[Commissioned by @bobmuffin52. A lot of folks want top tier threats this go around, it seems. My version of Yhidothrus borrows a lot of mechanics from other impossibly large monsters. It’s kaiju massive, for one. I snagged the endless coils SQ from my previous ayakashi statistics.The impossible lunge is borrowed from Bestiary 5′s cetus, and the shifting coils ability is borrowed from the wrackworm in Planar Adventures (which the flavor text ties to Yhidothrus)]
Demon Lord, Yhidothrus
CR 30 CE Outsider
This impossibly immense creature looks like a mammoth worm, its oily night-black body opening at one end to reveal a maw filled with hooked jaws. Patches of shaggy bristles hang from it in chunks. The other end of the monster disappears into the distance.
Yhidothrus, The Ravager Worm
CE male demon lord of age, time and worms
Domains Chaos, Death, Evil, Repose
Subdomains Ancestors, Demon, Entropy, Murder
Favored Weapon spiked chain
Unholy Symbol an hourglass filled with worms instead of sand
Worshipers conqueror worms, liches, worms that walk
Minions ghosts, grimslakes, worm-like monsters
For information on Yhidothrus’ obedience and boons, consult Book of the Damned
Yhidothrus the Ravager Worm is associated with all of the negative aspects of time—aging, entropy and decay. His worshipers are few and far between, mostly made up of those that would do anything to prevent their own deaths, or creatures that have already died but have eternal unlives, such as ghosts and liches. Despite the obscurity of his cult, he is immensely powerful, roaming endlessly through the Spiral Paths that weave below the surfaces of all of the Abyssal layers.
Yhidothrus is so immense that lesser creatures usually fail to catch his attention. They wither away to nothing in his mere wake, so why bother fighting them? If his attention is forced, he usually opens with a powerful spell-like ability or two, then use his bite and Whirlwind Attack to finish off any survivors. Creatures that survive his bite have their years stripped away from them, aging to death even if the wounds do not take their toll. He is impossibly long, and always appears emerging from some surface—the space and reach listed below are the part of his body that appears on a battlefield. If attacked at range, he can lunge almost half a mile at a time to pick off distant opponents.
The true nature of Yhidothrus is obscure. Rumors abound as to what is at the other end of his ravenous maw. Is he a demon at one end and a qlippoth at another? Is he merely an appendage of some greater being, an animate tongue or intestine of something truly divine? Is he, in fact, infinite? It is said that when Yhidothrus uses his time stop ability, his true nature becomes briefly visible…and all those who have survived to witness this are utterly insane.
Loved this guy and even incorporated subplot with him in one of my groups and sorry to be a pest but I noticed it today what is the attack bonus for his 1d4+1 slams?
Welp, the Archives of Nethys lost their partnership with Paizo. This means they're taking down the legacy PRD, which was my preferred site for years! Expect a lot more broken links in the reruns, which I will try to remember to fix.
Here you go, everyone! This is my first official attempt at creating a creature for the 1st edition of Pathfinder, a game I'm still pretty obsessed with. It's been a long time ever since I wanted to start writing conversions, but for some reason I never really got around to it.
You can thank the excellent blogs The Creature Chronicle and Creature Codex for setting a great example and giving me the inspiration to start this project. Of course, since I'm rather inexperienced with these, I would like to ask readers to tell me what they think, where I can do better, what errors I might have committed, and so on. A bit of constructive criticism, so that I can always do better. ^^
And we start off with a simple creature. This one comes from the Hacklopedia of Beasts Volume IV, for the Hackmaster roleplaying game. The kangarai scratches a lot of my itches when it comes to depicting an original humanoid race, so I decided it would have been my first attempt at a conversion.
Also, if anyone could tell me who the artist for this picture was, I'd be really grateful.
This creature looks like a well-built humanoid with an elongated mouse-like face and powerful clawed legs. It is covered in short grey fur and sports an odd leathery pouch on its abdomen. Its clothes and markings speak of a nomadic lifestyle.
