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So eons ago, I had started an AoW game. RL cut in and we had to stop after the 3 faces of Evil.

Fast forward to now. I've been running a 5e game and the players are 7th level and I'd really like to revisit the AP and possible finish it.

I have 2 concerns/questions.

If I were to start the game back up in the Age of Worms AP(we're on hiatus at the moment - playing Curse of Strahd) which adventure would be the best one for 7th level adventurers and still make sense.

A little backstory, I've already hinted at the Worm that Walks/Tharizdun in my homegame. Our resident Warlock took Ghaunadaur as his Patron(Great Old One) and I've had an aspect of the Worm that Walks tempt him with power.

Plus, a nice long world wide threat... ah... makes my evil heart sing.

So in my Rise of the Runelords game we just defeated Xanesha and have her spear.

Our party Magus wants to use it. I said fine, but it's at a -2 due to the size of the item, it's a large sized weapon.

The player has asked if a weapon smith could alter it so the haft is shorter and would be usable. My gut answer is, "yes they could, but the spear would then lose any magic properties it has in it" or some such.

So before I send the email, can anyone confirm for me that a magical weapon could or could not be resized to be used by a player character without damaging the item's abilities.

I know magical clothing and jewelry will resize to the user, but not weapons. Is there a rule I am missing? Could a weapon smith alter it and not damage it?

Advice and opinions welcomed.

So I have a player who is wanting to buy some scrolls during our current downtime in the Rise of the Runelords campaign.

He sent me his list of spells he wants to purchase.
One of them was Darkvision, Communal.

To which I asked him, what is that?
I just purchased Ultimate Combat recently, but hadn't delved into it enough to even know about the communal spells.

But my question is, does this alter the costs of the a 3rd level scroll just because it has the communal aspect?

My gut reaction is no, it's still a third level spell and the costs would remain the same.

Is that correct?
A scroll of Darkvision, Communal (base CL) would be 375 GP?

Thanks!

So I have a player who drew from a Harrowed Deck of Many Things and received a card that allowed him to be immune to a type of energy. He asked for Negative(since we had recently encountered a nest of Wights).

I allowed it, and for his vulnerability I chose for him to be vulnerable to positive energy. Which comprises most of the healing spells.

His 6th level Conjurer just bit the dust in tonight's game. We were talking about it afterward and I said I thought that raise dead would work. But he doesn't think so, and I'm the DM.

Most of the spells that are positive in nature contain some form of wording in them with positive as a descriptor.

Raise Dead does not.
So I'm ruling that yes, a Raise Dead spell would work on his character, and his curse would still linger on.

Thoughts?
Am I wrong? If I am, I couldn't find a descriptor for positive energy within the Raise Dead write-up.

Thanks!

So in our last session, I tossed in some just weird encounters. Those encounters were seeds I wanted to plant and explore later. Only players to always operate that way...alas.

So our Druid has been kinda of lost and listless. She lost her first animal companion a few sessions ago to the Skinsaw man. She only had one, and had no plans to take on any others. I wanted to give her a story where she could shine.

I had I'd include a scenario where rats in the city of Magnimar begin to appear more abundantly than normal, this catches our druid's attention. Then she notices that they are stopping and it looks like they are "talking" to each other and looking... right at her.

In fact they are.

All I planned to do was setup a scene where she might/might not try to figure out what was going on. Instead, I hit my insanity button and drove this up to 11.

They not only did that they began to swarm her in public, but not overwhelm her. Only 1 approached and attempted to climb on her.
The others only moved like a mass of rats all around her.

After some time the party gets a speak with animals scroll and asks the rats what's going on to which I had them reply, "He has returned!" "Help" "You're like him" "Run!" "He comes"

That was all I had planned. I had thought that I'd run a side trek where a Cat Lord had pursued a Rat Lord to Magnimar, with the intent to kill him/her. And I wanted to throw the party in-between.

But now... I'm not sold on my own idea.
I'm thinking that an Urban Druid has taken over a section of the sewer system and is doing ... something. I just don't have a brain cell active to decide what that it is.
Running a thieves guild incorporating wererats, rat kings, and rats themselves?
Is doing horrible fungi growth bent on destroying the city? Or is under the control of Fungus Queen and is summoning others to be controlled by her...
Is under the influence of a intellect devourer?

