Madge Blossomheart

Gwen Smith's page

**** Pathfinder Society GM. 2,217 posts (3,252 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 21 Organized Play characters. 5 aliases.


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Messa is my -1, Rinaldo's nemesis cousin.

Messa's is cleric of Desna with a dip in Freebooter Ranger (cause wanderlust is more fun when you know where you're going). She's also the VC of the Flying Flutterfoot Family's Circus and Traveling Pathfinder Lodge. (I'll write up a complete profile.)

A couple of questions and character oddities that I like to point out:

The main question is whether Messa can cast Symbol of Healing on the barding of a medium-sized animal companion. The alternate question how big an area she would she need to cast Symbol of Healing.

Messa also carries a whole lot of scrolls. Do you want the complete list of those separate from her regular gear list?

For knowledge checks, Messa carries all the Pathfinder Chronicles in a handy haversack and a wand of Kreighton's Perusal in a spring-loaded sheath. When a monster appears, she pulls a book, pops the wand, and casts the spell for a +2 circumstance bonus on the check. (Not a lot of GM's are familiar with the spell, so I like to bring it up.)

4/5

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Xathos of Varisia wrote:
The first thing we need to define is what is a Quick Start Guide (QSG) meant to do and what will it not do. It is meant to provide new players a basic introduction to Pathfinder Society so they can begin playing PFS sessions in under 30 minutes with either a character they built themselves or with a pregen.

For "new players" do you mean "people who play Pathfinder but not PFS" or "people who have never played Pathfinder"? I think those are two completely separate audiences--not to mention that second group can range from "I was in the original D&D playtest with Gary Gygax" to "I don't know what a 20-sided die is." (And yes, those are both actual, real people that I've done demos for at cons.)

If you're focusing on "Pathfinder players who don't play PFS," your breakdown looks good.

You might consider breaking the QSG into 2 parts: one for Pathfinder 2E rules and one for PFS-specific rules. That way, people who already play Pathfinder can ignore the first guide and focus on the second. And people who don't know anything about Pathfinder can start with the first guide, which will make the second guide make a bit more sense.


Arcilde catches up to the others, holding up a shining new breastplate. Gilstrom, 'ere--try this on. I think tha fit is finally right. She helps the cavalier put on the armor and adjusts the straps. There. What do ye think?


WhiteMagus2000 wrote:
They CANT not follow the rules because hero lab doesn't allow it. This can be a real pain when it comes to rare items, out of obscure books and custom items are just an impossibility.

This is not true.

You can create custom races, items, classes, feats, etc. The "Custom (whatever)" options are at the top of nearly every drop-down list. (For magic items, the custom options are at the top of every category--rings, scrolls, potions, wands, etc.)

You can enable house rules through the Portfolio > Configure Hero menu. From this menu, you can also add data packs and other sources. I have yet to find a Paizo source that is not already available in Hero Lab. (It will even tell you all the sources your character used and what source each aspect of the character comes from.)

The Adjustments tab allows players to manually alter the major aspects of their character. (If you want an adjustment that isn't already built in, the free Basic Pack add-on expands the available adjustments even further.)

And if you still can't find what you're looking for, you can also break any of Hero Labs rules regularly: just ignore the red text that indicates something is illegal and move on.

Hero Lab is not perfect. It does not count as an official rules source for organized play, and the developers have to make choices about how to interpret tricky rules and corner cases (just like every GM does). But it is a robust character-creation software with a ton of features. It is also constantly evolving, so whatever problem you had with a year ago might have been fixed by now.


ryric wrote:
Darkin wrote:
bhampton wrote:
Darkin wrote:
Perfect Tommy wrote:
AoO disarms. Attack is lost.
Source?
CRB wrote:

An attack of opportunity "interrupts" the normal flow of actions in the round. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve the attack of opportunity, then continue with the next character's turn (or complete the current turn, if the attack of opportunity was provoked in the midst of a character's turn

Not seeing how this stops the thrower form drawing another dagger as a free action and continuing the attack

This bugged me at first as well, see above, but here's a scenario to help straighten out why that doesn't work.

Imagine the dagger thrower has 5 daggers, each with different plusses and magic abilities. Would you let him say he's attacking with a +1 dagger then suddenly in the middle of the attack change it to a different +3 dagger just because he has quick draw?

Yes.