KANGARAI CR 1
XP 400
CG Medium Humanoid
Initiative +2; Senses low-light vision, Perception +5
DEFENSE
AC 15 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +1 natural)
hp 11 (2d8+2)
Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +1
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee spear +2 (1d8+1 / x3) or slam +2 (1d4+1)
Ranged sling +3 (1d4+1)
Special Attacks hop attack
STATISTICS
Str 12, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 8
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 14
Feats Alertness
Skills Acrobatics +10 (+14 jumping), Perception +5, Sense Motive +3, Survival +5; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics (+8 jumping)
Languages Common, Kangarai
Special Qualities naturally athletic
ECOLOGY
Environment temperate hills or plains
Organization solitary, pair, gathering party (2-5 kangarai plus 1-3 kangaroos) or band (5-30 adults plus 50% noncombatant children, 3-12 kangaroos, 1 chief of 3rd-5th level and 1 druid/shaman of 3rd-5th level)
Treasure NPC gear (leather armor, spear, sling with 20 bullets, other treasure)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Hop Attack (Ex): As part of a charge, a kangarai can leap over an opponent and strike from above. In addition to the normal benefits and hazards of a charge, a kangarai performing an hop attack gets a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls for a successful melee attack.
Naturally Athletic (Ex): A kangarai has a +4 racial bonus to Acrobatics checks. This bonus increases to +8 for Acrobatics checks involving jumping. Acrobatics is always considered a class skill for a kangarai.
Kangarai are a race of nomadic kangaroo-like humanoids. They wander great expanses of savannah and open plains, often in the presence of a herd of kangaroos. Strictly herbivores, kangarais gain most of their food by gathering and grazing. They live in small wandering tribes, composed of varying percentages of male and females.
Like the kangaroos they resemble, kangarais are marsupials - females give live birth to a joey that exits the mother's uterus in a still incomplete state and whose development continues in the mother's pouch, from which they emerge as fully formed young. Female kangarai exhibit a capacity for embryonic diapause, the capacity of halting an embryo's development in times of drought and areas with poor food sources.
Kangarai tend to be distrusting of other humanoid races, and give a wide berth to permanent settlements as a result. The exception to this tend to be halflings, and kangarais often have amicable, or at least cordial, relationships with nomadic halfling tribes in their same territory. They are also known to have rescued lone wanderers who were injured or weakened, and nursed them back to health, guiding them back to civilization in exchange for keeping their existence a secret. Evil gnoll tribes prize kangarais as both slaves and food, so relationships between the two races are almost invariably hostile. Kangarais have a natural life expectancy of about 50 years, but the rigors of their lifestyle claim most of them before they reach their 30th birthday.
Kangarais that progress in class levels usually do so as rangers or rogues, enhancing their natural scouting and stealth abilities. Fighters, barbarians and slayers are rather common as well. Kangarais tend not to gravitate towards specific deities, instead worshipping the abstract forces of nature, and clerics are therefore uncommon amongst their kind compared to druids or shamans.
[Sponsored by @tar-baphon. Critical Role is not something I ever got into. And despite two official D&D sourcebooks for Critical Role and a post-OGL fantasy heartbreaker RPG written for the setting, there's no official statblock for Ganix the Laughing Hand. There are, however, plenty of dedicated fans on the CR Wiki and on Reddit who made observations about his abilities and some guesswork onto their own statblocks, which I did reference. Some things that I noticed while working on this stat block are the persistence of D&D 4e design elements into what is nominally a 5e campaign (but of course is really an entertainment podcast first and foremost). In Critical Role, the Laughing Hand is a servitor of Torog, a god from the 4e "Points of Light" setting who does not officially appear in D&D 5e except in the Critical Role sourcebooks. He can also summon minions, and has absolutely no ranged capacity, which are both very 4e design elements. I made him a servitor of Yhidothrus, being PF's giant subterranean worm divinity, gave him unholy blight so he wasn't completely helpless against an army of flying PCs and... had to get creative with the minions.]
The Laughing Hand
CR 17 CE Outsider (extraplanar)
This hulking giant is twice as tall as a normal man. His skin is gray and splashed with red, and his eyes burn yellow beneath his thick hooded leather cloak. One of his hands is replaced with an oversized, double-edged blade, and the other has a fanged mouth in the palm. Similar fanged mouths open up over his body at odd angles, twisted into wry, mocking smiles.
