username_unavailable's page

username_unavailable has the details.

LoadingReadyRun are a Canadian sketch comedy group. Besides short weekly videos, they are best known for Desert Bus for Hope, an annual Child's Play Charity fundraiser where they play an excruciatingly boring video game for days at a time.

Commodore Hustle is the LRR web sitcom, similar in style to The Guild or Pure Pwnage.

Almost precisely nine minutes into the latest episode of Commodore Hustle (LoadingReadyRun.com's web sitcom) is a D&D scene featuring a strikingly familiar adventure . . . and a similarly familiar deck of cards.

Check it out! (Warning: Entombed with the Pharaohs spoilers!)

Commodore Hustle 03: Critical

Yes, it's out: LoadingReadyRun love them some Pathfinder.

username_unavailable wrote:

The passive voice downplays the importance of the SUBJECT, and makes the OBJECT appear to be the active agent of a sentence. THIS IS NOT INCORRECT, but it does have some ramifications.

But when 'Seoni' is the object of the sentence, best to play her up, right? Right?

I concede that Seoni is often the focus of my attention, regardless of sentence construction.

Charles Evans 25 wrote:

2) I should have made more of an effort to find out what the 'passive voice' is which you keep mentioning; although perhaps 'passive voice' is a European writing accent?

I think it's the difference between:

The vampire bit Seoni in the neck. (active)

vs

Seoni was bitten in the neck by the vampire. (passive)

This is correct. The passive voice usually looks like this:

[object] + [to be] + [verb (past tense)] + [BY] + [subject]

Take this sentence:
[CONTRACTORS] + [DEMOLISHED] + [THE BUILDING]

In the passive, it looks like this:
[THE BUILDING] + [WAS] + [DEMOLISHED] + [BY] + [CONTRACTORS]

The passive voice downplays the importance of the SUBJECT, and makes the OBJECT appear to be the active agent of a sentence. THIS IS NOT INCORRECT, but it does have some ramifications.

In situations where the focus should be on an active agent, the passive voice severely downplays his or her initiative. In the above case, the contractors are clearly the active agents, but the reader is too focused on the building to really notice them. In fact, I could shorten the sentence to "The building was demolished" and few would bat an eye, even though the subject - the contractors - would be entirely absent.

Given that we are writing action-packed tales of high adventure, you can see how the passive voice COULD be counterproductive. Frankly, it also tends to be wordy, so best leave it to the politicians ("Mistakes were made!").

James Jacobs wrote:

Are you SURE there weren't any X-rated proposals that you rejected, though?

Just mine.

Hot.

Hmmm. Well it looks like my rhetorical train never really got out of the station on this one, but I'll be back for the next round. I'll work on curbing the circuitous diction for next time.

Background
Two weeks ago, a starmetal meteorite fell just outside Numeria’s eastern border bearing a cargo of two puppeteers—travelers from another world.
Finding themselves in the abandoned town of Pitch Creek these travelers set about dominating the present inhabitants. It quickly became apparent, however, that this pair of ettercaps could not have constructed the town themselves. The puppeteers set out to learn more of the original inhabitants, modeling the population using the materials at hand. They harnessed the ettercaps’ affinity for spiders to create brood puppets from exhumed remains, and trained these to imitate human activities as best they could deduce them.
Serendipitously, a group of humans arrived soon after. These were incapacitated for further study, though all but one were accidentally killed. The skeletons of the dead became additional brood puppets, while their skins were hung above the Sellen to welcome future guests.

Encounter 1
The PCs find themselves, secreted aboard the River Eel, just as it is attacked by one of the Gerrialli twins, famed highwaymen of the Sellen. At tiers two and three, both twins attack, and at tier three a gang accompanies them. The PCs make dramatic entrances during the surprise round, before being whisked into a flashback. The flashback describes their receipt of letters from Adril Hestram, who instructs them to drop everything, help out pirate leader Sidaea Müre, and recover a stolen tome as payment.
After the fight, the PCs continue downriver to Sidaea’s camp, where she tells them that she recently sent her daughter, Aidetta, downriver with a team to recover a starmetal meteorite. The group’s last contact was a messenger, who returned claiming the town of Pitch Creek had been resettled, and that they would negotiate a pact with its inhabitants to procure the meteorite. His companions never returned and their skins, excepting Aidetta’s, now hang across the river.

Encounter 2
Arriving at Pitch Creek, the PCs find a necropolis. A matted canopy of webs covers the sky, and dozens of brood puppets act out “typical” human behavior. A blacksmith pounds flayed flesh, as a shopkeeper sells handfuls of dust to eager children. An ettercap-bound puppeteer watches from the canopy, telepathically adding dialogue to each scene, and using charm monster to encourage the PCs to “act normally”. It is the puppeteers’ intention to observe the PCs while they are in town and thereby study human interaction.
The content of these vignettes is based mostly on the puppeteers’ interrogation of Aidetta, though it is filtered through their own alien logic. Because Aidetta is aware of her situation, components of each scene hint at her current location. While PCs can start fights, the brood puppets will not attack without provocation.

Encounter 3
Eventually, the PCs trace Aidetta to the steeple of the church where she is watched by the second ettercap-bound puppeteer. As they explore the building, the charmed Aidetta uses illusions and unseen servants to try and scare them away. Once they reach her chamber, they must contend with both ettercaps, accompanied by increasingly large spider pets at higher tiers. Potentially, a fire breaks out, spreading to the webs about town, and necessitating a speedy rescue.

Conclusion
The PCs return Aidetta to her camp and are given the McGuffin tome to take back to Absalom.

