At the end of Eyes of the Ten (the retirement arc you play when you hit 12), you are level 13 with 1XP away from 14. Then play Academy of Secrets module to bring you 1XP from 15. Play Tomb of the Iron Medusa module to bring you 1XP away from 16. This is exactly where my group was at heading into the Special.
Each part of the Special gave us 1XP, so we are 16th level. We will, at some point in the future, play The Moonscar to get us to 17, and The Witchwar Legacy to get us to 18.
You have to use modules to get to those higher levels. And no replay for credit is still in effect, so make sure you know what character you want to play with.
Don't multiclass with cleric / paladin / hv. Go strictly cleric or life oracle, or combine it with hv. You don't want to be missing out on those higher level spells once you hit 7-11 play and beyond.
We're proud to announce the launch of the Pathfinder Society of Florida website! From Miami to Pensacola, this website is here to help you find Pathfinder Society games throughout the entire Sunshine State. Make this your one stop shop to find game days at stores and weekend-long conventions!
Please make sure to sign up on the forums, because that's where you'll find information on upcoming games in your area. And if you currently host Pathfinder Society games and are looking to get a bigger draw, Pathfinder Society of Florida will make sure to do everything in our power to support your games through our site!
We know Floridians are at the forefront of Pathfinder Society play, and it's time we all come together to show how strong we are! Let's show what we already know: Florida is THE state for Pathfinder Society Organized Play!
Wow you know this just made up my mind. I'm being honest here I was thinking about going to PaizoCon this year because PainLord always seems to have a good time. But ya no way, I had a feeling this would come up, I'm not going to get into rules err fluff arguments over a game.
Not even kidding.
A thread on a forum is enough to make you not want to enjoy an awesome time at Paizo Con? Does this not sound even slightly ludicrous to you because it is based around a discussion of game fluff vs. rules about one particular archetype?
I do not think the translucent thing is fluff, it's pretty integral to the archetype. You can't wear an eidolon suit and become a creature you are not, you wear them as a translucent skin. You can look like it, but your PC will be floating inside a shimmering, translucent figure of the eidolon.
The tears of all the previous players to sit at my table.
You know whose tears WON'T be a part of that?
/I'll give you one guess.
//Leaving this open ended will surely produce some witty comeback.
///That I probably will facepalm at and regret leaving it open ended.
////Oh well.
I'm going to choose to remember Joseph in death as I have known him: as a faceless icon on a chat board.
He would have wanted it that way.
::sniff::
-Pain
There will be a face to this icon if you come to PaizoCon or GenCon this year.
It also seems that I've driven The Baird so batty that he's now counting down with tongues. Guess he had a vision of a flawless victory on the part of the PCs when he used contact other plane.
The Ruby Phoenix Tournament is an awesome module and I highly recommend playing it. I had an amazing time with it and look forward to GMing it one day. That being said, this module touches on a mechanic from Ultimate Combat, and adds an extra layer interaction for players (not to mention, the chronicle sheet offers a boon if the players excel at this new system). That being said, the module gives a brief blurb about the Performance Combat system and it's DCs, but doesn't go at length into it because there probably wasn't enough room in the word count to really flesh it out.
After reading the rules and taking a look at the different combats, I've developed a nice little guide for figuring out the DCs for the combats and the bonuses each NPC has to their rolls. I typed out exactly how I calculated each number, just so you can see the method to my madness. Please follow the link:
Now, while the DCs are assumed for a party of 4 PCs, the Performance Combat system is challenging enough without access to Performance feats and other things not legal for PFS. So, I would recommend not changing the DCs I have listed, despite what modifiers you could add based on outnumbering, total # of combatants, etc.
I also taking the time to have you and your players to read the entire Performance Combat system. If you plan on using it, make sure each PC calculates the bonus to their rolls and know when the CAN make a check vs. when they NEED to make a check. And don't forget that PCs can take an 'Aid Another' action to give a bonus to someone else's Performance check. GMs also need to keep in mind if the party all starts with a VP, because that can automatically start the crowd with an improved attitude, depending if everyone has at least 1 VP, 2 VPs, etc. Lastly, remember that to get Victory Points for a bout the PCs don't have to make the crowd helpful, they just have to make the crowd love them more than they love their enemies. :)
I hope this helps any GMs planning to run this module in the future. I'll keep it updated for any changes that come down the pipeline.