The Laughing Hand was once a mortal general named Garix. Garix dared to challenge Yhidothrus, rallying an army to slay the Ravager Worm in a mad attempt to fight and kill the concept of entropy itself. Only Garix and his prized hunting hounds were even able to reach Yhidothrus directly, and the demon lord was amused by the hubris of his human adversary. After a century of torture, Garix was transformed into the Laughing Hand, a fiend that will come back from death endlessly to inflict suffering on the world of men.
Garix finds his own torment and transformation hilarious, and unless he is trying to be stealthy, he constantly laughs from his many mouths. This laughter causes creatures to freeze in terror, being unable to flee or fight back as the Laughing Hand tears them apart. If blades are raised against him, a new mouth opens up, adding to the horrible chorus. The Laughing Hand is often mobile in combat, leaping across the battlefield in order to target vulnerable targets. He can summon ghastly shadows of his beloved hounds, which he uses to block pursuit and set up flanking.
In order to slay Garix permanently, his heart must be found—this was cut from his chest and transformed into an oversized reliquary of sorts. This structure, called the Permaheart, is on a demiplane accessible only through a handful of portals. Finding this heart is a goal of both Yhidothrus’ enemies and cultists—his cultists in order to gain leverage over one of their god’s most powerful servants. If the Permaheart is ever destroyed, the Laughing Hand’s defenses weaken, but even then he is still a powerful melee combatant.
The Laughing Hand CR 17
XP 102,400
CE Large outsider (chaos, evil, extraplanar)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +31, see invisibility
Aura mocking laughter (15 ft., DC 25)
Defense
AC 33, touch 14, flat-footed 29 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 armor, +15 natural)
hp 264 (23d10+138)
Fort +13, Ref +17, Will +18
DR 15/good; Immune poison; Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 28
Defensive Abilities fortification (50%),rejuvenation
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee armblade +30 (2d8+8/17-20), slam +30 (2d6+8 plus grab), bite +30 (1d8+8)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks rake (bites +30, 1d8+8)
Spell-like Abilities CL 17th, concentration +21
Constant—see invisibility
At will—unholy blight (DC 18)
1/day—summon (8th level, 100%)
Statistics
Str 27, Dex 19, Con 22, Int 13, Wis 20, Cha 18
Base Atk +23; CMB +32 (+36 grapple); CMD 47
Feats Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Critical (armblade), Improved Initiative, Great Cleave, Mobility, Nimble Moves, Outflank, Power Attack, Precise Strike, Spring Attack
Skills Acrobatics +30 (+34 when jumping), Climb +34, Intimidate +30, Perception +31, Sense Motive +31, Survival +31, Swim +34
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common
SQ mighty leap, spawn maw
Ecology
Environment any land or underground (Abyss)
Organization unique
Treasure standard (+2 moderate fortification leather armor, other treasure)
Special Abilities
Armblade (Ex) The Laughing Hand’s armblade is treated as a primary natural weapon that deals slashing damage and threatens a critical hit on a roll of 19-20.
Aura of Mocking Laughter (Su) All creatures within 15 feet of the Laughing Hand must succeed a DC 25 Will save or cower in fear for 1 round. The Laughing Hand can suppress or resume this ability as a free action. Demons are immune to this effect. This is a mind-influencing fear effect and the save DC is Charisma based.
Mighty Leap (Ex) The Laughing Hand suffers no penalty from making a long jump without a running start. If he does get a running start, he doubles the distance traveled.
Rake (Ex) When the Laughing Hand uses his rake attack, he normally has only one bite. He gains more bites by the use of the spawn maw ability.
Rejuvenation (Su) If the Laughing Hand is slain, he reforms 24 hours later in the Spiral Paths. This can be disrupted if the Permaheart, hidden on a demiplane, is destroyed. If the Permaheart is destroyed and the Laughing Hand still lives, he loses his energy resistances, his DR is reduced to 5/good and his SR reduced to 18.
