the Shifter's page

Funny, our party went with an all-dwarf route too! Fighter, Ranger, Cleric and Rogue. This is an obituary for

Hogan, Dwarf Rogue Level 1

Hogan was the half-brother of the Fighter and the Cleric (the youngest of the three), and a possible cousin of the Ranger (their mom really got around, and their reasons for adventuring is in fact because they have been exiled for her sins).

Having followed the tracks of Ieana and Kovack clear across the island from their campsite, the party arrived at the lighthouse while still at Level 1. Dispatching the Shiv Dragon guarding the camp, they rounded the corner to find the village eerily deserted, though the Ranger could have sworn he had heard voices just minutes before.

Sensing a trap, the party heeded their dwarven instincts to hold the chokepoint at the eastern edge of the firepit area, sending the Ranger and Fighter to the fore with the cleric close behind. Hogan remained in the back, ready to step in for the timely sneak attack.

The cannibals, fed up with waiting for the prey to walk into their ambush, sent half their warriors to the fore while a handful of the braver (and hungrier) warriors crept along the roof of the northmost building, jumping down behind the unsuspecting Hogan and swarming him. Seconds later, his horrified brothers glimpse his severed head, the unmistakable trace of terror evermore etched into his features. They had barely time enough to register the loss before they themselves succumbed to their wounds...

Hey all,
I’ve been planning on dropping some more clues for the PCs over the first three adventures that will make the extent of Nyrissa’s sponsorship of their enemies a little more apparent—as it stands now, I feel like there will be next to no warning for the stuff that goes down in the sixth installment. There’s simply no way for the PCs to appreciate the fact that she’s been working against them since first level.

My first idea was pretty small: make something of the Stag Lord's incorporate the lock of Nyrissa's hair he woke up holding after his dream. I'm thinking his amulet would be the best candidate. It would make sense that his prior success was partly due to her inspiration, and would tie in nicely with the ring the PCs will find in the Owlbear's lair at the end of the second module. In fact, I was thinking of making the amulet cursed as well--probably making all animals refuse to come within 30 feet of the bearer, or become hostile towards him (this will make riding pretty difficult for the cursed character).

My second idea is a little more involved. Given how excited my players are at owning their own gold mine (they've stopped by twice to check on it), I was thinking of having a "problem" come up at some point, maybe around the end of the third module (which while a solid adventure, does very little to advance the overall plot of the campaign). The problem: a gang of Derro, their leader once again "inspired" by Nyrissa to cause problems for the PCs, and with yet another cursed magic item using a lock of nymph hair.

By this point the PCs should be wise that someone has been giving out locks of cursed Nymph hair to their enemies. If they’re feeling extra smart, they may even realize that it could be a Nymph, at which point I suspect that they might start asking around among their fey contacts.

This could be problematic—how much would Tyg-titter-tut or Perlivash know about Nyrissa? No idea? Scarred to death of her? Obviously, they shouldn’t reveal too much, but I feel like it would be pretty neat to have one of them drop her name in a whisper, and then suddenly get possessed by her, deliver an ominous warning to the PCs that they’d better abandon their kingdom, and then turn to stone or something. Could get especially dramatic when the surviving one blames the PCs…

Anyways, if anyone else has other ideas for how to improve the pacing of the campaign, I’d love to hear them.

Speaking of which, I was going through some of my old Dungeon magazines looking for exactly this sort of thing...side treks to drop in around the first adventure. So far, I came up with one good one...#128's "Shut in" by Pathfinder's own F. Wesley Schneider and James L. Sutter. Sure, it needs a bit of scaling, but there are few enough encounters to keep the PCs from getting too far ahead of the curve. The hook also seems easy to drop; Croft could foist this one on the PCs if they're bored, claiming she didn't want to waste their time playing bodyguard.

In fact, the fit is so good that I'm going to have to change a couple things. For one thing, the crippled old woman (forget her name) reminds me too much of Queen Ileosa; vain, snobbish, etc. I'm going to have to tone her down a bit, perhaps by making her a little more senile, or more like Lucille from "Arrested Development," taking some of the bile out of her and replacing it with a more passive-aggressive complex.

