Sect's page

Josh, I like the new look of the PFS Scenarios but I'd like it a lot more if the blurb could be squeezed in there on page 2. Often it is helpful to the players to have the blurb read to them prior to the game beginning. Currently the only place we can find the blurb is on the web.
It hasn't happened at one of my tables yet, but inevitably there will be a player who shows up to play and doesn't realize he's played the scenario previously until he gets his faction mission or listens to the briefing. Having a blurb read before the game begins may head this off sooner--just my opinion!

Buncha things:

• The assassin vine was too lethal, especially considering that you have to fight a CR 5 Rogue, a CR 5 Illusionist, a buncha mooks, and vargouilles all in the same day, as well as the boss coming back in the morning. I ended up softballing it for my group, which didn't matter that much since they figured out that if one person's grappled, they can all rush in and whackitysmack it to Hell.

• Speaking of the vargouilles, you do realize that, for someone to be affected by their shriek, they have to both hear and see them?

• The bosses are a bit lethal for first levels, though I understand that most of the reason is because the illusionist's "haunts" wouldn't work correctly if he were lower level. I would've made this mod accessible only to higher tiered characters.

• The notes should've been better placed, such as deeper into the manor, or at least not right underneath a missive objective.

• As said earlier, the Cheliax and Andoran objectives conflict; the recommended handout the Cheliaxans were to get didn't fit the objective, though grabbing a vargouille head worked (not only did most of the party play Mists of Mwangi, but they had plenty of Planes knowledge). It's also unclear as to whether or not the Andorans were to keep the suicide note secret.

• In the mod, there was a sidebar that mentioned the difficulty of doing spellbooks. I would suggest following Living Greyhawk's lead, where they just say that you get access to the spellbook, and they list what spells are on it. If you want, I can email a copy of one of my ARs to give you an example.

• Archivist mentioned this a month or two back, but in the end of the mod it mentions that saving the Sheriff gives the party a permanent bonus to CHA checks in that particular part of Andoran, but it's not reflected anywhere in the AR. I ended up writing on each character's AR that they saved the Sheriff, in case it ever came up again.

Overall, though, my group had a good time playing. They got a little fooled by some of the illusions, but once the detect magic and detect evil came out, the haunting goose was cooked.

In our gaming group, we have three people with Ranger levels: Ranger/Rogue (Rogue was for skills, SA, and flavor), Ranger/Paladin (he took it for FE:Human), and Ranger/Fighter/Sorceror (FE: Evil Outsider, and Sorceror for True Strike and long lasting spells). The others are straight classes: one Enchanter, one Illusionist, one Bard, and one Rogue.

Montalve wrote:

and those 2 characters appear in the novel Mass Effect: Ascension

Wait . . . there's a Mass Effect Novel?

To be honest, I'm kind of worried. I'm not talking about the adventure itself: if I get bored and want to run or play a 4e game, hey, I have this free adventure. Woot.

No, what worries me is that WotC KNOWS MY ADDRESS. I'm still signed up due to my days in Living Greyhawk, but I never updated my information on their site. I've also moved since then. Yet, they know where to send stuff to me, without needing to be rerouted by the post office? How the hell did they figure out where I am?

Season finale on Sunday:

IRA vs. Taliban

My big issue is them matching up groups that make no sense, like Spartan versus Ninja.

I didn't notice an ammo counter: I thought for a while that Shepard was reloading, but it turned out he was switching functions.

Certainly at Gencon UK '07 the guys running the Pathfinder Society games

Hm... you have a new human companion, some black guy, but there's another human companion head visible on the status bar (though whether or not this is how the health/shield screen's going to work is unknown; they might be hiding the names to prevent spoilers), a human female (it's not Ashley). Also, previous videos indicate that you also have a quarian with you (I assume Tali); I wonder if the two humans replace whichever member

The new weapons that they have look interesting: the primary one they have Shepard using is a dual function weapon, one mode being a highly accurate assault rifle and the other a grenade launcher.

The conversation cutscenes look really nice and slick. The texture on the Asari that you speak to looks... interesting, almost leathery rather than skin-like. I like how the cutscenes look a lot more dramatic, movie like (whenever someone spoke in the previous game, the perspective would always flip over to whoever was speaking; sensible, but less dramatic), and I like the "action commands" that pop up that you have the choice of taking. Also, that Eclipse commando's helmet that you talk to is pretty sweet looking; I wonder if you can get one.

The extremity damage system that they have is pretty nice: now you can disable legs, arms, and even headshot. They didn't show any other weapons that you could have, but Shepard still has multiple weapons on his back, so I assume you can have up to four, with some of them multifunction.

Sect wrote:

What about multiple weaker creatures? I would think that a swarm of yipping kobolds stumbling over each other would be just as distracting as a deathknight with a two handed sword.

