tonyz's page

Apologies for not getting back in contact with everyone. I had severe trouble logging in the last couple of weeks.

Would have been fun, I think. Maybe some other campaign.

I am interested, but need to check the rulebook (I got the link sent to me, thanks.)

Dotting for reference

Bringing it back for book 4 seems to have the most resonance -- I can certainly see Stroon being the sort of wizard who might look for it and find it, or one of the priestesses of Gyrona among the Tiger Lords.

I like Rahadoum (an atheist state in a fantasy world has SO MUCH potential for conflict and interesting roleplaying).

I would love to see more about Thuvia -- yes, the sun orchid elixir is an important detail, but there's a lot more to work with. Seacoast, multiple city states, desert adventures, and the divs, all add up to quite a fun background where lots of adventures can happen. I've never seen it as one-dimensional at all.

Look at what Nyrissa was doing with Irovetti in canon -- she can provide the PCs assistance "for seven years", or something like that (typical duration-limited Fey bargain), and then come calling for her favor (the entire kingdom neatly trapped into a bottle, just like many another kingdom before them...)

Generally, I figure if the PCs take some reasonable precautions and treat their hirelings reasonably, things work out well for them. The game isn't "micromanage your hirelings", after all.

I might have the PCs do some Sense Motive checks when hiring, and some Diplomacy checks to make sure the hireling is on board, but it shouldn't be too difficult unless the PCs ask something exceptionally dangerous or the area is very risky (either of which a competent hireling will know, since they all have Lore: Professional Hireling, which covers stuff like that.) It can be fun to have a couple of extra voices around to interact with and advise the PCs, or to get them into extra trouble if it looks like the PCs aren't going to find enough on their own, or just to bring down the Hammer of Consequence if the PCs act stupidly.

Hirelings are also a nice channel to let the PCs know common stuff about the world, suggest courses of action, and things like that. I generally ask the PCs what sort of support they're looking for (teamsters, guards, accountants, etc.), and then whip up a couple personalities on the fly (roll a d8, 1 means they're untrustworthy and 8 means they're the opposite; ditto for competence). One can often improvise a lot off a quick random die roll and 1-2 character traits.

This is a good time to get some downtime action in, definitely.

For the ranger... there might not be a lot to work with there, but Shalelu could be a nice one to show up -- just have her talk with the ranger, and see what develops. Ask about background (and give the player some warning so they have time to invent something instead of just doing it all on the spot.)

For the ex-slaves, Magnimar is probably a better place for the bounty-hunters to be, but give them some way to fix the problem themselves instead of having the townsfolk solve it for them. Working the Sczarni into it somewhere sounds good.

Escorting the prisoners to Magnimar and having a trial could easily be an session or two (or three...).

Wow. This is truly epic and I am very much wanting to see how it turns out!

I like the idea that Xanesha has a lot of hooks floating around -- if/when I run this, she'll mostly be disguised as a noblewoman and clued in with lots of information links from various elements in the city. The Shadow Clock is a hideout for her, not her main lair.

If the PCs get the Watch to go after the Clock, then Xanesha will find out about it from some contact of hers and the Clock will be empty when the raid arrives. Which means the PCs will have to figure out another angle.

Note that PCs who get used to steamrolling 1/day encounters can have real difficulties adapting to some of the really nasty lairs, particularly Vordakai’s or the Stag Lord.

Right, Thousand Bones is in book 1. Mea culpa.

Anyway, what about the idea of him finding the spring in book 3... with a pipe going into it taking all the water ... somewhere. (An otyugh sewer worker could tell them it leads to Castle Korvosa eventually....)

A lot of Korvosans don't like the Shoanti, but this can be a way to enhance roleplaying -- right now things are just tense, not "lynch-on-sight". It does give you a really good link for one of the quests in book 2. I don't expect that playing a Shoanti will be more of a problem than you want to make it.

Book 4 would need some work, because your PC would probably know a fair amount of the mysterious Shoanti background in that book. Done well, though, it could really give the player a good time (and let him be the native guide to the rest of the players after the reverse action in books 1-3.) Just be aware how you're going to handle that. Might have some of the characters be more friendly to him (same quah?), others be old enemies of his family or quah or some-such.

If the character has ranks in Knowledge (history) then he probably knows something of the Shoanti past in Korvosa. If he doesn't, oh well, he wasn't paying attention when the tribal bards were telling stories of their past so he doesn't know it. But you could let him knock 5 off the DC of Shoanti-related knowledge checks or something.

As far as the spring goes, it seems to me that you have two options. One is to put it in the Arkona dungeon in book 3 -- that gives him a nice milestone completion, and maybe something to help them survive that killer dungeon. The second is that somehow the Queen seized and repurposed the spring (it's where she gets some of the mystical ingredients for making the Gray Maidens? it's part of her immortality bath recipe?)