There is a silver lining to all of this. Even though the practice is frowned upon, at least we know that PFS does have value to folks because of the secondary market. That, in it of itself, makes me feel good knowing that PFS means that much to folks.
This is SPECIFICALLY because we want the PCs to be the good guys.
But I'm partial to the aims and goals of some of Golarion's bad guys. I'm actually a huge proponent of spreading the teachings of the Whispering Way and releasing Tar-Baphon.
/I just have a soft spot in my heart for liches.
//I think Voldemort and Sauron would have changed their respective worlds for the better.
///And they would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling "kids"!!!
I didn't have too many problems at my tables. The only thing I could think of was one summoner who didn't read the part that the eidolon could not take the 'Reach' evolution multiple times on one type of attack. But that's typically the case with all summoners.
Based upon tallying up average gold per sub-tier on a number of scenarios, here is your following wealth progression as you hit the next level. This assumes you always play within a sub-tier that your character level falls in (for instance, level 3 playing in 3-4, level 4 playing in 4-5, etc), which will maximize your gold. This does not account for playing up or down within a tier. I also put into parenthesis on the side what character wealth is by level (according to the table in the Core) as a reference. You will see that PFS tends to be generous to you and gives you a couple thousand gold above where the Core would place you at, depending on the particular level.
Level 01: 150 gp
Level 02: 1659 gp (1000 gp) Level 03: 3168 gp (3000 gp) Level 04: 7008 gp (6000 gp) Level 05: 11646 gp (10500 gp) Level 06: 18423 gp (16000 gp) Level 07: 27309 gp (23500 gp) Level 08: 39447 gp (33000 gp) Level 09: 53991 gp (46000 gp) Level 10: 68535 gp (62000 gp) Level 11: 91065 gp (82000 gp) Level 12: 113595 gp (108000 gp) Level 12+: Holy cow / incomplete information.
So I currently have a cleric in PFS who has taken 2 levels of Holy Vindicator. When he's buffed, he has a 39 AC / 15 Touch / 38 AC Flat. By the time he reaches Level 12, he will have at least a 42 AC.
Base: 10
Armor: +11 (+2 Full Plate)
Shield: +5 (+3 Heavy Steel Shield)
Magic: +1 (Amulet of Natural Armor +1)
Dex: +1
So at a base he has a 28 in AC.
Vindicator's Shield: +7 (7d6 channeling - 5d6 base + 2d6 from Phylactery of Positive Channeling)
Stigmata: +1 Sacred Bonus
Shield of Faith: +3 (CL 9)
For the future, I plan on:
- adding another +1 to both the base armor and shield.
- being able to channel 8d6, so a +8 bonus instead of +7.
- bump up the AMA to a +2 or higher.
- possibly making my +1 sword defending.
I feel my only real weakness is if I run against a lot of creatures with touch attacks. I'm not too concerned about much else, considering most things will need a 20 to hit me in PFS play.
Anyway, does anyone else have ridiculous AC builds for PFS?
So I've made myself a nice little 12 level ranged rogue named Si'las. He likes to be prepared for different types of situations, and thus wants to have all the arrows he needs for differing situations. Basic Arrows, Cold Iron Arrows, Silver Arrows, and Adamantine Arrows.
Anyway, after doing some shopping and cost benefit analysis, he's discovered that many different people are getting ripped off, and big.
The Analysis:
Regular Arrows
Si'las looked at base prices 50 arrows, since if you buy 'Special Material' versions of these, they only come in groupings of 50. So, here is the base price.
Units: 50
Item: Arrows
Total Cost: 2.5 gp
Unit Cost: 0.05 gp per arrow
Cold Iron Arrows
So Si'las now decides to look at the prices of these arrows if they were made from Cold Iron. But, there are 2 ways to go about doing this. One is just to outright make Cold Iron arrows, the other is to coat them in a Cold Iron Weapon Blanch (from the APG, you put the blanch on then stick in a fire for 1 round, and the next usage of that arrow will be treated as if it is made from that particular substance).
