bleeyargh's page

This sounds a bit like Green Ronin's variations on the masterwork quality, as published in their adaptation of Glen Cook's Black Company series (3.5). I still use that (along with their battlefield event table that humourously punishes a '1' on your initiative roll).

I am planning a campaign for a table and I decided to have it revolve around ancient Aztec culture. I think that it should be a world where all magic is divine and requires blood sacrifices to cast, so constitution might be the spellcasting ability. Any suggestions?

I would consider looking at something like the Black Company campaign book (it was a Green Ronin publication for 3.5) to get some mechanical ideas for spell-casting. In that one, it was all arcane (easily switched) and you spent your own hp to cast, and also to meta- your spells. Doing that with someone else's hp would be a good switch. :) The original 2nd Ed. version of Dark Sun might also be worth a look for magical inspiration, though there you're destroying vegetation and the world's a desert waste as a result.

You could go with regular rules for the fragile weapons. The old Forgotten Realms Maztica setting might give some ideas for a few archetypes or prestige classes, and it's got some simplified cultural bits.

My group is almost done Seven Days to the Grave at this point. They're sitting at level 7. It's an odd group in some ways; there is a clear line dividing them.

Rianne (Human Swashbuckler 6 Ranger 1) is the NG son/daughter of the high priest of Asmodeus in Korvosa.  She (there was a reincarnation that ended in gender switching) is often confused and disgusted by the party's apparent respect for her dad.  Her niece appears to be in a state of feeblemind, which both Rianne and Mickael want to fix (but grandpa seems to be disinclined to do anything).

Cadence (Human Rogue 5 Ranger 1 Shadowdancer 1) is a NG member of the infamous Vancaskerkin family.  She was abandoned to the streets of Korvosa by whomever her father was, no doubt contributing to her comparatively good sense.

Mickael (Human Cleric of Abadar 7) has an odd ability to accidentally kill orphans with his crossbow.  She is the most lawful member of the party, though her alignment shift from LG to LN has disturbed some of her companions.

Lilith (Half-Elf Paladin of Abadar 7) is on the edge of schism with the church, often tempted to try to start her own Credit Union of Abadar.  She strongly objects to the church's inability to help poor citizens directly.

Dorian (Ifrit Sorcerer 7) was reincarnated after the party (players) objected to the replacement character. :P  Her CN alignment, at first a serious bone of contention with most of the party, now seems to ally her with Rianne and Cadence in mild information deception against the cleric and the paladin.  She controls the harrow deck, and supplies the base of operations in the Midlands (a should-be-condemned tenement).

Oddly, four of the five characters have been reincarnated.  All four flipped from male to female, and two flipped race (Lilith from human, Dorian from tiefling).  The fifth (Cadence) has always been female, but was masquerading as a man for quite a while.

Oh, how this has changed over time. :P My Int, Dex, and Con were once much higher (and my Wis lower), but stuff happens...

STR 12
DEX 7
CON 8
INT 13
WIS 11
CHA 10

Stonehaven Miniatures make a very satisfying male kitsune figure. I am less enamored with their female figure, but YMMV.

I think that the Skinsaw Murders is a great potential inclusion; here are the bits that I would consider:

a) The murderer should be introduced some time before the murders begin, as a non-threatening harmless sort. He has not yet been twisted or turned undead, even if he is desperate about certain things in his life.
b) Ideally, the PCs should have a strong connection to the town in which the murders take place (or the NPCs who start dying, even if it's the brother or daughter of an NPC that the party associates with).
c) The clues left by the murderer might refer to the kidnapped friend in same way. The murderer might have a family association with the friend, or be someone who has known the evil wizard. The connection would not be revealed in the notes/clues, but would become obvious later in the investigation. The notes might imply that the friend is going to die, or that the friend is the murderer, etc.
d) Perhaps Thanatos/Chaos benefit from the inscriptions on victims, and there should be a particular reason why the victims are targeted. In RotRL as it stands, it's a bit about the victim's personality/character. In your campaign, it could be people who specifically worship particular gods in favour of others. It might be people who aren't well-liked, so that the maximum number of murders might occur before it's taken seriously by authority figures. It could be well-loved people, to disrupt community in favour of primordial Chaos.

