Joshua J. Frost's page

The XP progression is not an aspect of Pathfinder Society I'm willing to change. It negates years of planning and would throw many parts of the Society into chaos. While I appreciate the arguments for a new XP progression, it simply cannot happen.

teribithia9 wrote:

Oh, I misunderstood what he was saying. Sorry 'bout that. :)

No worries, happens to me all the time :P

Me too!

How big is a Huge Dragon?

Large.

My gripes arise from an extreme over abundance of healing available in most mods. I think there has been half a dozen times in 35~ mods we have received 6 or more potions of curing as treasure during the mod. Also at least 4 or 5 mods were you can grab a wand of cure light during the mod. I understand giving bad guys some healing to use just as players have some but realistically the party captures it most of the time and then free heals after combat not even losing treasure for AR purposes.

This is hilarious because it was just this time last year that I was fielding complaints about a lack of these items in scenarios. :-)

My other problem is with scaling up modules by simply adding more low level mooks to a higher tier.

This was prevalent in Season 0. This has not occurred very often in Season 1.

would also second the idea that in the future mods might have a small suggestion area in each encounter for a table of 5 or 6 players facing the encounter in question. .

It's something I've considered for a while now. No plans yet.

FYI I do love and have really enjoyed almost every PFS adventure. You guys are doing great just need a few tweeks. I would also humbly suggest switching to 4 adventures to gain a level. No adjustments needed to the PFS scaling of wealth or PA needed. Simply stretch the same gold out over 4 mods instead of 3 and make a few extra 1 PA mods and a few less 2 PA mods. This way you still wind up with the same overall wealth and PA at any given level. Three mods to a level is simply to quick and to few play opportunities IMO.

Well, it actually would affect the math a great deal, especially the rate of wealth accumulation. And once you change the rate of wealth accumulation, you essentially have to retire every scenario before that point as they were all design around a different rate.

I appreciate your feedback! Thanks especially for the kind words there in your last paragraph. :-)

We have retained a member of the Paizo community to aid us in just such an endeavor. All of the official Paizo seminars will be recorded and uploaded (though the "when" on the uploading is intangible, but likely relatively soon after the Con).

Also, note how much a cheater Frosty is. He can't even talk smack without stealing my trains.

If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.

I thought all you Texas boys knew that. :-)

My art minion* is in today and is working on it. :-)

...but it was at a convention and his position seemed, basically, to be that the campaign has no business adding books to the Core after the fact so he wasn't going to buy it.

Huh.

Well, I can certainly understand and appreciate his viewpoint. Seekers of Secrets was, for all intents and purposes, written to be a core addition to the Pathfinder Society. Will I add other books to the core in the future? Not likely. Was this a, shall I say, obvious addition to the campaign's core? Probably. Did that GM have the wrong attitude about the whole thing? Yup.

Related to having to pay for consumables used during the scenario:

Note: items that you find during the scenario may be

used during the scenario, but you have to purchase the item
after the scenario is over in order for your character to be
able to continue to use the item. This is most applicable to
consumables such as potions, scrolls, and so on but can also
apply to weapons, magic items, and so on.

They only have to pay for an item if they want to put it on their character sheet and continue to use it in the next scenario.

The Guide specifically spells out that items destroyed during the scenario are still purchasable off the chronicle sheet so long as they were found, but I never put language in there that specifically says you keep the gold rewards for items you consume--which is strange. I'll add that to 2.3.

A certain adventure recently played at tier 4-5 with our group of 6 level 3's (we were required to play at 4-5) nearly ended in a TPK because of the multiple 6D6 fireballs thrown at the party.

Hrm.

Your exact situation is actually not the intent of the Society's APL calculation. Just like I don't want a group of six level 5s who show up to play a Tier 1-5 to be told they can't because their APL is 6, I really don't want a group who is between sub-Tiers to be forced to play up. Sub-Tier 4-5 is really designed for 4th level and higher players. Six 3rd level players will have a very difficult time.

I have some language in the Guide now that's similar to this:

We don’t

want the above table showing up for a Tier 1–5 scenario,
something they’re all the appropriate level for, and being
told that they can’t play after their APL calculation. APL
is a loose rule for determining your appropriate level of
play—it should be followed as often as possible and broken
only when following it would oddly bump characters from
a scenario (as noted in the example above).

In 2.3, I'll add some language that deals with your specific example MisterSlanky. My intent wasn't to force those in between sub-Tiers to play up. :-/

As for the difficulty level of sub-Tier 1-2:

In Season 0, they were VERY swingy. In Season 1, I nailed down a set of guidelines for for that sub-Tier in particular. They are designed with 4x level 1 PCs in mind every single time. Every once in a while, something weird might get through development that makes a sub-Tier 1-2 encounter more challenging than intended, but starting with the Season 1 scenarios I think the "swinginess" of that sub-Tier has been severely reduced.

...when a GM who won't touch the book attempts to challenge a player on its' contents...

When it comes to the Core Assumption, any GM who did so would be in the wrong.

Keep in mind two things:

For Master of the Fallen Fortress, you may only apply the chronicle to a brand new level 1 PC. This is not a normal scenario.

There is no PA for Fallen Fortress as you join the Society right after it.