Lots of half-thoughts, nothing concrete.
I'm not even sold on my own ideas and welcome suggestions and ideas from others.

Help me Advice board!
I need your help!!!

**
There are 6 players, 6th level (Druid, Barbarian, Rogue, Wizard(Conjurer), Inquisitor of Abadar, and a Cleric of Desna) total.
We are very close to the end of Chapter two in the Skinsaw Murders, RotRL AP.

Or is it just considered this: cold, electricity, fire, or sonic?

I ask because a player wanted to draw from the Harrow Deck of Many Things, and I worked it in for him.
One of his draws was that he was immune to one type of energy(his choice) and vulnerable to another (GM choice).
He said Negative Energy was his choice, and at the time, I said "sure, why not."
After a day or so, I got to thinking, should I have allowed that? Should I keep in to the basic four above?
I half-joked that my selection would be positive energy for his vulnerability.

Is there a list of all the energy types? I can't seem to find one. My Google-fu is weak this today.

So in my RotRL game the group encountered some ghasts.

They got stuck in a 1x1 ramp and the druid had her wolf charge the ghasts. Who in tern paralyzed it, and then proceeded to coup de gras it.

It had missed both of its saves. First against the ghoul fever and then the paralysis.

My question is, and maybe it's more story than rules, but will it come back to life( I know the rules state after the next midnight - or somesuch it will). The party hasn't done anything yet, and the druid is taking this IRL and In Character pretty hard.
I had already, in game, hinted that her companion was not all he seemed. I was going to do a side arc about how her animal companion was a cursed nobleman.

Regardless, is it too much of a dick move to have her "haunted" or hunted by her now undead animal companion?

And at a glance I couldn't find where she could summon(and how long it would take) a new companion. Or if there were rules delegating this. I know a druid can dismiss a companion and summon a new one, would I treat this the same way?

So I have a player who is playing an inquisitor. And up til now, I've been running a Forgotten Realms game with the Pathfinder rules.

But we've decided on off nights to play PFS modules instead of the Rise of the Runelords AP.
In doing so we've decided to go full Golarion.

So in helping my players switch over, looking over the pantheon, I don't really see a diety that fits more of a "Helm" outlook/portfolio/domain style.

Abadar is close.. but not exactly.

Help me conversion(or another thread if this gets moved) you're my only hope.

Since they are "spirit" like, would a caster be able to see them (after they manifest - or heck before) with See Invisibility?

I had a player try to argue that he'd be able to see them, and another tried to use Detect Magic to see "their aura's".

I really need to work on how I word my descriptions in game.

Hey all!

So I'm running Rise of the Runelords and my group are currently on the first floor of the Haunted House.

Warning... some spoilers may lurk below.

I've been running it more as an investigative creep-fest than anything else.

And In prepping for this weeks game, I had forgotten that haunts manifest on a surprise round and their initiative is on 10.

I don't get this. I mean, my brain went tilt as I tried to understand why does it need this.
I've been running it as it activates/manifests as the party enters the room/area. From there, dependant upon the type, I'll either target the player who's assigned to it or have people make perception checks to notice it's manifistations.

It's creeped them out, and a couple of my players have totally embraced the effects and played them up. Case and point, the haunt that makes a player see another player as their dead daughter and attempts to leave. He's playing a female healer, and he played her set to 11.

But I'm thinking maybe I'm doing them wrong.

I mean, the manticore went ok, because it was attuned to a specific player. Who, entered into that room a second time and the manifestation occurred. One attack/one hit - end of encounter. That's how I played that one. The player then went and hacked the stuffed manticore to pieces.

It's made the party on edge and jinkies... scared. They feel "hostility from the house. I had people looking at them from the 2nd floor as they approached the house. Only to either disappear or change into ghoulish looking things and then disappear. I've played up the creaking/moaning/shifting of the house. I made the weather slowly increase in violence(storm) as they spend time there and so forth.

But again, does anyone see anything wrong? I keep thinking I'm making this out to be something bigger than it needs to be. I've read several of the haunt threads, but feel like I'm might have missed something mechanically.

Help?

So I think my google-fu is broken....

I have a player coming into my game, existing player, with a new character. A conjurer.
He has decided to create half-a dozen scrolls or so, mostly summon monster III.

