the David's page

the David wrote:

the average Revolutionary Council doesn't last 5 years.

More or less five times longer than the average italian government

I thought the Netherlands was bad with 2.6 years on average.

Which led to the longest sitting Revolutionary Council in the history of Galt. I don't think there's a proper timeline, but if I'm correct there hadn't been a succesful revolution since 4708. There have been more than a dozen revolutions in Galt, which means that the average Revolutionary Council doesn't last 5 years.

I gotta say that the lack of any really good art aside from the cover of the final encounter of this AP really brings the finale down.

With the ending of the Pawn AP product lines, there's zero chance of getting any good official art of Misaxenoi. Really, really disappointed.

It's a starship sized Sceaduinar, so all you need is the medium sized Sceaduinar mini from the Ruins of Lastwall set. Maybe a bit anticlimactic, but that's how starship combat works in Starfinder.

I'd also love to play an introduction adventure to Starfinder. I've got the Core Rulebook and the Alien Archive, as well as the Horizons of the Vast Adventure Path, but haven't had the opportunity to play yet.

Why?

You can go to the Archives of Nethys and use the search engine. A term like Summon would do the trick.

No save for a majority of creatures in a crowd or group unless they're 5HD or more and can do up to 6 ability damage (which could take up to 6 days to heal naturally)?!

That might be debatable. According to the spell:

"Each intelligent creature in the spell's area takes 1d6 points of Wisdom damage as their perceptions of reality realign with yours for the spell's duration."

Depending on how you interpret this, the targets could only suffer the wisdom damage for as long as the spell continues, or it could indeed last up to 6 days.

Your point about the range is not entirely wrong, I guess. It's... it's medium. Yeah, I know that's bad. It's also not really how spells are normally written. Normally, that would be an x radius sphere or something. Now it's everyone within at least 190 ft. of the caster. I'm just going to acknowledge that this spell is extremely badly written, needs the language decriptor and leave it at that.

Oh right, I see it now. This is a GM only spell that only works for the GM. How clever.

And if so, what is it?

Compelling Rant

They're not chaos gremlins? I must be playing with the wrong groups.

Anguish wrote:

You kind of can't with this system. The moment the talking is over, it's roll-for-initiative. If the hostage-taker wins initiative, it's coup-de-grace and the hostage is dead. If they don't, you've got until their turn to nuke them or somehow get the hostage out. Total gamble.

As for the roleplay side of things, that's when the duchess throws her (not inconsiderable) influence into ruining the Chaotic-Neutral party's reputation. "You wouldn't've been killed for long" isn't Good, and relying on luck is the antithesis of Law.

Hostages that have a knife at their throat aren't generally considered helpless, so a coup-de-grace is generally not an option unless they are also bound.

No, but they could be pinned, so sneak attack is an option.

I guess the weird thing here is the wizard using Feeblemind in this situation. As far as I can tell, that won't do much as the dude should still be able to attack and loses their ability to understand you, but not the ability to distinguish friends from foes. I have had players go all Leeroy Jenkins before, but this is a ridiculously stupid move.

Then again, a hostage situation like this is always kinda pointless. You can't kill your hostage, because then you don't have a hostage anymore... leaving you an easy target. The only way out is by surrendering. I get that it's a cinematic trope, but it's just not a strategic move.

I wonder if we could give this a fantasy spin that would work better, like threatening to release the Efreeti in the bottle.

Edit: See, this is what I mean. If you follow the link, you'll find that the assassin chose to grapple his target, rather than just use his death attack. Why would anyone do that? Ofcourse your NPC is going to seem inept if you don't use their strengths.

TL;DR: A hostage situation is great in a popcorn flick, but it's not so great in any other setting.

Besides Jade Regent and Ruby Phoenix Tournament? ^^;

I forgot about the Atamahuta in Ruby Phoenix Tournament. I don't have the Jade Regent modules, but I assume that would be a good place to look for Oni encounters.

Dragon78 wrote:

The Oni, too bad they got little love in the hardcover bestiaries.

There are a half-dozen varieties of oni. How is that "little love"?

Compared with devils?

Edit: Okay, there's actually 15 oni. That's not that obscure. On the other hand, I can't come up with a module that had oni in it from the top of my head.

Experienced European player looking for a PF1 PBP campaign, discord/roll20 are also possible I don't have a preference for a class or race. Kinda picky about houserules because I've been disappointed before.

Yeah, but it [one's own soul] can only be used once... or, at least, it can only be bartered with in good faith once. What if you want to make more than one deal?

