Feral's page

Alright, I'm tentatively in.

I'll be bringing my tiefling rogue. He's studly with his high strength and charisma but dumb as a box of rocks (5 int).

I might be interested but the character I'd be bringing would be hilariously inappropriate.

This whole scenario is why it takes mature players to even play through this AP.

Some players just can't handle the idea of there being a Captain (if they're not it).

/thread necromancy

Did we ever get a ruling on this?

I have a character that's about to take his first level of tattooed mystic and I'm curious if I'm allowed to craft magical tattoos and if so, what are the limitations?

You did a great job Baron, make no mistake about it.

Going outside of the pre-written tactics is a viable way to ramp up difficulty when things are too easy. Doing so unnecessarily doesn't seem representative of things being too hard.

I haven't played either of the two mods mentioned by Walter so I'm going to try really hard to not click the above spoiler blocks. =P

Thanks for the responses everyone. This was exactly what I was looking for.

There are no questionable stacking boosts to strength.

Touch of Rage is a morale bonus to attack and damage rolls. Rage is a morale bonus to strength. It's no different than having an enhancement bonus to strength and an enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls. Would you suggest that a strength belt doesn't stack with a magic weapon?

Yes, the DM admitted to missing a couple of attacks and apparently his damage was off by 2 per hit. We were a poorly balanced group, using poor tactics, playing up. Things should have been challenging which they were. I'm waiting for a good example of season four being 'too hard' or hard in general.

Can someone verify the attack splitting thing? I'd like to address the claim that the DM was softballing by splitting up his attacks.

As I understood it, the mod author specifically included tactics to the effect of 'the monster spreads out its attacks'. Can someone verify this?

And a group of sorcerer, ranger/barbarian, rogue and cavalier is not unbalanced.

If that isn't an unbalanced party. I don't know what is.

It is disengenius to showcase this as an example how easy season 4 is.

It wasn't my choice necessarily. Napalm mentioned a group playing Fortress of the Nail up would be an example of a module that was too hard. I just happened to have played through that exact situation.

By 'your' I assume you mean the tiefling? I wasn't raging for most of that encounter. Yes, he does have raging vitality. What buffs? The only one buffing was my sorcerer and the only buffing he did was spamming his level 1 bloodline ability.

Our less-than-ideal tactics includes the rogue and the inquisitor attacking the beasty ineffectually instead of supporting the character that can hurt it. For example, the inquisitor could have approached from an angle and healed the tiefling early, negating that extra 2 damage per attack that seem to keep coming up.

Ultimately, we were a pretty awful party for the encounter. We lacked the knowledge skills and means to overcome the DR properly. We lacked a proper tank to suck up that damage. We lacked a dedicated healer/support to mitigate the incoming damage. Despite all that, we still got through it purely with one character full attacking and another supporting with his level 1 bloodline ability.

I fail to see this (an underleveled ill-prepared group that still manages to complete the encounter/mod) as an example of season four being 'too hard'.

I don't know about the damage. I know nothing about the creature as I haven't run the mod yet.

He did mention forgetting one of the attacks for a good chunk of the encounter but he did not forget the DR. He performs math involving it here.

The fight was rough but it didn't feel overwhelming or especially hard. We were an underleveled party using poor tactics. Even with the additional +2? damage I wouldn't qualify that encounter as 'too hard' for an actual 8-9 table.

We played that one with two 6s and two 8s.

Does that count?

I played Veteran's Vault and My Enemy's Enemy recently. Both were easy-minimally challenging. This was with a four and then five person table with characters that were no where near optimized. My table for My Enemy's Enemy was a 4.6 APL (three 3s and two 7s). This included a level 7 pregen.

I'm still waiting to see where this 'Season Four is too hard business' is coming from.

Like I mentioned, Inspire Ferocity is perfect and I found a 3rd party archetype that would be great (if it were a prestige class).

Ground Breaker would be okay if it wasn't so bad.

Come and Get Me isn't really support.

I didn't really want to multiclass but that may be an option.

A feat tree like that isn't really practical right now but I'll keep it in mind. It would take me 5 levels to get Hero's Display.

I plan to get Inspire Ferocity next level which is the sort of thing I'm looking for.

The way things are developing in one of my games, I find myself needed less and less for direct combat. In light of this, I'm planning to build my barbarian with more support in mind.

Is anyone aware of some support-themed 3rd party rage powers or maybe prestige classes a barbarian could pick up?

I thought so.

Where is that explained? I couldn't find it anywhere.

I recall seeing an option when getting credit for playing/running a santioned AP for players to get a chronicle with scaled down gold for a level 1 character.

Did I fantasize this? If not, what are the specifics?

I just finished running book 1 of Rise of the Runelords and I have a few characters that are brand new to PFS.

Even in season four I find myself playing scenarios where my character does little to nothing in combat (due to everything being dead before I can act or reach an enemy).

