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![]() I also can only recomend the talking to you players part -> While i am quite a powergamer myself the constant talk with my players and GMs led to the question of my wizard: "Do you want support or summoning" (He is purely build for conjuration but I will swich focus to support when we have 6+ players or I know I have competent players on my table) The most memorable Situation was as my VC told me in my fist game under him "I know you will play a slumberwitch but please consider you are the one Lv 6 playing down to tier 3-4 it would help the enjoiment of everyone at the table if you tone down a bit." My Problem with suboptimal characters is that i learned the hard way in my first scenarios what happens if noone on the table is able to carry his weight in combat or able to make the Diplomacychacks in the scenario. That is the reason why I have no hesitation to build very competent characters who have easyly the option to make many necessary skillchecks (mostly one of the social skills Diplo/Bluff/Intimidate) and are able to dominate a combat if necessary. But if I am asked to tone down the characters are able to (other spells/not using the ugliest combos). ![]()
![]() In my opinion it happens rather often that the players invalidate the tactics so that the gm has to improvise. One thing that happens often is "... uses his ranged attacks against the party" but he is in close combat after the first round. But i have to agree that we as GMs should follow the tactics as much as possible and if the tactic states DO NOT USE ABILITY X than you should never use it. We have the right to give the players small bonuses +-2 to their skillchecks based upon how they roleplay but it is very important to not chnge the actual DCs or statistics becuase the scenario should be the same no matter who GMs it. There are many storys of GMs who have changed the scenario which lead to a tpk or much more ressources used so this is not appreciated. ![]()
![]() I think it is worng to preread ONLY to get information about the chronicle but at least in our region the Gm will sometimes say: "This scenario would be great for you ..." This might be because of an recurring enemy, an boon or the general theme so it does not spoil anything but helps to get the rewards to the right characters (sideffect the chars fit the scenario much better.) ![]()
![]() 1.) GMcredit is a normal chronicle with full xp/pp/gold and you get to choose which boons you want (factionboons only if you are in the faction) 2.) No 3.) The party do not need to be all slow or all fast and what your party does does NOT affect your chronicle in any way 4.) You run a PREGEN (or let a player run one) and there is no extra credit 5.) There is only one downside i know of, you cannot complete any factionrewards other than the gming one from the factioncards and you might not be able to get one specific boon that is called out in the scenario Spoiler: In Valley of the weiled flame the whish boon ![]()
![]() I would not have a problem with that but maybe that comes from playing with a VL who fanaticly tries to get the (non divine casters) to worship his Eidolon as a God of Fluffyness and "all cute things" -> As long as everyone at the table is ok with that i do not see a problem if there is you can remain silent because you do not get anything mechanicly from this. Not to say that I play with a Paladin of Erastil since 4 Levels and must ask every Scenario what god he worships because it could be any "good god wiht something to do with nature/boats" so i do not think it is THAT relevant to know the exact god of a divine class -> Heck there is even a seperatist archetype for those wierdo Clerics. And because of Crossovers: After seeing someone playing Sara Kerrigan (Starcraft) as an Eidolon of his (pretty nonexistant) summoner and that contributing much to the fun of the table i have no problem with crossovers. But all in all as long you do not disturb the table with it do it if it makes the game more fun. ![]()
