meibolite's page

Okay so i was reading through the additional resources page for pathfinder society, and i saw that nothing from the catfolk entry in the advance races guide is legal, however Tengu and kitsune are... and i'm wondering why that is.

I can understand some of the alternate traits being illegal, like scent in place of low-light vision, but the vanilla version of the class seems to me to be balanced for the most part.

So my question is, are vanilla catfolk legal, and if not, is there any reason why when there are more breakable races that are legal?

I know that fighting with two weapons or a double weapon allows you to make an extra attack per round with the off-hand weapon, but if you have more than one attack in a round with a full attack, does the penalty apply on the main hand attack for all attacks?

Say i'm level 20, with full BAB, so I have a BAB for a full attack of 20/15/10/5, assuming i'm fighting with two weapons, have TWF feat and using a light weapon, is my full attack 18/18/13/8/3 or is it 18/18/15/10/5? Or is the extra attack generated per round also generated per attack in a full attack so I would have an 18/18/13/13/8/8/3/3 for 8 attacks?

So my first session as a DM turned out to be pretty awesome, here is the highlight of night. This is in Skull & Shackles: The Wormwood Mutiny.

During the roughing up encounter on day 2, the barbarian decided to try and "sunder" the arm of one of the pirates who was attacking the party's alchemist. He rolls a natural 20, and the way our group handles natural 20s on anything but saves, we roll critical threat. He then rolls a natural 19... obliterating the CMD for the poor pirate. The barbarian is currently raging because he doesn't like getting sucker punched. He proceeds to literally disarm the pirate, who took lethal damage from having his arm ripped off. I wanted to help keep party members from being keelhauled, especially after the look of horror on everyone's face when Jakes is keelhauled, so I tried to give him a fort save to just fall unconcious... and rolled a natural 1... which is the only roll I never fudge, so he dies. The pirate with a dagger sees this, so he draws his dagger and misses his attack against the barbarian. The barbarian rushes him and beats him to death with the arm of the guy he just killed. Two pirates dead in a matter of seconds.. the other pirates had been subdued by the party.

Well, instead of just going upstairs, the party starts trying to figure out a way to cover up the deaths, and themselves. Since I had it taking place slightly later than the book says to (there were no witnesses to the killings) I had Sandara come looking for them... the barbarian almost killed her because he noticed her coming down the stairs and was thinking "NO WITNESSES GRRR" but was talked down by the rest of the party. She helps them corroborate their story of self defense to Scourge. The blood covered barbarian was sentenced to 8 hours in the sweat box while the murders were investigated.

After surviving the sweat box, the barbarian was pulled out and sentenced to a slow keelhaul. 12 reflex saves, at DC 20... here is the most awesome part of this... he makes 10 of the 12 saves, 5 of those were 20s, 3 19s, and 2 lower saves.. he takes 14 damage overall... coming up the other side bloody and with 1 HP left. Even Captain Harrigan is impressed with this.

During the night festivities, Grok challenges the barbarian to a game of heave, and ends up losing horribly to the barbarian. She is so impressed by this, the single handed killing of 2 pirates while unarmed, surviving a keelhaul and drinking her under the table, I immediately made her helpful to the party.

In the course of two days... the party now has two friends on board, and moved 3 other NPCs up 1 level on the helpfulness chart out of sheer awesome. Right now I'm psyching up the barbarian player about the fight with the "Owlbear."

Hey guys,

Well my adventure is finally off, and I'm having trouble figuring out the best way to keep records of what goes on in the campaign. Right now i've got a notebook for notes regarding who is friends/enemies with the party at the moment as well as keeping a blog of the story so far. Would you guys have any other suggestions as to what to do? I'm DMing this, and didn't realize how much record keeping i'd have to do for Skull and Shackles, even after reading the adventure path over three or four times.

Do you think keeping a blog of the story is a good idea? I know it allows the players to check up and remember what happened.

Any other record keeping ideas would be great. I already am keeping a copy of everyone's character sheets and such for that side of record keeping.

So I'm running Skull and Shackles as a three man (i upped the power level of the players to help compensate) And my players make a good party, Healer in an Oracle, Tank in a Barb, and Damage in a Rogue, and I'm wondering if I should roll a DMPC to run with them from level 1, or just use one of the Prefab characters when the party gets around their level.

I know the benefits and downsides to both, running a 3-man party for a little bit will level them up faster since there are less people to divide between at first, however they may be hard pressed for the first few major battles.

