Illeist's page

100% honesty: that Valeros sculpt isn't wonderful. He has exactly the wrong amount of depth, and his face is... Off? Maybe it looks better in person, but I don't think this is the product for me.

Because everything the termination of Michael Eshleman is covered by NDA, all the community can do is speculate. All we know is that a beloved pillar of the community was ousted by an unpopular RVC and that Paizo's been silent on the matter. Now we're being told that we can't even discuss Michael's termination on a public forum. For years, I've respected the Society's leadership and direction, but this matter has made that stance challenging to maintain.

This felt a lot shorter than Salvation of Sages. I am not sure if there was an optional encounter which we skipped.

There are adventure paths shorter than Salvation of the Sages.

I have two mediums and a spiritualist in PFS. I can't speak too much about spiritualists as a whole, but Ectoplasmatists are great. Right now, he has 15 foot reach, hits like a truck, and can heal and buff the party while attacking.

Mediums are a little strange. I don't think I could ever see myself playing an Archmage, Guardian, or Hierophant. But Champion, Marshal, and Trickster are fantastic. Champions get one of the most versatile pounce effects in the game, plus an extra attack that stacks with haste and an amazing spirit bonus. Marshals are fantastic at ensuring that your party doesn't fail. Ever. By taking a taboo and channeling a weaker version of the spirit once you hit 6, you can surge 8 times a day. 1d6 + spirit bonus goes a long way towards making that crucial save or skill check work. Tricksters struggle to find something to do in combat, but that spirit bonus makes everything worth it. My level 7 trickster has 24 skills at +11 or higher. A rogue or snakebite striker dip plus Accomplished Sneak Attacker is generally worth it to get the most mileage out of the intermediate power.

The problem with mediums, as other people have pointed out, is that you aren't guaranteed your primary spirit. In a home game, I would definitely request a house rule that every medium picks one spirit they can channel every day. Otherwise, Champions are stuck with weapons they can't use, Guardians can't wear their armor, and Archmages and Hierophants can't even use their highest stat in combat. One chronicle sheet in PFS opens this up, but chronicle fishing is generally discouraged.

Also, this scenario's art is unbelievable. If I had to list my favorite PFS art, three pictures from this scenario would be on the list.

This scenario is great, but it has a lot of errors. Here's a few:

All that said, I love the scenario. The callback to

This won't help for everything, but ...

USE MAGIC DEVICE wrote:

You get a +2 bonus on your Use Magic Device check if you’ve activated the item in question at least once before.

This means you can get a +2 on any multi-use item simply by using it (successfully) once.

That is specifically on checks to activate blindly. It does nothing for other UMD checks.

Dragons are always tough, but Nightmare Dragons seem unnecessarily so. Compare to young red dragons or adult black dragons, both at CR 10, and you'll find that Nightmare Dragons are better in pretty much every category. I know that CR's generally a poor indicator of difficulty, but developers continue to use it, so it needs to be accurate.

I want to earn more rewards than anyone else, it says no.

Pathfinder Society isn't your problem here. If you can't have fun without everyone else having less fun, you'll never be happy in any campaign, Organized or otherwise.

Just the 3rd level infusion.

It only replaces your 3rd level infusion.

NielsenE, you may want to contact your local Venture Captain. Your GM probably just made an honest mistake, but a conversation with your VC may convince them to be more careful next time.

I'm with you on the real life examples. No one is a "biologist," and everyone is a specialist. But because there's no bonus for picking the more specialized options, it looks like Scholar's three choices are basically biology, bioengineering, and ecology.

Honestly, I think the best solution is to remove biology and xenobiology from the list.

Yup! No discount, but you can make items mid-scenario if there's travel time, and crafted items do have benefits:

Custom-built equipment has a few advantages over mass-

produced items. If you have a skill that allows you to repair an
item you crafted, you can do so in half the normal time. When
determining the hardness, Hit Points, and saving throws of an
item you have crafted, treat its item level as if it were 2 higher.

Also, some scenarios might give out UPBs. :)

This is definitely an issue. I'll throw my towel in with people who want the issue addressed.

And let's not forget the secret message for WotR:"Ayavah was right all along."

Short answer: no. The beast shape spells specify that you only qualify for the ability score adjustments if you assume a form of that specific size. You do still gain the additional benefits (faster fly speed, more special abilities, etc) if the form you assume has them in its stat block.

The rules for melee combat are not an effect.
While it's frustratingly true that the word "effect" is used frequently in rules text despite not having a definition, that doesn't mean that everything is an effect until proven otherwise. I've always considered effects to be discreet abilities possessed or created by characters, though that's only one view. I do, however, categorically reject the possibility that an effect is anything ever printed anywhere in a Paizo product, so long as it's convenient for the player.