I run a couple of two-weapon fighters with quick draw and 4 attacks. A pretty standard turn is
1) Attack beastie with gladius. That damage doesn't go through.
2) Drop gladius as a free action and draw a cold-iron gladius.
3) Attack beastie with cold iron. That damage doesn't go through.
4) Drop cold iron weapon as a free action, and draw a silver gladius.
5) Attack beastie with silver. That damage doesn't go through.
6) Finally figure out the darn thing is a skeleton and quick draw a light hammer.
7) Attack with light hammer.
...
end of fight) Go back and pick up all the dropped weapons.


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Imbicatus wrote:
Startoss style doesn't work with slings. While they are in the thrown weapon group, they are projectile weapons.

Does anyone know if there's an FAQ or clarification on this? Startoss Style says "Choose one weapon from the thrown fighter weapon group." Slings are in that group, so it seems like they should work.


Boaty McBoatface wrote:
FLite wrote:

I built Chisisek's tomb in Sketchup, so I could figure out the dimenisons and have a visual reference. I had to do some adapting, since the bridges as described go from 20 feet to 40 feet, then jump up to a 100 foot platform, then go from 120 feet to 160 feet, then jump up again to a platform "nearly 200 feet high"

Picture with the part of the canyon wall behind the crawl cut away.

This was my setup for the Tomb, I had the heights of the paths drawn on although you cant see it.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByK6dFaFFDfnX0s5d0tvMkNrNzg

I did a flattened/unfolded version of the map so I could track where the players were.

Flattened view of the tomb


My group is finishing off Chisisek's tomb tomorrow, and then they'll head further north. They arranged their spells to handle all their provisions and travel issues: Bountiful Banquet + Phantom Chariot + Tiny Hut = travelling in style indefinitely.

I just realized that this means the party has no reason to return to civilization after they clear the tomb, which means they won't have any opportunity to exchange their loot for useful gear.

Has anyone else run into this issue? If so, how did you handle it?


I having difficulty creating a profile for my character, so I'll just give you some information in the meantime:

Arcilde is a strange, pale-skinned dwarf who does not use a surname. Her eyesight is especially keen, and she usually avoids bright light.

She's a fledgling warpriest of Arqueros (empyreal lord of fortifications and bodyguards), so protecting her community is a religious devotion.
She's an experienced blacksmith and a highly-skilled armorer. She's been earmarking most of the profits from her work to getting started with the colony, and she is bringing a large amount of equipment with her to the island.

Arcilde is a bit shy and somewhat uncomfortable in crowds, but she's kind and very easy-going. She appeared in Absalom a few years back, then migrated to Almas. She credits some Andoren Pathfinders with freeing her from slavery, but she doesn't usually go into detail.

She's very excited about the opportunity to work on the new colony and is happy to help anyone who needs it. She spends many days on the ship scribing scrolls that people think will be helpful.

Backstory:

Arcilde was born to an isolated dwarf clan inside the demiplane of the Hao-Jin tapestry. When the structure of the demiplane began to break down, the trapped dwarf clan turned to Droskar in desperation, and the clan began to change into duergar. Arcilde was never dedicated to Droskar and was often sent to the slave ranks as punishment for her lack of devotion.

When a group of Pathfinders entered the tapestry looking for a piece of the sky key, they freed several slaves from the Ironwhip clan--and Arcilde vowed never to use her clan name again. Later, when the tapestry was torn open, Arcilde was able to escape completely.

She traveled to Andoren to make a new start and set about trying to earn a surname all her own. Once there, she studied many other religions to find the call that she never felt with Droskar. She felt drawn to the Golden Bulwark, lord of fortifications and protection, and his non-agressive application of weapons and skill.

After years of brainwashing by the Ironwhip duergar, Arcilde is much more comfortable with nearly any race other than dwarf. When she heard they were accepting applications to go to an Andoren colony, she saw this as a chance to repay those who had freed her. Her skill as a smith was the main reason they selected her, but her minor magic ability and lack of any family ties probably didn't hurt.


I'm Dorothy/Gwen. I've been in two of SpiderBeard's online games, and I play with Rinaldo offline.

I'm looking at the character creation rules and trying to decide which way to go. I've been thinking of building a forgemaster cleric or an undine bolt ace (with an underwater crossbow), and this might be a good opportunity for either of those. I'll go through the campaign traits and see if anything strikes me.


(Dejik's player here)
I'm toying with a dwarven ranger with the Kraggodan Castaway campaign trait. He'll probably be a switch-hitter and outdoor survivalist.