Given it is a scroll, is there a limit to the number of monsters summoned?
I know the spell itself has limits, but what I am asking is can he use a scroll and summon 1d3 2nd level monsters, use another scroll and summon one 3rd level monster and so forth until he exhausts his scroll supply?

Or is the limit of the spell what it "says" in it's description. Did I miss a wording?

Or could he basically create his own animal army given enough scrolls?

I just want to make sure I understand the rules for this before we go into any fight. I would hate to be "that DM" and when he gets ready for a big bad and go, "yeah... sorry, you only get 1d3 eleentals. period". I'd rather be the one who says, "well, it is a 20x20 room, how many do you think can fill it? Go."

So... any and all help in understanding this is appreciated!
Thanks!

So we entered into Thistletop last night after losing two players to the rope bridge and the bunyip.

I introduced the two replacement characters having been captured by the outer patrol and were being dragged into the trophy room. The group of surviving party members attacked the goblin dogs and their riders outside the gates, and took the fight inside during the combat.

My question is how alert is Thistletop? Should a patrol(most likely) find the remains of their companions?

On another note - the group found the stairs going down next to the next level, by passing Ripnugget and other areas. The first room they encounter is the nursery. I went ahead and populated it with a few children. One of the new characters who protects his tribe from goblinoids, killed each of them, and burned a pile of linen refuse, and then each of the "cribs", proceeded to close the door and move on.

So, smoke and fire.
Given it won't go much further than the items in the room(stone floors/walls/etc). The harem is next door. Does the smoke alert them? Or just a normal check on the kids moment.

It's night, and in my game Nualia is messing with the normal nocturnal habits of the goblins. Requiring at least half of them be active and awake during the day.

My thinking is two fold. I was going to let the group meander for a bit, thinking they've outwitted the goblins and that they are being all "sneaky". When in reality, a patrol has found the corpse in the trophy room and placed the upper floor on alert. The doors to the next level are open, and while stupid, they're not dumb. And the goblins will send guards to search below.

Bruthazmus, while engaged in amorous(ahem) moments with the harem, will smell the smoke and hear voices not speaking goblin and not any human voices he is accustomed to hearing. He will investigate and possibly raise an alarm. He will also recognize them as the heroes of Sandpoint, and want revenge. I had them encounter his younger brother in a side quest earlier in the campaign. So his fight will be more personal, and he will be altered to meet this larger party too.

So... does this sound about right?

This has the potential for alot more enemies than the party can face. A TPK is a strong chance, not definite chance though.

They have rescued a beaten/bruised Shalelu so it won't be a total TPK. We have, at the moment, five 4th level player characters. A fighter/bard, rogue, druid(with wolf animal companion), witch and spell-less ranger. And there is a 6th player, but he's out for a few sessions, stupid real life. They had a made pact with Gogmurt prior to going in, after defeating him, and he has not sent Ripnugget a warning. They then rested prior to going in. So they're mostly at full health and have access to all their spells.

So TL:DR, how would you handle this?

Hi all!

I have a player who is wanting to take the strangler feat(see below) and wants to use a garrotte as his weapon of choice.

It seems the feat says yes, while the weapons says no.
More or less the gist is, the feat allows you to do sneak attack damage if you make a successful cmb attack. But the weapon says you can't use sneak attack damage with it.

Which one is correct? From the d20pfsrd.com below.

Strangler (Combat)

Throttling the life out of enemies is second nature to you.

Prerequisite: Dex 13, sneak attack +1d6, Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike.

Benefit: Whenever you successfully maintain a grapple and choose to deal damage, you can spend a swift action to deal your sneak attack damage to the creature you are grappling.

Garrote

A garrote is a length of wire or thin rope with wooden handles at both ends. The wire is placed across a victim's throat and crossed behind the neck; when the handles are pulled tight, the garrote strangles him.

Description: In order for you to use a garrote, your opponent must be helpless or unaware of you. You must make a grapple check (though you avoid the –4 penalty for not having two hands free) to successfully begin garroting your opponent. Sneak attack damage does not apply to a garrote. Your garroted opponent must make a concentration check (DC 20 + your CMB + level of the spell he’s casting) to cast a spell with a verbal component, use a command word item, or use any magic requiring speech. You gain the following additional option when grappling with a garrote.

