text:
WASHINGTON (AP) - First slowed, then stalled by political gridlock, the vast machinery of government clanged into partial shutdown mode on Tuesday and President Barack Obama warned the longer it goes "the more families will be hurt." Republicans said it was his fault, not theirs.
GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) - A Colorado teen charged with kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old girl pleaded guilty Tuesday to all 15 charges against him, against the advice of his attorneys.
NEW YORK (AP) - From New York's Liberty Island to Alaska's Denali National Park, the U.S. government closed its doors as a bitter budget fight idled hundreds of thousands of federal workers and halted all but the most critical government services for the first time in nearly two decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Agriculture Department says 524 schools - out of about 100,000 - have dropped out of the federally subsidized national school lunch program since the government introduced new standards for healthier foods last year.
LAREDO, Texas (AP) - Nearly three dozen migrants marched across the U.S.-Mexico border without papers Monday, the latest group of a younger generation brought to the U.S. illegally as children that seeks to confront head-on immigration policies they consider unjust.
NEW YORK (AP) - CNN and NBC on Monday backed out of high-profile television projects about Hillary Rodham Clinton they had been working on for months.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - Federal officials offered a staunch defense Monday of their proposal to drop legal protections for the gray wolf in most of the country, as opponents rallied in the nation's capital before the first in a series of public hearings on the plan.
NEW YORK (AP) - New York is indeed an expensive place, but experts say that alone doesn't explain a recent report that found the city's annual cost per inmate was $167,731 last year - nearly as much as it costs to pay for four years of tuition at an Ivy League university.
WASHINGTON (AP) - With the government teetering on the brink of partial shutdown, congressional Republicans vowed Sunday to keep using an otherwise routine federal funding bill to try to attack the president's health care law.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A government shutdown would have far-reaching consequences for some, but minimal impact on others.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Iran would open its nuclear facilities to international inspectors as part of broad negotiations with the United States that could eventually restore diplomatic relations between the adversaries and those talks have the backing of the nation's supreme leader, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Sunday.
LA schools reports 71 iPads are missing
DETROIT (AP) - Obama administration officials said Friday that they are sending someone to Detroit to oversee a federal effort that includes millions of dollars in grants to help fix the beleaguered city - a situation one adviser described as "an exceptional circumstance."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Even as the Army faces shrinking budgets, an audit shows it paid out $16 million in paychecks over a 2 ½-year period to soldiers designated as AWOL or as deserters, the second time since 2006 the military has been dinged for the error.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The southwestern New Mexico city that's played home to "Breaking Bad" is preparing for the end, with the Emmy-award winning series airing its last episode on Sunday.
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a scathing appraisal, a review ordered by President Barack Obama of the troubled Veterans Affairs health care system concludes that medical care for veterans is beset by "significant and chronic system failures," substantially verifying problems raised by whistleblowers and internal and congressional investigators.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A fear of voting has gripped Democratic leaders in the Senate, slowing the chamber's modest productivity this election season to a near halt.


text:
(Anderson races into the end zone for the game-winning score)
With the game tied at 13 all, the Giants and Rams captains faced each other at mid-field. The coin flip in question would decide which team had possession in the sudden-death overtime. Rams lineman Jackie Slater called heads; the coin landed face-up, and the Rams opted to receive the ball. Only sixty-six seconds later, the divisional-round playoff game was over.
Three plays into the overtime session, Los Angeles was on first down at their own 48. Quarterback Jim Everett lobbed it down field to Willie "Flipper" Anderson, who was met stride-for-stride by Sheldon White. The Giants defensive back made contact with Anderson as he dove for the ball and was called for pass interference, advancing the Rams 27 yards. The ruling was not a popular one in Giants Stadium; it appeared the ball was about a yard in front of Anderson when the call was made.
After a Rams off-side penalty, Everett lined in the backfield 30 yards shy of the end zone. The New York defense blitzed, thinking that LA would be running it since they were already in field goal range. Instead, Anderson eluded a Mark Collins bump near the line of scrimmage, and streaked down the right side of the field. Everett found him just feet from the goal line; Flipper caught the ball in stride and sprinted into the end zone, then through the tunnel that led to the locker room.
''Before the game, Aaron Cox and I said if either of us gets the winning touchdown in overtime, we would run straight to the locker room with it," Anderson said.
Even though he caught just two passes, Flipper left his mark on the game. Anderson's only other reception came at the tail-end of the first half. The Giants were leading 6-0 and had the ball at their own 35 with 34 seconds left. Electing to not run out the clock, Giants coach Bill Parcells gambled that they could increase their lead. Choosing to throw the ball instead, Phil Simms had his pass picked off by Michael Stewart, who took it to the New York 20. One play later, Everett connected with Anderson for a touchdown, and the Giants finished the half trailing 7-6.
New York fans had many reasons to bemoan the loss. Parcell's decision to not play it safe at the end of the half was one criticism. Another was that Mark Collins, who fractured his foot at the start of the overtime period, should not have been in the game to defend Willie Anderson. The most persistent gripe was over the dubious pass interference call that gave the Rams great field position.
''The ball wasn't catchable," Sheldon White complained to reporters. "It wasn't even close. Superman couldn't have caught that ball. That was a bad call, a bad call." Parcells refused to comment on the call, though he did tellingly state, ''You guys saw the play.''
Anderson's two-touchdown performance was his finest moment since setting the single-game record of 336 receiving yards. The Rams advanced to the NFC championship game and were drummed by the eventual champion 'Niners, 30-3. Giants fans were able to get over the loss pretty quickly -- New York retooled in the offseason and won the Super Bowl the following season.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Which Monarch Would You Be Test
Their result for The Which Monarch Would You Be Test ...
Alexander the Great
You scored
Alexander the Great. This man conquered the entire world before he turned 30. As a boy, his tutor was Aristotle himself. It must have done something good for him, because not only was Alexander one of the greatest undefeated warriors of all time, but he had a comprehensive grasp of trade and culture and foreign relations, and allowed many foreigners into his army, encouraged his men to take foreign brides, and himself took two foreign princesses in marriage. A charmer and competent from a young age, Alexander frequently impressed visiting foreign dignitaries, and to give you an idea of his character, always felt put out by his father's victories, because the more he inherited, the less he could take for himself. Eventually, of course, he ended up conquering the entire known world before age 30. I don't know how old you are now, but we're counting on seeing great things from you!
Their Analysis (Vertical line = Average)
They scored 6% on beloved, higher than 94% of your peers.
They scored 5% on effective, higher than 59% of your peers.
They scored 2% on gender, higher than 69% of your peers.
All possible test results
James II
James II The last catholic monarch of England, James II was a firm believer in absolute monarchy and religious tolerance, and be... Read more
Charles II
Charles II Known as the Merrie Monarch for the liveliness and hedonism of his court, Cha... Read more
Henry VIII
Warrior. Eater. Lover!! Henry VIII was a true Renaissance man, and an accomplished musician, author, and poet as well as a fair general and powerful monarch. He was known for his appetites, an... Read more
William of Orange
AKA William III of England, you are one of the many English Kings to not have been born in England, having been born and raised in the Netherland... Read more
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar. The man, the emperor, the legend. Not many people can singlehandedly unite Rome under his iron fist, but you're apparently one of the few who can. Once captured by pirates and hel... Read more
Suleiman I
Suleiman the Magnificent The tenth and longest reigning Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman was known as the Magnifent and the Lawgiver. ... Read more
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great. This man conquered the entire world before he turned 30. As a boy, his tutor was ... Read more
Louis XIV
Louis XIV Louis XIV Ah,... Read more
Cyrus the Great
Warrior, statesman, and poet. Cyrus the Great FOUNDED the Persian Empire, and under him, it stretched from southwest asia on the right to the Indus river on the left, incorporating Egypt, Central As... Read more
Mary Queen of Scots
Coming to Queen-hood at a mere 7 days old when her father died at age 30, Mary was betrothed to the son of King Henry VIII, Edward at 9 months. ... Read more
Emma, Queen of Franks
Described as having uncommon courage and talent, Emma of the Franks even led an army a... Read more
She rose from the modest roots of a minor concubine to becoming the de facto ruler of all of China.Concubine to emperor Hsien-feng, she became mother to his only son in ... Read more
Cleopatra VII Antipater How would you like to be a beautiful and intelligent princess? Not enough for you? Well how would you l... Read more
Queen Anne
Queen Anne of England, last of the Stuarts Anne, the last monarch of the House of Stuart, was a good politician and monarch in diff... Read more
Queen Elizabeth I
The Virgin Queen Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I was cut out of the succession by her brother, imp... Read more
Hatshepsut One of the mo... Read more
Sophie, Electress of Hanover
This was a stunningly complex and competent woman, who was second to none in the arts of diplomacy and international politics. To give you an idea, she managed to get her son who was a born German w... Read more
Amina, Queen of Zazua
A strong willed warrior queen who ascended the throne at age 43 when her brother died, Amina was a feared and powerful monarch. She used her military prowess to expand the territories of Zazzua, grea... Read more
Queen Victoria
She reigned for 63 years and 7 months, the longest of any British monarch to date. She has a whole ERA named aft... Read more
Born into the ranks of the middle gentry, obscure for the first 40 years of his life, Oliver Cromwell exploded from obscurity to genera... Read more
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"One day a little boy came up, he must have been about four and he saw me taking off my (prosthetic) legs and he started with the 'why' questions, you know, 'why haven't you got any legs', etc. And I said 'have you heard of The Little Mermaid?' and he said 'yes' and I said 'I'm a mermaid' and he got this look on his face and he said 'wow that's cool' and ran off to tell his dad.Weta Digital are the special effects team behind the costumes, weapons and creatures of the Lord of the Rings movies, Avatar and even a sonic screwdriver prop that could be making an appearance on the next season of Doctor Who. In 2009, they created a fully functional mermaid tail pro bono for Nadya Vessey, an Auckland woman who is a double leg amputee. Video News Report: 1, 2.
