Dangerous Liaisons

With some ruthless interrogation the heroes discover much from the goblin prisoner, the trail leads to the graveyard and to the watchmen on duty the night before the attack.  What was so important about the body of Father Tobyn that the five tribes got together in an eleborate plot to take it.  And who is the mysterious "elfsy longshanks"?  What's happened to the missing watchman, Joffrey?  Is Williams really as innocent as he appears?  Leena sure doesn't think so!

Candrak, lured into a compromising position by the beautiful Shopkeeper's daughter, performs like a god.  Word is sure to spread around the ladies of the town that Candrak can really perform where it counts.  Where on earth did a young ranger learn to do that anyway?  When the father returned unexpectedly, things go south quickly.  Candrak takes his beating like a man and the Shopkeep's daughter cries foul. Leena is quick to believe her, and despite some breathtakingly obvious warning signs, Candrak takes a beating from Leena...again...and gets knocked unconscious...again...

The heroes take to the Tickwood with Lord Aldern Foxglove for a boar hunt.  Kitted out with brand new horses, courtesy of the good Lord, the party dispatches the boar with ease, but on the way home are ambushed by band of goblins, not at all usual for the Tickwood.  The danger is soon forgotten as the heroes once again find themselves in the Rusty Dragon Inn, sitting down to a fresh roast boar for the evening meal.  Aldern, already smitten with Leena, appears to be drifting into the realm of obsession.  Will Leena get tired of all this attention? Only time will tell...after all, he is a little bit rich, and that can make up for a lot of sins right?

Purely as a hypothetical, I wonder where Candrak will be in nine months?

Experience

400xp  (RP - questioning of the goblin)
600xp  (RP- unravelling the chain of events surrounding the goblin raid)
600xp  (1 Boar)
800xp  (6 Goblins)
400xp  (1 Goblin Commando)
2800xp  Total Party XP

Blukvard

930  (Party XP)
25  (RP - stopping to smell the...err...pie)
50  (RP - Investigations around the missing watchman)
50  (mystery bonus XP*)
1055 Total XP

Candrak

930  (Party XP)
25  (cinematic moment in the forest - 3 shots, 3 kills)
25  (RP - figuring out that the town attack was a diversion)
75  (RP - the shopkeep's daughter debacle)
50  (RP - bonus for actually sleeping with her - I never thought you'd do that - but what 24 y.o. bachelor with no ties to the town wouldn't sleep with the best looking girl in town)
75  (mystery bonus XP*)
1280 Total XP

Leena

930  (Party XP)
25  (RP - keeping Lord Foxglove on the hook)
25  (RP - defending Shayliss's honour)
25  (RP - keeping an eye on that liar Watchman Williams)
50  (mystery bonus XP*)
1055 Total XP

*  tempting as is it to assume that the "mystery XP" is a bit of random Dave balancing or something, rest assured there is method to the mystery, it really does mean something...

Dungeon Painter

The maps for the general store basement, battleground for often punched Candrak, and the forest encounter were created using a nifty little tool called dungeon painter.  It's online, free, and was pretty easy to use.  Obviously a little limited in what it can do, but none-the-less I had a basement ready to use in about 5 minutes.  Handy for those last minute "I need a map" situations.  I challenge any of you to load it up and not whip up a small dungeon...you know...just for fun :-)

Tokens

Well I think the few tokens I managed to grab looked ok and added to the whole experience.  Sorry I didn't have one for you in the rush to get them working Russ.  I spent most of the time fiddling about and searching the forums for a description on how to include them, but I have it sussed now.

Kudos to Adam this week for identifying how the modifiers pop-up thing worked.  And thanks for updating your individual modifier descriptions.  I noticed your Hawk Clan one John, worked well, I immediately knew what it was for whenever it came up. Thanks Russ for the quick support on looking up rules on the PRD and posting to the chat.

Ranger Danger

Ranger Danger

Things will certainly be interesting with 3 Rangers.  The first few encounters are quite easy so there won't be any problems there.  But as the module heats up the encounters start to get a bit tougher and towards the end there are some very challenging issues for you to face.  Some of these will require a certain amount of creativity and, more to the point, diversity to conquer. As it is you are only a 3 person party rather than the recommended 4, so you are already a little behind the 8-ball diversity wise.

Whatever Floats your Boat

Having said that, if you all want to play rangers then who am I to say "no".  It will certainly make knowing each other easy and it will sure make for an interesting game. What I'd really hate to see, though, is that I spend 50-100 hours working on the campaign (and I've already put in a lot of hours) only to have it fizzle out after a session or two because the party balance is so screwy you can't accomplish anything.  I'm just throwing it out there that some consideration would be appreciated if it ends up so messed up you can't help but get killed and have to start a new character.

