jakoov's page

Hi everybody!

I'm currently running Age of Ashes (the PCs just arrived in Cypress Hill and are enjoying themselves A LOT, they don't have much sympathy for slavers), and I'm having a lot of fun.

The only problem I have with it is... the adventure is set in Isger and yet we have nothing on Isger proper, and also nothing like a gazetteer of Elidir (the place where PCs are likely to go). I'm currently preparing for a side-quest concerning Hedvend VI's Throne Contract, and I really can't find anything useful on the capital of Isger anywhere (even the Inner Sea Guide has just a very small paragraph).

How can I find some more information on Elidir? Really, my only gripe with AoA is not having a guide to the nation where the AP is set. :D

Hello,

Unfortunately, I can't afford it anymore.
Could you cancel my Adventure Path Subscription as soon as the current AP (Skulls and Shackles) has ended? :(
Thank you in advance.
J

Hello,

I'm sorry, but for economic reasons I have to cancel my Pathfinder Campaign Setting and Pathfinder RPG subscription. :-/
J

Hello,

I recently purchased the ToH bundle and I already downloaded the PDF. The problem is, I had an economic downfall and cannot afford to buy the hardcover. Would it be possible to convert my purchase in just the pdf? Would it be a problem?
Thank you in advance.

Hello,

unfortunately, economic issues force me to cut a bit my Paizo expenses. I have to cancel my Companion subscription.
J

Hello!

I'm one of the translators for the Italian edition of Pathfinder.
While translating the Player's Guide, I found two adjectives concerning the people of Brevoy: one is "Brevan" (seldom used, only in the Player's Guide and the Brevoy primer), the other is "Brevic" (much more common, even in other works).
Which one's correct? Are they both referring to people and object coming from Brevoy?
I'd like to have an official answer, if possible... :-)
J

Hello,

sorry, but I have to cut something from my subscription... :-(

Hello,

sorry to bother, but I have to cancel my fresh PFRPG subscription. The shipping costs are just too high. I'll buy the PDF and get the printed version at my local LGS.

Thanks for your time.
J

Hello,

I hope it's possible to merge order #1183077 (PFRPG poster) and #1072432 (PFRPG and Bestiary preorder), so that I'll receive the poster and the RPG at the same time.

Also, is it possibile to separate the PFRPG book from the Bestiary? I'd like to receive the RPG as soon as possible. ^_^

Thanks for your time.
J

I'm so sorry to bother you again... Can you merge also order #1183151 with order #1072432 and #1183077? I feel so stupid sometimes... -_-

Hi to all,

I know I'm terribly late on this topic, but... While playing I met the biggest turndown of channel energy: the saving throw.

The party was fighting against the seven spawn of Kyuss in the basement of Blackwall Keep, during Age of Worms, and I realized that the cleric and the paladin could cover, with their channel positive energy ability, could well cover the whole room they were fighting inside.
...
This meant SEVEN saving throws every round, and keeping tabs on which spawn was shaken, which one were panicked... and regularly forgetting which one was suffering what.

Can we "go back a step", and remove the saving throw, or find another way to adjudicate the effects of the channel energy ability? I don't mean I want to go back to the nearly useless 3.5 turn undead ("sacred" feats had to be created to make turning useful...), but... take the image of Kyra in Gods and Magic: epic, wonderful, cool. But for a for a PFRPG DM, that channel energy would be something of a nightmare... so many saving throws... >_<

EDIT: Disclaimer. I know, "use something to remember the status of the enemies"... "God, what would you do with more enemies"... "Just seven? I managed to run through a fight with 30 18th-level wizards and had no problems remembering their buffs"...
Honestly, I don't play RPGs for combat, the thought of combats that last 3-4 hours bore me to snore and I beleive many DMs and players are with me on this. I'm not a combat-oriented DM, and that's one of the reasons I don't like 4E. Make combat simple, guys. ;-)

Hi,

My copy of Gods & Magic seems to have a slight problem, since the central section is literally falling apart.
Sorry to bother you, but I was hoping to get a replacement.
Thank you.

J

DAMN YOU, damn you, thread slaad! >_<

Hello Jason,

I'm in need of clarification about the Master Crafter feat (a feat I find really interesting, I must say), and I have a comment to make.

The clarification: does it mean a fighter with Craft (wood bunnies)* will be able to create magic carpets (provided he has access to the required scrolls), or must the type of item created be strictly limited to his Craft/Profession?