![]() My call about invisibility and AOEs is that if you are going invis and do not telling the party where youll end up you will get the AOE without speaking against it, becuase the caster has no way to see you or take you out without metagaming. That said, I am mostly the one in the AOE -> yesterday the wizard began casting sleep, the enemys dropped a darkness and i moved to one of them and killed him so when the wizard fired the sleep to the place where it would have reached the two enemys last round it got me (failed save) and en enemy (made his save) and the whole table agreed to that was how it is handled if you fire an AOE blindly (or cant see your teammembers otherwise). ![]()
![]() As a player an Gm I have always seen it handeled the way -> You ask if it is ok, if yes fire if no do another thing. I first got in contact with this rule in a scenario where you fight a Troop (much uglyer swarm with automatic ranged dmg) where my only option was to include a already downed Character in an AOE to get the troop down to kill it before it would TPK us -> Our GM said it would be ok because ALL players at the table agreed to it including the downed player. The result was the downed Player was at -Con+1 and survived barely becuase of a shield other and the troop went down so that the party could survive. Second great encounter was with my Swashbuckler who said to our blaster: "Nuke me (with Refsaves) if you would get more Enemys with it" (I had an Refsave about over 20 and a kind of evasion (MANY multiclassing)) It was kinda ironic, that i rolled two times a 1 to evade him (and took the dmg without complains (but laughing with the table) -> But it got absolutly hilarious when he got dominated later and was ordered to nuke our party: Because of his actions earlier (he always had me in his AOE) our GM let him place his AOE so that the Big Bad was also included. (Hey you nuke your allys all the time^^) And the third encounter was where I was scouting (invisible) and gave the Group the Attacksignal and moved back in (while invis) and got cought up in the black tnetacles of the witch because she placed it where it would be most usefull (and wihtout asking me because she had no option th know that I was in the radius) It took me out for a potion of the encounter but teached our groop that invis must be used with communication or at least preperation. So I think this rule should be used carefully and if noone is activly trying to fight PC vs PC you should allow it if they are ok with it. ![]()
![]() As someone who gms Emerald Spire, I must say the time to prep/run ES is much less than run/prep 3 pfs Scenarios, but that is also the case with We be goblins, where a clever GM could potentially farm his fist Star in under a day because the TPK by achemist is legal and incharakter for this scenario. I think it is much easyer to say all modules count as 3XP/4PP/2ToC becuase it would otherwise open a con of worms -> But i must say it feels wierd how fast you get your ToC if you master Emerald Spire and some Mods. ![]()
![]() I think the previewtext should be everything you know before the scenario, maybe this is because we read tthem while signing up on warhorn but i appreciate if our GM says bevore the game: "this scenario would be grat for your ...." or "You realy should play this scenario with a charackter that knows ... (the blackros/ recurring Big bad)" But there should no list of enemies per scenario in the net becuase there will be people who abuse it -> I know that they likely can cheat with GM-prep but with more options there will be more temptation. ![]()
![]() The prep is realy easyer with preregistered characters -> especially if you know the APL And mastering many modules it is very clear that some of them are just not fun if you have too many players (either because of it is too easy or the characters have literaly no place to move)
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![]() I ask only for things that seem "odd", but that is mostly how some mechanics of an obscure Archetype or Class I have not played are handled. We have nearly none fullaudits in our area, I have checked some Lv1 Chars with Attributes that seemed too low and correctet them but we only ask if you have the book in question. This is a huge help for myself if I show up to a gameday or evening and have 4+ Chars with me so i would need to pack all hardcovers and many softcovers to cover all things for them.
But as some other posters already said, it helps if you play with a smaller group of people and talk outgame about the chars, so that mistakes are either not made or corrected very quickly (my own -2 used a racial not legal which was correctet the fist time I told the group about the concept.
