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![]() ***Foul Necrothreading*****
Seems, in Pathfinder anyway, the adage that you can only make people afraid for so long until they just don't care anymore is true. This is, AFAIK, not an 'official' answer/errata/FAQ, but yeah, it doesn't say 'If Failed you may retry with a +5 Increase to DC' for instance. ![]()
![]() There is the portal thru the Vaults. The Vault is full of the crazy midnight dust of madness but it beats dying alone in the darklands. (Yeah there's the Argental Font to theoretically fix it, but it's ALSO in a midnight dust-filled Vault so what you'd gain on the swings, you'd lose on the roundabouts.) Still it's a way out. Also Juliver/Eando and co entered thru the Darklands. You COULD exit through them, though it would take about a month or so to get to Varisia. ![]()
![]() Purple Dragon Knight wrote:
Officer: 'Excellent then. One of my soldiers has been wounded chasing down those Theist scum. I'm sure you'll have no problem Cureing his wounds without using a Divine Focus then eh?' ![]()
![]() So basically you want to reintroduce Rapid Spell from the old Complete Divine of 3.5 fame. ![]()
![]() I also see the Troll Styptic seeing some service for those who want to be absolutely sure their healing is not 'tainted' by the divine. ![]()
![]() Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:
WAY late here, sorry. We were looking at level 8, though they'd just achieved that, since I don't hand out PA until the PCs are in a 'safe zone', which here translated to having their camp set-up. He'd been wanting to trade it out since level 5 or so, about the time they began their run from Eleder to Tazion/Saventh-Yhi, till they actually established their camp in Saventh-Yhi at level 7-8.![]()
![]() a) Death-for-certain for 100K? That's NOT a small nuclear warhead.
However assuming the folk of the city ARE innocents (rather than enemy combatants) is there a reason you couldn't evacuate the city and THEN nuke it to destroy the (presumably immobile) portal? ![]()
![]() Sadly they've already secured the entire city, conquering every district (except the artisan, with whom they allied) and wiping out every other faction's expedition (specifically they arrived first and built a Muderhobo Battlecamp to destroy everyone else before they could even arrive in-city and even confirm it WAS Saventh-Yhi, hitting them as they made their way up the waterfall path, or at the foot of the waterfall, or back in the Jungle a ways from the waterfall, and specifically cleaning up the battlegrounds to remove as much as possible, signs of slaughter). This was done specifically to AVOID having those sorts of loose 'plot threads' laying around for devious DMs to weave into a net of entrapment. (Of course they'll regret it later, but them's the breaks). They've only just discovered the power of prestige points, recently using them to bring a PC back from the dead (since, y'know, paranoid cleric won't help). But if I start stripping them away just for doing what they all view as necessary preparation, I'm reasonably sure they'll just shrug and say 'We got along without them in every other campaign, we don't have to have them here.' If you mean discovery points, it's a bit too late for that. The award of 2400 XP/PC already went out. Even if I wanted pull it back, the 11th level PCs were...underwhelmed at the degree of reward for the work. I'm pretty sure they'd ultimately just shrug say 'whatever' and deduct the XP. They REALLY don't like the midnight spores (and as you can see from the rest of this post, there's really nothing but the Vaults left for them in Saventh-Yhi). They'd probably endure it, with poor grace and as little interaction as possible, until they could get it cured by the Argental Font if I just denied the ability to avoid them with any spell, but they are never going to embrace it as 'fun' which appears to have been more the intent. ![]()
![]() Sorry I forgot about the organized play society (mostly cause my 'local' FLGS is about an hour away by car for me and thus PFS is not really an option) and this was for a home game NOT the PFS Organized Play. As you may-or-may-not know in the Faction Guide, one of the options for a character who has 5 TPA is to spend one Current Prestige Award Point and trade out a 'standard' trait for one of the Pathfinder Traits from the guide: "Exchange one character trait taken at character creation for a new Pathfinder Society trait. The character must still obey the normal trait system rules (such as not having more than one trait from the same category); however, the new trait does not need to be from the same category as the trait it replaces." (p 37, Faction Guide) BTW I'll also say I wasn't considering having him give up the 900 gp, but more 760 gp, the difference between the average starting money of an Inquisitor, and the 900 gp the trait starts you with. Does the current groupthink still hold that he should have to give up all 900 gp? ![]()
![]() OK so my players are not liking the whole Midnight Spores thing. They want to use the flexible timeline of the AP and do some spell research, specifically they want to research an 'Immune to Midnight Spores' spell. (or as it's become known round the table "Frak your 'Frak you, I don't care about your defenses, the plot says you're paranoid, so get get paranoid' dust." They may not use the word Frak though.)
