Scray's page

Very impressive, I'm sure there's a lot of time invested on all of these. Just the ones that called to me, top 3...

1) Karst, great work on the metal and the blue tattoos, and the leather straps
2) Dolgar, i love the multicolored cloak, a great example why you might want to include photos from a few angles
3) Prunette, wow, especially the feathers and the metal on the leading edge of the cloak
4) Stela, i feel like i'm at a zoo, those stripes and the blended fur are really nice

Wait, top 3? I can't count! And I only get to vote for one?!

1) For a dwarf this works well, an earlier character concept was to use throwing hammers or throwing axes.

2) I'm not sure if it's the mod or the DM but we couldn't find or purchase a +1 Greataxe. We did have other magic weapons we found on dead enemies. Sometimes it would be nice to pick up a +1 and apply something exotic.

Deity was Angradd, I'm a dwarf, he gives Greataxe. I rolled one crit on a kobold.

We spent most of 3 days playing through Dragons Demand. We're close to the final battle, so I thought I'd post impressions of level 1-6.

I like having the free weapon focus, bonus feats, and the heavy armor proficiency. That really makes him feel like a front line combatant. At low levels I did have a harder time casting. The channels are weaker so I didn't pick selective, and then it's harder to heal with channels so I found myself holding the spells in case one of us got knocked out. The blessing for the good domain was really nice for the first few levels, it was really effective to buff myself and/or the other melee fighters, and it's a great buff.

1) Does the holy damage make the attack good-aligned to bypass DR/good? We assumed yes.

At the mid levels 3-5 it was more fun to play, but I stopped using the blessings entirely. A standard action is a high cost to pay to buff myself, even more if I'm buffing someone else - it's just not a fun way to spend my turn. Sacred weapon was useful a few times, but without a magic weapon yet that matches my deity I'm limited to +1 enhancement. This isn't bad and it's easy to use. I was disappointed in the limitation to the deity's favored weapon and that I can't throw the weapon. Getting bonus proficiency and weapon focus feels like enough pushing to that selected weapon, I'd prefer Sacred weapon be applied to whatever I'm wielding. Still it's a quick easy way to apply something like magic weapon, so I'm a fan.

2) Do Warpriest levels count somehow toward fighter-restricted bonus feats? I'd like to look at disruptive eventually.

So my biggest complaint to now is that too many of my abilities, and my attack, require standard actions. The blessing seems least useful normally, so I didn't get much use out of it.

I'm not too familiar with archaeologist, but gunslinger 5 is really good for Dex to damage. If you have a Dex of 16 or 18, you don't really want to delay that too much, so I'd only grab one level of arch before 5 of gunslinger and character level 6.

I'd also suggest rapid shot before deadly aim. Another shot is likely more damage than Deadly Aim will add.

Finally, Snap Shot isn't great without Combat Reflexes. I'd probably use those feats to be able to reload/shoot in melee without provoking your own attacks of opportunity. It might not be very useful in an ocean campaign, but snap shot might not be too useful either. At least those may be open for further consideration.

There are retraining rules available, so you don't have to feel absolutely locked in to those feats. Your stats look fine anyway, I'd only question the Great Fortitude feat. It seems like your saves are going to be great with Divine Grace.

I'd suggest switching to a buckler, you can use it for defense when you need, or attack with your longsword using both hands for 1.5x str and -2/+6 power attacks.

Combat maneuvers like trip, disarm, sunder are great against humanoids but weaker against beasts and various monsters. I'd personally avoid them unless you're in a civilized campaign, they're best for fighters who have a lot of spare feats.

Especially with a small party, its time to magic up, all the rings of prot, magic armor, shield, potions of blur, etc you can get. Of those 3 roles: tank, DPS, healer, I'd choose one to improve most.

I'd thank Trevor for running our table of Bonekeep level 2. We had some tense moments and most of the rooms we didn't know if we were going to survive or wipe. We finally ran out of time, but its hard to say if we would have finished or if we were saved by the bell. Trevor made it fair and challenging, thank you sir!

Since there's only a few season 5s, I guess you'll have to wait and see a while.

