zerhackermann's page

Forgive me if I have this in the wrong spot. I'll be happy to redirect it elsewhere if need be.

I wanted to say thanks to the folks working the Pathfinder scenarios at PAX. You all kicked a**. You were swamped from the top. And I could tell that it became tiring and frustrating at times. But you all kept cool and kept moving people through. I appreciated itas one of the unwashed masses.

I especially want to thank the gent who GMed "Woods" for our group on the tail end of Monday. I didn't catch his name.

We had four very inexperienced players. I am experienced but enjoy the scenarios anyways. Yet we had one other feller who seemed to be determined to have a bad time. He was a big challenge at the table and I could tell the GM would have liked to "speak his mind" and yet he just kept the game rolling and the rest of us had a blast. Never was there a sweeter victory when those Lycanthropes bit the dust.

I am certain those new folks left with a good impression of the game and had a great time. I know I did. So major thanks and bravo to that GM and all the other Society folks whom I know had to deal with similar challenges over the four days.

zerhackermann wrote:

I won a beginner box and then also purchased this box at PAX this year. My friends and I have been using the hell out of the minis.

One thing I havent found is a good way to store, carry and access them. Currently I have a tackle box, but the cards have to lay flat in stacks of 10 or so. so finding the right stack on the fly is a bit of a hit or miss affair.

Has anyone found something that will store these in a portable fashion while still making them easy to flip through should the need arise?

Try HERE

-- david
Papa.DRB

Well now theres a hell of an idea. I'll give that a try thanks david

I won a beginner box and then also purchased this box at PAX this year. My friends and I have been using the hell out of the minis.

One thing I havent found is a good way to store, carry and access them. Currently I have a tackle box, but the cards have to lay flat in stacks of 10 or so. so finding the right stack on the fly is a bit of a hit or miss affair.

Has anyone found something that will store these in a portable fashion while still making them easy to flip through should the need arise?

Righto, thanks Turin

I know Ive understood this in the past but ive been on a break from GMing for the last few months and I seem to have forgotten how to read a stat block o_O

The Aberrant Promethean has a melee listing like so:
Melee 2 slams +21

This means the Promethean has two slam per round as a standard action

The Beast has a listing of so:
Melee Ogre Hook +21/+16/+11

This means The Beast gets one attack with the hook as a standard action or three attacks with that hook if he uses a full attack

Am I remembering that right?

If you are playing with different rules, some creatures will not transfer cleanly and some encounters may be unbalanced - either too easy or way too hard. I recommend trying the Pathfinder rules if you have not done so and then the AP will be balanced.

The simple answer to your question is this:
The AP was written for 4 players. If you have 8, then double the number of standard bad guys per encounter - Such as instead of 2 flaming skulls, go to 4. Instead of 3 zombies, try six. For the big bad guys, I would apply the advanced template in Pathfinder - or basically just add 4 to every ability stat and then max out their HP. That should be plenty. If the group is new and not real familiar with the system, then back those suggestions off to multiplying by 1.5 and just max out HP for the bosses.

Nothing wrecks a good time like a TPK in the first session or two, so play around with those suggestions and see what happens.

We are starting in the second book of the AP now and it has been fun. We have five players so I have been adding one or two extra standard bad guys and then using the advanced template on the bosses. They are all experienced players and would easily defeat the AP as written. This way it is more of a challenge.

Enjoy!

Oops..My bad. We are using Pathfinder rules. I like it *better* than the DnD stuff I am used to

1.5X sounds like a good rule of thumb. Thanks for the insight.

(Backstory or Burying the lede. Ignore this if you like)

So our Rise of the Runelords ended abruptly with a TPK and the players opted to start afresh with a new AP. Carrion Crown it is.

I have 8 players and I am a re-newbie GM. We started with AD&D 1st because that was what I was most familiar with. And I got nominated GM by short straw vote ( I was the only one willing) GMing was never my core skill, even back in "the day". But I'm doing my best to keep it balanced and, primarily, fun. The players range wildly in experience with most having had none before sitting at this table. They also vary wildly in make up - 4 teens under 17. Two of those teens moms. and a couple old geezers like myself.

(end of backstory)

With this group and this AP, if I run it as written, the party will lag in levels (small issue, its a mob. They dont need to be "on track") throughout the AP. Of more concern is that the challenges will not be challenging enough. I got lucky in one of the main events in Rise that resulted in the party surviving by one solitary hit point. I dont expect that every time; but I would like to see some sweating as events, particularly traps and combat, are not a sure thing.

I have some ideas - Advancing some single monsters, like the giant stirge, but probably not the Splatter Man. Or adding population, like doubling zombies from 2-4. That sort of thing.