Have you considered the Unchained Rogue as a basis for a two-weapon fighter? Getting weapon finesse and dex-to-damage as class features makes the high dex requirement much less painful. If you can flank, you'll also have the benefit of sneak attack on each attack, also.

However you build it, consider a one-level dip in barbarian or bloodrager. The +10 movement will help you get into position faster, adding +2 attack/damage on each hit will increase your damage output, and a Furious weapon will kick that up by 2. (If you go the dex route, you can do an Unchained Barbarian or Urban Barbarian to get the bonus.)

4/5

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I agree with most of what's already been mentioned. Night March and Overflow Archives are two of my favorites.

Consortium Compact has some potential for shenanigans, depending on your party.

Sewer Dragons of Absalom was a blast for us, but half of our party were circus performers so we hammed the heck out of it (blood bags and all).


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phantom1592 wrote:

There's a teamwork feat that lets you aid another in knowledge checks. I use it with my Inquisitor.

pathfinder society primer wrote:

Collective Recollection

You and your allies can quickly jog each other's memories to remember essential facts.

Benefit: When an ally who also has this feat attempts a trained Knowledge skill check while within 30 feet of you, you may attempt an aid another check as a free action to improve that ally's skill check. You must have at least 1 rank in the Knowledge skill to be aided in order to use this feat. If you succeed at the aid another check, you automatically know any information your ally gains from the Knowledge check as if you had rolled the Knowledge check. Whether or not your aid another check is successful, you cannot attempt a Knowledge check to determine the same information as your ally after using this feat.

While I have seen some GMs infer that this feat means you can't Aid Another on knowledge checks, most of the GMs in our area don't read it that way.

We tend to read it as "everyone can make an Aid Another on knowledge checks, and the feat lets you do it better." In particular, the benefit of the feat is that you can make the aid check as a free action (perhaps even off your turn) and you know the same information your ally does without any communication necessary.

The feat does not say "this feat allows you to aid another on knowledge checks" or "you normally can't do that at all."


dragonhunterq wrote:
Interestingly (maybe), the reverse is not true. You can make all your attacks at your full normal base attack, and 'turn on' power attack before taking your attack of opportunity.

Most GMs I play with would not allow that. Generally, you have to activate an ability or feat on your turn unless it contains specific text that indicates otherwise ("as an immediate action" or "even when it's not your turn" or "whenever you get hit", etc.).

I have also seen a lot of GMs rule that you have to declare Power Attack before you make your very first attack roll on your turn, but I think that may be a holdover from an earlier version.

Statistically, you're better off using Power Attack most of the time, so most players I know just make Power Attack the default. I'll only consider not using when my primary attack needs a 17 or higher on the die to hit. (There's a ton of variables in there, but 17 is a common breakpoint, and it's easy for me to remember from playing BlackJack.)


Far strike monk is a nice archetype. I have one combined with a juggler bard for extra fun.

4/5

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Anytime you have a question about whether your build works or a gray area where you get table variation, bring it up to the GM before the game. Outline the issue, explain the arguments on each side, provide references if requested (links to forum arguments, developer posts, related FAQs, etc.).

Ask your GM to make the ruling before the game starts, and adjust your play accordingly. You benefit by knowing what you're getting into and not being surprised by a negative ruling in the middle of combat. Your GM will also appreciate getting a chance to review the issue with less pressure, and your fellow players will thank you for not slowing down the game after it's started.


First, find out whether your GM is using the "shoot into melee" and "shooting through creatures/cover" rule. If so, then you want to get Precise Shot as soon as possible, before Rapid Shot and Deadly Aim. Consider taking the the Deadeye Bowman trait to ignore soft cover from 1 ally (it might not fit your character). Once you have these basics covered, it's really hard to go wrong with an archer.

You can wear a cestus to threaten in melee and take AoOs. Depending on your GM, you might have to explicitly say, "And I take one hand off of my bow as a free action" at the end of every turn (so you can take AoOs).

Darkvision is awesome for archers. Deep Sight kicks your darkvision out to 120 feet, which is pretty nice when your first range increment is 110 feet.

I've never had much use for anything that increases the range increment or decreases the range penalties on a composite longbow, but that's going to depend on the game. If there are a lot of flyers or ship-to-ship combat, or something, it could be worthwhile.

Weapon blanches are your friend, as are durable arrows.