See my rules spoiler. "Aid Another" is a wonderful mechanic, so often underutilized...

What about multiple weaker creatures? I would think that a swarm of yipping kobolds stumbling over each other would be just as distracting as a deathknight with a two handed sword.

As I understand, in home games the Wayfinder/Ioun stone is a DM plot hook device. As for Pathfinder Society... dunno. I guess someone will have to sneak into Lisa's home game or something to find out.

Did you really need to spoiler that, Li'l Mac?

I'm kinda sad that you don't play a new character, but yet it's still pretty cool (plus I'm tempted to try the option where

My psuedo Renegade/Paragon female Shepard will be pleased (she ended with the humans thriving, but the Captain in charge, and she wasn't a COMPLETE b~%&#).

This is kind of an open, informal survey that I was curious about. What does everybody think of the Factions that Pathfinder Society has? Do you like them or dislike them? Have you seen any Factions that draw people, or Factions that are nearly uninhabited? What about the Faction missives and the missions inside?

I really like the Factions and the rivalries between the groups, but I don't so much like the missions. Nearly all the games I've ran or played in, the missions were pretty much "Okay, go on the mission, and you'll stumble across the MacGuffin your leader wants, or dump MacGuffin in certain place", which is pretty boring; I'd rather see something where you actually have to actively accomplish the goals, or go out of your way to do them. Plus, it'd be interesting to see missions that run contrary to another faction's mission (I can see why that'd be a bit rarer, considering that we're trying to keep PvP hostilities at a minimum). The point is, more interesting Faction missions, where some deviousness or creative thinking is necessary.

As for the Factions themselves, I see a slight imbalance in the numbers; most of the people I've seen play go for Cheliax or Qadira, and very few go to Osirion (Taldor and Andoran seem to be in the middleground). To anybody who can actually see these numbers, are my thoughts correct on that matter?

As to how to fix that (if I'm correct)... I have no bloody clue.

Anyways, those are my thoughts.

For the character database, might I suggest you take a look at the database from the Nyrond LG site? It's a very well made and comprehensive database; you should really get in touch with whoever made it.

As for actions Sunder pretty good at low levels useless at high levels. Which adventuring party in their right minds will allow a fighter to destroy the loot.

I've only burned two mods, though more are in the future for me. Our group has three DMs who are more willing to burn mods (myself, my brother, and one other), though some of the others will if necessary (my only restriction is that I will not burn Qadira based adventures).

For me, I DM because one, in my group, I was the person who was pushing really hard for everyone to start playing Pathfinder in general, Pathfinder Society specifically. I felt that since I was the one trying to get it started, I might as well take the hit and burn mods so that everyone can get into it. The second reason is that I feel like I am, honestly, not a very good DM; by running scenarios with my friends, I feel like I'm getting better at things such as improvising and preparing.

I really would like to see some DM rewards, but even if there aren't any, I still wouldn't mind burning adventures. I'm probably in the minority in that, though.

That's good to know: my gaming group is trying to run through all the mods we can get before hand. Right now, our highest are all at level 3.0, but the others aren't too far behind.

I'm playing a Qadiran Ranger/Rogue, so keep an eye out (you'll recognize him by his high flying personality, utter disregard to the safety of himself or his party members (especially the party members), and his inability to swim).

Jib wrote:

Will the Steve Rodgers Captain America be returning to Marvel?

Jean. Grey. You do the math. :)

Shepard lives!
And he looks pissed.

Personally, I want Shepard either dead or hiding: that way, you can start with a fresh character, following in Shepard footsteps. (Actually, what I really wanted was for the next game to take place decades later, where one of the party NPCs was the child of Shepard, who would have their class (and race) determined by how you played Shepard previously. But hey, whatever.)

It could be your mail carrier: I've been getting Pathfinder from day one, and Dungeon/Dragon from a little before that, as well as random giant packages, and I've never had a problem with the delivery.

Nitpick, memo: this is NOT the Alpha version. The Alpha version's boat sailed way before the Beta version was published.

Second, have you looked at the Beta version download, which is for free? If so, then you'll have a good idea what to expect from the Final version of the Pathfinder RPG, with a few alterations that most of the number crunching members of this board have already deduced with a (to throw out a random number) 90+% chance of being right.

Now, my personal view, but if this were a system that I was completely unfamiliar with, I wouldn't want to see an optimized character build (I hate min-maxing); rather, I'd prefer to see two or three character builds using the same class, to show the wide range of things that a character can do in the system. Since this is a system that I'm intimately familiar with, though, I'm just dandy with seeing only Valeros.

Galnörag wrote:

On the topic of character optimization, I know it is a personal style thing, but does anyone not make optimized characters these days? I love to squander skill points, and take flavour feats.