I'll have to turn up to that beach again sometime with my tail - just in case he's there."
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text:
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Earlier this June, researchers from the Canadian consulting firm Instrinsik published a 60-study review looking at the scientific basis for so-called "wind turbine syndrome."
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text:
It was quite a different day Thursday for those on UL-Lafayette's campus, following a bomb threat Wednesday morning, which forced a mandatory evacuation.
Luckily it was all a hoax, but there are still a lot of questions about the device law enforcement discovered. It was the swift action by several agencies which quickly ended the ordeal.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into who is responsible for the hoax, which seemed all too real.
"Even though it was a hoax device, it was a very realistic hoax device and even the bomb technicians, when they approached the device, it obviously looked like a real device and they treated it as such," said FBI Assistant Special Agent, Charles P. Spencer.
Spencer could not release details about where in Girard Park the fake bomb was found or its appearance. Initially, there were reports two potential bombs were found, but Spencer says there was only one.
"As the alert went out that there was a potential device, someone in a building on the university identified an old piece of essentially home machinery that looked like it could be something," said Spencer.
Bomb technicians were able to detonate the device that was found. Federal charges will be filed against whoever is found responsible. "We will aggressively pursue this," said Spencer. "We will work to identify who is responsible for this act of terror and they will be prosecuted."
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text:
Rifftrax Animated Intro
It's time for Rifftrax...4.43 / 5.00 24,956 Views
The Artist
The Artist4.39 / 5.00 12,736 Views
NWAR: Watered Down
Detective Nwar and his partner Blanche might as well investigate a water crisis.4.28 / 5.00 2,589 Views
First try at animation. So dont be too harsh.
its pretty good the only thing i think u should do with this is make it longer but still good job
i liked it!
this was real good
i felt that it shoulda been longer, to give its dues to the song waich did fit the flash
the song shouldve started when you press play instead of before, and the music began to play twice and at teh wrong time:/
but that was like a glitch so no pts against you XD
great job, hope to see you touch up this one into a full fledged movie!
A slightly impressive attempt at animation
I like this short Flash romance animation for its simple but fluid animation. However, I'm disappointed by its lack of detailed backgrounds, synchronised sound effects and music and professional presentation.
You may find this time-consuming, but if you keep working on your Flash animation skills, you'll become a better animator on Newgrounds in no time.


text:
|Paizo Pathfinder® Paizo Games
|About Paizo Messageboards News Paizo Blog Help/FAQ
Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–99: The Paths We Choose (PFRPG) PDF
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-13: The Quest for Perfection—Part III: Defenders of Nesting Swallow (PFRPG) PDF
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-11: The Quest for Perfection—Part II: On Hostile Waters (PFRPG) PDF
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-09: The Quest for Perfection—Part I: The Edge of Heaven (PFRPG) PDF
Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–08: The Confirmation (PFRPG) PDF
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
hxcmike wrote:
any reason why Sanguine Wildblooded got the banhammer all of a sudden? I have a friend who will be affected by this and I know she's going to be bummed out.
The dhampir and aasimar blood consumption options have been banned too.Your friend might have to switch to potions of infernal healing, still kinda evil (and might very well look like blood, after all that is the material component) but PFS legal.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
magnuskn wrote:
A lot of problems have been there since the beta, and are largely connected with the intention to stay compatible with 3.5. Personally I am not a big fan of some of the old mechanics (like sneak attack - the precise strike ability of the swashbuckler is far better), and pathfinder unchained may just be the way to fix some of these.
And of course a new edition should require quite an extensive playtest (and frankly after mythic adventures, I think the process needs some changes).
Realistically I don't see it happen for quite a long time, as long enough players buy the current edition ( and I know from years of experience that some players just buy every new product, even if they don't have the time to actually use/read most of it).
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Crystal Frasier wrote:
Excellent fluff and crunch what a treat. I am very happy about the new iconics and this one absolutely breaks the mold^^, very well done.
Incidentally this might be the first character transgendered character players will come into contact with (well if they read the Paizo blog). And while I really liked Anevia in Wotr, unless the pcs are really interested in the NPCs,(I dropped some hints but..) Anevia and Irabeth are just a normal lesbian couple . One of my temporary players made a stupid remark, but some people are just stupid.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
After my extensive research on twilight (not reading the books, not seeing the movies -> but seeing that terrible twilight spoof movie) I can safely comment about this.
The shadow demon being a follower of a demon lord (SPOILER) to the adventure (?), does not make sense to me. But I can't go into detail without massive spoilers, so assume that the GM is changing things - quite a certainty, since no Paizo published adventure would ever, ever, ever, ever include a forced "mindrape", and forced impregnation to a player character.
That is a pretty big no no, even if the character was a former player character. And while I already killed two former player characters in my group, since the players no longer attend the games ….. it was a pretty big deus ex machina (getting killed by a 20/10 npc.. in the second adventure) some areas should out of the game.
I can't argue, that the twilight inclusion is or isn't terrible, but the group could always kill the baby and/or the former player, thus "euthanize" this part of the plot. If that isn't an option, just just something like calcific touch, flesh to stone or another spell, to stop this plot indefinitely.
If the group is unwilling to deal with the situation, just call church of Iomedae and wait for the appearance of the inquisition (like the cable company, their arrival is always quite surprising).
Now if you excuse me, I have to rewatch one of my favourite Hellsing (the anime) videos, and while it doesn't contain spoilers of any kind (well except that fictional anime nazis seem like like war, a lot^^) I like to watch it before I GM, it tends to bring me into the right mindset for this AP. You know the one with all those evil bastards, demons, torture….. (Did I mention that I am German?).
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Matt Thomason wrote:
I find the easiest way to deal with balance issues in APs is to go the no-XP route, and also to ignore the recommended level-up points. Just level up the party when they start to struggle, and suddenly the entire AP becomes a near-perfectly-balanced challenge no matter how good or bad the party is.
Yes quite a number of the GMs don't use XP these days, in my Kingmaker campaign I intentionally kept them 1 or 2 levels below the suggestions, it didn't really stop them (Kingmaker 4-5 was quite easy for my group with the exception of one combat against a daemon), but almost resulted in a TPK when I dominated the archer.
James Jacobs wrote:
Isn't the simple answer to that "Look at the iconics"? Yes. That's a much more elegant way to put it, in fact.
I actually really like the iconics in the NPC guide, but I would love to see the iconics from the other books.
And again, even the inconic get a serious power boost out of the rules from mythic adventures. Maybe if I find the motivation I will stat my version of some of them, as some sort of benchmark for other GMs.
James Jacobs wrote:
While these boards are a superb resource (particularly because of the friendly and constructive atmosphere and various paizo customers and employees ready to help new players/GMs), a reasonably short product (not hidden within the pages of the Complete Koblods Guide to Game Design or the Pathinder GMG ) could have a pretty large effect, for some reason a printed product carries quite a bit of weight for some GMs. But it would be hard to find a book to delay, so yeah, unlikely. But maybe a short article on the Paizo blog would be nice, at least if would give us something comprehensive to link to new GMs^^
Mattastrophic wrote:
MY opinions:
You can created devastating combinations with pretty much anything.
Once a character is disruptive to your game, or outshines all other characters all the time you might have to do something.