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![]() You can use fey foundling (+2 per dice but only for yourself) in combination with shield other/lifelink. My own PFS-Healer is a dualcursed Aasimar Lifeoracle (FCB for channel) with Fey foundling/Misfortune (rerolls)/Battelcry (More rerolls AFTER the save is failed)/Fateful chanel. This gets quite asurd when i can heal the whole group, get them to roll twice (on one roll) and if they fail a save they can reroll if they have failed it. Misfortune is for Critnegation or forcing to reroll 1s on skills. So in my opinion there is no better Healer than an lifeoracle because you dont only heal but also improve the saves of your allys massively and ist very nice to say to an enemy who critted "Reroll" ![]()
![]() So here the prep for level 3 and 4: Spoiler:
(Wann stehen die PC auf?) (Der erste darf einen Perception oder Sense Motive Check machen – die späteren um je 2 erschwert)
Ihr werdet von VC Callisro Benarry bereits früh morgens im Schankraum der Schenke zum roten Schild erwartet. „Setzt euch, setzt euch“, fordert sie euch auf und schiebt euch einen Teller mit Speck, Rührei und frischem Brot zu. (Perception DC 10: Es ist diesmal kein Alko-hol auf dem Tisch.) Sie führt ein bisschen Smalltalk bis alle PC anwesend sind. „Nun da wir nun alle versammelt und von diesem guten Frühstück gestärkt sind kommen wir zum ge-schäftlichen Teil. Noch einmal vielen Dank dafür dass ihr euch bisher so gut geschlagen habt, das Forschungsteam war begeistert ein so gut erhaltenes Exemplar einer mondspinne in der überfluteten Fallgrube zu finden, dies hat unsere Erkenntnisse über diese Spezies stark voran-getrieben. Aber hat es irgendeinen speziellen Grund, dass die Spinnen in den Fallgruben alle Hufartige Verletzungen haben – sie schaut sich das Eidolon noch einmal genauer an – die passen irgendwie gar nicht zu der Kreatur die ihr immer mit dabei habt? Nun ja egal, wir wurden von Fürstkommandantin Drovust in das Fort beordert, falls ihr noch Einkäufe zu erle-digen habt wäre jetzt ein guter Zeitpunkt.“ Am Fort angekommen bemerkt ihr, dass auf dem Innenhof eine große Gruppe Hellknights in voller Kampfmontur versammelt ist: „Heute werden wir eine der letzten Plagen dieser Region ausrotten. Unsere Kundschafter haben mehrere Außenposten der als Splitter bekannten Räu-berbande ausfindig gemacht. Wir werden alle Außenposten koordiniert angreifen, sodass kei-ne Möglichkeit besteht dass sich die Splitter auf den Angriff vorbereiten können. Maraliktor Wolfhelm wird den Order of the Nail beim Angriff auf den südlichen Außenposten komman-dieren, Signifier Hast führt den Order of the Gate beim Angriff auf den Außenposten am Fluss an, ich werde den Order of the Pike gegen den nördlichen Außenposten anführen. Path-finder (verächtlich) ihr werdet das Lager in der Spire angreifen – wenn ihr Fragen habt klärt das mit eurer Vorgesetzten. Alle Angriffe sollten möglichst gleichzeitig stattfinden, wir grei-fen an Sobald sie Sonne untergegangen ist, dann können uns diese Schurken nicht klar erken-nen und sollten nach den Berichten der Kundschafter auch noch alle in ihren Lagern sein. Ich muss euch wohl nicht sagen, dass dies eine Mission ist um eine der letzten größeren Bedro-hungen für die Ordnung in dieser Gegend zu beseitigen – wenn jemand überlebt oder sich ergibt bringt ihn hier her um ihm den Prozess zu machen, dies hat aber keine Priorität – wenn möglich rottet all diesen Abschaum aus.“ „Nun ihr habt euren Auftrag gehört, auch wenn ich hinzufügen möchte, dass es SEHR nütz-lich sein könnte wenigstens einen Gefangenen zu machen, da wir dadurch eventuell Informa-tionen über die tieferen ebenen erhalten können. Ihr habt den Abstieg in der zweiten Ebene gesehen, wenn ihr euch so um 3 Uhr aus der Stadt auf den Weg macht sollte das reichen um pünktlich zum Angriffszeitpunkt anzukommen. Eure Kollegen haben die Leiter im Schacht durch eine neue ersetzt, der Abstieg sollte euch also keine Probleme bereiten. Habt ihr noch Fragen?