rweston's page

rweston wrote:

As for the "dazing" metamagic - I'm sure many on the boards will disagree with me, but I use the same rule as above - I treat all "daze" effects from spells/sla's as "mind-affecting"

While that's a fair enough houserule, there is nothing to support it by RAW. Just because undead are immune to one thing that causes the dazed condition doesn't mean they're immune to everything that causes the dazed condition. The dazing spell metamagic doesn't make the spell mind-affecting, and if it doesn't say it's mind-affecting then it isn't.

Same deal with negative levels, by the way. Undead are immune to energy drain but not negative levels. This means that they take the normal penalties for wielding holy weapons since the negative levels imparted by a holy weapon wielded by an evil creature are not an energy drain effect.

Actually - don't actually treat ALL daze effects from spells can sla's as if they were mind effecting - if the source of the "daze" condition is from, say a physical battering effect ("the mighty blow from this creature dazes anyone who fails a fort save, DC xx...") then I would have undead make the save.

And the other folks above are correct - it's a houserule, there is nothing I can see in the rules that says undead are immune to the "dazed" condition.

:)
Rory

Your new wizard will be in for an unpleasant surprise with that tactic:
The undead will ignore the Unprepared Combatant - they won't even need to make a save.

Unprepared Combatant is an enchantment spell, specifcally a "compulsion" "emotion", "mind-affecting" spell.

All undead are immmune to mind affecting effects:
- Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/creatureTypes.html#undead

My advise is don't tell him/her that until they try and fail, or specifically research the immunities of undead.

As for the "dazing" metamagic - I'm sure many on the boards will disagree with me, but I use the same rule as above - I treat all "daze" effects from spells/sla's as "mind-affecting"

My reason - the 0-level spell "daze":
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/daze.html#daze

DAZE
>>>School enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]; <<<
Level bard 0, sorcerer/wizard 0
This spell clouds the mind of a humanoid creature with 4 or fewer Hit Dice so that it takes no actions. Humanoids of 5 or more HD are not affected. A dazed subject is not stunned, so attackers get no special advantage against it. After a creature has been dazed by this spell, it is immune to the effects of this spell for 1 minute.

Your mileage may vary on the latter ruling regarding "daze".

Hope this is helpful
:)
Rory

Normally Aid another helps with ONE roll to Hit (next attack roll against that opponent) or ONE defense (against that opponent's next attack)

The feat allows you to extend that AC bonus to ALL the attacks against that oppoent, rather than just the first attack.

It's more useful against a foe with multiple attacks.
:)
Rory

Also true and an interesting rule - touch attacks spells allow you to
cast - move up - and then make the attack roll.

Which suddenly makes those clerics with the harm spells that much more deadly.

Kaladore is right though - you can't use spring attack in the same round you cast Chill touch as Spring attack is a full round action.

:)

Yes!
As a full-round action, you can move up to your speed and make a single melee attack without provoking any attacks of opportunity from the target of your attack.

Nothing in there about using a weapon, and a melee touch attack is still a melee attack.

Spring Away wizard Weymouth, Spring away!!
:)
Rory

Convent - certainly didn't mean it to come across that way.
In re-reading my response I see that I came across rather..poorly.
Sorry!
I've found over the years that I usually have to read spell descriptions myself as sometimes players miss rather crucial "paragraphs" from spells, and all of us remember 1st, 2nd, 3rd edition versions of spells rather than sometime important Pathfinder changes - I'm sure my exasperation with that is the source of the tone.

--------------------
With regards to the "on topic" I've always looked that the various divination spells as being there to give players assistance in the future by providing one piece of advice - not a foolproof or detailed view of the future.

My reasoning is that the spell itself isn't 100% accurate (reinforcing that the future is a moving target), the spell also notes that If your party doesn't act on the information, the conditions may change so that the information is no longer useful. which implies that the future shifts and changes.

Also the spell calls out that it gives a useful piece of advice regarding the Goal/activity /event you are asking a question about, not an "answer to a question".

The following questions are (in my opinion) very all about the same "topic" - in this case an "Event":

1.) What is the most dangerous situation that we will encounter in the next week?
2.) What is the best way to deal with the situation detected above?
3.) How does the planned actions change the level of danger for this situation?

As one of the posters above said - the line of questioning your players have going is more descriptive of a Commune spell - not Divination.

Your milage may vary, but I see Divination spells more akin to reading the Tarot - "Your will meet a dark foe who is known to you, he is wreathed in mist and casts no shadow, beasts travel with him in the guise of men, I see you armed with Silver as you enter a broken tower"
might be thew result if you have them facing an old vampire foe with werewolf (or werebear or weretiger) companions, also assuming the "broken tower" is someplace they are already going to, or know about.

