Liam's page

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber. ******* Pathfinder Society GM. Starfinder Society GM. 731 posts (872 including aliases). 3 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 42 Organized Play characters. 1 alias.


RSS

1 to 50 of 731 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | next > last >>
Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

I added that if they crit the ritual to get there that they get adaptation to the Akiton, if they succeed they get adaptation for a day. That gives a benefit to going through all the pain of the first part instead of just working around it with a teleport later on.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Michael Sayre wrote:
Dubious Scholar wrote:


Oh yes please. Pistol Whip wasn't a particularly good deed in 1e but it was thematic as hell (and free, so).

Having a feat that lets you use a rifle to melee in place of a 1h weapon for deeds/feats that require it or something would be cool, or bayonet attachments (proper ones that don't interfere with shooting dammit).

We actually had rules for pistol whips and butt strikes in the first couple playtest drafts, but they got pulled for fixing much too late in the process to replace them here. Whether they end up as improvised weapon things anyone can do like smacking someone with a bow, more like a shield boss (so you can put a "reinforced stock" or bayonet on your gun and enchant that as a melee weapon), or something in the class feat/feature territory is still open, so I'm interested in what preferences might be for that direction.

A lot of early flintlock pistols had huge orb bases so they doubled as a a mace in close quarters. Fire your shot, switch your grip and bash away.

Bayonets became a thing early on both for muskets and pistols, weirdly enough.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Michael Sayre wrote:
Unicore wrote:
Depending upon how the final version of the doubling rings works, I could see the brace of pistols working even at higher levels if you don't have to invest in the runes for your pistol hand. For 2 gun fighting you only drop one gun, freeing your hand to reload the other and then drawing a new one with quick draw.
There's also other cool possibilities, depending on what concepts most appeal to people as they playtest the classes. I could see, for example, a magical bandolier that you actually slot fundamental runes into, and then it can hold a set number of pistols that those runes are all cloned to so you can draw, fire, drop, and then have it magically rematerialize in the bandolier where it gets automatically reloaded over some fixed period of time. That particular execution could be really interesting for a character who also wants to mix Alchemical Shot into their routine by crossing a bandolier of bombs for each element type across the opposite shoulder, for example, since that could also involve a lot of active variance in how many free hands you have during any given activity.

Or just have it produce the pistols that vanish and reload in x rounds after being dropped.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Bobbi Burgess-Bruton wrote:
Liam wrote:
I also think they should add some kind of "repeating" firearm at a much higher price point. I'm NOT talking like a revolver or even a metallic casing. There's weapons that have internal powder and projectile magazines that being reloading to a lever pull. They ALSO have the tradeoff of making a misfire so much more exciting...
Are we talking a Pepperbox, like PF1 had?

Could be that, or maybe a lever magazine rifle like some of the wheel lock rifles had during the renaissance. Tilt it down, cycle the lever and your gun is loaded and packed with a fresh pan. Cock and fire. Keep it clean or it may just harm you.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
CyberMephit wrote:

I always thought that rifling is supposed to increase accuracy because the rotating bullet acts like a hyroscope, traveling in a straighter line...

The impact velocity is also a function of distance to target and caliber, both affecting it negatively. A larger caliber shot may have more energy when leaving the barrel but not as much of it will remain after traveling 100 ft through the air.

The hitting of vital organs is reflected in the fatal property of the firearms, I think it's rather accurate... But I agree that the base damage seems low. Maybe they should get an accuracy boost, thus increasing critical chance? Another out of the left field idea - bonus damage from Perception proficiency rank...

Scatter weapons should perhaps also have more damage at close range.

My father was a part-time black powder gunsmith when I was growing up. Made his own pistols and rifles and I was his cheap labor. LOTS of stock sanding.

Yeah, muskets (which aren't rifled) lose power fast. People forget that these weapons are "fit on build." They aren't like our modern interchangeable parts weapons and your ammo wasn't made to the same standards and usually fit poorly, and let lots of gas escape, even with wadding. Because the rifling engages with the bullet, less gas escapes.

Also black powder is way less energetic than modern smokeless powders.

I also think they should add some kind of "repeating" firearm at a much higher price point. I'm NOT talking like a revolver or even a metallic casing. There's weapons that have internal powder and projectile magazines that being reloading to a lever pull. They ALSO have the tradeoff of making a misfire so much more exciting...

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Jared Thaler - Personal Opinion wrote:
Liam wrote:
Jared Thaler - Personal Opinion wrote:
Liam wrote:


Also, musket and pistol damage should be about the same, just shorter ranges on the pistols. The idea that a pistol only does a d4 seems absurd when both can blow a hole straight through you in reality.

