Hey Alex are you still around here?
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I received an email on Friday, January 25 for Order #875885 that "is expected to ship from the Paizo warehouse by Tuesday, January 29 via USPS Package Service, estimated 3 to 10 business days in transit." I have received nothing yet and on my account page it says that my sidecart contains Pathfinder #6, Gamemastery U1 and U2, and that they are awaiting the next Pathfinder Player's Guide. Given that my post office has bungled my Pathfinder once already, I'm worried about this order. Has it shipped to me yet? Is it waiting like my sidecart says? Did the Post Office return it again? Any insight from Pazio would be appreciated. M@ 
test one test two
Could someone please respond to the email I sent on January 7 regarding my subscription accounts? Thank you M@ 
Starday, Wealsun 15, 596 CY Wake up Grazzel One-Ear, the fire is almost dead! I told you that you need to keep that stuff boiling for three whole days and if you ruin this batch too, I’ll flay you! Get that fire stoked and make it hot while I grind up some more finger bones to put in there for flavor. Now listen to me, listen carefully so you can pass it on to the tribe… Today some shriveled-up halfling bitty woke me from my beauty sleep. Well, she didn’t wake me or she’d be dead now, it was the knucklehead watching the front door that woke me. It was still light out. I hate waking up when it’s still light out. The wrinkly old shrew said she had a message from Lavinia Vanderboren, a whelp of one of the pink ape human families who think they get to run things because they have money. Stupid hairfoot tried to curse me by giving me some ideas stolen from the Vanderboren whelp. I threw it right down and spat on it while making the evil eye to ward off her curse. I’m going to kill her for that. I’ll slice her fingers and eyelids off for trying to curse me. Lisseer told me what the thing said. Crazy cat-man is going to die soulless if he keeps that up. He’s useful to have around though, he’s a wicked shot with his bow, plus he hates the pink ape humans and their filthy dogs too. Anyways, the pink ape hussy wants to meet us at her manor for dinner tomorrow night. Imagine that, me, Gor-Gore the Hurtful, Dread Hunter of the Ferocious Talon Tribe going to dinner at some rich city human’s house! Feh, the elders would be disgusted with me for even considering it.
Now stir this and keep that fire going. I’ll be back tomorrow night after I case the manor and eat the pink ape’s food. If this isn’t still boiling when I get here, I’m going to carve my initials into the bottoms of your feet!
Hi all. I had an expired CC for my Pathfinder subscription. I fixed that. I had two different shipping addresses for Pathfinder and Gamemastery. I fixed that. My subscription page shows that my Gamemastery module J1 is waiting on Pathfinder #3. It also shows the last shipped Pathfinder was #1. I never got #2. My sidecart when I sign in shows that D2 is waiting to ship also. It doesn't mention what it's waiting for. Help? I think I need Pathfinder #2 and module D2 for this month and then Pathfinder #3 and module J1 for next month right? I have D0, D1, and W1; and Pathfinder #1. M@
I got 142 in the mail last Friday, but I never got a copy of 141. I think it got lost in my address shuffle last month. Can I please have a replacement copy? M@
My friends Tom and Ruth, who I gave s gift sub to Dragon to, have also moved. I don't know if either of them have created an account on here to change their address yet. Their new address is: [Tom and Ruth Weidemeyer
(address hidden by Vic) Thanks again. Paizo rules! M@
I just want to post this on here to make sure I keep getting my mags. I will be moving again even though I just moved. I now have a post office box, and I changed the shipping address in the subscription section, plus I sent an email to customer service, but I'm a squeaky wheel so here I go again... My new address is: [Matt Iams
(address hidden by Vic) I still haven't gotten a copy of Dungeon 141 yet. I see it's been out for almost two weeks now. I'm hoping that mine just got lost and will find me, but I might be in need of a replacement issue...This week's shipment of Dragon ought to find me okay, since I haven't moved again yet. It's too early to tell though. M@
Has anyone ever used the half-monster templates from 313? The one in particular I wonder about is the half-minotaur. The template is given only a +1 LA, which seems pretty low to me. Applying the template to a medium creature changes its size to large, granting size bonuses to stats which stack with the bonuses given by the template, resulting in a +12 to strength. Granted, there is an intelligence penalty, but the penalties don't come close to the bonuses IMHO. One of my players is wanting to run a half-minotaur/ half-human barbarian. At first I ok'ed this, but after making up his character I am having second thoughts. I'll let it slide for a while and see how his character plays in relation to the rest of the party, but I think that the LA for the template is broken.
