Last night was an exciting conclusion to the 2nd module in the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP and the halfling bard Fynkirk Greenhill played comic relief for the evening. More than a few references to his kender heritage were made. Without a doubt, his favorite spell is Open/Close because it can open any door (some distance way, just incase it sets off a trap). Fortunately that has not caused any trouble ... yet.

My character woke up after a night's rest and a few heal checks (thank you fellow party members) with a 2 wisdom. Well, atleast I was conscious. One lesser restoration later I'm up to a 5. Better. I ask if anything happened while I was out and I get briefed on the battle that continued after I was out. After getting told about something vampiric creature that visited (but did not attack) while I was out cold, made a decent knowledge local check and was able to tell that the guy was old. Very old. After prompting the group to ask my character about the Red Mantis Assassins and a rather high knowledge check later, we got the 411 on the guys contracted to give out the current disease plaguing the city. Go Bardic Knowledge.

So the 5 wisdom halfling hears about a door that hasn't been opened yet in the main area. What does he do? Runs off to open it. The group runs after him to stop him (and the cleric gives him a lesser restoration he was holding onto just incase we had more ability damage today). So the now 8 wisdom halfling decides this is fun and runs to open other doors. As he does so, he passes through a room with reanimated corpses behind glass. Unfortunately because his wisdom is still down, he blows a Perception check to see his "Great Aunt Mayvil" (the whole reason he met the party to begin with, "she must be out there, somewhere").

The next two doors he opens reveal broom closets. Next door revealed two "tanks". Ummmm ... ok. He goes and investigates. He sees a total of 4 tanks (one of which has something moving in it) and two priesty guys tending to it. Run Away and cast Close!

"What's behind that door?" the party asks.

"Oh nothing. Just one mean looking daemon and a two more guys that we fought before. I don't think they heard me." So the party ready to rush the door and take the baddies. The party dispenses with one of the baddie pretty fast and the other smashes the glass on the tank, unleashing the daemon which kills him for doing so (thank you!). Fight ensues. The bard's first action: Minor Illusion to make a Celestial Lion. A roar isn't understandable speech and the spell's wording says that everyone believes it until they interact with it (and even then it's a save). So the DM allows the +2 flanking bonus because of it. Go Bard. The daemon does something that sickens the group. Everyone's at a -2 penalty. Tough call now. Concentrating means I can continue the flanking bonus or singing means I can give everyone a +2 bonus. I go with the singing since the illusion will last 2 more rounds.

The group is taking down the daemon's hit points with their sharp pointy metal objects. The sorcerer is having trouble thanks to the creature's SR. The halfling wants something to help: Charm person? No. Hold Person? No. Grease? Maybe. Invisibility? YES! He disappears, run far away from the group, incase he does his sickening thing again and fires off an arrow a round later. With a +2 bonus to hitting and damage from the singing, he hits and does 6 points of damage (max for a small short bow). The daemon doesn't even notice it. DANG! Not wanting to use up any more spells on this battle, he just continues to sing.

Eventually the thing dies of heavy metal poisoning. Open the next door and the halfling is the first into the next room, ontop of the druid morphed Tiger. I've got a mount! The high priest of a death god (forget the name) welcomes us and invites us to drink of one of the poisons around the room. Yeah. Like that's going to happen. So the group begins attacking. Bard ... sings. Hey everyone gets a +2. Next round he just holds his bow and readies an action incase the high priest tries casting. Of course she does and his arrow makes "Slay Living" fail. Go Bard. Several more rounds ensue and the bard keeps up the same action, but she stays away from spells. So the bard spends a few rounds of just singing. She dies but shortly thereafter transforms into something worse. The god is mad that the high priest dies. Oops. Who knew. The battle lasts several more rounds. The bard starts singing right away then cast Glitterdust, fires an arrow and several more actions. All together, the only real help the bard is the +2 to everyone for singing. All other spells are useless against flying undead (or it has to high a save to matter).

All in all, the bard was fun to play this session, but it felt like it fell prey to the same problems the Beguiler from the PHBII had: all its spells were useful against living creatures. While the PFRPG Bard has a wider spell list than the PHBII class, the differences are not major. Still he was always able to give a +2 to everyone, but I am not totally thrilled with the prospect of just being a +2 bot. We'll see how next session goes.

Dale McCoy is President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. Visit our website to find out about Book of the Faithful: The Power of Prayer, our first Pathfinder Compatible product.

dmccoy1693

Looking over my collection of art I have created myself, purchased or can easily purchase, I'm noticing alot of monster pictures. This works fine since I enjoy creating monsters, and the Pathfinder Bestiary has some quality rules for creating and balancing monsters. So it looks like there will be some type of monster book in the future.

First I have to go through the collection and figure out if I can create a monster from the picture. Can I make some kind of unique attack or ability from the picture that will make it something other than a simple hit point bot.

