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So I'm gonna be running this very soon,

I need an answer asap.

I have a group that I have been playing with for 10 years. Some in the group longer. Until recently cheating hasn't come up, but I am about 90% sure that 2 of the players are cheating/fudging their rolls. The other 2 players either roll very large d20, or just roll out in the open.

We sit around a large table So it's hard to glance at the dice that players are rolling. One player quickly picks his dice up after rolling, he also kinda shields them with his other hand. The other player rolls a very dark d20 and often times rolls in a small space on the table away from sight.

The fudging has gotten to be unbearable for me as a GM, and the players who are not cheating.

Its tough to pull them aside and say "hey if you are cheating please stop..." Especially since I have been playing with these guys for so long and until the past couple of years it hasn't been an issue. One of the players even cheats in card games we play, but that's beyond the topic.

I was considering a rule where I have to see the roll otherwise it doesn't count. Not only for this issue but also because i really do like to see it when players roll a nat 20. But it's hard to implement this when we have never done this.

Any advice?

I have a layer that uses Ear Piercing Scream constantly. He coverts the damage to fire so that his elemental bonuses to dc apply. Almost always he dazes a monster and that monster misses its next turn then the party gangs up on it nearly killing it.

Anyways in comparison to daze monster ear piercing is vastly superior and daze monster is a second level where as Ear Piercing is a first level. It's superior because

1) it's 1st level
2) it does dmg as well as daze, even if the save is successful it still does damage albeit half. Daze monster if the save is successful that's it spell done.
3) Daze monster has a HD cap. This is the biggest advantage eps has over Daze monster it doesn't have a HD cap.

So with that said should eps be nerffed?

I am a rogue and really want this item but do I have to have ki points?

Are these usable for a limited time only?

I ask because they seem fairly powerful, given time you could just make a door through a wall, a hole in a ship.

I am a GM and ran one ship to ship combat thus far. Well in that combat the sorcerer basically crippled the other ship by doing this.

He first shot a flaming bolt at the sails, then next round cast pyrotechnics blinding nearly all on top deck.

Now I love creative role playing, but this turned out to be very powerful. I ruled that half the crew was above decks as well as prominent figures. This resulted in them becoming blind. The ship started with a crew of 40 with half on deck that dropped to 20 then they became blinded. Basically until the crew was swapped out with those not above decks the ship was uncontolled. This crippled the ship for about 2 or 3 rounds.

This overall was very powerful. And even when the pc's boarded the enemy ship the npc's still had a round left on their blindness.

Like I said I like creative role playing but doing this crippled the ship (at least the way I ran it) and this was a second level spell.

Should I change the way I handled this and if so how?

ok since skull and shackles is out I anticipate a few fireballs, explosive alchemist bombs etc to be thrown about.

So my question is where are rules for let's say a ship caught on fire? How does it spread? How is it put out? Or other rules. In the naval combat section of the skull and shackles players guide it lists spells such as fireball catching a ship on fire.

Thanx

so one of my players want to play an alchemist for this ap. My problem is that an alchemist pirate doesnt make a lot of sense to me. Creating flask items on a moving and rocking ship doesnt seem ideal and throwing flasks especially in weather situations seems off as well. Maybe its just me but what would your take on an alchemist in this ap be?

Can the PC's go different routes such as being Heroic swashbuckler's or cuttthroat pirates? I read somewhere that there was a fame/infamy scale and a loot/plunder scale, though I'm not sure how correct that is. Maybe I will just have to wait until the actual AP comes out. But my group is chomping at the bit to make PC's and I need to know what style of play is available to them.

I think firearms would be cool in this setting, but I'm afraid of using them as I never have before. Do you think they are unbalanced ie. more powerful of a weapon? Or do you think they can integrate well into the AP? I would love to see a pistoleer pirate, or some blunderbuss, maybe cannons.

I was wondering what everyones take on what alignments would be good for this campaign. Would evil work? My problem with evil is that everytime someone plays an evil character they are only "out for themselves" and don't give a crap about anyone else it usually turns into backstabbing.

Also races, this seems like a good oppurtunity to play many different races, but my concern is town's reactions to various races should the pc's dock at certain ports. I was thinking bugbears, etc. The more monstrous races. But would it really matter in the long run? Are the PC's going to be docking at any lawful, or good towns.