Also, Peck is eerily similar to Jabbyr from PF #9 (I think one small psychopathic mute barbarian per adventure path is enough). To remedy this, I was either going to have Peck be one of Gaedren's ex-employees who took a turn for the worse (ideally after the PCs freed him from Gaedren's clutches early on in EoA; Kester from pg. 16 comes to mind), or perhaps a deformed lovechild (in keeping with the "Arrested Development" parallels, one could say he's Buster) that the crippled old woman kept hidden away in shame (inspiration drawn loosely from the opening minutes of Batman Returns).

Anyways, that's just my thoughts. Anyone else have any luck finding old Dungeon modules that would fit in with Korvosa?

Do tell! Got a few links?

http://downloads.khinsider.com/

You have to register (maybe? not sure), and even then they say you have to pay/spread the word/post to their forums to download their music, but I found out you can download the songs individually by right-clicking and saving the link. A little tedious, but now I'm soooo set.

Diablo music may work well...its underwhelming in terms of orchestra, but has a certain spookiness to it. Also, I highly recommend Medal of Honor music; it may not quite fit the bill for CoCT, but its good stuff.

Sweet! This is just the thread I've been looking for.

I've ordered like 4 soundtracks based on recommendations here (after sampling them, of course).

My contributions:

Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack: 3 was the best (both musically and otherwise), but if you have a copy of 5, theres some good stuff in there too. Some are really catchy, all are well done, and you get a wide scope of different feels.

Medal of Honor soundtrack: some really great tunes, good for action and suspense. I love when these come up during our games, they're so epic.

Morrowind/Oblivion Soundtracks: Pretty standard stuff, and if you don't have either of these games (Morrowind especially), you're missing out.

Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 soundtracks: Even though I own both games, the music files are hard to extricate. You can find them online, however. IIRC, I got mine off some NWN forums.

If anyone knows how/where to get Icewind Dale and IWD 2 music, I'm all ears.

I've gotta say, this is probably one of the best adventures I've read in years—and that's saying something, because I've always found Pathfinder and Dungeon to have pretty good stuff overall.

Seriously, I think Nicolas Logue and Richard Pett need to watch their backs. Wes is clearly disturbed.

I guess I must really have a bias against clerics. In any case, I still like what they've done with them. They aren't quite as boring looking as they used to be.

Epic Meepo wrote:

Jason Bulmahn wrote:

I also really like DC = 10+CMB for Acrobatic checks to tumble and Spellcraft checks to cast defensively.

I've found that ideas like this look good on paper, but can lead to unsatisfying situations for players. Who wants to play the rogue who's trapped in the corner all fight or the wizard who loses three spells in a row because the monsters are big and strong (and thus have high CMBs)?

Consider, for example, a party fighting a kraken. A kraken has sixty foot reach and CMB +44. If the wizard wants to participate in the fight, he'd better hope he can either get sixty feet away or roll a DC 54 Spellcraft check. Otherwise, he just gets to watch his every spell fail before it even gets cast as the kraken slaps him around in tune to the sound of its gurgling, inhuman laughter.

Isn't the CMB of a Kraken +35 (+12 Strength, +20 Base Attack Bonus, +3 size) although that change doesn't seem to be very helpful for the mage to have to make a DC 45 Spellcraft check around 10-ish level either.

I double-checked; its +36 (Gargantuan gives you +4 size bonus).

I support 10 + CMB for these checks.

That said, I do think it would be hard to rationalize this system as it stands now. One would think a small creature would have an easier time tumbling past a giant than, say, another giant.

I don't think opposed checks are a good idea. There's been a tendency in PFRPG to move away from these sorts of checks, and move towards scaled DCs. Similarly, there is also a trend towards standardization (i.e., class hit die). I think these are good trends, and I don't think opposed rolls fit very well into them.

Big Jake wrote:

A curious person asks the cleric: "What's Heironeous' holy symbol?

The player rolls a 2, for a total of 7 on his knowledge religion check.

Or if they are not in a stressful situation they take a 10.

Pretty sure you can't take a 10 on knowledge checks.

the Shifter wrote:

I like Stonechild's idea limiting a character's heals to their CON modifier. Per encounter limits are messy and subjective, and I think this solution is more elegant not only in terms of streamlining, but also because it reflects the ability of high CON characters to recover more often from grueling fights.