All classes should be possible, but it is well within your rights as a GM to ban classes, and archetypes, that will be disruptive to your game (or things you can't deal with). Examples some GMs ban are summoners (the class and other classes that summon a lot) since they can eat up a lot of time.
The suggested wealth per level guidelines are in the core rulebook, and please not the percentages that players are supposed to have in each area e.g. a player is not supposed to invest 90 % of his wealth into his weapon.
To give you some guidelines:
-Usually a character that can do other things than fighting (cleric, rogue) should have to roll a 14 or higher on his attack roll to hit an enemy of his CR, it is reasonable for fighters and barbarians (and similar characters) to hit on a 8-10. Buffs tend to push those numbers, but you should be a bit worried when players hit an an attack roll of 5 or below (or only miss on a natural one).
If your group has more than 4 players, consider increasing the number of enemies first, and the power secondary. The CR system is anything but an exact science, and depending on your group composition, a 5th or 6th character can increase their power by up to 25 -75 %. in rare optimized cases even more.
Also learn to cheat, it is well within your purview to change a roll or two to normalize a streak or crits/misses.
Mattastrophic wrote:
Sorry, but while I find it admirable that Paizo products are essentially open source (d20pfsrd makes my life sooo much easier, even with hero lab and pdfs), it is unreasonable for a GM/player to have the time to familiarize himself with all the available rules.
And access on the gaming table is really not guaranteed, it is fine for the adventure to feature nonstandard enemies and spells (the GM can prepare that ahead of time) but using a monster from bestiary 3 is not the same as a complex inquisitor with feats and spells from 7 different books.
It is quite possible the find 6 players to do something together for 4-6 hours, finding the same number of people willing and capable to find the time in their schedules to play an AP for months at a time….. not that easy ^^
If your read the boards, you will find that GMs have to change stat blocks all the time, it is pretty hard to avoid, and frankly some GMs like it. Now I would love to have the statblocks preloaded into hero lab, but that is another topic.
20 pts point buy aren't the problem, I would argue that it could reduce stat dumping.
Mattastrophic wrote:
Yes, but Pathfinder Society adventures are only offered as pdf, and rather short, so the amount of research isn't that big.And of course society play does ban quite a number of options.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
@everyone talking about point buy.
The problem isn't really based on the stats, it is based on other factors, low stats just make certain builds very very hard - to the point where you have to take those dump stats.
(And to be honest my group uses 20 pts point buy, no stats below 10, and pretty much all enemies gain the advanced or another +1 or +2 templates to compensate, or I just increase the hp)
While it is true that the mythic stat increases can be more powerful for certain abilities like divine grace, they are frankly necessary. Otherwise, a mythic which would have no way to increase the DC of their hexes, or any mythic character would be quite limited in their options to increase their health (HP, fort save..).
I finally found what I forgot in my initial post:
Enemies lack protection against certain tactics
This may overlap a bit with my previous posts, but I feel it is worth mentioning. Certain tactics are extremely useful at most or all levels of the game, and enemies are often utterly unable to respond. A clever GM can and should allow enemies to counter all or some of these tactics, since published adventures can anticipate only so much.
So here are some rather effective tactics:
Ranged Combat:
They are good, and most enemies have no defense against their attacks and powers that punish melee attacks like unholy aura have no effect on them. While there are some effects, that can help against those enemies, giving every enemy a protective spell against ranged attacks tends to get old really fast.
Surprisingly this is one of the areas, where WotR is actually better than any previous AP. With abilities like fleet charge, melee characters have it easier than ever to get full attacks, and with the insane mythic power attack (especially considering mythic furious focus) their damage output quickly reduces enemies to mince.
I admit, that some of the more effective ways to stop or weaken ranged combatants involve areas of concealment (fog, darkness), strong wind, very good cover or very limited spaces - and that is very constraining to adventure design.
To reiterate another point, AC is not a sufficient defense against those characters, miss chance, concealment and combats with against a greater number of enemies can sufficient.
Scry and Die:
The tactic is old, but pretty hard to beat as a GM, the players just use magic to locate the creature, then use a teleportation effect to surprise it and kill it before it can react.
There are ways to discourage this tactic, but most of them are magical (like permanent teleportation cages) and thus not available to certain enemies.
I guess this is one of those tactics, where players only stop one it has proved disastrous one to many times.
Buff, Buff then Buff some more:
This "tactic" is a hard one, I think that players should be rewarded for appropriate preparations, like casting protection from cold before engaging a white dragon. Casting spells that are pretty much like class abilities (mage armor for the wizard, magic fang for the druid) seems reasonable too.
The problem arises, when you consider that buffs tend to represent a nonlinear increase in power, in other words, when it comes to buffs 1+1 does not result in 2.
Some mythic examples: mythic heroism gives +4 to attack rolls, saves and other things, for 10 minutes per level, that spell can last for hours (extend spell) and thus would be available for several encounters every day.
Add to that a +4 courageous weapon and that bonus rises to +6.
Now let's add haste (or augment the heroism) and/or magic weapon or maybe bull strength and the bonus to attack rolls can easily reach +10 or higher - of course depending on the level of the group.
I do appreciate, that WotR features a lot of enemies with greater dispel magic, but nothing prevents players from buffing the group with lots of low level spells to soak up dispelling.
Enemies could use Antimagic field, but that spell makes it very easy to create a TPK, and might not even be effective (depending on the non-magical defensive abilities of the user).
Sufficiently buffed, even lower level enemies have a reasonable chance to hit and deal a little damage (just rolling to see if you roll nat 20s is a bit unrewarding IMO).
Invisible Sneak:
Invisibility is a good spell, it can be very useful for scouting, or on the party healer so she can heal in combat while protected. greater invisibility however is a beast, cast on a rogue, ninja, slayer… pretty much everyone with a precision based ability like sneak attack and it will destroy the vast majority of encounters between level 9-14, after that quite a number of enemies gain some ability to detect them.
It is worth mentioning that a lot of classes can access this spell by level 7, and only a select few enemies can cope with that.
I could be wrong, but I don't think that this AP is any more effective against this tactic than any other, arguably less, since players can become invisible with a mythic power.
If you don't know what a "carry" is, it is a term from MOBA games like league of legends. It refers to a character that starts weak, but with enough magic items, buffs and enough levels she becomes extremely effective.
For example, I am sure, that I am not the only GM who had players, who were tempted by the impressive theoretical damage of a rogue/ninja fighting with two weapons. Of course this often results, in fewer damage, since the rogue is already cursed with a less than stellar attack bonus.
Of course once you add good group tactics, that seemingly bad choice can become very effective, without necessarily requiring the other characters to make sacrifices.
Battle against a large demon:
Best case scenario, the rogue now has a much higher chance to hit, can deal sneak attack damage and has more attacks than a rogue with 1h weapon and shield or a two handed weapon.
This is a case where a "weaker" choice can be leveraged to be very powerful, this is another argument against single enemy fights, they are more vulnerable to debuffs, flanking and other tactics.
Of course adventure design, can make use of these tactics, but it usually takes up more space in the adventure. I encourage GMs to toy with the stat blocks and and tactics, so that they are on par, or even better than the player tactics (learning a useful tactic from a previous encounter can be quite entertaining - watch literally any anime, they do this all the time).
For examples, you could add a couple of low level casters to the Storm King fight, to hit him and the group with electricity based attacks.
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Of course some powers and tactics are just not very fair for anybody, and I would actually suggest a gentlemans agreement with your players not to use them.
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And to repeat myself: Most or all of the problems are rooted deeply in the CRB, expecting additional rules like Mythic Adventures, spat book like UM and UC, or adventures to fix them seems unreasonable.
And while the GM doesn't have an easy job, having a GM is one of the greatest advantages and resources this hobby has.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Tangent101 wrote:
These days it would require an intervention to keep me away from my hero lab, my pdfs and d20pfsrd.com.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
magnuskn wrote:
Yeah, I may add a little bit more later, but I fear, that this talk about the published adventures will bleed over in the general area of GM advice.
Adding nonstandard tactics on the fly is a GM skill I am trying to hone myself. I got the idea from the complete Kobold guide to game design (A book I can, and have suggested to everybody My review ), trying to say Yes (rather than No) when my players want to attempt something outside the options outlined in the adventure. It doesn't always work, but my players tend to find it quite rewarding.
Scripted boss battles like the ones world of warcraft uses, can be rewarding and entertaining, but the players will need some ways to learn these mechanics (knowledge skills seem like the way to go).
