Pathfinder 2e vs D&D 5e

My personal history with tabletop RPGs goes all the way back to the early 80s, but my experience was sporadic and not very deep.  Back in third grade I used to draw my own mazes and populate them from the AD&D Monster Manual.  Then I would talk my friend through them over the phone.  I don’t think I ever heard the words “Search for secret passages” so many times in a single night.  I didn’t know the rules, but he did, and so he did all the math on his end.  Looking back at how ridiculously overpowered my encounters were, he probably cheated.

After that I played the occasional random D&D session, usually several years apart.  I didn’t really start to get into D&D until near the end of third edition’s life span, and I didn’t start playing it in earnest until Fourth Edition. 

4e gets a lot of hate, but I liked it for what it was:  A tactical combat board game with a plot.  As long as you understand that going in, it’s actually a pretty fun game.  Their only real mistake was calling it “Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition”.  If they’d just kept 3.5 going, and marketed 4e as a spin-off product, they might have been a lot better off.  They could have called it “D&D Heroes” or “D&D Tactics”.

But no, Wizards of the Coast abandoned 3.5, leading to the Paizo company using the OGL to release Pathfinder, which took 3.5 and ironed out the bugs, as well as adding tons of brand new, high quality content.   Fans of 3.5 flocked to Pathfinder in droves, and while D&D is currently experiencing a surge in popularity, a lot of those lost fans never came back.

Personally, I liked Pathfinder, but I also found it too complicated.  Creating a character was a chore for me, even when I tried using character creation software.  I liked that it had a lot of additional content, but it had so many options that I felt like I needed to read a dozen splatbooks to optimize my character.  I’m not much of a powergamer, and Pathfinder made me feel like I had to min/max just to keep my character alive.  Your Mileage May Vary on that one. 

When D&D 5e was released, I fell in love.  Character creation was so simple, even an idiot like me could build a character in five minutes.  The background options encouraged roleplaying, and the combat encounters were a lot faster than in Fourth.  Of course, optimized characters are still more effective in battle, that’s going to be true of almost any system.  But in 5e I never really felt the pressure to optimize my character, and I felt a lot more comfortable building my character around their background.

Now, some people complained that the monsters in 5e were too easy, but that never bothered me.  I’m not going for a high score here, I’m in it for the story.  For me, 5e struck the perfect balance between roleplay and combat, and it’s just about everything I’m looking for in an RPG.

Recently, Paizo released Pathfinder 2nd edition.  It makes a lot of changes to the system, most of which seem to be improvements, but also make the game a little complicated for my tastes.  Here's some of the rules that stood out to me.

Now a quick disclaimer:  While I played a couple of sessions of the playtest, I’ve only played one session so far of the final product, so these are just first impressions and I might be wrong about some details.  Also, I can’t always remember which rules are new and which ones are carried over from Pathfinder 1st Edition, so if I make something sound new that isn’t, I apologize.  Also, I covered a lot of this ground during my blog on the Playtest, but some of the rules have changed since then.

Character Creation: I have a love/hate relationship with the character creation.  I absolutely adore how you generate your stats now.  You start with all tens, then you get bonus points based on your ancestry, class, and background.  This is really how all RPGs should generate stats. 

However, I hate the overabundance of feats.  The game seems to have a heavy emphasis on them.  There are ancestral feats, class feats, and general feats.  The section for each class is around ten pages long, reminding me of D&D 4th Edition, except instead of powers, all those extra pages are full of feats.  Don’t get me wrong, I like feats, and I think they’re a great way to customize your character.  But it’s a chore reading through all those feats to pick the ones I want.  

Now that's partly own fault for being indecisive.  And luckily the handbook has some suggested templates for characters based on specific themes.  That’s a real time saver.  If you know what kind of character you’re going for, it takes less time to build a character than it did in 1st Edition.  At least, it did for me.  So that’s something.

Pathfinder 2e, which for the rest of this blog I’m going to call Patooie, now refers to “races” as “ancestries”, which is probably more accurate and more future proof.  I wish there were more ancestries to choose from, but then, knowing Paizo, we’ll have 37 new splatbooks by the end of the year.  I like that Patooie incorporates backgrounds into character creation, just like D&D 5e. 

Action Economy: The new action economy is… well, I *think* it’s easier to learn, but I’m so used to the “Standard/Move/Minor” variations most RPGs use that I have to unlearn what I know to relearn the new system.  In Patooie, everyone gets three actions on their turn.  Those actions can be for anything, movement, drawing your sword, attacking.  But some bigger actions use up more than one action, and certain actions have penalties if you use them more than once on a turn.

Encumbrance: The Encumbrance system is... interesting.  Patooie uses a “Bulk” system rather than have you add up each item's weight.  It tries its best to make this simple, but doesn’t quite get there in my opinion.  

Basically, you can carry an amount of Bulk equal to 5 plus your Strength modifier.  Large items are assigned Bulk values based on their size, weight, and how awkward they are to carry.  Smaller items are just labelled “Light”, and 10 light items equals one Bulk.  So a longsword would be 1 bulk, 10 daggers would be one bulk, a suit of plate armor is 4 bulk, and the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Players Handbook is 10 bulk.  Really small items, like shurikens, are weightless as far as the rules are concerned, which sounds like an exploit waiting to happen. 

Is this really easier than just adding up the weight of all your items?  Well, I hate to admit it, but probably. Once you get used to it, anyway.  I’ve never been a huge fan of encumbrance rules anyway, unless your party has one of those loot-obsessed players who try to carry away everything that isn’t nailed down.  

Math: Patooie uses a Proficiency system a bit like 5e, except they went the complete opposite direction on the math.  D&D 5e was built around the concept of “Bounded Accuracy”, which is a fancy way of saying, “We’re actually going to pay attention to the math this time.”  Some editions of D&D let the numbers get out of hand, and at epic levels you’d be adding such high numbers to your attack roll that the d20 barely made much of a difference.  Fifth edition reigned that in, and keeps the numbers much smaller and more controlled.  

Meanwhile, Patooie uses a proficiency bonus that includes your level as part of the math, which pretty much guarantees high attack roll bonuses as the campaign goes on.   I haven’t looked at a high level character sheet yet, but I bet it’s pretty scary.

Initiative: You don’t have a dedicated initiative score any more.  Usually you roll perception, but you might roll something else based on context.  For example, if your rogue was sneaking around when the fight started, they might roll their sneak skill for their initiative.  To me, this rule right here represents the essence of Patooie.  This is a rule that makes perfect sense, to the point that you may even question why RPGs did it the other way before.  But at the same time, it very slightly slows down the game, since some players will have to confirm with the DM which skill to roll. 

It only adds a few seconds, but that’s my point… Patooie is full of rules that make a lot of sense but add an a few extra seconds to gameplay.  No single rule really slows down the game, but combined?  I mean, I probably shouldn’t say this until I’ve played it more, but it nickels and dimes you with tiny extra rules, until the whole game feels too complicated. 

