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BretI's page

Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber. ******* Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis 4,038 posts (26,546 including aliases). 8 reviews. 4 lists. No wishlists. 62 Organized Play characters. 23 aliases.


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Lokaloka wrote:
I actually goofed with the Persona Mask -- it only applies to either singing or performing comedy, not pipes playing... So I guess I'll go back to my old bonus :)

Assuming you haven’t already done your rebuild, found this on pg 275 of GM Core.

GM Core wrote:

MAESTRO'S INSTRUMENT ITEM 3+

MAGICAL

Usage held in 2 hands;
Bulk 1

A maestro's instrument can be crafted in the form of any variety of handheld musical instruments. A maestro's instrument grants you a +1 item bonus to Performance checks while playing music with the instrument.

Activate—Charming Performance [two-actions] (manipulate) Frequency once per day; Effect You play the instrument, causing it to cast a DC 17 charm spell.

Still not all uses of Perform, but it might fit your character better.


Lokaloka wrote:
BretI wrote:
Hilary and I are at a local Con this weekend. I will try to prod her to reply here sometime this weekend.
Which con is this?

Con of the North.


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Hilary and I are at a local Con this weekend. I will try to prod her to reply here sometime this weekend.


Ick! Hope you are all doing better now.


Although I have my doubts as to how average you will be, congrats and enjoy Lady Ladile!


Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Is there a recommended age range for this game? Many games list on the back of the box recommended number of players, ages, and expected play time. It would be nice if the store blurb included this information.


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Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Love the preview and look forward to seeing the changes to bring monsters more in line with lore.

I admit that there is at least one thing I hope they don’t bring in line with the lore. I would rather they keep the Pegasus and Medusa as types of creature rather than unique creatures. I don’t mind if they make the Medusa a type of Gorgon since it was the Gorgon sisters, but still would rather they not be unique creatures.

I wonder if this means they will bring in other creatures of mythology like man-eating sheep.

Bringing the creatures in line with lore will likely have an additional benefit. Assuming the tales are already in the public domain it becomes much harder for WotC or anyone else to make copyright claims against them.


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PaleDim wrote:
So I don't quite know how this works, but I'm playing Defy the Dragon where you don't directly use your SFS character, but they're assigned to get the credit. I don't know if that means the actual SFS character is locked up during that time. Otherwise I would have a technomancer 10 who could jump in. I'm guessing that's perhaps not allowed.

So the sanctioning document for that module says:

Quote:

Applying Credit

Players who play through To Defy the Dragon as well as GMs who run the adventure can apply the adventure’s Chronicle Sheet to any 9th- through 12th-level Starfinder Society Organized Play character. Players and GMs must decide which character to apply credit to when they receive the Chronicle Sheet.

Since the decision is made when you receive the Chronicle Sheet, I believe that the character is not locked.


I am sorry to say that I’m finding that I can’t keep up with the number of PbP that I currently have.

I am going to drop out of this group.

Take care all and hope to play alongside you at other tables.


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calnivo wrote:
BretI wrote:

[...]

I’ll leave it to others to highlight new items they were happy to see added.
Only items that never appeared anywhere else? That is, excluding (non CRB-)items copied from older books?

Well, that was my initial concept. Highlight things people may not have noticed that were new.

That said, if it is something that came from someplace else and didn’t used to be part of Core that is likely interesting to some folks. I’m not going to complain when the forum thread goes slightly off topic.


Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So looking through GM Core, I noticed a few items that were new to that book. There are a lot of threads talking about the changes to the classes, the rules, and things that got renamed. Thought it would be good to highlight some of the new items that are part of the Remaster.

Here is one that I was very happy with.

———

Shining Symbol Item 3+
DIVINE INVESTED LIGHT
Usage worn; Bulk —

If you worship a deity, this golden amulet transforms into your deity's religious symbol when you invest it. You gain a +1 item bonus to Religion. The symbol casts dim light in a 20-foot emanation.

Activate—Spiritual Light [two-actions] (concentrate, light, revelation) Frequency once per day;
Effect The light cast by the symbol becomes bright light for 10 minutes and shines through bodies to reveal hints of the spirits within. Creatures in the light receive a –1 status penalty to Deception and Stealth checks. You can Dismiss this activation.

