swordchucks's page

I did a fairly basic analysis of the new treat wounds ability.

Spreadsheet

Possibly the most interesting thing about the sheet is that Treat Wounds doesn't do a lot at the lower levels. It isn't until around level 5 (assuming everyone stuffs their attribute bumps into CON) that it starts to take off. Honestly, that's the opposite of what I would expect from non-magical healing.

Now, the current analysis is obviously missing information on crit success / crit fail rates, which will also vary with level and be important.

So, TWF has been a contentious topic since the Playtest started, and for some decent reasons. As it stands now, TWF isn't a great option. It sucks up extra actions to draw the second blade and the benefit is lukewarm, at best. So, based on the assumption that real world two-weapon fighting was mostly a defensive practice and that we want fighting styles to feel viable and distinct without having to spend feats on them, I'd like to propose that the following basic action and reaction be added. I'd also like to propose a tweak to Interact.

(1 action) Offhand-Parrying Stance
You ready your offhand weapon to parry incoming attacks. You gain a +1 bonus to AC as a circumstance bonus (or +2 if the offhand weapon has the Parrying trait) and can use the Exploit Opening reaction.
Your Offhand-Parrying Stance remains until the start of your next turn.

(reaction) Exploit Opening
Trigger: An opponent misses you with a melee weapon attack or melee touch attack.
You make an attack with your offhand weapon against the triggering opponent. This attack is at -2 unless you are using a weapon with the Parrying trait.

For Interact, I would like to see the wording changed such that you can draw a number of weapons equal to your number of free hands. This would obviously help the TWFer, but it would help some classes that rely on thrown weapons, as well.

I'm not big on theorycrafting, in general, but I like benchmarks. Benchmarks help me to understand things and can be used to inform discussions about things. On the FB group, I got deep into a discussion of monks and armor class was being discussed. Out of curiosity, I ran some numbers and it ended up becoming a more robust analysis.

TL;DR version: The more armor you wear, the better off you are. The overall range of ACs is fairly small. Shields can help a lot and push critical range more meaningfully than being-hit range.

Assumptions

Analysis

AC: https://i.imgur.com/nDQCxRf.jpg
To-Be-Hit: https://i.imgur.com/yWXTf1p.jpg
To-Be-Crit: https://i.imgur.com/J5ybDfE.jpg

Among armored characters (and monks), the AC divide is about two points at low levels and three at higher levels. Shields widen this gap to four and five, respectively. In play, I would expect this gap to be as much as two points wider, though I suspect a single point is more likely (which would account for a 16 on a class with Dexterity as a Key Ability or a 14 on anyone else).

In terms of being hit, most characters will get hit 60-75% of the time by an of-level monster's first attack in a round. Shields mitigate this somewhat, but overall hit rates go up slightly as levels increase with occasional weird hiccups (probably caused by the limited dataset for monsters).

Critical hits were the most interesting chart for me because it showed one thing very clearly. If you don't want to be crit, raise a shield.

Limitations
Obviously, there are some pretty big limitations in this analysis. I didn't consider absolutely every case that could be out there (the wizard with the Fighter Dedication or the Animal Barbarian fighting in a loincloth or the strength-based monk are notable examples). I also don't have numbers that conclusively say what Dexterity ends up being in play. Finally, the hit and crit charts relied on data collected on this forum by LuniasM which can only be as good as the monsters we currently have to go from.

Please note any errors in assumptions or math, and I'll discuss and/or correct them.

Alternate title: Acid Flasks, how do they work?

So, I've been running the playtest for my group and have come across an odd bit of a question. In particular, when a player uses a weapon like an Acid Flask, which does 1d4 persistent damage, how is damage applied?

As near as I can tell, the player hits with the flask and this applies the Persistent Damage (1d4 Acid) effect to his target, but does no immediate damage. At the end of the target's next turn, they roll 1d4 acid damage and then roll the flat check to save against the acid as per the Persistent Damage effect. It seems to lead to a strange case where it is occasionally better to miss with the acid flask (so the target takes the immediate splash damage) instead of hitting.

Is that how it's supposed to work?

So... I thought I knew how Agile worked, then someone changed my mind, and now someone else has just left me confused. I'm seeing it both ways.

Agile The multiple attack penalty you take on the second attack each turn with this weapon is –4 instead of –5, and –8 instead of –10 on the third and subsequent attacks in the turn.

The confusion is with the clauses surrounding "multiple attack penalty" and "with this weapon".

Is does this trait mean:

If you are suffering multiple attack penalties, you reduce them when using this weapon.

OR

If you use this weapon multiple times in the round, the attack penalties are reduced (but only when the weapon is involved).

So, for instance, if you had a Club in one hand and a Dagger in the other, would a three strike routine look like this:

Club +0 / Dagger -4 / Dagger -8

Or

Club +0 / Dagger -5 / Dagger -? (9?)

I'm starting to lean toward the former reading at this point because it seems to work better at the end, but I'm still confused and would very much advocate for the trait to be reworded a little.

One thing I hate in RPGs is when absolutely everything has to depend on the dice. People with a reasonable degree of competence don't fail 5% of the time at every task. In 1e, we had "take 10" to combat that, and it worked very well. Now, that's gone to be replaced with Assurance, which only helps with one skill at a time.

I don't mind Assurance, in general. It lets you pick one very narrow area where you can take a mediocre result as a gimme. That's fine. It's not as good as taking 10, but it's reasonable.

However, it consumes a skill feat to have it for just one skill. That forces you to give up something interesting for it, and it's just not interesting.

I would much rather see Assurance become a default mechanic. Allow it for any trained skill with the listed benefits with the "not in combat" stipulation of last edition. Make the feat the ability to use Assurance in combat.

Katina is working to resolve issues for subscribers whose PDFs did not spawn as I type this. She's indicated that she should be wrapping that process up for the larger group of folks who didn't fully later this afternoon. If you're still running into issues tomorrow morning, I would follow up in a separate thread.

As requested, this is a separate thread for 8/18.

I have a subscription to the SFS material, but I have not been charged or received product yet (which is vastly better than being charged and not receiving product, but still not good). Please feed my hunger for materials.

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for level 1-2.

Almost all Pathfinders undergo extensive training for three or more years to learn the tricks of the trade, and their last test before graduating from the ranks of the initiates to the status of a full Pathfinder agent is the Confirmation, a special research project that involves considerable fieldwork and is designed to simulate the initiates' future work as a Pathfinder. Even the noteworthy field commissioned agents sometimes participate in such trials as a way to familiarize themselves with the Pathfinder Society’s rules and expectations. Although Confirmation is typically an individual affair, the society recently discovered a site on the Isle of Kortos that would be perfect for initiates but perhaps too dangerous to handle alone. Successfully uncovering this site’s secrets will not only contribute to the society’s body of knowledge but shape the exciting careers ahead for each of the prospective agents.

Written by Kyle Baird.

----

I'm an experienced PBP GM, though I've not run PFS games yet (before my children were born, I did a great deal of Living Greyhawk, Living Arcanis, Virtual Seattle, etc.). Experienced and new alike are welcome, though we'll be using RPOL for running the game (it's what I'm used to and can really plow through).

To sign up for this game, please visit the following link.

http://www.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=64783