For example here is a version of the fight against the Storm King:
As written in the adventure, but when the players come outside to confront him, they seem him killing one of this subordinates (a demon that is covered in glowing runes)by touching him his bare hands (looks like lightning grasp) seconds later, he explodes in a shower of spark and guts (as detonate reflex DC 25, 20d8 electricity damage).
Throughout the fight whenever his hit points fall below 50% he calls for new minions and becomes protected by a powerful mythic sanctuary effect (DC 30). 2d6 CR 10-15 demons (marked with the same glowing runes) fly up from the nearby rift and try to come close enough to the Storm King to detonate them.
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MMO design these days likes to play with stacks and debuffs and you could use the same tactic here:
Enemies hit by the Storm Kings melee attacks and electricity based spells must succeed at a fortitude save (DC 27) or receive a static charge. Creatures with 1-5 static charges, suffer a -2 penalty on all saving throws against lightning effects, creatures with more than 5 charges receive double damage from electricity.
And of course something to discourage attacks from extreme range:
The Storm King is surrounded by a permanent cloak of winds, as a full round action he can strengthen this effect so the penalty on ranged attack rolls doubles and the creatures up to large size have to succeed at at fortitude save (DC 25) to touch or attack him in melee.
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There is certainly room for combats like these, but even in this case I would give him 50% fortification and a lot more hit points (but remove the vorpal blade).
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Messing with a perfectly good adventure - my campaign and other calamities (Spoiler)
Spoilers are pretty much impossible to avoid
I apologize for the length.
Every group is different, and while the access to material and GM style vary greatly, this post assumes the use most paizo created pathfinder resources. However I will try to use core material for my examples.
And while I have made changes to loot distribution and random encounters, this post is based on the core assumptions.
Hello everyone,
this topic has been on my mind for quite some time, and while posters like the esteemed magnuskn and various others have highlighted the problems with high level play and adventure paths, I want to talk about WotR.
While this AP does share some of its problems with other adventure paths, it introduces new or worsens existing problems.
Enemy variety:
While it is not unusual or indeed negative, for a campaign to have a theme, it tends to lower the enemy variety significantly. While I am not a huge fan of the favoured enemy mechanic, whether it is used on a class or feat base (ranger/demon hunter feats) or come in the form of magic items (bane weapons, arrows of slaying) I recognize its potential. After all if a player is properly prepared, he/she should get rewarded for it.
Since the vast majority of enemies in this adventure path are evil, a paladin with smite evil (or similar ability) will find ample opportunities and a holy should be a good investment.
After reading the entire AP, I can say, that they actually tried to increase the enemy variety, particularly in the earlier adventures, but most of the significant threats are still mostly evil outsiders.
Of course this also means that DR is far less useful, it isn't really unlikely that pcs are prepared to faces the hordes of the abyss, after all that is what this AP is about. This along with other abilities tends to devalue material based DR.
When it comes to the area of spellcasting, the limited enemy variety, makes a number of spells very good. The demon hunters handbook recently introduced protection from outsiders, which is frankly amazing. While outside of the Abyss demons are quite vulnerable to dismissal, holy word and similar effects.
A lot of the "important" and challenging enemies will be mythic creatures and most of them will also be demons. A +2 mythic bane evil outsider bane weapon will be a investment, that is very hard to beat, and it can overcome DR/Epic.
The issues mentioned above affect every AP ( excluding mythic bane), but Mythic Adventures gives the PCs other shiny toys.
Arcane Strike (Mythic) is quite potent in every mythic campaign, but in this case it should allow the player to ignore DR completely and add a significant attack bonus.
Beyond Mortality, while removing alignment and allowing combinations like paladin/assassin, the ability to ignore unholy/anarchic weapons (possible encounter at the end of book 5) , defensive abilities like unholy aura (fight in book 6 among others) , offensive spells like unholy blight and blasphemy, class abilities like smite good and various other creature abilities that only penalize creatures of the opposing alignment.
Ignoring DR, resistances, immunities and SR: Various powers and abilities allow players to ignore DR and resistances either on a limited basis, or permanently.
One of the disadvantages of published adventures is, that either due to limited word count (and/or the authors sanity) it is impossible to provide answers for every possible scenario or player tactic.
Demons have a very broad set of abilities, but some or all of them can be countered by prepared players. This is a good thing.
However since mythic spellcasters can access their entire spell list quite easily, the players can still benefit from good preparation, without actually preparing (preparing the right spells, buying the right magic item) and can respond to challenges with the perfect answer.
Using mythic spellcasting, players can access very efficient long term buffs (mythic mage armor, mythic heroism, mythic magic vestment) and devastating combat spells.
Other mythic choices allow characters to increase their strengths or reduce their weaknesses, but few allow devastating combinations like class mimic.
What I am saying, is that the various slight power increases tend to combine and multiply, this is hardly limited to mythic play, but the players have a lot more options.
Most of the time, the mythic rules tend to enhance existing abilities, or give similar thematic powers, there aren't usually a lot of ways to adapt the enemies.
It is reasonable to expect GMs to adapt the NPC tactics to the realities of battle, but that rarely gives them more options.
Fortunately Mythic Adventures provides us with a number of additional templates, to solve these problems. While this puts more strain on the GM, I think it could be a worthwhile idea to provide the GM with some options like: "At the start of the encounter, the Storm King can get the benefit two of the following templates : agile, arcane, invincible ;alternatively, instead of a template the Storm King, is subject to a mythic contingency, that releases an intensified detonate that deals 15d8 electricity damage"
Abilities like limited wish, give the GM a way to adapt the opponents on the fly, and while giving everyone limited wish seems unrealistic, something like "the creature can cast up two 3 ranger spells per day, usually the following spells" could be an option. Again, I love templates, but it can add more work for the GM, but since many GMs will "have" to do this anyway, suggestions are appreciated.
TLDR:Players have access to a diverse number of options, enemies don't.
Players can deal a lot of damage, and their ability to deal damage soon outstrips their ability to survive it.
This poses two distinct problems:
-Enemies tend to die very very quickly, and that tends to be a bit anticlimactic, remember that a round takes 6 seconds.
I think, that as far as mythic play is concerned, Table 6-8 Monster Statistics by CR does not provide the monsters with enough hit points. A melee character with mythic power attack can deal substantially more damage, especially if she is crit based.
Possible solutions include the ability to redirect attacks, like the excellent
Deadly Dodge wrote:
or the
Mirroring Belt wrote:
but those two can quite easily kill player characters.
Increasing the number of enemies and increasing the hit points of important enemies should provide the players with a suitable challenge and satisfying experience.
- Players can kill other players
The ability to redirect, attacks is quite rare, but confused or dominated players can pose a serious danger to their own group, and while there are quite a number of ways to increase AC, increasing your hit points is surprisingly ineffective.
Mythic Adventures includes abilities, that allow a healer to heal a dead creature back to life and I suspect that this is one of the reasons for the inclusion ofdeathless, particularly in the mythic version.
Once recuperation becomes available, it is quite unlikely that players will run out of limited class abilities (spells, rage, bardic music, arcane pool) this makes attrition tactics - a long string of attacks/challenges - far less effective, and I would argue that encounters have to be challenging enough to force the players to spend mythic points.
Mythic power quickly becomes the most valuable resource, since it can be used for recuperation, spellcasting (including giving access to spellcasting via mortal herald), extra actions, activating mythic feats….
While there are some ways to refill your mythic power ambrosia is quite cheap in the grand scale of things.
This fact puts quite a bit of strain on the adventure design, since encounters/challenges, have to be so frequent/challenging that the group has to expend suitable resources, but not so frequent that the PCs get overpowered.
For my 2 cents, if the players are smart and use buffs efficiently, encounters will be over quicker and they won't be forced to spend mythic power in combat to reverse/prevent negative effects.
As written the AP gives the players quite a bit of freedom, and while the a time limit is heavily implied (even in part 5, that is plenty of time) the PCs should have the ability to retreat after a short number of encounters.
Maybe this is more of a feature than a bug, but it requires quite challenging encounters, you won't be able to impress the players with lots of encounters.
TLDR Mythic adventure design is even harder than regular adventure design, and while some of the encounters and challenges might be a bit easy, it is a good first try.
Obviously the players won't become publish enemy number one at the start of the first adventure, but considering their actions on the first and second adventures, they should be a known threat to the demon army.
Since the demons are a pretty chaotic lot, it seems reasonable (and the adventure depends on this fact) that they won't make a coordinated attempt to kill or corrupt the player characters.
Again this might be due to the limited word count, but I feel that GMs should modify the enemies to respond to the players, if news reaches them, that they favor various tactics.