Type shining symbol; Level 3; Price 55 gp

Type greater shining symbol; Level 9; Price 650 gp The bonus to Religion is +2. Spiritual Light's penalty is –2, and while it's active your enemies in the light gain weakness 5 to spirit damage.

Type major shining symbol; Level 17; Price 13,500 gp The bonus to Religion is +3. Spiritual Light's penalty is –3, and while it's active your enemies in the light gain weakness 10 to spirit damage.

———

I’ll leave it to others to highlight new items they were happy to see added.


Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I agree that the three actions is to pull out the magazine, get a new one ready and then put it in.

I don’t know of anything that says how long it takes to reload a magazine, but I would expect it to be something only done in exploration mode.

Sounds like I didn’t miss anything and it is an open question. I guess for 1 sp per pellet it really isn’t a huge deal, just would like to know.


Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So the Air Repeater and Long Air Repeater use a “container of pressurized air instead of black powder to propel small metal pellets from an attached cartridge.”

We know how many pellets are in a magazine (depends on which air repeater) and we know how long it takes to reload a magazine (3 actions).

Out of combat can we combine pellets from multiple magazines into one, or do we get stuck with magazines with 1 or 2 pellets left in them. It isn’t clear to me from the description if the container of pressurized air is part of the magazine or not.


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Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So if you read some of the better Pathfinder and AD&D professional stories, they do not exactly match the mechanics used in the game at the time. They will mention by name some magic items, but they never say exact class and level of the characters. Assuming you aren’t using the isekai trope of a status screen, there is no need to even mention class or archetypes. Instead describe what they do.

One of the complaints often (rightly in my mind) leveled at bad fantasy fiction is that you can hear the dice rattle. In that sort of fiction, it is as if someone was just keeping a log of the game. Try not to do that.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

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With the change over to remaster, I would like a set of inexpensive boons that recreates the training past characters got from dedicating themselves to Spells, Scrolls, Swords or being a generalist. A lore that replaces the free Pathfinder Society Lore and at 5th level a feat. The boons should be mutually exclusive — which might mean it is all piled into one boon.

It should also count as meeting the prerequisites for Scrollmaster Dedication, Spellmaster Dedication, or Swordmaster dedication depending on the choice.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

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Thanks, I eagerly await answers to the many questions asked and unasked.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

Quote:
2. If a character option has been reprinted with the same name, use the new version as if it were errata. No additional retraining is necessary.

So I have heard that the gnome ancestry feat Animal Elocutionist is now 1st level. Does it take retraining to change Burrow Elocutionist to Animal Elocutionist? Assuming a character had both, would they then be able to replace the 5th level ancestry feat?

I’ve heard that the various weapon proficiency feats like Elven Weapon Familiarity/Elven Weapon Elegance have been combined as well.

Sorry if I have details wrong, I am going off what I’ve heard from various sources.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

Bolding added.

Alex Speidel wrote:
Champions will be fine, promise. Here, let me leak two (not final) sentences from the document.

Note how he said it isn’t the final version.

I think it is fine to suggest improvements. I would guess just pointing out something isn’t covered without constructive suggestions of how best to fix it are not nearly as useful.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

KingTreyIII wrote:
Oh, another thing: If we do do the Remaster rebuild, do we also have to completely get rid of the Pathfinder School stuff when we do so?

It is the optional Pathfinder Training.

I would also like to know if the rebuild requires removing that. I think it does since that is not an available option on or after Nov 15th, but would like this clearly stated. Call it wishful thinking that I might be taking too strict a reading.

I still wish it was an option since I used it on all my characters. New players I would initially tell “Add Pathfinder Society Lore now, there are more options if you are interested. Ask me if you are interested after the game.”

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

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This looks like a very well thought out way to handle the Remaster rules. I do hope we will get a preview of the Recall Knowledge rules before Nov 15th so that GMs can prepare for the transition.

Add me to the list of those who enjoyed the Pathfinder Training option. Most of my characters are more connected to that than their primary faction.


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I think Hillcross Roundup (Bounty 10) is probably the most straightforward of the bounties. Cleanup Duty (Bounty 7) and Witch’s Winter Holiday (Bounty 5) are also very easy.

