gbonehead's page

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Anyone else having trouble with the map packs not being flat?

All my older ones are just fine, but the newer ones have a noticeable curl and don't lie flat on a table, making them hard to use.

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We had our final playtests on 1/4 and 1/11, using the updates to the rules as requested by Jason.

This post comments only on mythic damage.

I suggest the concept of mythic damage be dropped from the final version of the rules.

We found it to be a record-keeping issue, almost as if every character had to keep track of two completely different sets of hit points, and from what I can see, it virtually never had much of a practical effect on gameplay.

Something very similar could be gained by granting mythic characters bonus temporary hit points after every rest, for example, a mythic character might gain temporary hit points equal to their normal hit points every morning regardless of what their actual status is.

This would have the cool side effect that mythic characters could take more punishment while keeping going while still being beat to hell because they're at 15 hit points out of 100hp yet after a rest they're kicking with what's effectively 115hp. Sounds like a lot of movies I've seen :)

In any event, this caused us nowhere near the agitation that Amazing Initiative or mythic time stop did, but nor did it really seem to have much of a noticeable benefit, thus slowing gameplay for little reason.

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We had our final playtests on 1/4 and 1/11, using the updates to the rules as requested by Jason.

This post comments only on mythic time stop.

I think any mythic spells in the system should be closely examined for how they affect play at the table. I'm going to pick on mythic time stop because of my experience with it, but in general I would be extremely careful with any spell that messes with action economy.

While the effect of mythic time stop sounds cool on paper, in practice it quite badly destroys flow of play at the table.

After all, only creatures within a short distance of the caster are affected, leaving some players out of the game for a long time. I had a caster using a greater maximize rod to dump a 5-round time stop on the members of the part who were close enough [and a second one as soon as that one finished]. One player got to sit around for close to an hour of real time while the remaining 5 members of of the party took 5 turns apiece followed immediately by another five rounds apiece.

As I mention in my post about Amazing Initiative, the rules need to be very, very aware of what slows down gameplay, and having part of a game table able to act while others are not really puts a damper on the fun. I know that technically it's the same as having a character paralyzed, or unconscious, etc., but in practice it's not - virtually every such condition is fixable, but being left out of a mythic time stop is just a thumb at the nose for whoever is unfortunate enough to be out of it.

Note that this includes the GM. I'm a player too. Like most GMs, I put a lot of work into making sure it's fun for everyone (including me), and an ability that gives me a big 'ol raspberry while everyone else at the table gets to play their character and have fun and I'm just there to take whatever abuse they can think of dishing out with literally zero options for doing anything about it.

Sure, this is an issue for regular time stop too, but the big difference in that case is it's one character, not an entire table, and their options are quite limited. An entire party has many more options and can do a heck of a lot with 5 (or 10) uninterruptable turns.

I'm just glad he didn't cast a maximized greater mythic time stop.

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We had our final playtests on 1/4 and 1/11, using the updates to the rules as requested by Jason.

This post comments only on Amazing Initiative.

We used the new rules for Amazing Initiative, and not a single person in my group liked them, including me.

This could be because we're used to high-level play under 3.5e, with spellcasters liberally using Multispell in conjunction with the full Automatic Quicken feat tree, but we all enjoyed our games pre-transition significantly more; everyone agreed that multiple turns per character instead of longer turns per character was an improvement.

When all the players had the option of taking two full turns (and before I realized there was an artificial limitation buried in the Pathfinder system that mandated no more than one spell per round, something I dislike with a keen intensity), everyone was contributing and there was no feeling of any player monopolizing the table (but see my post to follow about mythic time stop).

After the change, we ended up back in the 3.5e mode of individual players' turns taking even longer because even though they only got an extra standard action, it was glommed onto their regular action. Furthermore, there were many discussions and much confusion about what a PC could and couldn't do, given that it was only an additional standard action and additional spells were administratively prohibitied (but not spell-like abilities, supernatural abilities, etc.). Frankly, the previous rules were just plain simpler (especially since at the time I was unaware of the arbitrary "1 spell per round" limitation).