Spawn Maw (Su) Whenever the Laughing Hand takes 10 or more damage from a piercing or slashing weapon, a new mouth opens up in the wound. This raises the save DC of the aura of mocking laughter by +1 for as long as the maw exists (to a maximum save DC of 35 for 10 maws), and gives the Laughing Hand another bite attack it can use when it uses its rake ability. Maws spawned this way last for 1 minute before they are resorbed into the Laughing Hand’s body.
Summon (Sp) Once per day as a standard action, the Laughing Hand can summon four bleak hounds. Treat these as 10th level dog animal companions, only with spider climb as a constant supernatural ability and Precise Strike and Outflank as bonus feats. These hounds last for 1 hour or until slain.
Hell yeah, this brings things one step closer to fruition, he turned out fantastic, the effects are awesome and I can't wait to see how he fares in action.
[Sponsored by @tar-baphon. Orcus is one of the iconic D&D villains, and through the SRD and plausible deniability (he's a Roman god!), he's in Pathfinder as well. In Pathfinder, he is deliberately not a power player, and my flavor text takes that already metatextual decision and runs hog wild with it.
A note on the art: I feel like Orcus is emblematic of when D&D was seen as dangerous, and this piece absolutely feels like it should be the cover of a Black Sabbath album. It's no surprise that I was fascinated with the anti-D&D strain of the Satanic Panic when I was a kid. Also, although there has been some course correction in the 5e era, there's a trend with Orcus in a lot of art, including his official Pathfinder depiction, of making Orcus buff. Let Orcus be fat!]
Demon Lord, Orcus
CR 28 CE Outsider (extraplanar)
This humanoid is a corpulent giant with skin mottled like a decaying corpse. He has great black bat-wings growing from his shoulders, hooves for feet, and the head of a goat. He clutches a short staff, tipped with an oversized human skull.
Orcus, Prince of Undeath
CE male demon lord of death, necromancy and wrath
Domains Chaos, Death, Evil, Magic
Subdomains Demon, Divine, Murder, Undead
Favored Weapon heavy mace
Unholy Symbol a goat’s head with curving horns
Worshipers liches, necromancers, sapient undead
Minions boneclaws, deathdrinkers, demons, other undead
For information on his Obedience and boons for his worshipers, see Book of the Damned
Orcus is one of the most powerful demon lords in the Universe. But not on Golarion. On that world, his is one of a number of undead cults, and not nearly the most popular. Orcus has a clear hierarchy to what undead he considers truly worthy, with those created from contagion seen as inferior to accident, and those inferior to those who intentionally seek out undeath. His most dedicated worshippers on Golarion are liches, some of whom have learned the secret of crafting a phylactery by teasing apart the Prince of Undeath’s wisdom from his threats. The followers of many other undead-focused religions, particularly vampires and ghouls, see Orcus as pretentious and unworthy of dedication, although few are foolish enough to directly oppose him.
Orcus himself knows that his star has fallen. In his extensive research into planar lore, Orcus has learned that he was once the most feared being in another universe, who went on a killing spree that left several gods dead and an entire race of lawful outsiders duped into being his pawns. That Orcus cannot accomplish this level of power in this version of reality vexes and frustrates him, and he takes his rage out on his minions as much as he does his foes.
Orcus is a genius tactician, although his temper sometimes gets the better of him. He enjoys combat as a distraction from his cosmic-level sulk, and as a way of expressing his power over others. He typically opens combat with a time stop to summon allies and cast defensive spells on himself, and then unleashes a potent death effect as soon as the duration expires. Against creatures that can resist his negative energy and poison, he uses dispelling magic. On more than one occasion, Orcus has beaten a cocky archmage to a pulp by centering an antimagic field on himself and wading into combat.
Orcus in the Great Game
Orcus’ response to the brewing theomachy between Mormo and Lamashtu is cautious optimism. He desires more power in the Abyss, and Lamashtu could open the door for him to seize it. Kabriri and Zura are at the top of Orcus’ hit list, but views a direct assault on them as currently too risky to be worth the effort. If one of them were to make a move against Lamashtu and be punished for it, or if they were struck down in the scramble for power following Lamashtu’s (theoretical) demotion or demise, Orcus would happily swoop in to finish them off. And if Mormo is capable of legitimately slaying a god, Orcus will be very keen to study her techniques.