Devils hate this one trick!

Step 1. Make a deal with a devil.
Step 2. Have a shabti sovereign made in your likeness.
Step 3. Die and get judged by Pharasma within 2d12 hours and sent your shabti to hell in your place.
Step 4. Have someone cast raise dead 24 hours after you died.
Step 5. Make a deal with another devil.

It is kinda expensive though. If you have the kind of money for a shabti sovereign and raise dead, you might want to consider using that towards your goals instead of making a deal with a devil. Also, reincarnate is cheaper than raise dead and it might fool the psychopomps and the maruts that will be coming for you. At least, for a round or two.

And, Cutlass Spiders have an entire section in their description detailing the interaction of their Weapon Thief and Shared Enhancements abilities with sentient weapons... "if a cutlass spider steals an intelligent magic weapon with a gp value higher than any other magic weapon it currently possesses, the construct immediately collapses. It spends 1 round inert, after which it reforms free from the commands of its master, now fully controlled by the newly subsumed intelligent magic weapon."

Huh, it's missing that part on the Archives of Nethys. Is that from Bestiary 6 or from the Armageddon Echo?

Cutlass Spiders aren't Golems, so you can't apply that template to a Cutlass Spider. They are also immune to mind-affecting effects, so it's debatable if a sentient weapon could take one over. That being said, there's probably nothing broken about it, and it does sound like an interesting encounter.

I just flipped through Bestiary 5 and I found the Shabti. Now I have to figure out what to do with a Shabti.

Okay, okay. One more.

The Cutlass Spider, also from Bestiary 6. It's a construct made out of weapons. The reason I like it is because it can use the enhancements on one of the weapons it has for its own attacks. It can also steal weapons from its opponents.

Unfortunately, it only has incidental treasure which would not be enough for it to start of with a magic weapon. I suppose you could give one in a larger group a magic weapon to start with, though.

One more: Nirvana Gigas. This one is so obscure that it hasn't been published yet, and it never will. The Gigas appeared fairly early in the history of Pathfinder because there was a need for high CR giants. They've since been replaced by other powerful giants.

The Nirvana Gigas stands out specifically because it is the dreaming giant whose dreams become reality.

Because you don't own the soul of your unborn child. I mean, it's right there in the description of a contract devil.

The mortal must sign its true name to the document of its own free will.

It's the free will that matters here. Also, if you could sell your child's soul and still get damned, you might as well just sell your own soul. That's a terrible bargain.

But if you still want to mess up any children you might have in the future, you could just make a deal with a Patraavex.

Reverse the trope.

You want the soul of a loved one returned, but you don't want to give up your own soul? Okay, but now you owe the devil three wishes that will be specified later. Ofcourse, to fulfill these wishes you have to perform lawful evil acts, and the last wish is impossible to fulfill, but by then it's already too late. You've doomed your soul and you failed to save your loved one's soul, but at least you'll get to rot in hell together for all eternity. Also, you managed to increase "Phil's" influence on the material plane with your actions.

Uhm, wow. I think I need to see a therapist now.

Oblivion from Bestiary 6. The illustration is terrible, but other than that, I'd like to use it as the end boss for a campaign in a homebrew setting. Problem is... My idea is probably too ambitious for me to develop into an entire campaign.

When exactly should the Drift Crisis take place? Would it be about a year and a half after the start of HotV?

We were playing 5e D&D rules and Detect Thoughts is kinda OP there. The guard was distracted because he was talking to one of the other PCs.

I know I'm an evil necromancer, but...

Detect Thoughts. That's how my players waltzed into Vendikon keep. They just read the surface thoughts of the guard when he asked them for the password. They did this before the gates closed, before the siege started. they just waltzed in and demanded to speak to the baron because they had urgent news.

They skipped half the adventure in the first session. I was really looking forward to GMing this adventure. I don't think I've ever felt so frustrated and proud because of a group of players.

I'd assume that you'd get breath weapon as described in the bestiary. Although, I'd have to admit that using the spell DC also sounds kinda logical. (Draconic Ally, not Form of the Dragon I.)

Edit: On the other hand, it does mention reflex saves in the text. It wouldn't need to do that if it was referring to the breath weapon supernatural ability so... probably the spell DC, I guess?

Normally, I'd say you should look at the price of the item, but in this case I'd say that it's a continuous effect. Mostly because it's not the character that's using the item, but a horse that probably has an intelligence of 2.