Impact force is a function of velocity squared.

Velocity is a function of barrel length.

the longer barreled muskets did an order of magnitude more damage.

The d4 -> d8 fatal is actually a really good modeling of the fact that firearms do very little actual damage unless they hit a vital organ, at which point they are crippling.

Flintlock muskets and pistols used about the same powder charges and projectile sizes. You don't see drastic size differentiation til you start getting into 19th century guns like revolvers.

The length of barrel affects accuracy. More if it is actually rifled.

I've shot things with period accurate versions of both, and at the same calibers they do similar damage. Like I said, both will blow a hole straight through you.

The idea that the same powder charge and same ball somehow does more damage from a longer gun isn't correct. You usually carried guns that took the same size because when they issued you your ball mold to cast your ammo, you only needed one.

....

Rifling is a later development. Rifling does affect the damage since less gas gets around the ball on its way out, which increases the back pressure behind the ball/bullet, which, if your rifling isn't too fouled, and it doesn't jam (aka, you keep your gun cleaned) it travels faster and does more damage.

I'm sorry, but you are flat out wrong.

The longer barrel greatly accelerates the ball because, as you yourself note, the ball spends more time traveling down the barrel with back pressure behind it.

Unless you are firing into ballistics gel or some sort of similar medium, I seriously question the assertion that either will "blow a hole right through you."

Black powder weapons have a maximum of around 1500fps. And that's with rifling. (I looked it up) Muskets and pistols don't have as good of a gas seal (well, unless the pistol is rifled) and they top out at around 850fps, maybe 1000 if both the gun and the ammo are exceptionally well made.

Don't forget that these weapons were also used for hunting. They ARE effective weapons. I wouldn't want to be shot even by the smaller .4x caliber pistols and rifles.

All that being said, my major complaint is that the guns are, well, boring and they are being typical making the same damage mistakes as 1e did.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Jared Thaler - Personal Opinion wrote:
Liam wrote:


Also, musket and pistol damage should be about the same, just shorter ranges on the pistols. The idea that a pistol only does a d4 seems absurd when both can blow a hole straight through you in reality.

Impact force is a function of velocity squared.

Velocity is a function of barrel length.

the longer barreled muskets did an order of magnitude more damage.

The d4 -> d8 fatal is actually a really good modeling of the fact that firearms do very little actual damage unless they hit a vital organ, at which point they are crippling.

Flintlock muskets and pistols used about the same powder charges and projectile sizes. You don't see drastic size differentiation til you start getting into 19th century guns like revolvers.

The length of barrel affects accuracy. More if it is actually rifled.

I've shot things with period accurate versions of both, and at the same calibers they do similar damage. Like I said, both will blow a hole straight through you.

The idea that the same powder charge and same ball somehow does more damage from a longer gun isn't correct. You usually carried guns that took the same size because when they issued you your ball mold to cast your ammo, you only needed one.

If you had a 53 caliber musket, you usually had pistols the same size.

If you pop a vital organ with any caliber ball, you're pretty well dead. But PF doesn't roll that way.

Muskets aren't rifled, and most pistols weren't either. They are smoothbore and a pain to hit stuff with at longer ranges.

Rifling is a later development. Rifling does affect the damage since less gas gets around the ball on its way out, which increases the back pressure behind the ball/bullet, which, if your rifling isn't too fouled, and it doesn't jam (aka, you keep your gun cleaned) it travels faster and does more damage.

I just wish they weren't being so primitive with the guns, what with Alkenstar in the setting and all.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

From looking at the actual firearms.

Arquebus and musket are pretty much the same thing historically. Neither are a sniper's weapon. Both are largely volley fire weapons. Also both were semi-accurate a lot longer than the functional ranges given.

A matchlock would be a better choice for the sniper weapon as that was the "light 50" of it's day with rifling and other innovations on them.

Including breach loading and magazines.

It'd be cool if you could include some higher-end weapons like that as a possible solution for the reload issues that are already seen in the class.

There were plenty of flintlock weapons that had all of these features early on in the history of firearms.

Also, musket and pistol damage should be about the same, just shorter ranges on the pistols. The idea that a pistol only does a d4 seems absurd when both can blow a hole straight through you in reality.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

So, basic question - does reload require a free hand?

I just haven't used reload weapons as a player or really seen
them used as a GM.

I'm looking at the drifter and seeing a lot of...

*shuffles sword under arm and works on reloading pistol* "Hold on while I reload...argh...."