Secret rolls: The DM makes certain player rolls in secret now.  So if the rogue checks for traps, the DM rolls the skill check for them and lets them know whether they think it’s safe.  This way PCs don’t treat high or low rolls as out-of-character knowledge.  For example, let’s say you roll to see if someone is lying, and the DM says, “Well, you think he’s telling the truth…”  In other RPGs, you might respond, “Yeah, well I got a 27 on my insight check, so I’ll trust my instincts.”  But in Patooie, you don't know what you rolled, so you don't know how confident you should be.

This rule makes a lot of sense, but at the same time I just don’t like giving up control that way.  Also, I can see it slowing the game down.  Before, if you rolled really low, you might ask another party member to check as well.  But if the DM rolls for you, then players can no longer be confident about these checks, and they might ask fellow party members to duplicate every secret check.

Besides, I’m not convinced the results of these rolls would actually be out-of-character knowledge.  I think most people, when they attempt something, know to some degree how well they did.  Roll high on your insight check, and you can say you’re almost positive he’s not lying.  Roll low and you can say that the guy has one of those faces that’s hard to read.  But if the DM rolls in secret, you don’t know how your character feels about their attempt.  But I’m probably making too much out of it.

Crits: You now get a critical hit not only by rollling 20s, but also if you roll at least 10 higher than the target DC.  Likewise, you fumble if you roll 10 or more lower than the target number, as well as when you roll a 1.  In addition to attack rolls, a lot of skills have extra effects that go off if you crit or fumble.  I think that’s a good system – I’ve always thought it would be cool if there were a difference between just barely hitting someone’s AC, and obliterating their AC.  But it also means you'll want to keep the Players Handbook nearby in case you forget what happens when you crit with a specific skill.

Opportunity Attacks: You provoke an opportunity attack if you move while in an enemy’s threat range.  This is reasonable, but it’s going to be hard for me because I’m used to 5e, where you only provoke when you leave their threat range.  But Patooie does allow you to step one square without provoking.

Diagonal Movement: By default, it uses the 1,2,1,2 method for calculating diagonal movement.  This is a huge pet peeve of mine, and I could probably do a whole rant on that one rule alone.  But to sum up, I prefer simple rules and ease of play over stark realism and simulationism.

Non-Magical Healing: Healing is a divisive issue for players.  Some people – usually old school gamers - prefer slow healing, because it turns it into a resource management game.  Does the party really want to risk going down another dungeon level when their hit points are down 25%?  Other players – usually the ones who grew up playing video game RPGs, prefer to recover all their hit points by resting after each battle.  This helps the game move along faster, and prevents you from going back to town every twenty minutes. 

I can see both sides of the issue, but personally I prefer fast healing.  At least if the campaign has a lot of combat in it.  A few years ago I was in a Pathfinder First Edition campaign, and my character got injured, and she had to stay in bed for several days while the rest of the party went out on cool adventures.  At first it looked like Patooie was going to be the same way. 

But then I learned about the skill “Treat Wounds”.  Basically, it allows you to make a DC15 check once an hour, to heal 2d8 hit points.  For a game without any form of healing surges, this is a game changer.  I can see this becoming a “must have” skill for any class that allows it.  I can see some DMs disallowing the skill, or at least restricting the number of times it can be used per day. 

Hero Points: Every system has some version of action points, inspiration, bennies, or whatever.  In Patooie, Hero Points are points you get that only last for the session, that you can trade in to reroll bad checks, or to keep you from dying.  Since they can save your life when you’re making death saves, it’s risky to use them up on anything else, and I imagine most players will always save one for emergencies.  Heck, it’s worth it just to avoid having to look up the Dying rules, which take up nearly two full pages in the Player’s Handbook.

To Wrap-Up: Patooie is a decent system, but I do have some concerns about its future.  Like I said earlier, the original Pathfinder’s fan base was made up of people who didn’t want to leave D&D 3.5 behind.  So, now that Pathfinder is no longer a clone of 3.5, are those fans still going to stick with it?  Or will they keep playing Pathfinder 1st Edition?  Or will some of them take this opportunity to give D&D 5e a try?  Only time will tell.

Some of Patooies rules seem… all over the place.  This is just my impression and feel free to disagree, but some of the rules don’t feel like they belong in the same RPG.  Every time I think the game it too complicated, I’ll come across something that’s been elegantly streamlined.  Some elements of the game are as simple as tic-tac-toe, while some entire pages read like tax code.  I never can tell if the PCs are supposed to be ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, or if they’re supposed to be medieval superheroes. 

I have a fundamental problem with the Players Handbook that is hard to put into words… but basically, the information I’m looking for is rarely where I would look for it.  It’s like the writers and I just can’t agree on how you should organize a book. I can only read the Player’s Handbook in small chunks, because my brain keeps getting full.   I kept finding rules that made me say, “Awesome!  But… I’ll never remember that option exists.”  It’s like being at a buffet full of thousands of delicious desserts, but you’ve already filled up on steak and couldn’t eat another bite. 

Overall, I think Pathfinder 2nd Edition is an excellent game with a lot of creative features.  However, I also think it’s a bloated system and unnecessarily complicated in places.  It would not be my first choice of RPG, maybe not even my fifth… but I would still play it, and probably enjoy it.

Bottom line: There’s a lot to like in the newest version of Pathfinder, but it’s far from perfect.  Personally I prefer D&D 5e, but Patooie is good enough that I’m happy to play it when I can’t find a 5e game.

Pathfinder 2e - First Session

Game Date: 9/29/2019

Earlier this year I played a couple of the playtests for Pathfinder 2nd Edition.  This was my first time playing the actual game.  There were eight of us in the group, mostly using pregens.  Because of the large group (a couple of whom were really great at hamming it up), there was a lot of time between turns and I really didn't end up doing much.  But we all had a great time and we learned a bit about the new edition.

The session started with a town meeting.  We were told that the town sage had been kidnapped by an Ogre, who was taking him to speak to Hannar, a former town citizen.  We accepted the plot hook and headed toward the Ogre's cave.  On the winding trail up the mountain, we fought the Ogre and his companions.

After the battle, the party Rogue was suffering from centipede poison, and we spent many turns trying to heal him.  We located the sage and untied him.  Investigating the area, we found a ritualistic circle of rocks, and played around until Hannar teleported in.  He ordered the sage to tell him the truth about his birth.

The sage revealed that Hannar was a real Son of a Witch (well, Hag), and Hannar threatened to destroy the town.  Our bard tried using diplomacy, and it was super effective!  The bard convinced Hannar to see the error of his ways.  It was a nice change of pace to avoid a boss combat this way.

It was a short session, so there wasn't much there to judge the game on.  However, I have read through the Player's Handbook.  I'll go over my thoughts in a future blog, but overall I think it has some great ideas.  Some of the rules are a bit too complicated for my tastes, and so far I prefer the simplicity of D&D 5e.

But it was nice getting to throw down some dice again; I don't get to play nearly enough these days.

Pathfinder 2e Playtest: First Impressions

This Saturday I’m going to join a playtest campaign for Pathfinder 2^nd Edition.  I’m trying to read over the rulebook, but it’s already giving me a headache.   At first glance it’s less complicated than Starfinder, but I still prefer the simplicity of D&D 5e.  I promise I will keep an open mind, though.  A lot of games play better than they read.

