seenar's page

Could it be a spell extender?

I want to make sure I understand this correctly and I kind of think it's not worded well but I can be wrong. It looks like if I use 2 or 3 actions to castskerching ray I get the additional damage. However I would assume if I used 3 actions I get to cast 2 rays.

1. Is that correct?
2. Does each ray do increased damage?
3. Does each shot suffer the multiple attack penalty?

I disagree. Balance should not trump lore. If people can play undead, let them.

Not really. The point of the Undead archetypes is to let players play as Undead PCs, but to not have all of the overpowered benefits that come with them (at least, not right away, and without investment or sacrifice). If anything, a bigger concern I have with the whole concept is that Level 1 characters can't be Undead PCs, they need to have leveled up first and then consequently be killed and raised as Undead or something. Not being able to be Undead from scratch is a bigger issue than not having all of their effects.

And honestly, I don't really see an issue with someone just playing with having Negative Healing as an ability and just roleplaying it as being some form of Undead. There is the Revenant Background that can accomplish just that, and it's basically what it's there for.

The whole point of being a monster is to be a monster. This is a PC tax. An NPC Lich gets all the goodies while the PC lich does not. It's like getting to play a dragon but you can't fly or get a breath weapon

Our GM is already down with full immunity from day one. I want to Lick out and waiting until level 12 to be less effective than a CR 12 is just nuts. They make such a huge deal about the soul cage. I get that lets me come back from the dead, but we don't tend to die in our games.

It seems strange to me to introduce undead who can die of disease. The Lich I'm particular is a pale comparison to the CR 12 Lich.

Does anyone have any good work around for actually playing undead instead of gelded undead?

It was a great ride from August 2020 to March 2023. The game is done. I have a complete spoiler filled campaign log.

War for the Crown Landing Page: http://www.seenar.com/doku.php?id=game_systems:pathfinder:crown

Log: http://www.seenar.com/doku.php?id=game_systems:pathfinder:crown:adventure_j ournal

I have a great gaming group that made for great players.

That is because they are balanced for being played alongside other standard player characters.

People have complained about such things regarding various ancestries too. For example, Sprite ancestry doesn't give at level 1 (and sometimes not ever) all the cool stuff that a Sprite NPC gets.

Bryan Stephens wrote:

Anyone have homebrew ideas?

You could post a request on the homebrew forum.

I'll do that.

However, the other undead types get all sorts of powers, including paralayizng touch. The Lich gets nothing. Basically the soul cage. That does not seem balanced at all in a game where by level 12 living characters can just be resurrected.

Maybe this has been covered, but I find the message boards here quite hard to meaningfully search.

Compared to both what a Lich can do as an NPC and all the powers available to the other archetypes, the Lich just seems "meh". No paralyzing touch (just a crappy slow) and a much reduced fear aura at level 18. Yes mages can do a couple of extra things, but that is not worth dying over. And there is a Feat tax to protect your soul cage which is the whole point of being a Lich. No resistances at all. Skeletons get more love.

Liches should be the pinnacle of being undead, up there with Vampires.

Anyone have homebrew ideas?

Here we go. Thursday night book 6.

I'm struggling to figure out what ot do with Duchess Veleto. Tragically the PC she was interested in died before she had a chance to track him down, so she's just sort of hanging out at the manor. As written she doesn't seem to have much to contribute plot-wise, she doesn't become a threat unless the PCs try to turn her in (why would they), she doesn't have any information to share with them, she just seems like an unnecessary wrinkle that I don't really have an idea what to do with, and the players haven't latched onto.

How have you guys used her in your games? Was she a thorn in the party's side, an unlikely ally, or was she just kinda there?

I introduced a series of magic paintings in each major domicile that let the Duchess move between them. This let her show up all over. Once my group understood what she was, they showed her great sympathy and treated her like a real person. She became an ally and spy for them. It was she who coordinated the county in the attack on Lotheed.

She has approached the team necromancer about seeing if more can be done for her. She knows she is not the "real" Duchess, but she is now determined to live as her own entity. And yes, our Necromancer bedded her. And Dame Crabbe. Which is awkward as another character married Sepsimia. He is an elf so maybe not too weird.

She is a full ally now, and part of the energy holding Merret County together. I plan to have her offer the PC's any vital information in Book 6 they manage to miss, including a hint that Cassius might not be in control of himself.

I put it in Aroden as I thought the raising up fit for the theme of that month. It also set the stage for Harvest in book two.

This put the Jubilee on the 30th.

I used calendar template from word and set the year to 4719 and went from there.