This was a great Gen-Con. Thanks to all the volunteers, you guys are really awesome!

I've been to several cons and I've played PFS since it started. Mustering is constantly the biggest complaint after the con, but it certainly seems to improve year after year. There's a lot of feedback here already to make next year the best ever ;)

The colored tables was a great idea. The boards in front seemed mostly useless, they seemed to list a lot of games that weren't being run during many slots. The projector screens were nice for images during games, but didn't seem to help mustering at all. We couldn't read any of the details from the muster area, until about halfway into the room.

I don't think you'll ever sit 1000 players with various desires perfectly. This wasn't perfect but you really did a great job this year.

I agree with Chris 100%, congratulations Tracy!! It's always a pleasure, I wish I was down to Indiana more often. Congrats on the stars, they're all well-earned!

Charles

Congrats Chris! All those cons and pre-con game days are paying off :)

Since no one has replied, I'll take a shot. I made my Wayang for PFS as a witch. The stats are in the right places, but I wouldn't run Con lower than 12 after the penalty.

I'm not sure how many witch spells are shadow school, but I hope there's a few. The other race abilities are nice, small and the negative energy affiliation. Perception and stealth are both nice skills to get racial bonuses. Overall its nice race and I think it'll be effective for most caster classes.

I use both an iPad and the Nexus 7. During a game though I'm far more likely to use the iPod touch to quickly lookup a spell or a status effect. The small size is so much less disruptive if you're at a table with 6 or 7 other people.

The other Kindles with e-ink do open PDF files, but the longer refresh between pages make them hard to use for reference. They are ok if you're reading a new PDF from front to back. Very painful if you're looking for a specific page.

In summary though, you can use a tablet to reference one or two PDFs during a game, but it's always a little rough switching back and forth or finding something that's not on the current page. The most effective use I've seen is for the GM to have the mod or scenario open on one, then have the other references available as physical books. As a player, a lot of the value of tablets comes from the apps available. Quickly finding the right rule or reference (even online) can press the game forward rather than waiting even a few minutes for someone to find a line in a physical book.

I still bring and use the core rule book, but I don't carry around the physical APG, UC, UM, etc.

I used to take my notes on the back of the previous chronicle sheet. It was convenient, but I haven't since I bought a binder and sheet protectors.

I really think you're over-thinking this. Swarms are easier to deal with, because the rules are already abstract. The individual bodies in the swarm don't take damage, so you don't need to calculate the mass of the individuals or a percentage of the swarm that's hit. The swarm HPs are a simplification so you don't need to do all that. AoE effects get a 50% bonus.

The simple question is, does the primary damage from an alchemist bomb count as AoE?

I've always seen this ruled 'yes', but the rules seem to support either conclusion.

In either case the alchemist bomb normally has a splash radius, so even if the primary damage is not allowed to hit the swarm you'd still have a much smaller damage getting the 50% bonus.

I guess the trip is applied to a steg's natural attack. So you could either flurry with unarmed strikes, no trip and doing monk base unarmed strike damage, or go for feral combat training with the steg's natural weapon, then flurry with the natural weapon damage and trip ability.

I've often wondered about the monk AC bonus and wild armor. Once you shift, do you regain the monk bonus for being unarmored?

I guess there are two aspects you want to tweak. Save-or-suck spells and melee damage vs hps.

Melee damage is easy. I guess its unwise to tweak the damage side, rather tweak the HPs. DnD 4th did this somewhat, where a 2nd level boss had like 150 hps. I didn't like it, we ended up surrounding the boss for 7 rounds just taking turns rolling attacks, but that's the other way to go. Either 4 DPS characters are going to focus on the boss and take it down quickly, or they beat on the boss awhile. You as a DM can adjust this either direction, and its pretty easy to tweak.

On a surface level, spells are just as easy to tweak, but if you make it so rare to fail a save the players are likely to just stop using those spells. That's a net loss I guess, and probably why people are so against it. Its fun to cast spells, and the players should succeed fairly often. Instead of tweaking success rates, I'd suggest tweaking the status effects. Sleep is no fun for anybody. Maybe the most powerful spell effects should be like shaken - a penalty but not taking someone just out of the fight.

