Loot and XP

XP is per PC, so no division is necessary
9600 xp for Mokmurian
3000 xp for dispersing a whole giant army

Treasure of the caves
Non-currency (Sold for half price) number is in GP

Silver Incense Burners with Mithral inlay = 400 (10 lbs)
Silver Incense Burners with Mithral inlay = 400 (10 lbs)
Manual on how to disembowel humanoids with gorgeous artwork = 500 (1 pound)
Scroll of Remove Curse = 375 (neg)
Small Sized Half-Plate = 600 (25 pounds)
Medium Sized Masterwork Breastplate = 350 (30 pounds)
Medium Sized Chain Shirt = 100 (25 pounds)
Medium Sized Chain Shirt = 100 (25 pounds)
Medium Sized Chain Shirt = 100 (25 pounds)
Medium Sized Chain Shirt = 100 (25 pounds)
Medium Sized Chain Shirt = 100 (25 pounds)
Medium Sized Chain Shirt = 100 (25 pounds)
+1 Ghost Touch Gauntlets = 8302 (l pound)
+1 Shocking Longbow = 8375 (2 pounds)

Currency Based
Nothing, everyone took their gold and ran.

New Character, New Direction, New Enemies

That is what the sun now looks like ^^^

Hey gang,

Well last session was certainly fun, and it was great to have Tim there too. One of his first combat actions, basically counter spelled a 6th level spell. First impressions are everything, and that was a good one. Word on the street is that a Wizard will be soon joining as a PC, the party no doubt knows the value of arcane users, as Sasha has gotten you out of many jams, and is merely a cohort.

Cosmology

Our campaign has literally been strung along by a loose semi-pantheon. I always wanted to get something on paper about these figures, and at the very least get some names down. I will be listing several images that explain the origin story of Krynn, and the gods that are represented therein. Feel free to ask questions about deities, stories, and other religious detail. If anything is not here that you think should be let me know as well, I purposely left some more room for after the fact gods. Enjoy!

I found a gauntlet, did some one throw it down?

Baleful Polymorph ^^^

Let me get right to the skinny of this blog post. Your PC's are mortals. Amazing mortals yes, but indeed at the end of the day you all can expire. I bring this up not for the purpose of stating the obvious, but because PC death is starting to look like a very real thing. Before with PC death, the casualties were limited to two and there were willing and able bodies ready to aid in the resurrection process.

Advice Posters

Some may have seen advice posters, they are a bit of a "meme." It is an easy formula to replicate. Place an illustration or picture of the person giving the advice. Then plug in two phrases, that go together, in a quasi-advice like way. Sabellion and I were having fun making them. Thought I'd post a bunch, because D&D may be serious business, but we can always have LOL's. Enjoy.
(I did Crimwinle, Sabellion, and Maieve)

Lamias and my first home made feat!

As you well know, lamias are likely to make an appearance. You certainly had fun with Lady Lucretia, one of a slew of intelligent evil NPC's that ran away, and got away. Maieve has personal beef with a lamia that charmed her husband and banged him like a 2gp whore, in front of Maieve. Maybe Maieve can have a hate bonus like a ranger, but only for lamias.

READ CAREFULLY: Actual Storyline In Game Stuff

^^^^Kinda what Magilacutty Looks like, based off of my favorite wizard, Raistlin Majere

GM: Exhasted and frustrated at the cliff cave some 200 feet up, the party settles in to their newly cleared wyvern cave. The smell of the draconic beasts is hard to be rid of, Flidder's annoyed disposition is the greatest evidence of this. It is a warm summer night, even for the normally cold climes of the Qualinesti plateau. The cool cave offers a bit of air conditioning, and traps moisture well, a nice break from the arid region.

Cubic Feet and Encumberance

That's Osmium, shit is remarkable ^^^

Its getting a little strange around the party in my opinion. There are/were two members in the party with bags of holding. There is also a muscle-bound elf carrying way more than is humanly (elfily?) possible. So like all things that are awesome and go unchecked, I have decided to make some rules, and enforce ones I have been ignoring.

Climbing Rules, and Staves

A cliff? ^^ Like the campaign name, "Cliffs of Qualinesti"

I am going to have a series of three posts, I am separating them to help people, who need to find information within them. The first is about climb DC's, and the party's general predicament with cliff scaling.

Let me start by saying that I more or less estimated Climb DC's and rules about speed. Now that I am staring at the "Core Rulebook" we can go back over these things, and do them correctly, without me being half-awake and guessing.