My order shows a $10 shipping discount, but when I got my stuff last week, the invoice didn't reflect the $10 discount. Hows come? M@
I got a gig playing drums in a band. It's about time something good happened in my life lately. M@
Not that I think Paizo doesn't have great editors or anything, but when the catchy new ad on the front page is spelled wrong, I feel obligated to point it out. Ohio gets a bad enough rep without our wonderful capitol being spelled wrong.
Never mind. I ordered Heroes of Horror with another bunch of stuff. I'll stick with A&E. M@
I had the pleasure of visiting with the good folks from Paizo Saturday during Origins. A few of my players were impressed that Jason Bulmahn and Erik Mona took the time to listen to their Age of Worms tales. Erik even showed us the picture of Demon Boy's wanted poster that he had on his phone. Thanks for making us feel important. Paizo rocks.
This thread is for anyone to comment on the blogs they read on the DM blog post and want to comment on them. I know some people don't like to post anything on the blog pages so as not to clutter them or anything, but as one of the DM's sharing, I know that feedback is always a good thing to receive. That being said, I haven't had the time to read anyone else's blog so...And if you're a player in one of the games being blogged, or a player in someone else's AoW game that isn't being blogged, shame on you for reading ahead and spoiling the story! M@
They show up in the order history but on the page for my subscriptions, it shows that both my subs for Dragon and Dungeon are expiring soon. Does the my subscription page not update until the old sub ends and the new one starts? I just want to make sure I don't miss an issue. I need my gamer crack. M@
Check them out. I have an XP spreadsheet for the AP up to HoHR and a handy little compilation of alcohol for those of you with PC's who like to frequent the bars around Diamond Lake. M@
My group of 7 players requires me to beef up some of the encounters for the AoW. Here's my plans for Filge and his motley assortment of friends...
Filge CR4
Changes to Filge’s spell book:
Filge’s skeletal minion: same as normal human warrior skeleton (MM 226) except as follows: 4 HD (24 hp), +2 natural armor, +1 Str (melee attack/damage +1), +1 Dex (reflex, init, ac +1)
Does this feat(from both Complete Warrior and Libris Mortis) give you bonus hit points equal to your current hit die? Example: A 1st level barbarian gains 12 hit points. Or does it give bonus hit points equal to your current hit dice? Example: A 1st level barbarian gains 1 hit point. This one doesn't seem very clear to me. If it's the former then it's really great for a 1st level barbarian. If it's the latter, then it's not so improved until you get up into higher levels, and even then it's not that much better than regular toughness. M@
woot. I'm about a week late since it premiered last week, but who cares. New Doctor Who! M@
I started a new thread under Campaign Journals and it's messed up. The title disappeared and I can't see my post when I click on it. Help? M@
We had our first session this weekend, nothing but character generation. This thread is for my players (who are mostly lurkers), to chime in on and maybe post some in character goodies. Plus, I'll be giving the rundown of my take on events since I'll be modding quite a bit to accomodate for 7 players. Here's the group we made up: Jann, male human LG cleric of Wee Jas
It's definately an interesting mix. The future plans are for the diaboulus barbarian to go sorcerer then rage mage, the draconic human rogue to go sorcerer then arcane trickster, the elf wizard to go force missle mage then argent savant, the half-elf fighter to go occult slayer, with maybe some rogue levels, and the monk is eyeing the tattoed monk, but might go assassin. Nothing like the only two lawfuls in the group being on opposite sides of the good/evil axis. M@
Here's what I'm thinking so far. I haven't got to the crunchy bits yet, just the ideas that are rolling around. Spoiler alert for my players so...
