somnamancer's page

Aww... but no more conversion notes? I can do it myself, I'm sure, based on what we have already, but I did rather enjoy reading them, they were almost as good as articles, even.

The arcane dragon is a grouping of dragons, consisting of the hex dragon and tome dragon. In other words, arcane dragon is to hex and tome and chromatic dragon is to red and blue, or metallic dragon is to gold and silver.

There are reasons for rejection other than being a "steaming pile" Maybe, it was considered to be too long (too high of a word count) to be appropriate to print?

Also, I was wondering if there are any resources for how to use the demon lords like Demogorgon, Grazz't, Orcus, Obox-ob etc.etc..In Eberron...like would they be rakshasha rajahs or what? I dont entirely like the idea of them all be rakshashas, but then again i guess not all the rajahs look like humanoid tigers...

From what I gathered from the article that ran in Dragon which centered around the Rajah... none of the Rajah see to look like the rakshasa. They generally have unique appearances, in fact.

And Keith made a comment in a post somewhere to the effect of: the demon lords are powerful entities that aren't actually Rajahs, but very powerful fiends nonetheless. (And, looking at the Lords of Dust article once more, we see the avergae Rajah seems to weigh in very close to a Rank 7 diety)

OK, putting aside my general dislike of Vegemite... How can you eat jam spread over butter?

But---I always personally thought that "WOTC would never do something as nonsensical as discontinuing Dungeon and Dragon magazine," so what do I know?

Well... technically, they aren't "discontinued"... they're being delivered in a "new format"...

Mostly off topic from this discussion, but seeing as talk of accents was being bandied about...

Due to a theatrical background, I reflexively mimic accents I am exposed to for any length of time. But, fun point of fact: Learning to enunciate and project for stage has resulted in my pronouncing words properly, so even people in my hometown think I have an accent of my own!

Back on topic: Yes, lately I have been becoming more aware of both female gamers and gay gamers (male variety... cannot say I've met any lesbian gamers yet, though I did try to get a lesbian friend of mine into gaming).

WOW...that's got a lot to do with rpg...emos....

Well, then this should probably be posted in the "Off Topic" area of the forums! Oh... wait... um, nevermind.

Now, here's an interesting conundrum. Eberron says that there's a place for everything somewhere in it. Where would the modrons fit? There isn't really a plane of mechanical things in Eberron, and I don't think they would properly fit as creations of House Cannith.

Either make Regulus a "demiplane" within Khyber's depths, or just put the Modrons in Daanvi, the Perfect Order.

Let me chime in and add my voice to the throngs of folks who are begging for the remaining modrons to be redone! I loved that article (and, as an aside, seems like some of that material could be used in combination with "The Elders" article).

Now I have to dig up my Dragon Archive CD-Rom and find the Modron Magic article!

This is a really interesting discussion, and coincidentally I just wrote a post over on the 300 thread mentioning how the ideal of beauty in the modern west is a youthful female. That ideal applies in the eyes of males and females - even heterosexual females will often say that while they are attracted to men, women are more aesthetically beautiful. It's purely a cultural thing. The ancient Greeks for example regarded a youthful athletic male as being the most physically beautiful kind of human.

Morgue, have you ever thought that it may have little to do with the subjugation of women and more to do with the west's fear of male homosexuality? So we get women = sexy, men = ugly yet functional.

Regarding demi-humans, they also are not thought of as being sexy, which is probably why they don't sell too well. They are usually presented as being ugly or at least peculiar-looking by human standards, and their small stature makes them seem less heroic than your Conans and your Aragorns.

I have a Livejournal too, I'll add you guys ;)

I remember once seeing a report on TV, using computer softeware, they polled men and women and constructed a computer model of each person's thoughts on the most attractive person, which generally turned out to be a borderline androgynous person of either gender (um, that may be redundant).

Fake Healer wrote:

Together we shall fong them all!!

FH (Champion of Core Class Mispellings)

Fong away, brothers!! We shall bring the light of literacy to the barbians!

Hmm... could this be a barbarian trying to escape the illiteracy purge?

