Ezren

archmagi1's page

Goblin Squad Member. Organized Play Member. 2,179 posts. 5 reviews. No lists. 1 wishlist. 2 Organized Play characters.



Scarab Sages

It doesn't appear that the Paizo/Pathfinder Advantage discount from AP subscription is being applied to the Rulebook Sub items (PF2 and Bestiary) in my order.

Scarab Sages

Official name revealed at Celebration.

Palpatine is back!?!?!

Scarab Sages

Example Post

When a Quote block is used in a post low enough that the height of the box extends below the avatar, the text itself keeps the offset for the avatar, but the grey box pushes all the way left to just shy of the post margin. I would assume it is also drawing behind the avatars when it doesn't extend below them.

Scarab Sages

Hi, I'm looking for a few players for an upcoming game.

WHAT: Carrion Crown AP, then after that, Tyrant's Grasp AP
WHEN: Sunday Afternoons / Evenings, US Central Time (Exact time TBD, but about 3-4h sessions)
HOW: Maptool or Roll20, which one dependent on party preference. Voice for OOC is undecided, depending on party preference.

I would expect the group to have a character brainstorming session early in December (2-3 weeks out), and start soon thereafter. Shoot me a message here or an email (archmagi1 at yahoo.com) if you're interested.

Thanks.

Scarab Sages

So seeing the new edition announced, will current RPG subscriptions roll into PF2 seamlessly when the new CRB comes out, or will that be a hypothetical separate subscription? Is Planar Adventures otherwise going to be the final book in the RPG sub prior to the new edition, or is that a wait and see question?

Thanks, and excited.

Scarab Sages

Starwars.com link

SWNN Link

Interesting development. It will be apart from the Skywalker Saga, so no real details on when/where it will occur. Here's hoping for The Old Republic: Episode 1 - Bastilla Makes Hard Choices.

Scarab Sages

So there is this true crime documentary about finding the truth about who drew 27 phalluses in spray paint on 27 teacher cars on March 15, 2016. A sophomore film maker sets out to make a statement piece about how the school board railroaded Dylan Maxwell into an expulsion with little to no evidence. The series evolves into a multi-layered tale of high school intrigue, conspiracy, and judging books by their covers.

It's a satire piece playing on the true crime tv show tropes, but it is a master class on a satire documentary that solidly keeps itself away from the typical mockumentary flavor.

Check it out on Netflix. It's about a 5 hour series.

5/5 for me.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I figured this is on you folk's plate already, but it would be handy to have the various Starfinder store sections quick linked in the quick access area on the left like the Pathfinder stuff already is. I know I can get to the store content through the logo image up above the search, but even for PF, I've never really navigated that way when there are the handy quick links on the left.

Thanks!

Scarab Sages

On the page for AP 115, the next volume link below the product text goes to AP 117. Going back to Ironfang's AP page and navigating to AP 116, gives the reverse problem: The previous volume link goes to AP 114.

Scarab Sages

So the forthcoming Toho Godzilla film has been confirmed to be the third Toho reboot, with Godzilla (and his nsfw tail) emerging to destroy Japan for the very first time.

Story

Trailer

Scarab Sages

Polygon Article

Coming this October, if it doesn't get an XCOM2-like delay until Q1 2017.

The changes outlined in the article are promising. I could use with a more organic tech tree that works more like Beyond Earth's than Civ V's. The creating corps and armies from like units plus support units is interesting. And I could always use a better enemy AI.

Scarab Sages

That Men in Black / 21 Jump Street Crossover you always knew you wanted?

Sony titled it at CinemaCon.

MIB 23

Here's the preliminary logo:

MIB 23 Logo

Scarab Sages

So in a few months after finishing my mythic game, my group wants to branch outside of our typical fantasy genre (and PF in general) for our next game. We've tossed around Shadowrun and maybe a Cypher System game, and even as far as a Call of Cthulhu game. What sort of RPG's do you guys recommend that don't fall in the sword and magic fantasy genre?

Our direction right now is a steam or later (noir, modern, futuristic), non supers sort of game. Beyond that, we're open to suggestions.

Fire away, and thanks!

Scarab Sages

A couple website issues with the Occult Adventures PDF:

1) The section the book is in is "Paizo Publishing, LLC: Products". All the rest of the RPG line is in "Paizo Publishing, LLC: Pathfinder® (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game)"

2) The lite - single file download is titled "Life - Single File", naming the zip file the same as well.