I'm thinking of having the BBEG be either a half-farspawn halfling ghoul or a half-farspawn draconic goblin. Classwise either sorcerer or druid. I plan to use the cerebrotic feats and spells from Dragon 330. The BBEG has created a cerebrotic blot in a portion of the Mistmarsh and is in the process of creating/summoning forth Far Realm beasties from MM/MM2/MM3/FF plus Dragon 330. I think that a couple of pseudonatural scrags, mayeb some pseduonatural monstrous spiders, and a couple of pseudonatural crocodiles will fit nicely too. Ironically, the lastest Dungeon has an adventure using some Far Realm stuff but it's been read by one of my players already, and it doesn't really mesh with my idea of a blot in the Mistmarsh. I figure I'll throw this in sometime after and/or during the Blackwall Keep adventure. My party of 7 will start lagging behind in XP quite a bit by that point. Any thoughts? M@
Here's a thread where we can show off just how ultra-cool we are by spouting off names of bands that nobody's heard of. Currently playing: Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet- s/t
I'm so non-trendy. M@
How soon (if ever) will this be available again? M@
While the rest of the party searched for secret doors in the room where the medusas appeared, the dwarf fighter/ranger/dervish and the human weretiger ranger got tired of waiting around and decided to have a little arm-wrestling match on the altar. I thought they were just kidding at first, until they rolled to see who would win. Lucky for them they've both got good saves and didn't succumb to the trap, but they felt something nasty about to happen and quickly decided it was a bad idea to use the altar like that. I can't believe they actually used the altar to arm-wrestle. I'm still in shock over that one. M@
My players had just finished defeating the medusa rogues and un-stoning 4 of the 6 PC's when they got the bright idea to comb all the alcoves for secret doors. After the elf illusionist found the one with the rolling pillar by the altar, he moved over in the corner to wait while the weretiger pushed the pillar out of the way. Guess what he found on accident while standing there? Another secret door. Guess which door they decided to explore next? The one he just found. Guess where it lead? To a room with a spell weaver. The above quote was said by the dwarven fighter/dervish just before he got trapped by Embril's magic jar spell. Now he's trapped in the gem and watching his body walk through the bogs of Carceri calling for Nerull. Oops. The party has only defeated Ssythar Nahazir and the medusas and the spell wever from the ruins of Shatterhorn, now they want to make a planar jaunt to Carceri to resue their comrade. Will they save him? Maybe. Will they get spanked and sent back to the Prime? Probably. Will Cauldron need a new mayor again? Most likely. I love this campaign. It's the best one since TOEE. M@
I don't remember the issue offhand, maybe 319, but has anyone ever used the masterpiece performance rules for bards? They let bards create masterpieces using guidelines similar to creating magic items. I've let one of my players use them for a while, and it really gives a huge boost to the party. Almost too much of a boost. She made a song that is a beefed up multi-target version of the bardic inspire courage ability. She paid through the nose in GP and XP for it, but it makes the party nearly unstoppable in short-duration combat encounters from the bonus temporary hit points and bonuses to attack and damage. I don't think I'll allow them in the future because it really unbalances things in favor of the PC's. Any other DM's encounter this? M@
I was wondering how many DM's use an NPC as a party member when they run games. I often will do it to fill out an empty spot, like if nobody plays a cleric and I know one will be needed. I also find it handy to dispense information that the players need but can't seem to figure out. But I have also played in games where the DM's NPC was the main character in the party and stole the limelight all the time. And for those DM's who use an NPC does your NPC get an equal share of the XP and loot or do you run them similar to hirelings or cohorts?
