• I’m getting rid of one of the factions in exchange for an undead sector. Perhaps, at its center are vampires who are in some form of stasis from the time of the earthfall. The area is protected by undead minions, and as the city is getting explored, something triggers the mechanism to re-awaken the vampire masters

Good idea. Remember that Zura is ablood drinking demon lady worhipped by the guys whos et up the temple in book 1. Maybe the Players who wre exposed to her temple cause them to awaken?

These are great ideas. I was already thinking of having the Charau-ka splinter off and start in-fighting, as some wanted to back off, others become followers of the Party, and finally another larger group leave and join the shaman with Gruganoth.

Those that back off and leave end up contacting the Gorilla King and bringing him to Savnth-Yhi.

I liek the idea of the Demon ape atatcking humans, and changing the Radiant Muses quest (or adding to it :D).

So my PCs started by trying to take over the Military District, and I would like some advice on how to handle the ramifications of their actions.

First let me give a brief description of what happened:

They ran into a Charau-Ka patrol, and captured one of them, killing the rest. Through magic and skill use they figured out that Olujimi was in the Fort.

They advanced into the Fort, the infiltration of which was fairly easy because from the description the Anghazani only kept his dominated dire Apes as guards. They subdued them quickly, and then had a vicious battle with Olujini who almost killed them. They got lucky and killed the bad guy before he escaped.

The cut off Olujimi's head, using as proof they were tough, based on the information they had on Charua-ka who respect the Mighty. I has them advance into the plaza and once again through skill, lucky rolls and magic, they tamed the Girallons and called the Charua-ka forward to bend the knee.

I had the Charau-ka set up a parley, and they went looking for their shaman to talk to the PCs. The Shaman, after hearing the news, freed the Demon with the Salve.

The PCs were informed that the Shaman and the new Leader would meet with them at the Spear. The rest of the Charau-ka, torn between Grogunoth (sp?) and the PCs, decided to stay neutral and watch what unfolded.

The Half-fiend Dire Ape proved formidable, and it took every last ounce of the Players resources to survive. The Shaman and Half-fiend were able to escape.

The session ended with the PCs holding the Spear, the Demon Ape fleeing with the Shaman.

Now I need to decide how the Charau-ka tribe reacts. The PCs of course are now dreaming of using monkey armies. I am of course loathe to allow them to, considering that the Charua-ka should be a head-ache to control.

I'm also wondering what the Half-fiend will do. My players hate when NPCs get away, but I'm not sure where the Half-fiend Ape would go to try and build an army.

Any ideas?

I Like that. Anything to build paranoia is a good thing.

So, I ahd a huge battle in which the PCs took a big hit but survived. This gave Yarzoth enough time to escape to the Inner sanctum where she lies hidden. If the PCs figure she's up there with her notes, she'll vanish and try to impersonate one of the NPCs.

The question becomes, what will she do from now onwards?

Ideas are greatly apreciatted.

Quote:

Heat (Ex)

The creature generates so much heat that its mere touch deals additional fire damage. The creature’s metallic melee weapons also conduct this heat.

Format: heat (1d6 fire); Location: Special Attacks.

Heat is fire damage.

Please note that otherwise nothing would be immune to heat and we would have things like red dragons, devils, and fire giants dying of their environment being to hot since nothing gives them mechanical immunity to their environment.

IIRC, in 3.5 there was a ruling somewhere that protection from fire basically treated heat conditions as 2 lower, while protection from cold did the same for cold exposure.

In that case, I'd personally rule that your FR 1 would reduce the heat exposure by 1 level.

How many days can the PCs cut from their travel time?

So is there a player's map out there anywhere that I can give to my player that has marked the things that are common knowledge? They have the map from Racing to Ruin so they can mark their journey, but it's not enough. Thanks for any help!

If you have the pdf, you can use the "some pdf image extractor" or similar software. It'll take out the pdf and convert it to a pdf without any text on it.