Summary and Faction Missions
Andoran
Free thinking is important: if you find anything that interferes with free thinking (i.e. a puppeteer), bring it back
Cheliax
I’m interested in the poisons of rare spiders. Get bitten by any spiders you see and I will “extract” the poison from you later.
Osirion
Spirits speak of creatures like undead, but without undead weaknesses. Find one, and get it to wear this ring so that we may scry on it.
Quadira
Spiders of the area produce fine silk; make sure any large quantities of webbing you find remain intact (not burned), and we will send a ship later.
Taldor
We are currently looking to recruit the Gerrialli twins as agents in the area; see that they don’t die.

Appendix: New Monsters
Puppeteer (Magical Beast)
This is basically the creature from the Psionic SRD, with its psionic abilities replaced by magic ones.
Brood Puppet (Construct)
A swarm of spiders able to maintain humanoid form, using a skeleton for structural support. They are coated with a “skin” of cobwebs, which breaks like a piñata when they are defeated, spilling out a spider swarm.

I'm not at work. If you don't get a "Received" response from me by end of day on Monday, resend.

10-4 good buddy;

Thanks for the AMAZINGLY quick response :).

So . . . I sent in a submission at 11:30 last night (pacific time) and have NOT received confirmation of receipt. I know I'm not supposed to re-submit for 72 hours, but that is very clearly after the deadline, and I'm getting worried.

I understand if it's taking some time to get through mountains of submissions, but I want to make sure my submission has not been lost in the tubes. Is anyone else in this position? That would reassure me somewhat :S.

I actually came up with the same idea regarding camels, Wulf, and was considering posting it. This could alleviate player tension on multiple fronts during what is potentially a very stressful encounter.

Also, thanks for all the clarifications, Greg :).

Anybody have any idea how much time is supposed to pass between encounters 2-3 and 4-5? It occurs to me that these are all going to be extremely tough on low-tiered parties, and the description isn't really clear on whether there's time to rest in between.

I think the issue here is faction goals (kill Darcy) conflicting with another character's alignment (killing bad), not two faction alignments conflicting.

This is exactly what happened when I played this scenario. D'Arcy surrendered, and suddenly everyone at the table got all tense. Many of us wanted to kill him, but nobody was willing to go against the perceived intentions of the rest of the party to let him live.

Nobody accomplished their orders; everyone left a bit edgier than they came in.

There might be nothing in the module that says D'Arcy should surrender, but if I was a rich kid playing pirate with my parents' money and I got caught out, that's sure as heck what I'd do. If I run this, I might make him a really angry drunk or maybe a delusional psychotic because - in the interest of keeping the table happy - I think it best that he fight to the death.

ummmm.... did you forgot to add something?

I think he was quoting for truth.

Hrm, I can't find Piren's Bluff on any of the regional maps included, and it doesn't look like there's one big poster map :(

Those are of course my only complaints.

Every "Guide to" should include a poster map!

Hmmm . . .I've done a little bit of chopping and put together a composite map, which might help.

It's in super-low-res-squint-o-vision, but it sort of shows how (I think) things fit together.

map

(also, it's not made to be a malicious map -- I can take it down if any Paizo folks would like me to :)).

I'm considering using good ol' photoshop to throw together just such a thing . . . but I'd not say "no" to a free download :).

Good read so far, though I'm not quite through it . . .

Also an interesting idea . . . the issue for my game would be more for Profession, which cannot be used untrained.

I'm leery about giving the +3 bonus for half ranks because that could result in rogus with +3 on their entire class skill list at 1st level ;) . . . however, using half-ranks that at least allow a character to use a skill seems practical.

There's a game called Savage Worlds that has an elegant way of handling "backstory" skills. They have a skill called Common Knowledge that covers anything your character would reasonably know how to do, based on his background, or anything your character would reasonably know about but isn't deep enough to require a Knowledge Local type roll (things like "who is the King").

The relevant ability is the one that makes the most sense, given the context. If you were a shepherd and you're trying to I dunno, herd some sheep, use Dex or Wis, depending on whether you're running around or tricking them into going the way you want. If you were a sailor and you need to tie a particular knot, use Dex. Etc.

Brilliant!

Of course, under the OGL, I could theoretically take all of Paizo's open gaming content to date, republish it under my own "Pie-Zone" pdf lines ("Roadlocator" and "Amusement Conquest"), then, under the GSL, update those to 4e without Paizo's involvement.

Even better, I could created a "line" called "2008" and republish all of Paizo's 2008 open gaming content, then convert that line to 4e under the GSL and start a new OGL-compatible line called "2009" . . .

. . . then get called by WotC for shenanigans ;).

I'd have to disagree; touch ACs for perhaps 80% of the enemies out there (probably more than that) usually hover around 8-12, even at high levels. At CR 1 there's probably a 3-5 point difference, which only gets bigger as the game progresses; even an NPC with good magic gear probably only has a touch AC of 15 or so by level 10 unless he's an archer or rogue.

Even the mighty pit fiend and balor have touch ACs of 17 and 16 respectively, and the great wyrm red dragon has a whopping 2. Touch attacks are essentially guaranteed hits past level 8 or so. It makes a huge difference.

Consider the following situation:

RANGER 1, WIZARD 1 and CLERIC 1 are all attacking ENEMY, who is in a melee with FIGHTER 1 25 feet away.

RANGER 1:
Str 14
Dex 16
composite longbow
Point Blank Shot

WIZARD 1:
Dex 14
Int 16
energy ray

CLERIC 1:
Wis 16
warhammer
hand of the acolyte

ENEMY:
Dex 12
scale mail

* * *

RANGER 1:
Total bonus +1 (firing into melee) => 30% chance to hit AC 16
Average damage = 1d8+3 => 7.5 per hit
Average damage per round = 2.25

WIZARD 1:
Total bonus -2 (firing into melee) => 35% chance to hit AC 12 (touch)
Average damage = 1d6 => 3.5 per hit
Average damage per round = 1.225

CLERIC 1:
Total bonus +3 => 40% chance to hit AC 16
Average damage = 1d8+3 => 7.5 per hit
Average damage per round = 3

CONCLUSIONS:

RANGER 1 does the same damage as CLERIC 1 (thanks to his feat and expensive weapon), but hits less frequently.

