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Frostbrand Thorson will be a brash, straight talking, muscular fighter who expects people to respect his hammer or they will get a closer look at it lol.

Myself and four of my gaming group are playing every slot Thod so maybe we'll end up on the same table at some point. Were going for the curry too so say hi lol.

Packed, prepped and looking forward to this weekend. Hope the event is as good as last year and i manage to survive the event without dying again. Last year provided a few great stories and situations. Thorson Frostbrand is ready to make some more lol. Anyone else out there attending this year give a shout out on what to expect from your characters.

Hi digitalMage. As your old Pathfinder G.M.for Rise of the Runelords i'm surprised to read your comments saying you think PF is a better system than 3.5, i'm even more surprised to hear you saying you would consider playing it again.I got the impression you left our group because you didn't agree with our favouring PF and our lack of interest in playing 4th edition E.T.C. I thought you would have moved on to 4th by now and not looked back although it's good to see PF had some kind of effect on you lol. I guess i'm just a little shocked at you still taking an interest in PF as i thought those days were behind you.
It's also nice that you think of us in ref to keeping an eye out for Pathfinder news although not really necessary. We all love the system so much were on paizo's site constantly checking for news as well as me having a direct gaming supplier at the store as you know, so not much slips through the cracks. Still like i say it's nice to be thought of.
I think i mentioned to you last time we spoke that most of us are heading to Paizocon this weekend and were all buzzed to play more living games. It really hasn't changed much in ref to rule changes i'm sure you would adapt very quickly should you decide to ever play again at a con.
Keep in touch mate and i hope your new group is going well.

James Jacobs, Jason Bulmahn and the Paizo staff are usually very quick to clear up rule descrepancies like these. I'm really surprised that nobody has come on to this thread yet to clarify the matter.
I'm tending to lean towards not letting the Elf have the ability but i would like to know if i'm right. Come on guys we need your input on this, PLEEEAAASSSEEEE.

I'm just about to start the Skinsaw Murders so this rule update could not have come at a better time. Thanks James.
I don't know where my head was at, i have read the scenario 4 times and i never clicked the implications of the Cleric rule changes to channeling. Ahhh i think those Goblins have been slipping something in my drinks lol.

James? Jason? Pretty please. Don't make me beg for that official ruling, i know power attack you know lol.

My Iphone and i will be eagerly awaiting this app. Glad i bought one now lol.

As Digital Mages G.M. in question i am happy to allow enemies to be affected by demoralize/intimidate even to the point making an enemy run away within reason. He has already used this tactic on the Goblins of Thistletop in my Rise of the Runelords campaign to great effect but it won't be so easy on targets his own size. An earlier poster made some good points about a first level Bard being able to scare a 10th level Cleric. I will be introducing a cap i think on the amount of HD/CR that a character can effect above his own level just to make it a little more realistic. I will discuss this with my players first to see what they think. I don't intend to make the skill useless however as i see it as a valid tactic and i like to encourage my group to think outside the box in my campaign.

I agree an official rules ruling on this is vital. I was of the opinion that elves had lost the 'secret door' ability but now i'm not so sure. It is quite possible that it was accidently left in later in the book, these things happen. No biggie as nobody is perfect. Considering the great job they did overall i'm more than willing to let a few things go.

I think most of us have house rules, me included. As long as they are minor rules that don't break or unbalance the rules they are ok. Sometimes though a G.M. has to be strong enough to say no to a player request. Ignoring flanking opponents I.M.O is one of those times. It's easy for me to say i'm going to ignore that person totally but in reality it's virtually impossible because your mind would be thinking what are they up to now seeing as i'm not watching him/her? If someone threw something at my head (even if it was just a ball of paper) in real life i would like to say i won't flinch but the mind does not always make the connection that it is only paper and reacts. It would be the same in a flanking situation.
Some of Zurai's groups house rules that he has mentioned on this thread worry me because they seem to be on a whim with no thought to whether they have consequences. The strength of Pathfinder/D&D has always been options, i wonder whether making all the changes you do is necessary.