Find the one with a plot that the kid likes. That is likely to have a bigger impact than any rules elements in the bounty,


NotEspi wrote:
BretI wrote:

@NotEspi,

Would you allow the Tamchal Chakram or the rope dart as a weapon? They are both Uncommon weapons with Thrown and Finesse on them.

If not, I can use a regular dagger. It being a simple weapon would give me the dice increase.

If you burn a feat on proficiency/unconventional weaponry, sure.

I will just use a dagger then.


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@NotEspi,

Would you allow the Tamchal Chakram or the rope dart as a weapon? They are both Uncommon weapons with Thrown and Finesse on them.

If not, I can use a regular dagger. It being a simple weapon would give me the dice increase.


Gnome Animist, Gnome Investigator.

Let’s go for an all small party. I’ll build some sort of gnome as well. I’m going to try to read through the exemplar, see if I can find anything that interests me. Otherwise it will be some sort of front liner.


NotEspi wrote:
BretI wrote:

I don’t tend to like horror and can get bored if everything is combat to the death.

I really liked the mechanism for surrender they put into Struck by Shadows.

I don't own that. Can you give me a quick rundown of the mechanic?

I somehow missed this question earlier.

They added a new action type that they used for less than fanatical followers. You could break their morale.

——

APPEAL TO SHADOWY INTRUDERS [two-actions]
UNCOMMON AUDITORY CONCENTRATE LINGUISTIC MENTAL

Requirements A [RED-ACTED] sneak you can see is visibly shaken, such as by being reduced to half of their maximum Hit Points or fewer.

You call out to a visibly shaken foe and attempt to convince them to surrender. Depending upon your strategy, attempt a Deception, Diplomacy, or Intimidation check against the foe's Will DC to make your case for the foe's surrender.

Critical Success The foe is quick to surrender and attempts to convince their allies to surrender as well. You and your allies gain a +1 circumstance bonus to checks to Appeal to Shadowy Intruders for 1 minute.

Success The foe takes your words to heart and surrenders to you immediately.

Failure The foe brushes off your attempt and continues to fight.

Critical Failure Your argument is severely flawed or laughable. The foe disregards your words and continues to fight. You take a –1 circumstance penalty to checks to Appeal to Shadowy Intruders for 1 minute.

——

From a game master point of view, this is nice because it is only opponents you define as susceptible to such negotiations. Those are generally not going to be the main plot characters.

From a player point of view, a lot of people like getting a chance to use their Charisma skills to end parts of the battle a little earlier. Two actions generally isn’t enough to one-shot an injured foe, so it also pays off in terms of action economy. Turn a combatant into a non-combatant that you can later question.

I think it works really well for mercenaries. In the scenario this comes from, it was badly treated ‘expendable grunts’ in a fight.

To partially quote the scenario: ‘Given the opportunity, many of these [RED-ACTED] prefer to slip away during the assault to live another day, rather than giving up their lives.’

Personally, I think this should become part of the base rules. There are a lot of cases where surrender should be an option for either side.


Plan sounds good to me as well.


NotEspi wrote:
As an example, it could mean that the first post is an initiative roll with a conflict to resolve. Could.

That has worked for a number of Bond films, no reason we couldn’t do it here.

I don’t have a character yet. Hearing what others are bringing will help me decide on what my character is.

I know we have a halfling animist. Does anyone else know what they want to bring?


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I also had to look the term up.

Does this mean we will potentially be making use of flashbacks? I don’t mind and can think of at least one case with an SFS adventure where the flashbacks worked really well. In that case it was present the problem and then flashback to what you had done to prepare for the problem.


I don’t tend to like horror and can get bored if everything is combat to the death.

I really liked the mechanism for surrender they put into Struck by Shadows.


Kind of game: I tend to like investigation and/or whimsical adventures. Something that had a mixture of skills challenges, social interactions and combat. I am fine if there is no combat, but that probably isn’t a good idea since this is partially a playtest.

Setting Impossible Lands and River Kingdoms tend to be fun. I am not a big fan of Ustalov or Cheliax. Mana Wastes can be fun but might interfere with playtest results.

Character type I am pretty open on this. We probably should have at least one Exemplar and it probably wouldn’t be bad to have two of the same playtest character types, but I am fine taking a normal class.


Hello!