Here’s some things that jump out at me so far.  Disclamer: I might be wrong a lot.  So far I’ve only skimmed the PDF, so I may have missed a few things.  I also might mention some things that haven’t changed from Pathfinder 1e, because I’m used to playing D&D.

Action Economy – You get three actions per round (plus 1 reaction and unlimited free actions).  These actions can be movement, attacks, or all kinds of things.  To discourage people using all three actions to attack, the second and third attacks have a cumulative attack penalty.  Many spells cost multiple actions to cast, so you can only get one out per round.  I find this elegant, and a lot easier to remember than “Standard/Move/Minor” or whatever.

Attacks of Opportunity – I’ve gotten used to D&D 5e, in which you provoke when you leave an enemy’s threat range.  PF2e has you provoke when you make any movement while inside a monster’s threat range, which is going to get me in trouble.  One the bright side, it’s easier to Step (aka shift, 5-foot-step, withdraw, etc) in PF2e than in D&D 5e.   Just use one of your actions to Step one square, without provoking.

Diagonal Movement – Uses the 1, 2, 1, 2 method again.  I’ve always hated that.  I know it’s not strictly realistic having diagonal movement equal horizontal/vertical movement, but it’s not as exploitable as people seem to think.  Simpler is better.

Feats – The biggest part of character customization appears to revolve around feat selection.  It looks like you get at least one feat at every level.  Some feats come from for your ancestry, others from your class, and some are related to your skills .  So even if you have multiple Elven Fighters in the party, they’re still going to play very differently.  However, one downside is that each class’s section in the rulebook looks very similar to D&D 4e.  Yeah, feats aren’t quite the same as powers, but the aesthetic still brings back bad memories.

Stats – The method for generating your stats is a lot different than what I’m used to, but I really like it.  You start with all 10s, then you get bonuses from your Ancestry, Class, and Background.

Races – They’re now called “ancestries”, which is more accurate than “race”, and has the advantage of pissing off the neckbeards.   The Half-Orc and Half-Elf ancestries are now first-level feats that can be taken by Humans, which is pretty cool, but it makes me wish they’d taken the opportunity to add a few more half-ancestries in.  And why only for Humans?  Hopefully the final product will have more.

Goblins and Alchemists – Pathfinder’s most signature race and class are finally in the core rulebook.  I’m personally not interested, but I know a certain player who is probably thrilled.

Proficiency Bonus – I’ve never been fond of the “Base Attack Bonus” some RPGs use, and found D&D 5e’s proficiency bonus much easier.  Glad to see it here as well.  However, as I understand it, your level is part of your Proficiency bonus, which seems like will translate into absurdly bonuses at high levels.  I hope I’m reading that wrong.  I’m so used to D&D 5e’s tight math, that I don’t want to see another system where you roll a d20 and add something astronomical.

TEML – This is another thing that gets added to most die rolls.  You get another bonus to the roll depending on whether you’re Untrained (-2), Trained (+0), Expert (+1), Master (+2), or Legen... wait for it... dary (+3).  It seems as good a method as any.

Touch AC – Seriously, I hate systems with two types of AC.  If you know most characters’ TAC is going to be a little lower than their regular AC, why not just have one AC and raise the attack bonus to touch attacks?

Encumbrance – I’m not a fan of strict encumbrance rules, but this one’s at least kind of interesting.  Instead of keeping track of the exact weight in pounds, it uses a "Bulk" system that categorizes items in terms of size and shape.  It reminds me of how certain video games have you fitting different-sized items into your inventory pages.  It's neat, but it's yet another system-within-a-system I have to learn when all I want to do is pick up some dice and play.

Healing – Don’t get me started.  There’s no such thing a short rest, and long rests don't heal much (your CON mod times your level).  If you don’t have a healer in the party, you’re going to have a really slow campaign.  Most people reading this already know my feelings on hit points (Hint: I mostly consider it Stamina), and it’s hard for me to get excited about a campaign where I’m going to spend so much time recovering in bed. 

Resonance – This seems like a complicated addition, but it’s kind of interesting.  Basically it’s a score (CHA mod + level) that affects how many magic items you can carry and/or use at a time.   Charisma is my favorite stat, and I’m all for finding more uses for it.  Plus it’s kind of cool that you can build your character with the intention of specializing in magic items.

Hero Points – These days every system has to have some version of Action Points or Bennies or Inspiration or whatever.   I don’t have a problem with it, but it’s one more thing to keep track of in a game overloaded with different kinds of points.

Spellcasting – At first glance, it’s not too different from D&D 5e, but it shares some of the same problems.  Certain characters will end up having to juggle Vancian “spell slots per level per day” spells, as well as dealing with spell points, and some specific spells that have their own “per day” limit.  It seems like a lot of different systems to keep track of.

Character Sheet – The default character sheet appears to be in Landscape mode, which is awesome because I usually make myself some landscape sheets anyway. 

Overall, I like some of the changes, dislike others, and hate some of the things they kept the same.  I’ll have to wait until Saturday to know what I think for sure.  But even if it turns out to be excellent, I keep wondering, is a new edition a good idea?  Is this ultimately going to be a good thing or a bad thing for Paizo as a company? 

Here’s the thing:  D&D 3.5 was the most prolific version of D&D ever released.  When WOTC went on to 4^th edition, many people felt this was a bad idea, because it abandoned so much existing content.  I still say what I’ve always said: 4^th edition is a pretty fun game, but it should have been a spin-off product, not a replacement for 3.5.  I’m having similar thoughts about PF2e.

Today, Pathfinder has a very niche market.  It caters to the people who didn’t want to move on from D&D 3.5.  I wouldn’t be so skeptical if the new edition was a spin-off product, but by calling it “Pathfinder 2^nd Edition”, it replaces their masthead product.  Many gamers play Pathfinder for one reason: 3.5 nostalgia.  Throw out that reason, and suddenly there are hundreds of RPG systems out there to try.  Without that 3.5 connection, Pathfinder 2e is going to have a lot more competition.  I honestly think they are going to lose business over this.

I hope I'm wrong.

Finding Myself

So with only a few sessions left in our Shattered Star campaign, we've been talking more and more about what's next.  While it's not set in stone quite yet, it sounds like we're probably going to end up running a Pathfinder adventure path called "Wrath of the Righteous".  Using actual Pathfinder this time, instead of D&D 5e.  We've been talking a bit about what sort of characters each of us will be playing.  One is looking at a Changeling Witch, another is considering something skill-focused, and another is thinking Barbarian.

Usually I wait and see what the rest of the party is doing, and fill that hole.  But I just played the same boring fighter for over a year, so I'm wanting to pick something I'll really look forward to playing.  At the same time, I'm not as good with Pathfinder so I don't want anything too complicated.  So something simple, but still interesting.  Hopefully it's possible.

I'm currently researching the Warpriest, but I'm not sold quite yet.  If we do go with the Wrath campaign, Warpriest sounds like a decent fit, but I don't know enough about how it plays.  After playing Bjertha for 50 sessions, I'm a little sick of melee fighting.  If a Warpriest can be built that focuses more on healing, spells, or ranged attacks, that might please me.  But if I end up being the most heavily armored in the party, I'll probably have to tank again - which is fine, just not not my first choice.