Choke: You cut off your target’s air supply so he has to hold his breath (see Suffocation, and the Swim skill for additional information). Any round you do not maintain the choke, your opponent can take a breath and restart when he has to begin making Constitution checks.

Weapon Feature(s): choke

So our Druid had her animal companion fail epically against a Charm Animal spell last night.

The opposing Goblin Druid from RotRL, told it to "trip" her. I rolled poorly, describing that the wolf was struggling with the command. Which was a lie.

I rolled a 26 on the opposing charisma rolls.
The druid then bolted to let the wolf contend with the PC druid.

The PC Druid then wanted to regain control of her companion. I just had it make a save again with her "help".

Did I do this right by RAW? Or is there another way this could have been done?

From my end it felt anti-climatic, but the PC freaked out with the charmed animal. Which I enjoyed waaaayyy to much.

Thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks!

So I have a situation, that I take responsibility for, where my group recovered an owlbear egg. The egg was just "laid" in the last few weeks, and expected to hatch in spring. It's a couple of weeks into winter. It's parents were hibernating, when two thieves attempted to steal it, and instead woke the parents.

Long story short, the group druid has the egg now and has been suggested to her to seek out a druid grove in an nearby area.

I've hinted that the egg is hatching prematurely. Not really sure if that is something I want to do, but my mouth got the better of me.

So I've managed to paint myself into a corner and not sure how I want to resolve this. The group has left Sandpoint(due to murder charges/other political problems I've started) and I needed/wanted to get them back on path and head to Thistletop.
So I put the grove in the Moss Wood.
I plan it being a small (1 druid) grove.

I'm trying to decide how to make this important, and not be a "We go to the druid and give them the egg. Thanks" encounter.

I can't decide how I want the druid to respond. Does he/she act offended that the party druid didn't save the egg's parents? Are they aloof, and say let the egg survive without help(as nature would intended) and see if it survives.

The group has already started several plots with bad guys planning and doing... well bad things. I'm not sure I want to play out a druid planning plotting bad things either. But I want to involve my druid player into the world. Having her take charge of the egg has been a great start. But I don't want to burden her with the egg and have it get destroyed in a fight and then drop guilt on her for that. Y'know? I hope this make sense. There are other subtleties in gameplay(as they always are) that are TLDR for this post.

So I'm stumped for ideas.
Help me Advice forum... you're my only hope.

So last night I had a situation pop up I hadn't had to deal with before.

I had a player who was knocked prone, and he fought from the ground. Fine.
We were fighting Troglodytes wielding toothed clubs.
The player wanted to grab a hold of the club, to prevent an attack and help him when he returned a swing.

I thought about it, and granted I don't know ALL the rules, I decided to do a CMB vs CMD (disarm-ish move). If he succeed he would get a +2 to his next attack or the attacker would get a -2 to his attack, and I'd let the player decide which he'd prefer.

He wanted the plus to attack.
He succeeded, but the bad guy went before his next turn, and critical fumbled(we use the decks), and criticaled himself, yanking the club away from the fighter's hold. Thereby smashing himself in the face.

Now... it was a fun part of the game. And fun is the number one rule.

But game-wise, how would that have worked? Or would it work with the RAW?
Help?

Ok, this hasn't happened yet..but...

I have a random encounter for a side trek(#what?) in my game tonight. The party is having a charmed Thoul lead them to her lair. Well over the course of a few emails, I have established that during their travel through a newly snow covered forest (the Tickwood), 3 of the 6 players (secret perception rolls by me) notice two men running towards them with swords drawn.

As the course of email questions started flying back and forth, they are starting to suspect these two guys are not going to attack them, but are really fleeing something else.

An mated pair of Owlbears who they stole an egg or eggs(haven't decided) from. My plan is to have the men, hand off their backpack with the owlbears offspring to someone in the group(roll randomly) and let the chaos ensue.

Now, we have a mostly new player playing a Druid. And she's been taking cues from my other lead players and this might come into play.

An attempt to calm down the owlbears. I've let her calm down and deal with domesticated animals. Dogs and horses mainly.

I have no problem her attempting this. So if it happens, how do I handle it?
Diplomacy?
Handle animal?
A combination of both(or more)?

