Andrew "The Great Kilt" Rauch's page

The third party book Laying Waste does a great job of building a Crit system that seems well balanced and automatically confirms on 20. Even has a free app to go with it. We have been using it the last two campaigns and haven't had any complaints.

So I know it's buried at the bottom of this thread but I have to say, Whats the deal? I love this book and all it's new stuff but it has no oracle spells. I mean not having new curses in it I can understand. No new mysteries? Not a big deal. But no spells? I read at least a dozen spell that made it onto the spell lists of druids, clerics, shaman and witches that would have been perfect for an oracle. This has made me sad.

I was unable to GM at dragon con for Pazio last year but was hoping to volunteer this year. Any ideas how I can go about doing that?

So it may have been answered somewhere I didn't see but I have a question about the secondary reporting. In the conclusion section the scenario says "Sophini escapes, check box D." Then in the faction section it reads "If the PCs convince Jahani to form a partership with Aaqir al'Hakim, check box D onthe reporting sheet."
Is one of these boxes supposed to be box C if so which one?

That's the way I was leaning too

So I realize this might seem a foolish question but hear me out. A person attempts to strike my poor Flowing monk, who is only here to help really. My monk then shows him the error of his ways by taking an immediate action before the attack resolves to trip the angry attacker. If I do not have improved trip (low level monk) does the attacker who I am tripping get an attack of opportunity?
I realize that it might seem strange to have the person who is in the middle of the attack get an attack because of the fact that I am interrupting his attack. But I also realize it is a game and therefore has rules that might seem strange in certain situations. I am looking for anything in the rules that states definitively that the attacker does or does not get to make his AoO when I immediate action trip or reposition. As of now I am going with he does, because that is what the rules I see tell me to do.

Your boat plunges once more into the waves, spray drenching the entire fore deck. Six weeks you have watched the weather grow colder and the seas less hospitable. Six weeks of traveling, always arriving to late. Arriving to see the burnt wrecks of treasure houses, temples, and way stations.
Five minutes ago you at last heard the call, "Sail Ho!". Now as you stand on the freezing deck damp with salt spray you can see dots in the distance. The Narwhal ships. They must have seen you first, that is the only explanation as they head strait into the coming squall. The weather is to rough for flying. You can't take another moment on this ship, not with your quarry finally in sight. In sight but getting away unless you act fast. So you decide to arrive on the deck of one of the two ships by means of dimensional travel.
Your group spends a few moments getting ready. Ready to retrieve the goods the pathfinders have lost. Ready to fight, to win. You arrive on the heaving deck. Your team shifts instantly into action. Weapons sing and spells flash as the rain pours down. In mere moments the crew has been reduced by half their number. A voice calls out "CEASE THIS". You look up and see two figures near the rear of the ship. One small and the other large. This is your goal, the Brothers Jonakarson. The Narwhal Raiders, feared anywhere a longboat can reach in lands north of the Inner Sea.
The duo approach you in what appears to be an amble perfectly suited for the rough seas. The smaller speaks, "You have come to take what is ours, it was yours and you could not protect it. So now you will test the might of the Narwhal at sea. That is good, it is as it should be. I would make you an offer. You shall join our rowing crews, you shall serve us well. For this you will be paid with a great boon, the chance to see the sunrise again."
Of course you don't waver. Of course you attack with overwhelming force. The small figure, you recognize him now as Gjuki the Kind, behind his shield starts to laugh. The larger, Hodrod no doubt, with his wickedly spiked hammer already swinging, grows even larger. That moment, struggling to even keep your footing, trying desperately to see despite the rain and the stinging salt spray, as the thunder crashes and bodies heave into motion. They appear as the very gods of war and sea as the only emotion you see is a great joy on their faces. That is the moment that will stay with you for the rest of your life because that is when you realize that the singing started, the Ulfen war chat. "What will we do with the noisy Pathfinders...

I have had a great deal of fun with a similar idea when I ask players what they would like run. I can definitely see a large cork board in the common room of any pathfinder lodge with all of the less time sensitive missions waiting to be picked up.
"Needed; group of pathfinders for long sea voyage. Escorting diplomat through three month voyage. Knowledge of elven a plus."
"Tired of hacking your way through thick forests and tentacled monsters? Want to put to use all those noble clothes collecting dust in your bag of holding? Drendle seeks pathfinders capable of representing pathfinder interests during Blakro's Gathering. North hall 2 am for briefing. (Barbarians need not apply)"

Okay, I have played and run this scenario. I am about to run it again. I like it a lot except for one part which confuses me non stop. The last two pages of the scenario are written so the heroic PCs can tease information out of the Dwarven artifact. They try to find the location of another Dwarven artifact by following clues and making knowledge roles. All the while fighting terrible beasties and dodging masonry. That is how it is written. How it is was played both times I was involved and a few others I have heard about went more like this; "Hey look there is that thing we where supposed to find. The research team told us we could use it to contact them so they could teleport in and study everything. Cool to looks like it has lots of stuff for them to study." Done. In less than 18 seconds. So the whole desperate battle/frantic puzzle solving/random death part is, very logically, bypassed or done with a high level pathfinder research team in the room.
Now it is a fun encounter so the fellow who ran it for me added some "connection trouble" to delay the incoming relief. I used a wizard who failed his percentage rolls a few times and missed his target.