So I'm writing this out as a mental exercise, to explore what I do and don't like about certain classes and races, so that maybe I can find something that really fits me.

My likes/dislikes:
My favorite classes are usually ranged and/or Charisma based. My favorite characters in previous campaigns were Bards, Sorcerers, and archers (various builds). I also like playing healers, but I don't like being the party's only healer unless I have a ton of healing options.  My favorite healing character was a 4e Cleric pacifist, who concentrated on healing so much that she was terrible in combat.  I also have a thing for nature magic and animal companions.

Personality/Roleplay/Flavor:
All of my characters are female (that's non-negotiable, but no one's ever complained).  Most of my characters are of Neutral Good or Chaotic Good alignment.  I could try other alignments, but I'd have problems staying in character.  A lot of my characters have been somewhat peaceful - not afraid of battle, but avoiding a fight when possible, and never killing a helpless enemy after the battle's over.  Bjertha was the most hot-headed character I've played, and she was hard to get used to.

I usually don't worry much about gold, because I like finding new equipment more than buying it in a store.  If I do buy a magic item, the first one I try to buy is a bag of holding, so I can carry more of what I find in the dungeons.  When the party does find a cache of magic items, I usually let the other players pick first.  I might end up with a random variety of mismatched equipment, but that's a lot more interesting to me than having a perfect set of optimized gear.

Core classes I haven't played in PnP:
One thing to consider is, what have I not played?  Seems like I should try everything at least once.  However, there are reasons for my omissions.

Barbarian - I wrote a big long backstory for a Barbarian one time, but I've yet to play one in a PnP campaign.  They sound like fun, but I don't think I'd like keeping track of how many rounds I've used my rage.  Plus I like my melee characters to be well armored.

Paladin - I've always liked them because they're well-armored and can heal, but I typically don't care for their personalities.  Most of my characters are of Good alignment, but I've never been into Lawful.  If the system requires Paladins be Lawful Good, I'm probably out.

Rogue - I'm fairly surprised I haven't played a Rogue in PnP, but it just hasn't happened yet.  They sound like fun on paper, but personality-wise most of them seem motivated by gold.  My characters don't tend to be very greedy, so my Rogue would have other reasons for choosing that lifestyle.  Online I used to play a Rogue who was on the run from the law after being wrongly convicted.  She didn't enjoy picking pockets, but she couldn't get a real job where she might be recognized.

Wizard - Meh.  They're so complicated and strategic, plus they go down too quickly.  I can see how they could be fun, but I don't think I have the tactical skills to run one effectively.

Races:
I've been playing a Dwarf since mid 2014, and I'd really like to play someone attractive again.  But oddly, at the same time I've been wanting to try a Half-Orc or Tiefling - they're the only core races I've never played.  Well, I don't think I've played a Gnome either, but I'm not interested.  I've also been pondering some of the non-core races, because I'm sick of playing the same races over and over again.  But I don't feel like playing anything monster-like.  I've always wanted to try a Pixie, but I don't think Pathfinder has one.  I'm also partial to cat-like people.

In past campaigns, my favorite characters have been Elves, Half-Elves, Eladrin, Dragonborn, and one Hamadryad.  I think I've played more Humans than anything, which is funny because I find them boring.  I'm already playing one in real life (though not very convincingly), so I don't know why I'd want to play them in fantasy.

Twice now when I've had trouble deciding on a character, I've rolled for race/class randomly.  However, both times I was disappointed with the outcome, and they just weren't as fun or as memorable as characters I chose myself.


Anyway, I still have a few weeks to think about it, so we'll see.

D&D 5e Vs Pathfinder

It's been a while since I've made a non-campaign-related blog on this page.  A few years ago I wrote a blog about D&D 4e vs Pathfinder.  I didn't have a clear winner at the time, because the two systems have such different play styles.  Sometimes you're in the mood for tactical combat, sometimes you're in the mood for simulationist roleplay.  But in retrospect, it's not that much of a contest.  Pathfinder is so obviously superior to 4e that it's not even funny.  I still remember my 4e campaigns with great fondness, but it's not a system I ever care to play again.

We're about to wrap up our current campaign, in which we are using D&D 5e to play a Pathfinder adventure path.  This has been particularly taxing on the DM, with all the enemy and item conversions.  As I write this, we're still debating on whether to make the next campaign D&D or Pathfinder, but I believe the group is leaning toward Pathfinder.  I'm torn.  I like both systems, for different reasons.

Character Creation
Winner: 5e
So in preparation for our potential Pathfinder campaign, I started looking through the PHB for character ideas.  And I swear, after playing 5e for so long, for a minute I thought I was reading one of my old Calculus books from college.  Pathfinder's like, "You can use this power 3 times a day plus your Charisma modifier minus your Strength mod unless you're left-handed or it's a Thursday after 3PM in which case you roll a d4 and subtract 5 and add your number of eyes (minimum 1), unless your grandmother owns a parakeet in which case you can use the power two extra times per day (maximum 3 per fortnight) and it also adds budgie damage except to monsters who are immune to ice cream."

Okay, I'm exaggerating.  But I can build a 5e character in less than 10 minutes, and the great part is that I can do it myself without having to use some sort of character generator program.  This was one of the first things I loved about 5e; even in 4e I had to resort to WOTC's character creator.  In my last Pathfinder campaign I used PCGen, which was helpful but tedious.  It sped things up a lot, but it's not user-friendly enough for my tastes.

Character Options
Winner: Pathfinder
Unfortunately 5e's ease-of-use comes at a price.  The system feels so basic.  People who want more interesting characters just don't have a lot of choices.  Personally I'm really into races.  The more a system has, the better.  My two favorite books in 4e were "Heroes of the Feywild" and "Heroes of Shadow."  They didn't have the most powerful options, but I loved the flavor.  Unfortunately those books came out near the end of 4e's life, and I only got to try out one of those races before I stopped playing 4e.  With 5e releasing new content at such a glacial rate, once again they'll probably start putting out fey/dark races and classes right before 6e launches.

Meanwhile, Pathfinder has a ton of options.  Being based on an earlier version of D&D, they had a big head start and have had a lot more time to get content out there.  In fact, I'm a little surprised they don't have even more to choose from, but what's out there is enough to keep me busy for years.  For those who are bored with the standard fantasy core classes, Pathfinder is the way to go.

On the other hand, if you don't mind a little homebrew, there are a ton of fan sites out there with great new 5e options. They vary in quality, but if you look hard enough there's a lot of well-balanced content with lots of new flavor.

Healing
Winner: 5e
I've said it many times before:  I hate slow healing.  People have different ideas on what hit points represent, but to me they're more about stamina than anything.  Getting "hit" doesn't mean your enemy's sword broke your skin, it means you deflected a blow and it cost you some stamina.  In most fights, the only blow that actually cuts you is the one that takes you below zero, because at that point you were too tired to block it.

