Article - Ashiel's Adventuring Guidebook

8/13/2019 Article - Ashiel's Adventuring Guidebook

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shiel's Guide to dventurePreparation, Tricks, andStrategiesVersion 0.0.01

Table of ontents


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shiel's Guide to dventure Preparation, Tricks, and Strategies Version 0.0.01 Page 1 oreword:I love the nature of adventuring. Adventuringhas traditionally been a very dangerous if lucrativeprofession. Adventurers die, and die, and die some more.Some are lucky enough to only have to die once. Whatseparates the adventurers that make it from the ones whowere ust another party that never returned! Well, I thinkcreativity and preparation make the largest difference. Ididn"t think much about this sort of thing, until #eterStewart said the following in another thread.

#eter Stewartwrote:$onestly some of your tactics here have given me a greatdeal to think of for future characters. I"d be interested in ageneral thread on purchases you think are viable orneeded at various levels, along with various tricks. Aheightened continual flame hadn"t even occurred to me,for instance.%y party could use some more asymmetrical means ofcombating such problems, as right now our tendency is to

bully through them using brute force &usually taking tonsof damage and e'pending tons of resources in theprocess(. We"re coming up on a long period though werewe"ll be able to resupply and ree)uip. :(

So since #eter asked, here"s the beginning of a shortadvice column concerning *+*#athfinder and preparingfor adventure. I"m cool with people asking )uestions oradvice or tips on specific things- and I"ll also answer)uestions concerning *+* .' as well &though I may haveto reference the ./ S0* for particularly old school stuff,to make sure I"m not blurring too much(. 1uestions can beasked at the #ai2o thread:Ashiel"s 3uide to Adventure#reparation-and may be added to the guide.

*isclaimer:As a simple disclaimer, I want to let everyoneknow that the advice below will assume that the standardrules are in play. It doesn"t assume house rules or changesto the system. 4ust the goods, plain and simple. Whenthere is something that is noted as working within therules, but does not give guidelines for doing so- this guidemakes an attempt to figure out how you do it using thenormal rules already in e'istence &such as touch attacks,splash weapons, etc(.

If your 3% has any )uirks concerning item availability,changes any spells, or otherwise alters something, your

mileage may vary.

Introduction:Adventuring is a hard life. Few take up itscall. 5hose who make it, go down as legends, and retirewealthy and with many ama2ing stories. 5hose who donot, inevitably forge their own stories as the ones whoust survived, or never came back, or was the one thatdidn"t make it. 6es, adventuring is a hard life. A life thattakes you by surprise. 5he key to surviving isn"t ust aboutwhose muscles are largest or who knows the most spells.#reparation, and clever thinking, can lead you to greater

degrees of success. Shall you brave the dangers and comeout on top, or be another tavern tale of the ones whonever came back!

eneral-purpose Adventuring Equipment7et 5here 8e 7ight:5here are a lot of monsters andenemies who like to spam darkness spells &and deeperdarkness(. 9reatures like tieflings, drow, shadow demons,darklings, and dark folk are notorious for this. %anypeople complain that this is unfair- especially since mostof these creatures either care nothing about the lightingcondition"s drawbacks, or can see through them fine &suchas in the case of darklings and dark folk(. So what is anadventurer to do!

7ight spells &that is, the light subtype( such as light,continual flame, and daylightpierce magical darknessspells that are a lower level than themselves. A goodadventuring tool is to have an item or two that has had a

heightened continual flamespell cast on it to at least thlevel. 5hat costs / gp including the material component,to have it purchased by ;#9 spellcasting. Suddenly, thelegions of darklings and dark folk are nothing to you, asyour continual torch &be it a torch, amulet, or even yourbelt buckle( shimmers and provides light that isun)uenchable by spells such as darknessor deeperdarknessunless they are also heightened. Since spell


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shiel's Guide to dventure Preparation, Tricks, and Strategies Version 0.0.01 Page !A Sticky %ess: 5anglefoot bags are ama2ingly good.9huck a few of these at people or creatures you ustdon"t like. It"s an auto its speed.