I agree with its advantages, but just want to emphasize what others have already mentioned: that keeping track of usages will require annoying and distracting DM bookkeeping (after all, you KNOW you can't trust your players to tell you when their characters have hit their limit).

Seriously? If this were the case, you'd never know when a player died, ran out of spells, etc. If I trust PCs to keep track of these things, I don't see why they can't simply mark down how many times a day they've healed.

I don't think buoying the amount of heals a character can receive to his CON modifier would be particularly annoying or distracting. Its far easier to keep track of than, say, knowing how many hitpoints you came into an encounter with, as some people here have advocated.

My post last night was also eaten by the boards...

I like Stonechild's idea limiting a character's heals to their CON modifier. Per encounter limits are messy and subjective, and I think this solution is more elegant not only in terms of streamlining, but also because it reflects the ability of high CON characters to recover more often from grueling fights.

That said, I also like Bigjake's idea of reviving dead characters, within a very limited time-frame. I think instead of being a flat DC, this should scale according to how far gone a character is. A PC who just got punched by an ogre, for example, should be easier to revive than one who just got roasted by a red dragon.

My suggestion: Make this DC = 30 + 1 per hit point the character is below -10 (or, perhaps more simply, 20 +1 per hit point below 0).

I'm envisioning a situation where my players will want to claim (e.g., I will tacitly suggest they take) Aldern's townhouse in Magnimar as a home base. I think this would be good, since its well sized for a group and already has a convenient floor-plan. I know, I know, Fort Rannick is just around the corner, but real estate is always a hot commodity, and I'm thinking it would be pretty sweet.

I intend to give them some hassle with Aldern's relatives that could lead to some interesting roleplaying and perhaps even a side quest involving the Brothers of the Seven.

I'm wondering though, how much do you think a house like Aldern's would go for? Convenient location, near some historic landmarks, nice neighborhood...10,000 gp? Do I hear 11,000? Anyone? Anyone?...

I like the direction this is going in. I especially like that the XP cost can be drawn from the party as a whole; I've always been annoyed by having party members leveling up at different times.

I also like the idea of exceptional craftsmen being able to create magic items without the aid of spells. I hope Paizo adopts a system like this.

Praetor Gradivus wrote:

Personally, the loss of deity's favored weapon as a free feat for war domain will be missed as i usually prefer the warlike deities.

&

Pathfinder RPG, Alpha 1 wrote:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Clerics are proficient

with all simple weapons, with all types of armor, and with
shields (except tower shields). Clerics are also proficient
with the favored weapon of their deities.

viola!

Finally! The viola gets some respect! Down with the violin autocracy!

Seriously though, I think you're looking for the thread on bards. Did you know they're getting nerfed?

This thread is pretty silly, though it raises some interesting questions. Like any instance where player knowledge may interfere with character knowledge, this is a DMs call. I tend to think that everyone could know a little bit about everything, so knowledge skills are open to everyone.

Personally, I think the easiest fix would be to lower the base DC. For instance, common animals should have a base DC of 0 + CR; essentially, automatic. Who ever needs to identify a horse in DnD anyways?

Then, on a DM's discretion, other monsters would get higher base DCs. Something that's a fantasy staple, like a goblin or a troll, would have a base DC of maybe 5 or 10. Something a little more unusual, but with a real world mythos, like a hydra or a dryad, would have a DC of 15 or 20. And so on.

The bottom line is, you are the DM. Do things the way you like. This is not a game-breaking mechanic, and I would tend to think that many DMs have different tastes for letting players identify what they're fighting, whether its a gorgon or a gelugon.

I've been looking over this system recently as well, and also would like to commend it for its simplicty. I've always thought it was redundant to have CR experience rewards scale down while the level advancement chart was scaling up.

I especially like that the hassle of finding out Encounter Levels has been bypassed; this should save me time in the future.

Additionally, I have roughly calculated the experience gained from Burnt Offerings, and found that a medium progression would be the best path to follow to keep levels consistent with published material. The new chart gives more XP than the system in 3.5, and should be used with the Alpha character advancement chart.

I don't know how far you are yet, but if you've reached the end of HMM you could easily turn over day to day operations of Fort Rannick to a group of adventurers the party trusts, with explicit instructions to carry out the original party's mission should they fail.