For us, this new set of initiative rules was neither simple, logical, nor something that helped the game move quickly (quite the opposite). As such, I have the following recommendations for Amazing Initiative in the final system:

• Keep the bonus of +1/tier, or even make it +2/tier, which I think would work even better.
  
• Put back the ability to take a full second turn at the PC's initiative count minus 20 instead of glomming additional actions onto a PCs existing turn. We need individual players' turns to be shorter, not longer. Personally, I'd add a caveat that the second initiative has to be a positive number, no going again at -12 or anything like that.
  
• Abolish the well hidden "you can only cast one spell per turn" for mythic characters, leaving them able to cast 2 spells per round (or 3 or even 4 with a couple quickened spells).
  
• Make it more expensive than 1 point; 2 points seems reasonable. In fact, I'm not against creatures with a high enough initiative count getting even more; if a legendary bandersnatch is going on +45, why not allow it to go on +25 (for 2 points) and even +5 (for an additional 2 points).

A framework such as this is straightforward and doesn't depend on all sorts of exceptions and the like:

• A creatures gets a full, normal turn.
• Should they be able, and choose, they get a second full, normal turn (or more!).

It's much more straightforward, and from what I've seen in the four games I've run, easiser to GM, easier for the players, quicker at the table, and it feels more mythic.

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There seems to be some confusion about the "neither" button; people believe that if they select "neither" the item is not counted as being voted on and shows up again.

That's not what the descriptions I've read seem to imply, but it would be nice to hear for 100% sure that voting "neither" is actually a vote and not just a flag to put the item back in the queue.

(I'm not hitting the "neither" button at all, so I don't really care one way or the other ... I'm doing my darndest to pick whichever one is super-best when both are really good and whichever one is least bad when both are bad.)

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Okay ... so I'm at my work laptop and want to go home and continue looking at items from my home computer.

How do I get the item presentation engine to take a break? Every time I hit one of the buttons, another pair presents itself.

If I don't vote but just log in again, will I see the same items that I haven't voted on? Will they be lost forever? I think I'm missing something here :)

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1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

This isn't only in the Mythic rules, but seems to be an issue over all; there's confusion about inherent bonuses.

The issue first occurred to me because I mistakenly thought the ability bonus due to mythic tier was an inherent bonus, but looking again I see it's an untyped bonus. However, the reason I thought the mythic tier bonus was an inherent bonus is because the ability bonus for the mythic subtype is an inherent bonus.

So, problem one:

wish: ... Note: An inherent bonus may not exceed +5 for a single ability score, and inherent bonuses to a particular ability score do not stack, so only the best one applies.

Pit-Touched sorcerer bloodline:

Tough as Hell (Ex): At 9th level, you gain a +2 inherent bonus to your Constitution. This bonus increases to +4 at 13th level, and to +6 at 17th level. This bloodline power replaces hellfire.

Mythic Subtype:

Ability Bonus: The creature gains a permanent +2 inherent bonus to one ability score upon reaching the 2nd mythic tier. At 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th mythic tiers it may gain a permanent +2 inherent bonus to another ability score or increase one of its existing inherent bonuses by 2.

Which is it? Are inherent bonuses limited to +5 or not? That's likely an artifact of hiding rules in places like the body of spells.

Problem two:

Why are mythic tier ability bonuses untyped and mythic subtype bonuses inherent? I'd expect either both to be untyped (in which case there's no problem), or both to be inherent (in which case, while you can add a third +2 to an ability, you're really only bringing it to +5 ... not a terrible design choice for the ability, as it increases the "cost" of going to a full +5 ... but if that's how it's intended to work it's pretty darn subtle).

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So, supposing someone's item is DQed. Do they get any notification of the fact? Or do they have to be sure to make it through all the items in the voting in order to see if it shows up?