My Barbarian has a high cha, and a few ranks in perform, does he ever plan on multi classing as bard or skald, absolutely not, but he likes to recite poetry while in a rage (which is technically not allowed as you can't make int/wis/cha checks well raging but as it has no mechanical effect my GM doesn't complain.)

Is his Wisdom/Will Save woefully low? Sure, but does he care, absolutely not, its fun to just be a barbarian whose so bent on becoming part of the tales he recites, that he chases fame recklessly.

I have an elven fighter who has perform dance, mainly because I see his style of fighting as more of a dance with lazy appearing moves that strike unexpectantly. My high level cleric has survival because he likes to hunt in his off time, he also has mounted combat because he leads knights into battle often and well was encouraged to be able to ride with them, even though he never really fights from horseback.

Anyways, I think Valeros is perfectly fine. This guy isn't a guy who solos on his own; as I recall, he's usually pulled in the wake of Seoni or Meri, one who's capable of handling those nasty Will effects and one who... isn't... plus, Kyra can usually be seen trudging behind. Hell, from his equipment list, it looks like Valeros is more worried about being lit on fire than he is being compelled to pick flowers.

Actually while I am nearly 40 my wife is in her twenties. :P

A mortal can kill a demigod if he's powerful enough, in other words.

Three of these creatures have ascended into divinity and actual godhood (which means you don't have a stat block because you can't be killed by mortals).

I find it amusing that he has a fire protection spell on his armor, and a rod of extinguishing. Too many fireball misaims on Seoni's part, Meri having too much fun with a wand of burning hands, or his own mishaps with his flaming shortbow? ^_^o

I vote yes for cloning and yes for splicing. I want my catgirl asap damn it!

Well, me and my bro got our tickets for the game a few weeks ago. How's the rest of the tickets coming along?

I say we actually WAIT until we're out there before we start cloning for "repopulation" purposes: we've got enough people on this rock as it is.

Unless we're doing cloning for the sake of clone armies doing battle on some insignificant country, like France or something. Then I'm all for it.[/jest]

I'm in the same boat as the Captain: there for Thursday, then part of Friday, then I gotta book up to Chicago.

So what can you tell me about this game? Are the characters premade, or do we bring our own? According to the event, it says that we need to "bring our own materials", which I assume means books and not characters.

The random generation for the characters and houses are fun as hell, especially if you have multiple people putting input in on how to interpret the results that you get. I haven't been able to get much more than that, but it should be fun.

I was looking at the +8 BoA as an enhancement bonus to armor. so it would stack to mundane armor. at least that is the way i see it. This mans that you get +8 enhancement vs. +5 enhancement. it does not say that a total of +10 is impossible for the BoA, so you can still get holy armor or something like that.

Sect wrote:

I would say that Bracers of Armor do count as armor for the purposes of the Fighter ability, since it does say in it's description that it acts as though the person is wearing armor; the Armor Training feature says that it applies when he's wearing armor.

Thank you for that. At least I know someone else is reading this the same way as me.

Sect wrote:

HOWEVER, I think that using Bracers of Armor in lieu of actual armor is a pretty stupid idea for a fighter. That's a lot of AC that the character's throwing away, after all.

Not sure I follow you on this part. Bracers of armor +8 and full plate armor both grant an armor bonus of +8. Unless you mean it would be throwing away the chance of getting +5 full plate which grants +13 to armor versus the bracers which top out at +8, then I would agree.

For lighter people, it's a +4 Armor bonus for a Chain Shirt, +5 Enchantment Bonus, and another five for spell effects with, say, 22 Dexterity, versus the same 22 Dexterity plus +8 AC. It comes out closer, but the Bracers still lose out. I think someone else said it best when they said that the Bracers work best for Monks.

I would say it doesn't break the game slightly. situation:
BoA+8
Fullplate(MW)8AC
ARMOR TRAINING+4AC
total=+20AC versus the Fullplate regular 8+5+4= 17AC or 22AC with dex mod.(rough estimate)

Heavy armor is still gonna sqeeze out an edge if you boost the BoA vs the armor itself.

I would say that Bracers of Armor do count as armor for the purposes of the Fighter ability, since it does say in it's description that it acts as though the person is wearing armor; the Armor Training feature says that it applies when he's wearing armor.

HOWEVER, I think that using Bracers of Armor in lieu of actual armor is a pretty stupid idea for a fighter. That's a lot of AC that the character's throwing away, after all.

I'm not sure if this has been asked yet, so I'll go ahead and do it now.