Pathfinder's "1 hit point per level per night" is maddeningly slow.  It's a relic from a time when people didn't heal up after every battle, and while I have nothing against those players, it's not for me. 

Difficulty
Winner: 5e
And by "winner" I mean it's easier to stay alive in 5e.  For some people that's not a bonus, but I'm more interested in the story than the challenge.  I don't have anything to prove; I already know I suck at battle strategy, and it's not something that really bothers me.  To me, it's not a very interesting story if we keep rolling up new characters every few sessions.  If a campaign has an over-arcing plot, then I like there to be some continuity regarding the characters in it.  If the final sessions of a campaign have a completely different cast than the early sessions, it makes me wonder why we were following those early characters in the first place. 

Rules Specificity
Winner: Pathfinder
One of the big complaints I keep hearing about the table, is that too many of 5e's rules boil down to "ask the DM".  It can really slow things down when someone asks a question, and everyone checks three different books, only to find the information hasn't been written yet.  To be fair, the internet is full of fan-made documents that fill in the gaps, but should we really have to resort to that many houserules just to play the game?  The DM might rule one way in this session, then forget and rule the opposite way in a later session.  The more you rely on the DM to fill in the gaps on the fly, the less fair the game becomes. 

Negative Effects
Winner: 5e
I've said it before, but stat reductions and level drains suck.  I might spend hours at home doing all the math to figure out all my skills and attack rolls.  Then I get attacked by a wight or something, and suddenly I have to redo all my math right there at the table, on the fly.  I have yet to meet anyone who thinks stat drains are fun.  Let me repeat that for emphasis: STAT REDUCTIONS ARE NOT FUN.

Pathfinder is one of the world's most popular tabletop RPGs, and the makers spent a lot of time taking the best elements of D&D 3.5 and tweaking them to perfection.  And yet they intentionally put in a mechanic that absolutely everyone fracking hates.  For a game designed to be fun, it doesn't make a bit of sense.  I mean, would you keep playing Monopoly if one of the rules was that you have to shove a pencil in your eye every time you pass Go?  Frankly, this is unforgivable.

But, you don't get a Marvel No-Prize just for pointing out a problem, you also have to figure out a solution.  Our DM is fond of handing out condition cards when you get Dazed or Stunned or whatever, so how about some Stat Reduction cards?  You get hit with stat reduction, you get handed a card that says, "You Are At -2 Dex.  Your get -1 to your ranged attacks, AC (depending on your armor), and the following skills:  Acrobatics, Disable Device, etc."  That would at least leave fewer eraser marks on my character sheet.  But more importantly, I want these negative effects to go away faster. 

Overall Winner
Honestly, I really prefer 5e, I just wish there were more books out for it.  I'll happily play Pathfinder, though.  Bottom line: The fun comes from the group, not the system.

Shattered Star: Pride Cometh Before The Fall

Game Date: 8/9/2014
Location: The Game Cave
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 3
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Bugg (Daniel) - Goblin Alchemist
Sneex (Cliff) - Sylph Rogue
Toad the Toad Summoner (James) - Human Barbarian/Wizard
Henric Slidell (Thomas) - Human Oracle

The Session:

When we left off, Bjertha had found Natalia in the rafters of a ruined building.  Holding a crossbow trained on Bjertha, Natalia informed the Dwarf that she would rather not return to the Pathfinder Society, because they might take the trinket she had found.  Natlia held a metal shard, which seemed to possess magical properties.  To keep the rest of the party from climbing up to help, Natalia used the shard to set the ladder on fire.  Then she used the trinket's power to charm Bjertha into being her new bodyguard.

It turned out the fire was an illusion, but Natalia proceeded to charm Slidell, and asked us to take her to Heidmarch Manor... not to turn in the artifact, but in the hopes of making it her new home base.  She gathered a group of charmed goblin followers, and ordered us to lead the way to the mansion.  Sneex tried to run off, but Natalia charmed her as well.

This left only Toad and Bugg free from her influence, but those two followed along anyway - Bugg was happy to be in the company of goblins again, and Toad just enjoys chaos.  Besides, let's face it, our mission was to return Natalia and the artifact, so in a way she was playing right into our hands.  As we approached the next section of town, the town watch stopped us.  They were a bit concerned about us leading a bunch of goblins through town in the middle of the night.  Such worrywarts.  We told them that we meant no harm, but they escorted us through the area just to play it safe.

We arrived at the mansion of Sheila Heidmarch and knocked on the door.  A manservant answered, but was repulsed by our gaggle of goblins, and shut the door in our face.  He opened a slot on the door and asked us what we wanted, and we ordered him to fetch Sheila.  An impatient Sneex climbed up the wall and broke in through a second story window.  Two of the goblins worked on setting up a crossbow to fire as if it were a mortar, while the rest of the goblins got into general hijinks.  When Sheila finally answered the door, Natalia ordered her goblin minions to attack.

Because of all the charming going on, this battle was a bit confusing.  Several of the goblins ran around the sides of the mansion to cause more mischief, so we didn't have to fight them.  Bjertha broke her charm and tackled Natalia, pinning her to the ground.  Toad killed a couple of goblins, shouting "I surrender!" after each one.   Bugg killed a goblin or two with his crossbow.  Sheila attacked Toad and took him down on one turn, using nonlethal damage.  Slidell managed to wrestle the artifact away from Natalia, only to succumb to its effects himself.

His mind suddenly affected by delusions of grandeur, Slidell refused to turn the amulet over.  Sheila managed to convince him to combine it with an Ioun stone, which broke the spell.  Now that no one was being affected, we cleaned up and let Sheila lead us to a meeting room.  She briefed us on the artifact we'd recovered.

It turns out this trinket was just one piece of a powerful relic.  When complete, the Shattered Star had seven points, each made of a different metal.  Now in pieces, each shard represents a different one of the seven deadly sins.  The one we recovered represents pride.  We also learned that properly used, each shard could guide its wielder to the location of the next shard. 

Looks like our mission is obvious.  We're taking a week of downtime while Sheila does more research on the shards.  We ended the session there.

Rewards:
+336 XP each
+200 Gold each

Reminder:
Next week I will not be there, and the remaining players are planning to try D&D 5e instead.

Shattered Star: Choked and Grappled by Grappling Chokers

Game Date: 8/2/2014
Location: The Game Cave
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 2
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Bugg (Daniel) - Goblin Alchemist
Sneex (Cliff) - Sylph Rogue
Toad the Wet Sprocket Toad Summoner (James) - Human Barbarian/Wizard
Henric Slidell (Thomas) - Human Oracle

The Party

The Session:
When we left off last session, we were trying to learn Natalia's whereabouts from a disgusting informant called Fenster the Blight.  We took a quick trip back to the Pathfinder Society so we could enjoy a nice dinner and added Sneex to the party.  Then we went back to the Underbridge district to take another crack at Fenster.

We considered several options, including beating the information out of him, but rejected that idea because it would involve touching him.  Finally we took the high road and bribed him with a garnet.  He told us that Natalia had been seen at a local boarding house.