Edit: An item that would give you a continuous Water Walk spell would cost 45000 GP. Maybe I'm wrong here. Also, how is Water Walk a level 3 spell and Communal Water Walk a level 2 spell? Communal Water Walk would bring the price down to 18000 GP, though.

Use activated Water Walk would cost 30000 gp, or 12000 for communal.

Have you tried Righteous Might?

This sounds cool. I'd have to dig up Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale to be sure, but I think you're on to something here.

2 levels of Order of the Cockatrice Cavalier for Braggart so she gets Dazzling Display and a +2 morale bonus on attacks against demoralized opponents.
1 level of Rogue with the Thug archetype for Frightening so you get an extra round of demoralization in. If you get 4 or more rounds you can opt to have your opponents be Frightened for one round instead.
Memorable social trait and you are up to 3 rounds of demoralization on all opponents, at least.

If you're going for a Strength build with the Intimidating Prowess feat, you might as well go for 2 levels of Barbarian so you can add that Strength Rage and use the Intimidating Glare rage power, but that's optional. Skill Focus (Intimidate) is an obvious choice too. Precise Strike would be a nice Choice for the Cavalier's teamwork feat, as it works well with the Rogue's Sneak Attack.

Oh, this one is simple. You don't. You can just end the campaign at the climax and start a new story. Not every campaign has to go from level 1 to level 20. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end, and at some point you can just end the campaign naturally.

There's plenty of reasons why:
- Pathfinder has that sweet spot roughly between levels 5 to 10 where the game is the most fun to play.
- You can play all those characters that you haven't played yet.
- You can play in a different setting each time.
- You don't have to pad the campaign with filler encounters.
- You can alternate between RPGs.
- You can alternate between GMs.
- It's easier to keep the focus of your players if your campaigns don't take years to finish.

I certainly lean towards allowing the master's character level to count for that purpose. I do the same for calculating the poison DC of a familiar and that relies on racial HD as well.

I don't think the RAW is unclear on the matter. It simply isn't precise enough to satisfy everyone.

I gues that settles it for me. Thanks everyone!

Do Extension of All and Void Form count as "effects related to hit dice" for a Paracletus Familiar?

I had the idea to do this with Murder in Baldur's Gate. The way it works is that most parties will work for only one of three NPCs, which means that they'll skip 2 out of 3 quests. Another party could work for another NPC and do some of the other quests. At the end they'd have to fight the big bad evil quantum ogre together.

That's just it... I play bad guys with signs that read "bad guy"... some generic, yet hideous, display of pure Evil... something that can be described in one or two lines, without ripping my own bloody emotions out of my chest just to try impress the impossible to please.

Is that a Bogeyman picking his teeth with baby bones? Yes. Is that Evil enough? Yes.

Or it very well should be. We should be able to move on with all the "heros" properly motivated into action.

I shouldn't HAVE to cry real tears trying to put myself in the mindset of a man who is tearing himself apart inside, committing possibly the most horrifying act in his life, all for some apocalyptic belief. You know how much work it already is to GM? You know how absolutely exhausting and mentally taxing it is to ride that emotional roller coaster? And this is supposed to be fun? WTF do people expect of me?

Nope. I'm with you. Popcorn RPG's it is. My bad guys wear signs that say "bad guy"...

We all have our preferences and there's nothing wrong with that. This is more of a spectrum thing, though. Just like sandbox - railroad. Most players will have a preference for a play style that's somewhere in the middle. You also don't have to do this to every villain. It's just that sometimes it's fun to really really hate a villain. That's not a bad thing.

So, one question remains for me: If we call one end of the spectrum Popcorn RPG, what do we call the other end?

682. Fifty Shades of Green. This foul tome contains the only known example of troll smut. A Suggestion trap forces whoever touches the tome and fails their will save starts to read it until either the spell expires or until they finish reading the book.

I don't know you or your friend, but I think you're doing cultists wrong.

I'm the creator of this monstrosity. Back then I based it on the rules for Perception and Stealth, which means it actually had a huge bonus on Stealth when not moving, considering its size and dexterity. It also means that it could use Stealth when in plain sight, and it would always be able to take 10.

Given that a Gelatinous Cube has a -4 penalty on Stealth for being large, and a -5 penalty for Dexterity... That would mean that it has a +14 bonus to Stealth when not moving.

A Scroll of Sending would cost you 700 to 1125 gp. That should do the trick, but it's not that much fun. Also, you only get 1 chance to convince the devil to help you.