The comment: wouldn't the "non creation" Profession skills create a problem? I talk about skills like Profession (gambler) or Profession (sailor), not aimed at creating items. Shouldn't this feat be limited to Craft skills (needed to create objects)?

Thanks in advance.
J

*(yes, a player in my first campaign had this skill. Yes, it's rather sad, yes, I was naive, yes, he was a jerk -_-)

Hello Jason,

I'm in need of a clarification about the Master Crafter feat (a feat I find really interesting, I must say), and I have a comment to make.

The clarification: does it mean a fighter with Craft (wood bunnies)* will be able to create magic carpets (provided he has access to the magic items containing the required spells), or must the type of item created be strictly limited to his Craft/Profession?

The comment: is it possible that the "non creation" Profession skills create a problem? I talk about skills like Profession (gambler) or Profession (sailor), not aimed at creating items. Shouldn't this feat be limited to Craft skills (needed to create objects)?

Thanks in advance.
J

*Yes, a player in my first campaign had this skill. Yes, it's rather sad. Yes, I was naive. Ys, he was just being a jerk. -_-

Bumpity bump...

AAAARGH! The postmonster ate a lot, this evening.

Hi to all,

This evening I've been converting an NPC I created for a 3.5 campaign set in Greyhawk using the rules of Nephandum.
The NPC was an elf illusionist 7/master of the absurd 7 (a Nephandum PrC based on empowering figments). In the conversion, I decided to ditch the PrC, since some of its powers were similar to those ofm the illusionist specialist. The NPC became thus a 14th level illusionist.

During the creation, I realized something that made things quite difficult: the wizard has too many powers, and creating one really is time consuming, even more so than in 3.5...
I mean, it took about 30 minutes, not counting spells (prepared and spellbook) and feats (I had already decided both when I first created the NPC). The most time consuming thing was deciding the extra spells obtained at 2nd, 4th, 6th and so on level... Really, the creation seemed neverending.

Anyone else felt the same? Am I exaggerating (mind you, it could be :-D)?

Hi to all,

This evening I've been converting an NPC I created for a 3.5 campaign set in Greyhawk using the rules of Nephandum.
The NPC was an elf illusionist 7/master of the absurd 7 (a Nephandum PrC based on empowering figments). In the conversion, I decided to ditch the PrC, since some of its powers were similar to those ofm the illusionist specialist. The NPC became thus a 14th level illusionist.

During the creation, I realized something that made things quite difficult: the wizard has too many powers, and creating one really is time consuming, even more so than in 3.5...
I mean, it took about 30 minutes, not counting spells (prepared and spellbook) and feats (I had already decided both when I first created the NPC). The most time consuming thing was deciding the extra spells obtained at 2nd, 4th, 6th and so on level... Really, the creation seemed neverending.

Anyone else felt the same? Am I exaggerating?

I can only say... YAY! YAY!

Wyrd Edizioni is going to translate Pathfinder in Italian, starting with Second Darkness, to be presented at Lucca Comics and Games 2008.

A good news for all the Italian Paizoners, I guess. :-)

All right... The PCs have cleared D0 without much problems.
The adventure helped us understanding a bit something about grappling and CMB (BMC in Italian :-D).

Sunday, they began Crown of the Kobold King, and... Well... The adventure is a true killer.
They expended all of their Channel Energy and smite evil, while the sorcerer is almost out of spells...

Hi to all,

I recently translated in Italian the Diamond Lake Campaign Backdrop for my players.
Since I'll be narrating their campaign on an italian RPG messageboard, I'd like to attach the document (it contains translated text and some images) to the first post.

Can I do so? Or do I violate the copyright by distibuting it to a larger audience?

Uhhhh... No luck for me? I'll have to wait for the two separate shipments?

Is there a way to know if I'll receive all of the shipments by the 28th of august?

Thanks a lot. :-)

Hi,

I just received my first Pathfinder subscription (#10), and went to "My Subscriptions" to check on the freshly-added subscription to Pathfinder Chronicles... And I noticed something strange.

Near to the Pathfinder logo was:

Ongoing Subscription

Most recent volume:
Volume #10 shipped 07/02/08 via USPS Package Service (estimated 9 to 36 business days in transit)

Next volume:
Volume #12 will be the next volume to ship

No number 11 in my subscription?

Thanks in advance for the answer. :-)

Wow. I used "subscription" seven times in this post. :-D

Hi to all,

Here's the comments regarding the playtest I conducted with four players, set in Ravenloft and using the Alpha 3 rules and the Gazetter I (published by Arthaus).