Cold Iron Arrows Calculations:
Units: 50
Item: Cold Iron Arrows (Things made from Cold Iron cost double the base amount of the item)
Total Cost: 5 gp
Unit Cost: 0.1 gp per arrow
Unit - Base Unit Cost: 0.05 gp
Units: 50
Item: Cold Iron Arrows, Weapon Blanch (20 gp to coat 10 pieces of ammunition, 100 gp total to coat 50 pieces)
Total Cost: 102.5 gp
Unit Cost: 2.05 gp per arrow
Unit - Base Unit Cost: 2 gp
So looking at this, the manufacturer makes a pretty penny if you decide to use Cold Iron Weapon Blanch to coat your arrows. 2 gp made per arrow, as opposed to just 0.05 gp for just straight up making arrows out of Cold Iron. Clearly, making the arrows directly instead of coating is the way to go.
Silver Arrows
Now he looks at Silver Arrows. There are 3 ways he can get a hold of these: buying straight up Silver Arrows, coating them in a Silver Weapon Blanch, or coating them in Silversheen. So what are their respective costs?
Silver Arrow Calculations:
Units: 50
Item: Silver Arrows (2 gp extra for each ammo made from Silver)
Total Cost: 102.5 gp
Unit Cost: 2.05 gp per arrow
Unit - Base Unit Cost: 2 gp
Units: 50
Item: Silver Arrows, Weapon Blanch (5 gp to coat 10 pieces of ammo, 50 gp in blanch needed)
Total Cost: 27.5 gp
Unit Cost: 0.55 gp per arrow
Unit - Base Unit Cost: 0.5 gp
Units: 50
Item: Silver Arrows, Silversheen (250 gp to coat 20 pieces of ammo, 625 gp of Silversheen needed)
Total Cost: 627.5 gp
Unit Cost: 12.55 gp per arrow
Unit - Base Unit Cost: 12.5 gp
So according to this price comparison, the best bang for your buck is to buy Silver Weapon Blanch and coat your arrows yourself, since it has the lowest unit costs (an additional 0.5 gp to the original unit price). Also, what's the point of buying Silver Arrows outright (+2 gp to the original unit price)? They aren't masterwork so you probably won't be recovering them anyway (and you don't want to know how much masterworking 50 Silver Arrows costs...). So really, how do you even know your Silver Arrows are legit? Who's to say your local supplier isn't just blanching arrows with a silver coating? You won't retrieve the arrows most likely (arrow heads break off when removing sometimes), so who cares? And it definitely isn't even worth it to consider using Silversheen on them because you're paying a ridiculous cost per arrow for using that stuff (12.5 gp in addition to the original unit price).
Adamantine Arrows
So as it stands, it's best to buy Cold Iron Arrows, but then buy Regular Arrows and coat them in a Silver Weapon Blanch. But what about Adamantine? I mean, these are the heavy hitters and you probably will recover pure Adamantine Arrows at the end of combat because they are automatically of Masterwork quality. So let's see how the costs stack up.
Adamantine Arrows Calculations:
Units: 50
Item: Adamantine Arrows (60 gp extra for each ammo made from Adamantine)
Total Cost: 3002.5 gp
Unit Cost: 60.05 gp per arrow
Unit - Base Unit Cost: 60 gp
Units: 50
Item: Adamantine Arrows Arrows, Weapon Blanch (100 gp to coat 10 pieces of ammo, 500 gp in blanch needed)
Total Cost: 502.5 gp
Unit Cost: 10.05 gp per arrow
Unit - Base Unit Cost: 10 gp
Wow, these prices fall right in line with Silver Arrows. You're paying +60 gp extra for each Admantine Arrows, as opposed to +10 gp extra for Regular Arrows coated in the blanch. Granted, you can't recover the Regular Arrows, but you can buy almost 300 of them coated in the blanch for the same price as 50 actual Adamantine Arrows. The savings are just absolutely mind blowing!
Conclusion
The point of all this is just to highlight the rules for pricing Special Material ammunition needs some work. For one, it is very ambiguous in the APG as to how long the blanch stays on the coated ammo. It says it stays on their until it is used, but does that mean you can blanch it and have the ammo sitting there with the coating for months on end?
More importantly, I think it's absolutely amazing the savings you get for using the Silver & Adamantine blanches, and completely ridiculous how beneficial it is to buy Cold Iron Arrows over blanching regular ones. And Silversheening is just not worth it in the slightest. It's only use is for melee weapons and should never be considered for ammo.
Joseph Caubo