To reiterate my previous point, giving the enemies some options (various templates chosen by the GM, limited wish, simple arcane/divine spellcasting) should allow them to adapt. And another crucial point, GMs should be willing to incorporate material from all sources that the players have access to. Paizo tends to use spells from the core rulebook, and in some cases adding spells from other sources (like APG spells for a ranger NPC) can make them far more effective.
Of course at this point the GM has to find a good sweet spot, between rewarding the players from being good at the game (some GMs forget that fact) and providing a sufficient and rewarding challenge.
With current rules let's say CRG, APG, UM and MA, characters with the ability to spend resources (everyone other than fighter and rogue) have a distinct advantage.
The mythic rules allow characters the break rules in small ways (like feats but with greater effect), and while this gives characters unprecedented freedom to build their characters, it makes it very tough to write adventures.
Mythic characters are usually very good at overcoming straightforward combat encounters, so adding a number of nonstandard challenges and customized encounters should provide an acceptable challenge.
Always remember, that the assumption for adventure paths are based on 15 pts. point buy, 4 characters, purchase limit based on city size, wealth per level guidelines (including the suggested values for weapons, armors and one shot items), proper use of knowledge skills to determine enemy weaknesses…..
Pretty much everyone, doesn't rigidly enforce each and every rule in Pathfinder, so you should always feel confident to make any changes, that you think, make the experience better for your group.
It is highly unlikely that James Jacobs, will come to your home game and shout at you for doing it wrong (highly unlikely, yeah never underestimate a bloody T-Rex)
I hope that once they have a moment, the designers will take a second look at the mythic rules to make some of the abilities a bit more reasonable (like
titans bane:
itan's Bane (Ex)
You can move through the space of any creature two or more size categories larger than you without provoking attacks of opportunity, and you can share such a creature's space. When sharing a larger opponent's space, you gain cover against all melee and ranged attacks made by the creature, and it is considered flat-footed for the purposes of any melee or ranged attacks you make against it.
Surprisingly effective for small rogues or ninjas.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Titan's Bane is one of those abilities that tends to surprise you, and I don't know how to deal with that. Precision Critical and Class minic are obvious and pretty much insane abilities.
Regarding Storm King:
The Storm King seems tough, but he needs some way to discourage such a beatdown.
I consider adding the following abilities::
Static Charge (Su) Khorramzadeh´s body is filled with tremendous amounts of electricity, and on successful attacks with a melee weapon, a portion of that energy tries to earth itself into the attacker. The attacker can prevent this effect by succeeding on a DC 38 Fortitude save. On a failed save, the attacker takes 10d6 electricity damage and gains a Static Charge. For each Static Charge, the character increases his electricity damage taken by 100 %. A character can have up to 10 Static Charges.
Boiling Blood Khorramzadeh´s blood can interact with his flaming body to shield him from further attacks. When the Storm King suffers a critical hit, sneak attack, or other precision based attack his spilling blood is vaporised by the electricity and fire that covers his body. This envelops him in a shroud of burning blood, that protects him like a maximized empowered fire shield (warm shield, 1d6 +21 fire damage) and acid fog that deals electricity damage centered on him.
Thank you for the Ninja statblock, it is very interesting, the buffs you mentioned should be expected, especially since mythic heroism/i] is so very good, especially with a courageous weapon (even if I still try to convince the good makers of hero lab, that it works this way).
I never had a reason to look at the pathfinder version of [i]mind blank/i], it is pretty damn good on an invisible ninja. That said, the legendary item ability does pretty much the same :( .
Yeah, if you somehow managed to to squeeze Beyond Mortality in there, even the unholy aura would be no threat.
Now as a little thank you let me thank you with sharing a couple of monsters of my own:
Death by disintegrate magus:
Teris Alderis
Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
This is a variant of an NPC for my campaign (I am doing a crazy metaplot with lots of mythic characters )
Hisdisintegrate is frankly insane, without spending a point of mythic power the dc to avoid massive damage is a fort DC 39 to avoid, 40d6 damage.
That is pretty mental, I would argue that at least channel power should not be combined with potent mythic spells.
Dorn Barbarian/Champion:
A myth
Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
While he is raging, using mythic power attack (spend on point of mythic power to ignore penalties), reckless abandon, and not benefiting from haste:
legendary +5 bane (outsider (evil)), courageous, defending, furious, mythic bane, transformative adamantine axe +46/+46/+46/+41 (1d10+51/19-20/×3+2d6 vs. Outsider (evil)+2d6 vs. mythic subtype
Against a demon:
legendary +5 bane (outsider (evil)), courageous, defending, furious, mythic bane, transformative adamantine axe +48/+48/+48/+43 (1d10+53/19-20/×3+2d6 vs. Outsider (evil)
Of course a single confirmed critical hit would result in 2d10+165+2d6 damage.
And he is not using some of his better abilities like class mimic.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
I have some suggestions:
- let smite overcome the alignment part of the damage reduction, that way it stays useful.
Some of my own house rules:
-20 pts. point buy, no stat under 10 (this is pretty close to the "official" 15pts point buy, but avoids things like untasteful stat dumping)
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Midnight_Angel wrote:
I don't think that is the case (most of the time), most GMs and some players are unhappy about the kind of questions and answers she expects.
Getting punished for not answering exactly like the adventure wants, result in damage. Let's just say, there is room for improvement.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
magnuskn wrote:
Yeah, I suspected that you knew those tactics, but good advice is usually worth reiterating, it might be of benefit to someone reading this.
Regarding higher levels, I tend to cheat as much as I find necessary. To be honest since I tend to tweak the NPCs a bit, to make them a viable challenge (nothing I could not justify in game, like a couple of buffs like mage armor, ablative barrier, and resist energy) I sometimes have to weaken my NPCs or let them use suboptimal tactics.
I feel justified as long, as my players have fun, feel challenged and get the satisfaction of beating certain challenges with their own creativity.
Of course that requires some degree of verisimilitude but it has worked so far^^.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Tangent101 wrote:
To be fair this current topic included the words: alignment, lawfull good, paladin, torture and kidnapping. The fact that most of us managed to remain relatively civil is a very impressive thing indeed.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Chuckg wrote:
Actually these days I just talk to my players, if things get unruly, no reason to smite them with meteors. I have seen it done, when I played with other GMs,and it is a pretty useless tool. All it really does, is to create that damn "the GM is our enemy" feeling, and that is utterly useless for all participants.
Chuckg wrote:
No I fear you misunderstand me, the draconian measures seem only intended to prevent/punish that kind of idiotic behavior. The really stupid borderline insane kind. Unfortunately apparently aren't written clearly enough to differentiate between a well founded complaint (not unreasonable, after a god calls you to his presence, you might have been busy) and the crazy stuff.
The SHOULD allow for a degree of civilized conversation, but as written (and understand by the majority) it is akin to breaking out the fire axt every time you have to extinguish any kind of flame in the house (like a candle).
So yeah the rules kindo throw out the baby with the bathwater here, but it wasn't my intention to trivialize you complaints like that.
I think, they could be better phrased, but in essence she just wants to know a bit about the characters.
... she is a freaking deity. If she wants to know something about the characters, she has an almost literal infinity of options for finding out, none of which require stealing the gag of that Japanese game show parody from that one "Supernatural" episode. You know, the one where the Trickster forced Sam & Dean to play a silly quiz show, and every time they got an answer wrong they were punched in the balls? 'Nutcracker', I think it was called?
I wrote an entire post on the silliness of the idea that Iomedae would need to 'test' the player characters at all. They've already been through four books' worth of tests at this point.
Actually, now that I think about it, her whole shpiel of 'Are you ready to face the temptations of a demon lord?' makes Iomedae look like an idiot. Ma'am, you're already a chapter late asking this question! We just got through the whole prior adventure with having to deal with Nocticula! Y'know what? If I've just walked out of a face-to-face with the freaking Succubus Queen and still retained my good...
Yes, it is written in the form of an encounter, or test if you will. There are rewards if you are victorious, but there are consequences for failure. That seems to be the core problem, the PCs are forced into a trial by fire, at a point in time, and in a way to conflicts with their previous acts and self image.
If you remove the encounter (and I guess) trial aspect, most offenses could be avoided.
I was only trying to ascertain what the reasoning behind it all of this has been. At this point it is pretty clear that the end result is disappointing to a lot of GMs, and that this is viewed as a (rare) drop in quality when it comes to the adventure paths.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Chuckg wrote:
Well if they players are having a good time, making jokes and clowning around, that is all fine and dandy. But that does not always translate into the game, a player might make an in character joke just because it is funny to him and the other players, but thats usually all out of character. So it wasn't really said/done in the game. At least that is how I tend to play this, years ago we had a pretty strict "you say you do it, you have done it" rule at the table. I don't really want to go back to that time, it didn't work out very well.