Nothing life threatening or anything, just a couple things my OCD pinged.

Scarab Sages

I would like to discontinue my AP subscription prior to the July shipment.

No changes to my RPG Subscription.

Thanks!

Feedback for cancellation if you guys track that:

Spoiler:
Two APs and a Hardback in the same month was kind-of killer. I understand CON Cruch to have Occult out by GenCon, but that 100 dollar month is hard. Secondary reason: was gonna unsub prior to Hells Rebels anyway. Not interested in Cheliax / Western Avistan.

Scarab Sages

As my group winds down book 6 and prepares to assault the personal complex of Hakotep, I thought it would be good to reflect on our journey.

This was the first paizo AP any of my group have played in from 1 to finish. We've been in parts of others, and played Carrion Crown halfway through before moving onto a different campaign, but the last 14 months we managed to persevere and finish this thing. The group started out with a rogue, a ranger, an oracle, a barbarian, and a monk. Some early attrition saw the barbarian and rogue leave. The Monk had a change of heart and became an improvised weapon fighter. We were joined by an alchemist of many hands. As book 2 wore on, the alchemists player left, and the Ranger became and Investigator (and also became a kobold after getting reincarnated). Down to 3 players, GMPC Ranger joined. That party sustained all the way until the end (with 1 more race change to lizardfolk for the again reincarnated investigator). We had two actual deaths, a number of emergency uses of breath of life, and thanked the oracle daily for the Death Ward spell brushing off banshee wails and fingers of death.

My group really enjoyed the story, and I commend the authors for an AP well done. I still contend it is one of the most enjoyable and fun APs that Paizo has published, and its low forum presence comes from the wedge between MYTHIC! and OMGLAZORZ! Our journey through Western Osirion has been one of our more memorable campaigns to date, and set the standard for insane things a party without a strong arcane presence can do (HINT: It involves much wanton destruction). We were glad to have an AP that caters perfectly to the greed and personal interests that our Neutral Preference players have. And although my party has ruined local economies before, never had it been at 4th level!

Some of our Favorite Moments:
The confusion on the party's faces when the False Sarcophagus Trap triggered and chaos ensued.
The Death of the Ranger's Cat Ted at the hands of a Mummy at an Auction.
The very R rated 1st reincarnation of Drew by a witch and her cauldron / chamberpot.
Muminofrah's inappropriateness, and the uncomfortable fact that the kobold (her favored) came up to waist height on her Nude Slaves.
The gross utter lack of an urgent timeframe before book 5. It will have taken the group well over 1 golarion year to finish the campaign after their frequent pauses for crafting. I'm pretty sure it'll be 3-4 months between the end of last night's assault on the air crypt, and the start of next week's delve into Hakotep's Sanctum.
The 'redshirts' in books 3 and 4 who uselessly stood against the party on their way to Jamirah // the FP.
Not killing the FP, but stupefying her, cutting her hands off, cutting her tongue out, sticking a ring of sustenance and a necklace of adaptation and tossing her into a bag of holding, and using the statue machine in book 5 to turn her into a statue.
1 rounding so many things that should not have been 1 rounded, but they totally rolled last in initiative.
Shaq-bot! Slam! Double Slam! (The bronze sentinel)

Some of our Least Favorites:
So... much... hexploration...
Those 8th level clerics who work the library across the river who could have ended the zombie plague in a day.
The DC25 Know History checks about Hakotep and his Close Allies in Book 6 versus the DC9001 Know History checks about Hakotep existing in Book 3.
Shaq-bot's horrible damage and viability past book 4.
Having to GM Fiat major story implications because the only assumption is that the FP is killed in book 4.

Final Score: 8/10 would play again.

Scarab Sages

I never received a shipping email, and the order history shows shipped. I just wanted to double check w/ you guys that it went out ok.

Thanks.

Scarab Sages

About 30m writing a review for Pathfinder Unchained. Hit preview to see if it is within word count. Goes to store home, losing review when hitting back.

Is there any way we can add a character counter to the review poster?

Scarab Sages

So I've been posting normal threads for a while now, but I've heard a bit about these new "Sell me" threads. What advances over normal threads do they have?

...

Seriously though, it's an odd trend as of late for all the sell me threads popping up across the message boards. I wonder what prompted them to start with.

