PFS2 4-08 Battle for Star's Fate

Starting the prep on this, and wondering about the shadow cannons. They list an attack modifier, but it's a 5' burst with a basic reflex save. Whose AC do you roll against? I suspect the attack modifier is in error and should be removed?

2 other issues:
No save DC was provided for the Bugbear Trickster's Kick Sand ability.
The shaken condition is referenced on page 12. PF2 has no shaken condition.

The standard DC for a level 5 creature seems reasonable, so until we get an answer I'll use DC 20.

For shaken, frightened 1 perhaps is a good stand-in.

But some more official feedback would be appreciated.

According to https://paizo.com/products/btq02e5o?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-408-Battle- for-Stars-Fate, Treat it as Frightened 1, where the condition doesn't decrease if it's listed as lasting longer than 1 round.

I have to wonder if it's intended for Star's cannons to still deal the same damage at high tier. With 10 Hardness on the Darkened Shadow Cannons, an average damage roll of 9 from one of Star's cannons will have no effect.

Additionally, there are Treasure Bundles dependent on "successfully influencing" NPCs, but the scenario doesn't seem to be clear on what influence threshold is considered successful.

Not saying I did it right, but this was how I ran it.

Shaken is a troop condition in Bestiary 3. I reasoned that Brianna was the leader of the troop of bad guys and that her shaken condition was subject to the DC 11 flat check in the troop rules.

I targeted a square AC 5 that was closest to the most PCs, or I picked a PC if they were grouped close together and used their AC making them all PCs within the 5 foot burst roll the reflex save.

The influence successes levels are listed in the scenario, and it tells you how to ramp them up based on the number and levels of PCs at the table on page 5 of the scenario.

Hope this helped.

The influence successes levels are listed in the scenario, and it tells you how to ramp them up based on the number and levels of PCs at the table on page 5 of the scenario.

Yes... but which of those thresholds the treasure bundle is based on is not stated. I decided to go with "having successfully influenced that NLC at least once", but I'm afraid this will have a level of variation on that point that it really shouldn't.

Some, but not all, of the NPCs have a threshold that involves handing some object to the PCs, which might be the intended threshold for the TB, but I could also see someone reading it as needing to reach the top threshold.

Overview of my understanding of timing for the Influence system:

Round 1 : Travel
Rasool / Croll are available as an intro to the system

Round 2&3 : At Camp
Croll, Rasool, Star, Brinna and Induren are available

Star gets 2 free points after this

Round 4: Disorder in Camp

Croll, Rasool, Star and Induren are available

Star gets 2 more points and each other NPC gets 1 point.

tl;dr; Treasure Bundles for "Successfully Influencing" are almost certainty intended for hitting the first influence level of each NPC.

At least 1 influence point is trivial.

Max influence with each NPC is doable but hard with 4 players but is not reasonable with 5 or 6.

1st influence level is somewhat easy with 4 players but has tight but doable math with 5 or 6 players.

One slight addendum, I realized Star is not available during round 2, but there is a bonus chance to influence him (or a free point if somebody has a good impression from the previous sheet)

I created both a GM reference and a player handout for influence.

Find them Here

How long did this one take to run?

Looking at the time I sent out chronicles, well under 4 hours.

And that was with a party of six, right? It looks like it would run much faster than In Search of Calamity.

Took me 3:30, but I had a relatively low role play table. I'd expect it to be 4:30 more of the time for me, (which probably means 5ish for most gm's)

I ran it with 4 players in about 3.5 hours last night.

The 6 player table with the particularly descriptive GM at the other table was looking closer to 4 - 4.5 hours

Yes, mine was with 6 players. Online, which for me at least tends to run faster than in-person because people are more focused and not randomly going off and ordering food, etc.

(Also, I agree that 4-04 tends to run longer because of the hexploration, but it's entirely possible to run it in under 4 hours.)

I have 3.5 hours in which to run. Do I need to limit this to another 4 person table?

I don't think you *need* to. The oasis combat is not interesting so I recommend surrender as soon as is practical so as to keep as much time as possible for the end fight, which is.

Agree with logsig. Keep the Oasis fight short and you should be fine. (It has surrender conditions and is easy to do so)

Also you have a lot of control over timing based on how much RP you want with the influence system. I don't think there's a need to cut it short but there's a lot of time control available there

I must have been the particularly descriptive GM referenced above. I'm new to this, so some of that extra time should just be chalked up to me getting my feet wet. Other than that, roleplaying opportunities do abound in this one, and the party & I loved digging into the different NPCs!

Do note the errors and unclear bits above – Pirate Rob flagged most of them for me. In addition, I tripped up on one point not mentioned above: how does Aslynn's ship move so as to trigger the cannon hazards to join initiative? I just gave it a Fly of 30' and stuck it at the end of initiative. Skipping the trigger and automatically putting the cannons in initiative would probably have worked too.

I also ruled by fiat that the cannons were really little Super Mario Brothers-style snub-nose cannons, and that Aslynn's quarters on the ship were more like a ramshackle witch's shack glommed onto the deck. Apologies to the artist.

I'm running this adventure now and we're just entering the final combat. I'm curious how others ran it.

1) The way I read Weapon Systems Activate, it can't be used in the first two rounds of combat because it requires Star to have actions and they don't act in round 1 and are creating the wall of wind in round 2. Is that right?

2) I made the cannons medium-sized creatures mounted on the side of the ship. It seems intentional that with the potions of leaping and the emerald grasshopper provided to the party that can should be able to jump up to the ship and try to disable or destroy the cannons. Did others have PCs who got on board or tried to climb onto the ship?

3) Did you decide that disabling or destroying the shadow cannons was necessary for the PCs to be victorious? (It seems like it)

What do you think?

I let players disable the cannon(s) from anywhere on the ship which was reached via the elixir of leaping.

Do note the grasshopper does still require a DC 30 athletics check to make the jump.

Might be slightly easier to get there from atop of star if you've got something like a gliding Eidolon or related options that help you gain distance without height.

Thanks, that's good advice. I'll likely also have the ship descend a bit in altitude to be able to target PCs. The cannons only have a range of 30' -- and if I assume attack modifier to hit is a typo, since there's also a basic reflex save, then they'll need to be within 30' to target PCs (vs. being able to fire longer with modifiers for range).

Are they saves? Are they attacks? Who knows. Either or both are all reasonable conclusions. (Although reflex save only is the easiest/most sensible way to resolve I think)

I ignored the attack roll and just used the 5ft burst with basic saves. Don't think I noticed the short range though and likely ran them targeting whomever I wanted.

Do note that each cannon only fires 1/round. (Hazard routine/actions can be a bit confusing)

Thanks! That's good guidance.