jimbob5555's page

Negative healing: A creature with negative healing draws health from negative energy rather than positive energy. It is damaged by positive damage and is not healed by positive healing effects. It does not take negative damage, and it is healed by negative effects that heal undead.

Source: Bestiary 2, page 305.

How is this convoluted?

Not convoluted at all! It's just most of the positive spells that specifically only target undead or mention undead as taking damage from it. As a GM it's easy to handwave it but sometimes wondering if there was an intention behind it or just an omission. Things like Disrupting Weapon & the Disrupting rune have no effect on the Dread Wisps if we go by RAW as they specifically target undead. Interestingly Positive Attunement specifically mentions creatures Undead & creature with negative healing.

With the Dread Wisps it seems that despite being effected by searing light and spells with the positive trait, a number of additional effects don't work against them. Searing lights extra good damage doesn't hit them because they aren't demons/undead. And you can't target them with a two-action heal because they aren't undead.

As a GM I'd probably just allow it to count as undead for the purposes of heal and lay on hands but I wondered if this is intentional, an oversight or perhaps I'm misunderstanding the wording?

The Mwangi Expanse book says "Nantambiyans mark solstices and equinoxes with a week of feasting, the first day is always dedicated to Old Mage Jatambe and the Ten Warriors, while the last day is dedicated to venerating ancestors. The days between are divided among feast days and , often weddings. These feast days are not part of any month, and an extra day is added for the new year"

Not sure if that helps you, but it sounds like if one of your player characters in your group is particularly devout, it might be a good place to slip in a 'feast day' to their preferred deity?

LO: The Mwangi Expanse also mentions Nantambu, being full of canals, is mad about boat racing. The BIGGEST race is 1st regatta of the spring season. Even after the race, it becomes something of a parade.

Again, hope that helps

This is fantastic reply. Some really good ideas. It's good to know there is a "jatambe" day. I'll get populating it now.

On page 33 of 169 Kindled Magic it talks about having holidays that various students and staff will celebrate. I was thinking of keeping it fairly simple and populating with a few important holidays among the ones mentioned. Along with giving suggestions to the group on what might be a good one for their character.

Outside of this are there holidays the school celebrates? I was thinking of a day to celebrate the establishment of the school but I do not know if future books or sidebars within those will go into more detail and I potentially overlap something! Thank you!

It doesn't surprise me some of the changes you have made to it! Looking forward to it all as I recently converted Hollow's Last Hope over.

There is a lot of surprising weirdness in it all I've found reading the original Kobold King book. I know its from 2007 and it has aged pretty well for the most part but.. Even so.

Some of the weirdest things that stick out to me are (that I know you have changed):

- Obviously the 'coughing' disease from Hollow's Last Hope: I don't think this is the worst though as it's caused by some nasty water and they already say it has been contained right from the get go. But it was eyebrow raising when I did read it!

-The constant references to Edgrin's weight: Nothing about Edgrin suggests he is a bad adventurer or bard. His adventuring party simply got ambushed. But it makes reference to his body-weight *three* times (Chubby Halfling, Overweight Halfling, Heart is as big as his stomach) so much it almost feels as if his weight was the reason he found himself captured.

- I'm sorry, is that a child who is chained and *BALL-GAGGED* on page 18?!

- I thought page 25 was a child too. Before I realised thankfully it wasn't. But still.. That image.

Was pleasantly surprised to find the Forge Spurned had got an official conversion in PF2 already. Great enemy design! Slurks too! Love them.

Just checking if I've been misunderstanding alignment damage or not..

In the Cleansing Chamber of N8 it says that anyone entering the pool will take 8d6 Lawful damage each round for three round. The NPC Kirosthrek apparently 'Endured the damage' when entering it in hopes of gaining its benefits. However Kirosthrek is listed as a Neutral Evil character, not a Chaotic Evil character.

I was under the impression alignment damage only hit those who were oppositely opposed? Law vs Chaos and Good Vs Evil. Is this an error or not the case and I've been doing alignment damage incorrectly? Or did Kirosthrek gain a new outlook on life after their bath? :P

I'm asking just to make sure I haven't missed out on a mechanic in the game, but the Anchor Spear makes it so that an enemy who tries to climb or burrow treats the terrain as difficult if damaged by it and the reaction is used.

Can't almost any escaping monster still just burrow away with ease if it's trying to escape with the spear embedded in them? I ask as the Purple Worms or similar are likely creatures the party will encounter and I'm imagining someone tossing the spear in them to prevent their escape and them just burrowing 60 feet underground and.. Well.. Bye spear. :') Am I understanding it correctly?

My players are making their way through the underground caves and I couldn't help notice the **huge** amount of HP the Sodden Sentinels have when they encountered them. I know they have two weaknesses that give an extra 15 damage and only have two actions a turn, but 320 HP for a group of level 11 creatures seemed immense. I ended up lowering this but it was fairly standout compared to everything else they have fought so far.

