As a GM, make reroll to help players?


GM Discussion

2/5

Couldn't find the rules on this. As a GM, can I use my reroll for one of the monsters to help my players? E.g. reroll a hit to hopefully become a miss, or reroll a pass saving throw to hopefully get a fail?

Scarab Sages

I believe general rule is no. Not sure about exact rules, but with experienced players I would say don't help them. Death happens.

If it's new players playing their first couple scenarios it's not wise to kill them, this might turn them away from pathfinder by giving them too harsh experience. I would just say it's a miss, people don't see your die roll if you roll in secret. Helping new players this way was mentioned in some official GM guide as well.

2/5

Yes I was thinking of new players. To keep anything too drastic from happening. I play primarily on roll20 and pbp so rolls are open.

The rules refers to players allowed to make the rerolls but was wondering if the GM counts as a player. :)

Scarab Sages

GM doesn't count as a player, so no rerolls for GM. You can try find alternative creative solutions to keep new players alive their first games if things start to look really bad. It's going to be harder in roll20 or pbp. I suggest you try run easier and generally more safe scenarios instead of running challenging ones and they should be safe enough.

Second Seekers (Roheas) 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Regional Venture-Coordinator, Appalachia

I have seen GMs do this at cons, especially with newer players or sustained bouts of incredibly bad dice.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

I've (rarely) loaned out my folio to a player while GMing, usually to newer players in dire straits or when a player was trying something that was too cool to let fail. Nobody's cried foul about it. Using the folio reroll mechanic ensures it doesn't happen too often.

4/5 5/55/55/5 *** Venture-Lieutenant, Minnesota—Minneapolis

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With new players, how about you give them the Welcome to Pathfinder Society boon? It has a tattoo that greatly enhances survivability.

Note that this only works on their -1 character.

Check with a local VO for a copy of the boon.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

Here's a link to the actual boon: Welcome to Pathfinder Society. Distribute them as widely as possible.

Hmm

4/5 *

The GM doesn't get a reroll according to the Guide, so there's nothing to lend.

Lending a folio etc. is probably OK (although it also probably violates the intention of the rule), but a player still only gets one reroll. It's also important to lend it, and then let them decide if they want to use it then or not - forcing them to reroll something means they can't do it later in a more important (to them) situation.

3/5

As someone who is trying to build up a character base in our new lodge so that we may start regularly playing 3-7 scenarios, I regularly apply the re-roll to enemy crits that have a good chance of killing a character.

Of course, I'm rolling in the open so this is my equivalent of fudging the rolls for new players.

5/5 5/55/55/5

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I'll end out a shirt from gencon

If i like the player it will be a clean one..

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