If you haven't reached this stage yet, you may want to introduce said party, and have them help out in a particularly tough fight (say, Xanesha?) to "build trust," as it were.

I don't know about you, but in my experience NO ONE wants to play a cleric. They're crappy combatants compared to a lot of other classes, they almost never get to cast any of the spells they prepared (instead using them for healing), and generally have little variation in terms of role-playability. Anything that makes them a better option is fine by me.

Azzy wrote:

erian_7 wrote:

I use a simple fix for the darkness spells--darkness drops the illumination in an area by one level, while deeper darkness drops it by two levels; both interfere with low-light and darkvision. Thus casting darkness in a clearing under direct sunlight creates an area of shadowy illumination, but casting it in a shadowy dungeon corridor creates an area of total darkness. Casting deeper darkness in that same clearing would create an area of total darkness.

This is generally very simple to adjudicate, works well in conjunction with similar spells (light raises the illumination in an area by one level, while daylight raises it by two levels; thus darkness and light negate each other and darkness can dim, but not negate, daylight), and makes a heck of a lot more sense without getting into the "overpowered" problem of pre-3.5 darkness.

I like this... It makes sense.

Seconded!

Thirded!

A couple addendums:

1) I did not give Malfeshnekor a new feat; he should gain one more from the conversion. I like Improved Trip or Improved Disarm.

Also, while not in my conversion, I just realized this also needs changing:

2) The Raven Familiar—I see that this now gives the standard +3 bonus to the now quite respectable Appraise skill. Yet, as with all familiars, it grants Alertness, which is now +2 Perception AND +2 Appraise. I think this makes the Raven, already a strong choice for its small size and flying ability the best choice of familiar. I recommend changing this bonus to +3 Linguistics (Mr. Poe would approve).

So, I haven't started running my RotRL campaign yet and have quite some time to prepare. I've been liking what I see in the PFRPG alpha release, and I think I'm going to use this campaign to give it a test-drive.

I'm using the level advancement, races, skills, feats, and combat system of PFRPG. I am NOT using the classes; for one thing, my players have expressed a desire to play characters not covered in alpha, and I don't think it is advisable to meld the alpha classes as is into the 3.5 system. The wizard is now clearly a much better choice than a sorcerer, for example. The same holds true with clerics vs. druids. Secondly, it would be a big hassle to convert classed NPCs wholesale into Alpha classes. Finally, I am personally dissatisfied with some of them; particularly the fighter and, to a lesser extent, the wizard.

That said, it would make little sense to have the PCs play by alpha rules while the campaign's still written in 3.5. So I have gone through the first module of RotRL and taken all the relevant monsters and NPCs that are likely or possible to be encountered in combat and:

1. Calculated their CMB
2. Re-calculated their skills according to the PFRPG advancement system
3. Where necessary, added feats arising out of said advancement system.

The first is a simple exercise, and I invite you to please double-check my math.

The second required some familiarization with the back chapters of the Monster Manual and the skills chapter in the alpha release. I have, where necessary, added new skills as they are acquired through the PFRPG HD/level advancement, and, where apparent, converted racial bonuses to defunct skills into their equivalents in the PF skill system.

In hindsight, I regret that I did not keep notes while I was converting the skills of these monsters and NPCs. I have tried, when memory serves, to note some of the factors behind the skills; namely racial bonuses. Again, I invite you to double check my math on these points, and if you deem necessary, to dispute my choices of new skills.

The third point was a rare occurrence in my conversion process; only Nualia and Malfeshnekor (and I suspect due to a misprint, Bruthazmus) qualified for additional feats under the conversion system. Some other monsters also found themselves in possession of the now defunct Track feat; I have tried in all cases to only recommend feats that do not tamper with the printed stats of the NPCs or monsters.

Finally, I provide my own thoughts and suggestions for PF alpha from the problems and questions that arose in this conversion process. While I know these are not the PF Aplha forums, this thread is first and foremost about the RotRL campaign.

PART 1

Goblins +0 CMB
Stealth +7, Perception +1
*As small creatures, Goblins have +4 racial bonus on stealth.