Wand of Orcus (major artifact)
The Wand of Orcus is the Prince of Undeath’s scepter of office, and it never leaves his side. Lesser versions have appeared in the Material Plane, often created by Orcus or one of his high-level clerics. The real Wand of Orcus is a Huge +5 anarchic, unholy heavy mace. In the hands of a demon, it grants a +4 profane bonus to Armor Class. The first time the Wand of Orcus strikes a living creature in a round, that creature is subject to a slay living spell (DC 30).
Weight 24 lbs.; CL 25th
Demon Lord, Orcus CR 28
XP 4,915,200
CE Huge outsider (chaos, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +11; Senses arcane sight, darkvision 120 ft., detect good, detect law, Perception +48, true seeing
Aura frightful presence (120 ft., DC 36), undead obedience (120 ft., Will DC 36), unholy (DC 28)
Defense
AC 47, touch 23, flat-footed 40(-2 size, +7 Dex, +4 deflection, +4 profane, +24 natural)
hp 709(33d10+528); regeneration 30 (deific or mythic)
Fort +31, Ref +29, Will +34
DR 20/cold iron, epic and good; Immune ability damage, ability drain, charm, compulsion, death effects, electricity, energy drain, petrification and poison; Resist acid 30, cold 30, fire 30; SR 39
Defensive Abilities Abyssal resurrection, freedom of movement, negative energy affinity
Offense
Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Melee Wand of Orcus +51/+46/+41/+36 (3d6+20 plus 2d6 chaos and 2d6 evil/19-20), claw +44 (1d8+7), sting (2d4+7 plus poison), gore (2d6+7) or 2 claws +46 (1d8+15), sting +46 (2d4+15 plus poison), gore +46 (2d6+15)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks epic spellcasting, powerful charge (gore, 4d6+22)
Spell-like Abilities CL 28th, concentration +38 (+42 casting defensively)
Constant—arcane sight, detect good, detect law, freedom of movement, true seeing, unholy aura (DC 28, self only)
At will—animate dead*, astral projection, blasphemy* (DC 27), circle of death* (DC 28), create undead, enervation*, greater dispel magic, greater teleport, plane shift* (DC 25), telekinesis* (DC 25), unholy blight* (DC 24)
3/day—control undead (DC 29), create greater undead, energy drain (DC 31), finger of death* (DC 29), quickened greater dispel magic, quickened harm*, summon demons or undead, symbol of death (DC 30)
1/day—power word kill*, time stop*, true resurrection, wail of the banshee (DC 31)
* Orcus can use the mythic version of this spell-like ability in his domain
Spells Prepared CL 20th, concentration +32 (+36 casting defensively)
9th—energy drain (DC 33), etherealness, mage’s disjunction* (D, DC 31), overwhelming presence (DC 31), soul bind (DC 33), wail of the banshee (DC 33)
8th —cloak of chaos (DC 30), fire storm* (DC 30), greater spell immunity, horrid wilting (DC 32), orb of the void* (DC 32), protection from spells (D), unholy aura (DC 30)
7th —control weather, destruction (DC 31), greater scrying (DC 29, x2), repulsion, spell turning (D), waves of exhaustion
6th —antilife shell, antimagic field (D), banshee blast (DC 30), blade barrier* (DC 28), geas/quest, harm* (DC 30), mass bull’s strength
5th —dispel good (DC 27), flame strike (DC 27), greater command (DC 27), mass ghostbane dirge (DC 27), righteous might, suffocation (D, DC 29), vampiric shadow shield
4th —contagion (DC 28), death ward (D), divine power (x2), rest eternal, sending (x2)*, tongues
3rd —bestow curse (x2, DC 27), prayer*, protection from energy, rage (D, DC 25), ray of exhaustion, vampiric touch*, water breathing
2nd —bear’s endurance (x2), death knell (D, DC 26), desecrate, owl’s wisdom (x2), resist energy, spiritual weapon*
1st —bane (DC 25), divine favor (x2), entropic shield, identify (D), ray of enfeeblement* (DC 25), sanctuary (DC 23), shield of faith*
0th—bleed (DC 24), detect magic, light, read magic
*—Orcus may use the mythic version of this spell in his Abyssal domain
Statistics
Str 40, Dex 25, Con 42, Int 30, Wis 35, Cha 31
Base Atk +33; CMB +50; CMD 71
Feats Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Rod, Craft Wondrous Item, Flyby Attack, Greater Spell Focus (necromancy), Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Critical (heavy mace), Improved Initiative, Hover, Multiattack, Mythic Spell Lore (B), Power Attack, Quicken SLA (greater dispel magic, harm), Spell Focus (necromancy), Spell Penetration
Skills Bluff +46, Craft (alchemy, weaponsmithing) +46, Fly +36, Intimidate +43, Knowledge (arcana, planes, religion) +46, Knowledge (dungeoneering, history) +43, Perception +48, Sense Motive +48, Spellcraft +46, Stealth +35, Survival +45, Use Magic Device +46
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Infernal, Necril, telepathy 300 ft.