What I'm looking for is some suggestions or insights or even formulae that I can consider throwing in the mix.

Thanks in advance.
M

I just found this...and it just so happens I GMed a TPK in Thistletop.

The Game Twist:
Large party. 8 PCs. The slasher trap had gotten the monk already and the party cleric shuffled off this mortal coil in a throne room fight with Ripnugget. That left 7 (including the druids jaguar animal companion.)

Plot Twist1:
Grogmurt was smart enough to hotfoot it away when the party was too much for him. But then the party decided to rest *in the thicket*. So he came back for another round. This also resulted in him running away.

Plot Twist 2:
The ruckus in the throne room resulted in Nualia and company being aware of the party. So they gathered in the Observatory. Gogmurt also joined them because he saw an opportunity to negotiate with the winner for the throne of Thistletop. Or kill off the weakened victors. Whichever was easier.

The party opened the doors to the Observatory facing (all buffed and ready to fight):

Nualia
Tsuto
Bruthazamus
Oric
Lyrie
Gogmurt
A Yeth Hound

A 1:1 ratio. If the party fought smartly, I assumed they would lose a few members but eventually take Nualia and company down.

They didnt fight smartly.

This brings me to

Fight Twist:
I had two players without characters in the fight. This was the Big Bad Gal Battle. I wanted no one sitting around watching. So I handed those two players character sheets for Gogmurt and Tsuto. Yup, they were running Bad guys.

The party did the worst thing it could possibly do: diffused their attacks. At any rate, All but Nualia and her Yeth hound perished.

RIP:

Father Ted, Cleric of Serenrae
Greg, Monk Who never did manage to climb very well
Takaldalute, She-Barbarian With Ridiculous strength stat
Moonshower, elven fighter Who talks to his weapons
DragonCrest, Druid Who tries to do a thousand things at once
Stranger, Ranger
Poe, Bard with ridiculous Perception score
Brogan, Wizard. Patient veteran forced to deal with newbs.

Actually, the Monster Feat Quicken Spell-like Ability would do the trick quite nicely.

However, to be able to quicken his Bolts (a Level 1 Spellike), he'd neeed to be at least Caster Level 10... which I doubt he is.

Do PCs get access to Monster Feats? I would think not. But a "Monster" enemy player race? maybe? Probably not, now that I think about it - they get the same feats/etc as PCs.

The PC in question isnt near 10th level. Not before the end of the next module in the campaign, anyways.

Considering that neither of you fully understood the feat, it would probably be courteous to allow the player to pick a different feat that would actually be useful. If he wants to get his feet wet with metamagic Extend Spell or Reach Spell can be useful for clerics.

Oh I'm letting him re-select. Its understood that we are all pretty much beginners and house rule 1 is "fun". So there is no punishment for making mistakes on either part.

I'm a re-entry RPG player/GM and we started with what I knew: 1st ed AD&D. I was introduced to Pathfinder at PAX, picked up a Core book and then introduced it to the players. We love the system, but it is understood that there are gonna be some fumbles. These message boards are a savior. Back in the school days of 1st ed, there were some horrid rules fights; and no larger community to ponder the questions with.

Got it. It seems unanimous.

Thanks! I can hear him pouting already! heh heh

So the Cleric in my group wants to select Quicken Spell as one of his feats. Well, he already did, really. At any rate I said, "sure give it a shot, we'll see how it plays"

We did run across a conundrum that we had a bit of a time figuring out. For the session we just went with what seemed to work and tabled the questions until I could post this.

First; Can Quicken even be used on a cleric's granted power? Or would that be considered an ability that isnt necessarily a quickenable spell?

Second; "A quickened spell uses up a spell slot four levels higher
than the spell’s actual level." To me, this means that the caster has to have a 4th level "slot" to use. Making this not a good feat to take until much higher level than the clerics current level. (and with the granted power, there seems to be no effective "level") The player wasnt sure what it meant.

So for the session I let him quicken his flame bolts with the caution that I could take that bit of fun away depending on what I learned here.

What say ye?

A) Cleric cant use that on a granted power. So there.

B) Cleric can use it but not until he gets a 4th level slot to use up.

C) Let him use the quicken on anything he likes. Then throw a Balrog at him.

yes, YESSSS. good ideas. I like them. The mad warlock of mummenschantz would love to have a subject for experimentation....

Thanks for the thoughts.

I'm kind of thinking of going the "Yes, but..." route and it being more expensive and risky to research and create a new spell (Lots of trial and error, lots of cost) as opposed to searching for or commissioning an item (that can be lost or damaged, heh) that achieves nearly the same thing. (hello, side quest...)

Thanks gents, that was kind of my gut feeling.