As an actual point to this thread, I'd like to get opinions. Do you think those sort of threads even accomplish what their OP is asking? I kinda have a hunch that many are insincere posts.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

OK, so I have a GMPC in my game that rounds out the party to 4, and at next level, he'll hit Sentinel 5 and gain aligned strike. The wording of the class ability is a bit ambiguous on whether it just gives alignment bypass or gives the actual aligned weapon quality.

Relevant texts:

ISG wrote:

At 5th level, the sentinel gains the ability to

bypass a specific type of damage reduction when wielding
his deity’s favored weapon. The type of damage reduction
his weapon bypasses is based on his chosen deity’s
alignment.

vs

ISG wrote:

For example, a sentinel of Iomedae can

treat his weapon as axiomatic or holy, but not both.
[...]
Lawful: The sentinel can treat his weapon as axiomatic
if his deity is lawful.

So the summary of the ability just says damage reduction, but the actual power description says "treat as axiomatic." My gut reaction is for alignment dr only, but the entire second half of the class ability entry has me gun shy on whether he should also be getting +2d6 damage.

What does everyone else think? Maybe get a faq or dev sighting for clarification even?

Scarab Sages

OK, so we're currently researching the Mask and Hakotep in Tephu, and one of my players as notified me of his character's last resort option: poke a hole into the bag of holding that the Mask is being kept in, effectively destroying it.

I run into 2 conundrums as a GM with this possibility.
1) The non specificity of a bag of holding. We know what happens to stuff when the whole Astral stuff happens with a portable hole. What actually happens to the stuff when the bag is popped and its contents are "lost forever?" Does the destruction of the non-dimensional space that contains the Mask obliterate everything within the space including the Mask? Does the specific indestructibility from the Mask's major artifactness somehow supersede the destruction of its 'space' and it pop back out in the Material (or per the secret chest spell used to make the bag the Ethereal)?

2) If the Nuclear Option were to somehow work, how would Hakotep's body react with just the ba and the ka? When Nebta burned the ka-pulse and destroyed his own ka, he became quite the megalomaniac zombie army maker hell-bent on the next Geb-like empire. Would the quasi-zombie body go on a rage and power-lust filled destruction spree across Osirion without the tactical restraint that his mind has exercised through the FP cult? Would he return to a living body, mindlessly bumping up against the lid of his sarcophagus until it starved back to death? Would he be a living, breathing Hakotep (reuniting his essence and his self), but devoid of any emotion, desires or will? Basically Hakotep the Tranquil?

If anybody has any suggestions, I'm open to some creative prodding.

Scarab Sages

On my mobile, I navigated to the dragon age inquisition thread in the video games forum and clicked on the last post date. I entered a reply and clicked reply. When the page refreshed, it had posted the reply to the sentinels of the multiverse thread. I went in and copied my post and put in back in the correct thread (via my desktop), and then deleted my post in the sentinels thread. After confirming the delete, the sentinels thread reloaded as the dragon age inquisition thread. All of the posts seem to be correct now, but I figured I would put this blip on your radar.

Scarab Sages

4 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

p65
Missing Earth Blessing header

Scarab Sages

In the Pathfinder RPG section, the 3 inaugural releases (CRB, Bestiary and GM Screen) are sorted into what appears to be the P- area (presumably because there's some meta in there somewhere that has "Pathfinder" or "PFRPG" on the sorting field) whilst the subsequent releases are all sorted alpha-numerically. Are there any plans to get these three goofballs to fall in lock-step with the rest of the section?

Scarab Sages

Intermittently today on the main messageboards page once the page finishes loading, all the visible thread titles double or triple in text size. The text of everything else on the page remains the same size (left frame, subforum titles, subforum descriptions, etc). Chrome 36 on android.

Scarab Sages

I got an email saying there was a "transaction declined" message for the payment authorization.

Checking my banking website, it currently shows the order amount on current cycle authorizations.

I recently changed my address with the bank, and I'll update my billing address accordingly. Can you guys verify if it authorized correctly on your end?

Scarab Sages

When did this amazing downloads tab when browsing an item you've purchased in the store appear? Has it been there all along and I've never noticed it, or did it sneak in recently?

It's great by the way!

A suggestion for it, however. Under the PDF price where it says (In your downloads), if you clicked on the link there, if it flipped the tab over to the downloads rather than a redir to your My Downloads page, it would be so much more convenient.

Anyway... good job!

Scarab Sages

So, I got the hot idea today that to get my party already together and to keep them in a group motivation (particularly if they decide they want to to be their Evil campaign they've been bothering me about), I'm toying with the idea of having them all be Most Worthy Angelic Princes operating out of the Sothis branch of the Order.