Goblin Warchanter -2 CMB
Perception +5, Acrobatics +6, Stealth +6, Spellcraft +3, Perform+5,

Goblin Commando +2 CMB
Handle Animal +5, Perception +5, Stealth +7, Ride +11, Survival +5
*Goblins also have a +4 racial bonus to ride.

Goblin Dog +2 CMB
Stealth +6, Acrobatics +10 (+4 while Jumping)
*While not stated in the entry, I assume Goblin Dogs to have a +8 racial bonus on jump. They have +14 as printed; quite a large bonus for CR 1.

PART 2

Boar +4 CMB
Perception + 7, Swim + 8
*I am planning to use an actual boar in the hunt. I added swim.

PART 3

Tsuto +2 CMB
Acrobatics +8, Deception +6, Diplomacy +6, Theft +8, Disguise +6, Intimidate +6, Perform (wind instruments) +6, Knowledge (local) +7, Stealth +8
*Tsuto picked up a few skills in the conversion, and his multiclassing presented no problem to calculating converted bonuses.

Sinspawn +2 CMB
Stealth +11, Perception +7, Climb +7
*I added perception and climb, due to stealth collapsing into one skill and the skill gained by having >2 HD.

Vargouille +0 CMB
Stealth +5, Perception +6, Intimidate +3, Fly +9, Knowledge (the Planes) +1, Escape Artist +5
*This is the first of the conversions that possessed flight. As per PFRPG alpha, all monsters with a flight speed get Fly for free as a class skill (see pg. 25-26). I also calculated bonuses for maneuverability: +4 for "Good" in the Vargouille's case.

Koruvus +5 CMB
Intimidate +5, Perception +2
*I added perception for being 2nd level.

Erylium +1 CMB
Deception +9, Stealth +11, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcane) +7, Knowledge (the planes) +7, Knowledge (history) +7, Perception +6, Spellcraft +7, Fly +19, Appraise +4, Escape Artist +11
*Several of Erylium's skills collapsed into one. I thus added a couple more knowledge skills. I don't have access to the Book of Fiends at this time (though I do own it), so I assumed Appraise was a cross-crass skill. I also calculated her fly bonus, adding the +8 for "Perfect" maneuverability.

PART 4

Tangletooth (Leopard) +5 CMB
Acrobatics* +12, Stealth* +8, Perception +7, Climb* +11
FEAT: Loses Track; I suggest combat reflexes.
*The skills I have asterisked are not trained skills; they are only "collapsed" skills with racial modifiers.

Gogmurt +1 CMB
Handle Animal +8, Knowledge (Nature) +8, Survival +11, Perception +7, Stealth +11
*Gogmurt gained a couple of skills. I trust none of my choices will be controversial.

Shadowmist +8 CMB
Perception +8, Acrobatics +8, Swim +11
*Again, gained a couple of skills.

Ripnugget +4 CMB
Handle Animal +8, Intimidate +8, Stealth +7, Ride +13

Stickfoot +2
Acrobatics +15, Climb +22
*Giant Geckos have a net bonus of +16 to climb and +8 to balance. I converted the balance to acrobatics as per the PFRPG; some astute readers may notice that Stikfoot is now an able tumbler and jumper, as well. As per 3.5 rules, Stickfoot can now *automatically* move through threated spaces without provoking attacks of opportunity. I intend to address this problem by tweaking tumbling DCs to be CMB-opposed checks in my game.

Bunyip +6 CMB
Perception +8, Swim +8, Survival +8
*I added survival, which I find to be a conventional secondary choice for most animals. However, in the reprint of the stat block there are no inclusion of racial modifiers; I have not included any in my calculations.

Bruthazmus +6 CMB
Perception +5, Stealth +6, Climb +6, Survival +5, Deception +1
FEAT: Bruthazmus did not exactly gain a feat from the conversion; he was printed with one missing. Bruthazmus should have two feats from racial hit die and one from a 1st level class. I suspect this has been addressed in the Burnt Offerings Clarifications thread; I recommend adding power attack. Also note that he loses Track.

