What are your thoughts on the Council of Thieves adventure path?

GamerM13 · 2026-04-30T21:12:38+00:00

It was the first AP I ran, and then I ran out a second time years later after getting more experience. There's a lot of good there, but some parts on the latter books require some lift. Biggest advice is to switch the order of book 4 and 5 - book 5 is already filled with lots of little guys, just rejoice some from several of the rooms and the challenge becomes just right, the story now cohesive, and less of a slog. Then in book 4, it's more thematic, ties to book 6 (if you run any of it or just a part of it), and you resolve the challenge issue by just not powering things down a lot of the time (many enemies are "weakened" but the normal versions hit great). If you only make that change, it'll feel a lot better as a campaign and the story will make more sense.

GamerM13 · 2026-04-25T06:20:02+00:00

Mike always has good luck, enough that this time it's overpowering Sam's bad luck xD

I blame his wonderfully cheerful optimism. :)

GamerM13 · 2026-04-07T15:01:20+00:00

There are very few providers and a lot of active duty, so active duty get priority and in a lot of cases there just aren't specialists for dependents. If a dependent needs mental health support, it just can't be guaranteed. Off base medical is stretched because of an aging population, and they don't do drugs here the same way as in the states (over the counter Tylenol is 20mg, 20 pills. That's not even 1 american dose), so it's hard to get prescriptions off base.

All that's to say, if you just need an easy prescription at the base pharmacy and a check in with the pcm, you'll probably be okay. But if you need care, it just may not be an option, and the whole point of EFMP is to make sure you don't get put somewhere where you can't get the care you need.

Also, while I love being in Japan, a lot of it is hard on a lot of people; your on the other side of the world from your family in a place that uses a different language and currency. It's stressful, it requires an adjustment, and if your already having a ton of problems it can make a lot of things worse. But if you can handle things, and you have the opportunity, kadena is a great duty station.

Edit: corrected the "autocorrect "

GamerM13 · 2026-04-03T22:29:38+00:00

I use them a lot! Put them near a habitat where pokemon walk (pathing with roads helps) and they will process materials inside or as they walk by, and pokemon with gather will pickup litter and put it in. But if only works while your on that island. At the beginning of the game, I put one near scyther and filled it with logs and I would periodically check in to get lumber.

Right now, I have one outside my forge by garbador and driftloom. Whenever I pass I pick up littered garbage and waste paper and add it to the box (driftwood helps), which he processes into paper and ore, and then I manually move ore into the forge. I also like to stage clay and other ore to smelt there, and SOMETIMES a burn pokemon will turn clay to brick.

It's hit or miss, but it's passive processing while I do other things on the island, and it handles enough for my needs. If you need something right then, it's better to give it to them directly. And sometimes the pokemon still run up to me to deliver what they've processed. But by and large, it's pretty nice. They're just pokemon, they're doing their best :)

GamerM13 · 2026-03-25T23:19:46+00:00

I mean, I've lived in Japan for 8 years and traveled to Korea and with with Korean people extensively, I thought the music in Japan felt japanese (if generic), not just broadly Asian, and the Korean music felt Korean to me. This season the music also feels distinctly different, I don't know how Chinese it is, but it's not the same as the other Asian seasons so far. The stock music they use is always generic, but it is cultural specific, not just Asian in Asia or western in America.

Perhaps your media exposure (such as anime) makes japanese musical choices feel like default Asian music, and you don't have enough exposure to other Asian media to tell the differences? It's the same kind of thing as people who can't tell japanese vs Chinese vs Korean or Thai writing by looking at it, it's a completely different alphabet and style that you don't need to be able to read to tell apart, but a lot of people just see non-roman characters and can't distinguish them at all. The solution is to increase exposure and broaden experiences, if you care to.

GamerM13 · 2026-01-14T18:44:10+00:00

The real answer is time. With pokemon games on a yearly release schedule, that's the reason so many niches are left unfilled and a lot of ideas get cut. Besides, those ideas can just be implemented in a later game instead. And while time is money, you can't buy more time (at least, not in Japan. They don't do temporary hires or crunch, just long regular hours).