I realize that I am very definitely in a minority here, but I don't give a whit about half-naked women, or (surprisingly) half-naked men on Dragon covers. I won't deny that the cover with Apollo was nice (and refreshing), but I don't buy my gaming magazines based on flesh on the cover. There are other magazines for that...

That said, the covers that REALLY grab my attention are the ones that have dragons, constructs, or really nifty looking weapons.

Of course, just the fact that it is "Dragon Magazine" is enough to make me buy it. Which does kind of put me into a bad place, easy to take advantage of me and such.

That subcultural group would most likely be rogue modrons, seeing as modrons who are doing what they should be doing are taking orders from their superiors.

But yes, that was one of my thoughts when I saw the rogues making a return... a rogue modron binder, and Primus was definitely on his hit parade of vestiges!

I am forever amused that I finally pick up the new issue of Dragon, that I have been waiting all month for... And as soon as i see the preview for the following month, I jump right into expectation for that follwoing issue (as happened when I picked up the current issue and saw that Modrons were going to be in the next).

Great job with that whole "keep em wanting more" routine you seem to have going! Every issue I find at least one thing I totally love!

This is off topic, but I couldn't help but open this thread. Trick was a really fun movie!

I don't believe they are intentionally trying to "spoil" the previous Adventure Paths. Rather, I am of the mind that they write the adventure paths in a certain chronology, with the thought that folks playing in the second or third paths have already completed the ones prior (in which case, references to the previous paths could be fun - nothing like hearing about and seeing the effects of the previous characters' heroics).

As for conversion info, Paizo didn't release conversion notes for SCAP (unlike with AoW and the start of ST)... however, the forums here are just dripping with conversion information.

Also, if you are fairly knowledgeable of the campaign world, you can roughly approximate where you think it goes best.

Another option is to look over the conversion notes provided for AoW... notes for the Spire of Long Shadows could be helpful (remember, the Spire is in the jungle not too far from Cauldron.

Olaf and Delves are right. They did not have a series for Shackled City. Remember, SCAP was the first, a prototype. They improve upon the Adventure Path with each new incarnation.

At the gaming table, I typically play male characters. Or, een bettr, nongender characters or shapeshifters who can go from one gender to another, as best suits the situation. I have played the occasional female character.

As far as online games, such as Everquest and the like, I usually play female characters. I have two major reasons for this:

1. The same suit of armor, or magical robes, looked fantastically better on a female character than a male character of the same race and class. I'm guessing that the majority of gaming graphics designers must be male... But, anyway, as in real life, sometimes it's all about fashion, lol.

2. I would frequently run into ignorance and prejudice online, and by assuming a female persona, I could talk (mostly) openly about whatever my recent annoyance with whichever guy I'm dating. Yeah, I guess that means that I'm kinda a sell out... but the way I see it, everyone plays a MMORPG for fun. And, if a female character complaining about man trouble makes the small minded rabble feel better and safe and secure, then so be it.
Besides, it makes for fun moments when I meet guild members for the first time in person (as only those who make it to our annual bonfire & party know who I am behind the pixels, and we have all decided to keep it between us for various hilarity that ensues).

If it came accross as flippant etc, then I humble apologise as that was not my intent. However, I am frustrated at the lack of support from both Paizo and WoTC for running SC in Eberron. Given that Eberron is supposed to be "the next big thing", I would have thought that an "SCAP Overload" would have been a priority...?

But what do I know.......

I love Eberron, and love SCAP, and just wanted some guideance on running one in the other. I am not looking for a "quick fix"! (although that would be nice). I am happy to convert NPC and monsters where neccessray. I was hoping for more guidance on how to fit the SCAP itself into the world of Eberron, what changes were necceaary to fit into Eberron's PLANAR COSMOLOGY etc? For example, I am attempting myself to remove as much of the plane-jumping as possible - so in my campagn I intend to make the Carceri/Abyss sections deep in Khyber instead. And the cagewrights are an arm of the Lords of Dust hoping to free a daelkyr from it's sealed tomb.....?

But the changes are deep and extensive, and I was hoping to try and gain from somebody elses experience and expertise to ease my workload. After all, like many people who game, work and family take up much of my time that precludes spending all the hours I would like on DM prep.

So my cries are intended as much more plaintive wails for help than perhaps they might come accross.

