I don't know if I should be embarrassed but I saw a mule in real life for the first time last year, and I thought it was a horse. I realized something was odd about it, but not enough to think it's not a horse. I expected mules to look more like donkeys, but apparently mules are a lot bigger with smaller ears. So that could be an example of failing identification for a common creature. An NPC might try to pass off a drafthorse as a warhorse, etc. Or warg hide among wolves or large dogs We actually skip the first roll and just ask for the correct knowledge roll. That breaks some immersion but moves things along.
For me the fix was to get into board games. In board games you just die, die a lot, lose over and over. After awhile you realize it's more important to concentrate on having fun than surviving or winning. Pack animals: they are the solution to encumbrance you mention. So use them. You can also just buy "<insert class> kit" which covers most needs. Remember there are other players too, they should have something Skills: more fun to focus on a few and be good at those, cause other players will be good at their few skills. Except perception, everyone needs that. Speed: think of this more as offense than defense. As they say "speed kills" Don't worry about being too slow to get away, desire to be fast enough to chase them down. Use a pack animal so you're not weighed down, get mithral medium armor when you can afford it. Utility spells: take Scribe Scroll, make a scroll every day, they are cheap and easy to create even when travelling. To store them get a handy haversack: in case any are needed during combat they are only a move action away. stat dumping: if 8 is the lowest you are good. penalties are already built in to your rolls, there is not much a GM can do to "punish" you for an 8.
Classes that have alignment restrictions also get benefits to go along with them. This places alignment restrictions on almost every class, but does not offer anything in return. It sounds like it's good rules for NPCs, or factions players might join or work with, or prestige classes. Actually it's not even factions but more like guilds that control resources and training. But as such it's far too limiting. Besides being fun for only a small percent of potential players, making them difficult to attract, putting this much restriction will be unplayable. Look at all the conflicts for Paladins alone, now imagine that much conflict and arguing with every single person at the table. Because that is exactly what will happen when their powers disappear.
Tarik Blackhands wrote:
I only play Peter Murphy clones
Vidmaster7 wrote:
I have an idea for a setting, every time you try to help someone in need you are punished by death. If you fail to help people in need you are punished by your gods. And every PC must play a Paladin.
If she can't, or doesn't want to use alter self since it would result in death whatever plane she is on, then this could make an interesting adventure, a succubus as the X-Men's Rogue (esp the 3rd movie version where she decides to take the serum to lose her power). Succubus actually loves some other being and wants to be with them, but cannot, and enlists the party to help her lose her draining power by finding a hidden artifact/set of components that will accomplish this. May even convince LG players to help if it means one less succubus in the multiverse, esp if they decide to instead keep the artifact and go on a demon-depowering rampage.
Prof Lowenzahn writes: (stuff) If the question is "how do we get people to play if they are the people who historically have complained about bad treatment?" Then yes; absolutely, the answer is to tell players up front you will not tolerate bad treatment of each other, because only then will those players who are loathe to join feel comfortable enough to try again. Having a game that is friendly for anyone to join is not a given. And even in many cases the women that have played with us have already been through a process that weeded out other women that wanted to play but stopped. Some have even said "I'm like one of the guys". So pointing to them, or to our own experience, means little, because we have created cultures/groups around us that we are not aware of doing. And not everyone has experienced the same thing. There are a LOT of people out there that have been abused, harassed, who have quit. Already you can point to Cons that get a rep for not protecting women are seeing their attendance fall. As long as every time Paizo or WOTC makes an effort to be inclusive we see the internet explode with rage, there is still a problem. We'll know we don't "need" to do these things when the complaints about doing them stop. We already writeup what we expect of characters, telling people what we expect of players is not a big jump. It's no different than managing expectations.
As some others said about hostility, if you want people to join, AND STAY, write up a small Code of Conduct, and post that for everyone who wants to join. Mention it when you advertise or talk to people. Make sure it mentions you are inclusive, diverse, x-friendly group and also what you will not tolerate: interrupting, harassment, etc. Finally you can even ask when people sign up if they have any triggers or topics they'd like to avoid. (also a hint: DO NOT write or say anything that you wrote up there about why you want women. As you can tell, women don't like it.) But with a code of conduct, you will eliminate anyone who does not want that environment, (and that might create a hostile environment for women, POCs, and LGBTQ people), and instead attract a more diverse playerbase. Because you send a message right away that you will protect players. In addition, it gives you something in writing you can use to kick out troublemakers.