Because, I know I can hand wave it, and I'd love to see her try. Talk about empowering a player if she were to succeed. :D

But I also have a couple of rules lawyers who hold me to RAW on occasion.

So, helps Advice board, you're my only hope.

Dungeon 117 Cover

So, I've got the issue in storage... and I was flipping though issues to get an idea for a side quest for my Rise of the Runelords group and saw the cover. I've never run anything from it. A quick cursory look through doesn't reveal any info on it.

So... what are these nasty looking things? They look AWESOME, intelligent, evil and look to be great threats.

Are they shadows? Aberrant black puddings, molds, oozes?
Doppelgangers gone wild?

If you know, can help my wee DM brain?
Thanks!

***fixed url - thanks to Are for pointing it out.

WOW

Just wow. I picked up three today. I'm at work and have only opened up one. Shrines.
Love it. Love the quality, love the coating, love the fact that there are multiple sheets to play with and that they all seem to work with other map packs.

Just sweet. Now I'm kicking myself for not getting into them sooner.

Things might get bad.

I've been hinting that there was more to Chopper's rampage than just a crazed psycho killing people. I played up a possible involvment with demon worship and perhaps demonic possession that overtook him via Ilsoari Gandethus.

Ilsoari has become the mouth for information from me, and that was not the intent. I had planned on using him for some random red herrings, but my ad libing mouth got the better of me, and now he's our mage's go-to source. I only recently pushed the party in the direction of Brodert Quint, only because I had the headmaster say that the info they sought was not in his realm of knowledge and that Brodert was a Sage of ancient empires and engineering marvels.

But during my ramblings I had thought that if the group needed more exp(party of 6) I'd have them investigate the island. The only person really, really interested is our group's Illusionist/Rogue. And in his pursuit of info, I let slip potential info regarding involvement of Pazuzu, especially if there was a Temple of Lamashtu beneath the town. Plus, I've been using cheap movie/parlor tricks by having random people say things like, "Mother is disappointed in you." "You shouldn't have upset Mother". The sound of birds flapping inside buildings when there are none and no one else hears it. The feeling of being watched when they are outside(particularly the Illusionist) and no one is, but... there are large gatherings of birds. I had one of the girls at the Pixie Kitten turn to him during a trist and say "The Lord of the Air WILL devour the Mother and you will help." I also used a stolen True Detective moment with a huge flock of birds, all sorts, migrating towards the island and then swarming into a pattern that only the Illusionist saw. I may have done too much...

So now, we just finished up the Caverns, the Quasit barely escaped, and I used someone's suggestion of having her attempt to go deeper into lower levels instead of the openness of the outside world. I just got an email from the Illusionist that he wants to investigate the island. Alone.

Well... that's all good, I can't help but thinking it's a death trap for him if he's lucky, a new npc for me at the worst.

Chopper's Island by itself is a great adventure for a group, but a solo mission, yeah not so much.

So I'm at a weird impasse. I hadn't meant to veer this far off of the adventure path, but it's what I love about DMing. Impromptu and the repercussions of characters action on that world.

The gnome illusionsit... if he goes by himself will encounter a spirit of a murdered child(ala the adventure) and an aspect of the Chopper/Pazuzu who will attempt to possess him. Or in the least, start influencing him alot.

So beyond, the "what do you think", are there rules for possession(which can be a jerk move), and should I have the Lord of Air posses him or just cut a deal with him. I was thinking a deal of recovering the bones of Chopper or some other figure of importance, or perhaps one of the original families of Sandpoint and send him to the old cemetery.

I see sooooooo much options for roleplaying but am really concerned about running him alone and killing him. Or worse.

RotRL DM's you are my only hope.

So once upon a time, back when I ran Arcana Unearthed by Monte Cook, I used an excel program that allowed me to enter in exp for the party. It allowed a dated block, character participation, extra stuff and how much general xp was given.

I am not an excel guru, or even newbie. I am less than that. :(
But I miss that program, and was wondering if anyone had anything like that for their pathfinder game(s)?

I found a xp tracker in excel format, but alas it was set up for the PF Society and had little tweaks that I don't know how to alter.

Regardless, how do you keep track of it? Do you keep it posted on a forum? Emails? A spread sheet? Note cards?