SQ demon lord traits, master of death
Ecology
Environment any land or underground (Abyss)
Organization unique
Treasure triple standard (Wand of Orcus, other treasure)
Special Abilities
Aura of Undead Obedience (Su) Any undead creature within 120 feet that attempts to make a hostile action against Orcus must succeed a DC 36 Will save or be unable to take that action, wasting it. The save DC is Charisma based.
Epic Spellcasting (Ex) Orcus gains Mythic Spell Lore as a bonus feat. Once per day, he can use one of his spell-like abilities or spells as if it was a mythic spell without spending a use of mythic power. This allows him to use a mythic spell or spell-like ability outside of his Abyssal domain, but he cannot augment that spell or spell-like ability by spending additional uses of mythic power.
Master of Death (Ex) Orcus applies his Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus (necromancy) feats to his spell-like abilities. Death effects created by Orcus, including the Wand of Orcus in his hands, ignore immunity to death effects except for those granted by creature type, or from deific or mythic sources.
Poison (Ex) Sting—injury; save Fort DC 42; duration 1/round for 4 rounds; damage 1d6 Str and 1d6 Con; cure 2 consecutive saves. A creature reduced to 0 Str by Orcus’ poison cannot breathe and begins to suffocate. The save DC is Constitution based.
Spells Orcus can cast spells as a 20th level cleric, and can prepare necromancy spells from the sorcerer/wizard list as if they were cleric spells. He gets access to domain slots, and can fill them with spells from any of his domains or subdomains. He can also spontaneously cast inflict spells as an evil cleric can.
Summon Demons and Undead (Sp) When Orcus summons demons, he can also summon undead creatures.
My boy be finally ready to run ops on the party. Though in all seriousness he turned out great and I'm excited to see how the party in the River Kingdoms will respond now to a fully operational Orcus.
I have this former player I still keep in semi regular contact with, I will refer to this individual as Poe not because I ever expect him to stumble upon this but as a matter of protocol. I still try to be supportive towards them in their ttrpg endeavors even though he is no longer in any of mine and it is currently Poe's goal in life to run a PF1e AP but do to the town we are having this innate ability to produce flakey players primarily its an ongoing struggle for him. He keeps starting to put a group together only for it to fall apart either right before they start or 2-6 sessions in. Since we've remained in semi regular contact we still bring up that sometime we would like to be part of the same group again. I'm actually rather sincere about that. Well a few hours ago he brought up sometime he would like to participate in a gestalt campaign, long story, I informed that some of the players in one of my groups have played in gestalt short campaigns before and wanted me to run one for them at some point. I informed Poe that I was considering it but I needed to think of the right premise for one and that I do have a few possible campaign ideas but nothing I've decided on for sure.
Poe's response was to complain why don't I run an AP in gestalt and that all he's every played through is homebrew campaigns and he feels he's been missing out by never completing an AP or playing in one long term. I explained my reasons for not running APs I told him I love the lore and setting of Golarion but the APs don't interest me enough to be able to ever picture myself running one for a long period of time. I explained that with the amount of time, effort, love I would have to put into changing an AP enough to get it to a point where I could desire running it I might as well save myself on some those expenditures and just make my own because to make an AP my own would be as much effort or more then just doing a homebrew. I explained it would be even more so to convert an AP to handle gestalt. While I don't have an issue with people running or playing in APs, I've played in 3 well... sorta 5 myself all inconclusive lol, I don't get the mindset of how your missing out by not doing so.