The setting: the domain of Forlorn, in the current year (758 BC).

The level: the players started at 1st level. They were all humans.

Rules: Pathfinder Alpha 3 (racial hit points), some setting specific feats, OGL spells only.

The story took the PCs from 1st to 8th level, and started in the village of Forfarmax (see Gaz I, page 82)

The PCs:
Sean MacFarn (human male paladin 8, LG): Self-styled last descendant of the MacFarn clan, he became a holy warrior of Brigantia (goddess od animals, nature and protection), and a dedicated exterminator of goblyns plaguing the land of Forlorn. He is bethrothed to Rhianna.
NOTE: Since in Ravenloft there's no way of determine a person alignement, Sean travels with Rhianna with no problems.

Rhianna ApMorten (human female sorcerer 8, NE): Scion of the ApMorten clan, effectively rulers of Forfarmax, she seemed to be born dead, but a jolt of electricity her mother Lionna (an accomplished wizard herself) unwillingly released brought her back to life. Rhianna has a knack for necromancy, has failed a Powers Check, and yhe Undead bloodline. She is terribly attached to her community, madly in love with Sean and has a strong bond to her other comrades, but is otherwise a very dangerous person. She wants to gather more power for her family, so to win back the land of Forlorn.

Ross MacFarn (human male barbarian 4/fighter 4 CG): Cousin to Sean and childhood friend of Rhianna, Ross is the best fighter in Forfarmax, a true berserker. He's good to his friends as he is bad to goblyns and zombie wolves. He's extremely protective of Rhianna, and enjoys fighting with Sean. He's not fond of Colin.

Colin MacDermac (human male rogue 4/ranger 4 N): Colin is a wilderness fighter, a merciless slayer of goblyns (he still has a scar on his face caused by goblyn feeding). He is silent, cruel and swift. A typical man from Forlorn. His goal is to slay the solleyder, the half-real/half-imagined entity leading the goblyns. He fell in love with Sean, but the paladin doesn’t suspect it.

The PCs have gone up in levels really quickly (unfortunately, I haven't used XP for a very long time, nor I did this time, so I can't say if the different progression work...), with an average of 1 level per two session. I tried to have at least an encounter per session. They started from brief skirmishes with goblyns and zombie wolf, to end with a confontation with an undead treant under an ancient burrowing mound. The encounter ended with Rhianna controlling the massive undead tree, and bringing it back near Forfarmax to be studied by her family (thanks in good measure to the fact that all the other PCs were unconscious and stable). There was no healer, but they managed to survive thanks to Sean and his lay on hand and, later, to a CMW wand used by Rhianna with her Use Magic Device skill.
The mini-campaign (played in May) was balanced between non-hostile encounters and combat.

My comments: I really enjoyed the game. No, really. :-D

General comments by the players:
They were happy to have a character who was useful without prestige classes and violent multiclassing (the rogue and the barbarian later told me the multiclassed out of habit, since they felt less useful than the single classed PCs).
They really liked the CMB, but were not too fond of using one Combat Feat per round.
The “feat every two level” is something they really enjoyed.
The improved skill rank and the skill consolidation (though Perception and Stealth was something I already used for a year and a half of game…) was something well loved, though they felt they had less choices ant first level (having 10 points instead of 40 was something the rogue didn’t really liked), but he adapted with no problems. Seeing the cross-class skills gone made us throw a party, waste us out with beer and wine, the start again the next day.
In general, the reaction was enthusiastic. Mainly because the classes became interesting to be played fully from 1st to 20th level.

Specific comments
Paladin
Really enjoyed the lay on hands multiple uses, but feels the amount cured is quite ridiculous. At 8th level he healed 8 hp… Really not useful. Maybe twice his HD was better?
He felt that “aura of good” shoud REALLY mean something aside from the reaction to detect evil.
He was really taken by the new auras of the paladin. Really. He was a little sad when I told him we’d have stopped at 8th level.

Sorcerer
LOVED the “at-will” cantrips, LOVED the bloodlines (she felt the bloodlines finally justified the sorcerer levels beyond the 5th (the one where you usually took your PrC). The 1st level power is something she really felt is useful at low levels, and less at highest levels, but good to have around anyway (“better than starting throwing bolts”, she said).
In all, she really enjoyed the PC.

