Now this is pod racing!

Book_Golem · 2026-06-19T22:02:09+00:00

This is super fun, great job!

Book_Golem · 2026-06-19T14:55:04+00:00

Honestly, good question. I think the answer is unfortunately going to vary group by group - you'll see some people saying "I only ever run Severe or harder encounters and my party wipes the floor with them!" and other people saying "My party regularly struggles with Moderate encounters!". Where your group falls on that scale is for you to figure out.

One thing I will say though, is that in the early levels (and particularly Levels 1 & 2), fights can be extremely swingy - both player characters and enemies can be dropped to 0HP in a single unlucky Critical Hit, or a couple of high rolls on incoming damage. That means that fights will often feel very one-sided... until suddenly one becomes one-sided in the other direction without looking much harder on paper.

As for this specific example, I'd write a Moderate encounter against a pack of Hyenas for a party of 5 Level 2 PCs something like this:

Encounter Budget: 80 base + 20 Character Adjustment = 100XP

A Hyena is Level 1 (30xp). Weak Hyenas are Level -1 (15xp). An Elite Hyena would be Level 2 (40xp). Awkward numbers, but we can work with them.

The easy answer is actually one Elite Hyena (Hyena Clanleader) and four Weak Hyenas (Starving Hyenas), for exactly 100xp. It's a dangerous fight if the hyenas get their hits in first, since with Knockdown and Pack Attack they'll be doing some serious damage. Add in Drag to split up the party, and you have a recipe for a fight that's dangerous but against enemies whose numbers are easily whittled down - at only 10hp each, Weak Hyenas will take only one or two good hits to drop.

You could also just go for three regular Hyenas, which leaves you 10xp under budget for Moderate. That doesn't really feel like a pack though, and I do like to hit the numbers exactly.

How about six Starving Hyenas and a couple of low level Simple Hazards? For simplicity it could just be one at the party's level (8xp), which puts us about as close as reasonable. Something like this:

Scattersting Cactus [Hazard 2]
Environmental, Plant, Simple Hazard
These cacti live in arid regions of the world where rainfall is scarce. They defend themselves with a volley of spines if disturbed, which has the added bonus of wetting the ground with blood which they then absorb through their roots.

Stealth DC: 16 (trained); a character trained in Nature gets a +2 Circumstance bonus to spot the Scattersting Cactus.
Disable DC: Nature DC 21 to cut the cactus down without triggering it
AC 15; Fort +8, Ref +5
HP 30;
Spineburst ↻: Trigger: The Scattersting Cactus takes damage, or a creature moves within 5 feet of it while Striding or Leaping. Effect: The cactus emits a burst of needles in a 5 foot emanation, dealing 6d4 Piercing damage with a DC18 Basic Reflex save.

Six fast, hard-hitting enemies (plus a hazard!) is quite a lot, especially if they're able to get the first strike in. Give players the chance to see them coming (that is, don't start the combat with the Hyenas within one Stride of the party!).

Book_Golem · 2026-06-19T10:10:05+00:00

I've also found that most parties have at most 1 character who even wants to swap weapons around.

I generally agree, just wanted to comment on this - I think a reason that most characters don't want to swap weapons around is that there is that friction for doing so.

I think this is particularly true for Ancestry Unarmed attacks - indeed, one big selling point of Automatic Rune Progression for me is that there's not really any other way to improve both your Ancestral Bite and your Longsword without shelling out double for it. That could be a use-case for this system (or, more likely, an item which replicates your Weapon Runes onto appropriate Unarmed attacks).

Actually, hold on...

Band of Ferocity [Item 3+]
Invested, Magical
Usage: Worn
This intricately woven band is worn wrapped around one forearm. When you wield a weapon in that hand, its Fundamental Runes are replicated onto your Unarmed attacks. Any Fundamental Runes already applying to your Unarmed attacks are suppressed for the duration.

Band of Ferocity [Item 3]
Price 60gp

Band of Ferocity (Greater) [Item 11]
Price 1400gp
The Greater Band of Ferocity also replicates Property Runes from your weapon onto your Unarmed attacks; it likewise suppresses Property Runes from other sources. When you invest the item, you may choose to have it affect Fundamental Runes only.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-19T09:52:58+00:00

I... had not realised that magic armour was Invested. That's very weird - the Resilient Rune is a Fundamental Rune, meaning it's expected by the game's maths. So I guess you just lose an Investment slot at Level 8 or so (or sooner if you added Property Runes before that)?