Orik +5 CMB
Climb +5, Intimidate +5, Swim -1, Perception +4
FEAT: Orik is printed as is with the Athletic feat. This is now quite a poor choice for most characters as it gives +2 to swim and FLY. Like most humans, Orik cannot fly. Therefore, I'd recommend changing Athletic to be +2 to swim and CLIMB.
*I suspect, however, that my calculations for Orik's climb and swim is off—the latter especially, as I did not calculate how much weight Orik is carrying.

Tentamort +5(+9) CMB
Climb +10, Stealth +8, Survival +8
*Our first encounter with a grappler. The +9 in the CMB represents the bonus provided by improved grapple. Like the Bunyip above, no racial bonuses were provided in the reprint. As such, some skill calculations may be off.

Yeth Hounds +6 CMB
Perception +8, Survival +8, Stealth +8, Intimidate +6, Fly + 12, Swim +9, Escape Artist +8, Knowledge (the planes)
FEAT: The Yeth Hounds lose Track. I recommend replacing this with combat reflexes.
*I ran a little thin on skills to add here. According to the Monster Manual, outsiders get 8+INT skills. That's 6 for a Yeth Hound (INT 6). Add to this the 1 gained for attaining 2 HD. This gives us 7, plus Fly for free. This seems excessive; I think this may need to be lowered to 6+INT for outsiders. See Malfeshnekor below for a further demonstration of this problem.

Lyrie +0 CMB
Spellcraft +8, Knowledge (Arcana) +8, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +8, Knowledge (local) +8, Stealth +5
*Added a couple skills.

Nualia +7 CMB
Intimidate +10, Ride +7, Spellcraft +8, Knowledge (Religion) +8
FEAT: As a level (>/=)5 character, Nualia receives a new feat under the PFRPG advancement system. I recommend Improved Sunder as it takes advantage of her high CMB. Dazzling Display [Combat] is also a good choice, as it fits with her fiendish claw.
*I have a suspicion said claw also provides a bonus to intimidate; however, none was mentioned in the printing. As with Tsuto, Nualia's multiclassing was not a problem for conversion; if anything it made it easier.

Shadows +1 CMB
Perception +9, Stealth +8, Fly +12, Knowledge (Arcana) +4
*I had to add a couple skills here; I feel that Undead could reasonably be reduced from 4+INT skill points to 2+INT with PFRPG rules, though this is debatable.

Giant Hermit Crab +12 CMB
NO SKILLS/FEATS
*As a vermin, the Giant Hermit Crab gets no skills or feats.

Malfeshnekor +19 CMB
Deception +18, Climb +21, Diplomacy +18, Stealth +17, Intimidate +18, Acrobatics +17, Knowledge (History) +18, Knowledge (The Planes) +18, Knowledge (Religion) +18, Perception +16, Spellcraft +17, Appraise +17, Escape Artist +17, Swim +21, Linguistics +17, Survival, Disguise +18
*Finally, we have Malfeshnekor. As I mentioned earlier, outsiders get quite a windfall of skills in PFRPG. Malfeshnekor gets 8 (outsider base) + 4 (INT bonus) + 5 (for 10 HD) = 17 skills. This is, to put it lightly, an F-ton. As you can see above, Malfeshnekor can do just about anything; I even toyed with giving him a craft or profession. I suppose he could have picked it up as a hobby during his 10,000 year imprisonment.

So there we have it. I will conclude with 3 things I like and 3 things I think need changing.

I LIKE
-how easy it is to convert multiclass.
-the streamlined CMB system.
-the new feat and XP progression.

NEEDS CHANGE
-Skills. Monsters such as outsiders now are renaissance men. Please fix this by lowering their base skills from 8+INT to 6+INT or even to 4+INT. Similarly, I feel that Rogues and other high starting skill classes will all look the same skillwise by 10th level. While I enjoy the collapsing of skills, I feel that the PFRPG designers should match this change by lowering the skills available to each character. The easiest way to do this would be to lower the base starting skills of rogues, and perhaps bards and rangers, in the way I have outlined for outsiders above.

-Athletic feat. Very few PCs fly. Please change the +2 fly to +2 climb.

-The Fighter. Weapon training groups are a little silly. Also, the masteries are too sudden; please stretch them out a bit.

Plognark wrote:

Perhaps a blend could work, where players could select skills as "cross class" on purpose.
[...]
What if you could take one of those skill selections and pick a class skill but cap it at the cross class value, and have it cost 1/2 a slot?
[...]
You could keep cross-class skills at one full slot for the cross-class value.