Quote: Now, the problem here is that the target isn't grappled. How does that «partially grappling» condition interact with multiple creatures grappling? They don't. They are not grappling. It helps to check out the 3.5 rules too since there were several updates to how Stirges work that make it more clear. I think when they copied Stirge into the Bestiary they copied an older version. Each stirge is individual, only attaching itself. They are not helping each other in any way. Each has to be removed individually as well. That means that while removing one, the other stirges are still draining. That is the answer to their extremly low CMD. Not trying to buff it, but by adding more of them. Since they are Tiny, I ruled (when doing this in a module) You can have up to 4 stirges on a Medium PC. They kill one stirge thinking "oh this is easy" , then see a swarm of Stirges draining for 3-4 CON a round.
I can completely see the wording's original intent was still to apply only to fear. The first word "any" after "in addition" would have been better written as "a", and it is understandable we thought it applied to other bonuses besides saves vs fear. But to say they "lied" and nerfed an ability because they changed their mind is not supported by the text, but flies in the face of them coming out and saying "this was too powerful we will change it" when they DO make those decisions, and disproven by the fact that others did NOT interpret the ability only the way you did. To claim otherwise involves quite a bit of mind reading.
It can be dispelled? Oh... i guess I better track how many times I used this on one of the PCs. He doesn't even know I did it (insert evil laugh). I was going to have it come up in dreams, but I guess I need to remember this too. Does that mean .. if someone casts dispell... all these Modify Memory are competing with buff spells? So he has 10 modify memory, and one 4th level buff spell, there is a 1 in 11 chance the buff will be dispelled but otherwise one of his memories will come back?
Breath of life is a spell to be used in combat, you get one round. Breath of Life is meant to be very limiting, not a way to bring people back from the dead, but a way to keep people in combat. Gentle Repose affects raising spells, breath of life is a cure spell. GR is meant to let you get your friend back to town a week later, extending the deadline on Raise Dead so they don't decompose. If they wanted Gentle Repose to affect Breath of Life, they would have put it in the Breath of Life description when they made it. After all GR is a well known spell, not something obscure. But the limit on Breath of Life has NOTHING to do with the decomposition level of the corpse. Otherwise the limit may as well be minutes instead of one round. As skylancer4 points out, Breath of Life is a *cure* spell, not a raise dead spell. It only heals hit points, there is even a chance the target does not come to life. The spells have nothing at all to do with each other.
Thanks for the advice. I also added 1d6 damage to anyone who attacks with a natural weapon, in addition to the auras. So far everyone has made their fort saves against slams or other attacks for the dex damage. Tonight we just finished the first session. After 3 hours we are in the middle of stage 2, with the frost zombies coming after them. They are making sure to burn everything to stop regeneration. I hinted at them that it is winter and they should prepare so they did. (the reason I did was in the past one DM decided to use weather out of the blue, after never using it for years, so they were unprepared and irate, I did not want a repeat of that and just said winter is coming in the campaign (it's end of november in our campaign) and linked to the weather rules). But the highlights were from Roll20, (we are spread around the country). With Roll20 I could play spooky music and sound effects, and the screams of the dying monks. Plus screams from the Oni outside that they did not yet know about. Also, I set up some macros so once they walked outside I could limit their vision to 10 feet , with the second 5 feet pretty dim. It really helps set the mood and when one player is in a different room they can't even see what the other players see. Another highlight was a crit with the naganita doing 53 hp of damage to one guy. Which woke them up. :) That was a scary moment. The damage they put out is pretty good, especially when a PC blunders around in the snow with a massive 44 stealth, only to be cut in the face by another naganita from an Oni just out of his vision that can see through snow. That was as much scouting out doors they have done, so they don't even know the other side of the valley has more rooms carved out yet. (though another humorous event was when one PC sent his summoned monster out the door, an Oni out there saw it and threw used his spell-like ability to throw the .. snowball -like effect, which critted and destroyed the summoned monster. so I just told the PC "yeah he died the second he stepped out") So they are definitely afraid to go back outside. Being neutral rather than good, they just shrugged at all the dead monks, and started a fire in the kitchen, and decided to camp out there