This one is a bit more grey:

He wants to find a higher level wizard and pay him to cast a permanency on some non-standard permanent eligible spells. Things like Cat's Grace and Mage Armor.

My instinct says that the rules have an abbreviated list for a reason. And if he manages a +4 to one ability, why not others? Why not the entire party?

On the other hand, I'm thinking that as GM, I can just upscale the challenges. Or I can make the "permanence" not entirely permanent, causing them to spend wads of cash and time maintaining that bonus. Or have a rather large risk of the spell going awry in addition to having to find a really high level caster who is even willing to try. I wouldnt mind some unknown drawback that reveals itself later that encourages the removal of that spell, but I'm at a loss as to what that might be.

The wizard player in my group has dived deep into the rules and started coming up with some interesting things he wants to do. Now I'm kind of a "Why yes, you can" sort of GM, But I like to find a twist to make it not quite the panacea a player had imagined.

What he wants to do:

weapon focus his touch attacks (shocking grasp and the like) I'm not really seeing a reason why not. he gets a small bonus to his touch attacks. But I'm a bit hesitant because a touch attack already gets a lowered armor class DC. Thoughts?

Scour the site for the fantastic "We Be Goblins" module too. It's another freebie and a lot of fun. There's a thread somewhere on these boards with some extra pregenerated characters should you need them.

Even if it's not what you're looking for right now, you won't regret it. I'd also reccomend the Adventure Paths to just about anyone, if you can get your hands on one. I myself am eagerly awaiting this.

I've been hoping to do the opposite, actually. Run a 2e module with my friends old players handbook sheerly for the novelty of it. My players are pretty divided with their enthusiasm though, so it may never get off the ground.

Rambling aside, welcome aboard, and welcome to the forums!

Thanks. That path does look good.

One of the attractions Pathfinder has for me is that it addresses a lot of the problems that 1st-2nd has, but allows us to use the large pile of old school materials that we have amassed. Very little that I have looked at in the old materials cant be somehow used in a pathfinder rules game. And so I can carry forward my grand manic scheme of the characters finding themselves on a multi-world chase with bad guys, skullduggery and world-shaking events.

Thanks for the insight. Its always helpful.

I'm actually trying to figure out what the By The Book rule is before I do GM awards. From what I'm getting the exp, By the book, is solely based on separate CR ratings (Monster or trap or puzzle or roleplay encounter) and those are divvied up amongst the party.

FWIW, yes I do individual awards in my 1st ed game. I take notes and I encourage the players to take notes for a brag session at the end of the play session. I intend to continue that practice. But I wanted to know the rule before I did so I can avoid potential Monty Haul behavior on my part.

http://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/p/pathfinderRPG/paizo/pathfin derModules/v5748btpy8ey4

doh! Why didnt I think to look for Paizo gifts? That will work quite well for my needs. thanks!

I hail from old school D&D where monsters defeated/outwitted/etc were one group of experience and treasure was another - whoever kept or sold the item, got a 1:1 experience for the treasure's value or the stated XP value by the book. Thus the lions share of exp comes from loot (monsters were comparatively paltry)

I dont see the same sort of rule here. But I notice things are divided up into CR for a given "event" or encounter. i.e. CR2 monsters + CR1 trap might make for a CR3 event(?) and so the party gains experience for the CR3 event. Or is it the party gets the monster experience and the rogue gets a bit more (CR1) for undoing the trap and keeping his fingers intact? and in either case no experience is awarded for the value of the treasure.

Do I have that right? Mostly?

Background:
I have a *pile* of players (9) working through the beginnings of TOEE using 1st ed AD&D rules (what I cut my teeth on back in the day)

At PAX I played an introductory Pathfinder encounter and liked it a lot. Enough to get a Core book and start reading.

Today I got my GM screen and Bestiary. And I have told the players (mixed ages and experience levels) that sunday we will convert* the characters and get to know the Pathfinder rules.

What I'm looking for is some quick freebie encounters or short modules to run them through. This would be outside the regular campaign, so as to avoid me making any big mistakes with it as I learn. I know I could roll my own, but time is a bit constrained and it would help me a lot to "follow along" someone else's encounter and set up methods as well as concentrate on battle flow and rules questions. The party is mostly at 1st and 2nd level with a few at 3rd.

Any links or thoughts are welcome.

*"convert" is a reach. I'm just having them retain ability scores, level and class.

And I may be getting ahead of myself (still reading core through slowly) if an opponent has reach due to natural size - ogre, etc) do they have the same "aura" reach where adjacent squares arent threatened as with pole arms?

What I meant was if on the outside chance, one combatant began adjacent to an opponent who had a reach weapon. The combatant takes an action that would provoke an attack (but is not an attack of opportunity itself)like casting a spell, drinking a potion or lighting a torch (why? who knows, players do odd things) - it is, apparent according to the rules* that the opponent does not get the attack of opportunity even thought some fool is standing right next to him mumbling and waving his hands or fumbling up a potion.