WIZARD 1 hits almost as often, but for significantly less damage.

Winner: CLERIC 1

* * *

For kicks, let's put ENEMY in full plate, increasing his AC to 19, but reducing his Touch to 11.

* * *

RANGER 1:
Total bonus +1 (firing into melee) => 15% chance to hit AC 19
Average damage = 1d8+3 => 7.5 per hit
Average damage per round = 1.125

WIZARD 1:
Total bonus -2 (firing into melee) => 40% chance to hit AC 11 (touch)
Average damage = 1d6 => 3.5 per hit
Average damage per round = 1.4

CLERIC 1:
Total bonus +3 => 25% chance to hit AC 19
Average damage = 1d8+3 => 7.5 per hit
Average damage per round = 1.875

RANGER 1 still does the same amount of damage as CLERIC 1, and still hits less frequently (as expected).

WIZARD 1 now hit more often, but still has significantly lower damage output than CLERIC 1.

Note: For WIZARD 1 to overtake CLERIC 1, they must be fighting an opponent with an armour bonus of at least +10. I do not expect this to happen until at least level 4 in a standard campaign. Unfortunately for WIZARD, by this point, CLERIC's BAB will have gone up significantly, and she will probably getting a damage boost from a magic weapon. Every 8 levels, CLERIC will probably get an additional attack and damage boost from increasing her Wisdom, so it's likely she will always stay ahead in this respect.

Winner: CLERIC 1

* * *

Finally, to really beat the dead horse, let's bump them all to 10th level, and say they each took two ability boosts in their primary abilities (Dex for RANGER, Int for WIZARD, and Wis for CLERIC)

* * *

RANGER 10:
Total bonus +11 (firing into melee) => 65% chance to hit AC 19
Average damage = 1d8+3 => 7.5 per hit
Average damage per round = 4.5

WIZARD 10:
Total bonus +3 (firing into melee) => 70% chance to hit AC 11 (touch)
Average damage = 1d6+3 => 6.5 per hit
Average damage per round = 4.55

CLERIC 10:
Total bonus +11 => 65% chance to hit AC 19
Average damage = 1d8+4 => 8.5 per hit
Average damage per round = 5.525

CONCLUSION:

Even at 10th level, RANGER 10 and WIZARD 10's standard attacks fail to compete with the mighty CLERIC 10's. If CLERIC 10's Wisdom increases hadn't increased her damage, all three would have been more-or-less on par.

Winner: CLERIC 10

* * *

It's worth noting that I gave RANGER point-blank shot and better equipment to allow him to compete; CLERIC just got a plain old warhammer, and no feats whatsoever. Had I also given RANGER precise shot, he would have easily left CLERIC in the dust far earlier. This begs the question, however, as to why a RANGER should need TWO FEATS and EXPENSIVE GEAR to compete with what a CLERIC can do OUT OF THE BOX with regard to RANGED ATTACKS.

Realistically, the 10th-level example sort of falls apart, as a ranger's combat style feats will start to make a huge difference . . . but given that the Cleric's main power is, in fact SPELLS and not ranged combat, I don't think the two should even compete. The hand should be what the cleric falls back on when spells are not going to cut it, and the fact that it can in many ways compete with the areas in which other classes are supposed to excel is a problem.

In my playtest, the cleric makes our fighter look like a raw recruit, heals everyone, explodes undead, casts support spells, and uses her hand like Gordon Freeman's gravity gun to do a bunch of other cool things (drop rocks on potential pressure plates, goad unintelligent monsters into acting, etc.) I think this is an issue because everyone needs a chance to excel, but the Cleric is so generally awesome that she sort of eclipses the rest of the group (who have realized that the most tactically-effective solution to most problems at this point is to simply support the cleric).

* * *

SOLUTIONS:

I am looking at ways to nerf this ability in combat to reduce the already-apparent CoDzilla factor. Here are my current thoughts:

• Reduce the damage bonus of the hand to +1 per 3 levels to put it more in line with the evoker's ray.

• Have the hand always attack from the square adjacent to the opponent that is closest to the cleric, and say that if that square is occupied, the attack is subject to cover. This should stop the group from using the fighter to create a bottleneck and having the Cleric attack through him.

I've considered something like this, though my solution might be as simple as just giving everyone a free skill rank or two at first level to allocate to a background-appropriate craft, profession or knowledge skill.

When the sorcerer who was raised by a shepherd gets two skill ranks at level one, it's just kinda hard for her to justify (from a game mechanics standpoint) putting one into profession: shepherd instead of spellcraft ;).

While I realize the relevance of this post is questionable, as the Beta is already at the printer, I figure since my group is using the alpha, I might as well write it up.

I just got back from our second session; we are playing Hollow's last Hope at level one.

Some general observations:

• CoDzilla is in full effect. Chrissie, the cleric of Nethys, uses her hand of the acolyte to dominate melees from afar. While spiritual weapon was already powerful (for using the cleric's Wisdom bonus to hit and damage instead of strength, and for allowing her to effectively make ranged attacks that ignore both cover and other melee opponents), the ability to use it at willmakes it just nasty at first level.

In fact, Chrissie's damage output is so high that the group has adopted a new and very effective effective (while slow and boring) process for clearing the dungeon: Calum, the fighter (who used to actually use his two-handed sword), stands just outside a doorway where he can bottleneck whatever attackers are after him, and uses total defense. Chrissie then squishes the enemies over the course of the next several rounds with her hand of the acolyte. Thees players are not normally power-gamers, so it's surprising to see them adopt such tactics--especially ones that leave the sorcerer and rogue mostly useless (beyond firing range attacks through Calum at -8 to hit whatever he is presently tanking).