New Formulas, Reformulated

Attacks of Opportunity are kinda like ^^^^^^

I am excited about today, you are nearly to "The Valley of the Black Tower," where the enigmatic Mokmurian makes the home for his vast giant army. The group must leave Galduria, make their way up to Wolf's Ear, then head further north to Ravenmoor. There, the group will likely part ways with mounts, and start afoot towards the towering plateau that houses the "Black Tower."

I am writing this post as a reminder, and a reference for people about avoiding attacks of opportunity.

New Playtest Classes for Pathfinder

Hey gang, I know I mentioned breifly that Pathfinder released a play-test beta for two new classes. It is intended to be part 1 of 3, meaning a total of 6 new classes, (not prestige classes) so I took the initiative to look over them. Both sound interesting, I'll post the description of them in the blog, if you want to view the PDF for yourself, feel free, it is a free download, just go to Paizo.com and look for pathfinder links, then play test links.

Theives' Cant

This is a special presen for Nicodemus. You may have heard me mentioning "theives' cant" which is not a language, its more of a dialect. Well I found a little glossary if you'd ever like to use it, it'll certainly add spice to role playing for rogues.

Many thieves, rogues, and gamblers
have their own slang or argot, also called
thieves’ cant. The samples provided here
are taken from terms used by 18th-century
British thieves, a form of jargon that
works fairly well for English speakers.

Face Palms, and Encounters

Wow, well for those that read this, last post was epic, in both length, and length of the responses. You might see now that I finally learned the technique of "after the jump." This way it won't take 10 minutes to get to another post, simply because the first one is epic. In fact you will see the link for such advanced techniques below.

11/18/09 Review

One last Nymph picture... See how she turned her back on you? You were mean! :-P

Well gang, earlier this week I pointed out some flaws in the way we (yes we I am part of the problem) play the game of D&D/Pathfinder RPG. Some of you, the observant ones among you, may have noticed when you did certain things that I would quickly jot some things down. I came up with an idea you see, an insidious idea. Well actually two ideas.

Avatars

I was bored and made cartoon versions of the gang. I couldn't do Newin as I don't know what she looks like, and Flidder was already done. (go back several posts) They are made to look like "order of the stick characters", which is a web comic. You can alter and copy paste whatever tickles your fancy. Enjoy!

Team work and skill mechanics

Well crew I wrote down some notes from last Wednesday, and thought I'd share some of those thoughts. Think of these as suggestions, and what separates average role players in Pathfinder, and great role players in Pathfinder.

Fort Rannick Map

Hey ya'll! Well I have not been as furiously working on the campaign as I normally do since we are moving into a module. However I did manage to make a rough, conceptual map for the Fort Rannick area. The picture is linked above. There is no legend, so if you have questions ask on Wednesday.

I did want to say how pleased I was at how quickly managing a fort took. You guys managed a payroll, building locations, venture capital, and two years of content. Normally so many decisions would take us sessions. Please keep notes on personnel and the like. I have most of the information, but according to my data you have not used up fully the 117 followers you were allotted. However I distinctly remember that towards the end of planning, we had to hire henchmen to staff the last station. So prepare to quickly compare some notes during the beginning of next session.

In sessions to come I will have more events and planning to be carried out. So keep your records, and hopefully the Fort Rannick compound will continue to be as successful and profitable as ever. As a final note about people moving into the Fort Rannick compound, I would advise against it. Your only profits will come out of taxes, and property ownership will get hazy. Don't worry when you all level up again more and more followers are to come. If the three leadership scores stay steady, in 10 levels, the three leaders will have a combined follower amount of 489 and according to D&D population rules that qualifies as a village!

Last note, anyone who reads this remind me on Wednesday that you all receive a small bonus feat as a reward from Omach city. I have forgotten to give it to all of you for the last two sessions, help me not forget again.

Game hard, game well! ~ Your Neighborhood DM

Ay Caramba! Leadership Craziness

^^ Yeah its about that bad ^^

I'll keep it short, we have a lot to think about next week. We even have a quest if anyone is curious. Here is the dilemma, that the players and the DM are going to transform into something enjoyable for all parties.

Sabellion's Leadership score - 14
1st Level Followers - 15
2nd and up level followers - 1

Maive's Leadership score - 18
1st Level Followers - 35
2nd and up level followers - 5

Crimwinkle's Leadership score - 20
1st Level Followers - 50
2nd and up level followers - 10

Total of 117 followers, 17 of which are higher than first level. Think guys 117 followers! Fort Rannick was packing 20 maybe 30 rangers previous, but the amount you are all owed as far as sheer numbers means we'll be doing more than rebuilding a guard tower. Remember a lot of followers are not instantly going to flock to you, but over 2 years, with the feat you may very well attract that amount of interest.