I could see temples of Abadar providing postal service as part of their support for cities and civilization. Now, maybe they don't do rural deliveries...

I was thinking that the players might overhear Tsuto and Ameiko arguing. (This would require them to dispose of all the goblins before any of them can get downstairs). The two are now in stage N+1 of an N-hour argument and are basically shouting at each other, which explains why neither of them have heard the fight upstairs. That lets you feed in a lot of the backstory without having Ameiko tell them later.

What we need is something that penalizes creatures with darkvision but not normal vision. Maybe a spell, or an alchemical grenade, that dazzles those with darkvision?

I have thought about setting a campaign in Thuvia - it's a nice background for a bunch of city states and desert princes fighting it out. Plenty of room for intrigue and exploration, and for naval adventures as well - it's got a coastline, after all.

You wouldn't have to use the sun orchard elixir unless you wanted to.

Divs make for a great looming threat in the background, either as tools of the bad guys or as the ultimate BBEG themselves.

Evil damage is a slow black stain, spreading and burning like acid. Maybe some temptation is ladled in. ("For a moment, you feel very angry/lustful/tired/whatever the character's major sin is")

Good damage is a flare of white-gold light that leaves evil creatures scarred and smoking.

Lawful damage is a steady blue glow that's maybe a 3D grid if you look deep enough, closing in around the victim like a cage.

Chaos damage is a shifting of form and feature, leaving the victim blurred and distorted before reality snaps back into place.

Wow, this is a really nice example of how to keep going when you're off the rails. It's nice that the players are rethinking allying with Team Evil, though.

A 9th level spellcaster could cast banishment - it’s in all four traditions. If they know someone who knows someone... problem solved. You could always make a short side quest of it, or just rule that the local high priest would be happy to help, depending on how much effort you want the PCs to put into it.

But djinn can plane shift as an innate spell! Why does he need the players’ help to get home?

a makeshift Hellfire Flume. That would sure be something...

Definitely enough to stop one giant attack, even if it melts down in the process.

Getting to the control room would let them (or maybe Master Quink) activate the Old Light to defend Sandpoint from the giants? That seems a nice hook for your party.

11th level foes - mobs of vrocks (very apropos for the Runelord of Wrath), enhance some efreetis a bit, maybe some fire elemental guards.

As I would rule as a GM:

Lore can overlap several other skills -- e.g., Goblin Lore would cover goblin society, goblin tactics, goblin deities and religious practices, where bugbears like to lair up, that sort of thing. And there are probably things that Lore can do that other skills can't.

Proficiency bonus is level + stat + training + other bonuses -- so a third level fighter with Str 18 trained in the weapon would have 3 + 4 + 2 = +9 to hit with his sword.

As far as multiple attacks go, everyone gets three actions + a reaction each round. You could use all three actions for attacks, even at 1st level, but bear in mind the Multiple Attack Penalty (-5 for the second attack, -10 for the third), though there are some ways to reduce the penalty.

Thanks, all.

Not counting magical means, how can a character learn languages?

All I can find, so far, is starting languages (ancestry), bonus languages from high Int, and the Multilingual skill feat (must be trained in Society). Are there any others?

Very roughly: PF1 price / 10 = PF2 price.

Copper is the new silver.

Silver is the new gold.

Gold is the new platinum.

For a hobgoblin, use drums or trumpets. Standard military instruments that can be heard a long way away through the din of battle.

Hey, sometimes you want them to eat the Attack of Opportunity so the enemy doesn’t have it available to hurt you or your friends with.

Would love to see 2E stats for everyone involved ;)

Language is very campaign-dependent. Ask the GM.

Thing is, at low levels usually there will be one reasonably common language in the vicinity; if there are lots of languages flying around (e.g., in a major port city) then a translator is likely easy to find. At higher levels it becomes a non-issue as long as someone can cast tongues.

Or summon a creature with telepathy to serve as a universal translator.

Generally, as a GM unless I want to make a big point of translation difficulties and overcoming them, I just assume everyone important speaks Common, or maybe has a translator available. I might (rarely) put in language elements in an adventure -- e.g., a sign in Dwarven in a mine once run by Dwarves. If I were running a campaign where an invader from a far-distant land was coming (e.g., Mongols vs. vast distances, Spanish vs. Aztecs, interplanar gate, interplanetary romance) it might be appropriate to make it an issue.

One thing I generally do during session 0 is let the players know what languages are frequently found in the area where the campaign starts. After that, if nobody takes one of those languages, so be it, but that's not on me as a GM.

+1 for TOC. It tells you about what's inside the book.