4/5

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We just came from playing team trivia, which is all about aiding each other on the knowledge checks:

"It's one of these three countries, but I don't know which one..."
"Well, number 2 is on the other coast, so that narrows it down to two..."
"I just heard a story on the news that makes me think it isn't number 1..."
"Number 3 it is, then!"

Now this is over the course of 2 minutes, so clearly not an in-combat situation. I figure that any time you would be able to look through a book, you could ask someone else to look through the same book for you.

4/5

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Kevin Willis wrote:

2. Cross-table buffing

It sounds cool and interactive, but it can seriously unbalance things at the low tiers. When we played 10-11 at GenCon heroes feast was on the low end of the scale when it came to group buffs we were throwing around. I can picture turning to the 3-4 table beside us and saying "OK, so +2 morale to attacks, damage, skills, and saving throws, +3 competence to attack and damage, and we're about to cast prayer so go ahead and factor that in as well. There will probably be more next round.". . ."Oh yeah, forgot to ask. Does anyone over there worship Sarenrae? If so you've got more buffs to calculate."

Deciding where to draw the line is the tough part. There's no way to put every possible situation in the scenario, so some locales would end up having a much easier time than others. I think the aid tokens that high tier tables have given to lower tier tables in past years worked pretty well. But I do think that there was just too much going on in Cosmic Captive to try to work them in as well.

The way they handled this in Grand Convocation was actually pretty simple:

They designated a few area effect buffs (I remember bardic performance and channel to heal), and when a table launched one, the GM (or player) would call out "Channel!" or "Bardic Performance--Inspire courage!" All adjacent tables then took the effect for one round only, adjusted to the appropriate tier. So when the cleric at the 10-11 channeled, the 1-2 table adjacent to them healed 1d6, the 3-4 healed 2d6, etc.

I haven't seen the rules for the Grand Convocation, so I don't know which buffs they designated as "shareable" or how that decision was made. As a player, I just remember it being very, very cool.


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BigNorseWolf wrote:

Put some spiritual focus on the items. The amulet is from your master, the robed and beads of your temple etc. Don't consider it gold in the bank just consider it your spiritual connection to the items increasing their power.

And your DM was mistaken. You're not a paladin, they have an oath to obey legitimate authority.

100% agree on both points. Just marking it as a favorite wasn't emphatic enough. :-)

4/5

MorBere wrote:
Pathfinder society has us running around the fantasy world, paid on commission for the work we do. Take it... the adventures rarely ever start "Ok everyone, your in a tavern and a mysterious woman comes to your table! What do you do?"

How do you propose to make that work when you have a different group at every adventure, with no connection or common history, and the GM knows nothing about their backstory?

Actually, this is one of the things I appreciate about Pathfinder Society. I usually find the "gathering the party" scene in most RPGs to be forced and awkward, and it usually only works with a significant amount of metagaming. (The opening of Rise of the Runelords is a brilliant exception to this: the reaction of the tow forces the party together in a smooth and natural way.)

The "Mission Impossible" opening ("I have a mission, let me assemble my team") eliminates all the weirdness of working new players into an established group, swapping characters out, etc.

And you can add your own roleplay to establish your own motivations. For example, when the Venture Captain says "There's a town that's under siege", you can jump in with "We must go rescue them!" The VC continues with "and we need you get one of our agents out." You respond with "Yes, yes! And rescue the rest of the town!"


I actually don't like the Two-Weapon Warrior archetype, especially if you end up multiclassing. I had a two-weapon warrior with a few rogue levels for sneak attack, and I used the retraining rules to train her out of it.

In particular, I didn't like the fact that Two-Weapon Warrior trades out an always-on bonus (weapon training) for a situational bonus (twin blades).

TWW hits it sweet spot at 9th level. I tend to play up through level 12 only, so my character never hit the real benefits of the archetype.

4/5

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BigNorseWolf wrote:
geek soduku: Finding which geeks can play at which table at which times. with which characters to balance party numbers, party compositions, who wants to play which character at which level and play the faction relevant scenarios.

Synonyms: Table tetris, geek tetris, mustering (archaic).


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Tetori monk makes a great grappler overall, and halflings do a really good job with grapplers.

First, remember that grappling does not any size limitation (unless your GM house rules otherwise).

Second, Cautious Defender doubles the dodge bonus to AC and CMD when you fight defensively.

Third, the favored class bonus for halfling monks is +1 CMD vs. Grapple. That lets you pump your CMD to stupid levels pretty quickly, and no one can make the grapple check to break out.