Other than that, I like what I see so far. Looking forward to seeing it in its final form post play-test.

I know there's a feat under the Dual Weapon Fighter archetype that covers it - Dual Weapon Reload.

I want to get my Master Yupa on and this seems to be in my way :)

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

Also, thanks for the tasteful Zarta art.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Ed Reppert wrote:
I would think that being from Absalom giving "access" to that Dedication just means that since the Society's HQ is right there, you can certainly knock on the door and ask to join, but not that you will necessarily be accepted — particularly given the hoops one would normally have to go through to get to that point. IOW it is not (or IMO should not be) simply a matter of "I live in (or near) Absalom, and I'm leveling up to level 2, so I can take Pathfinder Agent".

These are the kind of progression things that the player and GM have

to work out together. It's not something that I would slam a door on
if something can be worked into the story.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

Overall I like the book - just confused with only four factions being mentioned, but had the faction leaders in the people of note section.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

Quick questions on the final boss fight.

Does the Echoes ability make the party have to
kill him five times to finish the encounter?

Does the ability affect the stones as well?

And then the party restores the power to the stones
at the end? (if they win)

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Zapp wrote:
Liam wrote:

So here's my question:

How did you handle the Iffdhasil encounter with how straight up
deadly it can be?

Quote:
I don't have a problem with running it as written either, it's just hard to replace party members that have been turned to sand.

Given these quotes, can I first ask you if you interpret the adventure intending the heroes to fight the Iffdahsil?

If you're worried your heroes will turn into black sand, the simply have the Iffdahsil use its actions to retreat as soon as any hero has failed its second Annihilation Aura save.

Since there's no way to gain more than 1 Doomed/Drained per round...

I'm hoping I preloaded enough respect for the Wandering Garbage Disposal of the Black Desert.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

I am loving the AP so far. My players are loving it too.

So here's my question:

How did you handle the Iffdhasil encounter with how straight up
deadly it can be?

I know the party is beefed up having all the attunements from the orbs, but...

Do you have it at a distance and just have them witness it and it starts after the party after it notices them?

I don't have a problem with running it as written either, it's just hard to replace party members that have been turned to sand.

There is something satisfactory about depicting something that can slurp down a purple worm like so much ramen...

Also, what is required to bring sandy characters back to life?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
The Raven Black wrote:
Spellcaster MC dedication on Magus sounds good at first glance.

I was looking at an unarmed magus with a monk dedication.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
andreww wrote:
Liam wrote:
Yeah, I am about to run this for DragonCon and the skill checks seem way high, even for "you're not going to auto succeed" campaign.

While this is true it actually ends up being irrelevant. The only section which has any time pressure is the mural, once that is done they will get all of the rest even if they have to spend a month hopng to roll a strong of 20's. The damage from the orb doesnt matter at all as each check takes an hour and it is so low that anyone injured can be healed up between attempts.

Frankly, once you are done with the mural and have handled the fight I would handwave the rest as they will get it eventually. The alternative is to spend hours pointlessly rolling dice.

Exactly

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Jared Thaler wrote:

The discovery DC *are* very high. But in a 4 member party, you would need to fail 24 checks minimum to not get 4 successes.

And a lot of the checks are things like Athletics, which a lot of people will have.

The languages thing is actually a bigger problem, since the wand of comprehend languages only gives them 1 hour of language, for one person, per day...

Meaning if no one has the languages, they are basically screwed.

It states they can send someone back to camp to get a translator at the cost of an hour of library time. Page 12.

Spoiler:
"PCs who lack such familiarity can use the wand of comprehend language from one of the hobgoblin skeletons in area A6 or
spend 1 hour to return to the base camp and secure an NPC Pathfinder to assist with translation."

Yeah, I am about to run this for DragonCon and the skill checks seem way high, even for "you're not going to auto succeed" campaign.

From looking at the math on the DC's there really shouldn't be anything higher than an 18 except the one time check. And even at that point you're asking the player to crank out consistent 15's, which is already an encounter 3 DC and venturing into level 5 DC for a 1-2.

I don't think anyone checked the math on this one. It's not really fair to have these high hitting encounters back to back for the party unless you are going to include something somewhere that can unlock it some.

Since the only thing that is on a clock is the mural, I plan to let the party peck at it as they will, but I suspect this is going to bring a lot of griping and boredom at the table.

You might want to put an explainer on these kind of encounters in the future that you are making them deliberately harder and why.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

I have a question about 3 players in scenarios where you have skill check encouners that need X successes for Y players, but they only scale down to four.