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![]() Just a question for the GMs out there. Would you allow this item in game? Would you allow it with changes, or simply forbid it entirely? Master Alchemist’s Lab Aura: Moderate Transmutation
Description
Construction Requirements
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![]() Option 1: Waive the rest time. Simply have the spirits of the honored ancestor emperors, and the guardian kami, and the ancestral weapons etc. allow the PCs to gain a level when they first sight the Jade Throne. If you feel generous (and you might), have them also restore the party to full HP and spells, except for those actually still in effect. Option 2: The forces present in the Castle are all the forces the jade regent has remaining. This option allows the palace to be whittled down piece by piece like a more typical dungeon. The battle of armies outside takes several days to resolve. (Note though that for each day in the capital the PCs lose one 'Rebellion Point' so if they take a while this can transform a victory into a loss) ![]()
![]() Heh. I just had a player complain how unachievably high the DCs were. Course he was trying to ride the summoner's Eidolon, bareback and without the Mount evolution so that's a 10pt bump to all the DCs. And while he's got a good Dex, he's got no ranks in ride... That's just it, the Ride system is meant to cover everyone from the 1st level Cleric with an 8 Dex to the 15th lvl Cavalier with his bonded mount. In order for the former to have any realistic chance to carefully mount a horse and (more importantly) avoid taking a d6 Dam fall when they dismount the horse, the latter is going to quickly be in 'take 1' territory for most of the tricks. They are, after all, a class focused on Mounted Combat. Also remember that sauce goes with the goose as well as the gander. If you boost those checks for the Cavalier, you are also boosting them for all the other PCs and NPCs. I suppose my question back is 'Why do you want to knock him off his horse?' Do you also want to find ways to negate the Mage's magic missile, the Rogue's sneak attack and the Cleric's channel energy? ![]()
![]() My problem with rolling stats has been that I have a fairly large group (6 players) and when we roll, someone comes up with Mr. Perfect (and when I say someone, I mean the same player every time so far, regardless of who's dice he's used), while someone else gets, at best, Joe Average. Usually 2-3 people are 'alright' at their roles, and the other 2-3 become what 'Mr. Perfect' termed 'Cheerleaders' (ie they aren't there to play, they're there to cheer as the team/Mr. Perfect smash into the end zone of victory.) If the foe challenges Mr. Perfect, they're there to...well, die. And while Mr. Perfect may have loved that game/character, Joe Average hated it, and the Cheerleaders were, at best, bored, frustrated and annoyed. That's why I like a point-buy even playing field to start. Luck already has enough of a role (roll?) in the game, without it kneecapping you right at the start. ![]()
![]() 3.5 Loyalist wrote:
I would imagine, with the likelihood such drunk folks could be feinted into next week, before being sucker-punch/sneak attacked for d6+d3 damage (or simply intimidated with 'Bravado's Blade' fist) that she could at the least give a good account of herself among the typically 1st-2nd level Commoners, Experts and Aristocrats populating the tavern. She is a 5th level PC class character. I know who my money's on. And her Bardic Singing buffs herself if I recall correctly. ![]()
![]() So one of my players (an Aasimar Clouded Vision Oracle of Life) has developed a real fondness for Helgarval. Long and the short of it is he pretty much constantly wears 'Helm-garval' to benefit from the Protective Aura, as well as let the helm see things further than 60' away and tell him what's out there. My main question is: When he/they get hit with Area effect spells, should Helm-garval be treated as equipment, and thus not worried about for taking damage etc. in most cases, OR should he be a separate creature, and thus probably not with the party much longer before the Fireballs, Cones of Cold and (especially) Unholy Blights send him (back) to heaven (or elysium, or Shelyn's realm, or wherever)? ![]()
![]() A champion level 'Gaia Weeps' weed killer is salt dissolved in boiling vinegar. Cheap and incredibly effective, though you will need those hirelings to spread it far and wide. Note that 2g of Salt will stop growth in an area for up to a whole year, though it depends on fresh water entering the area, since it's a wetland, find the headwaters and just dump the salt/vinegar into it and let gravity do the work for you. No magic and if you wish you can stop and let the water wash away the evidence of your misdeeds (except for the vast swaths of rotting plant matter) ![]()