For A Mgocracy in a D&D world, you need to decide if it's going to be school based or not.

If it is School based, you have to solve the issue of what to do with Universalists and Elementalists.

Basically form a Council of 9 Members, 1 of each school and 1 more representing Universalists/Elementalists. All mayor decisions are taken by the Council, with some decisions requiring a Minor Consensus (5-4), Major Consensus (6-3), and Absolute Consensus (9-0).

The Council elects 9 officers that serve for 9 years each, each year re-electing a new officer. These officers take care of the actual administration of the nation (taxes, spying, etc..)

So basically you have a 9 member Parliament/Supreme Court and an executive branch that handles the actual governance.

High level mages don't have the time to be adminstering, but tehy aren't about to give up the power they want. The council members would be elected by each school according to their own internal rules (Might be a figurehead, might be a true power). But actually having to read reports and stamp them is better left to young wippersnappers trying to move up in the hierarchy.

This model presents a lot of potential for intrigue, as most officers are selected to pay back favors between Council members.

Basic answer: poking your finger too much might just wake up the Tyrant. Old Legends amongst Orc shamans still recall how the Tyrant turned their invading horde into an undead army and sent them back to destroy the orcs. It took generations to recover from the Dead Wars.

Demons are smart enough not to want to have to deal with the Tyrant. Yet...

Regarding your border patrol: Use the Night Watch idea from the Song of Ice and Fire. Convicted criminals, second sons of nobility, etc.. are responsible for holding the borders.

Personally, what I would do is keep narrating the combat, and when the players are pressing their enemies, have Iomedae taking the upper hand. When the PCs combat turns desperate and they are slowly being pushed back, see Iomedae trip or something. basically their fight and how it proceeds reflects how Iomedae fares. So basically narrate a swordfight, with two auras around each god. While the PCs fight the level apropriate encounters of Aroden's guardians.

Nothing is stopping you from actually building a familial connection between the gods. They are/were a race/family of entities that realized that worship grants power. What they didn't realize is that same worship enforces a pattern on them.

The Book of the Damned, Volume 1, has something liek this, where Asmodeus and another come from. I'd add Rovagug as one of these elemental or prime forces.

The you can have the "old" gods and "new" gods, as well as the Demon Lords, all primary creatures that have now aligned themselves with some source of power (souls), theough damnation or worship.

Evil party's work. They have to be built appropriately, and the whole crew has to agree to the blueprint. One type:

- A Charistmatic leader others are willing to follow. Best bet is Cleric, Rogue or Bard here. Make him a scion of nobility with the desire to rule the country/world/temple.
- A brutish thug who is the Leader's enforcer. He does what he is told because he loves/worships the Leader PC or doesn't have the imagination to betray him. A smart Leader keeps this guy happy by delivering virgins to sate his baser lusts. Barbarian/Fighter works very well here.
- The assassin/spy type. This is the trickiest type. It works best if romantically involved with the Leader, or maybe as a family member who recognizes his best shot is to hang around the well loved leader. Ranger/Rogue works awesomely here.
- The ammoral brains behind the throne. He wants power, but doesn't want to deal with the trapping s and responsibility. Hooking up with the Leadre and enforcing his agenda leads to wealth/power/willing sacrifices for his research. Cleric or Wizard works well here as well.

Curse of the Crimson Throne would work well here. Just make the family of the Leader the only worthy threat to the Queen is a succession, that the rabble would rally around. Then the Queen would try to get rid of them as a preventive maneuver, setting the party against her from the start. Their only hope is to fight back, and the heroic NPCs could be dilluded into following them because they are less of an evil (maybe), or because the Leader is good at dissembling his evilness to the public.

Remember, the party can appear to be good while been deeply evil. Many dictators have been deeply loved by the masses wh were unaware of their villainy.

The above is just one blueprint of many that might work. Evil party's are very effiecient in the sense that they ar very self motivatedf for power grabbing.