Tetoris get all the grappling feats free as class features.

I have a 10th level halfling tetori, and unbuffed, she has +27 CMB and +45 CMD. Buffed, fighting defensively, and spending a ki point, she can pump her CMD to 57 with still a +27 CMB. (She has attack bonus buffs that counter the penalty for fighting defensively.)

No matter what you do with your grapple build, consider worshipping Falyna. Her celestial obedience gives you +4 untyped bonus to CMB and CMD.


There are a couple of key word in Uncanny Dodge that can cause you table variation:
"She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A barbarian with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against her."

The use of the word “still” can imply that these are the only ways that the a character with uncanny dodge can lose their dex bonus to AC.

There are several ways for characters to lose their Dex bonus outside of invisibility, immobility, and feint. If the developers intended for uncanny dodge to only work against invisibility, they could have stopped after the second sentence, or they could have used more generic wording like “…can still lose their Dex bonus to AC in other ways” or used some wording like “such as” or “for example” or something. They didn’t. They called out two specific instances as exceptions.

As always, ask your GM how they would rule this.


No feat necessary: just ready an action to attack anyone who moves through your threatened area. For extra effectiveness, trip them so they are prone in your threatened area.

Then they have to spend a move action to stand up, which provokes an AoO unless they have Monkey Style or Stand Up or something). Either way, they wont continue moving through your area.


1bent1 wrote:
How is this handled in PFS?

It varies from region to region and table to table.

The way I've seen it most commonly in my area is this:
Hit the DC, you get the creature's name, type, and subtype. (This includes reminding players of the general characteristics of the type and subtype, especially for new players.)

For each +5 beyond that, you can ask one question or just ask the GM to give you a piece of information.

+20 will usually get you a improvisational backstory.


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Gwiber wrote:

My major stumbling block is not that a rogue can see a trap, its that sometimes there are just no methods to disable one as those traps are. OR the source of the trap is something a Rogue has no actual experience with.

Why is a Rogue with likely No Knowledge: Arcana, or very little of it, going to have enough knowledge on how to disable a magical trap? Recognize it as dangerous? Yeah I buy that. KNOW what to do about it? Not a chance.

How about a mentioned pit trap? Say its in a dungeon room and it covers the entire floor? Sure the Rogue can set it off prematurely to stop anyone form falling in. But if weight is what sets it off, how does he "Disable" said trap?

Recognition and premature activation are one thing, but disabling doesnt always make any sense. Or even having the skill to recognize the thing's functions enough to disable it.

I highly recommend you just don't allow rogues in your games--probably investigator and slayer, too. It will prevent a lot of conflict and bad feelings in the long run.

The trapfinding ability says A rogue can use Disable Device to disarm magic traps. How do they do it? I don't know, maybe the same way a wizard casts a spell? Or a bard makes everyone hit harder by playing a flute? Or a barbarian converts lethal damage to non-lethal damage?

They can do it because it is a power specifically granted to them by their class. They can do it because they took a class that had trapfinding instead of any other power. If you're not going to consistently rule that the trapfinding ability doesn't work in this case because {reasons}, then just don't allow the ability in your games and let them the players trade it out for something they can actually use.


Don't worry about whether channeling can "undo" all the HP that were done in a round. It's useful as a counter to area effect attacks, as a stop gap measure to keep your damage dealers going for one more round, or in situations where you just can't reach your party members for some reason.

Negative channeling is kind of the same way. It's great for softening up a bunch of mooks or triggering multiple morale conditions at the same time. It's nice against swarms, and it's perfect for when you're surrounded and don't want to take an AoO from casting a spell. Grappled or swallowed whole? Negative channel for the win!

4/5

What Alexander said.

I'd love to see a dossier on each venture captain with their personal histories, skill sets, motivations, etc. Fleshing them out as actual characters--as opposed to disembodied heads that talk at you an go away--would go a long way towards clearing up any misconceptions people have about them.

But most of the variation you see is going to be based on local lore. A few examples from our region:
1) Everyone teases Drendel Dreng about getting PCs up in the middle of the night. I can't actually remember a scenario where that happens, but it doesn't happen in the several Dreng scenarios I am aware of. (A running gag for GMs is to tell the players that they can tell something is terribly wrong because Dreng is meeting them in daylight, so even when he DOESN'T wake them up, he gets blamed for doing so.)