My two cents.

I thought that I was going to have to break out the epoxy putty and the paint to make a convincing Conna the Wise. I'm very psyched about that figure. I am also fond of the hill giant; I imagine a banjo strapped to his back and a pet crocodile.

It's a bit of an old reference, since orcs don't look like this anymore, but... "He'd rather kiss a pig than eat it."

(Orcs in first edition D&D were drawn with pig snouts).

Yeah, I was interested in this line when I saw the Brass Dragon and the Lamashtu cultists, but I've been sold on it with the inclusion of Brodert Quink. I can't resist his sexy glasses and sagey ways. Pre-order, here I come.

If anyone is interested in having this setup for their own use, let me know. I live in Northern Illinois and if you want, you can have it. It's taking up too much room in my basement!

I'd take it in a second, gunWitch, but as I live in Lethbridge (southern Alberta), it would be a bit of a drive.

Ah, love in Rise of the Runelords. Well, we've got a few storylines in that vein.

One is a dwarf fighter/cleric PC who has fallen for Alma, the baker. For various reasons in our campaign, she and her daughters are dwarves rather than humans. She's much older than he is, of course (he's close to her late son's age) so it has been a very slow romance. Arika is currently adventuring with the party for a side-quest, so protecting his possible step-daughter is a high priority.

Another PC hooked up with Shayliss in traditional style (and unbeknownst to him, has impregnated her). Not only does her father dislike him, but one of the other PCs is a Vinder(!) and also disapproves. Shayliss was sent to a Magnimar boarding school to keep the two of them apart, which has prevented Venn from finding out about the "problem" as of yet. This same PC has got a crazed ex-girlfriend (one of the ladies from the baudy house) who often interferes with his personal life.

A slightly lust-prone PC has had trysts with Hemlock's brother and a creepy gnomish shopkeeper, but has kept it to the sinning.

A fourth PC (the aforementioned Vinder) was pursuing Ameiko, but hasn't gotten anywhere with it.

@ Story Archer-- here is an easy link to Chopper's Isle. My players enjoyed the plot and built relationships with a few more NPCs while playing through it:

http://www.dorkistan.com/dorkistan/PFRPG/creatures/chopper.htm

Very timely for my own group's progress. Thank you, Tinalles.

I love both ideas; I am very impressed with the creativity and engagement of your group.

I'm not quite sure what sort of Diplomacy check would be needed to pull off something like this. I mean, while the Valdemar family dislikes the Scarnettis, would they be willing to accept an orphanage on what is nominally their land? (Funny thing is, the Sorceress has such a high Diplomacy score she'd probably succeed in rolling over a 30 for her roll, even without the use of magic.)

I suspect that building on noble family land would be something of a hard sell, but the Valdemars might be interested in it depending on the scope of the orphanage. One that taught certain skills to the orphans (perhaps giving the Valdemars some potential skilled workers in the future) might be more attractive. An orphanage that was not so clearly defined in policy, etc. would probably be less attractive. Maybe a difference of as much as 10 in DC for the associated Diplomacy check, or a 4E-like challenge (representing a wooing process-- must get X successes before getting Y failures to get the Valdemar family to agree).

The second bit is that the group is thinking of creating a Bank - The Heroes of Sandpoint Savings Bank. This is actually a fantastic idea (and Ultimate Campaign even has some rules on building a Bank) - but do you think there'd be any obstacles to a bank opening in Sandpoint, especially as the Scarnettis have a hate-on for one of the members of the group (who is a bastard scion of the Scarnettis)?

I'd put it up to how you've portrayed the nobles as a group. Some nobles might believe that banks promote financial innovation and increase the wealth of the town. I suspect that any authorities in Magnimar would be delighted on that basis (more taxes collected). More closed-minded local nobles might dislike the idea that certain folks outside the upper gentry would be getting ahead and/or defining the growth of the town. They could support this (wealthier townsfolk means more money in their own coffers) or hate the idea, on an individual basis. My two cents.