We headed for the boarding house.  On the way, we were attacked by five chokers.  They won a surprise round, grabbing most of the party and dragging us in different directions.  Bugg the goblin was dragged up the wall.  Bugg broke and reversed the grapple, briefly grappling his grappler before the grappler regrappled the grappler's grappler on its next turn.  Or something.

Bjertha struggled against her choker, consistently failing to hit it with any attack rolls.  Toad fared much better, gradually killing chokers one at a time and freeing up other party members.  Sneex climbed the wall after Bugg's choker, attempting to save the goblin.  Just as Sneex reached the goblin, Bugg broke free and dropped to the ground, leaving Sneex alone with the choker.  Then Bugg threw a bomb at the choker.  It didn't do much to harm the choker, but the splash damage finished off Sneex.

We used some tokens to save Sneex's life, but the rogue was not happy with the goblin.  Bugg should sleep with one eye open for a while.  Once the chokers were all dead, we continued to the boarding house.  The building turned out to be in extremely poor shape.  After a few minutes of deliberation, Toad charged through the front door... and fell into a pit of sewage.  He climbed out of the collapsed floor, now covered in filth.

Much of the house's floor was similarly collapsed, so we decided not to just barrel through that part of the building.  Bjertha kicked in a side door, and encountered two angry thugs.  Bjertha attempted to apologize, but Toad taunted them and they attacked us.  On Slidell's turn, he convinced them to stop fighting.  We prodded them for a bit of information, then persuaded them to leave the premises.

Around the back of the house, we knocked out a few of the boarded-up windows.  We saw the same thing in all the rooms - collapsed floors, and some ladders leading up to the rafters.  In one room there was a chimney with a ladder in it.  Sneex climbed through the window and tried to climb up the chimney, but a Goblin Snake attacked her.  The rest of us gradually climbed through the window, and Bjertha dealt the final blow to the snake. 

Once it was dead, Bjertha climbed the ladder up to a landing.  At the top of the ladder, she found a crossbow aimed at her head.  The weapon was held by a gypsy woman, who we believe to be Natalia.  We ended the session there.

XP So Far:
+378 (7/19)
+760 (8/2)
= 1138

Shattered Star: Bribing Your Way To Victory

Game Date: 7/19/2014
Location: The Game Cave
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 1
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Bugg (Daniel) - Goblin Alchemist
Toad the Toad Summoner (James) - Human Barbarian/Wizard
Henric Slidell (Thomas) - Human Oracle

The Session:
We each received a letter summoning us to Heidmarch Manor in the city of Magnimar.  We were to meet with Sheila Heidmarch of the Pathfinder Society, who had a proposition for us. Upon arrival, Sheila greeted us, and asked us to wait in the library while she tended to other matters.  To give us something to do while we waited, she gave us a puzzle box to figure out.

This "Pandora Box" had runes etched on some of its stone sides.  One side had runes that spelled out "CRUEL", but the letters could be rearranged.  Bjertha tried changing the word to "LUCRE", and the lid popped open.  Two Pugwampi (dog-faced gremlins) suddenly appeared, and started tearing up the library.  We tried to restrain them.

The Pugwampi weren't very powerful - their attacks did 1d2 minus 4 damage, so we weren't very scared.  But they did manage to damage Toad's weapon.  During the battle, Henric noticed some treasure was in the box, including three garnets, a scalloped ring, and a silver dagger.  (I wonder what would have been in the box if we'd spelled "ULCER".)  He stuffed everything in his pockets while the rest of us dealt with the gremlins.

We killed one of the pugwampi, and knocked the other out.  As we were tying up the survivor, Sheila came back into the room.  She was pleased that we had passed her test, and briefed us on our mission.  There was a missing informant named Natalia, who is connected to a gang called the Sczarni.  Rumor has it that she recently found a rare artifact, then disappeared.

It's possible Natalia wanted to keep the artifact for herself, and ran off with it.  Or perhaps the artifact had magic powers and disintegrated her.  Maybe someone else killed her and took the artifact.  It's our mission to find out.  Our party will receive 500 gold if we return the artifact.  If we also return Natalia alive, we'll get an extra 500.  And if possible, we're to try not to out Natalia as an informant.

Sheila also gave us a lead.  A fortune teller called The Amazing Zograthy had a business over on the poor side of town.  We headed for the docks, where we paid a kid some copper for directions to Zograthy.  We finally reached the seer's shop, and paid him 20 gold to tell us what he knew.  He told us that many people have been disappearing.  The Sczarni is also looking for Natalia, and there's rumors that she had gone mad.  Natalia had also been seen hanging out with a faction called the Tower Girls.

Once we'd learned all we could from Zograthy, we started looking for other people to ask.  Henric failed a diplomacy check and got mugged.  As he tried to flee his attackers, we tried out a card game mechanic that used skill checks to flee.  It was a pretty interesting game style, though it didn't work out very well for us today.  The muggers caught up to Henric and beat the crap out of him.  When the rest of us tried to help him, we got arrested by the town watch.

The guards took us back to police HQ to sort things out.  Eventually they let us go, and we stopped by the Heidmarch Manor.  We left a few of our valuables behind this time so we'd have less to steal, and all wore cloaks so we would look more impoverished.  We headed back to the slums to follow our next lead.  We met with Fenster the Blight, the disease-ridden landlord for the Tower Girls.  He required a bit of bribery before he would talk at all, and he still wants more before he'll tell us anything useful.  This is shaping up to be an expensive quest. 

We ended the session there. It's hard to say whether we'll acquiesce to his demands next week, or try threatening him.  Perhaps we'll find a third option.

Character: Bjertha Brawlbaker

This my character for the "Shattered Star" Pathfinder Campaign.

Name: Bjertha Brawlbaker
Race: Dwarf
Class: Fighter (Armormaster)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Deity: Gorum
Age: 53
Height: 4'4"
Weight: 199 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Ruddy Brown






Rolled Background Details:
Homeland: Underground.  Janderhoff, Mindspin Mountains.
Parents: Both living, artisans.
Siblings: Two older, one younger.
Social Standing: Born middle class. 
Romance:  Bjertha has had several significant relationships, but they always fail.
Early Life: Bjertha was bullied on the street.  She was influenced by a mercenary.
Moral conflict: Bjertha told a lie to a gangster, because of jealousy.  She has mixed feelings about it.

Traits and Flaws:
Veteran of Battle (Religion) - +1 Initiative, If can act on surprise round, can draw weapon as free actionDefender of Society (Social, Shattered Star) - +1 AC

Known Associates:
Bugg (Daniel) - Goblin Alchemist, and Bjertha's hunting companion
Toad the Toad Summoner (James) - Human Barbarian/Wizard
Henric Slidell (Thomas) - Human Oracle, and drug dealer
Sneax (Cliff) - Sylvan Rogue

Mini - Dwarf Shieldmaiden (Dungeons of Dread #33)

Dragon's Demand: The Final Chapter

Game Date: 7/5/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 16
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz Furian (Matt) - Human Sorcerer
Tanith Tularn (Thomas) - Human Cleric
Vires (Daniel) - Human Alchemist

The Session:
I missed a session,during which they followed a tunnel out of the monastery, rescued the Druid's wife, closed the Dark Portal, and fought a tree-like, charisma-draining Yangethe (which nearly killed them).  The session ended right as a large, green dragon made his appearance. 