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This is the results from a simple playtest with our Friday night epic group. Ordinarily we play a 3.5e/Pathfinder mix as a mind-boggling level. To get a feel for the system, we created Pathfinder characters at level 12 with 2 mythic tiers. We had six people (not 100% sure that the barbarian was a guardian, as I don't have copies of the characters yet, but that's what my notes say). I'll be getting copies of the characters after the next game:

• alchemist 12/marshal 2 with weakness: hubris
  
• barbarian 12/guardian 2 with weakness: furious rage
  
• cleric 12/hierophant 2 with weakness: weapon weakness/flails
  
• gunslinger 12/champion 2 with weakness: dependency/sexual [1]
  
• rogue 5/assassin 7/trickster/champion 2 with weakness: weapon weakness/hammers
  
• sorcerer 12/archmage 2 with weakness: dependency/flayleaf [1]

[1] Of course, requiring sexual activity or flayleaf aren't technically listed dependencies, but they're likely to be far more debilitating in practice than many others (e.g. furious rage for the barbarian or weapon weakness/hammers for the rogue) ... and certainly more interesting :)

The first night we primarily finished up character development, followed by a straightforward encounter. During character creation, a few questions came up:

• What effect does a variable ability score have on mythic power? If you cast a spell like cat's grace or owl's wisdom, can you gain additional mythic power? How about if you put on a belt of incredible dexterity or a headband of inspired wisdom, or even have the rage ability?
  
• How does the mythic weakness furious rage interact with the barbarian's rage ability?
  
• For dependencies, how much is enough? Ironically, choosing sexual dependency made that one straightforward, but for flayleaf or even any standard food/drink dependency, how much is needed? If a character has to eat spinach once per day, is a half a leaf enough?
  

My personal take on the weaknesses is they're better when assigned by the GM; it's far, far too easy to choose a relatively harmless weakness as a player. As a GM, I defined a reasonable portion of flayleaf for that character's dependency (and stated they had a week's worth). However I also defined that given the dependency, the character just might have a "need" for additional flayleaf beyond the minimum daily amount :)

As far as overall character development, both the alchemist and the rogue struggled to find useful mythic power selections; that's one of the reasons the rogue took Dual Path and went champion.

Once we settled all of that, we had a fairly standard combat encounter just to test out the system, 16 harpies vs. the 6 mythic characters in a surprise situation. By the numbers, 16 harpies is a CR 12 encounter which should be cake and keep it simple.

Surprised by eight of the harpies' captivating song, about half the party failed their saves and headed for the trees; the other half either waited or did the same without being captivated. After the second round the other 8 harpies sang, resulting in a few more failed saves. Overall, the battle took about 5 rounds before the few remaining harpies fled; while the victory wasn't trivial for the party, it didn't feel dangerous, which is what I'd expect for a CR 12 encounter versus a 6-character APL 14 table. Rather than give a round-by-round synopsis, I'll give our overall impressions and what we viewed to be rough edges.

Initiative:
First and foremost, I'll join the choir stating that Amazing Initiative is just way too much. I *do* like the ability to go twice per round, that's an impressive and useful ability, but to give it to every single mythic PC along with a +20 to initiative is way powerful.

Personally, I'd like to see the bonus to initiative separated from the ability to go a second time and possibly lessened - a bonus to initiative proportional to tier would work well and could still result in a +20 at tier 10. Also, making it one point for move action, two points for standard and three points for a full turn might lessen the impact. In addition, this technique could be used to burn one mythic point to take a move action, for example, and save the full turn of actions for the second initiative count, allowing for additional strategy.

Originally, I liked the idea of turning Amazing Initiative into a mythic feat that allows a second turn given an appropriate expenditure of mythic points (independent of the initiative bonus), but I'm concerned that it just ends up as a feat that all mythic characters need to take, at which point it might as well be a standard mythic power.

Also, the ability to take a second turn doesn't mesh well with delay and readied actions. If a creature's initiative count is 37 and they go a second time and ready, what exactly happens? How about if they ready on their first turn and then go at initiative count 7? Can they go again at -13? I'm in favor of a second turn only being allowed if the second count is also greater than zero.