Well, one does need to consider that, at the time of the initial publishing, the Adventure Path format was a grand experiment. No one knew how it would be received, and whether or not it would do well. They are learning, from one Adventure Path to the next, how to tweak it to improve upon it. But the very beginning... well, I'm sure conversion notes were the farthest things from their minds.

That said, conversion documents for both the AoW and ST can be helpful in regards to the SC. We know, from the maps, that Cauldron is not too far from Spire of Long Shadows. By referring to the conversions for the adventure in the AoW that is set in the SoLS, we discover where about Cauldron would be (which, conviently enough, is where most people had decided to put it anyway - Q'Barra).

The recent conversion notes for the ST have provided insight into what to do regarding demon lords and places like The Abyss and such. Which, actually, isn't too far off from what you are planning to do. It's in Khyber. But you can't just teleport there. It's not just a series of underground caverns - it's like a pocket dimension.

Religion conversions are handled in the conversion documents for the latter two adventure paths, as well as the RPGA campaign's conversion notes.

Dragonmarked houses? We got that covered in the conversion notes from other adventure paths - majorly frontier area, not a good strong area for the dragonmarked to have set up shop. Maybe it wasn't "economoically feasible", as has been suggested. Any representatves of the houses may be "prospecting", or they might even be exiles...

I am dismayed at the attitude of several people throughtout the last two pages of this thread! If people would just step back from their sense of entitlement, and let the good folks at Paizo do their work, we will continue to get a top quality magazine, and eventually all the web enhancements (both the artwork and the conversion notes documents).

Just be patient, and STOP badgering them!

To James and the staff, you all are doing a top notch job! Hopefully a few sour grapes won't spoil the whole batch and bring an end to the web enhancements.

Eberron is a special case, since a DM would need to come up with a good reason why any particular dragon is living around Cauldron instead of on the dragon continent--Argonesin?.

Well, not nessacarily... Granted, the dragons were given a very particular role and place in the world, but remember: there are always exceptions to EVERY rule (especially in Eberron). And, as was pointed out in the PGtE, sometimes, a dragon is just a dragon. They don't all have to be political power players.

Due to staffing issues, and then the holidays, there was a slight hiccup in the delivery of online content (in the first case, because they had to prioritize tihngs in the magazine above the online content, and in the second because, well, it's the holidays).

Things are getting back on track, however. Just be patient a little bit longer and everything should be up to speed.

D&D artifacts have always found a home in my heart ever since I started playing the game. But one thing I want to know is where do I info on the Rod of Seven Parts? And I wonder if any other artifacts are going show up later.

Yeah. I once actually ran a campaign that had the (admittedly high powered) characters pursuing various artifacts in order to lock them away in their patron's vault (think something like teh Friday the 13th TV series). Gave the characters a chance to play with an artifact for a little bit, and allowed them to get to know some of the classics.

I do, also, have a fondness for the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga. That would be ever so much fun... and I have both adventures that featured the Hut prominently.

Ooo... I hope that last guy goes with artificer. Even better, a warforged artificer. Depending on what sourcebooks and web articles they draw on, they could pretty well do anything anyone else could do.

Otherwise, I'd consider well the advice offered by veryone else. However, it would only be fair to let PCs know in advance that the undead will eventually figure in fairly prominently. Also, once they've been exposed to teh worms, someone might want to go for that prestige class in the Wormfood article.

Argh! This is why I hate some aspects of my life! Just when I was getting ready to finally subscribe, I have to put it off because I'm moving yet again!

Going through change of address is SO tedious! And now I'm stuck waiting for the issue to arrive on bookshelves!!!

The Spawn are updated to 3.5 way of doing things, as opposed to 3.0 way of doing things in the MM2.

As such, yes, their BAB should be +2, which will give them both +6 grapple check, and Slam +6 melee.

They will also have another feat. The 3.5 conversion document added stealthy, but any monster's feats can 9and should) be changed around to meet the needs of the campaign. Whether you want to go with weapon focus (slam), or something else, that's up to you.

As for the different skill modifiers, check the 3.5 conversion document. Though, again, you could redistribute skill points as suits your needs. Just remember that the skills listed in the creature description are "class" skills, while any others are "cross-class", and they have (4+Int Mod) x (HD+3) skill points as undead.