This is nice though, the three PC's with that feat should sit down and discuss how this will work. It'll be much easier to streamline everyone's glorified slaves. Remember though not all followers are enheirently someone who wants to be an adventurer. Say you guys need a few carpenters in town, well Crimwinkle knows Omach well and can convince a few back onto the Fort Rannick compound. That would be two follower slots, and now carpentry will be taken care of.

It is funny that Nicodemus is the one who mentioned taxes, but if you do invest enough into the infrastructure, then visitors and maybe even residents will have to pay a tax for upkeep.

I said I will be short, so here it is. The DM apologizes to Nicodemus because he doesn't have followers to deal with but has to sit though you guys figuring out what to do. We then play a little SIM-D&D Fortress, and try to make it something we both like, maybe even profitable. We'll definitely need those notebooks Sabellion got for us. Either way, I am excited.

Oh, bonus feats for everyone, home brew feat for Sabellion (apology feat for taking Monkey Grip away), and maybe even some loot for treasure hunting!

Gratz Crimwinkle, you have a Cohort!

Crimwinkle was in the mountains near Stoney Deep. He had some quiet hours to himself, and during that time he would walk along the crags outside of the populated mountain keep. He somehow hoped to find his riding dog wandering this region, even though he knew that was impossible. Visions of gallantly riding on the dog into battle, into a concert, into a fancy dinner, anything really, all passed his mind. He had all the devoted fans he could want, but not a single steady companion, like a nice riding dog.

In his wanderings he heard a great clash between some creatures. He slinked around the corner to witness a Worg being attacked by several goblins. At first he watched, making sure that the worg would not be an enemy, before he sprung out and started playing his lute. The beast had stark black fur, and a slavering mouth beset with cruelly sharp fangs. His eyes however, were soft blue, quite rare to Crimwinkle's reckoning.

Stunned the three goblins dropped what they were doing, apparently trying to break the worg so it would serve them. They rushed at Crimwinkle. With a flick of his wrist upon the strings of his lute and few words one goblin stopped mid charge and then attacked his goblin comrade. The third one was inches away from hitting Crimwinkle with s short sword. He head was savagely torn off by the beast, which then uttered in a bestial version of common, “thank you.” The worg then made short work of the charmed goblin. However when he was distracted the last goblin dealt a savage blow to the hinds of the worg. He yelped in pain, and then in rage ripped apart the last goblin as easily as paper.

The worg then lay down, wimpering. “I shall die here, after so much, I nearly escaped the curse of my pack.”

Crimwinkle always the one to interject and be curios offered, “Run from what, kind beast?”

“My pack, my kind, all are twisted and malevolent beasts. I was not interested, and wanted to see the world, free of my stigma, free of my pack.”

Crimwinkle thought about worgs for a second, they were indeed twisted beings of evil. However Crimwinkle is also an amazing judge of character, and there was an unmistakable twang of truth to the gruntings of the nearly dead beast. He strode over and laid his hands upon the worg, and healed him.

“You want to see the world? I am Crimwinkle, a traveling bard, the best in the land. Lend your aid to me, and we'll make a great team.”

The worg looked on quizzically. He was taught that all the fair-skins were evil, but then again he was rebeling against what he was taught. If there was one thing he kept, it was a sense of honor. He got up and knelt on his front limbs. “My name is Flidder, because my old pack said my tail always fliddered. My tail wagged then for the hope of a day like this. I would be honored Master Crimwinkle. Would you like to ride me, I am probably more swift than your legs?”

Crimwinkled smiled, “This will be the beginning of a great friendship.”

The Layover

IMPORTANT NEWS: I am changing the layover period from one to two years. This is in large part due to how many things you want to have accomplished over this time. This is also because Sabellion mentioned to the DM when most people were gone that he'd want to "shack up" with Newin. That's fine, and keeping the marrige (lawful good get married BTW) on the down low, not making it central to the storyline is fine. However half-elf gestation is about a year. I doubt even wild horses could drag Newin away from a new born baby.

So Oriana will have a little cousin/brother to play with when they turn one years old. Sabellion has not given a name yet, though I look forward to it.

Yes this means crafters can craft for an extra year, thieves can steal for another year, bards can perform for another year, and fighters can fight for another year. I have a lot of stuff to develop, but I still need feedback.

On my plate:
Crimwinkle's Cohort (might be a worg)
Sabellion's Apology feat
How many potions can a cleric make?
Nicodemus and his treasure hunting.

So again give me any tasks not covered before hand, any additions to the fort I should know about, and GIVE ME 5 ITEMS you'd ask Nicodemus for before he went off traveling for wealth and magic items. Thanks, that's all for now.