In games, I use 3x5 initiative cards to run encounters, and that got really klunky when people started moving their initiative counts around and taking second turns. I'm going to experiment with two cards per PC next game with the second one only coming into play if they use their second turn.

Spending Mythic Points:
Because the harpies had captivated several of the characters, there was some discussion on whether the characters would use their mythic points to take extra turns to approach the harpies. By the PRD, "a victim under the effects of the captivating song moves towards the harpy using the most direct means available," so an argument could easily be made that the captivated PCs should burn mythic points to move faster. A charmed or compulsed mythic character could easily be forced to burn all their mythic points.

---

Final Thoughts:
The first game was primarily to get familiar with the system. Next game (this Friday) we'll be dealing with a number of encounters in succession to see how an adventuring day plays out. We'll also be running at full cap (level 20/tier 10) to more closely match our usual game, and we'll play at least three games that way.

Overall, we all liked that this felt a lot like our usual epic game, even though it was only at a theoretical CR 14. On the other hand, it felt like there was a fair amount of extra record-keeping necessary. I'm not sure exactly why this was, but we all agreed. I'll be paying close attention next game to see if it was primarily due to unfamiliarity with the system or the new characters or something inherent in the gameplay.

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Is it just me, or is the site crazy slow today?

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

I'd like to suggest a minor improvement to the "My Gift Certificates" page - reverse the order of the redeemed and available gift certificates.

Not only are people more likely to care about the ones they haven't redeemed yet, but for people who accumulate a bunch of them (I use them to save up for minis), the ones that aren't redeemed end up further and further down the page as time goes on.

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So I finally got my two cases of Rise of the Runelords minis (well, actually just the two cases of medium/large bricks - the huges are still en route). The minis are, as everyone says, awesome.

On the other hand, pretty clearly something was wrong with what I was shipped. Based on opening two cases of minis, I should have had pretty close to two complete sets of minis 1-60. Instead, There's a whole pile I have three of, and a whole pile that I have one of - and this is for two full cases.

I would label it as "expected collation errors" if it was a few minis, since you guys were shooting for 93% completeness, but there's fully 15 minis - pretty much all rares - that I only have one of, and that's from opening two full cases.

Based on what I saw, there's "A" bricks and "B" bricks, and it looks like I got shipped 3 "A" bricks and 1 "B" brick - and the "B" brick has the majority of the desirable rares.

Now, I realize there probably isn't a heck of a lot that can be done about it, but it's really disappointing, since it's pretty much all desirable rares that I've only got one of. I guess this is just me expressing my disappointment that I spent that much on these two cases and was the victim of a pretty severe collation error :(

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I'm starting this thread at Erik's suggestion there be someplace for suggestions.

Note that this is for suggestions. If you want to give your opinion about mythic rules, please do it over in the Mythic Adventures thread.

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So if I were to add an item or two to this order, would that delay it even further?

I ask because I *want* to delay it; at this point if it doesn't get handled until Friday I get the minis and stuff this month instead of waiting another month :)

(this is a serious question, I'm not just being a goof :)

-burt

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Hi,

I've cleared up the payment method for my current shipment, so that should be set.

Is there any chance that order #2177110 that I just placed (to complete my Planet Stories collection) can be added to this month's shipment?

If not, it's not the end of the world, that's for sure :)

thanks!
-burt

I'm curious ... what about this MMO other than the names makes this Pathfinder?

In other words, will there be any recognizable rule elements of the Pathfinder RPG, or is this Pathfinder in name only, similar only in that there will be spells, combat, etc?

Edit: Appears I'm far from the first to comment on this.

(and before everyone pigpiles on with "didn't you read the blog!?11!", no I have read neither the entire blog nor all the commentary on Kickstarter nor every single one of the thousands of posts on here :)

So we've got what was originally slated to be a 64-page book, but due to demand there's been what, four full levels added to Thornkeep?