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

Well that does answer at least one question. Syrinx should be owls.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

Looking at the PFS scenario 4-13 Within the Prairies, you can use Strix Lore to find out more about the syrinx.

Scenario’s Recall Knowledge check:

Critical Success Strix and syrinx were once the same people and lived on Arcadia. The location of their original home is lost, due to both time and the cataclysm depicted in the Scattered Nest. During the upheaval, they were separated into two groups. The ones able to stay behind became syrinx, and the ones who were able to flee eventually became strix. Many generations later, each group discovered the other survived. The reunion ushered in an era of joy and cultural prosperity, as both groups believed the other perished in the aftermath.
Success Strix and syrinx regard each other as cousins. Syrinxes are always welcome in strix society and vice versa, demonstrating a stark difference in their treatment of each other compared to their view of other societies. Their cultures share more similarities than they do differences, despite being separated by an ocean.

Strix PCs automatically critically succeed at this skill check.

I’m not sure if all syrinx are owls.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

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Be sure to pay attention to the figurines in front of the GM screen.

:)


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The rules as I understand them is to run PreGens as printed. We are only allowed to change them when the VTT tool doesn’t allow us a reasonable way to override it.

Since they are PF1 PreGens, they will never get fixed.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

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4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

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I enjoyed #4-10 Arclord’s Abode, both as a player and again as a GM. I found it to be a really fun scenario. My players groaned several times but survived the punishment.

I am really looking forward to playing #4-16 Dacilane Academy’s First Great Prank War. My girlfriend and I are going to play it with her wish-born poppet and my woman who (at a much younger age) wished her alive. We played 3-18 Dacilane Academy's Delightful Disaster with these characters and look forward to seeing how the students have progressed.

I have to say that every scenario that I’ve played or GMed in the Year of Boundless Wonder has been fun. For me, it has been the best season yet.


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Evan Tarlton wrote:
I'd assume that the Mechanic, Technomancer, and possibly Nanocyte will be part of a Tech focused book.

So make Starfinder space opera with no science or technology until a later book? Although I wouldn’t mind a tech focused book, I do want some characters that work with tech in the core book.

As someone who has played Starfinder since release, I am excited by the possibilities that the 2e engine brings. I am also very curious about how some of it will be handled.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

Since it has been asked in other locations, if you have already paid on the original site you just need to register on Warhorn and leave a comment. It is a manual process but we will clear you as paid once we have verified it.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

Registeration for this event has been moved to Warhorn.

See the full announcement here for details.


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Currently the Engineer repairs shields, the Science Officer can move shields from one quadrant to another. One of my suggestions was the Engineer causes the Science Officer to have a budget they can use on shields and all shield repair, movement, and such is done by the Science Officer.

Currently the time for a turn of Starship combat is nebulous as the scale of the combat can change depending on what you are doing. This is explained in Starship Operations Manual, and while convenient for that it would make it harder to integrate with the three action system.

If they can fit the Starship Combat into the three action system, it would make boarding actions work a lot smoother. On the other hand, it would make for some crazy speeds on the craft depending on the scale used for the battle. I doubt the designers really want to get into the velocity calculations for different scales of space combat so I suspect there will be some hand waving there. That or past a certain scale the starships do not move a hex in a single round. Basically some minor theatre of the mind maneuvering of the ships while the boarding action happens.


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Corrik wrote:
Which is a problem with missile launchers and not skittermanders. If firing 3 missiles is the most efficient means of doing damage, players are going to find a way to exploit that.

If it is a simple Strike action to fire them then Quick Draw would allow it.

Strike with launcher.
Quick Draw next launcher and fire.
Quick Draw next launcher and fire.

——

Since Quick Draw is a compound action rather than a free action to draw and then a normal action to Strike, this means it can not be combined with something like Power Attack or other special actions.

If they don’t want this to work, they either need to put some limits in Quick Draw or they need to make it a different action to fire a missile launcher. If they make it an action with the Flourish trait, they never need to worry about someone firing off more than one a turn.

There are other ways of balancing things than making it cost an action to switch hands. Those other ways might work better.


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breithauptclan wrote:
And in PF2, grabbing a grenade (bomb) from your belt, activating it, and throwing it - is two actions. One for the draw. One for the activate and throw.

Alchemist does it in one action via Quick Bomber.