This might work; it avoids the time-consuming crunch and single point splashing, but gives enough versatility to pick up some less key flavor skills like professions or knowledges.

I LOVE this idea! A great compromise between those who want "generalist" characters and those who like the simplicity of the "saga" system.

And of course, should you ever want to bump up one of those skills to a full class skill level, you could put 1/2 a skill selection into it, and either gain another class skill at the cc level, or bump up your other lesser skill as well.

I highly recommend keeping the current alpha skill system, and adding this rule as a sidebar.

I second this recommendation, but I'd go so far as to make it a real part of the rules. I think this really goes a long way towards solving the min/maxing problem for skills in PFRPG.

I'm having Daviren Hosk (owner of Goblin Squash stables) give a quest to the PCs when they come to grab mounts for the boar hunt with Aldern. After the PCs notice all the ears and are treated to a glimpse of the pickled warchief Wartus, Daviren's going to offer them a free horse for every goblin hero head they bring back.

As written, the PCs should find Ripnugget and Bruthazmus over the course of BO, and possibly Koruvus. Since you can't quite count on Koruvus, I'll give away the location of the other two goblin heroes when Shalelu comes into town.

So far, I statted up a Vorka (Cleric 5 with Ravenous Template from the Advanced Bestiary). While the party's trudging through Brinestump marsh, they'll run across old Megus (Green Hag with the Swamp Lord template from the AB). I may throw in a couple other encounters, but these are ones I'm sure will be the most interesting.

I like the racial bonus idea. It adds new bonuses to weigh when choosing race, but its a small choice in the grand scheme of things. I also like the possibilities this opens for unorthodox combinations: 14 HP half-orc wizards taking hits for 12 HP elf rangers.

Not to threadjack, but I also like the idea of standardizing HD. My one suggestion is that I think it would be easy to bring Barbarians down to d10s if they got toughness as a bonus feat at 1st level.

Foxish, if you really want you can easily make up creative ways to work around this yourself; as it is, you sound like you're just asking Nic to be creative for you.

Here's some solutions I just thought of. Feel free to use them in any combination:

Lamm's hired help are all wanted criminals. The authorities are only to happy to be rid of them. IIRC, Lamm is also on the lamb...

Also, people are likely to notice a whole bunch of Orphans running around. The watch picks some of them up and hears sob stories about all the terrible things Lamm's been up to. If you really need to, they even corroborate the PCs stories.

The lady who hires the PCs later (sorry I don't have the book in front of me) would likely be involved in such an ongoing investigation into the PCs background (which, as Nic points out, would be EXTREMELY low on the watch's to-do list). You could even turn this into an interesting role-playing encounter, with zone of truth involved.

Why not just rewrite the plot so the king died of old age? (Make the king & queen a fantasy analogue of gold-digging Anna Nicole Smith/J. Howard Marshall style marriages, if need be)

I'm pretty sure that incriminating evidence the PCs are meant to discover in a later module is supposed to both further vilify the queen and drive on an important plot development, i.e. the uncovering of a vast and potentially cataclysmic conspiracy involving the Red Mantis assassins, the Gray Maidens, the Plague Doctors, and quite possibly even the "incompetent" churches of Sarenrae and Abadar.

Great Encounter! I've bookmarked this thread for when I eventually run CotCT.

Too much information risks having your players become obsessively suspicious - at least, many groups I've played with or run for have jumped to the conclusion that if an NPC (any NPC) has "too much" background detail, he must be important and is probably a bad guy. (Plotline metagaming at its worst, but sometimes unavoidable.)

I recommend that you play up the sympathetic elements of the story, using the ideas hidden by the spoiler tag in the entry just above. Try to ensure that the logical conclusion, from what you tell them, has the players believing Aldern is a poor-little-rich-boy (wealthy but beset by ill luck), rather than an annoyance or in any way suspicious. He should come across as more of a patron than anything else; a person who might hire them for future adventures, and/or introduce them to other important people.

I've had players who have done the same thing (plotline metagaming). To throw them off, I sometimes present information that may be premature "unscripted," fumbling around in my notes for a few seconds, and not looking down at them while I'm talking, but glancing up to the ceiling and at the player asking, stuttering as necessary.