And while I sometimes have to get my group back on track - actually we all decided that we wanted to reduce distractions while we play, to improve the RP - that is the nature of the beast.
What I meant, is that if a player decides to want his character to go forth, stand before a goddess and fart in her face, there should be consequences.
It has been stated by others, and rather more eloquent, that the biggest problem with this encounter is, that it is an encounter.
- The timing: While the PCs have not literally gone through hell, the abyss (even if you go to a "nice place" ) isn't a very welcoming area for the player characters. But they survived and returned. I understand that Iomedae feels, that she has to test the PCs before she can dare to send them on their mission (see below) at this in point in time, the heroes certainly think that they have proven themselves. And depending on the events of the individual campaign, might have proven some or all of the qualities Iomedae wants to test in them.
I honestly don't know where to transplant the players encountering her, maybe before they venture the first time into the abyss, but you can't really mention the herald situation yet, otherwise the players would try to rescue him right now.
- The approach: Iomedae takes the PCs to her domain and tests them without prior warning or request. Again, this could work for heroes who still have to prove themselves, but at this point the players have another opinion of themselves.
Now, this might sound like another excuse, but I would not be surprised if Iomedae is a bit lacking in the area of empathy for the social sensibilities of others. She is a warrior goddess and may lack the social grace to "court" the players properly. Don't get me wrong, she is not Gorum - I fully expect him to give the players a weapon and test them in combat (to find out if they are the metal or the meat [sorry for the Pratchett reference]] - but neither is she Sarenrae.
- The goals: Iomedae wants the PCs to succeed in either saving or killing her herald. But she has to consider that the player characters are among her (or to be more exact her crusades)
But the death or "her" mortal champions is hardly the worst case scenario. The crusade might survive their loss, but what if the enemy manages to capture and corrupt them?
Iomedae would not want to lose them, if she came to the conclusion, that they aren't ready to storm the domain of an openly hostile demon lord, invade his prison and steal some of his most valuable prisoners…. sending them would be wasting their potential. And interesting enough, if the players do fail her test, the adventure suggest another quest to prove their worth (kill a dragon).
So yeah, while she desperately wants to players to succeed, she is afraid to lose them. I kinda like this part, makes her character a bit flawed, and that is appealing even (and especially) for a god.
- Punishing unruly players:
Yeah, it has been discussed to death, I think you could have ended his the same or similar suggestions without any trouble. Just add something " Iomedae can and will tolerate a certain level of disrespectful behaviour, but does not take abuse. Repeated offenses carry larger penalties, but consider giving your other player (characters) the chance to intervene before Iomedae has to do so."
This should cover most situations, and maybe add:
"If a character is particularly disruptive, Iomedae makes him seem to disappear, assuring the characters that the group will be reunited shortly. The player is effective undetectable by anyone other than the goddess to the other players, but otherwise still with the party. This way the player can still participate with the "tests" and communicate with Iomedae. Once the PC and Iomedau have settled their gievances the can rejoin the group.You can treat this "time out" as apparent time (like a time stop) so the other characters might not even notice. "
Yeah it is not perfect, but this solution allows everybody to save face, and give the players a chance to voice their well voiced grievances with the persona in charge.
- The tests:
Surprisingly I don't have that many problems with the questions, sure the DC for the first question is very high (but easy for mythic characters) considering that the subject matter is pretty well known amongst the crusaders.
I think, they could be better phrased, but in essence she just wants to know a bit about the characters. She just wants to come to the conclusion, that the are well rounded enough, willing to cooperate, to consider the weight of their actions and to outsmart a pretty clever demon lord.
In my own (not that humble ;P ) opinion, as long as the players are willing to face the question and answer in a way that suggest, that they have actually thought about the question.
The punishment for failure seems to antagonize players a bit too much, but you could change it to something a little bit more subtle:
"Your answer doesn't seem to satisfy the goddess, and while she seems unwilling to into particulars, you can't shake the feeling, that you are somehow unworthy in her eyes. Proving yourself in the eyes of the goddess should help to alleviate this unease, but until that is done you are plagued by indecision: -2 to initiative checks and - 1 to will saves (future alternative results: players grow depressed and can't benefit from moral boni)
Maybe even that is too strong and cheapens the disapproval of a goddess but giving it stats, but it could work.
If I have the time I will post my remake of the encounter, and at least that would be useful to others…
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
At this point, I don't expect or need another ELH, the mythic stuff has one great advantage over epic, you can use it at lower levels.
Plenty of people think that the game starts to fall apart after level 15 so you are limiting your audience to a point where it seem a really bad idea to produce content for it.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Thank your for the confirmation, that gods indeed to have more powerful servants. I guess players and GMs just have way more contact with the evil part of the bestiary.
I had not considered, that the heralds were limited to allow greater planar ally to call them, my players have yet to touch the spell (they are quite unwilling to pay for services like this).
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Alleran wrote:
This explains so much, but now I just imagine her on a couch, in a corner of her cathedral. Sitting in her pyjamas, ice cream in one hand, a glass of wine on the other, she sits crying and watching the heroes fight her fallen herold.This scenario either ends with her jumping of up and high fiving everyone in the cathedral… or Iomedae trying to bury her guilt and sadness until the PCs either kill or drive away Baphomet.
Once that is done, and the PCs have returned, a drunk (with joy, wine, and ice cream) Iomedae (still in her pyjamas) hugs the PCs and wants to make them all herolds^^
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
theshoveller wrote:
Mythic arcane strike, is sooooo good, you can pretty much kill demon lords with a spoon.
One of my players does indeed play a sacred shield paladin of Iomedae. It is pretty effective. He does not intend to do very much damage, he is very contend to be the party tank. The smite evil replacement ability is quite effective and I actually worry, that it will become too good once he boosts his Charisma.
He is a Guardian (the campaign trait is pretty awesome for Guardians) with dual path Marshal, I am currently busy to post about my campaign in another thread, and will post their current characters (Level 6 Tier 1) and my projections soon. But since that is a giant spoiler, here are some of my player characters:
Mythic sacred shield:
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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
This will contain quite a lot of spoilers, so be warned this is pretty much for GMs only.
I am starting this thread, after my group has just started the second adventure, with the intention to benefit others. While some of the changes and reactions are quite unique to my own players, their abilities easy to replicate, so their success should be informative.
Before I start writing about the adventure, let´s look at specific changes for this campaign and the player characters.
My players are quite experienced with other RPGs, particularly "The Dark Eye" (a rather popular german RPG) but their knowledge of the Pathfinder RPG is a bit limited.
They expressed some wishes after the last Pathfinder campaign, the following "houserules" are my attempt to rectify some of those grievances:
- 20 pts. point buy, but before racial adjustments, no ability can be below 10 (I think, this is pretty close to the standard 15 points )
- 1 campaign trait and one other trait for each player character
- no crafting feats ( unchecked use of these feats, has seriously unbalanced the last campaign, and while the suggestions from ultimate campaign are good, I decided against them)
- I will change the loot and other adventure rewards to give my players specific rewards/upgrades that fit their character mechanics and style. (My players voiced some dissatisfaction about finding a lot of magical items, that were sold pretty much immediately)
- At level 1 the player characters were equipped for about 2000 gold, no magic items, except some healing potions. This resulted in a number of very well armored player characters, but I compensated for that in the first encounters. (This was intended to allow the characters to describe and equip their characters to their satisfaction)
I think, that the changes to loot will have the greatest impact on the campaign, but since I have control over that ( and they still find a limited amount of monetary rewards) it should not unbalance things overly much.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Set wrote:
It is pretty damn awesome, and I think we should demand Valeros cosplaying as Seoni, just for the proper balance of things.
That said I have love the artwork of the iconics before Pathfinder was a real thing. Back in the "OMG Dragon magazine will not longer appear in print" stage. While Seonis artwork is great, I have to admit, that sometimes I just want give her a long fluffy shawl to keep her warm. Of course once you assume, that she uses mage armor for protection and endure elements (first level spell, 24 hours duration seems reasonable) her attire really is a matter or personal choice.
Actually cheesecake in fantasy illustrations does bother me more than it used to, but that is pretty much based on impractical armor and high heels (in plate mail :( ), but I think that Paizo has avoided this very well.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Now it is time for our lovely iconic barbarian. Since her sword is featured in her backstory and artwork, I decided to make it a legendary item.