Reincarnate (The final table)

After perusing the final version of the Bestiary, I realized that the 3.75 Handbook version of the "reincarnate" race chances was insufficient. For instance, Bugbears are a possibility, but in the Bestiary, there are no PC stats for them. So the following table is most likely what I am going to use. I toned down the gender switch thing too. And yes, I can make a merfolk work.

01 - 07 Aasimar (no change)
08 - 10 Drow (+2 Dex / -2 Con)
11 - 19 Dwarf (+2 Con)
20 - 28 Elf (+2 Dex / -2 Con)
29 - 37 Gnome (-2 Str / +2 Con)
38 - 44 Half-elf (+2 Dex)
45 - 51 Half-orc (+2 Str)
52 - 60 Halfling (-2 Str / +2 Dex)
61 - 70 Human (+2 Con)
71 - 72 Kobold (-4 Str / +2 Dex / -2 Con)
73 - 76 Merfolk (+2 Dex / +2 Con)
77 - 78 Orc (+4 Str)
79 - 82 Svirfneblin(-2 Str / +2 Dex)
83 - 89 Tengu (+2 Dex / -2 Con)
90 - 96 Tiefling (+2 Dex)
97 - 100 Gender Change and Reroll

Of course, just because it does not have a nice stat change, does not mean the racials will suck. Aasimar have nice racials, but don't help stat blocks. Note how that even if you get reincarnated as one of the three races that chooses their +2 stat increase, this table will dictate which one you get anyway.

Season Two "The Cliffs of Qualinesti"

Its a working title anyway. Yes, I come with much news about the (campaign's) new direction, news about direct aftermath from the battle with Aden, the war in Omach, and even about next week.

First chronologically, I am officially awarding Nicodemus with an Awesome Point, post facto. I had a lot of stuff to consider while running a battle, I did not think about Nicodemus running, jumping over two soldiers, landing INSIDE a strange foreign black flame, and indiscriminately attacking it. This met all the requirements, of acting outside the normal rule (who jumps over people?), having no way to know the end result, and putting his life at risk just to look... AWESOME.

First we have two dead motherfuckers. So lets talk options. There are two spells available to return you to the mortal coil. Reincarnation (Drayfil likes you guys) or Raise Dead (new high priest of Omach likes you guys too).

Reincarnate costs 1000gp and you get no Negative levels. However you may come back as any one of these races. (rolled randomly) Bugbear, Dwarf, Elf, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Half-elf, Half-Orc, Halfing, Human, Kobold, Lizardfolk, Orc, Troglodyte, or Kender. This ultimately means that you will be in a NEW body (even if the same race) and your gender has a 50% chance of changing. These new races MAY change your physical scores(str,dex,con), however the mental scores remain. (int,wis,cha) All class abilities, and feats remain as well. Racial abilities (not feats) will change. This is the cheaper option, and usually advantageous to Humans who already have their bonus feat and skill points locked down, especially if you are a mentally oriented human.

Raise dead costs 5000gp, and you get 2 permanent negative levels. To remove the negative levels, you'll have to pay Maive 2000gp for the material cost of two restoration spells, and would require two weeks of waiting, as per spell rules. So really you are looking at 7000gp. This is a better option for people that can't replace their race. (Dragonborn) And, no, you can't be reincarnated, then go through the process to become a Dragonborn again. Its a "once in a lifetime" kinda thing, not a "once in a body" kinda thing.

Right... so dead people are dealt with. Experience is figured out.
50 Dumbass Soldiers - 1600
Getting the Thralls to book it - 1000
Aden the epic, epic - 9600
Having a dragon battle above you - 10 (also known as LOL at Nicodemus)

Grand Total - 12210

I am pretty sure someone dinged... probably the three original characters. This means two things. First have an idea of what you want to do, there is 9th level feat to consider, and all the normal accoutrement. Second, to the two people that have cohorts, they will level up. (FINALLY SASHA!!) I am in control of their leveling up. So I'll try to have my stuff together for them, new spell level I think, and also Sasha can finally FLY!!! ( Idon't mean to rub it in Sabellion)

Alright after much consideration, there will be a 1 year layover. That means you have a year to do whatever, work on the Fort, get some mileage on those followers, brew potions, make money, make enemies, make friends, travel if need be, research long standing questions, pursue romantic relationship (even unexpected ones like in the case of Crimwinkle), get married (or domestic partnership :-P), you even have time to have a baby! If you are anywhere near Omach you can also be revered as legendary heroes. Those are just ideas, what I want from you is plan, not a prospectus on how you will use your time. Good ideas will be rewarded, bad ideas will be punished, and dumb ideas will be ignored with a swift eye-roll. I have all these chips... who wants them?