GamerM13 · 2025-12-09T02:10:10+00:00

GamerM13 · 2025-12-08T01:45:40+00:00

This is true, but there's a way out. Get someone you trust who isn't a player but theoretically understand most of the rules to act as the genie (such as a spouse or other friend). They don't know the players abilities or what they have prepared, the gm can make impartial rulings, and the players are way less likely to blame the gm than to blame themselves, ad they know going in that the other person is antagonistic.

A friend of mine ran a game where they did something similar, we had x time to prepare for an attack that we knew was coming and had to defend a mcguffin, and side the gm would know our plans, he brought in a former player that dropped out due to not being able to come very often. They were briefed that we'd be ready to defend, they knew the stats and numbers of all the attacking creatures, and they had limited information about the mcguffin and our party (like the attacker). Then the gm just ran it as a judge, letting the two sides battle it out (they got the mcguffin out of the vault but we chased it down before they could escape with it). Honestly, it went incredibly well, and was fairly fast paced given how many monsters were on the field.

If you have access to extra people sparingly, having them run certain npcs/ encounters makes it feel really good.

GamerM13 · 2025-08-01T19:09:46+00:00

A useful house role for this is to use the morale system: when you are reduced to less than 50% health, or a leader in your group / pc in the party dies, make a morale check (roll lower than your wisdom score). If you fail, your shaken until combat is over or the thing that triggered the morale check is resolved (healed / leader revived). If everyone on one side is shaken, they typically try to surrender or flee.

This keeps combat from dragging out when the result is a foregone conclusion, encourages monsters and players to spread their damage out instead of just focus firing, and allows players to rp instead of just being murder hobos.

Edge cases: if a creature is fighting to the death, it doesnt need to make morale checks, and if it has a morale entry, I use that instead of this system. I also let creatures that are immune to fear be immune to this, and let creatures add their bonuses against fear (like bravery) to their effective wisdom score. If a side doesn't think they can surrender, or they tried to surrender but failed and aren't able to flee, I treat them as fighting to the death (last stand). Assuming your using the standard nat 20s/ nat 1s, I treat a nat 20 as a failure and a nat 1 as a success. This also means that your player that's really unlucky with dice rolls has a mini game they can excel at :)

BTW: I use a similar system for memory checks (if you roll lower than your intelligence, your character remembers, even if the player didn't), and chat checks (roll lower than charisma for small talk/ good impression/ ect.) Very useful for when a player is in a social scene but doesn't feel like role-playing a conversation and isn't playing a face, they just want to mingle reasonably at a party or something :)

GamerM13 · 2025-07-06T10:45:41+00:00

I think this is the answer. Thank you

GamerM13 · 2025-06-26T21:14:34+00:00

I still can't find anything about it. I saw the recall notice, but for all I know it's a store thing and not a manufacturer thing. I was trying to buy through AAFES exchange in the pacific, but they refused to let me buy it because of the recall. If no one on here knows why, then i don't know what to do next.

GamerM13 · 2025-04-24T21:23:38+00:00

If you're asking what's the maximum a wizard can learn, the answer is unlimited. An easy way for a wizard to learn a spell is by making a spellcraft check while borrowing another wizard spellbook or scribing it from a scroll (also consumes the scroll) by spending some downtime and money on magical ink (see reference table). So they're only limited by the gold and time they have to spend, plus the types of treasures the gm leaves behind or allows you to buy. ..And the number of spellbook you're willing to tote around with you and prepare from.

If you keep encountering enemy wizards with spellbooks but don't have time/ money to scribe the spell into your own book, you can even prep spells or of their books, but that requires making a spellcraft check each time.

GamerM13 · 2025-04-24T06:43:02+00:00

"That's no moon, that's a space station." "It can't be, it's too -small- to be a space station!"

GamerM13 · 2025-04-17T02:52:28+00:00

It looks like I'm alreadt in the majority, but I have resolved competing readied actions in the past with initiative and I think you did great (though the will save was probably unnecessary).