AOW seems to be missins a Sense of Wonder (tm) - an interdimensional portal to Carceri or a run-down mining operation? It seems to be less high-fantasy, which I would have expected (with Kyuss, godhood, and all).

Bearing in mind what the previous poster brought up, also keep in mind that over the next (and final) adventures, we'll be getting down to the big event, which eventually culminates with appearances by Dragotha, the reborn Kyuss, and other nifty things. Also, we're likely going to use the use for both taht Talisman of the Sphere (assuming the characters kept it), and the Rod of Seven Parts (assuming the characters reatined the part they had), and the other nifty items thye've picked up along the way.

1) how about using artificers in Greyhawk? It is a world rich in magic, after all.

Well, I don't see why one couldn't use an Artificer in any campaign setting.

2) how about staking the bonuses of the Magical artisan feat from FR and the Legendary artisan (& Co.) feat from Eberron? This would sound -50% exp, gold and time of construction.

Not sure I'd allow the bonuses from the various artisan feats from the ECS and the Magical Artisan feat to stack, even moreso considering they are two seperate campaign worlds, so you should either use one set or the other. If you did, however, allow them to mix, and to stack, it would be wise to require prerequisites. L:ike perhaps one can only take Magical Artisan after having taken all 3 of the other feats.

Or even better, make Magical Artisan available only at epic levels if you have the other artisan feats in the campaign world.

Come on guys... As if the Dragon isn't the coolest of them alll

While I won't disagree with your assertion, I do want to take a moment to point out the guidelines given by the OP:

Not necessarily out of the PH races but please limit to the races that are "meant" to be PC races (at most, Drow with +2 level adjustment).

Dragons don't really seem to fit the bill there. If you wanted to go higher ECL anyway, I'd vote Aurak Draconian.

P.S. Why did your dm forbid you from elves?

I used to play nothing but elves. Ever.

As for that 'kreen, I used to know how to pull that trick off, but I never bothered with it. Worst I ever did was use a 2nd ed. Minotaur Fighter/Priest of Aries, with his greataxe in one hand, and a two-handed sword in the other.

I also liked the Warriors of Heaven book, Tulani Eladrin were awesome to play, especially as a Fighter/Mage/Priest. Now, of course, they are epic level if yoyu want to play one. And they no longer have the ability to assume the secondary forms of any eladrin...

This further cements in my mind the belief that all skill points should retroactively adjust to Intelligence increase/loss. But that's another topic for another day.

Or, at the very least, the Intelligence increases due to age category...

True, the rules for skill points call out taht they are not augmented retroactively.

However, the rules seem to make an exception for dragons. Refer to the Draconomicon, page 142, second column. A little over halfway down, by the armored woman's foot. It says that when dragons gain new age categories, the intelligence boost does retroactively increase their skill points.

I've always been a fan of playing the oddball races. Well, that is, after the DM forbade me from ever playing an elf again - I could choose anything else that I wanted, just not elf. Fortunately, I had just recently picked up The Complete Book of Humanoids then. Anyway, fast forward to 3.X, and I'm gonna vote:

1. Warforged. I have always wanted to play a golem or such. So, naturally, I gravitated to them almost as soon as they were previewed.
2. Thri-Kreen. They became a very favorite race of mine in 2nd ed, so naturally I was pleased to see them reprinted in the new edition.
3. Githyanki. Been particularly interested in them since the Incursion crossover.
4. Fraal. OK, so they're actually D20 modern. OK, so, I only choose them for the stats. But, why wouldn't I? Give em a minor cosmetic change (to make them look a little more like the way they did in Alternity), and they're just too much fun. Just remember to take away the nifty singularity gun if you use them in a fantasy setting.

As I understand it, the timeline between most of the adventures can be rather fluid. You can provide for the time between advenbtures easily enough.

Otherwise, look into the craft points alternative from Unearthed Arcana, as mentioned.

With either of those in effect, then the artificer will be as useful and popular as any other campaign.

1: Our readers really enjoy nostalgia and ties to classic D&D material.

Some do, some don't. Personally, I loved the references, especially with past Dungeon adventures - many of which my group and I went through.