Seconding the request for wolliped. I've been ruling mine as being a quadruped [hooves], since there isn't a hexapod [hooves], but I'd love an official answer either way.

Elemental Fist doesn't turn your damage into the selected element; it just adds a d6 damage of that type. His Elemental Fist damage against electric-vulnerable targets is normal damage + (1d6 x 1.5), not (normal damage + 1d6) x 1.5.
Also, the benefits that monks gain from gauntlets is a hotly contested topic. Personally, I'm of the opinion that monks making attacks through gauntlets roll gauntlet damage, not their unarmed strike damage. So if your player wants to bypass hardness, he can attack with his gauntlets, gaining their enhancement bonuses and material effects, but rolling 1d3 plus static.
There's also no way he should be gaining any benefit from gauntlets on his claw attacks. And finally, if he's using four uses of Elemental Fist every round, he's going to run out very quickly. Even if he's a Monk of the Four Winds, that'll still drain him in a few full attacks.

Yeah, a vigilante will have a rougher time without being able to use their social talents, but the player knows it going in. I don't recommend changing anything, so long as the player is warned.

Here's my big question: when do GenCon's Starfinder GMs get a chance to look over the rules? I have to confess to a little nervous foot tapping as I look at the calendar and think about learning a new system.

When a metallic dragon falls, it's called "tarnishing." Sadly, I don't think there's a fancy word for chromatic dragons rising. Silver dragons are the most likely to tarnish, and green dragons are the most likely to rise. If you get a chance, check out Dragons Revisited. It's a pretty awesome book.

You can absolutely play a witch in PFS who believes that their power comes from a deity, but there's no line of Paizo text that supports that interpretation. Flavor doesn't let you meet mechanical prereqs.

This thread's title sounds like a bug report for a video game.

I built a Warlock NPC for a home game a while back who used coin shot as her primary weapon and her bolts as a backup. With Rapid Shot and Two-Weapon Fighting, she was making a decent number of attacks, and Arcane Strike goes a long way for damage. Here's her level 8 attack line (with NPC stats and wealth):
gold coin +12/+7 touch or +8/+8/+8/+3 touch (1d8+7/x2)
mystic bolt +11/+6 touch or +7/+7/+7/+3 (1d6+4/x2 fire or electricity)

Are... Are we doing this again?

I recommend a Dual-Cursed Oracle (for its versions of Fortune and Misfortune) with Powerless Prophecy as one of your curses.

OR EWP (or an ioun stone) + effortless lace (iffy, technically the bastard sword is still a one-handed slashing weapon for a sufficiently large enough creature) + impacting enchantment = Gargantuan. Take away one of those and you can still hit huge legitimately.

If the weapon is wielded by a creature whose size matches that of the weapon's intended wielder [...]

Pappy Smurf wrote:

Summon smurf

Personally, I prefer Greater Summon Smurf.

pls nerf smurf

Without any magic items or spells, the rest of the party is going to leave you in the dust. Even in terms of skills, PCs with stat-increasing items and items that give skill bonuses are going to quickly equal or surpass you. You'll soon find yourself doing nothing well and one thing poorly. This concept isn't support; it just demands that others support you.

Using emergency force sphere to negate a full attack is neat, but it's not living up to the spell's full potential. (Also, that aspect is hilariously ineffective when the caster's flying. Fun fact.) Using it to block a doorway or a trample lane or even a rock slide is way more interesting and effective.
Or there's my personal favorite use: combining it with call the void to trap casters in a bubble of vacuum and teeth and claws.

Regardless, for a fourth level spell, none of these uses are out of line. Compared to, say, dimension door or charm monster, emergency force sphere is pretty much what you should expect.

This blog may have two of my absolute favorite pieces of Paizo art. You guys really do hire the best.

GM Lamplighter wrote:

You now need a free hand, like an actual fencer does.

This is absurd thing to think...fencing was nearly always accompanied by something in the other hand. A cloak, a main gauche, a buckler(yes actually held in the hand) or another weapon. Two rapier fighting was actually a real thing as well, I have seen all of these done many times

Olympic strip fencing is a modern sport, it is a tiny fraction of what fencing is.

Yeah, here's a fun list of times when you lose the benefits of Fencing Grace.

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you, OP. The Brute doesn't necessarily need to be a combat monster, but it does need to be true to its own strengths. The AC and HP problems are massive, and probably should be addressed. A d8 hit die with class features that make you more fragile is a huge problem. I think that, offensively, the Brute is about where it should be, but it's missing some crucial survivability elements.

I totally thought he was going to worship Zyphus, looking at that back story.

