Armenius's page

Um, is there some secret link to the survey you can share with me? Because the playtest page only has surveys for PFS, not for doomsday dawn.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderplaytest

search "Currently Playtesting". There is a player survey, a DM survey, and a general survey.

There *are* questions in the survey about the narrative and pacing of the adventure which leads me to believe they are taking feedback about the non-crunch side of things, so if you want better pre-written adventures I would still run the module as written and leave feedback about the writing.

Not going to talk about confusion still being frustrating and overly-deadly. My immediate problem that should be very uncontroversial (lol) to fix is the wording.

It is better than 1e's wording but please please PLEASE make it completely clear how much you should "try" to attack your nearest target if you roll a 1. If the creature is already attacking you it says use your actions. So that's clear it is for you to use all three actions to kill it. If you roll a 1 it says "you must spend your turn attempting to
attack the nearest creature to you". This is much better than in 1e, and I am 95% sure it means to essentially play your turn normally except only for only trying to attack your target, but there is SO much debate in 1e about what to do that I don't see any reason to not just say "You spend your entire turn attempting to attack the nearest creature to you". It is also not clear how much you can "hold back". Please also include wording explaining if you fight normally or only use basic attacks.

Thank you.

So is there a break in the system I cant think of from lifting the ability score requirement? It just seems... pointless. I cant imagine how a ten strength wizard spending a feat (and locking himself out of any other archetypes until he spends three other feats) to use a longsword and half plate is that disastrous. Even if you can just retrain them in later it still means you don't have your character concept started right away and... it's just needlessly complicated.

What's the reasoning for requiring 16 in the primary stat? I remember it being stated a cleric with next to no wisdom would be viable. Strange that a rogue who spends one feat on clericdom has to be wiser than a pure cleric.

Please cancel my Starfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

Thank you.

Please cancel my Starfinder Adventure Path subscription.

Thank you.

Not saying anything that hasn't already been said here, but adding in my voice that "Don't make Orcs into apes" is pretty much the very first thing anyone attempting to make a fantasy rpg not racist should do.

I really hope the generic backgrounds are more... generic. I don't see why blacksmith has to be one, because then you need a background for any kind of craftsman background. A general one that let's you pick out different skill feats and trained skills would save a lot of space and not make anyone have to wait for a another book that has "stable-hand".

The stat boosts seem variable enough to not be a problem. If someone refuses to take blacksmith just because they really really don't want to take strength or intelligence despite the free boost then they can live with that.

Please cancel my Starfinder core subscription. Thank you.

Ah, I didn't realize antitoxins worked like that. The poison was more of an aside, though. I still have a huge problem with their accuracy and damage.

Are the Kaukariki really supposed to have a +9 to hit, deal 1d4+2 damage (+1 more for poison application) and have a poison that can outright kill you if you fail enough times? Granted, the save is low but with how ridiculously accurate they are you are bound to have at least one poison rolling at a time, and that's probably right after the stampede and a warm up for the vracinea.

Please cancel my Pathfinder Adventure Path and Module subcriptions.

The book only mentions using its life drain once, so I ran it as it seemed to be written, try to get a taste of everyone (spread out damage) life drain once when taken sufficient damage, eventually focus on people using electricity.

I had a group of four. They WOULD have won outright if they played to the best of their ability and got a bit luckier with the saves. They ended up winning while unconscious because the creature kept failing its reflex saves against the critical laser blasts they made.

Things that went wrong:
The mechanic failed the relatively easy fort save vs. its life drain. Sometimes that happens but that basically adds another turn to the fight if not outright KO-ing a party member.

The technomancer completely forgot about their cache spell. No real excuse there.

The party collectively forgot about all of the grenades they've gotten. No excuse there.

The party burned spells on Identify and Comprehend Language to learn about the tech. I really wish there was some sort of material reward for doing that because that's a massive amount of firepower lost.

The operative took a lot of unnecessary damage earlier.

I'm not calling it a good fight, but its doable. It's still pretty much a faceroll whether you win or lose.