Someone who believes he is Aroden. Or, for extra fun, two Arodens.

Wow... what a story. Should be very interesting, but if the PCs decide to join Mokmurian, you're mostly on your own as far as creating stuff goes.

I suppose you can still send them to the Scribbler's lair and Runeforge ("find and destroy this place lest the mad wizards there, who are probably responsible for Earthfall, do something similar")

This is loads of fun to follow - please let us know how it turns out!

Dragon disciple!

I would really like to have a reasonably good list of real-world diseases to work with, as well as fantastic and monster-specific diseases.

Is there an iOS version?

Korvosa, Kaer Maga, Magnimar. All nice cities with a good hinterland and lots of adventure support (without so much it becomes crippling).

Most surviving goblins have been raised by paladins in orphanages.

Urgathoa seems like a good fit -- consumption to excess, decadent wallowing in pleasure, all that kind of stuff. Sure, canonically that's mostly about food, but I could certainly see it expressed in music or other forms of art as well. Baudelaire on steroids, a lot of late-19th-century fin-de-sicle nihilists, certain rock musicians... the list goes on.

2) The sawmill's structural members all get wildly warped. It'll collapse very soon if anyone tries running anything.

3) Tangled thorny vines grow all through the reed patches the basketweavers gather their raw material from.

4) The ground under the local factory turns into mud. How many times can the industrialist rebuild?

You can also use the extra spells to cast multiple copies of, say, long-term buffs for preparation.

A bloatmage trades a little bit of wizard-stuff for a lot of endurance. I agree that this doesn't help (much) in a 15-minute adventuring day, but I liked the flavor too, and not all campaigns are 15-minute days.

True strike does two things.

It helps low level casters reliably hit with something, even if they’re not normally proficient with it. This also works for anyone who can do big attacks and cast arcane spells, for instance dragons with Power Attacking bites. Not all spells are primarily PC spells,

And it negates miss chances from concelmeant. This is incredibly powerful, especially when quickened in conjunction with powerful attack spells.

Dot-dot-dot

You could put it in Thuvia (desert and mountains) or in Garund somewhere (have the natives be Mwangi instead of Indians).

More tropes:

The natives are really good trackers in tune with the wild (obviously, ranger levels and druids).

The local schoolmistress (who may be a cleric or bard in this world) as a quest hook, possible love interest, and local support.

SO MUCH room for things to do with mines. Probably have them disturb some kind of underground spirit (homebrew, look up something the players have never heard of before).

A gang of bandits who are enemies of the local bankers (not that they're nice people themselves, but the locals like them because they mostly leave the locals alone).

Also, definitely use spells like unhallow and other environmental gamechangers... even higher-level PCs are not always prepared for this.

Even suboptimal play as a bloatmage is "multiple extra spellcastings per day", which is pretty powerful.

Not sure about getting rid of Sickened.

I'm guessing the -2 Con penalty kicks in when you do your rituals (that's when you're doing all the self-cutting), at least that's how I played it as a bloatmage and how I'd do it as a DM.

You can use blood points to cast a spell without losing it from memory (or without expending the spell if you're a spontaneous caster). If you've already cast all your spells, well, the ability isn't very helpful; you use it to get extra castings before running out, so it stretches your endurance.

When memorizing spells, you refill your pool (up to your bloatmage level) and you can also charge yourself up by getting extra blood points (but if you go too far over your limit, Bad Things happen) - generally this gives you a few extra spells a day, possibly of up to your highest level. Which is never a bad thing, though it's like pearls of power in that you can only use stuff you already have in your head, not extra slots you can fill with anything. I mostly used it to cast extra copies of stuff I was regularly using anyway, and carefully monitored my situation so I wasn't going to go crazy.

If, say, you're a wizard 5/bloatmage 2, you have a pool of 2, which you could use to cast 1 2nd level spell or 2 1st level spells without losing them - you could add 1d4 points on a bloodsurge, but you don't want to get 4 because that would put you at twice your limit and you'd go crazy. So you don't surge, unless you're doing the thing where you could regulate the surge a bit.

The other abilities are mostly extra toughness and defensive abilities (always good), plus being more affected by bleed damage (not good but it doesn't come up very often).

Having played a bloatmage, it felt (slightly) tougher than a wizard but I never really had problems being flexible. Minor abilities for the most part, and I never missed the wizard class abilities that weren't going up any farther - I had other abilities which were.

Drinking blood to use bloodline abilities... <shrug> By the time it could have worked, we were near the end of Curse of the Crimson Throne anyway.

Feats were very tight (you have several required feats to get into the class), but that just meant I had to make the most use of what I did have... and a full casting class usually can think of things to do. Slight nerfs on a wizard leave one, well, still a wizard.