;inas Banish:#robably the most overlookedalchemical item is the humble smoke stick. 9heap, andsurprisingly effective. Cnless wind conditions are muchagainst you, dropping one of these lets you use Stealthas if you were a ;ina 5urtle collecting bells, gain totalconcealment vs ranged attacks, and ruins sneakattacks. 6es, ruins sneak attacks. 6ou can"t sneak attacka target with concealment. 6ou can drop a singlesmoke stick at your feet and even if you"re surroundedby >/th level rogues, blind, and in the dark, you"reimmune to their sneak damage. @'cellent against dirty

roguish sorts, and even prevents an assassin"s *eathAttack. 8rutally efficient.

A)ua Sanctum:$oly water. 5he antiD gp apop, this stuff is kind of like acid of alchemist fire forundead and evil outsiders. Incidentally, it specificallyaffects incorporeal creatures as well. It deals >ddamage as a ranged touch attack that doesn"t provokeattacks &see item description( if you shake the water atthe enemy. >d averages D damage, which means a ?stlevel party can tear a shadow apart by ust running upand splashing it with holy water. Statistically, holywaters will outright kill a shadow &and less shouldforce the shadow to flee for its unlife(, and frankly, ?//gp for a dead 90 enemy seems entirely reasonable tome= 5he fact it also deals splash damage, and is partyfriendly is double the fun. Alchemistseven get to addtheir Intelligence modifier to the damage, allowingthem to take apart some truly nasty critters in shortorder.

Side @ffects Include...: Antito'ins and Anti


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shiel's Guide to dventure Preparation, Tricks, and Strategies Version 0.0.01 Page &throws vs disease each day(.

Aw, ;ets:;ets are arguably one of the strongest weaponsin the core handbook. 5hey deal no damage, but are anon weapons of different materials than it is to carry one

or two weapons, and it makes you less of a target vssundering or shattering &because who bothers with thatwhen you"ve got a backup weapon in easy reach!(.

6ou can go a very long way with ust different materialweapons and a greater magic weapon spell to keep yourhit and damage top notch. It"s also easier to rely on specialmaterials for all the low 90 enemies who re)uire thingslike silver or cold iron to hit &such as imps, )uasits,lycanthropes, or fey(.

5he %agic of the %ind:5here"s a lot of very mundanemethods for dealing with magical effects that ust re)uirea bit of thinking and preparation. ne of my favorites isthe bag of chalk or flour. 9halk can be purchased for ?copper a piece and counts as a weightless item, and hasmany adventuring uses &such as marking trails and paths,leaving notes, drawing magic seals, etc(. 6ou can buy awhole bag &? lb.( of flour for only > copper pieces- whichcan be baked with some water and a fire, or fried to makea crispy food on the go. $owever, both are good for foilinginvisibility. 5he invisibility rules clearly state that you cancover something invisible in substances like flour to beable to see them &since the clinging substance doesn"tbecome invisible(.

First, get a bag of flour, or crush up some chalk, and fillsome cloth pouches with the flour or crushed chalk. 5ie astring or piece of cord around the edges of the cloth tocreate a small pouch filled with the appropriate powder.

Simply loosen the knot and throw it as a splash weapon,and it should scatter clinging dust in a D ft. radius, foilinginvisibility.

5his method is simple, effective, and cheap. It is based onthe rule that flour and similar environmental conditionscan allow you to make invisible creatures visible- but therules never specified how to do that. %erely that it couldbe done. 5his method makes use of e'isting rules ande)uipment to do so, using the rules for splash weapons.Since not everything written here is e'plicitly covered inthe rules &notably the delivery of the powdery substance(,you should check e'act methods with your 3%. Irecommend the adudication that is presented in theaccompanying table J#owder 8ombsK.