If I get the ISWG would the Varisia, Magnimar and Faith books be drastically less useful?

I wouldn't say so. There is a greater level of detail in the smaller books. I have the ISWG and the Magnimar books, and use both of them with some frequency.

What's in the Mapfolio? Are they like battlemats or just maps of the cities you're in?

They are nothing like battlemats; although there are maps showing battle scenes, they are too small in scale to be practical, except to use as a model for drawing out a battlemat youtself. There are also maps of the cities, which you could use as a handout or display piece if you wanted to.

In other asides, there are Sandpoint-specific pawns (which could be useful if your players take to it as whole-heartedly as mine have), and there is a nice flip-mat for the first battle in the Swallowtail festival.

We've had a lot of fun so far, though there has been a death. Coming to the close of the Skinsaw Murders.

Female human ranger-- an orphan from a farming family who lost them to goblins. Raised in the Turandarok Academy, but started spending much of her time in the bush after she reached adulthood. Died fighting an Advanced Huecuva version of a certain hard-to-like town noble.

Male dwarf fighter-- new to Sandpoint, a smith whose good heart has brought him the admiration of most, the love of a widow, and the obsession of the Skinsaw Man. Found faith and picked up some levels in cleric.

Male kitsune rogue-- adopted by the Kaijitsu (very grudgingly on Lonjiku's part, but enthusiastically by Atsuii) after he was found in the streets of Magnimar. After his mother's death, raised largely by his sister at the Rusty Dragon. Took interest in magic and picked up some levels in wizard.

Male human sorcerer-- the middle child of the Vinder family, going to school in Magnimar. The pride of his father, and protective of his sisters. Has left the party to take care of his family, owing to the tragedies and strain associated with recent events.

Male human ranger-- replacing the lady who died, above. The son of the town sheriff and his... ahem... romantic interest. A town guardsman who pursues Arika despite the disapproval of her mother.

Male half-orc barbarian-- replacing the sorcerer for a few levels. Gorvi's younger brother, raised in Magnimar in the temple of Pharasma. Trying to investigate the death of his brother, and the crimes that he might have been committing.

The attached drawback is always situational. :) You don't want to overuse it. Objects are the best if you want to inflict the drawback more often, since it can be affected with things like sunder (broken or damaged, must be fixed) or theft. Nothing stops something stolen by the Skinsaw man from being interacted with in other ways after the fact, either.

You could bring along a person who is the target of an attachment, even to dungeon crawls. I wouldn't, in your place, because I prefer to

a) have neat combat situations with a minimum of NPC mess
b) make threats more dramatic by having them appear occasionally, rather than regularly.

If your party is the sort that interact nicely, you could even discuss the possibility of having the drawback apply to another PC. That could make roleplay interesting in an otherwise unusual way, and add a little bit to some combats.

I must admit, I'd be tempted to put the attachment to a particular building in Sandpoint, if the PC happened to be a native. :) The opening sequence of goblin attack could be made dramatic when the little snots lit it on fire. Ghouls, dragons, and/or stone giants could also threaten the place in certain instances. Scarnetti or someone that the PCs don't interact with in a positive way could buy it. Lots of ugly possibilities.

There are some good options for a Sandpoint native. You could use an orphan holed up in the Turandarok academy (perhaps they were siblings, etc). You could treacherously use Ameiko Kaijitsu... when she's kidnapped by her brother, it will highlight the danger of the drawback.

For outsiders, there are other options. If the character is from a rural family, you could dramatically play up someone from the Turtleback Ferry area, or one of the farmers who are threatened by ghouls in the Skinsaw murders.

As per objects, it can be something as simple as a razor or a hat. If the character is the object of the Skinsaw Man's obsession, and personal effects start to go missing, I imagine that the attachment will be accentuated (even if the object in question never goes missing itself).

I don't have anything on paper, but I've used Gorvi as someone who makes money as a blackmailer. If that interests you, you might send a level 1 rogue on a quest to collect particular "evidence" against people like Cyrdak Drokkus (who is concerned about appearance or reputation) or Pillbug (who might otherwise end up in jail for the things he does). The rogue might also shadow someone to listen in on incriminating conversation.