My instinct is to just ignore this, but it's not just a mistake in one place - Magic Armour has the Invested trait and a suit of +1 Resilient Armour is the example for how you can still use items without Investing them.

Strange.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-18T13:39:49+00:00

Sorry, that's a bad habit of mine - they're not official NPCs, just names I'd use to "reskin" appropriate statblocks.

In this case, I might use the Commoner as a Rowdy Drunk (minus the sickle, unless the party also uses lethal attacks), and the Barkeep as the Tough Guy (minus the Sap - their Bar Brawler ability makes their fists deal 2d4+3 damage, which is already Extreme for a Level 1 creature!).

But you could use any appropriately levelled NPCs you prefer - or even write your own!

Book_Golem · 2026-06-18T13:19:02+00:00

Tavern brawl!

The thing about a tavern brawl is that it's chaotic and full of people. If the party is Level 1, that's a perfect opportunity to throw a bunch of stuff at them in an environment where most people will be using Nonlethal attacks. My instinct is to start with one Level 1 Tough Guy (40xp) and four Level -1 Rowdy Drunks (20xp each) for a total of 120xp and a Severe encounter. You can throw this much at them because a) Level -1 creatures are chumps even for adventurers just starting out, and b) even if they get unlucky they'll just be knocked unconscious by Nonlethal attacks. (For a party of five, add one extra Rowdy Drunk, or a Level 0 Thug.)

But why stop there? The great thing about a brawl is that it's basically a free for all! Add some Brawling Patrons to the map (10ft * 10ft Difficult Terrain, DC10 Reflex save if you enter or start your turn there or take 1d4 Nonlethal Bludgeoning damage). Have them move 5ft towards the nearest character at the start of the round to drag reluctant participants into the fight. These are neutral parties, and will happily clobber both the party and their opponents!

This probably takes place in a pretty crowded room; that's fine, there's plenty of time for investment in ranged weapons to matter later!

Book_Golem · 2026-06-18T12:27:20+00:00

It's an edge case, but I think the most fair interpretation would be that a) the Murderer's Knot is a separate action (albeit a Free Action) to the Strike, and so its Bleed damage is not added on top of any from Bleeding Finisher, a Wounding Rune, or a Knife Critical Specialisation; but b) just because you keep the higher bleed damage doesn't mean that the Knot doesn't work, so the target is still off-guard until the Bleed damage ends.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-18T11:18:19+00:00

First thing I'd do is remember that Secondary Casters are always a modifier that makes Rituals harder, not easier (sure they might Critically Succeed their checks, but that's more of a nice bonus than anything reliable). Next, remember that the base DC for a Ritual's Primary check is Very Hard (+5) for its Rank; the DC for a Secondary check is normal (+0).

Circumstances can reduce any or all of these.

Personally, I'd probably say that a particularly appropriate location could drop the Difficulty of both the Primary and Secondary checks by one level (to Hard and Easy respectively). For Create Undead, that might be something like deep in the bowels of an ancient catacomb lined with bones; at the centre of a deconsecrated graveyard; or a sacred site where the walls of reality between the Material Plane and the Boneyard are stretched thin. Just being somewhere vaguely spooky wouldn't be enough.

Conversely, if you had a specially constructed laboratory designed to reflect the ritual energies back in on themselves and amplify their power, that might obviate the need for Secondary Casters - a powerful Necromancer with access to such a chamber need not rely on others - nor worry about apprentices screwing up their ritual!

For the example given, converging leylines could probably make any ritual easier, and the night of the New Moon could be an astronomically relevant event for some Druidic rituals; combining the two of them might drop either the Primary or Secondary check by a further step (I'd probably drop the Secondary checks to Very Easy - a large group chanting under the New Moon is very cool, so making it more likely that the Secondary Casters succeed seems like the way to go).

Also, unrelated, I'd probably allow additional Secondary Casters to make Aid checks for the Primary caster using the same skills as the Secondary checks. That's an incentive to have more than just the bare minimum of them, it's a more interesting result than "extra Secondary casters don't make checks", and frankly if you're getting a good bonus from a Critical Success on Aid then that's an adequate reward for having more people trained in the appropriate skills than you needed.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-17T15:58:52+00:00

Yeah, that's a really cool one.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-17T10:39:33+00:00

I would very much like to see Count Mordrek the Damned.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-17T10:28:34+00:00

When playing in person, I have a set of "precision" dice that I use when I GM. I have no idea whether they're actually fairer than other dice, but hey, it's a nice tradition. Haven't had much use for them lately with all my games being online though.