What other sources beyond Trail of the Beast has info regarding the Order? They're sadly missing from Faction Guide, but is any info given about them in Rule of Fear or either Osirion CS book? Or any other book for that matter (there is a callout to Scarwall (Crimson Throne, I believe) and them helping slay Kazavon, but I don't wanna make a blind purchase and it be a dead end with just an NPC who belongs to the org being an ally).

Anyway, As I go through adding EOoPE to the AP, I'll post changes and musings.

Scarab Sages

I subscribed to the AP subscription to start with Half-Dead City. Earlier in the week, it showed it was set to authorize payment yesterday. Having not received the usual authorization email (like I get for my RPG subscription), I check my subscriptions page, and now the top thing listed is Empty Graves, due in April. Down in the recent activity area, it shows Half-Dead City as "[...] next volume to ship."

I just want to double check that Half-Dead City will ship on time, since I've not gotten my authorization email. I'd hate to not get my subscriber PDF until April when book 2 ships!

Thanks!

Scarab Sages

Can you provide what tiers that mythic abilities fall into? I have no interest buying a product with 1 1st, 1 3rd, and 6 6th, so including that in the product description would help me decide whether to purchase or not.

Thanks!

Scarab Sages

Hello,

Have the standalone errata documents download links for download and printing been moved elsewhere? They used to be at the top of "My Downloads" page. Thanks.

Scarab Sages

So one thing that I've been postulating over the last few months is how/if I could convert Dragonmarks over to something akin to Mythic Paths. As it was in 3.5, the Dragonmarks weren't that powerful in general, and dabbling them in the fringes of Mythic could make them a bit interesting, and actually powerful enough to warrant why the Dragonmarked houses hold such a prominent position in Eberron instead of being folks with some generally out of combat 1/d SPA's.

Anyway, here is what I kinda had for an idea:

Dragonmarks
Least Dragonmark: 1 MP, Gain the "Pick 1 of 3" ability for your House's Path
Lesser Dragonmark: +2 MP, Gain one 1st Tier Mythic Ability of your House's Path
Greater Dragonmark: +3 MP, Gain one 3rd Tier (or lower) Mythic Ability of your House's Path
Syberis Dragonmark: +4 MP, Gain one 6th Tier (or lower) Mythic Ability of your House's Path

Abberant Dragonmarks
Least: 1 MP, Gain the "Pick 1 of 3" ability for any Path
Lesser: +2 MP, Gain one 1st Tier ability for any Path (doesn't have to be previous one)
Greater: +3 MP, Gain one 3rd Tier ability (or lower) for any Path (doesn't have to be a previous one)

Houses
Cannith: Archmage
Lyrandar: Archmage
Orien: Archmage

Deneith: Guardian
Ghallanda: Guardian
Medani: Guardian

Jorasco: Heirophant
Vol: Heirophant

Sivis: Marshall
Tharashk: Marshall
Vadalis: Marshall

Kundarak: Trickster
Pharlain: Trickster
Thuranni: Trickster

Progression
The initial Dragonmark could be gained by a feat, but subsequent levels of the Dragonmark would require similar 'tasks' like a Mythic character needs to progress up tiers. Minimum HD for higher ranks would be 6th, 9th, and 12th, respectively. There will have to be heavy GM/Player coordination in determining what a PC should be doing to advance their Dragonmark. Abberant gets the shaft as they don't get a 6th Tier manifestation, but their benefit is that they can choose any path's abilities.

Additional Rules
Any abilities tying to Surge or Mythic Spellcasting should probably be disallowed. I would even say that Universal abilities might not be appropriate except for Abberant marks.

Any ability that uses your "Tier" as a mechanic should use 1 for Least, 2 for Lesser, 3 for Greater, and 6 for Syberis.

Considerations
Mythicness would be fairly common in this world, as there are a large number of Dragonmarked folks, but without full paths, the limited abilities of the Dragonmarked wouldn't probably push them more than +1 or 2 APL at the Syberis level.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Scarab Sages

This weekend, I will be pitting my mythic party against some of these folks. Right now, it will likely be composed of Bloodragers, Slayers, and Shamen.