One other thing that bugs me, why is Hookface a CR 18 and Moltenwing is only a CR 16? Hookface has a few minor spells and Moltenwing has two breath weapons. Both of them use magic items. Both of them have the same hit points, and AC and attack bonuses are within a few points of each other. IMHO, they should both be the same CR, but then the CR system has always given me fits with stuff like that.
Shebeleth can't use his scroll of gate to call a glabrezu if the PC's have wiped out the Flamewarders because the Tree radiates a dimension lock and thus prevents the gate. Also, the PHB isn't very clear about whether or not a dimension lock prevents summoning, which would screw up the tactics of Thearynn and Frejia as well. The PHB says something about a dimension lock not preventing summoned creature from returning at the end of the summons duration but not if the spell explicitly prevents the summoning during the lock.
1 pyroclastic dragon + 5 overconfident PC's = 5 dead PC's. Crap. This party already lost 2 to Hookface, then ran away without fighting him, now all the rest of them died to Moltenwing. Why didn't they run this time? I might rule this one as a "Dallas session" so we can finish the SCAP. I've been running this thing for over 2 years now and to end it without finishing this close to the end just sucks.
After some creative tweaking so the SCAP didn't die, we will be finishing it up around mid-March and then we will be starting the Age of Worms. I have 3 definate players and 2 maybes. I'd still like another 2 or 3 definates rather than the maybes. Anyone? M@
My game has taken a beating. I am now down to three people in for my Shackled City game, and we've had to take some time off so we're just about to finish Lords of Oblivion. I'd like another player or two to fill out the group for the rest of the AP. We usually meet every other Saturday from 3:30-9, sometimes later. I live in Fredericktown, about an hour northeast-ish of Columbus and about a half-hour south of Mansfield. Anyone interested and near me can contact me here or at matt_the_dm@yahoo.com
I tried to renew my Dungeon subscription last week but I never got a confirmation email and my subscription page still shows that I have only 3 issues left. I swear the same thing happend with my Dragon sub too a few weeks ago. I was going to let it go and get Dungeon instead so I didn't think about it too much at the time. I don't want to miss any issues of Dungeon!
DM's, watch how you run this encounter or you might end up with a TPK. Make sure you know what your party is capable of before running this one. I ran this encounter with the dracolich last week and almost had a TPK. The dracolich's parayzing gaze attack and the paralysis from his natural weapon attacks, both with a Fortitude DC 26, make him nearly unstoppable. I had 3 of the 4 party members plus the cohort paralyzed within 4 rounds when I decided to fudge things a little bit and shorten the duration of the paralysis. I didn't want to end the AP right there so I let them have a little easier of a time. Fetor was in on the fight too, after having fled from them earlier and the party spent too much time focusing on him rather than the dracolich. My party has no powerful arcane caster, so they had no access to flying magic, and although they do have two combat monsters with high Fortitude saves, that DC 26 is a hard one to make.
I hate to keep nitpicking this adventure, but why bother giving Fetor the cool new feat Death Frost Spell (pun intended)and then not have any of his spells prepared with it? The feat is unique to this adventure and it's too good to waste by not using it. Also, it isn't noted in his stat block that his necromancy spells should all be +2 DC from his spell focus and greater spell focus feats. I think I'm going to tweak Fetor around a little bit before my group encounters him.