Take this image for example. A rather pretty picture, but its ... a lizard. Maybe it should spit lightning? But that's a thunder lizard, been done. Its obviously not celestial, demonic, undead or an aberration. Lets pull out the Bestiary. Of all the types of monsters, the ones that best fit are animal, dragon, magical beast and possibly vermin, but that is a stretch (so that is eliminated). Animals tend to be hit point bots so that's eliminated. Looking at the picture, I see a wingless dragon that is pissed off because he has no wings or hind legs. Hmmm could work. But no spitting elements. So what can it do? Well, dragons are suppose to be amazing sorcerers, but they really are not. Their HD do not stack up with sorcerer classes and it takes a very very long time for them to be able to cast any decent spells. Therein is a possibility. I could see some balance issues there, but the the basic idea has merit.

Counting them all up, I currently have 21 pieces of artwork that are ready to go right now and probably others that can be ready with a little work. Good start. Lets see if I can compose my own book of monsters.

Dale McCoy is President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. Visit our website to find out about our upcoming Pathfinder Compatable product: Book of the Faithful: The Power of Prayer.

dmccoy1693

So I quickly finished up my character. Fynkirk Greenhill is the little halfling's name. Arrived (didn't get lost!) on time. Met the guys (good group of guys by the way). And started playing. It should not have been an auspicious sign that someone made the reference "Hide behind the mound of dead bards," early on. ... *dun dun duuuuuun*

First encounter, the druid and I were alone and ran across two baddies. After a failed bluff attempt, combat ensued. The druid: wild shape into a bear. The halfling bard whipped out ... bardic performance. One was fascinated. Alright, the bard earns his keep. The rest of the party shows up, wonders where the druid is and why this bear that is only attacking those opposed to the group. No one asks my character so I didn't volunteer. It was much more fun to just watch what happens. The two baddies die quickly and now ones show up from two different directions. The bard casts charm person on the first one coming from one direction and I tell him to just not let anyone else in here. So the bard again controls the battlefield by keeping enemies at bay from one direction.

Again the bard casts hold person and hideous laughter. Despite not having access to 3rd level spells like the druid and cleric in the group, the bard holds its own. Later Fynkirk fires off an arrow. He would not have hit if it were not for the +2 from inspiring courage he was singing. So far the bard is performing exceptionally well.

We make our way downstairs where we're in a "lovely room of death" as ace ventura would put it. We open a door and spring a trap that releases poison gas into the air. Everyone saves, except the bard. Drat! Loses 3 wisdom. Ouch. He keeps failing his saves until losing all his wisdom. That's right, a 0 wisdom! Finally made the save to keep from going negatives. Mind you, full hit points, but out cold. Fortunately, I can get a lesser restoration, but for the next 24 hours, I'm going to be worthless. The group decides to do 1 more rooms, with me tied to the back of the bear (who is wearing a mask they found). The room is teaming with baddies, but a single fireball (and a whole mess of failed saves) take out all but two. The group finishes them off from there and call it a night.

Overall, the bard performed exceptionally well. Staying in the back helped significantly. The only thing I have that is within melee range to do is use a dagger and with a -2 strength penalty, I'm not going to rush in. He fell prey to a classic weakness of the class, but he will recover with the aid of the group. So far, the bard is a wonderful asset to a group and is alot of fun to play.

Dale McCoy is President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. Visit our website to find out about our upcoming Pathfinder Compatable product: Book of the Faithful: The Power of Prayer.

dmccoy1693

With ability scores needing to be rolled, I can't set certain things about my character in stone just yet. Others, however, are independent of anything to be rolled. I'm at 5th level so I have a bit of flexibility in my character creation.

Skill points are the first thing to come to mind. While I don't know what my Int score is yet, I do know that I get 6 skill points per level if I have a 10 Int or an 8 Int with all my favored class bonus put into skill points. So it seems reasonable to lay out the skills with that assumption. I can add more rather quickly should I have a 12 or higher. Unless someone in the group put their points in skill not favored by their class, the sorcerer might be good at bluffing and the paladin might be good at diplomacy. But I want my character to basicly be a con artist (a GOOD con artist) so I'll fully fund bluff and put a little in diplomacy. We're playing in Korvosa so either Knowledge (nobility) or Knowledge (local) would be good. With a bonus of 1/2 my character level to all knowledge checks and being able to make all untrained, I don't have to divide up my skills among a ton of skills. I can instead be an expert in one have just heard a smattering of everything else. I'll settle on that later. Fully fund perform. I want to perform while using my bow so singing is the type I'm going for. Also fully fund Perception, Sense Motive, and Slight of Hand. Hmmm running out of skill points. I'm dividing the rest between Spellcraft and Stealth. I'm not thrilled about this. I normally prefer to fully fund Spellcraft, but I am not going to be a primary Spellcaster since the entire rest of the group can cast spells. And I would much rather have Stealth fully funded, but I'll just have to hope for a high Int.