Just downloaded the illustrated condition cards from you. What can i say? Top job on those. Everyone should take a look at these. Keep up the good work Krome it is appreciated.

Two items i would definately advise you to buy are the critical hit and critical miss decks in the gamesmastery line from Paizo. Instead of just doing the boring double damage etc they add such roleplaying flavour to that special miss or hit. I found they added so much to my game as players now have a buzz drawing the card and reading what happened. I couldn't live without mine now lol.

It all comes down to whether you are writing your own campaign scenario's or running adventure paths/modules. If your writing your own scenarios then sort out which areas you are going to set the adventures in and buy the relevant books. If your running the adventure paths then the only books which are essential are the players guides like Second Darkness and Legacy of Fire etc as the paths usually do an excellent job of giving you all the info you need to run them. Saying that they are all nice to own as they add more information to the specific areas than the campaign guide has room to. Hope this helps.

An attack must be completed to become an attack otherwise it's just thinking of an attack. Granted the wording should be better but you have to complete the attack to gain the condition. Upon attacking whether it be swinging an axe or throwing a punch you have made an agressive action causing the spell to drop. Once the attack has been initiated an opponent is not going to have time to react as the time it takes to complete an attack is miniscule.
In reference to readying an attack against an invisisble opponent. Even if you know there is an invisible opponent in the room you cannot in my opinion ready an attack action anyway, unless you know for certain which square the invisible opponent is in or coming at you from. If there are 8 empty squares surrounding your character you cannot prepare to attack them all that is unless you have eyes in the back of your head. It would mean your character is continually turning on the spot watching 360 degrees around him therefore not readying an attack against a specific threatened square. If you guess the square correctly fair enough. This is why you get a flanking bonus as a defending characters attention is split between the guy in front of him and the guy behind him.

On the subject of invisible opponents flanking. The way i read the spell description (and every other G.M. i know) you become immediately visable upon completing your attack not prior to it. In a sense it gives you one invisible attack then upon contact you lose it.
The reason you cannot use invisibility to coup de grace is nothing to do with the fact you are invisible but down to the fact that your opponent is still moving and not helpless.

We only just got !st edition lol. If they radically changed anything or started anew i would not buy it. That is the reason i didn't buy 4th edition.

Yes i believe so. Paizo have long been praised for their attention to detail and little things that make their scenario's a bit special in my opinion. Long may it continue. Any funny things occured in your version of Burnt offerings so far?

As i promised Zurai i said i would not debate the ins and out of what an elementals description was without a copy of my monster manual in front of me. I now do and this is what i discovered.
Zurai on your post on Wednesday at 10.25 you stated that 'Air Elementals are not clouds'. Let me just quote directly from my Monster Manual. 'An air elemental appears as an amorphous, shifting cloud. Darker bits of swirling vapor give the appearance of two eyes and a mouth.'
On the subject of fire elementals here is another direct quote. 'Fire elementals are fast and agile. The merest touch from their fiery bodies is sufficient to set many materials aflame.'
As for water elementals, 'The (water) elementals touch puts out torches, campfires, exposed lanterns and other flames of non magical origin if these are large size or smaller.'
I'm sure you can see from these quotes where my doubt about grappling such creatures come from. Like i say if you want to rule in your game that it is ok to do this then thats your call but i would not allow it in my game.
Now i don't know if the wording has been changed in reprints or Paizo's Bestiary as i don't have it yet but thats what it says in my copy and is my only reference. Hope this helps explain my point of view.

In my opinion if you try to grapple a water elemental you would get very wet. Same as if you try to grapple a fire elemental you would get very burned. This is my problem with this idea. If you take away the properties of the thing they are constructed from then they are no longer true to what they are supposed to be composed of. Maybe when the stat blocks for these creatures were done it never crossed the designers minds that somebody would try to grapple one. I know my players would not attempt it lol. Saying that as a designer it's hard to think of every situation that can occur with a certain creature etc. Thats where i think good judgement comes in. Just my opinion.