You'll note that I sort of answered the first two questions in one with my divination answer without getting too detailed.

Hope this helps.
:)
Rory

It helps if you read the spell description.
Spending a mythic point allows you to basically use Divination, without the cryptic answer portion.
What your players are (conveniently) not reading is the last line of "divination" spell.

As with augury, multiple divinations about the same topic by the same caster use the same dice result as the first divination spell and yield the same answer each time.

1.) What is the most dangerous situation that we will encounter in the next week?

2.) What is the best way to deal with the situation detected above?

3.) How does the planned actions change the level of danger for this situation?

4.) Who is the most dangerous person we will come into direct physical/magical conflict with in the next week?

These are all basically ONE topic "what is the most dangerous situation we will deal with next week" - once they've asked the first question, that's it, they don't get any more info on the same topic.

ALWAYS read the full spell description and stick with it - it makes you life as a DM easier.
:)

Rory

HA!
Every time I post an answer to a messageboard, someone else posts the exact same answer, just as more clearly, using 75-90% fewer words.

I tip my hat to you Wraithstrike.

:)

1d6 fire damage per level
d4+1 force damage

Those are what the rules mean my "variable numeric effects".

a 5d6 Fireball can vary from 5 to 30 points of fire damage, a magic missle from 2 to 5 points of damage - that is a variable. it's different every time.
The EFFECT of the spell is different (variable).

The 50% miss chance of a displacement spell - well every time you cast it, no matter your level, it's always going to have the EFFECT of a 50% miss chance.

If the spell said " The creature benefits from a 20-50% (d4+1 X 10%) miss chance" then you'd have an empowerable spell - but this isn't one.

Whether or not his/her foes make that roll when they attack him/her or not has NOTHING to do with the spell, the spell itself never has a variable "effect".

That's the difference.
(Unless the fine folk at Paizo changed something in their interpretation of this spell - in which case watch out for maximized displacements...)

:)
Rory

:)
Tayse,
The worst thing about message boards is that it's hard to comment without coming across as critical.

The biggest takaway from my above post should be "If you have time to adjust the AP to compensate then go ahead - but it will be a LOT of work for you."

That and I've really found that high stats really mess with base Pathfinder monster CR values. If you go with 25 point buy really consider giving every monster in the books and advanced template - just to start.

All in all - the steampunk tech ideas are very cool - and you can do some interesting thigs with that once you get to Wake of the Watcher.

Have fun with whatever you do - I've had great fun with it so far.
:)
Rory

There are a number of consideration in this AP. (I'm just starting Book 6)

#1 - there are many point where the characters simply can't convert their found treasure into anything else (towni too far away to sell oneitem & buy another)

#2 - slow advancement will by the middle of the AP leave them unable to deal appropriately with their adversaries - if you slow their rate of advancement AND limit thier magic/cap there spells they will be very much outclassed by their opponents.

#3 You may be planning to cap the NPC's magic as well - in that case you have a LOT of work to do to balance the last 2 adventures.

The following choice make the AP MUCH more difficult to run:
25 point ability buy
Limited magic
Slow experience
Just remove these from consideration unless you want to go through the last 5 books and start major conversions of almost all the encounters.

#4) If you include the following:
- Stamina pool (free for everyone)
- Unchained classes
Then convert any NPC classes/mosters to use these options as well.

#5 the AP was designed with 15 point build. They ALL are.
If you're going point buy I STRONGLY recommend you stick with 15, 20 max. In the first book you won't notice a difference with a high point buy- by the 3rd it will be obvious your PC are overpowering everything with ease.

Your combo above, by the way, will make your caster too weak for the AP's end books by limiting their magic when the Ap is designed for them to NEED those high level spells to help everyone survive, and you martials will simply plow through everything you come across.

#6) Your "flesh golem" race concept could have a serious impact on the whole second book in the AP - which is built around the horror of the existence of Frankenstein monster. Frankly I'd drop that idea or drop the whole second act of the AP as your "race' dilutes the whole idea of "Trail of the beast".

If you're looking to "tweak" problem spells simply add a house-rule that spellcaster have to "learn" even their free spells - meaning they need to find them in a book/scroll or have them taught to them by someone else - then leave the "problem" spells off that persons list.
Hand clerics a list of "church approved" spells.

Free advice - you don't want an Black Tentacles spell used by a 25 Point buy spell-caster in an unconverted AP almost nothing can escape it, and it turns into a very very slow, very boring fireball.

Good luck - It's a great AP with a lot of interesting encounters and locales.
:)
R.

There's this guy from the DDM line. Check your local toy shop for plastic bats, too!

I am looking up at two of those dire bats - right now - I was just hoping for something a little more "huge".