Amiri Barbarian 5 / Guardian 1:
A myth
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Amiri Barbarian 9 / Guardian 3:
A myth
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Amiri Barbarian 12 / Guardian 5:
A myth
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Amiri Barbarian 15 / Guardian 7:
A myth
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Amiri Barbarian 18/ Guardian 9:
A myth
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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
I am having quite a bit of fun with Mythic Adventures, and the MA Hero Lab addon, so I decided make some characters. Since adventure paths no longer have the iconics in them, I though it would be fun to provide some unofficial stats for them (for players of the current Wraith of the Righteous adventure path). Since the AP suggest certain level/mythic tier combinations, the characters are presented at those levels/tiers.
So here is Valeros ( I changed his fighting style to two shortswords, the longsword actually started to reduce his damage)
Valeros Fighter 6/ Champion 1:
Human Fighter 6
NG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +7; Senses Perception +0
AC 24, touch 15, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +2 shield, +3 Dex, +1 natural, +1 deflection, +1 dodge)
hp 60 (6d10+23)
Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +4 (+2 vs. fear)
Defensive Abilities bravery +2
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 Shortsword +11/+6 (1d6+8/19-20/x2) and
. . +1 Shortsword +11 (1d6+8/19-20/x2)
Ranged Masterwork Shortbow +10/+5 (1d6/x3)
Special Attacks weapon training abilities (light blades +1)
Str 18, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +6; CMB +10; CMD 25
Feats Combat Reflexes (4 AoO/round), Dodge, Double Slice, Improved Initiative, Two-weapon Defense, Two-Weapon Defense [Mythic], Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (Shortsword), Weapon Specialization (Shortsword)
Skills Acrobatics +0, Climb +10, Escape Artist +0, Fly +0, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +10, Ride +9, Stealth +0, Swim +10
Languages Common, Goblin
SQ hard to kill, surge
Combat Gear Potion of cure light wounds (3), Potion of cure serious wounds, Potion of enlarge person, Acid, Alchemist's fire (2), Antitoxin, Holy water; Other Gear Breastplate, +1 Shortsword, +1 Shortsword, Arrows (20), Masterwork Shortbow, Amulet of natural armor +1, Belt of giant strength +2, Cape of free will +1/+2, Ring of protection +1, Backpack (empty), Bedroll, Crowbar, Everburning torch, Grappling hook, heavy mace, Mug/tankard, Rope, Trail rations (2), Waterskin, 276 GP, 8 SP, 8 CP
Special Abilities
Antitoxin This substance counteracts a specific toxin. If you drink a vial of antitoxin, you gain a +5 alchemical bonus on Fortitude saving throws against poison for 1 hour.
Alchemical Power Component
Hero Lab® and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Valeros Fighter 9 / Champion 3:
Human Fighter 9
NG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +10; Senses Perception +0
AC 26, touch 15, flat-footed 22 (+7 armor, +3 shield, +3 Dex, +1 natural, +1 deflection, +1 dodge)
hp 97 (9d10+42)
Fort +10, Ref +8, Will +6 (+2 vs. fear); +4 vs. effects that cause you to lose your grip on weapons
Defensive Abilities bravery +2
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 Shortsword +18/+18 (1d6+12/17-20/x3) and
. . +2 Cold Iron Shortsword +19/+19 (1d6+13/17-20/x3)
Ranged Masterwork Composite shortbow (Str +0) +16/+16 (1d6+3/x3)
Special Attacks weapon training abilities (light blades +4, bows +3)
Str 20, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +9; CMB +14; CMD 29 (33 vs. Disarm, 33 vs. Sunder)
Feats Combat Reflexes (4 AoO/round), Dodge, Double Slice, Dual Path (Guardian) [Mythic], Improved Critical (Shortsword), Improved Critical [Mythic], Improved Initiative, Improved Two-weapon Fighting, Power Attack -3/+6, Two-weapon Defense, Two-Weapon Defense [Mythic], Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (Shortsword), Weapon Specialization (Shortsword)
Skills Acrobatics +2, Climb +16, Escape Artist +2, Fly +2, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +13, Ride +14, Stealth +2, Swim +16
Languages Common, Goblin
SQ amazing initiative (1/round), hard to kill, recuperation, surge
Combat Gear Potion of aid, Potion of cure light wounds (3), Potion of cure serious wounds, Potion of enlarge person, Potion of fly, Potion of protection from evil (2), Acid, Alchemist's fire (2), Antitoxin, Holy water; Other Gear +1 Breastplate, +1 Shortsword, +2 Cold Iron Shortsword, Cold Iron Arrows (50), Masterwork Composite shortbow (Str +0), Amulet of natural armor +1, Belt of giant strength +2, Cape of free will +2/+3, Gloves of dueling, Ring of protection +1, Backpack (empty), Bedroll, Crowbar, Everburning torch, Grappling hook, heavy mace, Mug/tankard, Rope, Trail rations (2), Waterskin, 276 GP, 8 SP, 8 CP
Special Abilities
Absorb Blow (15 damage) (Su) As an immediate action, use 1 power when damaged to reduce by listed amount. Every 10 pts absorbed grants DR 1/epic and Resist 5 for 1 min.
Amazing Initiative (1/round) (Ex) As a free action, use 1 power to gain an extra standard action (can't be used to cast a spell).
Antitoxin This substance counteracts a specific toxin. If you drink a vial of antitoxin, you gain a +5 alchemical bonus on Fortitude saving throws against poison for 1 hour.
Alchemical Power Component
Hero Lab® and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Note:Hero Lab thinks, that the precision ability applies to the improved two weapon fighting attack penalty. I am not that sure about it.
Valeros Fighter 12 /Champion 5:
Human Fighter 12
NG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +15; Senses Perception +0
AC 32, touch 19, flat-footed 25 (+7 armor, +4 shield, +6 Dex, +2 natural, +2 deflection, +1 dodge)
hp 146 (12d10+73)
Fort +14, Ref +13, Will +10 (+3 vs. fear); +4 vs. effects that cause you to lose your grip on weapons
Defensive Abilities bravery +3, fortification 25%
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 Bane (Mythic) Shortsword +22/+22/+22 (1d6+12+2d6 vs. Mythic/17-20/x3) and
. . +3 Cold Iron Shortsword +24/+24/+24 (1d6+14/17-20/x3)
Ranged Masterwork Composite shortbow (Str +0) +22/+22/+22 (1d6+3/x3)
Special Attacks weapon training abilities (light blades +4, bows +3)
Str 20, Dex 22, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +12; CMB +17; CMD 36 (40 vs. Disarm, 40 vs. Sunder)
Feats Combat Reflexes (7 AoO/round), Dodge, Double Slice, Dual Path (Guardian) [Mythic], Greater Two-weapon Fighting, Greater Weapon Focus (Shortsword), Improved Critical (Shortsword), Improved Critical [Mythic], Improved Initiative, Improved Two-weapon Fighting, Iron Will, Power Attack -4/+12, Power Attack [Mythic], Two-weapon Defense, Two-Weapon Defense [Mythic], Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (Shortsword), Weapon Specialization (Shortsword)
Skills Climb +20, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +16, Ride +21, Swim +20
Languages Common, Goblin
SQ amazing initiative (1/round), bane (mythic), hard to kill, mythic saving throws, recuperation, surge
Combat Gear Potion of aid, Potion of cure light wounds (3), Potion of enlarge person, Potion of fly, Potion of protection from evil (2), Acid, Alchemist's fire (2), Antitoxin, Holy water; Other Gear +1 Fortification (light) Breastplate, +1 Bane (Mythic) Shortsword, +3 Cold Iron Shortsword, Cold Iron Arrows (50), Masterwork Composite shortbow (Str +0), Amulet of natural armor +2, Belt of physical perfection +2, Boots of speed (10 rounds/day), Cape of free will +3/+4, Gloves of dueling, Ring of protection +2, Backpack (empty), Bedroll, Crowbar, Everburning torch, Grappling hook, heavy mace, Mug/tankard, Rope, Trail rations (2), Waterskin, 276 GP, 8 SP, 8 CP
Special Abilities
Absorb Blow (25 damage) (Su) As an immediate action, use 1 power when damaged to reduce by listed amount. Every 10 pts absorbed grants DR 1/epic and Resist 5 for 1 min.
Amazing Initiative (1/round) (Ex) As a free action, use 1 power to gain an extra standard action (can't be used to cast a spell).
Antitoxin This substance counteracts a specific toxin. If you drink a vial of antitoxin, you gain a +5 alchemical bonus on Fortitude saving throws against poison for 1 hour.
Alchemical Power Component
Hero Lab® and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Valeros Fighter 15 / Champion 7:
Alchemical Power Component
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Valeros Fighter 18 / Champion 9 :
Alchemical Power Component
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With power attack, this last version of Valerios is quite dangeraus:
Melee +1 Holy, Mythic Bane Shortsword +39/+39/+39 (1d6+28+2d6 vs. Evil+2d6 vs. mythic subtype/17-20/x3) and
...so he could kill himself with about 4 hits ...