The primitive combat rules from Ultimate Combat are supremely useful here, although they may even be higher tech than you're looking for. Armor of any sort would be a huge endeavor to create and maintain, and anything beyond simple weapons may well be out of your players' grasp initially. A subsystem representing equipment wear would likely be highly useful (though I don't know of any offhand). The world is still magical, though, so the players may find minor artifacts like mossy stone fullplate that never degrades or an obsidian greatsword as hard and sharp as steel.

Caster-wise, I'd recommend drastically slashing the available spell lists to only a tiny number of the simplest spells and making the gathering of components (even simple ones) a notable task (need bat guano for a fireball? Time to go spelunking). Both of these limitations contribute to the theme: the world hasn't benefited from the millenia of magical research that we're used to, and there's no store from which to buy a spell component pouch. Using the adept list is definitely a great starting point.

As a huge fan of that channel, I wish you all the best of luck.

Not that I'm aware of. For a while, now, though, I've been wanting to see a trait that works like Magical Knack, but grants extra BAB up to your hit dice that only counts for meeting prereqs.

It's a shame that this doesn't have a material component of a vial of steel shavings.

I'm sad to see a few of these errata, but I'm glad to see this post. Thanks so much for pouring your time into these clarifications.

I built a reasonably non-optimal 6th level ratfolk kineticist the other day. He's an aether specialist, so his shield means that he only takes damage from his burn if he's already out of temps. At the start of the day, he's +15 to hit for 3d6+16 damage (with the option to empower his blast if he has a move action). By the end of the day, he's looking at +20 to hit with 3d6+26 damage. That's in addition to his 69 hp with 18 regenerating temps and his 27 AC.

Kineticist is not a weak class, and it doesn't need dubious levels of cheese to make it playable.

Ranzak is wonderful, and Ekkie can do some super interesting things. Soooooo you know you want to let us play them in Organized Play, riiiiight? That Ranzak teaser in the guide nearly killed me.

Different groups deal with this problem in different ways. I've played in a game where one player was "forbidden" to play characters with less than 14 charisma, and at another one where a player admitted to dumping charisma on all his characters because he couldn't back up the RP for a charismatic character. The relationship to out-of-character charisma to in-character charisma is an unavoidable fact; it's up to your and your other players to find an equitable solution.

Maybe you'd find it easier to describe your arguments and discussions narratively, rather than as a back-and-forth conversation. Or you could let another player roleplay some encounters, then support them with affirmation and a diplomacy check. It's important that you find some solution, though; the current situation isn't fair to you or to the rest of the group.

Sooooo Tannis, you love us lots and lots, right? You know you wanna let us unlock Imrijka in the Organized Play, riiiight?

Peculiar qualifications for magic items are nothing new. In order to craft certain staves, for example, you need either a crafter who's multiclassed in a very peculiar way, several crafters cooperating for the weeks it takes to make the items, or one crafter who's altered his spell list. To make wands and scrolls of race-specific spells (like blend or blessings of luck and resolve), you need a crafter with a specific combination of race and class. Compared to those, requiring a crafter to be of a specific race or of a Pathfinder Society-specific prestige class really isn't that unusual.

Now I really, really want to make Bran and Hodor.

Congrats, Liz! Way to be the best at what you do.

Completely setting the gestalt business aside for the moment, XP is something of a holy cow in Pathfinder. In 3.5, xp was a currency to be bartered, and dozens of systems revolved around spending it. Pathfinder removed all of them. My personal advice is to keep everyone in the party at the same xp total, no matter what they play (or how many sessions they miss); having PCs at varying levels make encounters difficult to balance, and it can result in the lower level PCs wondering why they're still showing up.

Honestly, I would probably recommend, rather than balancing based on xp, let the non-gestalts pick up a mythic path. You may want to look around the forums and see how other GMs have adjusted the mythic rules to make them more playable (ie, removing the crit buff to Mythic Power Attack). If you don't want to use the mythic system, consider allowing the non-gestalters access to templates or even bestiary monsters as starting races.

Azara Emberkin wrote:

Dervish Dance isn't supposed to reward tricky-thinking two-weapon fighters.

I can see this from a RAI point of view to be sure. My question is, is it legal?

As the linked quote from Paizo's creative lead and retired lead developer just said: no. No, it is not.

I like the idea of the character, but I'm a bit confused by why he has the Divine skill and capacity with non-combat spells. Brawlers don't have any spellcasting capabilities, nor do fighters or monks. The base class looks much more like a skald or possibly a warpriest: someone with minor, non-combat-oriented magic and a knack for weaponry. Also, it's peculiar that there's nothing he can do with power feats to make him better at using spells.
If you'd like to give him more monk-like abilities, the PACG system mimics ki by recharging or discarding blessings. Allowing him to recharge blessings to add to combat checks or examine locations would make a decent amount of thematic sense.