Next, Feats. Extra performance for sure. I'm taking a bow so having Point Blank Shot will allow me to get Precise Shot eventually. What else? I flip back to the bard section. Distraction and Countersong both require a Perform roll. So cracking out perform might be a good idea. Skill Focus (Perform) is what I eventually settle on. So without my ability score modifier, I currently have a +11 to my singing ability to Countersong and +0 for Distraction. That's not good. Do I REALLY need 2 skill points in diplomacy? Na. 1 skill point in diplomacy and 1 in another type of performance that works with distraction. I'll figure it out later, but just put it there for the moment. So with 1 skill point, that +0 jumps to a +7. Much better. Do I need to specify the speciality for the Perform skill? I'll ask the GM later.

Spells. My spells known are fixed so I might as well choose them all. Must haves: Prestidigitation (yes, an absolute must have), Dancing Lights, Lullaby, Message, Ghost Sound, Open/Close (those last two are great for distracting guards), Grease, Hideous Laughter, and Tongues. Since we're already 5th level, Sleep might not be as readily useful, but having the -5 to perception would be useful nonetheless. Tongues means I don't have to put any ranks in Linguistics. Maybe I should just buy a scroll or two of that instead. We've got 3 people in the group that can cast cure spells so I shouldn't need to take that. Invisibility and Minor Image are also a good choices. Enthrall is tempting. Very tempting. I'll leave the rest for later.

Onto class features. Bardic Performance. Check. Bardic Knowledge. Check. Versatile Performance. Check. WAIT! WAIT! Uncheck that last one. Let me see if I got this straight, I can use my Perform skill with all bonuses in place of other skills?!? AWESOME! What can I use Perform (sing) for. ... *blink* Nothing??? Checks the Pathfinder Reference Document. Bluff and Sense Motive. DOUBLE AWESOME SAUCE!!! Defund Bluff and Sense Motive entirely. I now have 10 more skill points to spend elsewhere. Stealth, max funding. I'll have to figure out the rest later. What should I choose at 6th level, that's 1 level away, I can defund another skill mostly. Percussion is nice. I don't have anything in either Intimidate or Handle Animals so I'll be ok with that. But ... seriously try finding a halfling scary. Wind has Diplomacy and Handle Animals. But then I don't have a Perform skill in something that uses Distraction. Act, Oratory, and Comedy overlap with Singing in some way. Dance is the only one left but it also grants Fly. Well, you never know when I might be flying. A dancing, singing halfling. Am I circus act or the opening of a bad joke? No matter what, it'll be fun.

I'll have to look at equipment later. I've got to get going. Until then, have fun.

Dale McCoy is President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. Visit our website to find out about our upcoming Pathfinder Compatable product: Book of the Faithful: The Power of Prayer.

dmccoy1693

After a long break, I'm joining up with a new RPG group (trial basis for the time being). I'll be joining an existing group in the middle of an existing Pathfinder AP using PFRPG rules. After talking with the GM, we came up with the basic concept of me playing a bard. He commented that he was excited about seeing how the new bard worked. I was interested as well; my last bard (3.0) flopped pretty hard. And I figured there were others out there interested in seeing how the new bard played. So ... here I am, sharing my experience.

The AP is Curse of the Crimson Throne. So if you haven't played it yet, there might be spoilers in here. I'm going to try to focus mostly on the bard and how it played, but I can't guarantee that some roll I make might reveal some important info and I report on it.

I don't have info on ability score generation/starting gp, but there are some things I have pretty much decided on. 1) Feat: Extra Performance. It gives 6 extra round of Bardic Music per day. Compared to the other group member, I have two real areas of differentiation: skill points and bardic music. So I should play these areas up. 2) race: halfling. I've played humans before. the new half orc is actually golden for a bard but I don't want to push things that much when I'm new to a group, elves and gnomes would also be good choices (elves for the magic penetration and dex bonuses, gnomes for the cha/con bonuses) but I feel I tend to play a character that can more universally get along with everyone as a halfling so I am going that route. 3) short bow: after a few quick calculations I figured out that a bard really needs to be good at every ability. Cha for bardic music/deceiving, Wis to notice when they're being deceived, Int for lots of skill points (so they can deceive better), Con to survive the hit form someone I failed to deceive, Dex to get away from those figured out I deceived them, and Strength to do damage. Well, of those, I can tank Strength if I only fight with a short bow. So that saves me some ability points right there. Con, sad to say, is probably going to be a 10, if not lower. Besides, the party has a paladin, druid and a cleric (and a sorcerer, but that's not helping nor hurting this point) and they tend to be short range/melee attackers. So Str tank. And give me that short bow, the one where I don't need a Str bonus to use.

I'll give a full description of the character with reasons for the choice once I've gotten that far. Until then, have fun.

Dale McCoy is President of Jon Brazer Enterprises. Visit our website to find out about our upcoming Pathfinder Compatable product: Book of the Faithful: The Power of Prayer.

dmccoy1693