![]() While I'm not from the Mountain, and this is certainly too late to do any good, I'll still respond, since there's always the chance it'll help the next guy with this problem. All this is IMO, and YMMV. Yes the gatehouse is at the level of land on the other side of the gorge and river, which is different than the level on this side. Since the gorge is formed by tectonics along a fault, rather than erosion, this makes a lot of sense. Horses- Yep the horses come out the main gate and ride over the bridge to the North of the wall. While this seems bizarre, remember the bridge stood before the Watch Wall castles were constructed, so the Castle was built to conform to the existing bridge, rather than changing the bridge to meet the castle (which would have been very nearly as hard as simply building a new bridge, defeating the purpose of cost savings I assume the site was chosen for). There's certainly a path between the two gates since it would be needed for just this purpose. The Drawbridge does indeed swing up to the Gatehouse side, providing the 'door' of the South Gate. But the mechanism to control it can only be accessed from the second level of the gatehouse, which requires one to break into the castle to do. Hacking through the wood isn't going to show much but a 20' gap with a long drop. And cutting the chains with them withdrawn into the walls at the ceiling of the second level, or thereabouts, would be difficult at best. ![]()
![]() demontroll wrote:
That's...not how I read the intro. The powerful, intelligent leader believes the Royal Clan was wiped out like 60 years ago and is consolidating power via the ninja clan over Kalsgard when suddenly, someone messes with the magic mcguffin at the end of book 1. They don't know the Royal Clan is still alive, but they DO know the mcguffin is in play. So they go looking for it and the PCs caravan is one of (presumably) several leads/possibilities (I dropped in the White Ravens for one to foreshadow the next adventure path; Kelda Oxgutter is another likely candidate for investigation). The Notoriety system is there to represent how sure the Ninjas are that the PCs are who they are looking for, and/or that they have a connection to this caravan beyond just arriving in town with it. Did you miss the part about reinforcements for Ravenscraeg once it's assaulted? They do indeed begin to gather their forces once they get hit, those same forces being the folks who are out gathering information on the PCs and other groups. What you seem to be assuming is the PCs waltz into Kalsgard, openly and loudly proclaiming 'Let all bow before her divinity the last true Heir of the Amatatsu Clan and her magical seal. By the way would any of you happen to know where to find an ancestral Katana or a guide over the Crown of the World?' Completely ignoring the Advice of the NPC's, and even in that event, wouldn't the powerful-yet-wise leader of the Frozen Shadows want to look before she landed on such a seemingly perfect target? I mean is life EVER that easy? So the PCs could still get a shot at winning, if they're quick. (and lucky.) ![]()
![]() Well if you're really up for ANYTHING.
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![]() My own judgement would be that the Familiar knows the languages learned by it's master, but may only SPEAK one language, chosen when the familiar is first gained. The idea that it can detect forgeries written in a language it can't read, or even understand, is to say the least bizarre. Especially when you consider how good it might be at WRITING them (Bird Feather quill puns and jokes about a Mouse's ability with cut and paste notwithstanding) Oh, and the Parrot thing is IMO an obvious example of Balance over realism/players' thinking. Basically if you're a druid you need to use a feat for Natural Spell. (or three for Still/Silent Spell & Eschew Components) The idea that, as a parrot known for making human-like sounds, you're unable to speak is to me laughable. Even more so with the RAW idea that a Parrot, already trained to speak, would suddenly lose that ability if it was taken for a familiar or a wild-shaped druid could be 'trained' by the party ranger to speak, but is completely unable to figure out how to do so on his own. So say 'I'm not speaking in Common, I'm making sounds that exactly imitate the sound of Common Speech. The sounds that exactly imitiate the phrase 'The Goblins are holed up in the split to the left, the Warg-riders are gone and I don't know where they are.' But, of course those sounds, which I can make, aren't speech, so I couldn't use them to say command words or cast spells.' ![]()
![]() So, if I'm reading your question right, you want to know how to stop a foe from fleeing rather than sticking around to get cut up, in terrain that is essentially a near-perfect design for said foe to take exactly that tactic with no way to make your speed superior to your foe's correct? Short answer? You can't. Long answer? Why do you care? Are you here to kill this person? If you're not, just let them keep backing up while you advance to your goal. If they give you even one opportunity otherwise, grapple them and hold them till everyone dogpiles on. Otherwise ignore them entirely and continue about your business as if they didn't exist. Why are letting them get under your skin? Do you really need to kill every monster in the dungeon, even if you get XP for just 'defeating/bypassing' it? ![]()
![]() Dunno if it's too late, but my favorite for running it (or any fortress) has been the 'Stacking Reinforcements' path.