Which meant today we jumped straight into battle with the final boss.  This dragon had a high AC and an impressive reach.  On the bright side, his defense against ranged touch attacks was pretty low... but his spell resistance still kept Raz from landing any of her best spells.

As the fight began, one of us played a Pathfinder plot card that summoned a Sea Hag... who didn't really affect the battle. On the dragon's first turn, he hit most of the party with some highly damaging acid breath.  Then he flew away through a hole in the roof so he could recharge his breath weapon.  We did a bit of healing while we waited for it to come back.  The Druid used this time to buff his wife with acid resistance.

When the dragon returned, Halfbeard let loose an Arrow of Dragonslaying, which he'd been saving for a while.  It did an extra 50 points of damage.  Good start!  The Druid cast entangle to keep the dragon from flying off again.  Tanith, Lilith, and Maffei boxed the monster in, taking lots of damage while using their best remaining attacks.  Tanith went down at one point, but stayed alive.  It was Halfbeard who finally took the dragon down, with a pair of Dragonsbane arrows.  

Our quest now over, we wrapped things up quickly.  The final battle felt a little bit anticlimactic, given how some of the previous bosses nearly killed us.  But then, we had prepared for this fight with all our anti-dragon arrows, so I'll chalk it up to good planning.

Coming Up:
Next week we start working on a new campaign, "Shattered Star".  Our characters are in various states of completion.  Here's what we know so far:
Bjertha (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Bugg (Daniel) - Goblin Alchemist
Toad the Toad Summoner (James) - Human Barbarian/Wizard
? (Thomas) - Drug-dealing Cleric
? (Cliff) - Possibly a Rogue or Rogue/Wizard

Dragon's Demand: Are You My Mummy?

Game Date: 5/31/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 14
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz Furian (Matt) - Human Sorcerer
Tanith Tularn (Thomas) - Human Cleric
Vires (Daniel) - Human Alchemist

The Session:
When we left off, our party had just finished taking out Aeteperax's fourth lieutenant, a giant grioth.  Hurting from battle, we headed to the naga's room to rest.  During the night, we heard the sound of a large creature leaving the grounds, and returning an hour later.  It's hard to say for sure since our room had no windows, but we're pretty sure it was Aeteperax.  Or at least the dragon impersonating him.

We interrogated both of our prisoners - Thaena the now-blind naga, and Pentosh the nearly-dead alchemist.  We asked about the whereabouts of the druid's wife.  Apparently Aeteperax keeps her in his cave, which isn't far from here.  We learned that the naga had an unrequited crush on the dragon, but unfortunately for her Aeteperax is too obsessed with the "Dark Window" to notice Thaena.  We asked what the Window was, but she couldn't be more specific.

We visited our druid frenemy Azmur for more information.  He didn't know much more about the Dark Window, except that it was connected to the "Dark Tapestry", a term we'd heard before.  He did, however, offer to lead us to where it might be.  But first we headed to the monastery's kitchen to see if Pentosh had left any alchemy supplies that Vires could use.  We found some chemicals that, once combined with some dragon scales we'd collected, yielded five potions of acid resistance.

Continuing on to the Dark Window, we found a library that hardly had any books in it.  In one corner was a secret door, leading to a passage that circled the room before ending at a locked door.  (Crazy architects; putting the secret door on the opposite side of the room would have saved the poor monks a lot of walking.)  The door's lock was of the highest quality.  It resisted all attempts to pick it, and the door was too sturdy to force open.  We even tried knocking, but got no answer.  Though that's probably a good thing.  Eventually we turned around, resolving to explore more rooms in hope of finding a key.

Later we found a room full of metal coffins.  It wasn't what we initially thought, though.  These coffins were actually sensory deprivation tanks the monks used for meditation.  There were some rocks placed on one, which just screamed "plot related" to us.  We cleared the rocks and opened the coffin, revealing a dead human.   For once in our lives, the dead guy stayed inanimate rather than attacking us.  Azmur recognized him as one of Aeteperax's former lieutenants.

We used a Speak With Dead scroll, which allowed us to ask the corpse two questions.  First we asked what Aeteperax's real name was.  The corpse answered, "The name he used before is unimportant; he is Lord Aeteperax now."  Then we asked where the key was, and he answered, "Aeteperax never needed the key."  Well, that was a waste of a scroll.

We explored a few more rooms, and when we were satisfied that we'd seen everything in this building, we headed to the next one.  We found a prayer room, with a large mosaic in the floor.  After a bit of searching we found a trap door under a rug.  A small tunnel led to a chamber, where a mummy sat on a throne.  We tried talking to the mummy.  It said it had to test us to see if we were powerful enough to prevail.  And then it attacked us.

It was a long, difficult battle.  I wish I could say it was an epic battle, but honestly it was just teeth-grindingly frustrating.  Seriously, if more battles were like this I would quit RPGs forever.  It made D&D 4e battles look brief by comparison, but at least in 4e you feel like you're accomplishing something during the fight.  This was a curbstomp battle.  Several times I thought it might turn out to be a "hopeless boss fight", the kind you're supposed to lose for plot reasons.

I mean, sure we survived, but only because we used up a lot of party resources.  We turned in several Pathfinder plot twist cards, and Lilith had to redeem some tokens to keep from dying.  The mummy had insanely high attack rolls, generally only missing if he fumbled.  He often did enough damage per round to flat-out kill a character.  As a monk, the mummy had flurry of blows, stunning fist, damage reduction, and a few other surprises.  Most of us could barely hit him, much less actually cause real damage.

On the bright side, he was vulnerable to fire.  Twice during the battle, Raz hit him with a maximized Scorching Ray, which did a good deal of damage.  One plot twist card caused him to become exhausted, and one fumble caused him to bleed very slightly.  We critted a few times, but never could confirm because of his high AC.  One final fumble left him fatigued, and he collapsed from his own bad die roll.  His last words were, "Finish what I could not, destroy the beast, and restore honor to the monastery." Gee, thanks, now that you've depleted a lot of the resources we were saving for Aeteperax.

As he died he handed us a key.  Hopefully the key will open the door to the Dark Window, but we haven't tried it yet.  On his body we also found an Amulet of Mighty Fists, and a Belt of Giant Strength.  We heard that something big is supposed to happen in town in the morning, so we wanted to get a move on.  However, we were just too beat up to risk running into another fight, so we took an extended rest.  And that's where we ended the session.

Dragon's Demand: Mind Over Matter

Game Date: 5/17/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 13
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz Furian (Matt) - Human Sorcerer
Tanith Tularn (Thomas) - Human Cleric
Vires (Daniel) - Human Alchemist

The Session:

When we left off last session, we were underneath a monastery, in a room partly full of water.  Vires had just had a little exploratory swim.  As he attempted to climb out of the pool, a shark-shaped mass of water followed him to shore.  Two water elementals burst from the surface and attacked the party.  They had the ability to form vortexes, one of which sucked up Tanith and Halfbeard.  They were spun around in a vicious whirlwind, eventually bringing Tanith down to one hit point.  But we managed to kill the elementals, and got Tanith healed up.