Do we scale them down to three?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

Any word on if this is going to get sanctioned?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

So, what are some ways your players have made it up the liferoot tower to get the resonance?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

Occult is psionic, I think.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

The non-flip mats in this one are full of errors and other issues.

If you're going to use this for online play, you're going to want to pull all the images and re-stitch the tiles to get them to line up with an actual working grid.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

Situation:

You have a character with Planes Lore but also Occultism.

Can you use Planes Lore to ID the appropriate creature instead of the
related skill?

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

I have seen several "disabled" characters at tables over the past year. None of them were using flaws.

They just added roleplay elements and also technological solutions to their difficulty, if they wanted to. One or two even mirrored the player's own disability.

And I wouldn't call them flawed, just people.

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32
Raatchet wrote:
Sheet looks good. Thanks again Liam!!

You're welcome. It was a pleasure not killing you again.

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

ok, I will leave this up for a few more days.

If you need anything after that you can hit me up here or in discord (Onomatopeon)

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Troll 1-19 1-32

oh and reported

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

and Capt Brob's sheet is up, if they need any adjustments, hit me up here or in discord (Onomatopeon)

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32
GM Hmm wrote:
Liam wrote:
Still don't have Brob's info and I've PM'ed

I found this from one of his old campaigns:

Captain Brobdingnagian wrote:

Player Name: Michael

Character Name Brobdingnagian
PFS# 99008-704
Faction: Second Seekers

Thank you!

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32
Raatchet wrote:
One correction for my sheet. It lists a gain of 2 wayfinder rep but Raatchet's faction is actually Dataphiles. Can you switch it from Wayfinders to Dataphiles please?

Sorry about that. Fixed

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

Still don't have Brob's info and I've PM'ed

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

SHEETS!

Sheets are up here

Let me know if I screwed anything up

I still need Brob's info so I can report (or if anyone knows their XXXXX-7XX)

I am hoping folks had fun.

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

Let me know if I need to fix anything

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

Reported and Sheets are up

Get your sheets here

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

1 xp and 2 Fame/Rep

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

Capt Brob - I need information - it's not on your profile

Chronicle: What chronicle number will this be for your character?
Player name: Your name, as you want it to appear on the chronicle
Character name: The name of your character
Organized play #-#: Your society play and character numbers
Faction: Characters Faction slotted
XP: Your starting XP
Fame: Your starting fame
Credits: Opening credits before purchases
Day job: Your day job skill and roll. (or alternative such as training or true savior)

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

And yeah, I am behind. I'm trying to get them done right now.

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32
Charli Poshkettle wrote:
Do you want any feedback on your table? Let me know.

Please. I am a 5-star and blah blah nova, but I always like feedback to do better.

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

I wish

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

Once you have escorted Dv8 on his errands four, you return them for their scheduled meeting with Chiskisk. "Please stay my friends while we discuss" which happens largely through telepathy, so the conversation isn't overheard.

After a few minutes of the pair silently gesturing to each other, Chiskisk produces an actual document.

DV8 turns to the party and says, "Would you do me the honor of signing this agreement as witness to Counselmember Chiskisk and mine signing of this"

"Pens are funny things" DV8 says as they sign the document. Chiskisk signs it as well, and then gestures for you to sign in the witness section.

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

rolling for self: 1d20 ⇒ 4

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Troll 1-19 1-32

I think I may run more PBP starfinder more often

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

Also, BOON ROLLS PLEASE (19-20 pm me your e-mail)

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32
Lindley Court wrote:
Thanks for poking me, Liam. I'm really sorry for disappearing for as long as I did.

It happens, I just wanted to make sure we got through this ok.

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

And with that the second Mall Rat runs screaming away, dropping the package as a hopeful diversion

AOO If you wish

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

Mall Rats
Rozicheep
Soryn
Edith
Cora

Starfinders are GO

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

Well, one is about to have a very bad day

Edith smacks the one rat - doing some nonlethal.

Mall Rats
Rozicheep
Soryn
Edith
Cora

The same Mall Rat goes to takes a swing at Edith and is dropped by Rozicheep.

The other Mall Rat makes a bee-line for the package Soryn sat down and picks it up.

With resulting AOO

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32

aw man, no 19-20

Liberty's Edge

Troll 1-19 1-32
Raatchet wrote:

[dice=Boon]1d20

Woo! Thanks for the game everyone and thanks for running it Liam!

Hmm, playing up proved to be no problem at all!

That was probably one of the most one-sided starship battles I've been on yet..

It was great to run for you again.

1 to 50 of 731 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | next > last >>