A #ot of $oney, A #ot of 0ain: 9lay ugs are pretty heavywhen filled, but are pretty useful. 5heir obvious use is forcarrying large )uantities of water or similar li)uids&ideally packed on burden beasts such as mules, horses, oro'en(, but can often be adapted for adventuring purposes.5hey can ust as easily carry coins and the like, or youcould place food in them, fill them with black powder tomake a bomb &if your campaign has such fare(, createweapons or traps with them &fill them with spiders,scorpions, snakes, or whatever(, or even keep pottedplants in them &carrying around your own plants makes

the entanglespell useful in the most amusing places(. Atonly > copper pieces, you can figure out what to do withthem later. Flasks are coppers with similar uses.

Leeping a few vipers in a state of sedation &via nonlethaldamage, sleepspells, or other means( can be a goodmethod of e'tracting lots of inury poison for the buddingassassin, alchemist, or other poison using character. 4ustmilk their glands for poison daily. Finding and keepingvipers isn"t usually very difficult for adventurers. In fact,the clay pots can be useful storage devices in this case. If
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/glossary.html#_entangledhttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/glossary.html#_entangledhttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/glossary.html#_entangledhttp://www.genesworlds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mywallpaper5ae7.jpghttp://www.genesworlds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mywallpaper5ae7.jpghttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/glossary.html#_entangledhttp://www.genesworlds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mywallpaper5ae7.jpg


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shiel's Guide to dventure Preparation, Tricks, and Strategies Version 0.0.01 Page someone has a viper familiar, you could ust ask nicely forvenom.

5hat"s 3ood ood, I 3uarantee:5his isn"t )uite hardcoreadventuring gear, but I"m kind of a sucker for a bit of rolend7evel &97 th(:haste&rd, Dth(,phantom steed&rd, Dth(,slow&rd, Dth(, and wind wall&rd, Dth(.rd7evel &97 Nth(:black tentacles&th, Nth(, charm monster&th, Nth(, dimension door&th, Nth(, dimensional anchor&th,Nth(, fire shield&th, Nth(, minor creation&th, Nth(, stoneskin&th, Nth(, summon monster IB&th, Nth(,wall of fire&th, Nth(,and wall of ice&th, Nth(.th7evel &97 ?/th(:baleful polymorph&Dth, Hth(, contactother plane&Dth, Hth(, insect plague&Dth, Hth(, mage"s faithfulhound&Dth, Hth(, magic ar&Dth, Hth(, maor creation&Dth, Hth(,overland flight&Dth, Hth(, lesser planar binding&Dth, Hth(,summon monster B&Dth, Hth(, teleport&Dth, Hth(, and wall ofstone&Dth, Hth(.

Dth7evel &97 ?th(:banishment&th, ??th(, creeping doom&Nth,?th(,greater dispel magic&th, ??th(, ethereal aunt&th, ??th(,

planar binding&th, ??th(, simulacrum&Nth, ?th(, spell turning&Nth, ?th(, summon monster BII&Nth, ?th(,greater teleport&Nth, ?th(, and wall of iron&th, ??th(.th7evel &97 ?th(:binding&Gth, ?Dth(, dimensional lock&Gth,?Dth(, discern location&Gth, ?Dth(, dominate monster&Hth,?Nth(, incendiary cloud&Gth, ?Dth(, ma2e&Gth, ?Dth(,greater

planar binding&Gth, ?Dth(,protection from spells&Gth, ?Dth(,summon monster BIII &Gth, ?Dth(, sympathy&Gth, ?Dth(, andteleportation circle&Hth, ?Nth(.

So why is this important! 8ecause the folks who wrote theSummoner ignored the ripple effects. 9ore casters such asclerics, druids, sorcerers, and wi2ards can now legally buywands and scrolls of these spells and use them with notrouble, craft some of their own items at a new lowercaster and spell level to save in cost, and in some casesscribe scrolls into their spell books for less money.

$ere"s an e'ample: Summoners get hasteas a >ndlevelspell, at thcaster level. A whole spell level and casterlevel before the original sorcererwi2ard casters do. ;ow,a 97 thwand of hasteis legal, and costs only ,/// gp, asopposed to the 97 Dthwand of hastethat cost ??,>D/ gporiginally. Several items are now incorrectly priced in thecore rulebooks &such asboots of speed, which were ?>,///gp, but now should cost only G,/// gp(. 7ikewise, you cannow get summon monster B&traditionally a Dthlevel spell(into a wand &limited up to thlevel spells(, along with anyother spell listed in the thlevel summoner spells above.