So come with something, anything written down, about your plans. That is your half, my half is that I will come at you with personalized solo-quests. I will also have some fun activities to pacify your A.D.D. while someone is on a solo-quest. As of now that is all the news that is fit to print.

Comment me with questions NOW!!!! So you don't make me dig through a book for 15 minuets to finally say, "I Don't Know."

On a personal note, thanks Aden was Epic and I enjoyed it.

Season "Finale"

Hey gang, the end of the campaign is upon us. If you knew the original definition of campaign you'd know that it is a series of martial events. This campaign has been about the re-awakening of the good dragons. This campaign sees to the end of all these things that have been set into motion. So yeah, its like a TV show and you have a BIG season finale to increase interest in the next season, or in my case the new story arch.

To pull out all the stops, Dave has offered his basement as the locale for the big event. His basement is heated or so I am told, and has a bitchin' table. That should be all you need to know. Bring drinks in case I forget to bring them myself. Other than that I'll let Dave take it away with his own reply, with other information, like how to get there, parking, etc.

Thanks ya'll see you tomorrow.

are you ready to RUMBLE!!!

Yeah that's right, war is on the horizon, and there will be plenty of fights for sure. I am going to do something for the first time in my storied history as a DM. (technically its GM now that we are pathfinder) You will get to be in part of the war. As in I have done all the prep work for you guys to literally jump into a ongoing battle. Think "Helm's Deep" but you guys are Gandalf coming over the hill for the final push to hopefully fend off the forces of the blue dragon flight. I am also uncharacteristically promising that if you fight well and make the difference you will get a face off with Aden, and yes he is defeatable. He won't run away, he won't kill himself.

In fact he is hoping dearly that you can make it. Oh so dearly.

Perhaps the jig-saw murderer said it best. "Oh yes, there will be blood."

See ya'll tomorrow.

Debriefing from 10/7/09

For anyone curious about how "bad-ass" Buse is roughly, see the above picture.

I am going to try and make an effort on days after the Wednesday session to write about questions, concerns, and maybe even evaluate performance. Why? Because nothing better strokes my ego, that and to make gaming sessions better.

First let me talk about magic item shops... Most things in D&D don't happen in real time. Your visit to the magic item emporium was an exception. We need to streamline shop visits. So I will do you all the favor of letting you know a week ahead of time that you may have a chance to visit a shop.

What I want from you guys is this, a list of what you are selling, and its listed market price. If Nicodemus hadn't taken the time last week to look up all that stuff and put it in a big batch for selling, that trip would have taken forever. Secondly on another list, 5 things you want from a magic item shop, have their price and what they do predetermined. Sabellion thank you for going the extra mile and having that ready, I should have told you all to have that ready. I will, in the future inform you of the price cap for said magical shop ahead of time, so we avoid that fiasco. That was my bad I should have told you that there are some limits. Also, I think I said it, but those people with cohort can ask for two things on their own list, and they have to be for THEIR OWN use. If these things are done magic item shopping will be quick, fun and maybe exciting.

Here's the condensed list from the above paragraph (man I write a lot)
1. Week ahead of time you will get notice of a shop, and the price cap on requests.
2. List of what you are selling (market price too)
3. 5 items for what you want (2 for cohorts, and mind price cap)

A final note about magic items. If it is in the 3.5 "DM's guide" its probably fine, just check that they do the same thing between 3.5 and 3.75. If its in the "Magic Item Compendium" get permission from me first after I review it.

Now that the dirty business of magic items is done, I got some pats on the back to give out. To everyone, you dealt with 4 6th level (pathfinder) fighters, and 2 6th level (pathfinder) wizards. (Well Buse kinda cleared up those two... they were stuck in the air and had "stoneskin" on them... woulda took forever) Anyway that's roughly a CR 10, which is exactly where I want you performing. So again, you guys are at the very least performing where you should be. (based on damage taken, damage given, and spell slots used on both sides)

Worthy of an honorable mention was Crimwinkle. To be blunt Bards are not combat machines, they are generalists. However when I saw that bard throw everything he had at superior enemies, buffing, debuffing, healing, attacking, passing along intel, it was admirable. Perhaps the bar is set lower (not because he is a gnome) but when I think about ways to out of game mock Crimwinkle (like trying to hide in a field a few sessions ago) I had nothing, so kudos. (for a fighter to garnish an honorable mention he's gotta tank like 6 guys, kill em all in 3 turns, and still come out with more than half HP :-P)

Also cohort usage was very nice, Newin apparently has an offensive spell! I also think Sasha is getting used to open field combat... Two big battle and barely a dent in her HP. Also a timely "Dispel Magic" by Newin saved Sabeliion a lot of grief and damage. There were a LOT of dispel magics that combat, I guess they are all the rage now that the DM is throwing out debuffs.