2: We should probably assume more readers are running the Age of Worms as a series than running individual adventures, spend less time on providing adventure hooks and guidance for running adventures as stand-alone adventures and more time providing strong links between adventures.

While I understand that the Dungeon staff tries to present material so that it could be used stand alone, I was under the assumption that the Age of Worms was being done more as series, considering how well the Shackled City was received. And isn't the whole point of the Adventure Path to run it as a serial?

3: Each adventure should advance the storyline of the campaign.

Well, the majority of the adventures, anyway. Much like serial television series with an underlying "main" plot... for example Desperate Housewives (sorry, been watching 1st season DVD that I got as a gift, so was first thing off the top of my head, lol).

4: Adventure Path 3 should have subtle ties to "Shackled City," "Age of Worms," and other big adventrues we've printed in Dungeon.

This point was covered in point #1...

5: Conversion notes need to come out faster and regularly, and should probably be printed in the magazine. This would of course mean that conversion notes would have to be MUCH less detailed. Which is probably a good thing.

Hard to say how much conversion information is too much or not enough. However, given the choice, I would like to continue seeing the conversion info released online. I realize that you guys have a budget for your website as well as the magazine, but the conversion notes in the magazine affect the amount of space you have available in page count, don't they? With the hire of the new web guy, I believe it has been stated that the supplements will start appearing a little more timely,s o that issue is/will be resolved.

6: Tone down the challenges in the first few adventures a little.

Well, don't make it too easy. It's nice for groups to have that sense of lethality, instead of the "doesn't matter what i do, I'll never die" mentality.

7: Ease up on the sudden animation of "harmless statues."

Feel nothing either way about this. Could be interesting to do variations on the theme (such as that ghost necromancer stuck in the wall that you guys published... that's fairly unique and could surprise someone who is thinking "golem"

8: Don't introduce new game elements (like draconic alchemy) without providing detailed rules on how the new element functions in the issue it first appears.

This would be nice. Or maybe do a related article or some such.

9: Don't use overwhelmingly potent nostalgia in sub-plots.

Hmm... too much of a good thing can be bad

10: Using the same artists for the entire Adventure Path is the Way To Go, but if we're going to use concept art, we need to order the concept art six months earlier than we did for "Age of Worms."

Well, this just makes sense, from a continuity point of view.

Just remember that when you use an immediate action (such as feather fall or the psionic power anticipatory strike from Races of Destiny) that you are, in effect, "borrowing" your swift action for the following round.
Thus, you use your immediate action during your opponent's place in the intiative order. When your place in the initiative order comes up, you can't use a swift action, as the immediate action catches up with you.

Hmm... Let's see...

Dungeon
Dragon
Men's Health (though I have NO idea how or why I have a subscription... just started coming one day. random!)
No Quarter
Instinct
YGA
The occasion random issue of magazines devoted to the topic of computers/electronics
The occasional random issue of video game related magazines
Occasional issue of Newtype

I personally have no trouble with the white text on black background. I actually like it. In truth, I use the same "format" (for lack of a better word) with my IM screens, and any other computer screen/interface that will let me set it like that. It's more comfortable for me.

I guess my eyes just process it better in print because of that. Of course, it probably also means that I'll be guaranteed to have blindness issues in my old age...

WHICH MEANS: there's a sphere in someone's future.

It also means that if your group hasn't started the campaign yet, and one of the players has desperately wanted to play an entropomancer for some time, this is the best time to suggest they pursue it.

Agreed!

Oo! Oo! I want to second the vote for Old Man Katan! I loved the look on our faces when we encountered the little squeaky voiced critters!

I also rather enjoyed (forget the name of the adventure) the one about the woman and her pet tiger who were immortal, but not really. They were alone on some island, and there was lots of spooky organ music!

Well, my adventurers used a fairly decent financial bribe (garnered from treasure earned below ground) and the threat of revealing Keygan's complicity in teh events to convinve him to move his business elsewhere in the city and hand over the deed for the shop to them.
Having been afflicted a couple of times with the Vanishing (of which Keygan is aware of), they have instructed him to let the enclave remain dead, also under threat of revealing his envolvement.