2) Ambrose Valsin was always the favorite VC, largely because one of our real-life venture captains looked exactly like him, and GMs always asked him to come read the briefing. I think he also gets some love from his behavior in the Disappeared.

3) How you portray Sheila Heidmarch depends on who your GM was and which scenarios you played first. She's more sympathetic and personable in the first scenarios I saw her in, but others in our area felt she was a cold, self-centered power junkie.

4) Most GMs portray Kreighton Shane as at least an absent-minded professor because of God's Market Gamble (where he explicitly trails off midsentence and forgets the PCs are there), but he picked up his stoner reputation from his character artwork.

5) A couple of years back, Torch was portrayed by one GM as Hedonism Bot from Futurama, and the creepy factor stuck around.


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Anytime HeroLab does something that you don't want it to (whether it's because you have a house rule, you disagree with HL's interpretation, or you found a bug), go to the Adjustments tab. The Pathfinder Basic Pack from Shadow Chemosh has a robust selection of custom adjustments: you can do pretty much anything.

And if you think you've found a bug, be sure to report it.


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Is it possible that they are misapplying the charge rules?
Since you can't charge through an ally's square and you can't charge through difficult terrain, they might be incorrectly deducing that an ally's square counts as difficult terrain.

At an rate, the relevant rules are under Moving through a square. I've bolded a couple of points that might help you in your argument:

You can move through an unoccupied square without difficulty in most circumstances. Difficult terrain and a number of spell effects might hamper your movement through open spaces.

Friend: You can move through a square occupied by a friendly character, unless you are charging. When you move through a square occupied by a friendly character, that character doesn't provide you with cover.

Opponent: You can't move through a square occupied by an opponent unless the opponent is helpless. You can move through a square occupied by a helpless opponent without penalty. Some creatures, particularly very large ones, may present an obstacle even when helpless. In such cases, each square you move through counts as 2 squares.


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Lots of good information from UnArcaneElection. The only thing I can add it this:

UnArcaneElection wrote:
^If you mean Eldritch Archer from Heroes of the Street, that is the better archer archetype of Magus, but last I heard it is banned in PFS. I am not a PFS person, though, and do not have the PFS supplementary materials, so it could have gotten un-banned some time this spring without my knowing about it.

The list of what's allowed in PFS is the additional resources list.

4/5

nosig wrote:
Dorothy Lindman wrote:
nosig wrote:
If my Take 10 T-shirt upset anyone at the table - I'd switch it. (I bring an extra shirt just for this).

Good gods, nosig, what does that shirt look like? Is it "Take 10 on {insert offensive action here}" or something?

Inquiring minds wants to know!

It has printed on the front of it...

Taking 10: When your character is not in immediate danger or distracted, you may choose to take 10. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, calculate your result as if you had rolled a 10. For many routine tasks, taking 10 makes them automatically successful. Distractions or threats (such as combat) make it impossible for a character to take 10. In most cases, taking 10 is purely a safety measure—you know (or expect) that an average roll will succeed but fear that a poor roll might fail, so you elect to settle for the average roll (a 10). Taking 10 is especially useful in situations where a particularly high roll wouldn't help.

You MONSTER! How COULD you?

:-)

4/5

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TheFlyingPhoton wrote:
This is a semi-tangent, but a few people are complaining about what happened when they brought characters with no Knowledge skill investment to the game and I have to wonder why anyone has a PFS character with no ranks in any Knowledge. [...] I also have a 7 Int fighter with a number of ranks in K(Dungeoneering) equal to about half his level (and none in Engineering, his other Knowledge class skill), because every character needs a Knowledge skill decently invested in.

And your fighter would have not been able to use that particular knowledge skill in this scenario. There were 4 or 5 specific knowledges useful in this scenario, and if your character happened to invest the wrong ones, then you would have had difficulties in this scenario. (And I know a lot of people who would say they "had no knowledge skills" when they mean they "have the wrong knowledge skills for this situation" or "had no useful knowledge skills.")

Also, the OP mentioned that they were told it was a social scenario, so they brought their social characters. They probably have other character with varying levels of knowledge skills, but they brought the ones they were told would be appropriate. (For example, my primary knowledge character is a Mindchemist alchemist, with +16 in all knowledge checks at 4th level...and -3 in all charisma skills. If I were told it was an investigation scenario, I would absolutely bring her along. If I were told it was a social scenario, I wouldn't let her anywhere near it.)

4/5

It is also going to vary from character to character.