I might go a step further and make it so the PCs can't figure out the shape of the island-head. That big blank area might get them thinking. You could sort of cut out the extraneous ares on the map to confuse them, or perhaps make the walls of the dungeon and the water around it somehow indistinguishable on the map.

Excellent! I like all the PC counter options. Thorough job.

Dan Kamstra wrote:

Echoing: This is Bloody Brilliant. I can't wait to give it to my players...

The echo bounces a few more times with me. My PC just received Tsuto journal yesterday night. They will love to see in flesh it next Monday.

I love the tools that everybody is sharing, it really helps. I just completed 3 counter sheets that covers all the monsters of Burnt Offering and lots of NPCs.
You just have to print it on a WHITE FULL SHEET LABEL (Avery 5165/8165) ; apply it on cardboard (cereal box) and finally, take out a good XActo and cut the 170 counters.
Me and my players love to use those. Every PC has its own counter. Every encounter shows the real monsters on a real size counter (space&reach). And they are very cheap to make, a 10$ investment gives you 2000 counters (printing not included).
I would like to share that tool, I just need a place to store the .pdf file. Can somebody helps me help us?

I'd love to help, but I'm utterly inept at that sort of thing. Sounds like a great tool, I'd be really interested in trying it out.

EDIT: I almost forgot, I am totally going to use that journal when I run my players through BO in a few months. Thanks for posting it!

the Shifter wrote:

I'm not sure whether the haunt should be tailored specifically to one PC or universal. I really want them to see it, so maybe the more the better? But having only one could make it creepier. I also haven't worked out an effect yet...any ideas?

IIRC, most of the haunts tend to latch onto specific people. In this case, people feeling alone or outcast or otherwise isolated for some reason might be what it picks up on.

As for the effect, I'm not sure. Can you give a description of your PCs, maybe something there'll suggest an idea?

That's actually still very much in flux, as we probably aren't going to play until May. I was thinking along the same lines for an individual haunt, but if none of them fit the bill, I'll probably pass it on to the Paladin/holy guy type.

I haven't had the opportunity to play F.E.A.R., but when I finish BioShock, I'll see if I can get around to it.

Whose point of view are you attaching it to?

That's a good question...I don't think I could legitimately do Nualia if she's actually still alive. Maybe I'll fudge the story so that the baby was born alive, but died shortly thereafter. Then the perspective can be the baby's, and it might offer an interesting dramatic component of not knowing what it looked like, just that it was hideous.

Also, I realized that putting the haunt underneath Hannah's house didn't make any sense. I think Nualia would basically have been a shut-in after her father found out she was pregnant, so the birth probably happened in the cathedral. I'll just get my PCs to go to the basement for some reason.

I'm not sure whether the haunt should be tailored specifically to one PC or universal. I really want them to see it, so maybe the more the better? But having only one could make it creepier. I also haven't worked out an effect yet...any ideas?

Thanks for all the suggestions. Right now, I may end up combining Jodah's and Kassil's ideas. Basically, the PCs seek out Hannah to help resolve an unrelated issue (something involving a certain employee of the Pixie's Kitten), and have a chance to talk to her and encounter the foxglove-style haunt in her basement, which would further help establish/foreshadow this mechanic.

For the Haunt, I think a vision of Nualia's birth would pique their interest in her history. Nualia's screams of agony, and then the inevitable shrieks of terror from the midwives as they recoil in fear...perhaps inducing a fear effect? Charisma drain? Nausea?

I've been thinking about running a side quest where the PCs can learn more about Nualia; one idea I've been toying with is having her miscarried child, now an Attic Whisperer, causing some trouble around town.

I'm not sure how to present it though; rescuing another child after the goblin closet thing seems lame. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you! I can wait until #7 ships to see them both.

Hello,

I am a little confused about this order...it is for an ongoing Pathfinder subscription, that cost me $0.00, plus shipping of about $3. Am I correct in believing that this is leftover credit from my old Dungeon subscription?

Also, I intended the order to be for PF #6. Has this issue been shipped to me? Was my order mistakenly made for #7, which I see is scheduled to ship to me next month?

Thank you in advance.