You don't need to provide the chronicle sheets. I'll have those at HQ.

Same rules for the GM.

It must be applied to a new level 1 PC. It is only a Tier 1 chronicle. It does not have sub-Tiers such as 1-2 or 4-5.

This will likely be accomplished sometime tomorrow (both the pregens and the chronicle online for printing). :-)

This comment is not directed at anyone in particular.

Arguing about the validity of '+1' as a proper or improper method of communication is not for the 2.2 FAQ thread. Please take that discussion elsewhere.

Austin Morgan wrote:

Wow, really guys? It says "only normal Ioun stones have resonance." That should be enough. Don't make Josh spell out every tiny detail. He's got better things to do, and, honestly, there are many things more important that people should be reading in the Guide.

Really. People will try anything :)

I think that 'inferior' should be used, which seems to cover all non-normal stones according to the Seeker of Secrets.

In v2.3 I'll change "flawed" to "inferior."

Herald wrote:

+1

So, what in the world wide web does this "+1" stuff mean?

All I have seen it used for was people wasting posts keeping topics that they seem to want to kill alive, and making less than clear, sometimes weird posts.

Doug's already stated it quite well so I'll state it concisely:

Dude, chill.

Yup! On my list to correct in the next day or so. :-)

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

Majuba wrote:

Ran #51 here - *fantastic* scenario.

Very glad to hear that! :-)

Oh - and the third Map Pack/Flipmat reference is wrong, pg. 16.

It's possible I don't understand, but that reference is correct. The tiles featured are from Map Pack: City as seen here (top left sample).

Thanks! I'll get that fixed!

Yep. :-)

Josh,

Just a reminder that the wording on resonant Ioun stones in the Seeker of Secrets section of the PFSOP guide needs to be clarified to make sure that it is clearly understood that only normal Ioun stones, not cracked, flawed or scorched Ioun stones, can have resonance in PFSOP.

The current wording is unclear enough that our regular GM, playing one of his PCs today, didn't realize that his cracked Ioun stone couldn't have resonance. Fortunately, the resonance bonus did not affect the game. This time.

Are you looking at v2.2 of the Guide? v2.2 added the following:

Added the following line under Seekers of Secrets in Chapter 13:
Additionally, only normal ioun stones have resonance–flawed ioun stones never do.

I'll be happy to leap back into this discussion after v2.3. Until then, it's a busy summer and this topic has to fall off my radar.

Ran #51 here - *fantastic* scenario.

I thought it was going to run long, but didn't. And that was adding in lots of extra details.

At Tier 3-4, it ran slightly too "even" - with a mixed (6,5,4,1st level) group they had little trouble. Couple of very slight tactics editing issues, nothing that would cause a problem.

Lot of fun. Anyone DM'ing it - make sure to keep the goals, roles, and faces clear to the players (actually, Face cards would probably work awesome for this).

Very glad to hear that! :-)

#53 is part IV of the Echoes of the Everwar and requires that the players have played the first three parts.

If they got a Free RPG Day kit (or two), I'm sure it has our scenario in it.

There are rules in the Guide for switching deities that can be applied when new products come out.

I don't have any plans for retrofitting existing characters, though.

Are there quarter laundry machines on site at the hotel?

No.

Are you talking about the FAQ thread?

That's Sunday afternoon. Early Sunday afternoon. :-)

Don't convert them. Run them as their 3.5 equivalents calculating CMB/CMD on the fly if needed. You can find the 3.5 stats here.

And

Are you GMing Fallen Fortress at Paizo Con?

#54 is nearly in your My Downloads and Year of the Shadow Dragon's playtest documents need another once over from me tomorrow and will then be emailed out.

I shall get one and bring it. Once the booth is down early Sunday afternoon, i'll come back to the hotel and we can play it--assuming you're staying through Monday.

On the commander, it says it's a 1d8/19-20.

That's an error. It should be 1d6--it was correct in the original turnover, too, but I must have changed it by accident.

Ahh okay. Well, noticing another thing. Minor Typo. There are two 'Player Handout 2'.

Another Typo (combat related)

** spoiler omitted **

That's not what I see. Are you looking at her stat block on page 17? She has ...

...listed as her feats.

Rock on, Dragon's Lair! (An Austin-based company that opened a spot in the NW!)

You owe me a train game .. er game, Adam!

Do Assistants count as GMs for this? :D:D:D:D:D

Yes!

Insufficient. :-)

*cough*

FDA Warns of 'High Levels' of Disease-Causing Bacteria Found in Certain Hand Sanitizers

*cough*

Happy Paizo Con! ;-)

We will have printed chronicles. We need to fix the PDF to take the watermark off the chronicle, though.

Or, you know, take a shower every day and wash your hands frequently.

Yes it does, Neil! :-)

Or, heck, soap with dice in them!

Vendors in the Sales Area (Hemlock):

Paizo Publishing
Kobold Quarterly
Super Genius Games
Lone Wolf
Reaper Miniatures (running a paint-and-take, sales will be in the Paizo booth)

Check it out!

Moved to the appropriate thread.

Zyphus rot is an homage to the zombies from #7.

He has a mullet.

He has massive facial burns. Give a dude a break. :-)

...and sell you some dice.

And dice.