On the plus side, an all-ranger group limits the amount of reading on classes I need to do.

Time Heals all Wounds

Rubbish.
Magic is what heals all wounds. You may want to consider to whom you will be turning when all these rangers need patching up.  Maybe you wont need it.  You'll probably be lousy with Cure Light Wounds when you finally hit level 7, I'm sure no one will need healing before then, what with the heavy reliance on non-confrontational role-playing you're all known for :-)

On the plus side, I haven't read any of the spell casting bits yet, so that might save me a lot of research too.  I should probably read the wound stabilisation and dying rules pretty thoroughly though.

All the Classes Rock

From what I can tell, PF has made all the core classes pretty awesome.  I don't pretend to have read them all, but just as an example, I think Bard has become a pretty playable class now.  Spells from level 1 and pretty decent combat capability.  It appears that Leonard Cohen is a level 20 bard with his ability to depress you so much with his songs that you literally take your own life. This  Bardic Performance stuff is on top of spells and from what I can see basically gives about 6 spell like effects per day at first level (assuming CHA 14) going up by 2 per level. So a 4rd level bard (with just 14 cha) is ripping out 12 performances a day plus plus 7 spells.

Fighters get more feats than a centipede and Druids can get all companioned up with pet wolf/bear/etc at lvl 1 as another couple of examples.  Barbarians can get a bit crazy too--+8 str rage bonus (and x1.5 damage bonus for 2 hander) combined with auto critical hit anyone?  If you fancy being a Barbarian but don't want to be a Shoanti, you can be a shipwrecked Linnorm (viking) who has been living in Sandpoint for a number of years.  Though obviously you're a long way from home and no free Shoanti totem spirit.  You still wont have any healing but at east you'll have d12 hit dice :-)

Character Creation

First order of business is character creation. Click the links in this post even if you don't think you need to because you already have the material.  It reveals a few cool things I've found this morning.

Character Generator

You can, of course, go all old school and use the Core Rulebook  to work out your character.  Please note we are using only the Pathfinder Core Rulebook  for the moment. However, I recommend downloading and using PCGen, an open-source (ie free) program for generating RPG characters.  This will guide you through the generation process without the need to understand intimately all the subtle differences between 3.5e and PFRPG.  If you do your character 'old school' I'll verify with PCGen anyway.  It's not pretty (like Hero Lab) but it's a lot more free.

1. Download and install PCGen
2. Settings > Preferences > Character Stats > Purchase mode > High Fantasy (20) > OK
3. File > New
4. Follow the "Things to be Done" list on the Summary Tab (I managed to nut it out at 2 in the morning so you'll figure it out)

Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide 

The Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide is available for free on the Paizo website.

1. Create an account at Piazo
2. Add   Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide PDF
3. Go to the My Downloads section and download your PDF
4. While you are there you can also grab the free Character Sheet if you like
5. There are some other freebies around the site if you look long enough

Rise of the Runelords Bonus Feats

You cannot have a bonus feat as described in this Guide.  This is because:

• the players guide was written for 3.5 prior to PFRPG.  
• You get more feats in PFRPG anyway
• in later adventure paths, these were replaced with "traits"

Exception - Varisian Tattoos and Shoanti Totem Spirits

• If you are (1) Varisian; (2) meet the prerequisite; and (3) come from Sandpoint- you can have a Varisian Tattoo as a free bonus 
• If you are (1) Shoanti; and (2) come from Sandpoint- you can have a Totem Spirit as a free bonus 

Traits

One of the exceptions to the only Core Rulebook rule is that you can choose a trait if you like.  You don't have to choose a trait, it's purely optional.

Get info on traits from:

• the bottom of the Advanced Player's Guide New Rules section of the PRD; 
• downloading the free Pathfinder Character Traits Web Enhancement PDF from the My Downloads section;
• PCGen > Feats & Abilities tab > Traits sub-tab (2nd row of tabs appears when you choose Feats & Abilities tab in 1st row)

Choose carefully though, I'll be expecting you to exhibit the trait and will assume that it is perceived as a trait of your character by others.  If you're claiming the benefit of a trait, I might be tempted to have some fun with it. For example, if you chose the trait courageous (+2 trait bonus on saving throws against fear effects) I could see myself tempted to ensuring you are actually "courageous".