It seems to me that in many circumstances, the opponent should be able to do something opportune. Even with a rather stiff penalty. Whether that would be the smart thing to do tactically is another thing altogether. I guess maybe it is a gm discretion sort of thing.

*"Performing certain actions within a threatened square" core pg 180

I did a quick search and didnt see a ready answer. My apologies if I missed it

I just read the rule regarding reach weapons and noted that reach weapons do not allow attack to adjacent foes (assuming no house rules).

I assume this also includes attacks of opportunity?

for example - a spell caster is standing next to a foe (for some dumb reason) who has a reach weapon. Mister Wizard casts a spell that would provoke an attack.

- medium foe cant attack *with that weapon* (but could maybe punch Mister Wizard in the snot locker...which I find to be an amusing thought)

- side note: a large creature could make an adjacent attack with a natural weapon (Mister Wizard gets pasted by an ogre fist)

does that sound right?

Kolokotroni wrote:

the convension I use (which is not official) is standard = 3seconds, move = 2 seconds, and swift = 1 second.

This is a good way to look at it IF it helps you understand the concepts. Remember that it is an analogy of an abstraction though. For example, you are still limited to only 1 swift action per round (as others have stated), so you could not do [Standard (3 sec) + Swift (1 sec) + Swift (1 sec) + Swift (1 sec)].

The reality is that the abstraction is you get
1 Standard Action (can be traded for a move)
1 Move Action
1 Swift Action
unlimited Free Action (as long as the GM feels they can be completed during the 6 seconds of time... so no long speeches)

Just to throw in some more confusion there is also the 5-foot step. If you do not move (used your move action for something else like a full attack action) you can take a 5 foot step.

The 5-foot step is important because it gives you a little mobility still and because it doesn't provoke an Attack of Opportunity (not sure if you have gotten to those yet, so I won't go into them now).

Anyway... hope that helps. Like I said, Kolokotroni's break down of time is helpful if it helps you understand the concepts, but isn't an real breakdown of the actions, so don't get hung up on it when it doesn't work.

Sean Mahoney

Oh no I wasnt looking for an absolute time scale. I was trying to grasp the hierarchy but was expressing the need poorly. You guys gave me what I need.

I can use that understanding to keep the combat flowing and moving

Ah ha.
I get it. The "trading down" a standard for a move was the concept I wasnt getting.

Thanks I appreciate it.

the convension I use (which is not official) is standard = 3seconds, move = 2 seconds, and swift = 1 second.

You can only take 1 swift or immediate action on your turn, if you take an immediate action off your turn (which happens often for immediate actions) you may not take a swift action on your next turn.

With free actions they are not limited except by dm's reasonable discretion. For instance, drawing and knocking an arrow is a free action. You can do it for as many arrows as you can fire. This may be 1 arrow at 1st level, and maybe 6 arrows later on. You can also knock 2 arrows, and say something (talking is also a free action) but if you start reciting lines from shakespear, the dm has the right to cut you off.

Also, welcome to pathfinder and happy gaming!

Ah...there we go. Thats kind of what I was getting at.

1 swift if an immediate didnt "go off" out of turn. otherwise mix and match as you like.

Okay so one swift per round. Number free actions per GMs discression.

How about other combos? It seems as if the "normal" act is two "half round slots" (move + standard) and that you can substitute most acts on a 1:1 (or more) basis:

Move+Move
Standard+move (or reverse)

So then you could also:
Standard+Standard (more typically the full attack but maybe not)
swift+standard

then you can possibly(?):
swift+free+free+standard

or am I overthinking it?

Howdy Folks

After having tried Pathfinder at PAX and enjoying it enough to buy the core rules book - I find there is enough excitement in my mixed bag of 1-2ed dnd players to make it worth trying to get everything translated to pathfinder.

So I'll be asking a lot of newbie "duh" questions.

The first is - And I may have just missed it - in combat, how long doe each action type take? I'm trying to grasp what exactly players can do in the 6 second round. Full round actions - thats kind of obvious. A basic move + standard, that seems pretty straightforward. And rather than get bogged into odd combos, I thought I would just ask how long each type takes.

Or is it a judgement thing?

I imagine that in most cases it will be pretty clear how many swift or free actions one could logically do. But I would like to have some kind of rule of thumb.

So typically a player would:
Move+standard (3 seconds each?)
Move+Move
full attack (full round)
Standard+???

The last is where I get foggy. ANd how many swift/immediate/free actions one could manage in a perfect environment - 3? 4? more?

Anyhow. Thanks for any ideas or thoughts