I am beginning to understand why initiative is such a popular stat. =/

I am very much in the boat that prefers more common TPKs if it means I actually get to participate in combat.

Bjorkus - Minotaur Savage Barbarian/Bard
Chubwart - Goblin Trapper/Knifemaster
Kal Aldhemark - Aquatic Druid
Luthor Stone - Human Freebooter
Opal Windsong - Sylph Primal Air Sorceress

This is for a PBP but we're making good time. We're starting book three and we've only been playing for two months. 20 point buy. No hero points.

Okay. Barring nicer shirts, they're no different than anyone else. =P

That said, I live in an area where the VO's are often not the lead at a given event. If this person is playing is playing in such an area, can such a ban be enforced?

I believe that Mike has already confirmed that VCs/VLs have no power over games they are not running/organizing. In this way, they're no different than anyone else.

I asked for a clarification because, at least in my region, there are plenty of games that the local VCs and VLs have no hand in, both in public venues and within people's homes. It sounds like its best things stay way.

Of course that may vary by region.

Thanks.

Yes a VC or VL has the right, and repsonsibility, to do what is best for the game days they organize, up to and including banning someone from the game day they organize. That does not prevent someone from establishing their own game day if they choose to do so.

Just so we're clear, banned from gamedays organized by any specific person does not include 'state-wide' as the Venture-Lieutenant above seemed to be implying?

Actually they do.

That would be news to me.

Mike, would mind clearing this up?

I'd wait for Mike to chime in but I'm fairly certain Venture Captains have no such power.

Is this actually for PFS? If so, how are you getting the cat?

I would love to see an idea like this fleshed out for PF.

One of the things that bugs me in Pathfinder is the tanking disparity. A melee character whose survivability comes from avoidance (high AC or miss chance) ends up being far more effective than one that relies on a pool of hit points (a barbarian). In addition, it's kind of ruins the thematic of 'being tough' as a barbarian.

Say you have a AC focused fighter standing alongside your typical barbarian. Throughout the course of an encounter, the barbarian loses half his hitpoints due to being hit. The fighter was only hit half as often so even if he's down a bigger percentage of his hit points, it takes less healing to get him back on his feet. The barbarian starts feeling a lot less heroic when he has to suck on a wand for 3 minutes after every fight to get topped off.

This is something that 4e handled a lot better. The high AC character required just as much healing as the low AC, high HP pool character. This leaves the HP character feeling 'tough' without looking like a burden.

I'm going to withdraw. Thanks for the info.

I might be interested.

Can you link campaign?

I wouldn't suggest that others can do trapfinding better than a rogue but close to equal. =P

In any case, I'm going to withdraw. Thanks anyway.

For example, an archivist bard gets trapfinding and has most of the same skills.

When you say rogue-like do you mean with trapfinding or just possessing rogueish skills?

If you want to maintain the themes of the character but bring him back down to mortal levels, I'd suggest your DM reflavor the Wolfshifter class.

It's sort of a barbarian archetype that gives up rage for a hybrid transformation ability.

I might be interested.

Have room for a paladin?

I've wrestled with this one for a while. I personally agree, but have we ever gotten the go ahead from Mike? I ended up avoiding the whole thing for fear of table variation.

Break yourself of the idea that you have to cast a spell every round. If your DM is good about taxing your resources you should learn to pace yourself. Cast a spell or two (enough to give your melee the edge) and then just pass the time.

Spend some standards looking for anything out of the ordinary, intimidating foes, or just delay. You don't have to do something every round. As a wizard you have to get the used to the idea that your standards are just better that everyone else's.

Sorry guys but I'm going to bow out after all.

Best of luck and have a great game.

Create Pit is an instant win for a lot of encounters.

Markus has done quiet a lot since I've played him in a PBP and gotten a few DM credits. He's currently 5. I'll update his profile when I get home.

I'm good with the Crow group.

I'll be playing Markus. He's a level 5 switch hitter fighter.

I think Red's point is that playing up as melee is inherently more dangerous than playing up as ranged/caster.

As a caster you can, in theory, avoid all danger just by virtue of being far away. As melee, you're going to be in the thick of it regardless.

It sounds like I'll be bringing my 11th level brawler.

I've joined the game but there's not much in it.

Should we bother putting our characters in profiles here or do it in Roll20?

Possibly.

I'm interested in both. If I have to choose one, I'd go with Shattered Star.

Alrighty, I've got an account started - FeralAscendant.

By my count we only need one more. We've got myself, Red, your bard friend, and Hugo's cleric.

I believe that text is there to clarify that you don't have to do anything to turn it on once you're raging.

As opposed to say, Rolling Dodge which requires that you be raging and spend a Move Action to activate it.

I know they say season 4 is designed for tables of 6 but it's been my experience both as player and DM that six is drastic overkill.

I've never used Roll20 before but I'd be happy to give it a shot. Do we need to create accounts?

This is Red's friend.

I have a couple tankish characters I can play.

I'd prefer a table of five. A full six man table drags in PBP.