Inevetitably, someone will not write down the xp given, and will ask for it later. And quite honest, I don't always write it down.

So I'm looking for ideas, suggestions, solutions? You name it.

So how do you do it?

And I'm still not 100% sure/understanding/grok it, how the alchemist works.

I've got a player who is 2nd level, and wants to create Thunderstones, and a bottled version of an Everburning Torch. Basically, a way to control the use of the Everburning Torch with a bottled cap.

A quick glance at the class, I can't find anywhere listed that he could do this. Am I missing something?
What does he need to do to make these? I can't find a DC for either on d20pfsrd.com

The bottled Everburning Torch, I thought, could be modified with limitations. A basic DC to craft for one use, with an increasing difficult DC for multiple uses, up to 4 total potential uses once created.

I don't want to squash his creativity, but he's one of my loop-hole players. He'l find a way around a rule to his benefit, and I need to make sure I've got myself to the point I understand it well enough that we can both agree upon. He's not a full blown rules lawyer, but does play one on TV.

So help? Is there an Alchemist 101 for GM's?

So my group just finished the top-side of the Glassworks.
For grins, I thought "I'll use all 8 of the goblins", and figured I'd have them split off after a bit. Do a little hit and run kinda thing for them.

The players were going to have none of that.

They got initiative, and my two front line guys charged to trap the goblins in. Yes, AOO's were accounted for.

The fight lasted about 3 rounds, roughly.
So... they searched the rest of the top side rooms and are preparing to face Tsuto(if he is there) below.

So... should I add a few more goblins just for fun and for fodder?
I thought I might add 2-3, and have them trap the stairs down, or one of the first rooms, just to be a pain.

The party is lightly injured. Really. One fighter is unconscious, the other five players are fine.

They can take Tsuto, easily.
Which is to say, should I let them? Or should I make it a struggle worth remembering?

Thoughts, suggestions.

And for grins, here are the players(they all just hit 2nd level).
Human Alchemist
Half-elf Druid (wolf companion)
Human Justicar
Gnome Illusionist
Human Fighter
Half-Orc Fighter

Thanks!

Two things up front, I have never had to GM an Alchemist, and I don't have my APG with me to check this. And looking at the character sheet of my parties alchemist something seemed off.

I know they get Craft as a class skill. But are Alchemist required to take Craft (Alchemy) to create their extracts/bombs/mutagens?
Or is this something just built into the class and assumed that they can craft what they need, because their alchemists?

Like I said, it might be an obvious, duh, question. Yes, if you want to CRAFT, you need to have the Craft skill.

I was reviewing his character sheet this morning while planning some encounters for an upcoming game, I noticed he didn't have the skill Craft (Alchemy) which made me wonder if it was an oversight or just a player's choice.

Am I over thinking this...?

Hey y'all!

I'm doing final preps for the groups first foray into RotRL's this Thursday. I've got the speeches, got some games and NPC's lined up.
But.. I keep thinking that maybe I need to email the opening speeches first instead of RPing them.

Thoughts?
How did you handle the Swallotail festival opening commencements?

Ok, getting ready to run Rise of the Runelords and I was planning on have one or two goblins attempt jump onto a pc and bite them during their first encounter(s) with them.

I'm coming back to 3.x game playing after several years of being away and I can't for the life of me think how to do this now.

On the goblins turn, I want them to run, jump and end the move attempting to bite whichever unlucky pc is nearest. Could be on their back, their leg, wherever they might land.

So would it be a CM move?
Or would it be an acrobatics test and then an attack?

I just get a very GM image of a pc's trying to shake these lil rascals off of them as they try to kill the player.

In any movie/tv adventure you always have situations where characters get attacked like that by smaller critters.

So, suggestions?
I appreciate the help, thanks!

J

So last night my grouped played our second session of Pathfinder. Yay us.
And our second session of the old Dungeon adventure the Mad God's Key.

The group had progressed in their investigation to find the Green Dagger Gang. I had anticipated, from my experiences with my players, a kick in the door, kill everyone and take everything attitude.
So I had my maps, my stats and my dice ready.

And what did they do? Bluff, intimidate, and bribed their way into seeing the gang's leader who was beside himself at how easily betrayed he was by his own gang. And in turn due to some just amazing rolls of the dice and great role playing, teamed up with the party to find the villain of the adventure and give them additional information regarding the "plot". Or as much as it was allowed.