I was really, really hoping this morph into a hardcover with a bigger pagecount rather than a 64-pager with all the meat edited out of it to make it fit in 64 pages.

Any chance at all of that happening?

Come on everyone, you all know you want a larger, cooler book :)

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

All right ... I think I'm okay here because this order is in my sidecart, but when I submitted the order the website told me there was a problem and to contact the webmaster.

Can one of my favorite people ever check on this order for me and make sure it's kosher? It should be two minis pre-orders, each using the l33t discount codez from the Heroes and Monsters cases.

thanks!
-burt

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Ah, payday :)

So, now that I've gotten paid, can you reprocess this order for me?

There's now an additional $170 in gift certificates, and if you could put the remaining amount ($152 and change, I believe) on the card ending in 3051 that would make my day :)

(The card ending in 0250 will fail yet again if tried)

Thank you!

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Can you guys get any info from WizKids about these? It's pretty close to February, but there's no picture or info.

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

So it's weird. I'm in the Product Discussion messageboard, and I can go into any of the product discussion topics.

But then, IN any of those topics, I can no longer get back to the Product Discussion board ... the "Product Discussion" link is missing.

Unlike this forum, for example, where I see "Paizo / Messageboards / paizo.com / Website Feedback / Current Thread Title" in the location section - in Product Discussion the "Product Discussion" one is missing, and it's just "... / paizo.com / Current Thread Title"

I have to click on paizo.com, then on Product Discussion, and then I'm back in the Product Discussion forum.

Weird.

The same thing happens in one of the other forums that doesn't get much traffic; might be the Pathfinder Campaign Setting one, I'm not sure.

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Hi!

I just added a second Bestiary 3 to my pending subscription order. Since it's different than the current subscription one, it won't have that big 2X in a box on the pick list.

Since it's a Christmas gift, I was just hoping there was some way of reducing the chance of an error during collation ... is there some way to force the issue and make it so that the Bestiary 3 has a 2X like the maps and minis?

many thanks :)
-burt

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

The card attached to this order shows up as declined (which it would, I don't have enough room on it), but I have redeemed gift certificates that should more than cover the balance.

Can you tell me if this order will process correctly?

Many thanks!

-burt

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

heheheh

This one had me laughing for at least 5 minutes. At work. Out loud.

Not helpful :)

Penny Arcade: The Old Testament

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For a while now, my login panel has looked like this, with the "RETURNING CUSTOMER" messed up like in the image.

Dunno if you guys care much, but it looks kinda goofy. I'm using Firefox 8 on Windows 7, btw. It does not look goofy on Firefox 3.6 under Linux.

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Ugh. Thank you New England.

I'm in Connecticut, my apologies for being out of the loop; we had no power from Sat-Thu. Great fun.

Anyways, can you put order 1832441 against my gift card balance instead of the card it's tied to now? That would be great!

Thank you ever so much!
-burt

I'd have emailed you, but my stupid ISP's mail server seems to be down. Sheesh.

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I know it's not just me, because KaeYoss commented on it - the FAQ link on the posts seems to be missing now.

Was it removed on purpose?

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Okay, so wish is pretty clear about material components - what about focus components? Anyone ever seen a rule or ruling commenting on whether you can use wish to duplicate a spell with a focus?

I ask because I'm wondering whether using wish to emulate plane shift would allow someone to break into a mage's magnificent mansion. Ordinarily, you'd need a tuning fork attuned to the mansion, which I'd rule was mostly impossible[1], but if someone used a wish to overcome that, should it work?

My opinion is no. Not because wish shouldn't be able to duplicate spells with a focus (it should), but because in this case the focus is something unique. If the focus were something like the focus for mage's magnificent mansion, ("a miniature ivory door, a piece of polished marble, and a silver spoon, each worth 5 gp") I'd say sure, because that's a commonplace thing. A tuning fork attuned to a specific caster's casting of mage's magnificent mansion, in my mind, would fall under the "sorry, you need to provide that component" clause.