after killing 2 Oni (one that was in the kitchen, and one that the scout brought back with him). This is the same group that, when I ran them through Feast of Ravenmoore, they decided not to wait to find out what evil is lurking and stabbed the mayor during the festival in front of the whole town :) So while they appreciated the spooky atmosphere their problem-solving is more just kill everything in sight. So since they were sitting there I started stage 2. About 40 zombies are coming down the halls from the bunks. This is where the rules of Pathfinder really get in the way, because they can't really stack up and overwhelm players like they do in movies, the zombies are one per 5' square. So the PCs have a good choke point in the 5' hallway from the sleeping area, even though I have tried using bull rush to push players back and get more zombies through, still they are just sitting there in a line for fireballs and such. And when they kill a zombie without fire they are dragging the bodies back to the fires in the kitchen, so they are not coming back to life. so it's sort of a grind right now and really slow. What happens next will be up to them, it is about 20 degrees right now, they've spent 20 minutes there, and I'm still lowering it 1 degree per minute. If they stay in the kitchen I'll start stage 3 and give Rimiko 10 minutes to summon the huge ice elemental and then come after them, at which point they might all die if they have to fight that, the Yukionna, Ito the wight, and 2 Oni and 1 advanced Oni still left, all at once. (though again, hiding in the kitchen/mess hall, they have a good point to funnel their attackers through). So to motivate them to get out, I may have to keep dropping the temp.
The Magic Weapon and Magic Fang spells state:
Everywhere magic bonuses do not overcome other types of reduction it is explicitly called out as an exception. The rule on magic weapons transferring their abilities to ammo does NOT have a similar restriction. It just says it bypasses "damage reduction", nowhere does it state only "Magic" damage reduction, as the spell states. Therefore, since there is no restriction in the text, the magic overcomes all "damage reduction" which means other types besides magic. Alignment is also transferred, so even if a magic weapon only has the minimum +1, it still overcomes alignment as long as the weapon is of the proper alignment. Alignment is noted regarding damage reduction, not regarding all abilities. It is noted because the only thing that would not be transferred is material. So a cold iron or silver crossbow would not help penetrate cold iron. But cold iron or silver arrows would even if fired from a wooden crossbow. Do other properties apply? Of course. How do we know? Simple deduction from assuming your argument is true. If other properties such as holy did not apply, then most of the magic weapons creation section is utterly useless. The rules would specify people add the abilities to weapons which could not be used, when all they'd have to do is specify the abilities must be added to ammo. The rule makers did not do this. So we have to choose between entire chapters of rules and books full of magic items are wrong, or your interpretation of one sentence is wrong. The best choice is you are interpreting it wrong.
I think you mentioned you roll for weather and encounters when travelling overland, I'd say just change the encounters, and as someone pointed out not all encounters are monsters waiting to attack. I usually start them a few hundred feet away and players often ignore them esp if they are not evil creatures headed towards a town. But I like the idea of many of the "encounters" beings things they see on the ground. After all, I assume the skies in your campaign are not full of monsters and huge predators, so the encounter tables should reflect that. For weather - you could use the same tables you use already. In the Fly skill there are some descriptions of effects for bad weather if it is encountered. Oh, one thing, you could add "strong tailwind" as a possible weather pattern, let them get there a little faster sometimes. :) Since Wind Walk is really just a little faster than ground walking, it's still overland travel so could be handled similarly.
They are fine, it's conservation of momentum.
A small weapon expands, but because it's now heavier, the small amount of force you shot it with cannot propel it with as much velocity as necessary to do the normal damage that an appropriate sized person/bow would. No contradiction at all. It makes perfect sense. In both cases, your damage goes down. That is what makes it consistent. The ONLY odd thing is that a smaller person throwing a weapon does normal damage, I would expect it to also deal smaller damage. So if I were to make a change, I'd change the thrown weapons, making the thrown weapon do less damage for reduce person as well. But I guess they figured that would be too confusing... Besides there should be an easy way around this: have your friend carry around a quiver of large arrows. After you are Enlarged, grab the large arrows from him and shoot them with your bow. Then they won't shrink down to medium size when they hit their target.