Having the Prefab NPC join makes it a bit easier on the paperwork side, since I don't have to keep track of another character and I already have a character built for when they are somewhat equal in level

I'm finally getting my Skull & Shackles off the ground, and have invited a player who is brand new to Pen & Paper rpgs, She's interested in playing, but I'm wondering what would be an easy class to learn for her. I told her about the Preservationist archetype because she's really into Pokemon, and that is basically a Pokemon Trainer, but would that be too hard for her to play?

I know a lot of people say rogue or fighter as a good starting class, or ranger, but I don't want to shoe-horn her into something she won't have fun playing, but I also don't want to smother her with a lot of information.

I'm heading off to bed after this post so I wont be able to respond to everyone's advice till morning, but feel free to discuss amongst yourselves, or send me a PM with your advice

-Meib

I'm looking to start up an adventure path that i'm pretty sure one of my group has read cover to cover, and would know how to optimize his character to the point that everyone else is practically useless in the campaign. He's a notorious power gamer in our group who always tries to break the campaign, however when he DMs he gets mad when we have optimized characters.

I'm looking for a good way to give everyone equal spotlight in this campaign, because in our group we have a representation of all 4 major types of gamers in the group: The Hack n Slasher, the Intellectual, the Power Gamer, and the role player/actor.

I was thinking of pregenerating the characters for them, at least stat/class wise, but letting the players flesh out their personalities, and making all the characters PFS legal even though this isnt going to be a PFS game. My friend the intellectual, who also has a problem with our power game suggested just having everyone make their characters the first session and to supervise it, though i'm sure that even with having them make the characters there, our in house power gamer will still make the "ultimate X" character and over shadow everyone else so they feel left out.

I know its extra work to make all the characters and randomly assign them in the first game, but it can allow everyone to be on equal footing to begin with instead of having one super optimized character as well as suboptimal and bad characters.

My other option is not inviting this one guy to the game, however he is still a good role player and is fun to have in the party even when he's overshadowing everyone else.

The campaign i'm looking to run is Skull and Shackles, which fits our group because even when we play a standard "heroic fantasy" campaign, our groups tend to turn to piracy and chaos... always lol. With my luck though, the party will end up being super heroic instead of pirates lol.

So TLDR Which is a better choice: Generating characters the first meeting, or pregenerating the characters for the group?

I am currently gearing up for a Skull and Shackles campaign, and have put a restriction on alignment to have non-lawful characters (mainly because i have heavy role-players in my group who take alignment very seriously, and don't want to cause party conflicts) But one of my players really wants to play a Paladin, but of Besmara. As she is definitely NOT Lawful Good, how would you suggest I go about this?

Since she is Chaotic Neutral, i plan to handle it kind of like a cleric of a neutral Deity, if he chooses to channel positive energy, use the regular Paladin class, and change anything that has the Lawful type in its build to Chaotic, and if he chooses negative, to go with the Antipaladin class.

With the Oath however, Should i have the paladin follow the Pirate's Code or Privateer's Code as his Code of Conduct?

Also, does anyone here feel that taking a paladin away from Lawful Good really hurts the class in general, from a fluff standpoint? I personally subscribe to the 4E concept of a Paladin as a holy warrior of a specific deity, that holds all which their deity represents to be the true way. Whether they are a Paladin of Pelor, or a Paladin of Orcus.

I know that Evil characters are not allowed in PFS, but I want to play a Neutral Undead Lord archetype, and i'm not sure if it is legal or not (can't find anything saying no to negative energy clerics) But I don't want to spend the time building one if it is an illegal character choice. I haven't gotten anything in the PFS boards, so i'm hoping i can get it answered here :)

In the campaign i'm starting up this weekend, one of the house rules i'm thinking of putting in is an extended training time for multiclassing. What i mean is, if a PC wants to multiclass they have to find another person (PC or NPC) who has at least 3 class levels in the class they are multiclassing into, in order to train them in that class.

The only reason i'm doing it is because fluff wise, it doesn't make sense that someone who spent their entire young adult life training in one class to suddenly be able to take another completely different class.

I know i'm taking some stuff from AD&D for this, where you had to seek out a trainer for your class in order to level up (not to mention pay gold... AD&D was harsh)

I just would like advice on how long such training would last. I'm running skull and shackles, so there will be downtime on the ship for this stuff to happen, i'm assuming 1d3 week per stage of the class' starting age. IE: Self taught classes like Barbarians take 1-3 week of training, while a wizard with the advanced study starting age would take 3-9 weeks. Also while training in the new class, they will have the basic abilities of the class, such as BAB, saves, and as training goes along they will learn more of the starting class abilities.

What are your thoughts on this, and is it too restrictive? I will allow the PCs to continue advancing in the second/third/fourth class as long as they are actually using the abilities of said class (i hate people who dip into a class for a couple passive benefits but never actually use the class features) Also, if the PCs utilize a trainer outside of their crew/party members for training, what should the cost be?