Alternatively, you can try to find one of its minions and see if they want to help you. An imp should be able to use Commune with their master. An Accuser Devil could be summoned with (a scroll of) Summon Accuser to record a message, but I'm not sure if they could reach the devil on the moon so easily.

The problem I see with this is that one is an ordinary lamp in an odd shape that can be used to deal fire damage when lit, and the other is a magical lightsource. One provides light and does extra fire damage, the other provides invisible light. I don't see how you could get extra fire damage and invisible light at the same time, so this is kinda... pointless.

So when is a morningstar the best choice? What about the old trust dagger, or a trident? The star knife? Maul? Longspear? etc.

The dagger is your backup weapon when your main weapon does bludgeoning damage, and the morningstar is your backup weapon when your main weapon does slashing damage. This way you'll cover all your bases with just 2 melee weapons. Ranged weapons are a different story, though.

The longspear is what your reach cleric uses if they don't have proficiency with any other reach weapon.

Does it have to be Ravenlofty? Maybe you should look into the

I still want to run it as a sequel to my Gnome Liberation Front adventure, where gnomes have to rescue their petrified buddies from the gardens of the big folk.

Ask your GM if he'll consider using Scaling Poison DC's.

I'd recommend:

10 + 1/2 level + Intelligence Mod = Poison DC

or

Original Poison DC + Primary Modifier = Poison DC

Poison saves are already based on Hit Dice/2 + Con mod +10. That would leave the viper familiar with a DC19 poison DC, and an Imp or Quasit with a DC of 20 at level 20.

A viper animal companion could max out at DC21 if you bring constitution up to 16.

It's not great, but it's a start.

I'm working on a monster for a one shot, and its main power should be that it can attack with a Prismatic Spray-like attack on each round. It doesn't have to be a true Prismatic Spray though.

I've come up with fun alternatives like:
- rolling 2d4 instead of a d8 so you get that sweet bell curve that decreases the odds of petrifying/plane shifting all the PCs on the first round. This also eliminates the chance that you have a PC gets targeted twice.
- Rolling 10d8 damage instead of doing 20, 40 or 80 damage depending on the color.
- 30 ft. emanation rather than 60 ft. cone, or the choice between either.
- Attacking all the PCs once per round, rather than limiting the attacks by dividing them among 90° angles.

I was wondering what kind of monster I could use as a sort of template. So far I've got:
- Prismatic Orrery. Good, but can only do the prismatic thing once every d4 turns.
- A monster like the Medusa. Something that uses the same effect each round.
- 4 monsters disguised as 1. 4 times the hit points and attacks, but attacks and defends as monster that has a CR 4 levels lower.
- Adapting the 3.5 version and hoping against all hope that that somehow balances it.

Can anyone help me figure out if there are any other options?

You can actually give an intelligent item an at will level 7 spell. (If it has a dpecial purpose.) A +10 bonus to Spellcraft would also be an option. You could go as far as giving it a 20 in Intelligence for a total of +15 in Spellcraft which would mean it would only fail its check 10% of the time. That might just make things more interesting.

Ofcourse, that's a really expensive way to control a Cutlass Spider.

I came across the Cutlass Spider and now I'm wondering if it can be controlled by an intelligent item. Constructs are immune to all mind-affecting effects. Intelligent items don't use a mind-affecting effect to control their wielder, or at least, it's not mentioned in the text and it doesn't refer to a spell, like Dominate Person.

On a side note, I guess it's technically taking over the body but the same can be said about Dominate Person.

I was trying to make a magic trap for an adventure, and I hit a few snags.

1. I can't find what the bonus for a ranged touch spell should be, but if I look at the examples I'm guessing it's equal to the spell level. Is that correct?

2. Mechanical traps have a +1 modifier to CR if they have an automatic reset, but magical traps don't? Is that correct?

Or, he could just play a Bladebound Magus and roleplay both the sword and the Magus.

I'm not sure if there are other classes that can get intelligent weapons from the start. You could also just give him an intelligent weapon.

Edit: Maybe a Phantom Blade Spiritualist instead?

One encounter I'd want to run is a swarm bursting from a body. The players hit the body and immediately things get so much worse. You can easily do this at lower levels with a giant spider, a spider swarm and a zombie covered in webs.

Another example is the undead abomination. The BBEG immediately rises as an undead horror after he's been killed. Unless the players manage to cast Temporal Stasis, ofcourse.

If I wanted to place Piren's Bluff in Eberron, where should it be? The last war might take the place of the People's Revolt, and that's about all I've got so far. I guess I'm going to have to do a deep dive into Eberron lore.