Interestingly, I don't see Chrissie using a lot of her spells at all. She's been channeling energy to heal a fair bit, and using her hand for damage . . . but not a lot else.

• Stella, our sorceress, very much enjoys her unlimited cantrips. Actually, the only issue with this is that they have made her extremely unwilling to use her first-level spells unless absolutely necessary, and goes entire days using only acid splashes and such. This isn't a bad thing--it's probably more a matter of getting a feel for the new game's rhythm--but considering she's been doing a lot of shooting from behind Calum, some magic missles may have been more effective.

While Stella's dragon claws seemed effective at first, her low strength means she rarely hits with them, and her relatively low hp makes that a dangerous venture anyway. I llok forward to seeing her get cooler dragon abilities as she advances.

• Calum is an effective two-handed swordsman, but he gets a bit upstaged by Chrissie. This is something that has the potential to work itself out over time--as his BAB breaks away--but at first level, its pretty clear that Chrissie is a more effective and consistent damage dealer, and he's sort of been reduced to a damage sponge.

• CMB seems to work well for things like tripping . . . it certainly reduces rolls, and has prevented random combat maneuver lookups. Calum's Defensive Combat Expertise feat was very effective against some wolves. :).

• I'm not sold on the new skill system's approach to "dabbling" as choosing skills at first level (where background-related dabbling is most prevalent) still choice seems like an all-or-nothing deal. I realize this will get better at second level (where class-centric skills get easier to pick up) but there have been some annoyed comments about it.

***Note 1 - these characters have fairly intricate backgrounds, which I wont fully detail unless my free time drastically increases. Their players could jump in themselves to do this for me, but I am leaving that up to them. For a quick summary, you can read the timeline behind the spoiler tag***

***Note 2 - Given the above, my players may read this thread, so please hide any comment regarding possible future events behind spoiler tags***

Calum's birthday had never been a cause for celebration. Years of experience had taught him that if anyone close to him was to die a horrible death, be tricked into killing a friend, or get turned into a silent, frozen spectre damned to an existence of eternal pain and misery, it was going to happen on his birthday and he was going to get blamed. He was, after all, born under a bad sign.

Today, however, started without incident. On his sister Dosa's request Calum set out to Jabbs' Meats to deliver some freshly killed chicken-lizards for preparation and sale. After having a short conversation with Jabbs, he ran into his friends Chrissie and Stella, who began acting suspicious, and invited themselves back to his house.

Like Calum, both Chrissie and Stella had been born under ill omens, and all three had grown up familiar with sharp looks and suspicious musings from their more superstitious neighbours. Recently, they had fallen under suspicion as vectors for the wheezing death, an often-fatal respiratory plague that had recently besieged Falcon's Hollow.

Upon arrival at Calum's farm, Chrissie and Stella revealed their true motives for following him. Dosa kicked off a surprise birthday party as they entered, and the four of them feasted on chicken-lizard, while catching up on current events. Dosa gave her brother a sword from the local blacksmith that had been enchanted to look magic, while Chrissie gave him a fancy cummerbund. Although Stella didn't have a gift, she was happy to have several shoes returned to her, which she had left at Calum and Dosa's over the prior weeks.

Celebrations were cut short as both Dosa and Stella were reduced to fits of hacking and sputtering indicative of the wheezing death. While Chrissie suggested consulting Laurel, the local herbalist, Dosa expressed concern that Laurel might, in fact, be a doppleganger, and therefore untrustworthy--Dosa's own fiancee having turned out to be a doppleganger only months before. She revealed that Laurel had in fact, come looking for Calum while he was out, but that she had rebuffed her for not knowing an up-to-date doppleganger password.

Putting aside fears of rampant shapechangers, Stella, Calum and Chrissie set off to discover what Laurel had wanted, only to find her shop closed, and surrounded by a crowd of desperate plague victims. Wading through the crowd and telling those gathered that they were there to help cure the plague, Calum knocked on Laurel's door and and announced their presence. Laurel let them in, amid a coughing fit of her own, and sat them down in the parlour. Stella used her magics to shield herself and her friends from the horrid smell that permeated the house as they listened intently to Laurel's explanation of the plague.

As it turned out, Laurel revealed, the outbreak of plague had been caused by a fungal infestation of one of the local springs. While she believed that she had most of the makings for a cure, she found herself lacking some ingredients that she had hoped Stella, Chrissie and Calum could retrieve from the Darkmoon Wood. Specifically, she needed elderwood moss, ironbloom mushrooms and a substance called rats' tail, which she believed to be in the pantry of the Witch of the woods. The group agreed to help, and set about gathering supplies for a trip to the woods.

This done, the three proceeded to their first stop: imposing themselves on Thuldrin Kreed's easternmost cutyard, they bribed the thugs at the gate and pulled woodsman Milon Rhoddham away from a meeting to mine him for information. Upon hearing the gravity of their situation, he pledged to help them, and mapped out the locations of their targets: the Forest's Elder Tree, the Witch of the Woods, and an old dwarven monastery.

Leaving the camp behind them, the group headed into Darkmon forest, where they were quickly halted for lack of daylight, and forced to set up camp. Their first night in the woods was uneventful but for some drunken carousers, who invaded their campsite in hopes of swapping stories, and reveling amongst company. Chrissie, who was not keen on reveling, sent the inebriated loggers on their way.

Rising late the next day Stella set about guiding her friends towards the Darkmoon's Elder Tree. The tree, said to have spawned the Darkwwod itself, was struck by lightning on the day od Stella's birth, and while some of its boughs had been partially immolated, the fire had not been able to fell the heart of the ancient darkwood. Stella, feeling a kinship with the tree, had camped under its branches in the past, and knew the secrets of its location. En route, however, the group heard the crying of an animal from over a bank to the west.

