pres_man's page

The word cathedral is derived from the Latin noun "cathedra" (seat or chair), and refers to the presence of the bishop's (or archbishop's) chair or throne. In the ancient world, the chair was the symbol of a teacher (and thus of the bishop's role as teacher), and also of an official presiding as a magistrate (and thus of the bishop's role in governing a diocese).

The word cathedral, though now grammatically used as a noun, is originally the adjective in the phrase "cathedral church", from the Latin "ecclesia cathedralis". The seat marks the place set aside in the prominent church of the diocese for the head of that diocese and is therefore a major symbol of authority.
-Wikipedia definition

Well, we are talking about a game where Paladins kill people despite the fact that taking a life under any excuse is evil...

Where is that stated? I have never seen a rule that says taking a life is always evil. Could you provide a source for that?

This is a Stupid Neutral post.

LOL. Ok, you want a more meaningful post, very well. The DM screwed up big time by assuming that the party was just going to passive accept the surrender of an evil cultist, he didn't reasonably say, "Is it ok if we break initiative?" As a good DM would, instead he assumed that the alignment of the characters would be a straightjacket for their behaviour.

Accepting the surrender of every evil doer is STUPID. So, let's see, when the beholder surrenders are you going to accept it? How about that vampire? A demon? Also as pointed out by the OPer, there wasn't any organization that they could confidently turn the prisoner over to, does that mean that these good characters have to choose between spending the rest of their lives guarding this dangerous individual or allowing them to go free? That is the type of choices good characters should be forced into by evil cultists that are just trying to save their innocent-blood soaked skins?

As for attacking someone trying to surrender being evil, well here is a few comments in various sources with respect to paladins, which most would agree would be MORE restrictive then a NG mystic theurge.

... Alhandra, a paladin, who fights evil without mercy and protects the innocent without hesitation, is lawful good.

The hound archon hero is a mighty champion of justice, devoted to the pursuit and destruction of evil in all its forms.

The hound archon hero is a paladin.

"Mercy for those that deserve mercy." Sometimes even the righteous can stray from the true path, and thus you must occasionally show compassion. However, mercy for unrepentant evil-doers is tantamount to doing evil yourself.

Some good folk do worry about redemption and such, other good folk worry about protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty. One can subscribe to one outlook without necessarily condemning the other.

They're just as*ho*les with swords: Medieval Navy Seals.

So the implication is that all Navy Seals are jackholes? Well, that comment does explain alot about your views, I think your bias is showing.

It was not evil, though it does seem as if your group and DM want you to play Stupid Good.

A couple of options that may need houserulings to do.

1) Use 3rd edition monkey grip. In the 3rd edition version you could use a two-handed weapon with one hand, and you could only do it for one specific weapon (I believe I am remembering that right). You also take a -2 penalty to do that. So you could use this feat with a normal reach weapon and get to use it one-handed.

2) Convince the DM that all the characteristics of a wrongly sized weapon are maintained. Its weight, its damage type, its crit range, its REACH ;), then use a small sized reach weapon in one hand, with a -2 penalty. I have personally done some number crunching in the past and for a human (or other medium creature) a correctly sized shortspear (medium sized) was better overall than a wrongly sized longspear (small sized) due to the -2 attack penalty. So I know this isn't overpowered, but some DMs may need more convincing than others.

I got mine this morning (in Canada)! Huzzuh for downloads!

I particularly like having the bestiary as a separate file. It's something I expect to continue to access after I've finished running the path, and being in its own document is quite convenient.

Thanks, Paizo, for the great product!

Good point, you could even eventually print off your own "monster manual" by getting together all of the bestiaries.

We would love to be able to do this. We spent hours and hours and hours in the earliest stages of planning trying to think of ways to do this. In the end, until stat blocks shrink (oh please, 4e, let your stat blocks be shorter!) we're pretty much out of luck. :(

I'm sorry, I don't think I stated my issue very clearly. It seems as alot of the monster entries are set up on the page:

Picture | 2nd 1/2
.......... | of stat
.......... | block
1st 1/2 | description
of stat . | text
block ... |

It seems to me that the problem isn't so much the length of the stat block for most of them (some are longer of course), but the problem is starting with the picture. If you started the 1st column with the stat block, it looks like you should be able to fit it all in the first column for most of them.

stat . | picture
block | text

A couple of nitpicking comments:
1)Why are all the people so fugly? The goblins and monsters look cool, but the NPCs look like someone has spent too much time watching Aeon Flux (the cartoon not the movie).
EDIT: I should say I was looking at the sandpoint section when making this comment, many of the other NPCs look fine.