Since this is advantageous to those on a budget or lookingto stretch the distance of their last gold piece, I"m listingthe costs for these spells as scrolls, wands, and potions,since they have some slightly unusual caster levels.#otionsils:>ndlevel &// gp(, rdlevel &?,/D/ gp(Scrolls:>ndlevel &Do gp(, rd&D>D gp(, th&?,/// gp(, Dth&?,D/ gp(, th&>,// gp(Wands:>ndlevel &,/// gp(, rdlevel &?D,ND/ gp(, thlevel&/,/// gp(

+ - hat o ou Think bout Su%%oner Spells3?etting spells earlier and cheaper than in core leaves a bad taste

in the mouths of some gamers. $ome would consider thesummoner's effect on magic items a game abuse# while somewould see it as &ust another side effect of an evolving game.

ersonally, I don't really like it, but included it for completion'ssake. I've checked out the rules for magic item creation, andwhether I like it or not, that's the way it is. The summoner's silly

spell list creates odd ripple effects in the rest of the system.$ome magic items are no longer correctly priced, some magic

items can now be crafted more cheaply, and so on and so forth.

0hile it's not something I'm particularly fond of, I haven'tbanned the summoner or the changes from my games# but I have

considered altering the summoner's spell progression to be a

proper full progression. It's stupid to give a class a secondaryspell progression if you're &ust going to load them down withhigher level spells at the usual caster levels. 0hat's the point of

giving the class ndtier casting if you're not giving them ndtierspell access as well% @ost of their spells (especially the goodones! don't allow saving throws, making the level of the spellitself meaningless as far as balance is concerned.

For now, I would &ust caution any designer, be they homebreweror professional writer, against pulling this stunt again. Be waryof what you're doing before you do it. Don't make a class like

this again. >ither give them bard casting or wi-ard casting. Don'tforce wi-ard casting into a bard's spell slots. It's &ust stupid.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/baseClasses/summoner.htmlhttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/baseClasses/summoner.htmlhttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/haste.html#_hastehttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/haste.html#_hastehttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/baseClasses/summoner.htmlhttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/haste.html#_haste


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shiel's Guide to dventure Preparation, Tricks, and Strategies Version 0.0.01 Page 5We Still have #aladins and 0angers:At least #aladin and0anger spells aren"t as cra2y as summoner spells, but wecan still thank them for their subtle spell list. 5he spellsdelay poison, lesser restoration, and resist energyare allgreat spells to have in a wand, and all three cost ND/ gp forD/ charges.

#aladins also give a uni)ue gift to the budding adventurer.Wands ofholy sword. 5hese wands are costly, at /,///gp for D/ charges, but they turn any melee weapon into aFD holyweapon that produces a magic circle against evilfor ? rounds. A fair purchase for a lower level #aladin, orfor anyone with significant investment in the Cse %agic*evice skill.

For rangers, a scroll &ND/ gp( or wand &>>,D// gp( ofinstant enemycan turn a battle really fast, since it allowsyou to declare any enemy your favored enemy. It"s almostlike declaring a smite evil, but for rangers.

It"s ;ot 5hat $eavy:A worthy mention for potions, scrolls,and wands is the spell ant haul,introduced in theAdvanced #layer"s 3uide. 5he spell triples the target"scarrying capacity, and is absolutely disgusting whenapplied to an o' or similar beast of burden &your typicalo' with ant haulcan carry ?,G// lbs as a light load, ,//lbs as a medium load, D,// lbs as a heavy load, and canpush or drag up to >N,/// lbs(=
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/holySword.html#_holy-swordhttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/holySword.html#_holy-swordhttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/spells/antHaul.html#_ant-haul-http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/spells/antHaul.html#_ant-haul-http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/holySword.html#_holy-swordhttp://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/spells/antHaul.html#_ant-haul-

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Article - Ashiel's Adventuring Guidebook