Climbing down the embankment, the Calum spotted a small firefoot caught in a cruel, hunter's trap. As he and his friends ran to free the animal, Stella saw a flash of metal in the foliage behind them, which was promptly followed by an arrow. This flew from the trees, accompanied by two large, nasty-looking crows. While Calum suffered the sting of arrows, Chrissie bid Nethys carry her mace to mash the head of their hidden source. Meanwhile, Stella showed her ancient dragon ancestry by downing a crow with a set of hidden claws. Even as their assailant fled, Chrissie took down the second crow with her levitating weapon, and thus ended the battle.

While Calum destroyed the trap, Chrissie and Stella bound the fox's leg, and began nursing him back to health. They left him with a delicious razorcrow lunch, and continued their trip towards the Elder Tree.

Here, despite encroaching darkness, Stella was able to spot what must be the blue, elderwood moss. As Calum climbed to collect some, however, he was attacked by a large lizard, which swung from a branch on its prehensile tail propelling itself towards him at a high speed. Fortunately, the lizard was not able to gain purchase as it tried to grab him, and fell prone to the ground, even as Calum jumped from the tree in an attempt at a leaping, overhand chop--which might have severed the beast's head, had it connected. Stella and Chrissie unleashed their powerful magics, and before long the lizard was felled.

More careuful scrutiny revealed that the creature was a type of dragon called a tatzylwyrm, and that it was edible if prepared correctly. As such, the group dined well that evening under the Elder Tree, and was able to pack some meat for the next day's lunch. Chrissie used her holy energies to heal her friends, who were happy for some relief after a long and arduous day. While the night passed quietly, Stella awoke to discover strange, cloven hoofprints around their campsite.

As the sun began its ascent, Calum climbed the elder tree in hopes of spotting a clearing that would indicate the cabin of the Witch of the Woods. Sure enough, about half a day away, he was able to spot a small hut right around where Milon said it should be. Thus, they packed up their things, and soon found themselves staring head-on at the very same domicile, which looked wild and partially taken by the woods.

Maybe they're not posting because they're all too busy playing 4e ;).

All the time.

Every day.

I guess that's true after fashion, but the cleric using it [hand of the acolyte; same difference] in my game last night used it to pretty amazing effect.

While the ray is a ranged touch attack and ignores armour, the hand ignores pesky issues like the penalty for firing into melee, meaning it can easily be used to gang-bang whoever happens to be scrapping with the fighter. Furthermore, because the hand uses the wizard or cleric's spellcasting stat to derive its bonuses to hit AND damage, its initial damage has the potential to be very high.

My party's 1st-level cleric presently uses her hand to wield a morningstar, which gives her +4 to hit at a range of 30 ft for 1d8+4 damage, ignoring penalties for firing into melee.

That's better damage than the ray would give an 8th level wizard, at an attack bonus that is likely about the same, unless the evoker in question has an astounding Dex.

You can take or leave the benefits of a melee attack vs. a ranged touch attack, taht's going to depend on the situation in question, but average attack roll and, damage on a successful hit are still going to be higher for the hand, at least until the evoker is 10th level.

This seems very strong for a first-level at-will ability. Thanks to the Int/Wis bonus to hit and damage, it will almost always hit more reliably and do more damage than the evoker's energy ray, for example.

So in my game this evening I had a tazilwyrm attempt to monkey-swing off a tree branch, and grapple a character who was halfway up a tree. The rules state that if the attacker does not have both hands free, he takes a penalty to his grapple check. However, it says nothing about a bonus if the defender's hands are full.

In this case, I gave him a +4 bonus because his opponent's hands were full of tree. Unfortunately, he still failed, missed his grapple, and hit the ground with a loud thump (to the great delight of all).

Prestidigitation is the pretty much the best spell in the game, so having it at-will has some interesting ramifications.

You could have a magical maid go house-to-house every Tuesday and charge a copper to clean everything up. 15 minutes later and its on to the next house :).

Adventurers will never be without clean or well-maintained clothing again! Guess that explains why the iconic look so darned snappy all the time ;).

You could make a special Game Mastery™ certificate that we could all download, print, frame and paste next to our university diplomas to recognize our astounding playtesting accomplishments and annoy our spouses :).

Fun fact: 90% of people in the middle ages were illiterate.

I think giving commoners the barbarian's illiteracy class ability would pretty much cover that, and fit the theme of commoners getting the short end of every stick :).

The entire CURE family, specifically CLW:

Problem:
At low levels, when the party's healing resources are limited, CLW can be little more than a band-aid, especially when the cleric blows his die roll.

At level one, spell slots are at a premium, and healing spells are at their least reliable (being very dependent on random numbers). Thus there is a higher chance than at any other point in the game that all of a cleric's spells will be used for healing . . . and that's no fun for the cleric.

Possible Solution
Maximize the first die of all healing spells. CLW heals 8+level hp, CMW 1d8 + 8 + level, CSW 2d8 + 8 + level, and so on.

This has the added bonus of allowing any healing spell to reliably pop characters in the negatives back to fighting shape, even from -9, eliminating much of the problem of 3.x's "negative HP debt", but keeping the death mechanic intact.

I'm kindof fascinated by the idea of implementing nonrandom hp at a game system level.

Given that 99% of GMs give their players max hp at level 1, removing random hit die roll altogether gets rid of the necessity of having a hit die value in the first place. There's no point in having a d10 hit die if you're never actually going to roll a d10 for anything.

Under a system where classes have set hp (like 4e), the hit die becomes a redundant concept and should probably simply be replaced by a starting value with a bonus applied each level.