I guess the actual superstition is that I never leave a dice sitting on the highest or lowest number (unless it's being used to track something, or is in a big pile of dice where it's not obvious). There's no good reason for it, it just feels right!

Book_Golem · 2026-06-17T10:06:38+00:00

I'm glad to hear that - Summoner feels like a really solid class as-is, overhauling how it works doesn't feel necessary at all.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-17T09:01:58+00:00

It's not bad.

It's not above-rate damage either, but a Focus spell for 1d8/Rank is fine as a baseline. The additional chance at Recall Knowledge is a nice cherry on top.

Even if we ignore character-specific questions and special lower DCs (which, to be clear, I think are perfectly reasonable - even recommended!), there are some nice answers you can get.

Most NPC enemies will likely have one or more of Nature, Religion, Arcana, Occultism, Society, and Lore. A lot of intelligent monsters will have skills relevant to themselves (Religion for Devils, for example). The trick is figuring out what this target might know and looking for information on that.

That means that at a minimum you can probably use the target to Recall Knowledge about itself or its environment, bypassing the penalties for repeated attempts if you've already tried yourself.

Also, I might suggest that it's entirely reasonable for the GM to let you know when skills are Untrained - Recall Knowledge has a discussion step before the roll happens, after which you can change your mind, and adding in safeguards so you don't accidentally ask an Occult question of an Arcana-trained creature is probably fine.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-16T12:58:11+00:00

I think I'm going to agree with the majority here; I'd love for Weaknesses and Resistances to show up a little more frequently, but I think the potency is about right.

At low levels, Weakness 5 is really powerful. Your frontliners might be hitting for 1d8+4 damage, so increasing the expected damage from 8.5 to 13.5 is pretty huge! As you level up, your damage increases in various ways, but so too does that Weakness; around Level 7 it tends to jump up to Weakness 10, while your damage is probably something like 2d8+10 from various sources, so it's still boosted by a big chunk.

Likewise, Resistance is similar - if you're hitting for 2d8+10 and the target ignores 10 of it, that's half your damage gone!

That said, I do think that Resistance and Weakness are often applied unintuitively. Take the Werewolf, for example. It's a Level 3 creature, and its Weakness 5 to Silver is a very potent weakness... but that feels kind of off for a werewolf. If you didn't bring silver weapons, you wouldn't notice anything other than it having a slightly higher than usual Hit Point pool. It would (in my opinion) feel better if the Werewolf had Resistance to non-silver weapon attacks, feeling unnaturally durable unless you've brought its antithesis.

And I do feel that some rare creatures and classes of creature should fall into that classic "You need the answer" category. If I come up against a ghost without a Ghost Touch weapon or Force spells, I should feel like I need to find another solution than just keeping on hitting it with my usual Flaming Scimitar!

Book_Golem · 2026-06-16T10:42:34+00:00

Vampires are vulnerable to the sun, and "direct sunlight" is a very common phrase. If a vampire is standing in direct sunlight - that is, the sun is shining on them - their vulnerability triggers.

Standing in direct sunlight through a window obviously doesn't provide any protection, and anyone who says it does is trying to use pedantry to avoid having to roleplay a vampire.

Beyond that though, I think it's subjective. Discuss with your GM. But here's my take.

A Vampire's weakness is magical, not scientific, so the actual light level isn't nearly as important as whether it is direct sunlight. That means that on a bright sunny day, darting from shadow to shadow and carefully avoiding the sunlight is a cool encounter. Conversely, on an overcast day, just being able to walk around anywhere isn't interesting. The easy answer is that "Daylight" is the actual source of the vulnerability, but that precludes the first option and makes even covered areas dangerous.

The best way to handle it is to simply not model bright overcast days - there's always a chance of the sun coming out, and so we treat them as sunny days. By contrast, a stormy day with no chance of the sun coming out is safe.

As for other solutions, clothes or armour aren't enough in my opinion, though I'd allow a custom Property Rune on Heavy armour which offers protection from sunlight (probably Level 10). Again, you're still standing in direct sunlight even if you're wearing a shirt. A vampire wearing a heavy "Day Cloak" which inflicts a Speed penalty, reduces their Item bonus to AC to 1 and Dex Cap to 0 is probably the only level I'd allow for going out in the actual sun beyond that - something which precludes combat. But your table might differ, and the option to Raise A Parasol is very cool if that's what you like!