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, I didn't see it in any of the threads, and I wanted to point it out for those DM's who haven't gotten this far in the AP yet. The Cathedral of Wee Jas has an unhallow effect with an invisiblity purge tied into it that affects the entire cathedral. It says so in the last bulleted list of effects just before the details of the doors and walls- "Invisibility purge throughout the entire Cathedral." It also mentions the unhallow effect in the aura section of the room with Ike. Yet Ike Iverson's tactics have him using a scroll of invisibility on himself. Why?? I just eliminated that part of his tactics which had him finish his buffing session a round early. Another thing I wonder about is the hero's feast spell. Can it affect the undead? The spell effect in the PHB says 1 creature/level...it doesn't specify living creature. The text of the spell uses the words consume and partake to indicate who is affected. I suppose the zombies could eat it if commanded to, but does digestion need to take place or is just putting the food in one's body enough? How should consume and partake be defined here? According to Libris Mortis, most undead have no metabolism and zombies have no diet of any kind. I would think that having no metabolism means the zombie's bodies would not be able to digest to food. But do they need to digest it or is just eating it enough? And since the wraith is incorporeal, can it benefit from the spell? How can it eat the food if it can't touch it? Something else is that the giants, half-orcs, and the cleric down below are never mentioned as benefitting from the hero's feast. Since Ike Iverson is a 13th level caster, he can create the feast for 13 creatures, enough for himself and the bone devil, the 2 giants, 3 half-orcs, and cleric in the lower temple, and the 5 zombies. He doesn't have enough for the wraith too but...well it's incorporeal. I don't see any reason why the giants and the others shouldn't benefit from the spell if there's enough for them too. I gave them the benefits from the spell. And I will probably give the benefits to the zombies too, but not the wraith since it's incorporeal. We ended our session tonight after the party fought the giants but before they went up into the upper tower.
This question is either for James Jacobs who wrote it, or any DM's who have run the adventure...what would you recommened changing Wulvera into after the ritual is completed? I used this adventure for my group of evil PC's since...well they're all evil... They arrived at Scuttlecove by accident after fleeing from pursuers in the Ket/Bissel area. The group had caused lots of chaos around there, what with the razing of a few smallish towns and lots of murders here and there of good upstanding citizens. Just before starting the PHH, I ran them through the Beast of Burden from Dungeon 100. They took posession of the Kadtanach and were using it to get revenge on the towns they'd been exiled from and/or were wanted for murder in. This followed a lengthy stay in Nyos fighting at the arena (Pandemonium on the Veins, Dungeon 96) where they made an enemy of Severus Tulero, a yuan-ti fighter who showed up later in Scuttlecove. By this time, they had been through several adventures from Dungeon, including Totentanz (Totentanz, Dungeon 90), where a few of them picked up a nasty case of lycanthropy, and also where they found a nifty little item called the Deadgate. They fled Nyos when the local wizards guild got wind of the deeds of the party's necromancer from the authorites who'd been tracking the party for months. Then they found the gnolls with the Kadtanach and were on their way to retrieve the Deadgate that they had hidden in an underground hollow they once used as a fort. Anyways, a group of loremasters from whom the knowledge of the Kadtanach was stolen attacked them and took back the helm controlling it, causing the beast to return back to the Beastlands and the group's colossal-beast-riding-town-stomping days to come to an abrupt end. At some point during the fight, a magic item was damaged and exploded in a rush of energy that put them all on the beaches of a tropical island containing the city of Scuttlecove. DM intervention at it's finest. Now comes the part of the story related to my question about Wulvera...during the course of this adventure, they made a shaky ally with Tyralandi and tried unsuccessfully to assault the Porphyry House. One PC was taken prisoner and the other tried unsuccessfully to rescue her when their old friends/enemies Severus Tulero (from Pandemonuim in the Veins) and Veshra the quasit (from Valley of the Snails, Dungeon 87) made their presence known by attacking the party and declaring allegiance with the yuan-ti of Porphyry House. Severus had stolen an intelligent weapon from the group (Skullcreeper, from