Ah, don't forget that the fact that an elemental can do physical damage does not mean it's in a solid state continually. I hate to keep using an analogy to Marvel villains like Sandman and Hydroman but their creation are based off the elemental idea. They can make themselves solid to hurt opponents or insubstantial at will to recieve hits. I'm not saying this idea should be written in stone (excuse the pun) but it's something to bear in mind. I'm not arguing with the fact that it doesn't state you cannot grapple an elemental in the stat blocks but i'm having a hard time visualizing how you grapple a living flame or living water etc. The only solid form of water i can think of is ice and it doesn't state that it is ice in the description either does it?
As Asgetrion has already stated i think this may have to be a judgement call of the G.M. if this situation arises. If you and your group are happy with the decision made at your table then fine. Thats all that matters.

Lol i never said i would hit one with a sword Zurai. In all seriousness i havent got a monster manual in front of me at this moment so i can't say if they have damage or magic resistance etc. If they do then they might require magical weapons to be fully effective with damage but i'm not gonna argue my point from guesswork. Obviously on incorporeal creatures a normal sword is not much good but a sword with ghost touch on it is another thing alltogether. I'm not saying elementals are incorporeal by the way i'm just using that subtype as an example. I'll take a look at the stat block when i get home and get back to you.
By the way Asgetrion i think those are very wise words. Every G.M. should be able to make a reasonable ruling for his group and be consistant while at the same time his players should respect his decision. This is what happens in my group thankfully.

If by pickles you mean the pickle thief Goblins then yes. Guess what? They actually survived in mine. One of the p.c.'s gave them the panicked condition so they went out the window of the tower screaming and survived to cross the bridge into the thistles never to be seen again. The p.c.'s had captured and tied up the Goblin Druid before so they let him loose on the way. I reckon that kinda makes them unlikely Goblin heroes what do you think lol? Anyway seeing as the 3 of them are the only Thistletop Goblins left alive i think they will probably start their own tribe off from scratch in mine.
We have also had lots of fun with Norah at the Hagfish. One character has critical failed his fortitude save while trying to drink from the tank twice in a row now lol.

I would seriously advise against allowing P.C.'s to recharge wands and staffs etc with use magic device. We all have house rules but as G.M.'s we have to be careful that any changes we make do not unbalance the rules. This skill was never intended for that type of use and it would belittle the item creation feats as well as drastically change the market price of such items if they were so easily recharged. Just my opinion, at the end of the day it's your game and the rules are what you make them. They are only a framework.

I'm interested in just how Zurai would go about grappling a cloud seeing as a cloud has no solid form lol. You call it a house rule but to be honest i agree with Dracon it's just common sense. See my earlier post about grappling a puddle of water. If you can change it's condition to frozen fair enough as you have something solid to grip but most of the elements are free flowing. That includes earth elementals (remember Sandman?).

Absolutely. The adventure paths are great. I enjoy just reading them which makes me all the more keen to run them. Paizo really should be proud of what they are doing in this field. Whats more my players seem really happy too on the whole. Love all the little background motivations and backstory they seem to put in for the N.P.C's and the work they put into Sandpoint. It really felt alive.

Love Pathfinder. Love Call of Cthulhu. I run both systems and they are without doubt my two favorite RPG systems. Unfortunately the two don't mix. One is a combat orientated game the other is investigative.

Lol. Yeah freezing it could work but then your changing its condition. I'm talking about in its natural form a fighter etc cannot grapple that which he cannot hold.
Thats just one example. All i'm saying is that a good degree of common sense is essential to good G.M.ing and i think some people lose sight of that when they read written rules. No rules set can ever cover every eventuality so a G.M. needs to be able to make reasonable judgement calls.
Fortunately in my group i never usually have these problems as they are a sensible lot. When i make a decision i am happy to explain my reasoning and we quickly move on. No problems.