Exactly, if it's something that the bad guys would do that helps define them as bad... that might be a clue.

Recycling is evil?

I knew it!!!

That Paladin book was very good. I have my players coming up with their codes. :D

As soon as I have them I'll post them up here

I hope this helps give you some ideas on where to go.

Yeah, they are very similar. I think I'll play up the fact that for Torag, wanton destruction is anathema. Arson would be a major crime.

For Iomedae, it's more about righteousness. So torture would be anathema.

Just a couple of specific tactics that my PCs sometimes use, that as paragons of virtue they SHOULD be against ;)

So, in my CoT campaign, I have 2 paladins. One of Iomedae and the other of Torag.

So I need to differentiate between them, and thought the code would be a good way to do so. So any help from this group would be very welcome.

If you really want to blow his mind, have the name be the cleric's own...

But I'm Just a Gnome wrote:

If the Shrine turns out not to have any special features or secrets... maybe we can remodel and flip it?

It doesn't have any map printed, but the adventure suggests using "Flip-Mat: Cathedral" if necessary. It's not really supposed to just be one big room (however, if the DM wants it to be, then it naturally is).

In the last module there is a map for the shrine, BTW.

Change the name of the magic item shops into master craftsmen.

Keep the random generation of items as is, but when you roll a stave, what you actually rolled was a Master play by Shakespeare. Or Michelangelo's painting of the sixtine chapel.

Basically, the mechanics of the magic tems are there to generate resources for your economy. Just file the serial numbers off.

Keep the temple and shrines, and basically the wealth they produce is because of pilgrimages.

The magic item shops become Master artisans, producing great art.

Westcrown Warriors for Freedom or Westcrown Wants Freedom.

They really wanted to be WWF

I hate them sometimes

I think, at least in my minds eye, i see the 'tracing of the runes' as you trace your finger on the rune itself, but the next rune may be on ther other side and not actually touching the first one. then, you trace that rune.

that would make it 1/11/x1/10*1/9

or 1/11!

that's a pretty low probability (1 in 40 million aprox)

I'm thinking of using the planes angle.

Each Side representing a Symbol of...

1) Positive Energy Plane
2) Material Plane
3) Ethereal
4) Shadow
5) Negative Energy
6) Air
7) Water
8) Earth
9) Fire
10) Astral
11) The Outer Planes
12) The Unholy Symbol of Asmodeus as the last 'Stamp'

Ut how do they decide the combination?

I like the idea of the symbols not lighting up if I go this route.

Yeah, I'll use this as well.

1: Cyclops
2: Tiefling
3: Otyugh
4: Hellcat
5: Pentagram
6: A fiendish wasp
7: A 7 crested glacier (double whammy, Cocytus is the 7th layer after all)
8: Retriever
9: 3 cerberus hounds
10: Holy symbol of Asmodeus in a pentagram
11:Maralith stabbed by 5 swords
12: 12 Headed Hydra

1: Cyclops
2: Tiefling
3: Chimera
4: Hellcat
5: Pentagram
6: A fiendish wasp
7: A rune signifying Hell (7 layers)
8: Spider
9: ??
10:??
11:??
12: 12 Headed Hydra

Help me fill in the blanks!

DM handout: what Pathfinder Ailyn Ghontasavos discovered in the libraries of Skyreach at the Great Lodge in Absalom that lead her to Westcrown.

awesome! Thanks!

That map is awesome! Can you also mark the Safe House?

Thanks!

I can see if I can scale the picture up. I did it in Gimp so I think I can, but graphic programs and me aren't best friends.

I also did up a cost of living per sector for renting/owning various types of properties basing their cost (though not exactly the same) off the Guide to Korvosa book. My PC really like being landlord. One of them even took the leadership feat to have people run his printing press to help spread propaganda.