Now that it's been a while since the AP was completed, what are the thoughts on the ability to purchase and sell loot? I only read through the first book but given the themes of the adventure is this a Reign of Winter situation? I'm considering running this after Carrion Crown and thinking about using the Automatic Bonus Progression system and allowing more crafting than normal. Would ABP be too much of a power boost without changing the loot in the books?

That's disappointing and something they should probably change to actually be present in the PDF.

The PFS guide says:
"Campaign Mode: For sanctioned modules and Adventure
Paths, GMs are allowed to use their own rules for
character creation and running the presented content (the
entire book or series). Credit is applied to an appropriate
Roleplaying Guild character as if the character created
were a pregenerated character."

Crypt of the Everflame is a sanctioned module. Why could you not run Crypt in Campaign Mode?

Please cancel my Pathfinder Setting subscription. Thank you.

Any chance space catfolk are statted (or even mentioned in another creature's description) here?

*hopes card game hype will lead to Hells Vengeance adventure path getting sanctioned for Society play*

I'd guess sales on the RPG line, especially the rule book, leads to more sales for the Adventure Path line than the other way around.

I don't think it is unfair for a book to expect a reasonably balanced party. It's not like the required skills are trained-only. Everyone can attempt to gather information.

I have zero issue with it being diplomacy checks. I do have issues with the dcs and that the gang checks specifically say you can't use culture to learn about them even though one of the backgrounds is supposed to make you better at knowing about them. Being a semicompetent gm I let them use culture anyways but I still consider it a flaw of the adventure.

If it is your first time GMing then it is even more paramount that you read the adventure thoroughly (granted I wouldn't recommend an AP for your first experience as a GM either). One of the very first things this adventure tells you is "The skills and DCs already set are commonly assumed ones but can and should be changed to something appropriate for your group", which is something you yourself requested in your review.

As for the writing and structure of the AP as a whole I'm just going to disagree, it was a well written introductory adventure to Starfinder, nothing too out there or complicated.

I managed to get through it decently with some on the fly modifications, but I'm not giving the book any credit for including a "by the way if this stuff doesn't work you can change it" section. It should just work in the first place.

It doesn't take a few hours to sit a heavy box on top of a desk or kick over a table.

Sitting a heavy box on top of a desk sounds like a full round action. Kicking over a table would be a standard.

Yes I did get them to all get numbers but I don't want to make them all have to register characters too just so me nd one player can get rewards

Okay, thank you. There's so many details on the form and 90% of them don't apply at all and I just don't want to forget anything that might cause trouble for me or the player in the long run (Extremely unlikely, but just in case a GM questions the chronicle or something)

Okay so... do I need them all to create and register Society characters so I can assign the sheet to someone? That's the problem I'm having. I know the rules for applying chronicle sheets, but because this is a home game only a fraction of the group actually has any interest in Society. Do I need the people who do not play Society to create a (barebones) Society character just so I have someone to assign the sheet to, or can I just ignore it?

I just learned that you can report home games of sanctioned Adventure Paths whether playing by Society rules or not and wanted to start collecting chronicles, but I'm not really sure how to report it. Only myself and one player are interested in Society. What is actually essential to be reported? They aren't PFS characters and only one of the players even HAS a PFS character so I can't record those characters as having played. Or can I put the non-PFS character down in the record?

I'm just really confused because the report sheet clearly isn't designed for this and I just need to know what exactly I need to fill out for it to be legal.

Thank you.

Mercenary works well with oddnumbered strength but thatsbthe only thing I can think of.

Just wanted to be sure about this since it's such a major ability.

That's kind of disappointing that a page was spent, and a full character art, on an excessively high check that for some groups is flat out impossible to make.

Heck, my group couldn't make the DC 20 check to find the Downside Kings hideout.

Just so I'm clear, the only way to meet with the Level 21 gang is to pass a DC 30 diplomacy or intimidate check, right?

It's probably reasonable to say that whether all of the criticisms are true or not you probably won't notice any major flaws within a couple sessions. It's usually taken till sixth or seventh level in Pathfinder for me to go "Oh yeah the internet is right this class/archetype/whatever kind of sucks" or "Wow it really IS overpowered".