Barbarian/fighter
The barbarian became an enthusiastic Cleave-user. :-D
As I said, his main grievance was multiclassing, since it precluded some cool barbarian rage abilities.
Didn’t feel at all annoyed by the rage points, rather he loved them. When I told him some people on the boards found them hard and felt like accounting, his response was “You take a piece of scrap paper, write your rage points total and subtract the number used. If you find this hard, maybe you should take elementary school from the beginning”. ^_^
Liked the 4 levels of fighter too, and said that “the class has finally a reason to exist beyond 2nd level and has became more than a quicker way to fulfill prerequisites for prestige classes”.
So, I’ll say he liked it too.

Rogue/ranger
As the barbarian did, she didn’t feel the need to multiclass, but did so out of habit.
She liked being able to sneak attack more kind of creatures, and the broader choice of feats for the ranger combat style. She also added love for the favored terrain, but pointed out that, in a limited campaign as was the one we played in, her PC became quite unstoppable, since ALL of Forlorn is made by hills.

Conclusion
Well… No 4E for us, it seems. Keep up the good work! :-)

Hi to all and compliments to all Paizo people for their efforts.

Yesterday, while reading the Alpha Release, I noticed something that annoyed me a bit: the Necromancer specialist's powers.

I mean... Controlling undead. Again? Will "necromancer" ALWAYS mean "black-robed skinny asocial guy with undead coterie who will never be able to mingle with other human beings" (hey, I checked on my encyclopedia. I just quote the definition :-D).

IMC, one of my players is playing a good-aligned necromancer who's never animated a corpse. On the contrary, he LOATHES undead creatures. As it is, the power from his chosen specialization would be quite... Useless, since it focuses just on one side of a rather vast school.
I think a necromancer is not just an idiot running around in graveyards animating undead just for fun. A necromancer is a specialist, like an enchanter or an evoker.

The school of Necromancy is MORE than its stereotype. Many necromancy spells let a caster end a fight easily, or without resorting to lethal options (ray of enfeeblement, scare, waves of exaustion...). Other spells are extremely useful in FIGHTING undead (from the humble disrupt undead to halt undead, and let's not forget undeath to death).

Other powers are good IMHO (they are "general necromancy"...) but I feel that, in emphasizing the "undead controller" side, the necromancer will never get rid of the "black robed asocial" stereotype. ;-)

What I say is that you're doing a great job: let's avoid class stereotypes. :-)

Just my thoughts no the matter. Feel free to ignore them. ;-)

WARNING_major spoilers!

Hi all,

I recently played Carnival of Tears with my players inside my Age of Worms campaign (Hollow can be fitted perfectly into Diamond Lake) and my players, taking the risk of dividing the party, managed to stop almost all of the butchering attractions.

They defeated the rider, freed Tessa and gained Namdrin's help... But after all, they witnessed the couple fall apart. What do you think they did? They started talking with both Namdrin and Tessa.
While the bard spoke with the shadowdancer at a table of the Feral Dog, in front of a cold beer, the paladin counseled Tessa, insisting on her past goodness and the strong of the feeling between her and Namdrin.
They managed to make the two talk to each other (thanks to a calm emotions too) in Allustan's garden, and though the two broke their relation, it happened in rather friendly way. There was a bit of crying, there were hugs and kisses... Namdrin left Tessa in Diamond Lake as a friend, while the girl decided to stay for a while in the chapel of Heironeous, helping with the chores.

The same happened with Crown of the KK. In the ending, we see most of the rescued children growing into big, big problems... Not in my campaign.
For example: they befriended Mikra's father, and he contacted them as soon as the boy started "acting strange". Thanks to their intervention, the boy was placed under Allustan's tutelage, along with Savram. They managed to avoid Kimi's mother attentions and the paladin reminded her of the duty of faithfulness to her husband. The same paladin grew into an example for Jurin (IMC he's Balabar Smenk's son), who decided to reject his father and join the church of Heironeous. Shortly before Carnival of Tears, the PCs managed to save Holin's sister from the brothel, and she and the boy were sent to Hommlet (one of the PC's hometown), where the boy could recover from his experience thanks to the newly-built hospital of Pelor (built by one of the player's old PC :-D).

Why did I say all of this? To show that true victories are not achieved just hacking your way through enemies... And to thank the good people at PAIZO for such an excellent occasion for good roleplay!

J

Hello,

I placed an order a month ago (order number 704872); all of its items are labeled as "shipped" (I received the second email on February the 8), but I have not received the shipment yet.

I live in Italy. What's the time needed for a shipment to reach Europe?

I hope I don't have to be worried... ;-)

Thanks in advance for your answer.
J.