Distraction missions might also work (do something flashy to get yourself arrested, so that Gorvi or one of his boys can be sure that Hemlock won't be around to discover what THEY might be doing). Starting a bar brawl is great for this. The rogue spends the night in jail, and thereby earns his stripes with the guild.

I had a little fun with Jubrayl during Burnt Offerings, and I was planning to make him another victim of the Skinsaw Man if the party continued to stick around in Sandpoint (rather than investigate the farm). My side-quest was a simple sneaky combat/investigation bit.

There was some chaos in Sandpoint while Hemlock was out of town-- in particular, the PCs had hired some dwarven miners to deal with the smuggler's tunnels before actually entering the associated encounter areas. :) As such, the dwarves ended up getting killed down there, and the only guard of note remaining in the town was the despicable Figgins (an NPC addition that the party despised). The PCs were therefore engaged in the tunnels, and Jubrayl decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to get hold of the Pixie's Kitten.

There was something of a town riot when small fires were started by one of Jubrayl's men, drawing attention to the north side of town, and he used out-of-towners to raid the Kitten and remove the "management", planning to send Kaye Tesarani and some of her employees away on a ship owned by a sympathizer (either killing her, selling her into slavery, or something equally vile). The PCs fortunately noticed this in time, raided the boat and saved her. They then teamed up with a notorious lady from the Kitten (one that had been romantically involved with one of the PCs) to clear out the Kitten itself.

Naturally, they were unable to trace it back to Jubrayl (despite their belief that he was responsible) and it was his bartender who took the fall for the plot. It was obvious that new management would have been installed at the Pixie's Kitten (someone who would have claimed to have a bill of sale from Tesarani, who had left town in "an emergency"). Jubrayl made sure that he hadn't directly interacted with any of the out-of-towners involved in the plot.

Well, there were a few game balance changes, but nothing too crazy. A Pathfinder PC is a little more powerful than a 3.5 PC, so you might adjust a 3.5 encounter's difficulty upward (or its exp reward downward) by about 1 CR level.

One new thing that I appreciated about Pathfinder is the Combat Maneuver mechanic, which makes things like trips, disarms, bull rushes, and the like a lot simpler and smoother to run. Each PC, NPC, and monster has a Combat Maneuver Bonus (the attack bonus for trying any of these tactics) and a Combat Maneuver Defense (a hard target number like AC, to resist them). You can calculate any 3.5 monster's CMD or CMB yourself.

Apart from that, it essentially runs like core 3.5. A few spells work differently. There has been a little tinkering with experience points. You could take any 3.5 module and play it using Pathfinder with no fuss to speak of.

What books does Rise of the Runelords reference? Which bestiaries and guides will I need to play it?

Off the top of my head, I think that the first two bestiaries, the core rulebook, and the advanced player's guide are the most obvious. There is a mechanic from the gamemaster's guide as well (in the Skinsaw Murders). While GMing, I've actually printed off copies of the monsters I expect to use in each session from the web (though I own copies of all three bestiaries, I like to keep the monsters on a clipboard).

You could, if you wished, refer to paizo's website for the requisite rules. If you've got a laptop, you don't need to have physical copies of the books with you.

Hope this helps.

My party is just about to start encountering Skinsaw Cultists, and I enjoy these adjustments a great deal. They will be encountering Ironbriar as a private collector for some old coins that they've discovered (but can't reasonably sell) in Sandpoint. I appreciate the concept of the Senior Brothers, and will certainly use them. :)

Hi, Sparklepaws. If you're learning from a module, hopefully it's a good module. There are a few things that it can teach you, but not too many. You can get some good ideas for plot devices, for instance, but you could just as easily get those from books.

You should read through the entire module beforehand, and figure out the plot structure (what is the party supposed to encounter? what is the next step? why is this NPC behaving this way?). Keep in mind that a module is a bare bones story structure. Your players are unlikely to cleave exactly to the expected plot or behave just as the writer wants.

