ability score increase. Does this then mean that after you wear said belt for more than a day, then you can actually get yet another bonus by having bull strength cast on you.. Normally those two wouldn't stack, but after reading that wording I'm in doubt.

Also, does that "rule" go for any magical items granting ability modifiers?

So a couple of things have cropped up during the last playsessions.. ANd I was wondering if anyone had some input for me :)..

First up is fighting in water.. We had an encounter where a player was dragged into a deep water pool by a amphibious creature.. We looked up the rules to continue the fight, and they looked really odd.. What we came away with that the players could hold their breath for more than enough rounds, and could easily use their weapons in water. It was only some concealment to take care of when using melee weapons under water. It was basically just like on land except for LOS and LOE for spellcasters and ranged damage- and that didn't make sense to me at all. What did I miss..

Fireballs and other area effect spells... So fighting in close quarters against large (tall) creatures.. Nowhere does it state if the effect is "ball" shaped or "disk" shaped. If anything, it sounds like more like the latter.. So the party started throwing fireballs in the tall creatures face, and thus above the party members themselves..
Has anyone run into this as well as a sort of loophole? How do you handle it? Just by making area spells work as an "infinite pillar" in a game technical perspective?.

Hi guys,

I have NO idea if this is out of order to ask for or what, but I'm running through the Fort Brannick take back tonight, and I'm having a tiny issue.

I wanted to hand out the 4 maps on page 27 to my players to aid in their planning. One of the characters is a former Black Arrow, and they have the saved BA's with them as well, so I figured they know all the maps show them.

But alas, the photocopier at my work has just died, so I can't make the handouts.

Can anyone scan page 27 for me and post it (or email me)? I don't feel like buying the pdf for a single handout printing :S..

Ofcourse, if the Paizo guys think it's a breach of copyright, then ofcourse don't post anything like that, and I'll just have to get by with the book tonight.

So we're a little confused about the Damage Reduction rules.

DR/adamantine takes either an adamantine weapon or a +4 weapon to overcome, right?.

+3 for cold iron/silver etc.

But what about DR/-.. A character just picked up an adamantine armor with DR/- of 3.. So no matter how awesome a weapon it counts according to the rules? Not even a +7 Longsword of Holy Awesome Goodness can negate that damage reduction? Or am I misreading something and even a +1 weapon negates a DR/- stat?

So my group decided to ditch 4.0 and went to Pathfinder. Usually we do our own stuff, but I decided to try to run an adventure path after reading some good comments about it..

I decided on Rise of the Runelords - which may not have been the most clever decision, as it's written for 3.5 rules and a few things are off or missing.. But we got by.. I wouldn't say the entire story went completely without hitches - it was practice as much for me as for my players.. :)

So here's a short recap.

Players were:
Cho-lau the Varisian Monk with a dark secret
Nalrak the Varisian Rogue. Flashy combatant and avid entertainer
Rukan the stout fighter. Heroic to the last drop of blood and a fierce combatant specialising in using his Spiked Chain.
After the first session they were joined by a 4th character.
Sijit the gnome elemental sorceress. Big power in a small package!

So the players decided they knew eachother from a travelling circus group travelling the cities from magnimar to korvosa and even Riddleport. Cho-lau was the most recent addition, joining the group after their last visit in Korvosa. Travelling towards Riddleport trying to make a shortcut their caravan had been attacked by Hill Giants. The entire convoy had been destroyed and our heroes had only barely managed to escape with their lives. Travelling south towards the last city they remembered they run into a Dwarven brewer on his way to Sandpoints swallowtail festival, they decide to jump on his cart as "protection". That's how they arrive at the festival..

They quite enjoyed the festival, and got really into the whole food competition thing. Cho-Lau was somewhat of a cook himself and got acquanted with Ameiko at the festival. They were absolutely clueless when the Goblin raid startet, but they jumped straight to it.. Much hilarity ensued as new players fumbled with new rules and had to try everything. Among the highligts was Cho-Lau being grappled by a goblin after himself fumbling his grapple ending up face down in the dirt.

They spent the next few days running into the various scenes from the path, especially enjoying (and facing the challenges it brought) the seduction in the General Store basement. Nalrak completely fell for it, and couldn't talk his way out of it. During this they also had a habit of finding Goblins in the most odd places - both dead and alive.