Am I missing something or in the wrong here? I was honestly hurt when he told me he would prefer that I run something that's been published, he's not my only friend whose said they prefer published content but the other friend said that's because published work has what he refers to as "safety rails" sigh.
WotC got caught stealth-editing a lot of their PDF back catalogue again, and some of the changes are just bizarre. Mentions of racism, even as fantastical as the Beholders' extreme xenophobia, and slavery and slavers, were erased. So what are the bad guys even doing in this high-fantasy pulp adventure world, embezzlement?
I had previously put off actively considering getting a 4th group because I had hoped I would be able to salvage my at the time once a month PF1E group I was in with some friends of mine. It was clout chaser group lol, the dm who gathered us at the time was obsessed with completing APs and we were his latest attempt. That was years ago pre-covid lol. Since then we have yet to actually complete an AP ironic I know. One player ended up leaving the group do to entering into a fairly... virile time in his life, he also played an extremely succubus thirsty paladin I should discuss at some point, we switched APs twice one dear do to a near tpk and one player being excessively salty about it. That lead to the current AP we are playing or were that hasn't met up in almost a year now. We briefly had a new member that showed for two sessions and that led to this. Drama I think is a good term for it. Two party members had fluctuating work schedules another got his second kid and got busier on the whole and the DM after a dog initiated divorce went into a midlife crisis which he dived head first into being a v-tuber and PF2E. I kept hoping that if I left at least two Saturdays open there was a chance we could "regroup" and I was willing to run if that would get everyone back together... but with one of the players getting into a biweekly on Saturdays online gestalt game it looks like my hope will remain unfulfilled. Hence me now looking into filling that sloth Saturday.
Looking back on it its actually kinda funny. I grew to dislike playing with them as another party member because they could be serious asshats, but I kept with the group because I liked hanging out with them. My belief had become that hopefully the situation would be more tolerable and enjoyable if I'm DMing which is something I enjoy with that system. But I guess I still won't be able to find out if that would be true so it remains speculation.
I sometimes go a little stir crazy on Saturdays, with the way my DMing and work schedule have worked out I have the weekends off which is generally when I do the bulk of my DMing. One every Sunday and a biweekly Saturday. That's not counting my biweekly wednesday or the once a month friday game of Traveller I take part in for my monthly sidetrip from fantasy. Those empty Saturdays though I tend to either sleep through, do the occasional errand or use as my Sloth days, viva la Krune muh slimes, but it bothers me a bit to just have what half the time ends up being a "wasted" day. It wasn't so bad when mechanic garages around here were open on Saturdays at least then there was a justification for my Sloth days, but now....
So when some of my biweekly Saturday players expressed interested interest in having a Saturday group on the weeks we don't meet I reached out to one of them, because discord is still an asshat, and was like hey if you gather a group and a location to play at I'll be your guys' huckleberry. Am I ready to run four groups, not sure honestly, since my offer I've been second guessing myself repeatedly I admit that. But the campaign ideas come so easily and are plentiful, but its finding the time for more pf1e that's always the issue. So that just reinforces my predicament.
oh venerable sage it occurred to me last night while I was preparing a coastal encounter which would have arrived first on Golarion deep ones or skum?
... Hmm... that's a good question. Skum are the results of aboleth experiments on human stock, so they can't predate humanity. Deep Ones could, since they don't need to crossbreed with humans specifically and can get by with elves.
Part of me wants to say the Deep Ones, since they could have existed long before the aboleth decided to take the fight to the surface world, but it's hard to say thanks to how little lore for them exists.
I don't know which I find more frustrating at the moment on this last day of my 4 day break. My continued tiredness regardless of the amount of rest I've been getting, my current 16 day long struggle with Discord. Or the ongoing rivalry/feud I have going on with Meineke.
Had a player inform me during this evening’s game that this was the scariest campaign they’ve been in. Since they wouldn’t go into details I’m not sure whether they meant it as a compliment or that they thought it and I was being “creepy” but the feedback really set up the final bits of campaign interactions for the night.