I think the hardest part of high level play comes from stacking bonuses and penalties. A high level char might have natural, enhancement, insight, morale, divine, and then feat/trait bonuses, and then be running with haste, concealment, holy weapons, etc. Now, most players get a lot of fun from finding all these sources and balancing all the options. You could limit this to say only two buff spells can be running at a time, and house rule that there are less sources that can be applied. Roll all those enhancement, insight, divine, etc into "supernatural" and only the most powerful applies. Now you're back to a lower level of optimization, like low-level play when the characters only had access to a few sources.

I think staff-like wands is level 11. The OP was asking for concepts at level 1 and 2.

I'd agree with witch, druid, summoner.

I thought everyone agreed that it doesn't cost an action to adjust a grip for a normal character? There was like a 900-post thread about it. :-)

Anyway I'd say its clearly up to the character to choose which weapon he uses in a charge. If he has 3 weapons available, he might have 3 different ways to charge.

I agree with John above, that the situation isn't automatically fatal. People survive sinking ships pretty often, of course people die in those situations pretty often too. The player should have a chance. What are his odds, and what might affect his chances? How encumbered is he, heavy armor, Olympic swimmer skill? The details aren't as important in my opinion as the point that player death shouldn't come down to just 'there's no chance, you're dead.' This is where "saves" actually come from. The player has a chance to roll his die to avoid the spell, paralysis, etc.

So he can breathe water, but apparently the danger is from being trapped in the ship for longer than the breathe water. In that case you might say, for each round the character stays inside the ship his swim check is going to take a -4 penalty, and iuf he fails it the character dies. This way the player is aware of the stakes, as Blueluck wrote above, but he also had a way to judge how many rounds he's we willing to search. In that case, I bet he doesn't search long... Also in that case the player has some role in the death, he failed swim checks or whatever saves you guys settled on, but he failed the saves not 'the GM just said the character dies'. That's what makes a death feel arbitrary.

Standard action to retrieve and drink, per the FAQ:
http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fn#v5748eaic9na0

Hrm: FAQ

Azaelas Fayth wrote:

@Nagaruo365: What makes you think a gun is anymore useless against DR10 than any other weapon?

See it this way : a warior with 16 str hits with his two handed weapon. If he hits and only make 10 dammage (which is uneffective) he adds his str bonus plus any bonus we may have (power attack, weapon focus, etc.) and he may do so up to 4 times a round at 15h level. At the same level, on the other hand, a gunslinger may only fire his two handed firearm 2 times. If he hits as well as the fighter, he gets (10 on his roll) he is also uneffective. He may always make more damage with feat (such as focus shot), but that reduces his number of attacks to one and, it you don't have a player that has a strong INT (which is not always the case for a gunslinger).

A musket master archetype reloads two-handed muskets as quickly as a one-handed firearm. This along with d12 damage, dex-to-damage, deadly aim, rapid shot, and shooting at touch AC...and that's before the feat specifically designed to add your attacks together before applying DR.

Gunslingers come with a different set of problems, but DR isn't too big of a deal.

I guess there are a lot of people using armor spikes specifically to threaten adjacent squares. I'd thank James Maissen for arguing this one (and many other rules questions) clearly, strongly, and I think correctly.

I've replayed once to make a table. At first I wasn't super enthusiastic about not playing a scenario for credit, but it turned out to be really fun. I picked a level 1 pregen of a class I'd never played before, and the group makeup was totally different the second time. We almost had a TPK, but I was using everything I could think of to keep my character, and my friends characters, alive so it certainly felt like risk even if one of my regular characters wouldn't have perished.

Really the experience was very valuable to me because the GM was great, someone I hadn't met before, and the players were all fun to game with. It was really cool to see how a different GM and a different group of people can make the scenario play so much differently. Skills challenges and combats that were easy one time turned out to be really difficult the second time, etc.