Ok so I purchased a set of paper minis, the art was great but man they are time consuming to cut fold and paste. Anyway what I really want are just flat pictures of monsters, they don't stand but are appropriately sized md, large, etc. That way you can just cut them out in a square.

Does anyone know of such a product?

Last night a player abused the hell out of this spell, essentially locking down a 15HD monster and we are level 8. Oh the monster made it's will save every round, but round after round the player cast this spell negating the monsters turn. Hold person/monster is an all or nothing save and then the creature has to keep saving every round.

This spell has since been banned from our games. Or we were thinking about changing it so that it can only effect non-evil characters, humanoids or something similar. Because would an evil monster (in this instance a demon) really have remorse over what it's done?

Just my 2 cents on an abusive spell.

I was looking at making a ranged paladin, but got to wondering about weapon qualities because of the paladin's divine bond.

Can Keen, Defending, or even other melee qualities that don't specifically say in the description be applied to ranged weapons?

It seems stupid that you wouldn't be able to put some of those qualities on a bow. It seems to me that the table is for more commonly found items.

So I would like to run this AP, but after reading to the point of the events it seems like 30 days for the PC's to stay in Raven is a long time.

What the heck do the PC's do during those days, As the Events only occur so often?

Does a GM just basically "fast forward" to the events, happening if the PC's even notice some of them,

Or are they supposed to occur in conjuction with exploring Harrowstone??

It seems like they should build up the story before the PC's explore Harrowstone.

What do you think does the Bard spell Resful Sleep and Napstack spell work together for regaining hitpoints?

My DM says that they only stack for one of the 2 hour sleep periods of napstack since restful sleep affects only one night rest.

But the way I look at it is that Napstack lasts for one nights rest, and restful sleep effects one nights rest. Just because the spell napstack has multiple as if you had rested a full night, it is still only one nights rest.

Just wondering what everyone thought or an official ruling. Though the 2 together seems very abusive.

How important are the NPC's in the Smuggler Shiv? More importantly do they appear later in the Serpent's Skull AP?

I was thinking about only using a couple, because it seems like a lot of work to keep track of them. And I'm not good at running NPC's along with managing an adventure.

Or if they do appear later in the adventure path are they easily able to be taken out? Though I do like the diplomacy involved with them early on.

If I only run a couple of NPC's any suggestion of who? And then what about base camp, can 2 NPC's realistically defend it, or should I not worry about defense then?

Sorry for all the questions but this AP looks great and I really want to run it, but there is a lot of stuff involved.

Thanx

"Agile Feet (Su): As a free action, you can gain increased mobility for 1 round. For the next round, you ignore all difficult terrain and do not take any penalties for moving through it. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier."

So I don't get to ignore difficult terrain until the following round?

Kinda dumb to make it last one round then because, I use agile feet as a free action. Standard action I cast a spell, then Move action I move. But agile feet only lasts one round.

So does it come into effect the following round that I use it, and therefore last that entire round?

If I am a Fighter that has the ability Armor Mastery does this ability help with carrying capacity limits, such as Max Dex, Armor Check Penalty and Speed?

I ask because is seems kinda stupid that Full Plate wearer Fighter 20th Level Can basically have a 20 Dex and only a -2 (or -1 for magical) Armor Check Penalty. But because of it's 50lbs it's weight takes up the majority of your carrying capacity, which means that not much else can be carried assuming your strength is around a 14.

I made a Dex based melee fighter that has a 14 Str thinking that I could wear Full Plate eventually, without much penalties, but discovered that my load is still going to limit me. It just seems to kinda conflict with each other. There is a section under carrying capacity that states "medium or heavy loads counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or skills that are restricted by armor" Maybe they are considered for the Armor Master ability as well.

Any thoughts? Or rulings?

okay under weapon finesse the elven curve blade is not listed. But under the description of elven curve blad it says that you can use weapon finesse with it.

So can you use weapon finesse with the blade and the writers missed to add it to the feat?

Or was it take out of the feat and the writers missed to take it out of the weapons description?

It looks like according to beta rules that it was added to the blade description, so maybe the writers missed adding it to the feat, but I don't want my character to be wrong and suffer for it.

I think I need a definite answer because I am looking to play in a society game and want to make a character that uses the blade with weapon finesse.

Or will it be okay to take weapon finesse with the blade and play in a society game?