Here's the Bloodragers they'll face

Half-orc Bloodragers:

Half-orc Bloodrager 7 (CR6)

Array: 17,12,14,8,10,14 in order after racials and increases

Build:
1- [Toughness], Aberrant Bloodline
3- [Power Attack]
4- +CON
5- [Cleave]
6- [Improved Grapple]
7- [Vital Strike]

Tactics:
DPS Mooks with reach (15' after enlarging) to harrass party

Mythic Half-orc Bloodrager 8 (CR8/MR2)

Array: 18,12,16,8,10,14 (+2 CON from MR2)

Build:
As above execpt
1- Arcane Bloodline
6- [Disruptive]
8- +STR

Mythic Abilities:
Competent Caster, Immovable, Extra Mythic Feat (Mythic Power Attack)

Mythic Feats:
Mythic Toughness

Tactics:
Rage and primary DPS using the defensive abilities gained in Arcane Bloodline (Likely Blur and Haste)

Creation Feedback
Other than previously mentioned items in the class discussion threads, nothing exceptional popped out making these guys. DR1/- is epically useless, but that's always been a fact. Many bloodline abilities are hit & miss, with Arcane sticking out as the best bloodline to use for an enemy combatant. I would hope to see an archtype that would allow a wider spell selection, perhaps replacing the DR increases with a spell from the sor/wiz spell list of an appropriate level? That would have made the arcane build a bit more attractive.

I'll reply here with my slayer and shaman enemies once I finish working them out.

OH, also, one of my players has rebuilt as a Bloodrager/Dragon Disciple, so I'll be getting some data from him as well.

Scarab Sages

OK,
So I'm looking over the Pairaka Div, and I have a mental problem. Is the Shakes disease, a contact disease, still contagious when the Pairaka is under the effects of Change Shape (lets say a human female). Change Shape references Polymorph, which references Alter Shape.

The part that I'm having issues with is that Change Shape says ", but retains most of its own physical qualities." versus the Polymorph subschool saying ", you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities that depend on your original form".

How do you other folks rule this? Does the Polymorph rule stand above the ambiguous retainer in Change Shape? Could the Div Change Shape into something that still had the boils the Pairaka has and still be contagious? Does it fall completely into the next sentence in the Polymorph subschool entry about GM fiat? Input appreciated.

Thanks.

Scarab Sages

No Ultimate Campaign preview? *Sadface*

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Didn't see the thread already, so here it is.

Wormwood Mutiny, Day 1, Mr Plugg's tests.
PC Remiri the Undine Cleric / Gunslinger (gestalt) can't make her 1st climb check and is getting ribbed by nearly the whole ship. Gets mad and uses her daily Hydraulic Torrent and they pick Jakes Magpie out of the lineup of sailors on deck and he meets the drink. Plugg orders him fished outta the sea, and the party laughs even more at Jakes during the inaugural "Bloody Hour."

Said PC is also punished by 8 hours in the Sweatbox, which seems not to bother the Undine that much as she is a cleric and proceeds to fill up the box with create water, vastly reducing her base save DC. Confounds the bad guys when they dump her out at Bloody Hour and 30 gallons of water pours from the box.

Day 2
Nat 20 on a diplomacy (meeting the hostile dc on the nose) bamboozles Scourge's wake up call group, and they decide that the party is fine without a few extra bruises.

Day 3
The winner of the Rigger's Climbing Contest (A peg legged hobgoblin), has failed her third daily task in a row. Mr Plugg has now found his favorite whipping post.

Scarab Sages

Gnome is listed on both tables 5-4 "Core Race Aging Effects" and 5-5 "Featured Race Aging Effects"

Scarab Sages

Now that there are the images lite versions of the PFRPG line, is there any way in the downloads page that those books can be expandable/collapsible like the publishers are? Right now, I'm looking at my downloads page, and for 8 PFRPG books, I have 32 visible download links. I know its nothing major, but having a little +/- arrowhead next to each of those 4 links per book downloads would help clean up that page a bit.

Thanks.

Scarab Sages

Its not in Qadira: Gateway to the East. Its not in ISWG in the Qadira entry. Does anybody know, or is it unpublished?

On a random guess, is the capital city simply "Kelesh"? Most of the time the word is used its in adjective form describing something or someone of the Empire.

Any help would be appreciated.

Scarab Sages

6 people marked this as a favorite.

Arcanum reference for the win!

Scarab Sages

Didn't want to post thanks in the bugs thread so I am here.

Thanks for updating GMG and APG into the PRD website. Now I can go back to using *only* the PRD site instead of flip-flopping between a few different websites.