Well that took long enough, I will do the other iconics when I have the time, but I would love to see other peoples take on them. Actually I would love to see any mythic characters, your NPCs your player characters... well anything^^
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Margrave wrote:
From MALegendary Hero (Su): At 10th tier, you have reached the
height of mortal power. You regain uses of your mythic
power at the rate of one use per hour, in addition to
completely refreshing your uses each day.
I think that could prove , that they are supposed to refresh each day. It seems, they had to add this as a reminder, that regaining a mythic power (I just decided to use MP as for it in future) per hour does not replace the normal refreshing.
That refers to MP per day too, I haven't found a source that the heroes have to rest to regain their MP, but it could just be like spell like abilities (which do not require rest IRRC)
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Artanthos wrote:
Nice one, but I would not allow you to combine armored might, with a abjuration effect^^ After all this is "just" some variant of mage armor, still full marks for creativity^^ and hey it might be legal :P
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
So... damage calculation with a greater vital strike, mythic vital strike, power attack, mythic power, improved critical and mythic improved critical, an attack should be fun with the right weapon.
Lets see what a level 17 fighter 10 champion/trickster can do:
Vital Striker wrote:
Tell me that I am wrong please:
standard attack with power attack 1d10+56/x3
EDIT: Forgot that the extra damage dice aren't multiplied by a critical hit so the crit damage is only 1068?
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Lisa Stevens wrote:
Just out of curiosity, I usually purchase a gift card ahead of time and redeem it ahead of time, to pay for my subscriptions (my debit card has caused delays before). Would it be an option for subscribers, if they have sufficient store credit, to receive their pdf earlier?
After all as far as my debit card company is concerned, I always buy gift cards and receive within seconds^^ (And yes I am always greedy when it comes to new paizo stuff^^
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Jim Groves wrote:
I just showed the picture to my players.. with your post. They are now officially worried.
I couldn't be happier ^^
@Being: Don't worry overly much about language skills, I trained as a professional translator (back in school, we used to translate the meetings of the UN concerning the Iraq war pretty much live) but that happened quite some years ago.
That was the part about my ability to read basic English, but linking you post to violence against women... would not have happened on my part.
I assume this is a cultural problem, now bashing on America is always easy – but that is actually not what I am talking about. Of course treating people the way you described, is vile and should be punished to the full extend of the law.
No, I am talking about the various cultures of gamers. It might be nice to be able to say, that we are all one big happy family, but that isn't the case.
For most pen and paper Pathfinder players, I would vouch that behavior like this isn't an issue. I know of no GM, who would allow things like this to happen at their table, and I would actually bet, that Paizo has absolutely not tolerance for this kind of behavior.
Once you no longer have direct contact with the other players, things tend to get a little bit complicated. While the anonymity of the internet is worth protecting, if can encourage people to say and do things they would never even consider in real life. That is one of the disadvantages of this wonderful medium, the lack of a correcting response.
I can't give you a number, but I have met quite a number of women that were exceptional at the game. Planning and running a raid, is a tough job (done it way to often) and they did it just as well as every other good leader. So yeah they were just as good or bad as male players, but honestly telling people, that you are female is still a choice with consequences.
Now the tabletop and MMORPG players I can kinda relate to, but there is another set of gamer. You might have heard all the terrible stories about other online games (quite often) shooters. You might have seen, youtube videos about female gamers, and the terrible community in these games. As a female, using your micro in some of those games, is a rather save way to get verbally assaulted (well that's a bit strong, it's pretty much pure BS). If you happen to be really good at the game, it is even worse.
None of the examples above compare to actual physical violence, but we are are on a forum about an MMORPG. I think we are off to a pretty good start, I read posts about people wanting to play this game with their spouses and children. I doubt, GW has any sympathy for negative behavior, but even if this weren't the case, I have faith in this community.
Being wrote:
I really have problem with the implication of a sexual fetish to be honest. I have played female characters both online and offline in the Pathfinder RPG among other systems. While playing as a female character is usually an option for most players (I can't name you a MMORGP or a pen an paper RPG that forces players to play their gender) is is not an option for the Game Master, who runs the adventure.
When it comes to pathfinder, that person is usually me. So, when I run an adventure path, where the players have to interact with a various female characters.... does that really constitute a fetish?
To get this back on track, I played WoW for a pretty long time, and two of my most beloved characters happened to be female bloodelves (I have to mention that fact, female undead without a jaw are quite something else). Now while this was a RP server, it was quite scares and usually boring, but of course you hear stories.
If someone wants to use a character as his personal fetish, an MMORPG really isn't the best place for it (maybe second live) and bluntly most people are usually only a quick internet search away, from finding something to fit their personal set of fetishes.
It may not be totally relevant to the discussion, but I actually had a long distance relationship with a female player, and we met through WoW. She usually played her big strong male orc, and I played one of my elves and while we talked for hours on the phone or on teamspeak, using our characters as proxis would never have come to our minds.
I realize, that there could be some scenarios, where players could abuse their virtual characters in order to insult the dignity of others (not just limited to women, this includes religions, ethnicity and political views) but that is distasteful and most likely against the spirit and rules of this game. I expect the moderators to stop abuse like this.
To reiterate my point: Playing a female character is not about stroking a fetish, and while it can be influenced by your views about women, there is really no direct connection. It is frankly not all that different, than a little girl playing with her dolls, or is my little cousin (I happen to be her godfather since she is about 20 years younger than me) using her male dolls....wrong?
Real people regardless of gender, race, religion or other factors should be treated with the respect they deserve.
So a female player has the same right to play a Conan look alike, wearing nothing more like a loincloth, a sword and enough body oil, so all his muscles are properly displayed.
Incidentally I spend longer than I care to admit to change my characters hair styles, colors and changing the appearance of my characters equipment to suit my tastes (mostly since armor sets look worse every year), if that is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Chiassa wrote:
I found this today and just have to post it, since it very much concerns the current issue: YouTube video. I think I could live very well with the result - especially since the result is that male adventurers ...stop.
Björn Renshai wrote:
Regarding mountains, those are acutally mentioned in the pen and paper rules. Things like altitude, thin air and the cold should make flying over the mountain not the ideal choice.
Matthew Morris wrote:
I'm hoping (If I play) I can get Ttam Sirrom. I had a Jedi in a Star Wars game and everyone thought it was a cool name. (Think about it for a minute)
Thought about it for a minute - and you clearly are a vampire.
But really people should not post the names they want in the forums, there are always griefers and if would be tragic to have the name blocked by another user.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Drowlord007 wrote:
Let my start by saying sorry if this sound a bit to critical.
I think adding more ability scores to the game is a bad idea for quite a lot of reasons:
Fixing the eternal conflict between SAD and MAD characters might be a noble and worthy goal ( I happen to disagree, investing in more than a 16 (in point buy) + racial mod, will give your character serious disadvantages), this fix can't and should not come inside an optional overlay system, that can be applied in a variety of ways. So it would have to be fixed in the core rules, not the mythic rules.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Serisan wrote:
Actually only the siege engine ram (10 man crew) seems to be on the list of siege weapons, the portable ram just gives a bonus to oben doors, it doesn't have a listed damage^^.
But of course I wouldn't chose this mythic flaw for my characters, not when my character can be dependant on tea, coffe or the "contact" with others ^^
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Tacticslion wrote:
Nope, thats just me typing after a certain hour ^^


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October 11, 2007
Albany -- An Albany teenager was shot in the stomach outside a house on the county's eastside. A witness to that shooting tells Investigators the gun went off by accident.
Brandon Parks was shot in the abdomen with a 9 millimeter pistol in the yard of a house in the 33 hundred block of War Eagle Drive Wednesday night.
Investigators have taken aggravated assault warrants for his 18 year old neighbor, Kevoskie Ware, who lives at the house where the shooting happened. Police say Ware and another 18 year old, Emit Hunt, ran after the shooting.
Late Thursday afternoon Hunt met with Police, and told them that the shooting was an accident. Investigators say they are still checking out what happened. Dougherty County Police Chief Don Cheek said "we have not had the opportunity to actually speak to the victim. So we don't know the details of why the shooting occurred. We know there were three people in close proximity of each other."
Police and people who live in that neighborhood say the three men involved in last night's shooting are friends. The gun used in the shooting was recovered by Investigators.
If you have any information about Kevoskie Ware, you are asked to call the Dougherty County Police at 430-6600.
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