I believe there's errata for the CRB that specifically removes the 'as an off-hand attack' from shield bash. I'm posting from a tablet, so its too much effort to post a link. :)

I'm a fan of Shield Master as a ranger combat style feat to get it 5 levels early because I'm running my char in PFS, likely limited to level 12. If I go past 12, I'll likely play another character. So at the levels I'm most interested in, shield master is more fun than the second extra off-hand attack from TWF. (The first TWF feat is available to weapon/shield combat style.) I might try to get the extra attack later with a normal feat, if I can boost dex high enough.

Still I think this path doesn't give many special defensive 'tanking' skills. I guess you may want to spend extra effort finding defensive magic items, spell storing mirror image or whatever, or defensive feats. At least you're a melee fighter with decent AC, so with a group of casters you'll be the tank by default, but I don't think ranger offers anything unique to make you more effective in the role.

I guess you want at least ranger 6 for the second combat style feat, but that also limits you to medium armor. Multi-classing is a real option, to pick up heavy armor prof for mithral full plate, but also for any class skills that might help you tank. Fighter feats, paladin charisma to saves, archetypes, I don't know what to advise specifically.

If you haven't leveled up to 2 yet, you can still pick your combat style. As others said, weapon and shield style is nice for shield mastery. I'd use a heavy shield in the main hand, and a light weapon (gladius?) in the off-hand. Its not as powerful as dual shields, but I'm one of those who think dual shields look silly.

Still you're not a great tank, with not many options to boost defenses. You'll probably want mithral full plate eventually, but you may want to consider wearing heavy armor until you get the second combat style feat. I think rangers only lose the combat style, but you'd have to pick up proficiency or multi-class for it.

I'd make it large, spiked, and bull rush or overrun all over the place. :)

I really started to like the warforged after reading some of the novels. Of course the books generally raise more questions than they answer. It was nice if you're a GM who wants to make up your own answers for the campaign.

Personally I'd look at running robots as a limited AI, able to follow limited instructions but not sentient or self-aware. I'd do this by creating a golem-focused artificer and adapting summoner eidolon rules for customizing the physical shapes and druid animal companion rules for tricks and handle animal checks (...handle android and programming).

I'd also look for a way to manufacture / sell / buy robots. I guess low CR semi-effective droids could be purchased like pets or mounts currently, and adapting leadership to allow the purchase of a robot that's more effective. In a really high-tech world I'd like to see archetypes for some of the mount/companion/familiar choices to open some robot construction for thematic ranger companions, cavaliers, etc.

You might consider going just 5 for gunslinger and the rest alchemist. Once you get Dex to DMG with firearms, I don't see much in gunslinger from 5 to 10.

You should use a spoiler tag if you're going to post a specific reward from a specific scenario.

Well, as an opinion I'd say they're both trait bonuses and so would not stack. Hope you get some more responses though. :)

Yay Chris!!

Sorry! Jeffrey you're right of course.

Does an acid flask do 1d6+5 damage? Are you adding your bonus damage from Throw Anything, even though you're not throwing and its not a splash weapon?

Obviously I guess its just 1d6. :)

Silver only gets a damage penalty for slashing and piercing weapons. If you're going mithral just for the DR/silver on a blunt weapon, its cheaper to stick with silver.

You can upgrade the musket to masterwork for 300g, then I try to carry a handful of alchemist fires and a couple of tanglefoot bags. Have fun with the MM!

(oops, that upgrade to MW for 300g is for Pathfinder Society, I think it's 365g to have a spellcaster use masterwork transformation.)

I guess you've seen the Treantmonk druid guide. The lesson for PF (in my opinion) is that its very hard to build a druid that's good at both melee and offensive spellcasting. If you want to consistently beat opponent's saves, then you probably want a high Wis and some feats. If you want to contribute in melee, you probably want a lower Wis and more points in Str and Con.

As a caster druid, use wildshape to stay out of melee, rather than jumping into melee. Find some wands or a staff if you want to contribute after your spells are empty. As a melee druid, use buff spells mainly and avoid spells that allow saves.

Again, all this is just opinion, others will likely disagree.

Recently I'm annoyed by allude vs elude, from a specific coworker.

I don't think you'all find an official answer, so it will probably be up to the GM.

I guess no one would allow two bane effects to stack to give you greater bane against a specific target.

I've been playing a PFS char towards a similar build, admittedly less optimized, but going for Shield Slam and Shield Master.