This seems simple, but doesn't take into account the somewhat complicated (overly-so in my mind) relationship between hit dice and level, which is muddier in 3.x than in previous editions. In 3.x, power = HD = size, and if "level" and "HD" just become merged (as they are in True20), then you enter the uncomfortable situation where powerful monsters must, by necessity, be big ones.

Under a system where every class uses the same hit die, and adds a class bonus (like the proposed 1d4 + x and 1d6 + x systems above), you achieve the goal of making sure the tanks stay buffed, and at least keep the concept of having a number of hit dice around for use by other mechanics (specifically mechanics like sleep that have an effect based on the hit dice of their target).

It's been mentioned that a system like this favours high HD classes over lower-HD classes, and this is true; moving a fighter from 1d10 -> 1d6+4 and a wizard from 1d6 -> 1d6 clearly benefits the fighter more than it does the wizard. In my mind, however, this is fine. It eliminates the possibility of an overly-frail fighter, while keeping the benefits of a random system part of the game. Ultimately, I don't care if wizards are frail: they're supposed to have glassjaws. I do care that fighters can stand toe-to-toe with bad guys like they're suposed to instead of doing jack-in-the-box impressions every time they take a hit.

I think I like this second system best, but I'm still pondering . . .

The Rouse and Mike Mearls reveal the true nature of Fourth Edition.

I knew it all along ;).

Check it out :) => Inside Fourth Edition with Scott Rouse and Mike Mearls

username_unavailable wrote:

I just talked with my buddy at my friendly local game (and comic) store.

Before I could even mention Pathfinder Society, however, he began talking my ear off about "Paizo's new organized play thing", and how much he wanted to be involved.

. . . so I dunno, could be a hard sell ;).

When you're in there next time, can you ask him if he heard about Pathfinder Society from his distributor? It'd be nice to know the PDF I sent the distributors to send to their retail accounts was getting out there. :-)

Hmm, I followed up yesterday, and it looks like I was right on both counts: he got no PDF or printout from his distributor, but is generally pretty on the ball. In fact, you could say he has his finger on the pulse . . though he attributes his general astuteness to the great number of informed gamers that pass through his store to gawk at his wares.

I can see that a table not into the extreme horror might not like it so much, though, and think that your scaling is good for the most part. For the chiselers, if you keep the turning to ice off-stage, it might be possible to take it for granted that doing so is just something they can do. Perhaps it's a fey ritual that takes long enough that it wouldn't threaten the PCs.

Yeah, this is definitely a table-specific concern. Some like their dark-fey-chaos with horror, others with tea and crumpets ;).

Good idea on the ritual! I can also see putting some sort of dark fairy circle in the woods that could facilitate the transformation . . . that would make a good set piece for if the PCs ever take a sled ride out of town. Hmm . . . ponderponderponder.

Also, nice website, Nick!

(and thanks for making Carnival of Tears a great module too!)

Nick, from your description on the podcast, it sounds like everything needed to use the Dark Vistas as campaign settings will be right there in the books.

Do you see these settings as branching out into product lines? Or are we looking at one Dark Vista per setting, surrounded by a bunch of indulgences to back it up?

Or is this something you have yet to decide?

What's up there now looks awesome!

I'm considering running E1 for a group of players who I don't think will take well to the generally visceral nature of its horror scenes.

I like the module a lot, but I think the table will turn against me if I present them with the abattoir described. Any ideas on scaling back the general level of graphic nastiness while keeping things scary?

Some of my initial thoughts:

CT1: Death masks are replaced with hanging, wreaths of skulls, and tickets are still made of parchment, but are written in blood. Inside the ticket booths are buckets of blood, and some corpses that, on closer examination, have been bled like stuck pigs, though this does not happen on camera.

CT2: As described (most of the horror here happens off-camera anyway), though Sathelbry's entire body is dragged on a length of rope, and most of his injuries are from blunt trauma (he is still dead, obviously).

CT5: Instead of the nasty squishyness described, the brownies are tying victims to the wheel and spinning it, while other villagers take pot shots at the victims with crossbows in a nasty parody of the archery contest.

CT6: As written; the trees are not incredibly anthropomorphic after they are changed.

CT8: A number of brownies bring"trees" from CT6, while newcomers are offered free beers; Victims fed into the machines have already been turned into trees, and meet a nasty, but less sticky end.

CT15: Instead of being incased in ice, the villagers have been turned into ice, and can be shattered or broken, or whatnot without things getting too gooey. This is tricky, as I'm not sure what could have caused such a transformation. Theoretically, I could modify the chiselers to allow them to do this, but maybe a better idea is to give one of them a different kind of Cerulean Ice Shard that makes this possible. If I make the chiselers able to "ice" victims, I run the risk of making them too powerful; if I use a shard to do it, I run the risk of confusing the PCs into thinking it is the ice shard . . . which could yield odd results

Anyone else have other thoughts? Just to restate, the last thing I want to do is castrate the module's scare factor, but I think scenes of violent torture will probably illicit poor reactions from some of my more conservative players.

When you're in there next time, can you ask him if he heard about Pathfinder Society from his distributor? It'd be nice to know the PDF I sent the distributors to send to their retail accounts was getting out there. :-)

Haha, I'll ask him, but I don't put it past Glenn to be extremely informed under his own auspices. He's been evangelizing the adventure paths to people since they started, and he's got at least two Rune Lords GMs who frequent his store to keep him in the loop.

I just talked with my buddy at my friendly local game (and comic) store.

Before I could even mention Pathfinder Society, however, he began talking my ear off about "Paizo's new organized play thing", and how much he wanted to be involved.

. . . so I dunno, could be a hard sell ;).

On one hand, we know that point buy isn't happening in its present form.

Point buy isn't open content, so if it does happen, it will need to be reworked like xp.