Or they could be stealthy, like ninjas, and fight room-by-room if they are silent as death... ![]()
![]() Timothy Hanson wrote: I feel like you went through a lot of work, just so you can say "Ok, you buy some syrup, that will be 5 gps." Next time why not just ask him how much he wants to spend, then describe something equivalent. A really nice artistic hand blown crystal bottle with filled with a rather rare Elven Syrup for 100 gp, some exotic syrup from the First World for 500 gps, or just some standard bottle of syrup for 5 gps. Just wing it. While I can agree with the spirit of just getting on with the adventure, and acknowledge the fact that almost all players aren't gonna care one way or the other and mostly want a loose 20th century analog of a worldwide economy, here's the problem: I'm not one of them. (Hoo Boy am I not one of them!) I would love an economic system that made sense based on distance from source and rarity of product, plus demand for said product. I would also like a system that took into account the 4 food groups in your character's diet and how lacking one might affect him/her, how much wear and tear goes into your boots from walking 200 miles across the trackless desert, and what sort of shape your armor is in after you drag it through the salty mangrove swamps wherein the goblins lair. I also know I'm one of a very, very ummm, SELECT group that enjoys this level of graininess in my game logistics. So to keep it in check I try to indulge these flights of fancy out of the actual ever-so-precious-and-limited game time, and just give the players, who don't care about the process behind the answer, the number they are looking for. ![]()
![]() Greetings All, So I have a player who would like to purchase a couple of bottles of Maple Syrup as a gift. It occurs to me: a) Maple Syrup is pretty much a product of the Sugar Maple, which AFAIK is/was found only in North (eastern) America. If anyone can show me european production of it, please let me know. b) This would translate to Arcadia in Golarion, I'd presume. Since there IS limited trade between the two continents it's possible Maple Syrup could be found in the markets of Avistan. If anyone knows of any cannon references to Maple Trees in Avistan, please let me know. c) It would undoubtedly be a 'trade good' of durable value and also undoubtedly horribly expensive. My question is, How expensive? (It's worth about $60/gallon today.) The PC in question is currently in Varisia, in the Riddleport area, if that helps. ![]()
![]() Ravingdork wrote:
Item: You have a paladin in your party Item: Said paladin supports the 'legal' technicalities/falsehoods that would not likely stand up in any modern court in which the judge was not well bought off (particularly since the charge is counterfeiting money) that they were, in fact, paid the agreed upon prices for the property. Inference: While I know wisdom doesn't have a minimum ability score for the class any longer, just how dumb is this paladin? There's obeying the law, and then there's being a chump! Also would not that sort of underhanded approach to payment suggest you may have aided and abetted a man whose intentions for your keep would be the sort bold adventurers would usually be the ones to sally forth and put a stop to? While the murder may be out, the idea that hunting this mountebank down and bringing him to justice is in some way not the paladin's duty because he was the one who got scammed is ludicrous. He may-or-may-not be higher level than you, but aren’t most of the Villains a group of PCs faces off against of higher level? The man stole your keep. Don’t let him get away with it. Even if it takes a campaign to stop him. ![]()
![]() Ravingdork wrote:
Wait... How does the NPC get the shout out if the Silence is up? Conversely how do the PC's know the alarm is raised if silence is up? (Also, just how many spells is your Cleric/Mage (or particularly Bard) going to be casting in a silence?) ![]()
![]() EileenProphetofIstus wrote: Anyone ever play Top Secret/S.I., if so what was your experience like? Enjoyable but all too short. I did enjoy the skills based system, and the fact that pulling out the Thompson Submachine Gun and blasting everyone in sight wasn't really the way to go in SI. At the same time the plots that we most enjoyed were the ones like Rapidstrike and Lady in Distress that were really just modernized dungeon crawls. The problems arose when we moved on to more...nuanced fare like Fastpass, Seventh Sign, and (particularly) Orient Express. My team of Commandos just didn't quite know want to do for these plot/ investigation driven adventures. In fact I believe LA burned in nuclear fire during Seventh Sign, and the general frustration led them/us back to AD&D. But that was some 20 years ago and I actually had some fun adapting Lady in Distress as a Vampire: the Masquerade module for a convention, but that is another tale... ![]()
![]() Easily the worst villain I've ever run is/was the 'Chak' from part 3 of the 1e module 'Needle'.
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![]() Byron Zibeck wrote:
And that's really the point here, You HAVE invested in those books. Hasbro/WotC already has your money for them and are well aware they sold them to you not long ago. If they don't make 4e 'evolved' enough from 3.X then there's a (really, really) good chance you'll ignore the fancy new manual of the planes (4e) when it comes out and just translate what you need as you need it (as folks who bought the 1e manual of the planes did when they needed planar stuff, rather than buying a great whacking lot of 2e Planescape stuff).Or am I being too cynical? Was there a hue and cry for a new edition among the fans that I missed? ![]()
![]() Rambling Scribe wrote:
Just to serve as a second source, I've heard this speculation bandied about on the Greytalk List. It's (TTBOMK) nothing substantiated but it DOES explain the move more logically, from a business perspective, than the 'official' explanation. |