We train our own military to shoot people as they retreat. Note retreating is NOT surrendering. Retreating means "come back later to fight again", which is why we keep shooting. Not that they might have thought this would happen. Also, players fight to the death in almost every encounter, so they probably just kept the same strategy: keep on fighting, without even thinking about it. Was it too far? Why? Why were they upset at all? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Maybe they were upset because the ape showed emotion, instead of fighting to the death in a rage, being sad and running away reminded them that harming sentient beings causes emotional pain, leading to suffering. (Sentient beings in the Buddhist sense, not western sense). I think Malwing is on the right track.
Yes for DMs it's generally frowned upon to kidnap characters with the "you wake up in a cell with no equipment" trope, it is just ... painfully overused and often the result of a GM on a power trip, or unimaginative. (unless they do something horribly stupid, and you pity them and don't want to tpk them, and even then, there are other things you can do. watch game of thrones and plenty of people are captured with no escape without needing a prison)
I agree, if it seems bad, it is still nothing compared to 3.5 (Outside of full casters, I don't think anyone took more than 2 or 3 levels in a class the multiclassing was so ubiquitous in our group) And all of the 2e splatbooks were insane. You sound like you played with a core group that wasn't interested in all that, which is great. But what you are seeing now has nothing to do with Pathfinder and everything to do with the Players. Or if you aren't sure, say you want to do a one-off first to help you get into the game and used to the rules. Maybe something fun like the We Be Goblins series, that will introduce you to the rules and let people play crazy characters that are supposed to be crazy and so won't break immersion for you or others.
You should read The Redemption Engine It's pretty much about this exact scenario, and it's a really good novel to boot.
Quote: Many of these feats are incredibly narrow in focus and would only be taken if your GM literally said "This is going to happen in my game AND it's going to be a huge deal." I'm not sure how other people DM but I do exactly this. On character creation I gave out a list of creature types and terrain types and which skills need points so the players could plan accordingly. The campaign I'm running is in Ustalav, and I can see this book getting great use as a DM. It also fills holes in the current rules, such as haunts being featured in modules but difficult for players to deal with if they don't have channel positive energy or one of those glass tubes from the Carrion Crown AP. This gives actual ideas and rules.
I have a degree in math but have a hard time adding quickly at the table (a math degree seemed to involve writing a lot of proofs using Greek letters rather than calculating, engineers do that sort of stuff :) ). Sometimes I would just say the roll and the modifiers, and someone will say out loud what it adds up to. Using Roll20 helps a lot now. And we do something similar to the idea that you write out the possible bonuses before. This only breaks down if a bard or buffer are in the party. But even then, writing it out before should work for awhile since they will probably often use the same spells. But the color coded bonus cards are a great idea. I wonder if a similar idea can be drawn up for roll20.
I says "use your caster level" that is what they are looking at.
The feat modifies your caster level, it does not modify the spell like a metamagic feat would. If you have the correct ioun stone that raises your caster level for all spells, that should be allowed too.
(Moved to this thread) I am still confused about the Hunter teaching the Animal Companion skirmisher tricks: 1. Can any tricks be taught, and we simply replace the word "ranger" with "animal companion" 2. OR Can the hunter only teach the few skirmisher tricks that mention animal companions? I told my players to use interpretation #1. But some of the talents don't make sense or are confusing when used for the AC: All the immediate action ones: for Catfall and Second Chance Strike: would the Hunter use an immediate action as well as the AC? Cunning Pantomime: I can't imagine we mean to give the AC tongues etc Interpretation #1 seems simpler at first glance, but it opens up a host of difficulties. #2 is a lot more limiting but easier to implement. And I have no idea what the intent was with this to begin with.
Also, even for sexually liberal societies, there is a big difference between portraying nudity or consensual sex and casual violence against women. But removing all of that second sort of content is usually good, because often the violence against women in art isn't necessary, and the constant showing it over and over can be traumatizing for people who have been attacked. If you want an example of it being done right, the 2 season series The Fall (now on Netflix in the US) does a great job addressing the issue of tracking a rapist and serial killer of women from a feminist perspective. Gillian Anderson plays the lead investigator. It is really great, and it addresses quite a few issues without being titillating or verging into torture porn teritory.