Sorry for spamming up the boards, but I've got to try this Smurf thing.

sorry. pay no mind. carry on.

And also: wow!

Regarding the PDFs opening in Adobe, instead of as a generic file, is that intentional? I ask because I'm a Mac guy and prefer to use their Preview program. It's not a big deal, since I just have to change the settings under file information, but I am curious.

It works fine for me in both Preview and Quick-Look, so you should be good to go.

Also, good show, Jason! I wasn't expecting to see notable changes so soon!

Doesn't that just bring us back to the multiclassing rogue munchkin at first level?

. . .

Not to be a naysayer, but this does not seem to be an improvement over the OGL for me.

Yup, this brings said Rogue back for revenge . . . though the effect isn't quite as profound. A prospective wizard can still take Rogue at 1st, load up on Wizard skills, and then cross-class to have those skills magically improved to maximum effectiveness.

Because the skills aren't auto-maxed at each subsequent level, there's no way the Wizard is going to be able to maintain them all at their max, but this does dramatically increase her skill options through low levels.

I kindof feel that the SRD may have been set up the way it was for a reason, and that this suggestion opens it up to being gamed.

If nothing else, this will require extensive playtesting. Frankly, I'm still hoping for a "fixed" alpha system, and I still think the solution lies in finding a better way to represent class-typical skills than the somewhat cumbersome "class vs. cross-class" distinction.

So something I've seen experimented with in other Organized Play campaigns is the concept of interstitial adventures . . . something that would allow players to play their PCs between "official" modules.

The way I have seen this executed in the past is basically summed up as:
• The GM creates small, inconsequential campaign element to run games in, and gets campaign approval for it.
• The GM is then allowed to run games in his or her setting, but only to give out minimal rewards (50xp + 10gp for example).
• Players are limited to receiving such rewards once per month, or somesuch, but can play as many of these adventures as they like.

The idea here would be to give players the chance to roleplay, develop their characters, and establish friendships and backstories in a familiar setting. Such a thing would also (on a more personal note) allow me to run new Pathfinder material at my local game store as often as I like ;).

It would be very cool to see such a program built into the Pathfinder Society from the get-go.

Xendrik Expeditions experimented with a similar concept with its "DM's Mark" adventures. I never really got to play or run one of those, but (as I understand it) they allowed GMs to make up whatever kinds of adventures they liked, providing they followed a specific reward structure. This also seems like a cool idea for empowering local GMs to develop stories around their preferred play styles, and around the characters in their communities . . and that just seems cool :).

So...can some of those with positive/successful experiences at Organized Play (as DMs or as players) share some insights into what makes a session work well? What should an Organized Play DM do to make a session successful? How do you deal with "difficult" players who show up at your table (I recall stories of cheaters, spotlight-hogs, and even some obnoxious/abusive/drunk folks)? Any insights/stories you care to share would be helpful...and entertaining to read, while we wait for plans to be finalized. Thanks!

My only advice: remember to have a boatload of fun yourself, whatever you decide to do for your players :).

Long digression about my own organized play experiences behind the break.

. . . So I guess that's a long way of saying that if you come to a table prepared to have fun--like you would any other game--then it's going to be fun for everyone involved. Enthusiasm is infectious, and if you're as enthused as I am about the prospects of Pathfinder organized play . . . well that can only lead to some fantastic gaming :).

. . . also I've been told that silly voices help ;).

Cheers and beers; see you at a table sometime.

Remember, you can enchant your bonded object as if you had the requisite feats and can do so for half the normal price (or 1/4 the enchantment's total price). This is a pretty big bonus if fully utilized.

So, according to the alpha, a bonded item that is lost can be replaced within one week . . . but what isn't stipulated is whether or not this erases the powers of the lost object (I assume it would). If the powers don't disappear, then I can see wizards "losing" five cheap rings of protection and amulets of natural armour right off the bat in some campaigns ;).

On the other side, though . . . what if wizards couldn't just make new bonded objects? Then such things could be captured, held hostage, etc., and thereby create new adventure hooks.

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

Actually, this could be an effective way to nerf the "tumble" aspect of acrobatics.

There has been a lot of talk on these boards about eliminating cross-class skills, and/or giving all classes more options for skill choices. One concern was that in either of these situations, everyone would suddenly take Acrobatics, as it is the skill that most directly affects combat.

By increasing the DC of tumbling past an opponent, to 15 + CMB, the chance of somebody at the "cross-classed" level pulling off a successful tumble becomes much lower, while the chance of a Rogue (who is probably at the "classed" level, and probably has a high Dex modifier) succeeding becomes smaller, but not insurmountable.

A first-level rogue with 4 ranks (or effective ranks) in Acrobatics, and a +3 Dex would have a total bonus of +7, giving her a 45% chance of succeeding against a human fighter of equal level with a +3 Str). Her chances of succeeding against a wizard with a +0 CMB would obviously be much higher (70%).

By the same token, a sorcerer with a +1 Dex bonus, and only two "ranks" from skills would succeed against the fighter only 25% of the time, and the wizard only 45% of the time.

The rogue's trained Acrobatics skill would go up by 1/level, keeping him on par with a fighter's 1/level CMB increase, but making her better at tumbling past classes without a +1/level BAB progression. Meanwhile, the sorcerer, whose acrobatics advance only at +1/2 levels would keep pace with the wizard (at 45%) but quickly find tumbling around fighters an improbable goal.

I like skill points. They are like an old pair of hiking boots that are totally functional (waterproof, in fact), but not really attractive or comfortable.

From a practical point of view, skill points work fine; from an aesthetic point of view, they are fiddly and take too much time to assign, especially in complex situations (multiclassing/stat buffs/acquired templates, etc). When you take into account that most players simply max the same skills each level you begin to wonder if the added options are worth the hassle.