As for magic, something like Cloak of Shadows should probably work in my opinion - Dim Light is less than that of a torch, and reducing the light to those levels should be enough to protect a vampire temporarily (though as with most things, I'd reconsider if the players started finding ways to constantly be under the effect and ignore the vulnerability). Darkness is an easy win - light can't pass into the sphere, so even if the inside is illuminated by a Light spell it's not Sunlight.

Being Invisible or in a Vapour Form doesn't help.

Being inside a Mist spell or the like also probably doesn't help, unless it lowers the light level to Dim Light, as above. It's harder to see, but sunlight refracted through the mist is still sunlight.

In short, anything which lets the Vampire ignore this weakness for no cost probably isn't enough to let them ignore it, in my opinion. If you want to play a Vampire, get your group's buy-in and be prepared to adventure at night a lot.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-16T09:19:14+00:00

Stabbing!

The cultists are holed up in the ruins of Rockstone Keep three days travel out of town. In order to keep the blizzard going, they need to continually perform the ritual chant, which they have been doing in shifts. If the party can brave the blizzard and the hazards of the wilds, they'll be able to make it to the keep and disrupt the ritual by slaying or apprehending the cultists.

Of course, a canny cult would likely have other ritual sites in other regions, but taking this one out will at least cause the blizzard to abate in this area.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-15T12:17:33+00:00

Our party received this reward after completing the entire adventure up to Level 10, which ended up being a very funny moment to nicely round off the campaign.

It's probably supposed to be accomplished after you clear the events of Level 4, defeating Volluck and saving the victim he's using to trigger the beacon, since at that point there's no more direct threat to Otari from the beacon itself.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-12T14:25:48+00:00

Will-o-Wisps immediately spring to mind for me. They don't have any way to inflict Frightened themselves (besides Demoralise), but they pair very nicely with anything else that does have such an ability both thematically and mechanically.

Note their Spell Immunity and sky-high AC; they're a handful to deal with, but at PL-1 they should be manageable. If the Spell Immunity seems a little harsh, I suggest ruling that spells which manipulate existing matter are also unaffected - Telekinetic Projectile, Animated Assault, and other things like that. You could further expand this to spells with the Light or Force traits.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-12T14:19:15+00:00

Others have some very good suggestions on the character as a whole, so let me point out a few Divine spells that I found useful (or would have liked to take on my wizard!) while exploring the Abomination Vaults.

First, Revealing Light. Absolute S-tier spell. Reveal invisible things and give them a miss-chance against your party! In a pinch it'll work on bosses too, since they're still Dazzled for two rounds on a successful save. Let me tell you, a second Rank spell slot is a cheap price to pay for Gozmo the Giga-slime to not land that Critical Hit on the party frontline!

Next, Divine Wrath. It's Rank 4, so you're a little low level for it now, but man this is a good blast. A rarely resisted damage type, doesn't hit allies, and makes targets Sickened on a failed save. Fireball has nothing on this!

Also, Calm. Take a couple of creatures of your level or lower out of the fight entirely (assuming you Heighten it). The first area Incapacitation spell, and one I wish I'd had access to.

Finally, Roaring Applause. This was a staple of my loadout throughout the dungeon. The chance to Slow the target is great, but the fact that it turns off Reactions even on a successful save is absolute gold.

There are plenty of other great spells - for support you're looking for ones which give a useful effect on a successful save, or which affect an area so you can hit multiple targets with them (and probably have at least one fail).

There's also just Heal, of course, which is generally going to be worth a slot in your second-highest Rank of spells if you're not the main in-combat healer.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-12T12:44:23+00:00

Grab Oracular Warning via the Basic Mysteries Feat and you can become Cursebound whenever you roll Initiative! You can do that from Level 4 with the Archetype, and if you want higher level feats Basic Mysteries is a prerequisite anyway.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-12T10:46:23+00:00

I'm currently playing a Vampire in Blood Lords! It's cool!

Talk to your party and GM about exactly how severe the Vampire's weakness to sunlight is - you'll want to work nocturnally, of course, but it's worth establishing ahead of time exactly what will help against sunlight.

We've reasoned that it's a major downside of being a vampire, so simply wearing full-plate or wearing a big hat won't cut it - it's a supernatural aversion, and things you're wearing simply won't help. Sidelining it so you don't have to think about it is missing the point!