Honorable mention also to Nicodemus for reminding the DM and Sabellion that he has a ring that negated the stone skin buff the wizards has on. The good news is that you killed a wizard, the bad news is that I checked on the properties of the ring, and I saw that it can only be used with MELEE attacks, not a thrown great sword (that never sounds right) Either way thanks Nicodemus for reminding us of that little treasure.

Lastly, Maive gets a quick mention for needing to go into melee and answering the call, despite breastplate armor. The use of your War domain powers were very intelligent, and likely saved you more damage. Damage that will matter next session.

Speaking of which, I don't want to talk about the specifics, but I am guaranteeing a battle before sleep or prayer is viable. (given being pressed for time) A time like this is when you should check your character for EVERY consumable you might have, any left over potions, scrolls and oils. The battle will be pretty straight up, no globes of ice with dueling paladins and blackguards. By my calculations it will be difficult though, so come with your tactics A game. If there are any wasted turns, or unused spell slots things could be a grim. (even unused HP could be a problem... Sasha can take one hit right? :-P)

I said this week that I was very excited, but in my mind only 1/3 of the excitement is over, from everything I wrote down. More to come, any questions and comments feel free to respond.

Last Post Before 10/7/09 Session

Man I just got done a long bender of campaign crafting. I can say with great certainty that I am VERY excited. Lots of story arches coming together, and more exciting things to do than wander through a dingy house full of inbred ogre-kin. I can't promise anything but I am more excited to do this next session than I have been since we first started.

In my DM wanderings I also found something of note for those concerned with dragon eggs. According to the Draconomicon, dragon eggs (at least for this campaign) will have the following stats.

Length = 2 feet
Weight = 10 lbs
Hardness/HP = 10/20
Break DC = 15
(Also gold dragon eggs are immune to Fire)

Power Attack and Sundering

Let me start with this.

Page 131 Pathfinder Rule Book
"Power Attack (Combat)
You can make exceptionally deadly melee attacks by sacrificing accuracy for strength.

Prerequisites: Str 13, base attack bonus +1.

Benefit: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. This bonus to
damage is increased by half (+50%) if you are making an attack with a two-handed weapon, a one handed weapon using two hands, or a primary natural weapon
that adds 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier on damage rolls. This bonus to damage is halved (–50%) if you are making an attack with an off-hand weapon or secondary
natural weapon. When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every 4 points thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the bonus to damage increases by +2. You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll, and its effects last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage."

So bottom line, Sabellion with a Base Attack Bonus of +8 (8th level) may only subtract a max of -3 to gain only a +9 on damage. (3 x 2 x 1.5 = 9) I believe the old rules stipulated a Base Attack Bonus or STR modifier (whichever was lower) as your max amount to subtract, and then for the two handed weapon double as normal. Bottom line Sabellion went from -7 penalty (I think his score is 24) for a +14 damage, and that may have been higher with large size as well, to a -3 for a +9 damage.

The new version of the feat in my mind is more efficient, you spend less and get more bang for your attack score, but the days of consistent +20 or better to damage is over. This along with me putting the Kibosh on Vital Strike and Monkey Grip, means Sabellion might actually score less than 50% of DPS on bosses. :-P Remember Sabellion its not so bad, at least you get to keep your armor (Maive is in breastplate) and didn't have Etherealness nerfed. (Nicodemus is still bummed about that) As far as tomorrow goes though there should be no back log of rules I needs to tell everyone about.

I will bring up one thing, and its about Sundering weapons/armor/items. I have looked at the rules and anymore door smashing, or wall busting will now have rules associated with them. Furthermore, magic items that have been smashed to bits, if ever they occur have rules about them as well. I am not guaranteeing anything, but it might be wise to brush up on item's hardness and HP. (Don't worry "make whole" which is a 2nd level spell could handle most of what you got)

The "P" word

Hey gang, its your old friendly DM again. Man I have been working hard on material for Wednesday. I am trying out some new technology for the next session, which will consist of me playing MP3 tracks I made of my voice doing long exposition or NPC speeches. I hope that will allow me to be more attentive to how you are reacting, and may get you to listen.

Good news, I redid the magic item shop according to pathfinder rules. It mostly consists of availability of items based on town/city size, and randomly generated magical items. Pat you are gonna flip, I randomly rolled a certain "specific" magical armor that has alluded you for so long. I also have finished making a magical item for your party that will allow you long distance travel, back and forth to your fortress more viable. I fully intend for you guys to make that place kick ass.

I just wanted to quickly bring up an issue that may bother you growing PC's out there, and that is Prestige classes. Just a quick run down on them, before I angrily veto preposterous ideas.