If there is not a more-or-less balanced way of making skills simpler, I'll agree that skill points are a good idea. In the meantime, I'd like a chance to actually playtest some of the above options (and whatever else comes of the errata) before throwing out simplified skills altogether. As stated, I think they are a worthwhile goal that may yet see a fantastic implementation.

Sounds like a fun idea :).

I seem to recall a recent issue of Dungeon that had a Hastur-based adventure . . . which could serve as an interesting side quest for when the PCs get need a break from the insanity and decide to flee the city ;).

No. You are not alone. It is so *blindingly* obvious to me, that I've been having trouble understanding the folks who kept saying "it's just like 3.5 with maxed skills".

It's not.

etc.

I agree with you that this is pretty obvious. Adding skills, however, is a necessary evil of an auto-max system, which otherwise screws muticlassing.

Under a straight conversion of OGL to an auto-max system, a character would choose a number of skills at first level, and simply have those skills maxed for the rest of his career. That's fine and dandy until he decides to take a level of Wizard, and discovers he can never learn Spellcraft, or until he moves to the land of nubile cat-eared elven damsels and realizes he can never learn Meowish.

This presents even more problems when you consider that the SRD encourages multiclassing into prestige classes, and that many existing OGC sources take this as a given.

There are a lot of good reasons for moving away from a skill-point system, but for a new system to work with multiclassing it must allow for some degree of skill expansion. Incidentally, True20 launched with auto-max skills, but moved back to skill points for its final release when this problem proved insurmountable. Their initial solution was straight auto-max, with additional skills added via a feat called "Skilled".

Granted, the PRPG system does allow for a rather rapid increase in trained skills, and the downside of this is that it takes away from the clarity of class distinctions at high levels. I could see slowing it down--adding one skill every four levels, for example--but this again has the potential to severely hinder multiclass options. Instead of never getting Spellcraft, as in the above example, the character multiclassing into Wizard at second level would have to wait until level four to get it . . . which is not a lot better.

Incidentally, this is an issue that I see with the Scaled system as well. If Wizards and Fighters get a new skill every fourth level, then a character multiclassing into Wizard would have to stick to his new class for four levels without Spellcraft just to learn it; a character going Ftr3/Wiz3/PrClass3 might never get a new skill at all. If skill acquisition is acquired based on variable number of class levels (like BAB), then there is the potential for multiclass characters to accumulate a large number of empty skill levels and thereby get hosed.

. . . of course, under the scaled system you could give every class its first skill at level 1, but then you give multiclass characters a significant skill boost over even the fastest advancing classes, and that could also be an issue. Basically, this is the way saves are set up now, and it's already problematic.

I like the sound of the hybrid system, but it still strikes me as very complicated. I also like the current Pathfinder system quite a bit . . . though there seems to me something inherently wrong with class skills being twice as effective as cross-class skills . . . especially given how easy it is to move between the two.

My Suggestion

Here is another, relatively simple alternate method that I have been pondering, based on my previous skill suggestions, and also on some suggestions from Etrigan, Majuba and Mosaic. It is based on the current Pathfinder system, but attempts to make it both simpler to use, and harder to break:

1- There are three levels of skill aptitude

Untrained: d20 + ability modifier + racial modifier
Trained: d20 + ability modifier + racial modifier + 1/2 level + 2
Expert: d20 + ability modifier + racial modifier + level + 4

2 - There are no class skills
Instead, each class begins with a class-specific selection of inherent trained (but not expert) skills. So Rogue might get Acrobatics, Deception, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Stealth and Theft; while Fighter might only get Climb, Handle Animal, Ride and Swim. These bonus skills are gained only at first level; multiclassing characters need not apply.

3 - Skill points Increase skill aptitude
A skill point can be applied to move a skill from untrained to trained, or from trained to expert.

At first level, all characters gain 4+(Int bonus) skill points on top of their inherent trained class skills. They may apply only one point to a given skill (thus boosting an inherent class skill to expert, or any other skill to trained, but not beyond).

After first level, all characters gain one skill point per level.

Done!

For Greater-Than-First-Level Character Creation

1 - Determine inherent skills from starting class

2 - Apply 3+level skill points

Done!

Reasoning:

Under the current Pathfinder System, there are two levels of skill proficiency: trained and untrained. However, there are also two states in which a trained skill can exist: classed and cross-classed.

The move from trained to untrained and the move from classed to cross-classed each provide an equal benefit [+(1/2 level + 1.5)], so classed is twice as good as cross-classed but doesn't have an associated cost. Thus, the system becomes easy to game through the magic of multiclassing. By applying a cost to the move from a cross-classed to classed skill, the system becomes somewhat harder to break.

The concept of class and cross-class skills also sucks because it requires players and GMs to consult a chart when leveling multiclassed characters. This slows down prep, and confuses new players. In order to get rid of the class skills, but emulate their intended purpose, we can start each class with a "core" selection of skills that have the equivalent of "half-max" skill ranks, with the option to either max those skills or, for the same cost, "half-max" other less iconic abilities.

After first level, skills advance at exactly the same rate as under the Pathfinder system, with a couple of conceits.

1- because my skill points are half as effective as Pathfinder skill picks (they only half-max a skill instead of maxing it), they are given out twice as frequently.

2 - Because there is no longer an "auto-bump" involved in multiclassing, and because all of the "bonus skills" associated with classes like Rogue are allocated automatically, there is significantly less potential for abuse.

Another option might be to give each race some specific bonus relating to its favoured class.

Something like:

Favoured Class Wizard: Elves make especially good wizards and pick up spells faster than other races. Elven wizards get a +2 bonus to Spellcraft checks made to learn new spells, and gain an extra metamagic feat on character creation.

Have you checked out tbug's RotRL campaign?

Warning: major spoilers!