Can we see those costs? ;)

Where can I find info identifying terrain types for the Hex map? The legend doesn't seem to clarify it.

The situation facing Westcrown in this adventure is chaotic enough that "deputizing" the PCs might not really have much of an effect, even if it WERE legally done. The Mayor DOES have that power, though, although it's not a permanent deputization until the paperwork with the national government is filed and signed in triplicate.

I've been very carefully illustrating how bureaucratic everything is in Cheliax. Had one of the PCs mentors be arrested for operating a school without the proper license. Things escalated from their...

They had to deal with the Justice system, which requires hiring a cleric of Asmodeus to study th law. By paying him enough, he will find, or have the temple write up, exemptions and ameliorating circumstances to just about any case (except forging, demon consorting).

If you want to motivate PCs into reforming a city, there is nothing betetr than making them hate bureaucracy. :D

So, I thought having a thread were we can all share how we are foreshadowing future NPCs would be a useful resource. I'll start with what I have done so far.

Vanhwinhe: I had the monk NPC receive her when she disembarked, since she was an old associate of his Master. She disappeared days later, and hasn't reappaerd.

Aylwin Ghonstalvos: I had her be a pasenger in a carriage that was accosted by bandits (led by Stiglor). One of the PCs is a nobleborn bard returning from Egorian, and he helped save the carriage during a chase scene.

Stiglor: He has sworn a personal vendetta against the bard.

Shanwen: He defaced a shrine of Gozreh, which is cared for by one of the PCs. He'll aslo be about to brutalize Morosino for a perceived slight. I expect one of the players to intervene.

Amaya: I'll have Thesing accost her, trying to cop a feel. One of my players will smack him or scare him.

Janiveh: I'll have her be accosted by some thugs. One of the PCs will be around and likely come to her aid.

Arael: The bard will probably see Aylin meeting with Arael at some point.

This all happens before Janiveh calls them in.

Hope those help.

I've got those covered...it's his name itself I'd change (Mammon). Maybe an alliteration: Ammon?

So, I'm sure Mammon sounds ominous and cool to you English speakers, but ins Spanish that name threatens to cause my players to burst in to giggles.

Mamar: to suckle
Mamon: Somebody who suckles.

If that wasn't bad enough, in CHile it is slang for a couple of things.

Eres un Mamon = You are a Momma's boy
Dame un Mamon = Asked the boy to his girlfriend. I leave exactly what he is offering her to suckle to your imagination.

Hence, I will not be using Mammon as the name of the Lord of Erebus. I need another name. Ideas?

The part I'm working through now is trying to pull elements forward to make it more integrated and feel less segmented. This includes: introducing NPCs earlier to give them a greater connection to the PCs before their plot device is used, having PCs be aware of important or common knowledge locations or events before they become relevant (eg, the Hagwood), and injecting more foreshadowing or dispensing of information a bit more organically.

This is what I'm working through myself. Personally, I've added some more noble family infighting, changing some of the NPCs into nobles, even minor ones. But like you, I want to have my players be aware of the Mother of Flies from the beginning. I want to have them now about the female Vampire hunter that has come to fight the shadow creatures, even meet her. etc..

I started a thread regarding this, called the CoT Rumor Mill. Maybe a collaborative effort is in order.

That is, until someone did actually manage to hit him. Then he crumpled like a cheap paper plate.

It's easy to create glass cannon's in True20 ;) My players have slowly been learning that a glaring weakness will get exploited at some point or another.

Yeah, I had the same disconnect. What I think I'm going to do is go with the Zorro approach as well. In the first adventure the players are asked to act using their disguises. I'm going to make it so that they wear purple cloaks, given to them by Janiveh (Simple cloaks of Resistance). They'll wear these only in their guise as CoW. So they'll wear a mask and these color cloaks. All points go to the purple cloaks. The points accrued from the Sixfold Trial will only come into effect if their undercover persona is linked to their official identity.