It took a few minutes to negotiate all the pools of water in order to reach the tunnel on the other side of the room.  We made our way through a couple of harmless rooms full of statues (which didn't attack us for a change), and found a secret door.  A hallway led to a large chamber containing two large liquid-filled globes, along with the remains of a third.  There were two cabinets in the room.  The one on our end was full of satin cushions.  A note on the door read, "Herein lies safety, but know that to rely on such crutches is to fall from the path."  The cushions did not detect as magical, and we weren't sure of the purpose at first.

Lilith made her way to the opposite side of the room, to examine the other cabinet.  Meanwhile, some of the party members felt odd compulsions.  Halfbeard was overcome with the desire to approach the center globe, and attacked it until it shattered.  This released a flying tentacled Brain Ooze, which attacked the party.  Vires and Maffei were also soon dominated, and Tanith was dazed, staggered, and knocked out.

Meanwhile, Lilith opened the other cabinet.  This one's note said, "Return here what is no longer needed."  This cabinet also contained cushions, but sitting on these cushions were some pearls.  We theorized that these pearls were used to cross the room without getting dominated.  We attempted to get these pearls to some of the dominated party members.  At one point during the battle, the brain hit Raz with an mind-draining power, reducing her intelligence to 5.

Whenever a party member was forced to attack a friend, they got to make a will save to end the domination.  As we gradually regained control of the party, we gained the upper hand.  Halfbeard was particularly valuable, rolling multiple crits and giving chase when the brain finally tried to flee.  The brain flew down the hallway, too fast for us to keep up, and it looked like it was going to get away.  Luckily Halfbeard managed to finish it off with a long range shot.  After the fight, we took the far exit and explored the next tunnel.

We came to a dead end, but found another secret passage.  We passed through what looked like a training room. The tunnels finally looped around and we found ourselves on familiar ground.  We went back to some doors we'd passed up earlier, and wound up in a large room that radiated a feeling of serenity.  The corners of the room had octagonal alcoves with pillars in them, and most of the middle of the room was taken up by a shallow pool of water.  There were two Grioths in the room.

As soon as we attacked, one of the Grioths fled down a small carved tunnel.  We killed the other one pretty quickly.  Then we pursued the fleeing Grioth, but after following the tunnel for several hundred feet, we decided to go back.  The water seemed to radiate transmutation magic.  Lilith drank a little but nothing happened.  We headed back out the way we came, out of the basement and up some stairs.

In a book-filled room we encountered the last of Aeteperax's four lieutenants, a very large Grioth.  He attacked as soon as Lilith reached the top of the stairs.  It was difficult for all of us to get into the room, because the Grioth had reach and could make several opportunity attacks in a round.  He did massive amounts of damage, so getting to the top of the stairs to join the battle meant nearly dying.  He nearly killed Tanith (it was a bad day for Tanith), who had to redeem some campaign tokens to stay alive.  He lived, but was knocked down the stairs and out of the battle. 

All this danger convinced us to use our most powerful attacks.  Vires delivered the killing blow, and we tended to our wounds.  We ended the session there.

Reminder:
No game next week.  Next game should be on 5/31.

Dragon's Demand: For Whom The Bell Tolls

Game Date: 4/26/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 12
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz Furian (Matt) - Human Sorcerer
Vires (Daniel) - Human Alchemist

The Session:

Lots To Do

When left off last session, we'd just encountered Azmur the Druid at the old monastery.  Azmur couldn't help us directly because he was being forced to serve our enemy.  However, he still managed to give us a little bit of helpful information.  We have a lot of quests on the table.  We need to find and defeat (or recruit) Aeteperax's four lieutenants:  Azmur, Goladryth, Thaena, and Pentosh.  We need to learn Aeteperax's true name, since we're pretty sure it's not the real Aeteperax.  As long as we're at the monastery, we should try to figure out where all the monks went.  We also need to restore our friend Maffei to her original strength, befriend a few people and factions in Belhaim, and oh yes, if we find the time, actually defeat Aeteperax and save the town from his threats.  Should be a busy fortnight.

Earlier we'd seen someone ringing a bell, so we decided to head in that direction.  We entered one of the buildings and wandered the corridors, passing by most of the doors and looking for ways up to the bell tower.  We were walking through an area filled with sleeping cubicles, when two shadowy creatures attacked us.  They were insubstantial, making it difficult to damage them with anything but spells.  It was difficult to fight them because they could walk through walls, making positioning our party difficult.  They didn't physically damage us, but they had mass compulsion powers and the ability to drain our wisdom.

Eventually we managed to kill them, but the party was a lot stupider afterward.  We continued our search, climbing some stairs and searching more halls.  Eventually we entered an open room with a small overgrown garden, and encountered the naga Thaena.  We tried bluffing her at first, but the naga saw through our lies and turned invisible.  We really wanted to defeat her without killing her, because we thought she might have information we need.

During the fight, Thaena used a power that fascinated us, so some of us wasted a few rounds staring at her pretty scales.  Lilith really turned the fight around with a critical hit to the eyes, permanently blinding the naga.  Once Thaena was defeated, we tied her up and healed her a little so she wouldn't die.  Then we holed up in the naga's bedroom for an extended rest.  Once Thaena was awake, we questioned her, but she wasn't as helpful as we hoped.  We left her tied up and kept searching the building.

At the bottom of the stairwell to the bell tower, we were ambushed.  A human woman - Pentosh the Alchemist - led a group of bat-like grioths.  Pentosh opened the battle by throwing a bomb at us, a move she repeated several more times during the battle.  Halfbeard won initiative, and critted on his opening shot, badly damaging Pentosh and causing her CON bleed.  However, the alchemist was under multiple AC-boosting buffs, so our following attacks missed her a lot.  Raz took advantage of her never-missing magic missiles, but they didn't do a lot of damage.

But difficult as Pentosh was, the grioths were a piece of cake.  We took them out pretty quickly, finishing them off right around the time Pentosh decided she'd had enough.  She fled to another room upstairs.  We pursued, but it took a few rounds getting up that spiral staircase.  Using his boots of spider climbing to bypass the stairs, Vires was the first through the upper door.  He immediately got blasted in the face by a trap Pentosh had set.  The rest of us finally entered the room to find both Vires and Pentosh down.  Despite having survived the fighting, Pentosh had finally succumbed to Halfbeard's CON bleed.

We healed up Vires and tied up Pentosh.  We climbed the rest of the way up the bell tower, where we had a beautiful view of all the surrounding areas.  We cut the rope to the bell to make it harder for anyone else to sound the alarm, then headed back down, down, down.  Exploring the lower levels, we found a secret door leading to an oval room.  There was a pit in the center, with a two-foot wide ledge around the sides of the room.  This could have been tricky for a party so bad at acrobatics checks, but Vires still had his spider boots active, so he helped the party get around the edges.

In another room we found a pool of calm water.  Vires used a water breathing amulet to search the pool, but didn't find anything  As he climbed back out of the pool, something followed him... but that's all we know for now.  Our next session will open with that encounter.