What i mean is, if there is a save on a creatures ability, Like the black spot sea urchin, where it's curse ability requires a Fort save, but it says the save is Charisma based, does that mean the PC takes their base Fort bonus and add their charisma modifier?

IE: Fighter lvl 1, 16 Con 12 CHA, would have a fort of +4, instead of +5? or is the DC of the ability based upon the CHA of the creature using the ability?

I'm going to be starting up a Skull and shackles campaign soon, because i fell in love with it :) but what is the standard point buy for PCs in the adventure paths? is it 15, 20, or 25? I don't want things too easy, nor too difficult.

I'm thinking of a 20 pt buy, but judging from the named NPCs like Plugg and Sandara, they are 10-15 point buy. should the PCs start out slightly more powerful?

So, after pouring over all my class options, i am torn between a vanilla alchemist and a vivisectionist, either of which has to be a Gnome, for roleplaying reasons. He's basically a mad scientist, but i don't know if i want to go the bomb making route or the experimenting on everything route. This is for Kingmaker btw.

The character is going to most likely be sub-optimal build wise, I already know that, but I feel character is more important (plus with mutagens i can make myself stronger, hardier, more dexterous, what have you)

My stat block is as follows:

Str 10 (12)
Dex 14
Con 15 (13)
Int 18
Wis 12
Cha 9 (7)

I know having such a high intelligence isn't really needed if I go the vivisectionist route, and if I do, i'll drop the int down to 16, and put the points elsewhere, but with the vanilla alchemist, it can work wonders :). I'm also taking the Collector trait with focus in craft alchemy, along with brigand as my campaign trait, although if i go vivisectionist, i'll be taking pioneer for the free horse to experiment on at later levels.

What would be a good first feat to take? also, what weapon would you suggest I take? I know that a ranged weapon would be best, most likely a crossbow. I'm also going to be taking the +1/2 bombs per level favored class boon rather than skill points or hit points.

I'm working on a Ninja for a kingmaker campaign i'm going to be in soon, and was looking for advice, i'm currently looking at a human ninja, with the stat block of

Str 14
Dex 16 (+2 racial is here)
Con 14
Int 16
Wis 10
Cha 14

I know the stats are "average" but Ninja do suffer from MAD, and since i'm going to be the main skill monkey, i needed the higher INT.

She's going to be focused more on using poisons than brute force once we start getting the cashflow for me to craft poisons, so i'm going to have a rank in Craft(Alchemy) every level, plus Stealth, Bluff, Disable Device and Perception, but I need advice on feats to take. I'm thinking of taking Combat Expertise and Improved Feint at first level, unless you guys would suggest a different path.

I'm working on the boss for one of the adventures in my campaign, who is the ghost of a Sorceress. I know that she will keep all of her spells she knew at the time of her death and coming back as a ghost, but I'm wondering how CR works for a single creature that has class levels. If i put her at the same level as the party, would she be too weak? This party is around level 7 average (7,7,6,8,6 for the party's levels). I want this to be a challenging encounter for the party, and I have set up the module so that they will be fully rested when they actually fight her, so they will have all spells open to them.

Would a Level 7 Human Sorcerer(Ghost) be appropriate? I'm assuming that makes it a CR 9 encounter, assuming that class levels on a monster = CR of that monster.

She specializes in Illusion and enchantment rather than being a blaster sorc, mainly because she is based off a beguiler I played in a previous 3.5 campaign, and the guys i'm playing loved that character and the world that this campaign is based in is a future of the previous campaign in which she was horribly murdered by one of the other party members (long story which i should totally post in campaign journals...)

I digress, So would a level 7 ghost be a CR9, and would it be a fair and challenging encounter? Or should I up the level of the ghost, or throw in some extra "minions" so to speak?

I'm looking to start up an adventure path campaign, either Carrion Crown or Crimson Throne in the las vegas area, This will be my first time GMing an adventure path and not a homebrew campaign. I'm looking at running it on sundays, possibly saturdays in the morning/early afternoon (11-1 start time) Over at Action Comics in henderson. Respond to the post if interested.

Obviously open only to those who live in the vegas area :)

So I was running a game the other day, and had a TPK, not due to overwhelming odds, but due to bad luck on the PC's rolls, and somewhat good luck on the GM side, as well as the PC's stubborn refusal to run when things started going against them. I want to know what i should do with the party, they werent actually killed, just all knocked unconcious, and are currently bleeding out. The fight was a response to a failed "diplomatic discussion", I'm detailing the fight below. PEACH, as well as advice on how I should proceed.