What is the travel speed for the circus? As a party I know their travel speed on foot or maybe if they hired some mounts, but I'm not sure as a whole how fast everything goes with them. I assume it's slower than an average party. I can just say it's 15 feet and use the provided conversions in the handbook but wanted to check.

jimbob5555 wrote:

What are the rewards that the PCs get for running a good circus? I scanned the books very quickly using the keyword "prestige" and only seemed to find one instance of an easier diplomacy check.

I know some GMs offer a small cut of the profits towards their individual purses but what else can I expect if anything?

The goal is pretty much to have the coolest circus. As characters level up and hire more performers, they get access to tricks with more traits. But outside of the circus itself, there isn't much the characters get.

At least not as far I've gotten running the AP. Basically it's just fun running the circus.

EDIT: You mentioned prestige. It unlocks upgrades to the circus and increases the payout for a good show. But again, it doesn't do anything for the PCs outside of the circus.

Huh, that is sort of strange. I can obviously throw my own rewards into it but it seems so weird to have no sort of reward in it for the PCs. Be it tangible stuff like money, new opportunities or even character interactions.

I'll just have to work on my own stuff!

What are the rewards that the PCs get for running a good circus? I scanned the books very quickly using the keyword "prestige" and only seemed to find one instance of an easier diplomacy check.

I know some GMs offer a small cut of the profits towards their individual purses but what else can I expect if anything?

Hey guys,

So Harrigan escaped. The PC's assaulted the fortress not once, not twice but 6 times. It was a mix of good and bad tactics.

On the first time they went in invisible, were smart but sadly when the invisibility ran off (Using invisibility sphere, flying in and they split up.) one of them failed their stealth roll and Jakaw spotted them raising the alarm. I had them attacked in waves but one too many fireballs led to the walls being blown off and the enemies from the outside being able to fire on them. So seeing as they were in trouble they all got around and teleported out of there back to their ship.

The second time they decided it would be fine to teleport back into the fortress an hour and a half later. The place was swarming with enemies try to clean up. Rather than teleporting instantly they decided to fight. This lead to one of them being dominated by the tongue (leading them to run into the fortress) and another one being captured with another running away from being hit by a fear affect. The enemies knew they favoured invisibility from Lucarria's scying and so on of them. So the Furies began patrolling the building looking out for invisible creatures. I think this was fair because Harrigan was smart enough to know that a Ninja would assassinate him in his room.

The party was left with two PC's and I let the Ninja and the Ranger left rest up. The Ninja then stealthed around the fortress, avoiding the gaze of the Furies and gathered information. But after a while he got caught again. And tried again and again.

I let them take control of Sandra Quinn and Rosie who still traveled with them. And they played them well and to character. At this point I felt that Luccaria was wise enough after a day or so would set up a forbiddance effect in the area, using some of the assorted plunder for the cost of it. I felt it would be important to remove the ability for the PC's to keep teleporting in and out of the building over and over again.

So finally on the the sixth attempt the PC's (with Rosie and Sandra) stormed the fort, took on the enemies in waves and freed their friends. Taking down the Scrags, Clerics, Guards and The Tongue with little difficulty. Adelita had escaped previously and I felt they needed more of a challenge if they were dealing with people in waves. I had been extremely generous with time with the players and with the craft feats they had made some seriously powerful items (Robe of the Archmagi..).

So they finally got to Harrigans and he was backed up by Adelita. One well placed Prismatic spray later and previously unbroken curses (but they had tried to break them) from the clerics the party was back down to two members. One was feared by Harrigan and the other one was turned to stone due to prismatic spray. And after an assault by Harrigan both the Ranger and Sorcerer fell. With the Ninja once again running off due to fear. Due to Harrigans cowardness though and his essential "freedom" from the chelish I had him pack up his stuff with haste while Adelita used things like Icy prison on the unconscious PC's and he ran away.

Now the PC's have been smart enough to work out that the Chelish will be attacking from The Eye. And they are backed up by the PC's that believe them. But I feel that they will suffer once again with assaulting Bonefist, plus they don't have the information to the super secret entrance into Harrigans fortress. I didn't feel this would be something left hanging around (He had it in a glove of storing AND a bag of holding) and with Harrigans will basically broken he is pretty much never going to see them again.

So after this tale of woe. How should I go about running this? The Chelish will attack as normal and I think the PC's are on a good playing field with them when it comes to combat. But Bonefist seems like a real challenge to them, even more so now that they can't attack him. It seems like at the moment the PC's, once defeating the Chelish are going to leave the Shackles for good. And to be honest I'm quite happy to let the game conclude their as they take their treasure, fame and so on there.

But! I'm open to everyones opinions on this as well as your stories of the attack on Harrigans fortress.

Note that Giles has Crossbow Mastery. So it is a free action for him to reload his crossbow. He could full attack if he wished to.

The Anna May.

Sigh.

I think it is assumed that he boards a ship with food on it intentionally to poison the food. Much like how he intentionally went to such lengths to poison the rum. After all The Eel is known for his elaborate and thought out plots to ruin people.

While this certainly isn't a steadfast solution and alternative to this is that you could run it so Sefina suggests more people to poison the food and they simply don't realise this at all unlike the other server.