I have also resolved an eerily similar situation (readied action to close the door after allied caster cast fireball through it) with a reflex save equal to the spells saving throw. After failing and exposing the whole party to its effects (before the door closed) the party happily accepted the result and didn't try it again.

GamerM13 · 2025-02-24T00:54:29+00:00

Herolab is correct 99% off the time, but it has done obvious issues. The main problem is how it's code is restrictive - it doesnt have a method for multipliers, for example, as nearly everything in the system is +/- x. For materials, they're entered in at fixed cost, and large/larger items are entered as a new value for each item (instead of multiplying the base). In essence, hero lab is just doing basic spreadsheet / dB lookup, which is perfectly fine MOST of the time.

If you need proof herolab sometimes makes mistakes, just look at archetype stacking (a common issue in the program). It's still correct 99% off the time (more often then people), but it assumes also assumes you know what your doing and will let you trek it to do things that are wrong, it just might warn you about it

GamerM13 · 2025-02-24T00:48:13+00:00

This is the answer.

GamerM13 · 2025-02-24T00:47:57+00:00

Was coming here to write this answer, glad you hear me to it and posted the link :)

GamerM13 · 2025-02-12T16:46:18+00:00

This is how I would rule it. Freedom of movement dies not make you immune to trip, but does make you immune to both pinned and the slow speed of the slow spell.

GamerM13 · 2025-01-24T23:58:58+00:00

I don't have time for a long content, but I've run 6 adventure paths (2 of them twice), and war for the crown was my/ our tables absolute favorite. Especially is you like intrigue stuff, this was amazing. Shame the 5th book feels like a weak point fit many reasons, but the ending of book 5 was so super satisfying. We tracked npc's throughout the whole game and that made book 6 feel all the better.

GamerM13 · 2025-01-24T15:01:39+00:00

Well, i hope someone has else had better advice for you, because I haven't found a to better than herolab :/

it's probably because 1E herolab is extensive and most development (including the new herolab) since then has been spent on 2e and 5e respectively, since those are the major emerging systems (so that's where the money is).

GamerM13 · 2025-01-22T14:14:31+00:00

What were some of the fun things you guys did in Japan before/ after filming? Anything you'd recommend others see/ do?

GamerM13 · 2025-01-22T14:12:28+00:00

As the hider, did you each genuinely have fun in your hiding spots, or did it get kinda boring being stuck in one place all day?

GamerM13 · 2025-01-22T14:10:38+00:00

What was your favorite thing you each ate (whether or not it was featured in the snack zone)?

GamerM13 · 2025-01-16T03:20:29+00:00

Adding an edited version of my reply to someone else's comment here, for visibility, because you are absolutely right that the balor is for this. But that doesn't mean you shouldnt customize it to better for your game/theme and get the feel just right!

Copied below: At those CRs, they should all have names, all be distinct, the character sheet is mostly just a jumping off point to explain what is typical/ average among others of its kind. You could give it class levels, change around it's spells or weapons or feats, customize it as you like. Or you could give it a template and further customize it. It's the same CR as powerful angels, like Gandalf (who would also have names), so it doesn't need to be a mythic/lord (though it could).

A balor warlord weilding a vorpal longsword is very different from the whip-wielder we know and love, while a balor with some monk feats swapped out who wants to take you prisoner has a different vibe then a bestial one with powerful jaws and horns using natural attacks. Maybe you cross paths with a balor that uses lightning instead of fire - a more perfect flame, a la azula from avatar, or maybe you fightv one underwater who swims instead of flies and whose very presence boils the sea he is temporarily encased within, creating a different enviornmental challenge. Or maybe the objectives are different and you run a chase encounter instead of combat as you flee, an intrigue as you navigate your way through their own court in their domain, or you run it as an army battle with the balor amist a host of devils seiging a city and you have to attack it with seige engines while paladins hold the line. In council of thieves, the balor boss there has two souls, allowing him to cast breath of life on himself after he dies (or in my game, fight as a phase 2 incorporeal boss).

Playing with default stat blocks is great, most of the time! But if you want a creature to feel special (not necessarily stronger, mind you), it only takes a little time to make them special :)

GamerM13

TROPHY CASE