Hmm - I get hung up on painting miniatures - didn't think to use "pawns" - I tend to only use cardboard images for things like "Interposing hands" and spiritual weapons....

I could re-purpose some of my dragons... I was hoping someone could point to a cool not-too-expensive miniature or model that would work.

I'll probably go with dragon.
:)
thanks justaworm.

:)
Rory

Any recommendations for miniatures to represent Nightwings?

I'm good for most of the rest of the Book - but I use a lot of minis and terrain & I'd love to have something visually striking for these beasts and I don't have anything that's a good fit...

Thanks folks!

Dragoncat - that was EXACTLY the sound I was looking for - perfectly creepy, it echoes and sounds like more than one voice.

Captain Yesterday I'll check out the NIN as well...

:)
Rory

Has anyone found a good "sound effect" to play when the Tyrant's Whispers kick in?

I've been trolling youtube for ideas but none of what I've found seem to fit

The party just disintegrated Hagmouth on route to Renchurch and I'm hoping to have some sound effects ready for them...

:)

Rory

Tars Tarkas!!!
ERB's Barsoom for the win!

After the Hobbit & Lord of the Rings, the John Carter stories were probably the strongest influence on my first D&D games - flying ships, swordplay, lost cities, Tars Tarkas...

I guess I know what I'm re-reading this fall.
:)
Rory Weston

Given what you know so far, are you planning to:

A) Convert! I am ready for a new D&D.
B) 3.5 or Bust! I'm sticking with the man what brought me.
C) We'll see. Need more information.
D) Other.
So, given what you know so far, you plan to: _______________.

D) Other.

I own & have played blue box D&D , AD&D1st, AD&D2nd (including skills & powers) and 3rd. I didn't buy any of the 3.5 core books and basically run a 3.0 game, but I borrow from the 3.5 SRD for some stuff (mostly spell changes), Arcana Evolved (the classes are all up for grabs, as are the magic item creation mods therin), and I use a few bits from Iron Heroes.
If my players WANT to play 4.0 I'll switch, but it's more likely I'll just crib bits & pieces.

:)
Rory Weston
rweston at uniserve dot com

38, playing since 1980.
I've still got Dungeon #1 sitting on my bookself, but I only became a regular collector after 3.0 was released.
Seems like (of the older folks) we all started playing around 1980.
:)
Rory Weston

Hey Guillaume,
That will teach me to state that I'm "not stupid".
I have noticed today that the suppliments no longer link to the back issues nor is there any price listed.
I followed this link:
http://www.paizo.com/dungeon/resources/downloads#v5748eaic9jup
from Enworld & yesterday there were prices listed - today there are not!

I have to say that I am very pleased that I was wrong about this issue - and I would like to apologize to the good folks at Piazo.
It looks like I'll be subscribing to both Dragon & Dungeon now.
Thanks to whoever cleaned up the suppliments webpage!
:)
Rory Weston

Hi,
I'm a loyal subscriber to Dragon (issue 57-today) & a regular purchaser of Dungeon - given that I've bought every issue of Dungeon this year it seems that getting a subscription to Dungeon is on the menu for next year.

When I saw a link to the online suppliments on your website I thought - "nice, Piazo's making life easier for their customers, I really should get that subscription."

I was confused when I got to the download suppliments page though - it appears as though you're charging $7.00 for a hand-out suppliment containing reprinted material from that month's issue.

$7.00.
For a suppliment.
A PDF suppliment.
A suppliment for a magazine that costs you $3.25 when you have a subscription.
I pay canadian dollars for my Dungeon & costs me about $10.00.

So for those who are interested in the suppliment they either play a little more than double the price of the issue (if they are subscribers) OR they pay roughly the same amounnt for the suppliment if they are an off the rack purchaser?

For a PDF suppliment that costs you the time to create it, and hosting space & bandwidth - no printing or shipping costs, and it's only of use to the people who have already purchased your magazine & HAVE all of the information that's within it?

I somehow expected to see a free suppliment, a "thank you for buying Dungeon" sort of download. I was a little off-put by the idea that you wanted to charge for it - but I could get past that - but the idea that you're charging as much or MORE than the magazine costs...

I'm in my late 30's, and I've got the disposable income to spend on this hobby, but that doesn't make me stupid - this sort of pricing is insulting.

Now maybe there is a free download for subscribers, that would be good. As an off-the rack purchaser you're not doing a very good job of endearing me to your company.

I get that this hobby is a niche market & that running a magazine is an expensive proposition, so I can accept charging something for the suppliments - but at the very leats it should be LESS than the cost of a monthly issue to a subscriber.

Sincerly,
Rory Weston
rweston at uniserve 0 com