So far it it's been fun and effective, my biggest problem is just the options, single attack with two hands vs two weapon fighting with power attack lines for both. Then to use a falcata with a light shield or eat the penalties with the falcata and use a large shield, or use a heavy shield and gladius? Lots of options available, at level 4 I haven't settled down yet so I'm carrying a lot of options around. :)

I see PFS as a decent excuse to play an open-minded character. Really, speaking multiple languages and traveling widely are both great ways to expand your perspective. I just don't see any problems with PC characters accepting each other. Random townfolk might be another matter, but most odd characters would work on having some sort of disguise.

Goblins walking around in the open should expect some distrust, but if one or two goblins live successfully in a normal society, it will provide an example to the commoners. These are all issues that players and GMs are working out on a regular basis.

Natural weapon ranger seems very strong at low levels, then fading as you go higher. There's no easy way to enhance your claws (except amulet). Low crit threat, no adamantine, etc.

I'm sure you'll rock from 1-5, and probably still be fine from 6-10. I bet you find some nice combinations to extend your usefulness, its just harder because natural weapons don't synergize well with other classes / abilities.

Those levels 1-5 are normally kind of fun since you don't have to worry about full attacks, most melee can take the move action and standard attack, and not lose those iterative attacks. You want to full attack from level 1 or 2, which hinders mobility. If you're limited to a standard attack, you may be doing -much- less damage than a ranger using a two-handed weapon.

So, those are the reasons I didn't make my last ranger a natural weapon one. I still want to try it though, so I'll make one next time.

I see the undead (especially mindless) as a tool, if a druid can use them to further a purpose, they might decide to use that tool. Like a firefighter starting a small controlled fire to prevent the spread of a larger fire.

Agreed, right now I'm imagining a whole druid circle of undead druids, with their own grand druid.

Its not too difficult.

Infernal healing is also available to many arcane casters. In my experience, most clerics are still carrying wands of cure light wounds, most wizards are carrying wands of infernal healing. Dhampir characters too, even melee types, carry infernal wands so they can get some healing from party arcane casters and neutral clerics. That's just what I've seen during PFS play.

Well, I guess the most common use of 'special' here is for convention specials. I believe they're released one per year, at Gen-Con, but are also played at other conventions during the year. The PFS officers, Venture Captains and Lieutenants should be able to tell you more about them. I'm sure they're available if you're organizing a convention with a large number of tables.

Otherwise I don't have experience with Living Greyhawk or FR, so I can't answer those. Your post looked lonely though.

I'd advise finding your regional VC.

Summoners get haste at level 4. :)

I like quick draw though. You can switch weapons, attack, and you still have a move action available. There are lots of ways to use this move action, so lots of uses for quick draw.

I like alchemists fire and tanglefoot bags to help with miscellaneous situations. Fire for the swarms, tanglefoot for high-dex enemies. You still have to hit with the tanglefoot, but denying them Dex to AC afterward is great. (Those bags are also a bane for you.)

The other conditions are hard to deal with at low level, but hopefully you can find some magic items or potions to help as you level. The escape artist skill can help with grapples, especially with your high dex. Sometimes its better to stay grappled if you can survive the damage, and let the party gang up on the grappler. DR can be a pain, DR/Slashing especially at low levels, dang zombies.

Misfortune is nice, but I'm not tempted by guiding star or freezing spells. At least, freezing isn't exciting to stack with Rime, but I guess its nicer when you don't want to use the metamagic. Guiding Star is so situational.

So I'd go with Misfortune and Freezing Spells. That's just an opinion, but I think you considered all the options well so its just a matter of preference.

I love those druids that aren't good. :) Really all you need is some motivation that overrides the aversion to undead. Ebberon had some factions of druids who were opposing aberrations. If your druid circle is fighting the influence of beholders, aboleth, and especially mind flayers, undead may just be another tool in the struggle.

If an evil or just cruel druid is fighting against the expansion of a society that's raping the environment, he might see undead loggers as a perfect tool to animate and send back into the fight.

A goddess of spiders, insects, and slimes may love empowering her followers with just these sorts of abilities.