Here is a link to that calendar

http://www.seenar.com/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=game_systems:pathfinder:crown :calendar_month_to_month4719.pdf

Here is a link to my game page

http://www.seenar.com/doku.php?id=game_systems:pathfinder:crown

Another inventive thing my party did: dealing with Halmash and his pack. I also decided to play Halmash as a sentient being with the ability to negotiate (he had plainly struck a sort of bargain with the thorp of Sotto, so it seemed reasonable).

When they tracked him to his den after an initial encounter with his wolves -- fortunately, it went badly for the wolves -- he had some idea of how potent they were and so decided to "talk" with them. And they actually talked him into a truce with Sotto, reasoning that since he had already revenged himself on their primary wolf hunter, wiping out the entire settlement was beneath him. It was a remarkable feat in itself.

That is cool.

Love it

I really wanted to get to book two and so I pushed into that. I had already run a prelude.

Of course, my guys saved Lord Kalbio at the last moment so that person started his Herosim persona with a bang

The way it is written, it sounds like Milon uses all sorts of forms. That is part of the bluff.

Of course my group has just moved from site to site killing anyone who does not run. They did not get Shadowlass and Estrella since they fled when seeing how big the party was.

My players want to try to restore all of the petrified Taldan Horse to flesh and recruit them to attack Tallgrasses.

Anyone else run into this? Any suggestions?

My group did just this. They let them neutralize the elephant and as they took captives, sent them out to them.

They stopped anyone from running while the PCs mostly murdered traitors in their sleep. I had all parties present so they got everyone.

At the end of the book, the Baron greanted Tallgrasses to our Scion to manage. She left agents behind.

Bryan Stephens wrote:

I am Belrik BTw

Don't always get it right on the phone.

I also don't see why, if the characters are in disguise, anyone would show up against them. It does not follow and I don't plan to use it.

The way that I interpret it is that that it's not necessarily aimed directly at the PCs. The increased violence etc levels lead to increased patrols by the Sentinels which leads to a higher probability of the PCs having trouble. Obviously the higher Suspicion levels lead to direct action, but unless they have been continuously changing identities then they will slowly draw attention to themselves anyway.

True.

But some of the outcomes are really pointed at the PCs in particular. To make it work, I am going to show others getting harassed.

Bryan Stephens wrote:

I also don't see why, if the characters are in disguise, anyone would show up against them. It does not follow and I don't plan to use it.

Exactly. Plus, there was that whole montage with the Lion Blades where they are SUPPOSED to learn the skills necessary to blend in in a large hostile city--might as well reward them by letting them use those skills without crippling penalties.

And, from a GM perspective, it's just one more thing to track that doesn't move the story forward. If the players are careless or ridiculously flashy, they can get caught, otherwise, why not let them succeed?

I skipped the damn montage and did stuff back in Merret anyway. I had wererat assassin's and character assassins led by a Rakasha. To he group now knows they are personally on the hit lists.

I have talked about agents the pcs have as more than just rolls. They are part of their entourages.

But I agree, if I had it to do over I'd rp everything

I have a player who is playing a disgraced noble with Pythareus as the murderer of his father. Eutropia is only really distrusted in my party by a half elf and elf who ar not super connected to society. The half elf is actively trying to influence her outcome. His elf mother is a spy and giving him advice.

So the Princess is not so gray to the players, mostly. Gonna be interesting.

Great options CJ

So my suggestion would be pick a time and place in Taldor that you like and make up an emperor. You could really have fun with it and that this Grand Prince was real in existed but maybe is purged from history. You know that first emperor lived an awfully long time for a human did he really live that long?

By making your own guy up you can add another level of surprise. And maybe somewhere you can have clues in the game. If you haven't started you might be able to put those clues or the first of them under the Senate. Maybe even you can make up a new relic or change the history of one of the existing relics to go with this person and be exactly the sort of relic and Oracle would want.

I really love your creativity on this.

These were great.

I think monsters who are single sex are fine in mythical worlds. I mean, magic is weird.

So, gonna use this for sure. I have an adopted Vinmark and a Scion Katharis.

Ok so holy cow this is great background work. Thanjs

The crisis is at the heart of the path. That is a huge change

My group worked forward during Stavin's speech because they were super paranoid. When the moment came, two of them made acrobatics rolls to leap into action. The Brawler tackled Stavian on front of the Senate. The Rouge fell flat in his face to have a guard crit for 33 pts damage. I rules the contingency kicked in and he only took 1d4. All this was clouded by a flare by the Hunter.

Lord Kalbio lived

What are the party needs? I am happy to do the Skill/Wizard type of character. Also happy to do a Bard. Never played one of those.

Bryan