Rule #1 Talk to me about it. I need to know how viably it fits in with story line, whether its a broken prestige class or not, and how it fits with your characters.

Rule #2 Tell me what you want. I am flexible, and I want to make it work. There may be ways to fix certain p-classes if I tweak them, or you can maybe do some simple substitution, for the old "quid pro quo" way to customize your characters.

Rule #3 I really only bother with p-classes from Wizard's of the Coast's publishing, and even then I only allow stuff in hardcover, Dragon Magazine is made by Wizards but is basically crap as far as P-classes are concerned.

Rule#4 Pathfinder made changing to a Prestige class less useful. Most 3.75 classes are better than their older 3.5 counterpart. Thus they are usually better than most prestige classes, and when they are not it isn't as overwhelming. There is nothing wrong with staying one class, its not just simple, its usually better.

Continential Map

At long last, now when I say something happened far away or a traveler from a far away land, I will have a continent to say. The continent you are on, named Meldolil (for the trees) is in the Northwest. Maive is from Que-Shue, some 200 miles away to the south, and Salinar traveled from eastern Silvanseti to see the forests in Meldolil. Other than that, most people are from (or hatched from) Meldolil.

Specifically this map is for reference when people speak of things happening far away, and can help cement both PC and DM knowledge in these matters. It should be pointed out that there are many small islands too small for the map, and that this map is only concerned with major land masses. The scale is small, but that is to reflect most fantasy settings, where the known universe is not always the whole universe.

Anyway enjoy, and remember more detailed maps will always come when you guys and myself need them.

Food for thought

The party is on the threshold of coming back to Omach, after liberating a fort, and thus earning all the commendations needed to locate a hidden lair of the last known “good” dragon. Newin says this is the key to Paladine's power returning to Omach. In a linear way, what is to come seems more or less simple. Get a location and go there to wake up a dragon.

Yet your DM is benevolent (sometimes). Remember things are on the brink of war; when this good dragon is unleashed it will no doubt act as a final catalyst to making this war happen. That means this may be your last trip into Omach before a war happens, and people die in wars. Cities can be demolished in wars. Power can exchange hands quickly in a war. I can not say whether Omach will be razed to the ground, or escape unscathed. Indeed much of how the war happens will rest on the PC's shoulders... No pressure.

It is times like this though that you must try and recall to your roleplaying why you are involved in this conflict. Who are your enemies? Who are your allies? Who has ulterior motives?

Aden does indeed await inside the dragon army, but where is this army? Many have spoken of troops stationed nearby, but since traveling the only evidence of this has been a skirmish with ogres and a mighty clash with a dragon. It is easy to see though that a massive army would be needed to take down Omach. When the Urakai orcs marched on Helm's Deep in the Two-Towers, their presence was unmistakable. That was but 500 men and elves in a small keep (roughly the size of your newly acquired keep) Omach is massive, roughly a square mile inside the city walls and has in the hundreds of thousands of people in it. So again, why is this threat felt, but not much more than a squad of dragonkin seen?

Even if you are lucky enough to face Aden on the battlefield, what are you to do? This specter of a man rides atop a dragon nearly double the size of the one you fought. Even if the dragon is drawn off, you still must face a force that can open up the ocean, survive death itself, and rides upon a legendary dragon as though it were a horse. Your blind rage and ambition to send Aden back to some dark corner of the netherworld perhaps has made you forgot that he is a death knight, chosen by his demon queen, and seems now bolstered by powers unknown.

You also have not exactly made friends with Lady Lucretia. This lamia weilds powerful magic, and was smarter than many enemies you faced... she actually retreated. Is she hiding somewhere near Storval Deep? Some in your party believe she plays a bigger role, especially with these tattoos that seems to channel life force upon death.

Even more concerns include, Artemis the skilled assassin, the dark elves who have been very quiet in the game as of late, dragonkin falling into new and unusual classes like ninja; who knows what they may next throw at you. There may still be more ogres by your keep, but you know they have ventured down into the flat lands as well. Your stay in Istar no doubt upset the waking dead; hopefully their reach won't be long enough to interfere in the war. Your enemies' treachery is so deep that the honorable blue dragon you fought seemed victim to some fell magic. Perhaps the most worrisome are the enemies you have not met yet those ones you may now call allies. You know that logistically a gigantic dragonkin army can not remain invisible to Omach with out someone on the inside seeing to it that they remain invisible.