I have a diplomancer Holy Tactician paladin who gives out a ton of buffs to allies who follow her advice. She makes a great leader both in social situations and in combat.

I have an insufferable know-it-all Mindchemist with +18 in all Knowledge skills (at level 4) but -3 on all charisma checks: she makes a decent leader in anything but social situations.

I have a somewhat ditsy Zen Archer who has been known to wander off in the middle of briefing sessions to pet another player's animal companion. If anyone tried to make her the leader, she would laugh in their face.

Probably the best solution is to work it out in character. After the briefing, talk through the roles each character can play and decide who is going to be the spokesman/face, the tactician/combat leader, the scout, the science officer, etc.

You should be able to get a pretty decent feel from the party (in and out of character) for how rigid the "hierarchy" should be for each particular group. Adjust accordingly.

And if you want to have a character be a leader, build one. And during introductions, set your character up to the be the leader. You'll find out very quickly whether the rest of the group will respect the character, humor the character, or ignore the character.

For example, one player in our area runs a high-born noblewoman with lots of follower vanities as an entourage. The player tells the table, out of character, that the character believes she's in charge, and explains the various mechanical benefits of going along with what she says. Then in character, she character explicitly introduces herself as as the party leader, and describes what she expects from the group and how she can help them. Other players can then choose whether or not to follow along. But because they were pre-warned out of character and because the player in question doesn't take offense at the party's decision (even if the character might!), I've never seen it cause a problem.

4/5

thorin001 wrote:
I gave the wrong character number of a couple of adventures. I forgot that I had assigned my -3 to my core character. So the last couple of adventures with my latest non-core character (-4) were listed as -3 on the muster sheet.

Is the number only incorrect on the muster sheet/online reporting? Or do you also have chronicle sheets with the incorrect character number?

If you have incorrect chronicle sheets, start by going to the GM and explaining your mistake. (This applies anytime there's any mistake on your chronicle sheet: go to the GM first if you can.) If you can't get in contact with the GM, try to contact one of your local venture officers for help.

If it's only the muster sheet/online reporting, contact the specific Venture Agent who coordinates the location you play at: the VA is usually the person who reports the games to Paizo, and they are the ones who are most likely able to fix it. If you can't contact the location's VA, try to contact your region's Venture Captain.

4/5

nosig wrote:
If my Take 10 T-shirt upset anyone at the table - I'd switch it. (I bring an extra shirt just for this).

Good gods, nosig, what does that shirt look like? Is it "Take 10 on {insert offensive action here}" or something?

Inquiring minds wants to know!


bbangerter wrote:
Maybe we are just talking past each other though. Do you believe free actions related to a readied action should be allowed? (I do). Do you believe free actions not related to the readied action should be allowed? (I don't). I'm trying to understand where you draw the line, or if you draw a line at all, on what free actions are allowed outside of turn, and under what circumstances.

I think that's a reasonable reading of the rules. I also allow players to specify a free action they will take along with the readied action, like "I ready an action to start rage and hit him if he moves" or "I ready an action to hit him if he starts casting a spell, and I will take a five foot step if necessary (assuming I haven't otherwise moved this turn)."


It sounds like the player misremembered the readied action rules, or at least had the terminology wrong.

It's also possible the player is thinking of the
Dodging Panache Deed from the Swashbuckler class, or a similar ability.


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Also, you're supposed to have access to the actual source to use an odd feat or rule. Calling the archetype "Dervish of Dawn" will either a) confuse the GM since that's not the official name or b) signal to a GM that you don't have the necessary source.


I haven't seen anything to contradict that post, so as far as I know it's still in effect. I would ask the GM before each game and adjust my play accordingly.


"Take 10" just means "pretend you rolled the die and it came up a 10."

Normally, you calculate your current bonus for Stealth (Dex modifier - Armor Check Penalty + Skill ranks/Class skill bonus + any other bonuses or penalties), then add the die roll. When you take 10, you just add 10 to the Stealth bonus.


You can put weapon blanch over a special material, and it counts as both materials for the first hit.

Note that the same thing is NOT true of the magic weapon paste Silversheen: it specifically says it replaces the properties of the underlying material.


Rylden wrote:
From quivers I've seen many have the end of an arrow sticking out the top, while I'll concede the "no sunders at range" if we assume its possible given a trait, feat kr what have you, I still dont see a reason you can't slice the tail end of an arrow off while it rests in a quiver making the arrow unable to be fired. I don't know many quivers that are 100% wrapped around an arrow while in the middle of combat. If the arrow is u able to be targeted due to being in a quiver how does an archer draw one? If the archer can find one without looking surely someone aiming for them can hit them.