Modules tend to have a "railroading" problem, in which you (the DM) are supposed to force certain things and decisions on the party, even if the intended outcome isn't in the party's best interests (or doesn't seem to be the smartest thing to do). Your players may not respond well to this.

Don't be afraid to change things about the module! Add depth, add encounters, subtract characters or subplots if the party isn't interested.

My advice, for what it's worth, would be to dial it back a little bit. There is at least one half-orc in town (Gorvi) who is prominent enough that his shack appears on the town's map. Even though he is a bit of a rabble-rousing drunk, the response so far has been finger-shaking from the mayor.

If you took Gorvi as a model, then the half-orc might get a lack of social acceptance, etc., but consider that the townsfolk would likely feel more threatened by a fellow trying to kill undesirables in the street than by those undesirables.

Howdy. You've chosen an excellent Adventure Path, in my opinion. I hope it's as entertaining for you and your players as it has been for me.

To address your question, I've had good experience with Tales from the Table Top. You can get several battle maps for Burnt Offerings (and a few from the Skinsaw Murders) from the site. You have the option of printing them off yourself, or you can pay the fellow to print for you (I chose the latter option).

http://www.fromthetabletop.net/category/battle-map/

Since I've had a few IQ tests due to brain surgery, I can say with some confidence that the ones that I've come across are junk. I mean that they're junk in the sense that they "measure" things like perceptual ability while they claim to measure processing ability. They rely on things like eye-hand coordination while they claim to be evaluating your ability to follow direction. The tests themselves rely on your ability to understand the instructions (which sounds like intelligence, but can be skewed by things like dominant culture, language, and education). The memory tests relying on language are particularly faulty. There are even faults and false-negatives that can arise if you're colour blind.

Mind you, I'm not sure how well a test measuring speed of reaction defines intelligence. *shrug* At least, if it's simple test, you'd hope that there are fewer faults in test design.

In terms of modules, I'd be tempted to carry the Skull & Shackles line to coincide with the release of the Pathfinder Battles minis line dedicated to it (coming in the summer). Rise of the Runelords is a path that gets a lot of (well-deserved) hype.

One-shots may be less intimidating for some potential buyers.

My current campaign is set in Oerth (world of Greyhawk), so there are a few things I'd leave out.

No gunslinger. I like them conceptually and mechanically, but they don't fit the setting.

No ninja. Not only are they not setting appropriate, they are (IMO) thematically weak for party inclusion.

I'd also leave out samurai for setting reasons.

No summoner. Conceptually good, but the players who like them in this group are a little too weak on the mechanics, and I'm not inclined to hold hands.

No third-party classes. Nothing against some of them, but I'd rather have rigorous support for each class played (available for the players to consult).

Cavaliers fit the setting very nicely, with all of the knightly orders available. Fighters, paladins, rogues, rangers, wizards, and sorcerors are appropriate. There are examples of monastic power groups (like the Scarlet Brotherhood) and plenty of places to include witches or oracles. Alchemists are a little more sketchy in that sense, but a strong presence of humanoids (goblins included) inclines me to allow them.

bleeyargh, im probably going to show up and im pretty new, but im definitively interested is there a specific area in the library that you meet at?

Come on out to the Community Meeting Room, which is in the north basement of the library. Our next Pathfinder meeting will be on Thursday the 7th of February.

Dotting. More action for the party is most appreciated.

OT, I'm about to enter this portion of the AP, and plan to use some ships from Pirates of the Spanish Main (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10653/pirates-of-the-spanish-main) as "minis" for the chase and ship-to-ship combat sans boarding action. Some of the islands that you get with the game, I think, will be useful on that scale as islets and navigational hazards.

At the Lethbridge public library, downtown, there is currently a D&D4E campaign that meets every two weeks. Beginning on the 28th of June, there will be a similar campaign for Pathfinder. The schedule is Thursday at 6pm until roughly 8:30pm. Come out on the 28th for character creation.

I am interested in a Pathfinder campaign, either as GM or player. While I am new to the system, I've got fairly substantial experience in D&D systems in all four editions. If there are any other interested Lethbridge players, please post a reply to this thread.