To say I was unprepared was an understatement. I've gamed with many of my players at the table from over a decade, and I tend to know how they play their characters. This was a neat twist. It stymied me for a few minutes, but it went well enough.

But you know how you prepare for a certain portion of an adventure, even though you've read the whole adventure, you focus on what you think will happen that night. The plot moved ahead at a speed I wasn't ready for.

It was frustrating and cool all in the same breath.
I just had to share.
So now we're on our way to the final dungeon/encounter area and are one step closer to starting off our main story of the Age of Worms.
Players are cool.

So I'm getting closer and closer to running my first Pathfinder game.

I stopped playing 3.X around the time 3.5 popped up, played a slew of other games until 4e, and have been running that since it's launch.

So I'm rusty at a couple of things(or at least feel like it).

I've encouraged my group to do character backgrounds, plus tie-in's to at least 1-2 players. And on top of that I'm asking for a 3x3x3 to incorporate into the game.

The backgrounds are purely optional, the 3x3x3 are not.

I can't for the life of me recall what a fair exp reward is for a character background/writeup.
Anyone have any suggestions on that?
I have one player who's done the background, the 3x3x3, and has written a mock-2 page paper on magical theory. Heck, he just texted me a couple of minutes ago letting me know he's doing a paper on how the magical mind interacts with psionics because he has down time at work.

I want to reward that kind of enthusiasm, but 50-100xp seems week sauce, but 500-1000 seems exuberant.

Now I told my group that I'd reward anyone who did both a background and the 3x3x3 with one of the following:
1) Pre-game Exp
2) a free trait
3) I'd purchase the Inner Sea Primer for them(or if they already had that, a player's companion guide of their choice)

But really, I'd rather reward exp to a creative group and can't find any guidelines on this. And my old brain cannot recall what I used to do for such things.

Help?

Ok, so I stayed away from Pathfinder for many reasons, none of them against Paizo or the game. I was at a point of burn out and didn't want any more d20 stuff, least of another 3.X game.

So in planning another game's 11-20 and beyond adventure ideas, I pulled out Age of Worms and thought "I'd love to run this. Maybe I can convert it to 4e and run it for my group."
In my searches, I found more Pathfinder conversions, and discussion which lead me to think about what I missed when playing 4e DnD.

Now don't get me wrong, I like 4e and as a DM it's easy as pie to run, but I missed some of the utility casting of wizards, some of the danger of battles, and more crunch than it offered. So I dug around some more, and the more I read the more I got intrigued, then excited about picking up Pathfinder.

I told my gaming group. Well... I hit up a couple of players whom I valued their opinions on gaming systems. I asked them if they thought I'd enjoy Pathfinder. They both played under me since 3.0 and one since 2nd ed. They both were soooo excited to even hear the possibilities of me running a Pathfinder game, it only fueled my enthusiasm.
So I ordered the core from Amazon on Thursday.
I wasn't expecting it til Wednesday.
I got it this afternoon.

It's the 4th printing. It's freaking huge. Has that wonderful new print smell and it just crisp, crisp all the way around(sorry graphic designer nigglets).

So I just had to share. I've got alot of reading and relearning to do.
I know the rules, but I need to unlearn them and start over. Which is going to be hard. But I'm excited. If I like it half as much as I suspect I will, the Bestiary and Inner Sea books are next on my "to get" list.

First off, hi.
Long time lurker, new Pathfinder convert.
My core book is enroute as I type this, hopefully arriving before the holiday weekend.

I don't have any additional PF material besides what is online, and the first Rise of the Runelords adventure.

But as I am planning on running my next campaign using the PF rules and Golarion as my setting... how involved are the Gods in the lives of mortals and the world in general?

Now, given it's a game and I can handwave how active or involved in my own campaign they are. I like my clerics to feel connected to their deity. They are special, so often many of my games have intervention, help, omens, dreams, long distance calls from their deity in their lives.
Quests, demands, expectations and the like. And often that spills over not only in that character's life, but their companions as well.

But I digress.
How involved are they say compared to other settings? I see the Forgotten Realms being the high end of things. On a scale of 1-10, it'd be 9. Pretty impactful in the world, but not always in your face. But some days is sure feels like it.