If players acquire a magic cloak, Arael will dye it purple ;)...magically

I'm open to suggestions on the color (purple is a palce holder at the moment). Black and red are already taken by House Thrune. Maybe Blue? Green? Any colors associated to Aroden's Westcrown?

1) It seems like there is no downside to a Warrior taking Ranger/Paladin. ... What was your thinking into making it this way?

This is exactly the kind of input I needed. I copied those feats from Baduin, who started his own conversion. You are correct in that they present no downside at this moment. I was more interested in the fact that he'd come up with a good way of granting acccess to power Lists rather than in the fact that in how they stand they grant way too much power. Let me think:

Ranger (Warrior)

The key ability for Rangers is Wisdom. Rangers can take the following powers, when taking either Adept or Warrior levels: Cure, Detect, Energy Resistance, Enhance Abilities, Enhance Senses, Influence Others (Animal), Resistance, Restoration, Snare, Summon (Animal).
A Ranger can use any of those powers he had not learned by expending a Conviction point. He must still fulfill prerequisites.

In that version, it removes the feat benefit but it grants the benefit of power usage and access. I' m not sure about keeping it a Warrior feat though.

What is the point of being a straight fighter?

It's not overpowering in the sense that a) their Adept Level will be lower, limiting the level of benefit, b) Players are stingy with Conviction c) the power list is limited. The point of been a pure fighter is that you can have more combat feats and more staying power. Also, Ranger's that want to benefit from power usage have to have good Wis, or they'll fatigue quickly. Sure, a fully buffed Ranger might have a slight edge over a pure Warrior, but the Warrior didn't have to spend rounds and resources boosting up. Remember that true20 is balanced (mainly) on a per Encounter basis, not a per day basis.

2) Do sorcerers get 2 Core Abilities?

Exactly. Sorcerors have very little flexibility. In exchange they have their Core Ability (whichever they pick) plus the sorceror Ultimate Power Ability (I edited for clarity, hopefully). This makes Sorcerors very powerful but unflexible. I haven't allowed them to cast rituals either, further limiting their power. I like the flavor that gives. I might make a ritualist feat that allows sorcerors to cast rituals, with a -5 challenge though.

3)Let me understand wizards.

That's exactly how it works. They have great flexibility, but must must choose wisely before entering combat. I felt this was the best way to reflect that in True20, once again taking into account that True20 is balanced per Encounter.

4) I didn't see "Supernatural Focus" defined anywhere. .... Seems underpowered.

Sorry, editing problems ;) It should be called "Power Focus". Remember I use Saga Powers, and the Power Focus feat allows a +5 edge in the numbers game. That is huge. Unspecialized players can't Focus on any powers though. So even more flexibility at the expense of ultimate power versus focused effectiveness and some weaknesses.

5) Rituals. Am I right in assuming that you've taken the more "utilitarian" spells and allowed these...

That's exactly what I did. I also made the item crafting feats into rituals. I'm thinking of allowing non-spell-casters to use these rituals at a penalty with some other skills (master weapon smith for example), to reflect those kind of items.

6) Magic items seem to be a bigger part of your game than a typical t20 game. I guess with limiting some of the options for Core Abilities, this makes some sense. Any worries that characters will become overpowered via magic?

I ran RoTR with RAW True20. What my players missed the most was magic loot. Not for the munchkins or for powergaming, but because it is part of the essence of D&D, and now Pathfinder. I've done my best to limit the numerical effects of magic items, trying to make them flavorful. For example, a MW weapon already grants a +1 to attack. So I decided that magic weapons grant a flat +1 to damage. There is no way to increase the benefit of that damage (so no +4 swords). The weapons can have additional powers attached (flaming, ghost touch, etc..), that map to Pathfinder items for ease of conversion. I haven't finished the weapons though.

8) Set shield: This is new to me. Seems like extra work to make a character ready shield against a missile attack. Is the extra bookkeeping worth it? For instance, I would just assume (as in d20) that a character is defending as best as possible against all attacks. Just to make my life easier.