Rogue and Ranger do it with a feat Quick Draw, although the Rogue is unlikely to do this until Remaster when they get proficiency with martial weapons.

If there is a feat anyone can get to allow switch and strike (but not necessarily compound actions) that would probably work. It would mean someone could not (as an example) switch weapons and Sudden Charge as a single action.

I will return to my statement that this really needs some play testing to see how it works out. You want multi arms to be useful, but not feel like you are at a significant disadvantage without it.


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PossibleCabbage wrote:

I feel like it's not a good idea to feel like "you need to pick a specific ancestry or get cybernetic arms to be the best at combat." Normal humans with no cybernetics shouldn't lag that far behind at "doing combat."

"Putting on a jetpack" doesn't change that much about what I think about my character as "getting extra arms attached."

I feel like picking a special core ancestry to get multiple arms just to lose 1/3 of your actions a round to be able to make use of them is also going to feel bad.

I don’t feel like we have quite enough information to figure out the details, but really seems like an area that can use some play testing to see just how often the multi arms helps if you charge an action to make use of any past the first two.


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Thurston Hillman wrote:
This is different than flying, where our game assumes everyone has a ranged weapon capable of firing and hitting them—our game does not assume everyone has multiple sets or arms, nor do we want to create a game state where it's the "optimal play" to be a kasatha/skittermander or spend augmentation slots on picking up extra sets of arms.

If you keep the Dual Cybernetic Arms augmentation (a CRB augmentation), everyone does have the option of multiple arms at high level. Whatever you do, it will potentially affect every race.

Maybe the solution is to assume multiarmed creatures, either naturally or via cybernetics, and reduce the level at which you can get the cybernetics.


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Another variant on the laser eyed construct would be a Toy or Windup Poppet with Shiney Button Eyes to shoot the lasers out of.

I also like the idea of a Toy Poppet that is a wind spinner. Make them an Air Kineticist with Aerial Boomerang at the start. Build up towards Cyclonic Ascent.


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Ravingdork wrote:
Sanityfaerie wrote:
Ravingdork wrote:

I really enjoy androids for pyrokineticist. Lasers anyone?

Automatons are similarly thematic.

A fleshwarp phytokineticist could be a mutant with out of control biology, spontaneously growing healing postules, man eating tumors, generating fleshy formations, or the like.

Those are interesting thematically, but have basically zero crunch synergy, and crunch synergy was what I was looking at here. In particular, the lasers are unarmed attacks, which kineticists are bad at. The fact is that PF2 is crammed full of ways to make your character interestingly flavorful. Actually getting crunch synergies (especially on something like the kineticist, which was designed in part to largely avoid them) takes rather more searching around.

Why limit yourself to one or the other when you can have both? :P

Also, the lasers I was referring to are your pyrokineticist's fire blasts or flying fire attacks, so they scale just fine.

As a player, I am much more likely to remember another character that has a cool, evocative description like the construct with laser eyes than some mechanical benefit. There are times when the mechanics don’t work with a concept, but if the concept is interesting I think it is worthy of discussion.

I think the laser eyed construct could make for a very memorable and reasonably effective character.

A Toy or Windup Poppet with Shiney Button Eyes to shoot the lasers out of could also be a fun variant of this idea.

Although builds should be mechanically sound, they also need to be fun and memorable.


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Interesting that you should say that Thurston as I was really hoping for something like that in the Vehicle rules. Allow for a battle like the speeder bike chase on Endor. It would most likely require that the combat no longer use a normal map and go for more of a theater of the mind combat, but could make it work more seamlessly with other elements of the game in encounter mode.


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Thurston Hillman wrote:
Multi-armed characters is something we're exploring in this space too. There's going to be some action-tax for swapping arms in some ways (or high-level ancestry feats as some have guessed), because it's out intent to create some potent one-shot area weapons (hey missile launcher!) that we don't want say, a soldier, to be able to wield 3 of when playing a skittermander.

They are Heavy weapons, make the carrying capacity (bulk) the limit that prevents people from wielding three.

You could also have it that a character can never wield more than one unwieldy weapon.


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If I were to ask for changes to the psychic, it would be to reduce how good it is as a dedication. It is much more popular in my area than Sorcerer, Witch or Wizard dedications are.

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