OK I have the opposite problem from most people that run this, looking at the forums. I have 5 PCs of level 3, two Animal Companions (dinosaurs with barding - they took the feats to allow armor, and they are from Realms of the Mammoth Lord to account for the dinos) and one PC also will summon (Occultist Arcanist). So that's 8 actions they will get. They are also good tactically and unconventional. I know I will have the following problems:
So far i have made the following changes. If you agree or disagree with any, or if you have other ideas, let me know. thanks. Spoiler:
Otherwise the strategy would be this:
If players are still nauseated, now would be the best time to use Contagion and Bestow Curse. Then fly ASAP. Before making any attacks cast blur on itself, then begin to make flyby sting attacks. If any player drinks a potion and gets nauseated, attack that player with a touch spell if he has any left. If the players run, use Diminish Plant to keep them from being able to hide in the corn, and to enable it to swoop in with easier fly checks. If the players hide, then maybe even use grapple to pick up a helpless person, stinging them and draining them and dropping them. Just for fun. Maybe it can go rampaging through the village too until it gets bored and leaves. This also is for RP, since the PCs are neutral bordering on evil, but trying to make a show of being good.
My players are complaining i'm too easy on them.
They are 3rd level, 5 PCs with 2 animal companions, and are all new classes out of the ACG (except the Barbarian), 3 have darkvision, so it's hard enough just from a mechanical perspective. A lot of what I do just slows down the encounter, or they find ways around the smarter stuff. More hp, poison, more monsters, just makes it take longer. So that is my problem mechanically: how do I make an encounter harder without making it boring? (I assume there are tons of threads on this) But secondly how do I get over an aversion to killing PCs?
In Prince of Wolves, we learn the following: Quote: ... the Taldan general Arnisant broke the Shield of Aroden upon the staff of the Whispering Tyrant, sacrificing his own life in the act. That fraction of the god’s power contained within the artifact washed over Tar-Baphon, weakening him sufficiently Mostly we read about the Shield of Aroden, now called the Shattered Shield of Arnisant. However, I am intrigued by the staff that Tar Baphon wielded that was able to destroy the artifact. (Most wiki quotes don't contain the fact the shield was broken against the staff.) I thought, this staff is the perfect replacement for the Greyhawk artifact Rod of Seven Parts/Rod of Law. I let the PCs find out that when Arnisant broke his shield upon it, the staff also broke into 7 pieces which flew to the winds across Golarion. And I called it the Staff of Tar-Baphon. The PCs are in a combo Age of Worms / Carrion Crown campaign taking place in Ustalav, and the staff could work well with my neutral PCs, who may wish to stop or help the cults raise the god they are trying to raise. Since the Rod of Law/Seven Parts is not exactly an evil item that Tar-Baphon would have wielded, what powers do you suggest for me to give it? The first 4" piece (the PCs found in the Whispering Cairn) I made pretty much the same except it can Cure Light Wounds or Cause Light Wounds x times per day. For the 2nd or 3rd piece, similar powers to the Raven's Head, since I am going to use the piece of the Staff, instead of the actual Raven's Head, for that one module that features it. Which, if you've run it, you know about and why. Other changes I made for anyone interested:
Age of Worms spoiler: The players finished the Whispering Cairn in the Age of Worms, which mentions the Rod above. Besides changing the Rod to the Staff of Tar Baphon, I changed the Whispering Cairn to be Arnisant's "lost tomb", instead of some Wind Duke. Also, the bas-reliefs in the tomb were about Sarenrae and Asmodeus trapping Rovagug, and some were about Aroden and later Arnisant defeating the Whispering Tyrant. (As opposed to the Greyhawk lore featuring the Queen of Chaos.) Instead of the items at the end of Whispering Cairn, I actually give them the first piece of the Staff. They have already done the research to realize what they just found is part of the Staff of Tar-Baphon. And the worm in the jar now has something to do with Yhidothrus instead of either of the normal big baddie gods at the end of AoW AP or the CC AP.
Is the maze full of traps to kill people? That is your basic serial killer such as Dr. H. H. Holmes who built a trap house in Chicago like out of a horror movie. The creator told people there is healing in the center, and some myth about teleporting away if you find it to explain the disappearances. But now he is long dead but the myths remain and the traps reset.