Scarab Sages

Hello,
I have noticed that the Bestiary 2 has moved back to scheduled to ship in December on my subscription page. I will be out of the country between the 18th to the end of the month, and would like to delay the delivery of the subscription shipment until after Jan 01, if possibly (and if it indeed ships in DEC). Thanks.

Scarab Sages

Magus: Built as a BBEG with all really high stats (+3 mod on most)

Spoiler:

Magus 6 (500xp)
--------
I+3, AC20(T15F17)
+8 Heavy Pick (+1 Keen) 1d4+3 (19-20/x4) + 1d6 Acid
+8 Melee Touch
30HP F6 R4 W7
S16,D14,C14,I18,W14,C8
+1 Chain Shirt, +1 Keen Heavy Pick, ROP1, +1 Club, Handy Haversack
Handy Haversack: 300' Rope, 6x Adamantine Manacles, 1500gp, 5x CMW Potions (CL3)
Feats: Combat Casting, Spell Focus Evo, Weapon Focus Heavy Pick, Dodge, Weapon Focus Touch Attack
Features: Spellstrike, Spell Combat (-4 To-Hit, -2 Conc), Spell Shield, Arcane Weapon (Corrosive), Empower Magic
Spells Per Day: 5/4(2)/3(1)
Prepared: 0- Acid Splash, Ray of Frost, Prestidigitation, Daze
1- Shocking Grasp (x2), Grease (x2), Magic Missile, True Strike
2- Elemental Touch (x2), Invisibility, Blur

Build Notes:
Building a bad guy gives me a lot of room on stats and equipment, basically tailor made to fit what i needed. I went with the heavy pick simply for x4 modifier and i knew the party didn't have the proficiencies to use it after-the-fact. Magus Arcana are a bit slim picken's at levels 3 and 5. Arcane weapon is the bread and butter at this level.

Party:

Spoiler:
All level 3: Orc Cleric, H/Orc Sor, Aasimer Sor, Human Rog, Human Monk. All have HP between 25 and 35.

They are about 70% of AVG wealth for level 3's. This is considered and epic encounter (CR5, 2xCR1/2 and 2xCR1). All PC's have an extra +4 hp at level 1.

Battle Prep:
The Magus and his thugs (2x War2, 2x Rog2) are a local gang and ambush the party. There are four side alleys off of the 15' wide road, with the party starting in the middle of all the alleys. Two party members make their perception checks to notice the ambush and act in the surprise round. When the party is near dead, the thugs will attempt to use nonlethal damage in order to rob the party.

Combat:
Combat lasted 8 rounds including surprise round.
S - Magus casts blur and calls lackeys, who surround the party
1 - Magus moves up, attacking with the pick; Lackeys and party exchange blows.
2 - Magus uses spell combat to cast Elemental Touch (APG) and attack (This only is a single attack since elemental touch has no attack associated with the initial casting). He makes greater than a 20 on his concentration check, easily passing (Note his d20+6+4+4-2 is +12 vs a DC of 19 for the second level spell, passing on 7 or above), hitting the monk for around 1/2 of his hp. The thugs begin to work wonders on the party, with the rogues flanking, getting a few good sneak attacks. The party reduces one of the war2's to 1hp, injuring others.
3 - Magus uses TWF to both attack with his pick and his touch attack, missing with both. The thugs have 2 party members reduced below 50% hp. The party's rogue lands a crit on the magus (with Sneak Attack) but it is negated by blur's miss chance.
4 - Magus uses spell combat to cast True Strike first then attack with the pick. He fails his concentration check, and subsequently misses the pick attack. They thugs continue to pick away at party hp. The party kills the 1hp thug by a lucky crit.
5 - Magus continues TWF with his elemental touch and pick, landing the melee touch, but failing the pick. The thugs reduce a third party member to less than 50% hp. The party fails to do anything productive, but nails the magus with a magic missile.
6 - Magus once again TWF, hitting one party member with each attack. One of the thugs dies due to a crit on an AoO on a failed acrobatics check. The other thugs do little else. The party dispatches two more thugs, leaving the magus and a thug. A crit from the rogue gets by blur and drops the magus to 40%hp.
7 - Magus is looking dire, hitting with a pick attack, but missing his elemental touch (last round of it). Last surviving thug crits the rogue to -6hp. The monk scores a hit past blur, the cleric crits the thug, and a magic missile from one of the sor's finishes the magus.