But what I'm really looking for here is whether I've missed a rule somewhere. I know how I plan on adjucating it (see above), I just want to know whether I'm breaking RAW or RAI by a developer by doing so.

(I'm aware of the wishcraft article in LoF6, but it really doesn't have much to say on the matter unless I want to consider it as something that would cause a wishwarp. Which I find kind of meh anyways - if I use wishwarps they won't all be the same power, because I find a DC20 Spellcraft check too easy as a blanket DC - if a 40th-level wizard's wish goes bad, I'd expect that DC to be just a little bit higher.)

[1] One might suppose that a high-level caster could create a mansion and then create a tuning fork attuned to that mansion, but that's not what I'm talking about here. Plus, there's no rules for creating a tuning fork, so depending on how that was adjudicated, it might not even be possible.

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Okay, this may be premature, but I'm hoping that at some point there may be a "Part 7" for the adventure paths.

Not that the current format will change any ... I'm just thinking it would be ever so cool if there was an optional Part 7 to all of the adventure paths that picked up right where Part 6 left off.

In other words, it would implement some of the suggestions for continuing the game that are in the last part. Now, for me, it would be ideal if this carried on to level 20 and beyond, but that's just me. And it would be a great way to support the high level rules set that I have my fingers crossed about.

As I see it, this concept would require no modifications to the existing adventure path format, and definitely shouldn't be part of the existing adventure path subscription ... but I think there's many groups out there that would eat this stuff up.

Like, for example, part 7 of 6 for Carrion Crown ... I'm sure someone out there would like to go just a wee bit farther ...

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

So I'm just curious - has Paizo thought at all about "non-Paizo" subscriptions?

We currently have the Pathfinder Paper Minis, which track the Adventure Paths pretty well, and soon (I'm optimistically hoping) we'll have the Pathfinder Pre-Painted Minis line from WizKids. We already have pre-painted minis from Reaper, but I don't know if those are on a consistent release schedule.

But in any case, I'm thinking it would be cool if these other publishers/manufacturers could offer subscriptions though Paizo, in the same vein as the current Paizo subscriptions.

Has that ever come up before? Because I really like the idea :)

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1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

Apologies in advance for this one - I just spent half an hour searching for an answer but no dice.

Is the Paladin's smite evil ability based on alignment, subtype, or both?

Case 1: Auroch the reformed devil is a bone devil in league with the celestials. Per RAW, he retains the [Evil] subtype, but his alignment is LG. Can he be smited by a paladin?

Case 2: Antioch the fallen solar is in league with the diabolical forces of the nine hells. Per RAW, he retains the [Good] subtype, but his alignment is LE. Can he be smited by a paladin?

Case 3: Mattus Kudno, a selfish human sorcerer, has sold his soul to the denizens of the lower planes and is NE. Can he be smited by a paladin?

The relevant part of the PRD is as follows:

Smite Evil (Su): (a bunch of stuff about damage, targets, and effect)

... If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.

So what does this mean? Is a Lawful Good reformed devil evil? Is a Lawful Evil fallen solar evil? Personally, I'd say it should work in cases 2 and 3 above but not case 1, but since the devil retains its subtype of [Evil] the matter gets confused.

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Can anyone help me with the images in the PDFs?

I generate a significant number of encounters from scratch (artifact of a home-grown high-level campaign), and every time I copy an image out of one of the Paizo PDFs, I get a ton of junk.

It looks like the transparent pixels end up black or something.

Anyone know how to copy the images out so I don't have to spend 15 minutes in the GIMP hacking at the image trying to clear up the junk?

I'd be forever grateful :)

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I'd like to add a second GameMastery maps subscription to my account. As I recall, there's no way to do that directly, so if one of my favorite people could take care of it, that would be awesome.

Thanks :)

(I blame the flip mat people. Not only are the maps great, but often the front and back connect as part of the same larger map - and how can that be done without two subscriptions!?)