They made good friends with Ameiko while staying at the Rusty Dragon - courtesy of Sandpoint for their efforts during the festival. So when she dissapeared they really got into it to rescue her. The big fight at the glassworks was a memorable piece and they spared Tsuto's life and imprisoned him instead. Once they spotted the tunnel downstairs they didn't feel that compelled to check it out, but a shambling monster coming out of the dark stirred their curiousity.

Catacombs of Wrath turned into an old school dungeon crawl, but it has some memorable moments. They especially liked that flying head thing I forgot the name of now. The end battle turned out to be too much for them though, so I had to tone it down a bit.

Next came Thistletop.. I lured them up there with some urging from Father Zantus.. They quickly found their way through the thistle maze and missed most of it really.. BUt they didn't seem to care at all.. I kinda screwed up the front of the fortress, but to my luck the ever entertaining Cho-Lau decided to basically charge 4 goblins and 4 goblin dogs.. They did take it careful with the bridge, so nothing happened with that.

The fight outside did take quite a few recources from them due to some really bad rolls, so I gave them a slightly easier time inside. I had peaked into the next adventure, so I wanted to present a few "wrath, lust, envy" things on them.. Things turned especially dark when the Gnome sorceress snuck into the bedchambers of goblins and sliced the throats on 6 sleeping goblins.

The big fight against Ripnugget ended with Ripnugget bravely shouting "For Thistletop" and charging the Sorceress who had killed most of his entourage damaged himself quite a bit. A few attacks of oppertunity later he was killed. Not the most challenging fight, but it was very cinematic.

First dungeon level took quite a while. They quickly subdued Lyrie the scholar, and I used her to explain a bit of plot. They ended up almost making friends with her. The Harem encounter I decided to just make a plain old fun - and slightly disturbing scene. It involved some panicky naked goblin girls and a painfully naked Bruthamus :).. Lots of laughs :)... The chapel scene turned into a regular slugfest as they fought the Yeth Hounds. Rukan was panicked by the howls, and the rest had a very hard time. They were heavily wounded after that. It turned out to be a good thing though, as the memory of those hounds made them really fear the Nualia encounter later.

On the second dungeon floor Nalrak pulled off a few amazing rolls, and my disarm roll ended with a 30 on the trap. Suffice to say they pretty much danced across that trap :).. The fight against Nualia was a little annoying due to the small room, but it was a challenging fight and the party was pretty exhausted after. They decided to go up a level and rest until the next day.
THe next morning they soldiered on, and at the golden pillar it was Cho-Laus turn to pull out the abnormously high search roll. "A small line in the wall?? Ok, I put a gold coin in it!.. ".. I was mildy surprised :).. They quickly found their way to Malfeshnekor, and even still being badly hurt they attacked. One round later they were running for their lives and closed the door again :). The demon was beyond what they could handle.
They made it past the Shadows, although Sijit the gnome was left with a strength score of 4. Badly hurt they made their way to the treasury only to run for their lives from the Crab as well..

They saved Shadowmist and made their way back, and I ended the campaign just outside Sandpoint.. The players were really happy, and the notebook from Nualia coupled with some lore they got from Lyrie has spurred their interest.
Out of game though they were happier with the first part of the book than the 2nd part.. They enjoyed the small scenes in the city more than the dungeon crawly bits.. They were hooked though and are eagerly awaiting the continual..

I must say I really enjoyed the book, and it's by far the best published adventure I have tried.. Ofcourse their are some grey areas here and there, but overall it's a really nice GM tool to run after.

I can't seem to get anything useful from my searches on these forums for these questions..

First of all, in my first game I'll be running the Rise of the Runelords campaign.

So question 1:
Next to several encounters there's aa "EL 1" or similar next to it. What does that mean? Is that "encounter level"? or what is it? And what can I use it for?

Question 2:
On many creatures there are multiple attacks listed. I'm curius as to how to use that.
Take a "Sinspawn" from the Runelords campaign. It says "2 claws +2 and bite +0)

So how many attacks does that give me? 1 attack using only either 1 claw or the bite if I make a standard attack action? 2 attacks with the claws at +2 each with one standard attack action? Or the whole shebang with 3 attacks (2 claws and the bite) for one standard attack action? Or will it requite a full round action to get more than a single claw at +2 (or the bite at +0)?