2)Perhaps in the future could we get stat blocks that do not get split between columns? Obviously some are going to run long (see attic whisperer), but in most cases instead of going picture-stat block-text and making the stat block switch columns 1/2 way through, maybe adjust tthe format to make it work better on the page.

Nothing super huge, just some things that I found kind of bothersome.

ok so we casting a sleep spell against a group of ((lets say the same example as the players handbook gives)) a rat, kobold , 2 gnolls and a ogre.and most of us know it of course only affects 4 hd of creatures starting with the lowest.Ok our question is what if kobold rat and gnolls make their saves..can the spell then effect the 4hd ogre?..

No. The spell only interacts with the lowest 4 HD of creatures. If those creatures make their saves, well too bad.

Of course tiefling will be core and it will have favored class warlock, which will also be core. Maybe... (they will remove the favored class mechanic of course)

Here is some.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archives

I think the stuff is still there for free, you just have to get a little more creative to find it.

I personally downloaded all of the free adventures and the erratas (even for books I don't own [yet]) as soon as the site finally starting working again.

Well I just read an article that said 4th edition would still be OGL. Having said that, unless they release the OGL before they release the new Core Books, there will be some lag between where companies like paizo and others switch over.

I image this is going to cause a bit of a headache for other companies in the coming year, as alot of players will stop purchasing anything related to 3.5 in the worry that it will not be compatible with 4th edition.

Because I took no action, the DM (Zealot) ruled it a coup-de-grace.

Personally, I would say that is a bad call. If you were not held or helpless in some fashion, you are probably going to flinch when someone swings a sword at you. Did you get your saving throw for the damage? Flat-footed, sure. Helpless, nah.

It is also a bad call in that no player should ever have their character killed out of hand in such a fashion. And it did not allow the other players a chance to intervene after the paladin attacked.

If you guys were all ok with it, well to each his own I guess. Yet in the future, unless you are helpless, a coup-de-grace isn't really appropriate.

When the Elf character refused to kneel but also refused to fight back, he simply lopped his head off.

How exactly does one do that? Was he helpless? Did the paladin have a vorpal blade and crited?

The poor, abused kobolds lack that traditional iconic mount creature, and while they do enjoy their traps, without mounts they are a much more stationary threat.

Dire weasels?

The real issue is not why are you getting less number issues as me, the real issue is why is my last four issues the same as your last four issues.

You sign up for a three year subscription, this gets you more savings per issue. I sign up for a one year subscription, this gets me less savings per issue. Yet at this point, we both have exactly the same length of subscription, 4 issues.

I am still paying more for my issues then you are, despite both of us having the same number remaining. I am the one getting screwed in that deal. Why can't I increase my subscription to a "3 year" one so I get the same exact savings as you get over the next four issues and then get the remaining money refunded to me?

In this case, ignorance has benefited you more than it has me. Had we both known that the magazines were going to end, I would have gotten an extended subscription so that I could get the increased savings and not really commit myself to a longer time period.

I think the big mistake is trying to compare the money you have spent to the cover prices. But lets say we do and lets say that someone had intended to get a 3-year subscription in order to make "money". They were going to get the issues and sell them to someone else for the cover price, thus making the difference in profit. Well that person has made more "profit" than someone else who got a 1-year subscription up to this point. And not only that they get a 100% refund on their remaining investment. That is a heck of an investment.

So you are no worse off at all then if you had been told at the time of your renewal that the mags were going to end. In fact you are in better case, because if they had known at that time, they would not have offered you the 3-year subscription that got you even more savings.

I think the real issues is, why are they treating everyone as equal after the transition, why aren't you continuing to get prefered treatment? The answer is because they are going to a month-by-month model and the three-year subscription is no longer any more valuable than the one-year subscription (though you still save more money on the next four issues and if you choose, older issues).

I don't know if anyone else has looked at these, but I've used them for gaming before: Heroscape minis. Heroscape is a board game from Hasbro that uses a multitude of different minis from various fantasy genres and time periods. http://www.hasbro.com/heroscape/ is their website. The minis are prepainted, non randomized. A booster pack of 5-7 figures runs about $10 at most big-box retailers.

-Skeld

Their individual humanoids aren't really all that cost effective (this hasn't stopped me from buying them for some reason), you'd be better going to a website that sells individual DDM figs, besides which their bases are too large (why hasbro did this considering it owns both Heroscape and D&D, I don't know). Which means you either squash them together or have to cut them off and put them on new bases. But what I have found a good deal is their large creatures, especially the packs with their dragons. You don't have to take them off their base, just glue the whole thing to a large square base and they are good to go.

Where is the green kobold?

As for the yellow, she is Ratga, the general of Merlokrep's "army". She stays in the back shouting orders and inspiring the kobold forces forward (she is a bard).