Impressions:
Spell Combat is not bad at this level. I can see how it would be problematic lower than lvl 4 or without combat casting. At level 6 and with the feat, however, i still had a 35% chance to fail at a key feature of the class. Arcane weapon stands out as perhaps the best class feature sub level 10. None of the magus arcana seem worth while at this level (except maybe concentrate). The class played solid, though I could have probably turned the encounter into a TPK had the magus used spell combat to cast a few shocking grasps first and attack with the pick secondary. If there are more spells like Elemental Touch in the Ultimate Magic, Two-Weapon-Fighting may be a good feat for the magus to pick up when he's not wanting to use up immediate resources. Also, spell combat with true strike then attack is fun, but I'm sure the spell casting could be used better.

Note about Elemental Touch

Spoiler:

The way my group interpreted this spell is that you can cast other spells during its duration, and that it has not charge to be held. Justification is that its a range: personal instead of range: touch, much similar to Burning Gaze or Shield. Also, because of this range, we determined that it was unusable through Spellstrike (even though the spell provides you with a touch attack). I can see potential craziness with two-weapon-fighting, spell combat and spellstrike giving a +6/+1 BAB magus a free cast of a touch, a melee with the weapon + touch effects, then a slap with elemental touch. This is at -8,-12 to-hit though (ruling that touch attacks are light, reduced with TWF feats).

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

For a group of shocker lizards to use their Shock (Lethal Burst) ability, do they all need to act on the same initiative count to contribute to the burst, or does one single lizard use the ability and the other lizards contribute without an action?

Scarab Sages

So I've adapted my homebrew setting to the wonderful Pathfinder RPG ruleset. I'll detail the 'mis'adventures of my group of heroes traversing across the realm of Praetor.

NOTE: We are an online group, and play over OpenRPG, with our first few sessions happened on maptool.

==First Few Sessions==
Cast (ECL 1):
Chupin the Halfling Klepto (Rogue, Ranged Specialist)
Mora the Human Headhunter (Ranger, Ranged Specialist)
Dirk the Human Womanizer (Fighter, 2h Weapon Overruner)
Iiana the Human Preistess (Cleric of Iomedae)
Shindoar the Half-elf Spellslinger (Sorcerer (Dragon))

The group are all independent agents who come together to answer a job posting about evicting a few miscreants. The job poster, who happens to be a local Merchant Lord on the nation's ruling council, tells the group about a rental estate of his that has recently had troubles with its tenets. The patron tells them that Devil Worshippers have taken up residence, and he wants them out, forcefully or otherwise.

A day or so later, the group comes upon the said estate and encounters our first pathfinder fight: A single, half-drunk guard. A well placed arrow startles him awake, and the group kills him before he can do much warning besides yelling. This fight went smooth, with the party of five taking the man down in 1 round.

The group then tried to get through the door. This happened to be a bit tougher, because the door was barred from the inside. A few failed strength checks to bash the door had the party frustrated, but they finally got through. The door smashed down, but our fighter was immediately set on fire by a flying alchemist fire.

The doorway was blocked by two 5-foot cube crates side-by-side, so the party couldn't immediatly charge in and wreak havok. The ranged fighters began flinging equipment toward the under-cover thugs inside, while our fighter decided to give CMB a test. We fumbled a few minutes on the mechanics of it, but eventually settled on how it worked, as he shoved one of the crates backwards against an opposing thug. Door now breached, the others moved in and finished off the thugs.

The rogues skills were put to the test on a trapped room with a few hidden locked treasures within it. The group went to the estates final room, and found it securely secured. The rogue spent a few attempts on opening the lock, nearly ruining it on his first try, and the group entered to a macabre chapel, with a bloody Asmodean priest and his pair of vicious guard dogs. Sleep effects were exchanged with the rogue and the half elf being the only ones staying awake to face the priest and his sleeping dogs. After waking up a few companions, the priest was dispatched and the group was clued into a mysterious human trafficking ring led by a man called A.M.

The group then returned to town and recieved their reward, and decided to look for more work.

==Impressions==
We all picked up on the changed mechanics pretty easily. Consolidated skills being the best change for this leg. Our characters held up really good against the three fights, and only the sorc ran out of level 1 spells. We used the 2d6+6 generation method, and gave every character an extra 6hp at first level. This resulted in a pretty strong group who had only 1 unconscious drop the entire adventure (the poor fighter who was being burned alive and had daggers being hurled at him). Overall, impressions were very positive.