How is this one that I made for my game a few months ago, Dragonriderje?

http://i.imgur.com/0btYTQh.jpg

I know this might be asking a lot but is there any chance anyone can make up the stats for the monsters with templates on them? I will probably end up doing it myself but seeing as it's hard to say which way the PC's will go at the start you don't really know which ones to prepare and so on..

But yeah I'm seriously looking forward to running this. It seems like a lot of fun.

Are all the PCs supposed to be granted the title Free Captain and later Lord? Are each of the PCs supposed to gain a seat on the pirate council?

I have a player who says that if it doesn't specifically say that, they it is the intention of the writers that all players are Free Captains and Pirate Lords.

Even if that was the intention, I won't allow it. I think it's cheap. No other Pirate Lord has a crew of officers that are also captains and lords.

Not too sure on that really. I would say you are right and that it's the captain of the ship who gets free captain and pirate lord honour. BUT it does say on the letter of marque:

"Lawful letters of marque are issued to
specific ships, not individuals, but in the
Shackles, they are granted to a specific
captain and his or her officers."

which somewhat implies they are sort of free captains but not really
i see nothing wrong with advisers though

I 100% agree that the game is as sandbox-y as you want it to be.

There's loads of materials for the shackles and almost every island has its own theme, rulers and so on. If you want to be pirates pillaging and plundering then that's exactly what you can do.

Hey all. Just been reading through the book and I have a quick question in regards to the PC's encountering Zarskia. While they only just started part 2 I am wondering what happens if the PC's get into the building using the password and they meet with her in the meeting room. How does she react to seeing they are in the room? Because I can't seem to find anything on how she reacts to meeting the PC's if they come in peacefully.

Being something of a spymaster Zarskia might already know who they or might not. Does she react hostile? Does she know they have been chasing up the spy mystery? Or does she just talk to them like normal customers without any knowledge of who they are? Because i'm thinking that she might possibly try to barter with them if she knows that they have a large amount of evidence pointing at her and she is at something of a disadvantage.

Thanks!

Thanks again guys. So far i've listed for tempest rising:

Quent - Montaku

Bag Island

Devils Arches

Shark Island

Rampore

Cauldron rock for the start of the race

Coaming Point for the end of the race

Though I guess if I look into it more i'll find other places.

Hey guys, thanks for the reply.

Other than NPC's is there any islands the party should not travel to due to it clashing with later story hooks and so on? I know at the end of Tempest rising they get an island which makes up a lot of the next book so that would probably be unsuitable for them to visit.

Hey all,

I want to run Skulls and Shackles much like a sandbox game, as it does allow with its vast amount of information, story, creatures and lore.

The main way i've kept them from going deeper into the Shackles is by telling them that many powerful captains are in the Shackles. If they lack the title of Free Captain then they will get quickly hunted down.

Now they are about to enter Tempest Rising which gives them the opportunity to become Free Captains. While I could hurry them down the path I would like them to go and enjoy the Shackles a bit more. What i'm worried about though is that they may conflict with the future books in the series or other encounters that may happen. With islands like "Cannibal Island" and "Raptor Island" it's hard to resist the urge to crack open the Isles of the Shackles books and run some stories there.

Do you guys have any tips for running the game much more as a sandbox and tips on how the PC's should travel?

The PC's in my campaign are about to enter the "sandbox" part of Skulls & Shackles just after having their ship refitted in the 2nd adventure path.

But i'm having trouble finding something to give them and myself a visual aid as to what the coast looks like as it isn't included in the map of the shackles map. I can't seem to find it?

Any help with the relevant coastal maps?

Thanks Sara, big help.

I noticed there was a replacement system you could use. It seems a little pointless to use though for such small order and you have to pay for shipping to the U.S from the U.K. Plus waiting possibly months for replacements when I am playing this game now. I would be happy to return them but the turn over time and the money I would pay to send them just doesn't seem worth it if that is the only solution.

Bit disappointed to be honest. But my players have really enjoyed the first 7 days of skulls and shackles. So give that good feedback to your team if you want!

Hey there.

Just bought four of your Skulls and Shackles boosters from forbidden planet in London for part one which i'm about to run. Overall I got a great mix and i'm happy to see a NPC in each box from what i've opened.

Some of the paint jobs haven't been perfect. Paint missing on parts and a little flakey but i'm happy to allow that with pre-painted stuff. But there was one so utterly appalling in quality I had to post here as I don't know who to contact.

I'm made a small gallery there. My camera only has autofocus so I had a little trouble focusing on the face but it should give an idea:

Gallery of the shoddy Pirate Sailor

Obviously the products do vary but this really is unacceptable. The face is a tan brown blob with two black dots on it. With it running over to the hair. And the sword is bent to fix into the box. Looking at the production proof online shows just how far it is from it: Production Proof of Pirate Sailor.

I also got Rosie Cuswell whose face is a little blobby along with her arm as well but i'm not going to make too much of a fuss over that.

At the least I would simply like a replacement or some credit to rebuy a new one from you. My past purchases of miniatures from you have been pretty good and I haven't had any issues before.

Is there anything you can do? Thank you!