Techno-mumbo-jumbo

So I thought I would post a picture I took a while ago of our gaming screen.

This is just the TV screen connected to the laptop, but it is pretty neat. One of our former players custom built the black table with built in grid. I will get a better picture of everything when I am over at the DMs house(not playing this weekend so next).

Yes, that is a Frostmourne on the table. :)

Let them eat Pi!

I was browsing Reddit and ran across this post. In it the OP is asking for suggestions to basically nerf the party crafter. It seems that the crafting and ingenuity of the player is causing problems for OP (the DM). This really struck home because I am playing a crafter for the Age of Worms campaign I am currently in.

I thought about it, and wondered if I am causing the same problems in the game I play. I must say I really enjoyed the overall positive and supportive replies from the community supporting the player. Being a crafter does make you sacrifice a lot of combat effectiveness in the form of feats and skillpoints. With the homebrew class I am playing, also some of my levels do not help much in terms of combat. Overall, I still enjoy the class and I hope I can add a lot to the story in terms of ingenuity and such as OP's player.

Here is an amazing response from Lord_Derp_The_2nd.

Well, remember, as the crafter he's sacrificing feat slots that would otherwise be used for combat power like metamagics, instead to make potions and items that grant effects they could otherwise just buy, or cast themselves.
Simply put: it's not as imbalanced as you think it is. Even with "unlimited" potions/oils - they still are limited to rounds of combat. (And remember, the spell slot gets consumed to craft the potion). So, really what difference is there between casting a spell in combat, or expending the slot at another time, then quaffing a potion? The combat-time investment doesn't change. It just basically gives him a way to "rollover" his spell/day in the form of potions.
Now, the simplest way to limit how muc stuff they craft, is to penalize the party for lax diligence. If they're on an adventure to slay do some specific thing, like clear a kobold den - and they take a week off to do it, well the Kobolds have spent that week catching some dire lizard 'pets' and digging pit traps, to prepare. Or a scouting party ambushes them at night (After he's wasted all his spell slots crafting potions!). Just keep the pressure on, and their ability to craft gets stifled, but not completely removed.
I disagree with everyone saying to basically tell him he doesn't have, or can't find the components. If he has an alchemy kit, and the potion doesn't call for any specific expensive component, there's no reason to punish the player for taking item creation feats - If you do, you'll quickly see him shift to taking combat feats and just buying a giant stockpile of potions instead. OR better still, he'll just take leadership, and for the price of one feat, make his cohort into a craft bot who stays in town perpetually crafting where he has access to the resources.
Anyway - again I think you're over-estimating the effect of the crafting feats. He's going to lose several feat slots, sacrificing a lot of potential passive combat power, for the ability to craft things that do what he could otherwise already do in combat. It really doesn't hatter if he has 10k Alchemist fire, he can only throw one a round. Given infinite potions, he'd be able to use just a handful each fight, of spells he would otherwise just cast.
Now, for the realm of Magic Items, the fact they can craft things at half price can lead to a bit of power over-inflation. That's easily restricted, though - just give them less treasure. If all their wealth is twice as effective, give them half as much, and the wealth-by-level is instantly fixed. They still get to specifically pick and choose ideal items, sure, but again - they otherwise have a dead feat slot that mechanically does nothing for them - and they could otherwise use a simple locate object spell, and go grab that specific item wherever it may be, or buy it for sale in the nearest metropolis. Hardly game-breaking. If you force them to hunt exotic materials, as some have suggested, that should be the exception to the rule, to add cool flavor to the item, and maybe make it a little exceptional. Remember, Pathfinder is all about the 'Rule of Cool,' not the 'Rule of hinder your players at every turn.'

Huzzah that is a hell-of-a good read.

Also, it's Pi day...

Critcal Hit/Fumble iPhone App

Some of the players I game with found a nice app for the iPhone. It allows you to randomly generate critical hits/fumbles based on your weapon.

It is called CritHit. If you have an iPhone you should go check it out.

Custom colored Absalom map.

While online I ran across a very nice map of Absalom which was colored in with the districts. This however was not 100% accurate with the map from the Pathfinder Chronicles map of Absalom, so I took it upon myself to re-create it with the map from the the Chronicles book. I don't have the fancy Pathfinder font so I just used one that I though looked good.

Edit: A fellow redditier noticed a typo. I corrected it and added a few other locations.