Help a New Pathfinder GM

[Eradan]

Hi, everyone.

My home groups have recently switched from 4E to PF and I'm running my first session with the new rules this Saturday. I say "new" because I was on hiatus from gaming for most of the 3.x era.

In any case, when building a session with 4E, if I needed a cultist, there were many options to choose from in the 4E Monster Builder. Looking through both PF Bestiaries, I don't see anything that would pass for a cultist--that is, basically a human spell-caster or cleric.

How do you guys incorporate this kind of "monster" into your sessions? Do I literally just build a level X wizard or sorcerer and use that in combat? Or is there an easier way?

Thank you,
E

[Secane]

Have a look here
www.d20pfsrd.com list a Cultist (Human Cleric 3).

Seems to be from the Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide.

Does this helps?

[Rory]

Eradan wrote:

In any case, when building a session with 4E, if I needed a cultist, there were many options to choose from in the 4E Monster Builder. Looking through both PF Bestiaries, I don't see anything that would pass for a cultist--that is, basically a human spell-caster or cleric.

How do you guys incorporate this kind of "monster" into your sessions? Do I literally just build a level X wizard or sorcerer and use that in combat? Or is there an easier way?

I sometimes get on a kick for creating characters. I created a level 1 sorcerer (as an example), fleshed him out, and saved it. I then advanced him to level 2 and saved that. I proceeded to do that for the next 10 levels. And then I worked up another few character trees.

And now, when I need a "cultist level 7", I just go to my stash of files, tweak something, and print it off.

I do believe there is a web site with a lot of pre-made NPCs out there, but I am not sure what it is. Someone here will know it though.

[MendedWall12]

Hello, and welcome to the boards.

There are a lot of different ways to go about this. If you are looking for specifics, and really want to craft the cultist yourself, but don't want to use pencil and paper, there are a couple of different software options out there.

Hero Lab by Lone Wolf is a very comprehensive option, but can come with a hefty price tag depending on how many data sets you are looking into.

I, personally, use PCGen which is an open source community project created and maintained by a few people that frequent these boards. PCGen does have a little bit of a learning curve, but I found that after only a month or two I was able to do anything I needed to do with it.

In addition there is an AWESOME program that was created by a user of these boards, Kyle Olson. It is Combat Manager and it has a very handy monster database, including NPCs, and each monster in the database can be advanced with his monster advancer. Since I've found this program I don't do any GMing without it. I'm sure that if you give it a shot you'll agree it is a Pathfinder GM's best friend.

Kyle also maintains a running conversation on these boards here. This is where you can post questions or issues you've found with the program.

Hopefully one, or some of these options help you out.

[Tinalles]

The GameMastery Guide contains an NPC gallery. It's available online thanks to the OGL, here:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mastery/npcGallery.html

That has 81 pre-generated NPCs for a variety of purposes. The table there lists them by CR, but if you click through to one, you'll discover that they're listed in groups of 3-4 around a set theme. Here's the one for Heretics:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mastery/nPCGallery/heretics.html

That has a cultist, a conjurist (mid-level cultish type) and a cult leader.

[Twigs]

This is one of 3.5's weaker points. However, the GMG's NPC gallery helps prevent this. You can find it for free HERE. There are the NPC classes and PC classes for this purpose, and with the stat arrays and some haphazard selection of feats you can have characters of any level you want if they arent covered here. Check out the Creating NPCs section in the core rules.

I also wouldnt hesitate to reccomed looking at the adventure path line.

[Shadowborn]

Twigs wrote:

I also wouldn't hesitate to recommend looking at the adventure path line.

Backing up everything else that has been suggested, with emphasis on this. There are plenty of quality stand-alone modules and the adventure paths. You can find plenty of NPC stat blocks in them, which you can always recycle when you need a similar type of opponent for another adventure.

[KCWM]

The links and programs listed here sound great. I often like to freeform encounters while the players are out and about exploring (we are playing the Kingmaker AP) or in their city.

Consider this a wordy "dot" for me to come back to when I get home and can save these on my gaming laptop.

[Eradan]

Wow, guys. Thank you all for the terrific answers.

I'm going to incorporate all the above. I've already checked out the links provided and found exactly what I need. I also have already installed Combat Manager. I'm getting a new laptop in the next week or two and plan to try using Combat Manager when I run my games.

Thank you again!
E