“ (12 Uhr) “Nun erst einmal vielen Dank dafür, dass wir nun ein sicheres und bequemes Hauptquartier für unsere Arbeit in den Spires haben, diese Splinter mögen vielleicht Räuber gewesen sein aber sie wussten wie man einen bequemen Unterschlupf errichtet.” Mit diesen Worten kom-mentiert VC Benarry eure Tour durch die frisch gesicherte Ebene. „Nur diesen Tempel, da müssen wir definitv etwas daran ändern. Naja sehr gute Arbeit Pathfinder ruht euch hier aus, Betten sind ja genug vorhanden und soll euch etwas bei Absalom Express bestellen? Warum fragt ihr, nun morgen geht es weiter nach unten, ich versuche nur noch ein paar Infos zu be-kommen was euch dort erwarte, damit ich euch korrekt briefen kann.“ (Ende des Szena-rios/LVL up) Level 4: Nach einem geruhsamen Schlaf werdet ihr von lautem Gestampfe und Gehämmere geweckt, euch zieht der Geruch von frischem Kaffee und Waffeln in die Nase. Als ihr den Schlafraum verlasst seht ihr, dass euch gegenüber bereits eine größere Menge Pathfinderaspiranten mit einer Menge Werkzeug damit beschäftigt sind den Speiseraum zu renovieren und den Gang von dem Gerümpel der Splinter zu beseitigen. Ein Aspirant mit mehreren Nägeln im Mund und eine Kiste mit Werkzeug tragend nähert sich euch: „Mmmm Benarry sucht euch… Im Schrein mmm“ Als ihr euch dem Schrein nähert seht ihr, dass sich dieser seit gestern stark gewandelt hat, die Statue wurde beseitigt um den nun leeren Socken wurde ein Aquarium gebaut, welches derzeit aber noch leer ist und die Kirchenbänke wurden zu einer provisori-schen Tafel zusammengeschoben auf der euer Frühstück bereit steht. Eine bereits essende und diesmal wieder trinkende Benarry wartet bereits auf euch. „Wie … ihr vielleicht schon be-merkt habt wird dieser Schrein grade um geweiht aber da wir ja keine Norgorberanhäner unter uns haben sollte das keinen stören. Nun zu eurem Auftrag, ich habe aus einem der Gefangenen herausbekommen was euch in der nächsten Ebene erwartet, die werdet ihr brauchen. (Sie hält euch ein paar Nasenklammern hin) Ihr werdet in der nächsten Ebene auf einen Troglody-tenstamm treffen, welcher einen merkwürdigen Schutzpatron verehrt. Eure Aufgabe ist dies-mal denkbar einfach. Säubert die gesamte Ebene von den Trogs, ich will nicht, dass auch nur eine dieser widerlichen Kreaturen noch auf der Ebene ist wenn wir diese und den merkwürdi-gen metallenen Schutzpatron erforschen, welcher sich auf dieser Ebene befinden soll. Eben-falls heißt es, dass die Trogs größere Mengen an metallischen Wertgegenständen an sich ge-bracht haben, wenn ihr diese findet bringt sie zurück und findet heraus warum die Trogs sich so atypisch verhalten. Außerdem sollt ihr den Ausgang zur nächsten Ebene aufspüren und sichern. Noch Fragen?“
First I have to say level 3 was very fun to run while the group (led by my VL)tried and managed to trump (with 23 rounds) the ingame time (30 rounds) set up while one of my current players was gming for me, my VC and some other people at a convention. It was not very challanging (expept maybe the beast in the cells) but one of the funniest points was the Bloodrager identifing the Wight and saying: "What ... do you want to kill us?" It gets up, eats the Aoo, crit, confirmed = Bloodrager 1: Wight 0. After the Level my VC asked if we had enough time to run the 4th Level (we had approx 2h left) to which one of my players replied that this is more than enough time and that it will be very easy. So one of the players changed from his Boltace to his Arcane Tricster (in making) and we started. After the briefing they were set to kill the trogs, won the initiative and killed the trog that should greet them before it could react. The rest of this 7 rounds of Combat were mostly the players woundering if thes should not be the new 1-2 replayable and laughing at what should be their "opponents". It was fun to watch but it was very disappointing to master an adventure where the enemys are total crap and a joke against 1st levlers and only be able to hit on a nat 20. In my opinion The 4th level should be the first level because it was by far the easiest level thus far. To get this even remotly interesting all of the trogs should get alt least 2 Class levels AND some better tactics. The conflict with the total crap sucess conditions was a bit lessened because they were never greeted in the first place but in my opinion ther schould never be such an sucess condition in a module (or the option to "win" a module by rolling 1 diplomacy chek)
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