For the arcane schools special powers, are they dependent on character level or caster level? I've gotten the impression that you get the abilities based on how many levels of wizard you have, but the explanation in the Spells section of the book is a little bit unclear; it lists the abilities being gained by caster level (for instance, for conjuration you get Acid Dart at first, Dimensional Steps at eighth, and Summoning Master at twentieth).

Sorry for asking a silly question, but I wanted to make sure.

I remember in the Elminster book, where he's first starting his career, his father figure/mentor was a man named Helm... ::shrug::

And I'm pretty sure a certain Japanese manga artist used Artemis as a male's name first. Granted, it was a talking cat, but still.

Phalazar wrote:

Chris Mortika wrote:

I grow concerned.

I agree, this is a very long and uncharacteristic absense. :(

Hmm...a shame we don't know her email. I hope she's alright.

You know, when I first looked at this item, I instantly thought of the Clock from the miniseries "The Lost Room", only that Clock sublimates/reforms brass. It's a really cool item, though the thing about the CON damage doesn't quite appeal to me.

Mac Boyce wrote:

Shadowborn wrote:

Now if I could just find a way to get far enough away from my targets before the live grenade I slipped in their pocket goes off...

Try a mine. I did that once and they didn't blow up for a couple minutes....

*slaps forehead* Of course! Thanks, I've got entirely too many of those anyway.

Mystic Theurge:- Human Priest of Nethys, as b%*!#in as Capt. Assasin.

Shadowlance wrote:

As for the half-orc lovin...you guys don't know what you're missing :-P

Shelyn smiles upon you dear, beauty is in the eye of the beholder... no, I'm not saying beholders are beautiful, but everything can be made beautiful if it starts from the inside... okay beholders too... perhaps, if you ever find any good beholder.

Gen Con is rejecting the LOI to purchase.

Link Here

1)about the Deep Crow... was that really nececery? I mean, the monster is a joke. it was never really supposed to be taken that seariously. at first glance I thought you were kidding- but it actually was the Penny Arcade critter- it felt out of place, somehow.

Thanks for the info.

I'm starting up a Savage Tide campaign in the Pathfinder setting, and one of my players has an interesting concept in mind. But, I need a few questions answered.

First, I'm renaming Sasserine Ilizmagorti, which is a freecity on a large island right next to the Eye of Abendego. I figure it would be suitable for a port city shaking off the shackles of Chelish neglect, with conflicts with pirates. Is there anything I need to know before I inadvertantly ruin my game?

Second, I was wondering how the Sea Elves and Sahuagin are in this setting. Is it possible for them to have settlements in the area of the Eye? Do they still have that malenti thing going on? Any other information that could help me?

As for the Isle, I was thinking about placing it about two hundred, three hundred miles west of Senghor in the Kaava Lands. How does that sound?

Sounds very cool. :D
I'm glad you all had a great time. :)

Um, not clear on this abbreviation: CLW? (Caster Level _____?)

PS anyone is welcome to create a character and join the conversation . . . think of it as a other worldly Cheers.

... Man, that would suck.

We need more heroic prostitutes! All Hail Firefly!

But yeah, aasimar hookers sound fine. Not in Sandpoint, maybe, but yanno....

First time I had ever made a character for myself was at a Living Greyhawk game. Before that, my friend had always made my character and told me how to use the abilities, though I didn't quite understand what was going on on the sheet.

When I was making my first character, there was a step by step instruction sheet right in front of me, and no one walked me through it (though, one of the DMs was nearby to answer my questions). When I finished making my character, a half elf sorceror, I understood the basic rules and knew how to play him.

To this date, he is one of my favorite characters I've ever played.

So, my advice is to have them create their own characters, and don't hold their hand too much.

I'm sorry. I don't get it. Wizards did something to a world that you have total control over? Who cares? If you don't want Mystra dead in your home game, then just ignore the changes they made and play whatever reality YOUR Realms exist in and move on.

As soon as you crack open a game world and start running a game, it's your world, no one elses. If your gaming group defeats King Obould Many Arrows in an epic battle four campaigns ago and then Wizards publishes a book talking about King Obould's many accomplishments 10 years after he was destroyed in your world, are you going to tell your players "sorry guys, your epic campaign that we all loved didn't really happen?"

I really don't get it. I ran the Realms from '87 to '02 and ignored every novel except Icewind Dale trilogy and every supplement. I ran GH from '81 to '87 and then again from '04 to '07 and ignored the Greyhawk Wars and pretty much everything else. My players had fun and I had fun and both game worlds are ready for me to pick up again whenever I want, with what I want.

Wizards is not going to do an IRS audit on your campaign. Yes, you might not be in on all the latest Realmsspeak, but do you really care that much that you're going to get all worried about this and ruin your gaming fun because of what some corporation decides to do?

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

PH only. :-)

It was worth a shot...

At least I didn't invoke the Ps-word.