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

When I do a search of the messageboards, the results show up like they ought, but each line of the search results also contains, at the left, a broken image.

Looking at the source, I see a strange img tag in there:

... blah blah <td> blah ... <img border="0"> ... blah </td> blah ...

What's with the <img border="0"> item in there?

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Hey, there's something I've been wondering about for a while now.

Whatever happened to Christine Schneider? I was really impressed with her work in 2008, but she seemed to vanish off the radar after that.

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Hey, I have a suggestion.

Is there some way that you guys could put up a sticky saying "Hey! XYZ has started shipping!" and then replace it with a sticky saying "Hey, XYZ is done shipping!" when something's going out the door?

My guess is that would eliminate the need for all the people that post messages saying "Hey, I didn't get my PDF yet. Is my order okay?"

Instead of you folks having to answer, everyone else could help you out and go "hey! See that 'not done yet' sticky? Don't bother SM and Cosmo!!"

It would also let those people who do actually have problems with their order know for sure that they should contact customer service.

Anyways, just a thought :)

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Say, how big is this guy? I don't mind paying that much for a decent-size mini, but if it's the equivalent of a WoTC Large or something, well, he's too pricey for me.

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Hi,

Can you check on what's up with order #1442426? AP #35 has been pending for weeks, and now it seems to have been combined with the *next* subscription order.

Is there some way you guys can prod it into life? I really don't want AP #35 to be waiting on AP #37 or whatever it thinks it's waiting on now - some subcribers have had AP #35 for several weeks :(

thanks!
-burt

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

8 people marked this as FAQ candidate. Answered in the errata.

So it's long been a complaint that spell DCs lag due to metamagic. Consider an Empowered, Maximized Fireball - the caster is burning an 8th-level slot for a base save DC of 13.

But what about Heighten Spell?

A heightened spell has a higher spell level than normal (up to a maximum of 9th level). Unlike other metamagic feats, Heighten Spell actually increases the effective level of the spell that it modifies. All effects dependent on spell level (such as saving throw DCs and ability to penetrate a lesser globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the heightened level. The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level.

Important: Note that it does not say "increase the slot by the number of levels you increase the spell." It does say that the effective level is now the level you prepared it at.

So if you now Heighten the fireball of doom, you've now got a base save DC of 18, at the same slot.

There's nothing in the RAW that says in what order you have to apply the metamagic - so I say apply Heighten last. It's not like it's game-breaking - it just means the save DCs for metamagic spells don't lag.

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

My previous post may or may not be in Post Limbo so I'll try again, since all I can see is one of those magical threads with no posts.

[snip]

Buried in another thread:

If your subscription shipment hasn't gone out yet, you might want to contact customer service. I am pretty sure that they finished with the subscription run, so there very well might be a gremlin in the system.

-Lisa

Is it true they were finished as of 2:15 AM on Friday?

If so, I can guarantee that there's a gremlin. It's Monday and my PDFs still aren't available.

Looks like it's order 1426553.

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Buried in another thread:

If your subscription shipment hasn't gone out yet, you might want to contact customer service. I am pretty sure that they finished with the subscription run, so there very well might be a gremlin in the system.

-Lisa

Is it true they were finished as of 2:15 AM on Friday?

If so, I can guarantee that there's a gremlin. It's Monday and my PDFs still aren't available.

Looks like it's order 1426553.

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

Okay, so I'm going to keep on thinking of ways for subscribers to get their PDFs faster.

And I'm sure I'll keep pointing out things that won't work :)

However.

The marvelous folks at Paizo (said with absolutely no sarcasm) have said repeatedly that they're following credit card rules - they don't charge until they ship.

However, as soon as I can download a PDF, I've been shipped a product! Sure, part of my order may take a few days to process, but that's no different than mail taking a few days to arrive, and I'd certainly never expect a vendor to not charge my card until I get the item.