Torbyne wrote: This is getting into one of those gray areas, it will depend on the GM. Some will look at "INT 2" and say, "the wolf tells you about strange man smells. but worse than normal. also, there was a squirell and i growled at it. than i saw a movement in the bush and paused for like, two minutes staring at it but it was a thing that was not food moving up a tree."" wouldn't it be: "I started walking and smelled some man, so I went to SQUIRREL!!"
For the sleep spell, we generally play yes: that you fall down and drop your weapon. It is not specified but Paralysis (which is a helpless condition) specifically calls out that you are rooted in place unable to move your limbs. Which leads me to believe the other helpless conditions imply prone and dropping items. Stunned calls out dropping items, but Stunned is not a helpless condition, which is why dropping items has to be specifically called out in that case. Of course neither paralysis nor stunned are unconscious conditions.
EntrerisShadow wrote:
But they DON'T aid mortals, even according to their worldview. They only do so based on contract: IF you do this and that, THEN I may aid you. I don't think in the Pathfinder multiverse that gods require worshipers for their power or to grant spells, so they don't even have that as an excuse. In short, no matter what morality a god says they have, they are all, in the end, selfish jerks who only help people who help the god first, or through those people. So most good people will look at that and say "this guy is not very good, so why ally with him, and even if I ally temporarily I cannot worship such a selfish being" Even Pharasma routes people for eternal punishment for a few years of not being good. That is pretty harsh relative to what they did when alive. Even though Pharasma would say "hey, I'm just keeping balance, not punishing anyone"
Snowblind wrote:
I guess it would depend who you ask. But in Rahadoum they might say merely not worshiping is not enough, since you are not protecting yourself from their insidious lies. But you must actively believe they are unworthy of worship or even of aligning with them. alexd1976 wrote:
Yes but the true Golarion atheist would say said hypothetical farmer is prostituting himself for protection. Going to a god and its church for help is no different than going to organized crime. The god may be powerful but is not "worthy" of being worshipped, and if the good gods believed what they preach they'd be giving healing power out right and left without demanding obeisances. That is why Rahadoum must expand, to give people the organized resources needed to heal themselves without crawling to the local extortion racket, oh i mean church. :)
Wow that Law Bane sounds deliberately targeted at you. I guess for him thinking you embarrassed him. He sounds .... not very mature. Coltron wrote: there is not a lot to do other than run away....a lot. ("I am sorry guys but my settings goblins and orcs are creatures of shadow can only be harmed by casting light on them first. I wanted cantrips to matter more......) hah that would be funny ... I actually sent out hints to players before they rolled up characters, told them which skills would matter (as in, we never use swim but in my campaign there will be swim checks) and which terrain and monster types would be most prevalent for favored ** choices. I even gave them copies of relevant pages from Golarion books (which no one has since we used to play in Faerun). Of course only two of five people read it but hey I tried and kept reminding them.
I was considering this, since the players have not met my BBEG yet, and I want her to be a master of charisma-related skills, behind the scenes maneuvering people to get what she wants. And a halfling is pretty good at those things. I'm also considering ratfolk. Unfortunately I've already set up troglodytes as the main villain species. But, as noted, many people have a hard time imagining a little person as intimidating. Hopefully Peter Dinklage's Tyrion will change that. Even in the books I felt like this is really the first little person I've seen that is written just like any other character. It informs him and his experience but doesn't define him. And Peter Dinklage is awesome in that role as he is in every roll I've ever seen him in.
If in Irrisen, or perhaps Ustalav and Varisian as well, (and Khopesh) tea at someone's home might be served in a Samovar rather than a typical teapot we are familiar with. I think they also used to brew tea extra strong, sometimes even boiling it down, and then later use more hot water to dilute it to taste. Google Samovar images, and you can find Russian ones (Irrisen), Persian, etc. I'd never heard of them until a recent Selfridge's episode.
I'd add scent 15'. Perhaps even blindsense due to keen hearing and scent. Keep prehensile but remove the slap, as noted above. I am not sure if the +2 should go in STR or CON. Either seems appropriate. For extra flavor, they would mainly live in Vudra, and could all be of celestial heritage, involving their ancestors mating with a Vudran celestial being. Could we call them Devis? (Devi for singular). Perhaps they could be Asura or Agathion descended, and have slightly different abilites or resistances dependent on which. Agathion descendant: resist cold 5, sonic 5
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