So after all that my question is this, Is there something written in the scenario that I am missing that logically keeps the PC's engaged, or are the PCs just slouching on their job by not investigating, or other?

Mother always said "If you want job done right, get your hands dirty." Grandmaster Torch fought the good fight. He did his best to protect agents from blind greed and ambition. He taught us to question the price of things and made sure we took care of each other. If he believes that he can do good out from under the thumbs of the man, well good. Let him get his hands dirty. He fights not for personal gain, not the furthering of some nation, not for the great big and amorphous "Greater good". He has on his mind and in his heart little things. Me, you. Our brothers and sisters. Those of us who would be used by powers who will not even tell us their names, much less their agendas. I send him forth in good faith. Thankful that he has left his mark. May his ansestors and the spirits of the fallen lend him strengh on this hard path he has chosen. I may help others goals now, but I remain true to his last order. Watch, be warry, carry on the tradtion of protection and inspection. Count carefully the cost.

My Ulfen fighter, a hearty lad from the Islands, has sailed his longship on many adventures. But it is only now at level nine that he can take viking archetype. I was so sad when people of the north came out and he was third level. It seemed unfair that he would be unable to take advantage of this namesake Archetype. I am so totally stoked that he can retrain into it. Thank you Society team for allowing awesomeness,

As the cleric from the scenario is question I have a few things things to point out.
First, The cleric had already succeeded twice in convincing the "bad guys" to give up there evil ways and convert.
Second, At no point did any of the baddies use poison of any kind.
Third, The second ship (the one containing a fighter and the summoner, not a sorcerer, but not the cleric) was discovered not when the cleric was talking to the pirates but when they attracted the ship. Pulled out axes and rolled damage against the side of the ship.
Fourth, When the fighter did make it on board the ship by himself he did die. He died when, against the gm and other players advice, he took not one but three Attacks of opportunity. Yes when flanked by two characters and next to a third he took a move action to walk away.
Now my cleric happily takes the blame for a poor diplomacy role. He would feel bad taking responsibility for the summoner not knowing that his eidilon had a climb speed, or for the armor-master holding his action for several rounds while within crossbow range because "I don't think I can make that climb check" and other various misfortunes over which he had no control

So I can understand why it was not addressed in the "Animal Archive" as treesinger druids are only one archetype of one class and so not played very often. But I have a Treesinger Druid(in PFS no less). He has a love little treant animal(plant) companion. What slots does my lovely little Treant have for magical items? A few hundred ring slots? and a belt slot? I can thing of a few things that would make sense and a few things that would just be fun but in all seriousness I would like to be with the rules here and would appreciate anyone who could point me to some RAW on plant companion slots that I have missed.

I don't mean to rain on parade but people should read the text before they use the spell.

Command has language dependency and has 5 commands only. I have seen people who didn't even read the spell and consider that they can order the subject anything they want.

While flying creature would most likely fall upon Command that same flying creature most likely didn't have the language required to understand the caster. I played that scenario and "creature" has only one rare language it speaks.

Beside that, Command can cause harm easily. Nothing says in spell that it can't.

You mean it was a gaav(DC 19 knowledge religion roll for the cleric) that only speaks Infernal(one of the three bonus languages a cleric can get)?

Recently there have been some discussions in our group about my clerics creative use of the command spell to truly inconvenience the bad guys. The two uses that got the most discussion Both happened in the PFS module #39: The Citadel of Flame (PFRPG). At one point the party was attacked by a flying creature hovering over a chasm. One Command to fall later the creature was prone on the ground after taking a fair amount of falling damage. Later the party faced the BBEG in a room full of lava steams on the floor(not pits). After failing against Command she approached my cleric but was forced to step into the lava to do so(no room for her to jump over). I have used this before to make the baddies step on to my exploding runes granted by the Rune domain.
Some people argue that while you can command a person to flee or approach they wouldn't do so in a way that would cause them harm. My argument against this is "The creature may do nothing but move during its turn, and it provokes attacks of opportunity for this movement as normal". If the creature is intelligent enough for Command to be used against it surely such creature is aware it is provoking AOO something that would cause it harm. Ultimately the DM has allowed these instances partly because he finds it hilarious and partly because he hopes to use such tactics against PC's when given the opportunity. So my question is can Command be used to cause indirect harm?