Vanity, Dungeon 93). Much chaos ensued and they were lured into the orgy room and just before being dosed with the poison, Wulvera offered them a deal to be allies instead of enemies so she could finish her ritual. Half or the party fled the island at this point, not wanting to become half-fiends, half of them stayed and became half-fiends (only 1 survived with his wits), and then both halves of the party met up on a captured pirate boat a few miles off the coast. So Wuvelra's ritual succeded, none of the major yuan-ti were killed, and 1 party member survived his transformation to a half-fiend. They were planning to find their way back to the mainland when the Fane of Scales fell and they found a little thing called the Blak Egg (The Black Egg, Dungeon 106). Now they have returned to Scuttlecove for revenge. Since the completion of the ritual, everyone on the island either changed to a half-fiend or was killed by those who did change. All the yuan-ti, including Severus, changed to a half-fiend. My question is this...what to do with Wulvera? In the concluding the adventure section, it says that she has another ritual to fully transform her into a demon. I can't really decide what kind of demon, if any, to change her into. Does Demogorgon have a favored type of demon? Should I just apply the half-fiend template to her? What about changing her to a yuan-to anathema from the Fiend Folio? Any suggetions would be appreciated. At this point, upon returning to Scuttlecove, my party consists of a human/half-fiend fighter 7/disciple of Asmodeus 3, a gnome werewolf barbarian 10, an ogre mage with no class levels, half-red dragon minotaur with no class levels, and an elven half-air elemental wizard 5/elemental savant 4. Also, the Disciple of Asmodeus has control of the Black Egg (or it him...) and commands 3 half-fiend young adult red dragons. Changing all the yuan-ti to half-fiends, Wulvera included, ups their power level considerably, but I really think the party will have a problem with them since they've got 3 huge dragons on their side. This is the first time in my 15 years DMing that a group left in the middle of an adventure only to come back and finish the job when both sides were much more powerful than before. I'm sort of at a loss here when it comes to Wulvera...any help would be greatly appreciated.
To my knowledge, there was never any mention of Cauldron being set in any specific setting until near the end of the series. I believe it's in the Strike on Shatterhorn that the jungles around the ruins are referred to as the Amedio Jungles, placing the area in the southwestern part of the Flaness. Since I use Greyhawk as my default setting anyways, I don't have a problem with this at all. What I do have a problem with is the placement of Cauldron and Sasserine on the new Greyhawk map. In one of the early adventures, either Flood Season or Zenith Trajectory, Sasserine is mentioned as the nearby capital city, some 200 miles to the south of Cauldron. On the new map, Sasserine is less than 1 hex (30 miles) away from Cauldron, and it's to the north. What gives? All along I've been having my party make the long journey south over 200 miles to buy and sell stuff and now suddenly the city is only a days journey to the north? Also, now Sasserine is closer to, or at least as close as, all the surrounding settlements like Redgorge and Hollowsky and even the Shatterhorn ruins (none of which appear on the new map by the way). What's up with this discepancy Paizo? I realize that making Sasserine 200 miles south of Cauldron puts it off the map, but couldn't you have made it all fit?
Ja-di-roon?? Z-a-di-roon?? I usually go with Jz-ad-i-roon, sort of slurring the J and Z together in one sound. For that matter, what about Bhal-Hamatugn? Ball Hama-toon? Those kuo-toa have tricky names. At least the AP doesn't go near Jbulgolboth. D&D is a great source of mispronunciations. There ought to be a pronunciation guide in all the books. I used to have a player who insisted that tarrasque was pronounced terra-skwee.
I think it was issue 87. I really liked this adventure but all my players hated it. I thought it was well put together and a good challege. They hated the red kuo-toa that wouldn't die. It's one of the only times they ever ran from battles instead of fighting to the death.
I had 3 PC deaths in Life's Bazaar, 2 deaths in Flood Season, 5 deaths in Zenith Trajectory, and 2 deaths in the Demonskar Legacy. Of all those deaths, I had 2 PC's die twice. I've only had 4 players up until now too. We're about 1/4 of the way into the Smoking Eye and nobody has died yet... That doesn't count the time Ruphus was adventuring with them and died or the time the NPC rogue got bullrushed into the magical forge by the fire giant in the Demonskar. One the of party has had the lone surviving character since the beginning...so far... |