Yeah, this is new, something I made up. You can easily go with what you say. Notice that I changed how the Armor Training feats work. A pet peeve of mine. I also made a Shield Training Feat that allows to have the Shield Bonus always "on". It's mostly to add even more difference to Melee and Ranged combat. I was trying to offset the DEX is all problem of True20.

By the way, check out my rules for armor. This was inspired by the Iron Heroes forum. Sadly I don't remember who it was. The idea is to create hodgepodge armor, and to make items like helms actually have an ingame effect that is simple to quantify. So now a helm of teleportation has both an armor effect an it's associated power.

My cursory glance showed some editorial mistakes (all the roles refer to the Adept feat list when they level up, for instance).

Waiting for my Editor to actually get going on the editing. I've got chunky fingers... ;)

I'm curious how you developed the Core Ability powers. They seem weaker than what's in the t20 rulebook. I like that you've allowed your players to choose an appropriate Ability; I had planned something similar, although I made a list for each of the three roles.

Based on the Revised True20 handbook as well as some made up by myself and others in the True20 forums. In any case, the cleric, paladin, ranger, sorceror and Wizard are feats that grant additional conviction powered abilities

One note on spells: there was a supplement called True Sorcery that had a variant spell casting sytem that looked like it would allow d20/Pathfinder spells with the True20 system. It was a points-based system, with feats allowing the adept to cast higher-level spells. That would allow you to maintain the spellbook-based magic system while keeping the more useful "cast a low level spell an unlimited number of times" thing that True20 has going for it. I'm curious if you had looked at that, since it seemed to allow a nicer flow between d20 and True20.

I have TrueSorcery, and it was used as an inspiration, though it was stremalined quite a bit in my case. TrueSorcery was a good idea, but it was overwhelmingly complex for some people.

One final note. The roles listed in the rulebook were based on "5 points." Some brief calculations seemed to indicate that with Pathfinder, the power-creep effect meant that 5.5 points was more realistic.

That is True. I was thinking of giving players 7 points for abilities instead of the RAW 6 for True20. That would be equivalent to Pathfinder's +2 Net to races I believe. In my background system it would mean the base is 6 and not 5. I haven't done it yet, because I want to keep the numbers low. It shouldn't be much of a problem.

I could actually use this in my Wed game. Any word from Paizo?

Any chance we get some Paizo folk to clarify this for us?

Fixed the link for you.

Thanks.

Opinions?

http://iwattgaming.pbworks.com/True20-House-Rules

The above link will take you to my humble attempt to streamline the use of Pathfinder APs and Golarion with the True20 system. Well kind of, because I've streamlined and Pathfinderized the Power's system so as to maintain the flavor, but keep the True20 goodness.

WARNING: I converted all Powers into Saga-like powers. Each one is treated as it's own Saga like skill. The mechanics of powers are all standardized, unlike the RAW True20 that has way too many subsystems. If you are not a fan of skill based magic, this might be a problem. I also use SAGA skill progressions.

What's so useful for Pathfinder Conversions

- A Powers system (i.e charm, fireball, summon) divorced from the Rituals system (i.e. Speak with dead, arcane lock, knock).

- I'm particularly proud of my Arcane School divisions. They don't map perfectly to Pathfinder, but they do keep the flavor of d20 schools (IMHO).

- I like my "Domain" rules, but will happily hear opinions from Golarion fans on changes to those power lists to better define the clerics. I think these could be better (some of the deity lists sound familiars).

- Quick Monster Creation through Monster Roles (villain Classes) and template design (trait pricing).

I will be trying these out in my upcoming CoT campaign, so I will let you know how it goes.

The wiki assumes a working knowledge of d20 and True20 in some cases. I wasn't developing a stand alone SRD, but more like a game aid. If anything is confusing, feel free to ask.