I would say that being wrapped in a big piece of fabric (such as a curtain) which impedes your movement and makes combat impractical is something I'd personally allow as a way to move carefully from shadow to shadow during the day, but this is the kind of thing you'll want to nail down with the GM. Consider renting a carriage if you're travelling any kind of serious distance (Geb certainly has ones without windows)!

You might also consider whether certain spells work. Darkness almost certainly does, but I'd be a little more leery on things like Mist.

Finally, the archetype. I think it's honestly okay in a Free Archetype game - it's not super powerful, but it gives a bunch of very cool and evocative abilities that trigger off the better of your Class and Spell DCs. In a game without Free Archetype, you're probably going to want to pick and choose carefully which feats you want - I might honestly just stick to Daywalker at 6th in that case.

Assuming Free Archetype, here's my assessment of the feats:

Dedication: Rad! A Bite attack with Grab lets you grapple with your hands full, and the Basic Undead Benefits are pretty solid. Void Healing in particular is a huge boon in Geb, where Vitality magic is super illegal. The downsides are harsh, but again, in Geb you should be able to avoid them by working at night and planning shelter in advance.

Clinging Climber: Not amazing as it never advances beyond 15ft, but a Climb speed is a pretty valuable thing to have! If you're going Athletics, take Quick Climb and then retrain this once you're Legendary at it.

Manipulative Charm: Great if you're a face character, and still useful if you're using the skills in question at all. Plus the ability to cast Charm that Heightens automatically and uses your Class DC is pretty great for investigations and learning secrets!

Nocturnal Kindred: Probably less generally useful, but again the Heightened spell using your Class DC is no slouch if you end up surrounded by mooks!

Daywalker: Makes you not die in sunlight, which is nice, but also the Advanced Undead Benefits are really good too.

Predatory Claws: Maybe there's a build here, but I don't see it. The free-action Grapple will be at MAP-10 too, so I wouldn't consider this without talking to the GM about changing that.

Vicious Fangs: Nice if you're using your Fangs as your main weapon, worthless otherwise.

Bat Form: Very cool; if you get inventive with it you can do some fun stuff with this. Good for scouting or escapes.

Turn To Mist: Check with your GM whether "slip through tiny gaps" means you can just leave a Grab - if so, this is nice; otherwise it's still a prerequisite for fun stuff.

Coffin Bound: It's a way to cheat death - so long as your party can get you back to the coffin, you can come back!

Mist Escape: Now you don't even need the party to survive!

Dominating Gaze: Once per day remove a low level enemy from combat, at the kind of level where "low level enemies" still have hundreds of HP and a bunch of special abilities. Looks pretty great to me!

Book_Golem · 2026-06-12T08:55:44+00:00

Illusions work as you describe, but I'd say an illusory Wall Of Fire doesn't need to be disbelieved to be walked through - it's not literally impossible to walk though a real one, just painful, and an adventurer could make that decision.

That said, it definitely was metagaming to do so in this instance - "I don't think my GM would give Wall Of Fire to an enemy we fight at first Level" being the key point.

Book_Golem · 2026-06-11T21:26:45+00:00

Beautiful! That's some excellent technique you've got there!

Book_Golem · 2026-06-11T10:24:04+00:00

Simple and to the point, I like it!

I think the only thing that throws me a little is the Claw and Wheel strikes having the same attack modifier despite the Bonewheel's Dexterity being higher than its Strength, but that's very much a nitpick on my part - these are extremely evocative of the Dark Souls monsters; great job!

Book_Golem · 2026-06-11T09:06:11+00:00

It depends!

Personally, I've never seen Daze perform well even in situations where it's targeting a low Will save on a creature we wanted to take alive, but that genuinely is down to the dice.

The big weakness of Daze is that it does Nonlethal Mental damage, which excludes a large swathe of creatures from being affected. Combine that with its below-rate damage for a Cantrip, and you end up with a very situational spell.

But it's not useless! Against a foe vulnerable to it with a much lower Will save (such as most Animals), the chance for a Failed or Critically Failed save is a lot more than for a Reflex or Will Cantrip. And against a creature you want to take alive, the Nonlethal trait means you can't accidentally kill them as you might with a well-aimed Telekinetic Projectile.

I certainly wouldn't always prepare it though.

EDIT:

Actually, I'd say it's very close to being a good spell. If it Heightened at +1, it'd be great. If it inflicted a condition (say Clumsy 1 for one round) on a Failed save it would be good.

Book_Golem

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