Fear not though, you have good friends as well. The royalty in Omach seem noble and have taken a liking to your bold spirits. Nicodemus has made friends inside the thieves' guild, and Sabellion the fighter's. Crimwinkle is widely enjoyed and revered as a bard in Omach. Maive has the backing of those that are trying to rekindle the power of the gods. Lastly is Sasha who has a father so powerful and pure it would seem thathe might take on the whole of the invading forces, were it not for his hyper-disciplined obedience to the city of Omach. Imagine how powerful he might be if the powers of Paladine course through his paladin blood.

So yes keep these things in mind. I plan to keep more than one storyline afloat in the sea of plots. Its easy to just go with the flow, but exploring proves the most rewarding as a player, and the characters normally benefit. And don't worry I got more twists than a Twizzler.

(about the picture) This a rough approximation of what the letter that your deciphered and found looks like a map, looks like.

(yet to come) I am going to legit make some of those journal entries from the journal you found as well.

Welcome / Pathfinder 3.75.1

Thanks for taking a look at the blog space I have here. I will undoubtedly customize it more in time, but for now I wish to make it a space to put things into knowledge before I forget or no longer care. I hope to also put up maps, and other digital media so you can sate your thirst for D&D any night of the week. The first purpose for this blog is to unveil my "patch" 3.75.1 . We have already been through a few versions if you think about it, early on it was 3.5 with a sprinkling of Pathfinder variants (3.6) then slowly morphed into full blown pathfinder (3.75)

Now I wish to bring up issues before I make them law in the game. Ergo I'd like input and debate about rules that need to be reigned in, or rules that are not doing enough.

Rules I am likely to make law next session.
1. Presice Strike will also read "Vital strike can not be used with a weapon that would be ordinarily to big or small for a PC."
& Yes this would stop the synergy between "Monkey grip" and "Vital Strike"
& Anyone with this feat is able to swap it out for another at our next session.
& The mechanics are still the same in essence, one attack, twice the damage dice.
Notes: This is obviously made to reign in Sabellion's rolling of 8d6 on a non-crit damage roll. As far as monsters go, most around your CR can not live very long with that as a damage roll. This massive amount in damage makes it hard as a DM to chose monsters appropriate for you to fight, they are either roughly you strength and die quickly, or are way overpowering but can keep up with Sabellion's DPS.
Furthermore "Monkey Grip" is noticeably absent in Pathfinder, even though it was a VERY popular 3.5 feat. Secondly "Vital Strike" is a new feat and likely not play tested with "Monkey Grip." Actually it may have been, and thus the lack of "Monkey Grip" in Pathfinder. This is my way of continuing to grandfather a feat into a version of D&D that has since dropped it, without bosses getting two hits to death.
For aesthetic purposes we could also reason that "Vital Strike" is a maneuver that requires a weapon that is in no way shape or form unwieldy to the user. (not being proficent, not taking a -2 because of size, etc.)

2. Magical Item Resale Value, according to page 140 of the PRPG Rule Book (the new Player's Handbook) Weapons, Armor, Gear and Magical items sell for 50% their listed value.
&This does not negate there ever being a reason to get more for item. (cleric potions)
&Gems, and other items considered trade goods keep their exact value, as they are traded as currency.
This reform is necessary if I am to keep any semblance of sanity about the monetary management of magical items. This 50% is cannon with the PRPG, and I think will suffice for the financiers in the group. I have appreciated your cooperation in being in a campaign setting where you have to seek out magic, not just go to the corner store.

3 Casting Defensively: If you want to cast a spell without provoking any attacks of opportunity, you must make a concentration check (DC 15 + double the level of the spell you’re casting)to succeed. You lose the spell if you fail.
&This is non-negotiable and appears in the PRPG on page 207
This is just one of the many rules I have yet to stumble upon in Pathfinder that has changed. For Maive, that 4th level heal went from DC 19 to DC 23. So casters keep this in mind.

4 Ray of Enfeeblement and Sabellion's Greatsword +1 of Weakening - It has not come up yet, either because Sabellion has not critted AND remembered to add a -1 str penalty, or because Sabellion did remember but Sasha did not hit him with the ray. In any case I researched it and the "weakening" bonus comes from the spell "ray of enfeeblement" thus these two penalties will never stack.

5 Death and dying: There are a few amendments to the D&D 4th edition way of kicking the bucket. Demerits are permanent until you are healed to full. Taking damage while "dying" gives you a demerit regardless of damage. Taking more than 1/2 your hit points in damage when you are knocked out, makes you start off with one demerit. Taking damage that is more than 1/2 your hit points but does not reduce you to 0 will require a Fortitude check that will determine if you got knocked out or not. Bring knocked out in this situation acts as though you had received your full HP's in subdual damage.

This is pretty much what I have so far for 3.75.1 I'd really appreciate any feedback you have and ideas for rules that need to be passes by the DM's Congress.