So, suppose that on release day, all subscribers are charged and can get their PDFs, and all orders are then essentially in process. Does that really change anything? The way I see it:

1. There's no more of the current gap between the first/lucky subscribers and the later ones.

2. Shipping of physical items still is handled exactly as it currently is.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but since the PDFs are a product, charging someone when they become available seems like it fits the requirement that "cards not be charged until goods are shipped." The remainder of the order is just "in process".

Am I wrong? :)

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

So there's a message board bug that I'm aware of. I'm sure it's known, and it's probably "on the list", but I figured I'd mention it anyways :)

I typically browse in 2 or 3 tabs. When I'm in a tab and I start to post and think better of it (probably something I should do more often), I then hit cancel.

The bug is that cancel doesn't go back to that thread - it goes back to the most recently viewed thread. So, for example, consider this sequence of events (in order)

Tab 1: Go to thread A.
Tab 2: Go to thread B.
Tab 1: Start to post in thread A.
Tab 1: Cancel. Goes back to thread B.

I'm guessing this is because something's stored in a single cookie or session variable, and it uses that cookie/session variable to see where it should go, rather than having a thread ID somewhere on the page that gets posted along with the cancel.

But I'm just guessing :)

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

So ... just a question about order fulfillment.

I know that there's an automated picker that handles the super simple orders, so they get their stuff first.

And I've gathered that the rest are done in some random order, based on stuff I've read in the various forums.

Is there any possibility of changing the process so that the orders do not get fulfilled in random order?

It would be really cool to be early in the process one of these days, and if there were a defined order for such things, I'd also figure that it would do something like make sure that the same customers weren't always at the end.

Now, I have no idea how the order list is created, but I could see sorting by customer number, and then saying "okay, last time we started with the first one, this time we'll start with the second one and do #1 last. And next time we'll start with #3 and do 1-2 last," etc.

Anyways, just a thought. It would be super keen to be one of the first people going "yay! I got my PDF!" :)

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber; Planet Stories Subscriber

So .. now that I've been tantalized by three pages of the Walrus and the Warwolf as a PDF, I figured I'd ask again

*grin*

What's the scoop on electronic versions of Planet Stories? Is that one of those "never gonna happen due to licensing" things, or is it something that's still in the works?

Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber

I keep hearing references to how earth glide doesn't allow an earth elemental to go through worked stone. Can someone give me a reference for this?

I only am aware of three references.

Earth Glide (Ex) A burrowing earth elemental can pass through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims through water. If protected against fire damage, it can even glide through lava. Its burrowing leaves behind no tunnel or hole, nor does it create any ripple or other sign of its presence. A move earth spell cast on an area containing a burrowing earth elemental flings the elemental back 30 feet, stunning the creature for 1 round unless it succeeds on a DC 15 Fortitude save.

Earth Glide (Ex) A xorn can glide through any sort of natural earth or stone as easily as a fish swims through water. Its burrowing leaves no sign of its passage nor hint at its presence to creatures that don’t possess tremorsense. A move earth spell cast on an area containing a xorn moves the xorn back 30 feet, stunning the creature for 1 round unless it succeeds on a DC 15 Fortitude save.

Earth Glide (Su) You can pass through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except worked stone and metal as easily as a fish swims through water. If protected against fire damage, you can even glide through lava. You glide at your base land speed. While gliding, you breathe stone as if it were air (you do not need to hold your breath). Your burrowing leaves behind no tunnel or hole, nor does it create any ripple or sign of your presence. A move earth spell cast on an area where you are flings you back 30 feet, stunning you for 1 round unless you succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save. Activating this ability is a free action. You can glide for 1 minute per day per oracle level. This duration does not need to be consecutive, but it must be spent in 1 minute increments. You must be at least 7th level before selecting this revelation. You can bring other creatures with you when you glide, but each passenger costs an additional minute per minute of travel.

Note that the xorn's version specifically restricts the ability to natural stone and earth, and the Oracle's version specifically restricts worked stone and metal, while the earth elemental version does neither of these things. So where's the commonly assumed restriction come from?