I think i'm 100% with Wraith on this one.
A G.M.'s number one rule should always be common sense.
Don't know if any of you are comic fans but if you liken elementals to Marvel villains such as Sandman and Hydroman it might help visualize the point. Difficult to grapple a being made up of water as it free flows and at any second can change from a humanoid form to a puddle at will. How do you grapple a puddle?

Sounds like you had as much fun running it as i did. The Goblins were really enjoyable to run the way they were described in the scenario. I kinda ran them like gremlins from the movies with them causing as much harm to themselves as to the P.C.'s. I also had to get the Goblin song in so they sang it as they caused havoc. Can't praise the adventure paths enough so long may they continue.
Wait till they get to Thistletop and meet the imprisoned creature lol.

Yep Gigglestick pretty much nailed it with his last post. Pathfinder the only real descendent of 3.5 as 4th edition a totally different game. I can't thank Paizo enough for what they have done with Pathfinder as when i want to use any 3.5 material (and if your like me i had loads of 3.5 books) i can with minimal effort. I encourage my players to use anything from their 3.5 books as long as specific rule changes have not affected it and to be honest so far we've had no problems at all.

I agree with much of what others have already said on this thread but for me variety of options and books keeps me interested. I too would rather have too many options rather than not enough.
My advice, use what you like, ignore the rest. Personally i love Pathfinder and looking at some of the books they are going to release i can't wait.
Bottom line i suppose is that if you didn't like 3.5 you probably won't like Pathfinder. The adventure paths are a joy to read, play and run so if your limited on time and find it difficult to write your own scenario's then i would definately reccommend those.

Heh heh heh i spoke to Richard Pett recently (the author of the second book of RotR) and believe it or not that last encounter was meant to be worse. He was asked to tone it down lol. Richard was a really nice guy by the way so if you ever get the chance to chat to him please do so. He was nice enough to sign my copy of the scenario too, thanks Richard.

Well Rise of the Runelords was written for 3.5 and i have already run book 1 using the Pathfinder rules with virtually no work at all. I don't think you will have as much problem running it with existing stat blocks as you think. The main thing is work out the CMB/CMD numbers for N.P.C.'s. Hope this helps.

LMAO. DM_aka_Dudemeister that example of the empowered acid splash cracked me up.
Seriously though i think most of us know the way it is supposed to be used and how it should read so lets not waste time argueing over something thats just common sense. Just enjoy the game lifes too short. Unless your Violet Staunton huh Dracon lol?

Sorry mate Dracon is spot on with what he says. Once a 0 level spell is increased to a level 1 spell by adding metamagic feats onto it it no longer is classed as a 0 level spell. Therefore it is subject to the limited spell alllottments that your 1st level spells are limited to.

Really looking forward to this con. I hope it rocks as much as i think it will. Excuse me if this has been answered already but roughly how many people are expected to be attending it?

This is great news as things starting to become formalized. Once you have confirmed secure ways to book you will have at least 2 of my group booking. I'm our groups Pathfinder G.M. for the Rise of the Runelords campaign and one of my group (Digitalmage) has already run Pathfinder Society scenarios at other cons. I'm sure some of my other players might be interested in attending too. Good job so far with getting this organized in a pretty short time lets hope it becomes a regular event.

Is this event definately on? Has anything been booked and are the dates set. If so you can count my group in as attending. I am a massive advocate of what Paizo have done with Pathfinder so any way of promoting it i'm all for.
As one of my gaming group has already mentioned (Digitalmage)i hope you are being flexible in the passes that you will be offering. Our group only lives about 30 minutes from Birmingham so it's ideal for our group to get to without having to book a stay in any accomodation. That doesn't mean that some of us won't however.
Some of my group have had experience in running some small cons in the past (Oddcon) so any help we can offer let either Digitalmage or myself know.
I gotta admit i'm pretty buzzed about this thing i hope it happens. Did you get any confirmed guests to agree to attending in the end?