I'll wait for my copy to confirm anything, but none of the criticisms surprise me because things like that existed in Pathfinder and every supplement.

I'm sure a number of houserules will eventually be put in place but I'm pretty determined to run Dead Suns as-is (extremely tedious mechanics withstanding, *cough*ammo*cough*) to make sure I know the systems I think sound bad are actually bad and I'll have a gaggle of players to back me up. The ability to houserule something absolutely does not make up for a bad rule/wording in the book, however.

Mashallah wrote:

Fully agreed. I feel like most of the arguing in this thread stems from people not understanding this.

Or maybe some people don't understand that the game is about more than just numbers and math. It's not Diablo

Did we play different Diablos?

I'm using Automatic Bonus Progression in a test game and I like it, but I run pre-writtens and those can require some more work to keep the loot and wealth balanced. I do like it though and would love to try it out with a full party of experienced players (My games tend to start out with at least half new to Pathfinder).

I like the concept of having a limited, randomized set of magic items in a city but in my experience this just leads to players rolling for the items they want and banking their gold if they don't find anything they really want. Has anyone tried discounting the available magic items? I think that would encourage players to make "suboptimal" purchasing decisions without breaking wbl or player wealth but I'm not sure on a percentage.

I cannot update my card's expiration date to 6/21, nor can I add an additional payment method.

Yes I know, I was more asking about thoughts on how say, a half-orc or gnome would fit in to the story of Dead Suns. One of the adventures takes place in Castrovel so I would assume elves have a lot of roleplaying opportunities there, but in Pathfinder Adventure Paths sometimes the writers will recommend against something that seems like it would fit. The player's guide usual has some general "These races would fit well/poorly in this adventure path" but given there is no player's guide planned it would be nice to still get those answers.

Most assuredly too early to ask, but I plan on running this pretty soon after its release and with the news of no player's guide, I was wondering about player allowed races.

Would it be best to allow Starfinder core races only for this adventure path, or would the Pathfinder core also work well? I mean primarily for roleplaying and plot opportunities in the adventure rather than any balance reason. Based on the descriptions of the books I was thinking of doing Starfinder core plus half elves.

Erika Mona mentioned Hero Lab for Starfinder at the Starfinder demo in the Twin Cities.

Why exactly do you need four Starfinder subscriptions to get Paizo Advantage? There are only five lines and the Adventure Path is only two dollars cheaper than the Pathfinder one.

Is there anything in the book that could let you finesse a quarterstaff?

Yeah but there's definitely a point where one overpowered character rolls high on initiative and ends the encounter in one round. Sure, everyone else may be around the same power level but that power level is so high that it is steam-rolling through encounters so fast that not everyone can show off their powers.

Of course that doesn't seem to be the issue with the nerfs I've seen in the book or otherwise.

They keep flip-flopping on whether multiplayer is completely out or is being considered as a late stretch goal. At this point I'm stuck checking until they announce the final goal.

The one stretch goal announced at a time thing is really bugging me. I might drop some money if I knew multiplayer or oracles or something that interested me was ahead even if it was in like 300k.

I'm sure this has been lampshaded before, but I really like that every once in a while I see this thread pop up in the sidebar and I think "Are people really still hyped that Sean Bean was in the first season?".

Can anyone talk more about the Vishkanya stuff?

So no mention of multiplayer as a stretch goal and no actual stretch goals listed past the initial 500k one that I don't care about.

But for 140 dollars a miniature (doesn't specify whether it's one companion or any companion, hopefully you can get Amiri), a cloth map of the Stolen Lands, an *actual* Pathfinder adventure, and a poster by Wayne Reynolds? That might be worth it.

Edit: Apparently MP is still on the table as a stretch goal. I will wait to see if that actually happens and if the Kickstarter kickstarts close to it I will totally back it.

Naderi makes for a pretty great love triangle with Shelyn and Urgathoa.

Hah,I'm having trouble giving Metroid any credit when we saw what happened when they *did* introduce a white male.