I used to shoot traditional archery (handcarved longbow and wooden arrows), and I run a lot of archers in PFS games.

The depth of the quiver varies, but at least half of the arrow needs to be in the quiver to keep it from falling out. (I'm ignoring modern "open" style quivers here, which have a cup to hold the heads and then a slot or clip for the shafts.)

The biggest issues with your plan are mechanical and physical. Mechanically, you can only sunder a single object in one attack, and arrows are individual objects. Physically, arrows are loosely packed in the quiver (or the archer can't get them out), so when you hit one, the others will simply move out of the way. It would be very difficult to cleanly connect with more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the arrows. (In a modern open quiver, arrows are help in place, so it would be much easier to break most or all of them in a single shot.)

If your point is to stop an archer from hitting you, your best options are (in order):

1) Stand next to him and force him to provoke an attack of opportunity for each arrow he fires. Combat reflexes plus Step Up or a reach weapon shut down archers pretty handily until level 3 (for a Zen Archer) or level 5 or 6 for fighters and rangers/hunters.

2) Engage in melee with anybody. Once you're engaged in melee, the archer takes a -4 penalty to hit you unless he has Precise Shot. Engaging with the archer himself also grants you the benefit of tactic 1.

3) Drop prone behind cover. You'll get +4 AC for being prone and at least +2 (usually +4) AC for the cover. (If the archer is still hitting you consistently with +8 to your AC, run away.)

4) Sunder the bow.

5) Sunder the bow string. It's one object, it has very few hit points and no hardness to speak of, and it leaves the body of the bow intact as loot. There are not explicit rules for doing this, so your GM may disallow it or assign attack penalties because the string is smaller and somewhat hidden behind the limbs of the bow.

6) Sunder the quiver. There's not an existing rule for what happens to the arrows. My answer to your original post already spells out how I would run this.

That gives you 6 options before you have to start worrying about how many arrows you could break in a single sunder attack.


Generally, sunder targets a single object. In this case, I'd probably say that the target is the quiver itself rather than the arrows. If the quiver (or its strap, etc.) is sundered, the arrows would fall to the ground. They wouldn't necessarily be destroyed, but they wouldn't be available to be pulled as part of the "drawing a bow" action.

Based on the Russian and Mongolian archery styles (that hold multiple arrows in the string hand), I'd probably go with something like "as a move action, you can pick up 1d4 arrows," which you'd then be able to fire as normal over the next few rounds. Picking up the arrows from the ground would provoke an AoO.


Just some general thoughts:
- Improved Critical is not that great for rogues, because sneak attack dice aren't multiplied on a crit, and most light weapons are only 1d4 or 1d6 with x2 on a critical hit. If you want to go with a critical focus build, look into something that debuffs your enemy on a critical hit to get more value out of it.

- Personally, I would take Quick Draw before Improved Initiative. I find that saving the move action to get your weapons out is more useful than trying to go first.

- See if your GM will let the Double Slice feat work with the Unchained Rogue's Dex to Damage. It would be a house rule, but getting full damage on your off hand attack could be nice.

- For dex build barbarian dips, check out the Urban Barbarian archetype. Raging for Dex is kind of nice, and you can still use a lot of your skills. (I'm guessing that your current dip is Unchained Barbarian--if so, that is also a good choice.)


Generally, you can fight defensively any time you make an attack roll, and combat maneuvers need an attack roll.

Each round when you attack, you have to decide whether to fight defensively. If you take the penalty on the attack, you get the bonus on your AC and CMD.

4/5

DoomOtter wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:


In addition to the on-point commentary from Alayern above, there is also the 'out of the box' consideration of 'don't be a jerk'.

If you have fellow players at your table who are hearing impaired, it could be viewed as an insult.

Explore, Report, Cooperate

Equally as important as

Courtesy, Dignity, Respect

I don't see how playing a deaf character would be offensive to the hearing impaired. My best friend is paraplegic, and he was ecstatic when I played a lame cleric. He said it's great when others show that being disabled doesn't make someone useless. As long as you're not being mean about it, and being respectful to the condition.

The key words, I think, were "could be viewed". I took that as a call to pay attention to the reactions of your fellow players, not as an injunction against doing something.

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