The fight was against a adult red dragon, the big boss fight of this adventure, the party was lvl 13, so the CR was only slightly higher, but i knew how dangerous dragons were in the first place.

The first thing that happened was the cleric panicked because he was already frightened from some intimidation on the part of the dragon in its human form, and since he was the only one that had any form of restoration ability, he was stuck fleeing. Then the dragon, since he had the suprise round, breathed everybody, dealing max damage, everyone failed their reflex saves. The fighter ran up to him, got an AAO attack against him, that critted. He then missed his attack. Everyone else tried hurting him, but were all rolling horribly. The Dragon's initiative came back up, and he did a full attack on the fighter, and got him in a grapple. things just got worse from there. The cleric who was fleeing, ran into a pitfall trap that the rogue couldn't completely bypass, so fell in, and was knocked unconcious when he hit the bottom at -7hp

The fight continued on with the PCs dropping like flies, and i even had the dragon Insist that they just leave his lair, but the fighter in the group kept saying he was just "bluffing so he could kill us when we turn our backs" even though the character knew nothing of dragons from his knowledge check.

As things went bad to worse, the fighter eventually was knocked unconcious, and the dragon threw him away, and went to leave when the rogue decided to piss him off more by hitting him with a wand of frost.

What should I do with this party? Should I have them reroll characters, or work on some way that the dragon is keeping them prisoner or something, and they have to get away? The battle was pretty epic, but due to the stubbornness of the PCs to not walk away from a fight they couldn't win, they were wiped. My group is understandably mad that they lost the fight, but they are accusing me of giving them an "unwinnable fight" when it was bad luck and i gave them many oppurtunities to withdraw, but they just wouldn't take them.

I am working on a homebrew campaign setting based upon the different lands and rides at Disneyland, some of them lend themselves perfectly to modules, Indiana Jones is a perfect dungeon crawl with traps, undead, bugs and what not to overcome, while the Haunted Mansion has given a really good horror/mystery adventure especially taking elements from Phantom Manor. However i'm at a loss for some of the other areas, I know i want te final battle to be against the Bard/Dragon Rensei either in a Fantasmic style battle or at the castle, in a traditional "Fireworks Spectacular" finale that you get at the parks.

My ideas for each land and their "iconic" attraction are:

Adventureland: Indiana Jones - Dungeon Crawl, with a jungle cruise trek prior to reaching it.

Frontierland: Big Thunder Railroad is the main attraction there, but i'm trying to figure out how to fit it into an adventure, maybe a fight to the front of a magical train that is headed for a settlement, and the PCs have to stop it?

New Orleans Square: Since this is considered an offshoot of Frontierland, I'm planning on having whatever adventure that takes place in frontierland brings them to NOS, then they solve the mystery of the Bride and her murder there is also Pirates of the Caribbean here, which i could use as a transfer to Critter country

Critter Country and Toon Town: Critter country is mainly Splash mountain... so maybe something to do with an evil sect of druids controlling animals to spread plague or something? And toon town could be a portal to another dimension, most likely a plane of chaos, since toons are chaotic

Fantasyland/Tomorrowland crossover: The big one here is Matterhorn, which can be an easy survival through the mountains trek,

Tomorrowland Proper: This is a hard one, maybe the party gets ransported to a future time which is very steampunk like, but set within the confines of Jules Verne Literature (this is basically what Tomorrowland is in Paris)

Fantasyland: This is where the final bout is going to take place, maybe combine stuff like snow white's scary adventure and peter pan's flight.. by this time the party should be at a decently high level, i'm hoping around 18,

Final Battle: the final battle against the BBEG

I've got a basic framework down as to why they are going to all these places, and how they are all connected, but i'm torn between having a free roam OLM style campaign, or one that is more on the rails between getting to these places, and how to fill the gaps so its not a "Dungeon of the Week" adventure.

I plan on having this use the fast leveling system since there isn't alot of fill i can think of, but if i can stretch this out to be a good long adventure, that would be great.

I'm looking to start up a game at my FLGS and am trying to decide which adventure path I want to run. I am shying away from Kingmaker as myself the guys I normally play with are starting up that campaign soon and I don't want to ruin the fun by knowing what's going to happen (even though it sounds like a TON of fun!)

So I'm open to suggestions on what to run. I also have a shortish campaign that i created a while back for 3.5 then transferred it to 4e, which ended in disaster... TPK on the boss in about 3 rounds.

What would you guys suggest as a good adventure path, either full on campaign like Carrion Crown or Curse of the Crimson throne, or a shorter adventure set that may only take the party to around level 9 or so?