Do the setting rules support any kind of interaction or how to handle them?

Thanks.

Ok, a few questions.
First off, I'm new to Pathfinder. I stopped running 3.X right around the switch to 3.5 and haven't run a 3.X type of game since. I've done a myriad of others, and am now finishing up a 4e campaign and will be diving into Pathfinder after it. Which'll be about Summer 2012. A nice blockbuster movie type game. :D

So I've got time to plan out my game, and I will be using the Age of Worms AP as my game. Thrilled to death to do so, and thought instead of doing Greyhawk, which I'm the only old fart in my group who loves the setting; will be converting it to the Pathfinder/Golarion setting instead.

As I have not even purchased the core book yet, and don't have any of the actual setting material, I'm interested in a logical placement of Diamond Lake and the Free City of Greyhawk.

I've seen threads talking about placement in Taldor or the River Kingdoms.
Taldor is a wonderful sounding place for starting an adventure group, but Diamond Lake is a bit seedier than I would think you'd find in Taldor, correct me if I am wrong. And the River Kingdoms looks great too, but the geography might take more work than I'm inclined to do(yet).

Should I just drop in a "generic" Free City into one of these areas(even Cheliax(?)) and work around it? Has anyone found it difficult dropping in or converting these to Golarion?
I had initially considered just using Forgotten Realms(as I have run this more than any other setting in my gaming life), and the Boyd Conversion is pretty easy peasy. But Golarion actually would be fun as it seems to be a great new adventuring place for my group.

Also, starting off the group, I was thinking of running the Mad God's Key to get the group together give them a reason to adventure and care about one another. If not, then why or why would they be in Diamond Lake, and how would they find themselves trying to be heroes?
It seems less heroic and more Deadwood-esque. And to which, I plan on running it more like Deadwood when they are there, and incorporating many of the personalities from the show into NPC's there. Or at least the visage of the actors for many of the NPC's.

It's just through my initial reading of the adventure and the town, I can't think of how/why to really pull the party together. I guess, I've been running too many family/business partners/caravan guard games as of late that the openness seems ... hard. Suggestions or experiences anyone can share would be great.

I'm excited, my group is too. They've enjoyed 4e, but more core players lit up my inbox with excitement when I suggested the new game. So I'm working on my planning stages, learning the rules(from the SRD) and working on a game trailer to lure them in more.
I can't wait. This campaign hits alot of things I love. Undead, the Rod of 7 parts, undead, exploration and travel, undead, unique adventures and did I mention undead?

Thanks for reading my blathering, looking forward to your input/suggestions and rants. :D

Ok, so I just picked up the pdf versions just for the electronic versions of the FR maps.
I already have hard copies, but wanted to be able to print out sections that I use for my campaigns without having to scan in the maps myself.

So as I complete my order and open up the pdf files, I find out these are full scans of the hard copies. Not the original files saved out to pdf, but scans.

I’m a little beside myself. I wouldn’t have purchased the files if I had known this was what I was getting. Is there any way we can gett these? I don’t need layered files, but something that is clean and doesn’t have the wrinkles from the fold lines.

Did I just waste $20?

Thanks.

Just curious. One of the cool things Dungeon had was additional online content.

Will there be any further support for Pathfinder online from Paizo?

Thanks!

Jhilahd(absolutely loving his Pathfinder pdf)

I love the hi res pdf options that have been posted, but I was hoping that we would get a map(or maps) of Cauldron. We have the lo(72dpi) version, but how about a 200 or 300 dpi(clearer) version?

Tif, jpg or even a pdf are fine with me. PDF is nice as long as I can import it into Illustrator. :D

Jhilahd

Wow... I expected that these boards would be full. I guess everyone is over in the Dragon and Dungeon forums...

What I mean is, will we start seeing more than just Warmachine and Warhammer games? I play both of them, but I play other miniature games as well. CAV, Stargrunt, Wargods of Aegyptus(I know there was a recent article on them). I realize you only have so much space but maybe a 1 or 2 page filler with a run down of the games with a shot of painted mini or battle scene? That way you don't have to rag your text to flow longer than it needs to. Hmmmmmm? Anywho... just wondering.

I look forward to getting each and every issue. Keep up the good work.

jhilahd
Dallas, TX