Atragon's page

Thank you Sam.

Hello,

Please cancel my Starfinder subscriptions. I've been finding that the shipping costs are painfully high.

Thank you.

Thanks Diego!

Hi Sharaya,

Please move it to my sidecart to consolidate shipping costs.

Regards,
James

Agreed, examining options would be good. Perhaps bulk import into Canada and then send via Canada Post? (some Kickstarters have done this to reduce shipping costs.)

My wife tells me that our last subscription shipment got hit with the service fee and taxes.

The next shipment (alien archive pawn box) is slated to ship Priority and will cost more for shipping than the cost of the item.

I have "cheapest possible" set for my subscriptions, and so far, so good. shipping to Canada has been reasonable via standard postal delivery. But the alien archive pawn box is showing priority mail as the shipping method, and a shipping cost of $46 compared to the price of $38...

Can you please verify that this is 1) the cheapest possible method of shipping said pawn box to Canada (not including UPS), and 2) that the cost is correct?

Thanks,
James

Hi Sharaya,

Thank you for taking care of this for me. I have received the updated email.

Regards,
James

I can appreciate the benefits of auditing PCs. Our local lodge has a tradition of doing a full audit before running PCs through one of the seeker arcs, and it seems to benefit both players and GMs. I found that I was missing a few thousand gold while tallying up my chronicle sheets vs my ITS vs my character sheet for example, one of our other players found that some of his archetypes weren't as compatible as he thought.

However, when I hear audits at conventions, I don't have a positive reaction. Locally, our conventions aren't friendly to pre-mustering, so tables are typically seated a few minutes before slot start, and we have 4-hour slots in which to run. That leaves about 0 time to do anything more involved than asking if players are at the right table, have their character sheets and chronicle sheets, and to do a relatively brief character introduction.

At GenCon this year, I had a thouroughly negative audit experience in which our GM wasted the first half-hour of the Solstice Scar checking whether we had all of our books (requesting and looking at additional resources, checking if .pdfs opened and were watermarked, etc). This added no value at all, got our backs up when he bounced one of our group for not having brought all of his hardcopy resources (yes, technically illegal not to have done so) and we completely missed out on the investigation and roleplay part of the special.

We only got out of audit hell when we were thrown right into "go to the museum, s!@*'s happening" part of the special by HQ announcing that we should be going there.

There is a time and a place for everything, limited time-slots don't seem to be the best place for "papers please".

I'm contacting you about this order (#4470761) as a player character folio that I didn't order seems to have made its way into this shipment.

Looking at the comment that it was moved in from order 4400779, I suspect that what happened is as follows:

I picked up my Starfinder subscriptions at GenCon this year. At the same time, I also bought an additional hardcopy character folio and 2 packs of pathfinder pawn bases.
From the order 4400779 page it lists those 3 items as having been added to the sidecart.

And now that my next subscription shipment is processing, the available item has been added to the shipment.

I don't need a 3rd character folio, or 2 additional packs of pawn bases (still in sidecart based on my My Orders page), so could you please remove the folio from this order and the pawn bases from my side cart?

Thanks,
James

I do like the idea of unlocking boons based on both table and house success.

It sounds like my attempt at an interesting benefit has backfired, causing outrage and resentment when I had hoped it might bring some excitement.

I don't think backfired is necessarily the right word here. You're hearing mostly from those who missed the boon.

I agree that having 1 or 2 awesome boons that are unlocked because of a lucky choice is perhaps not the best way to make them available, but the boons themselves are sweet.

I would look at the mechanics of accessing them to mitigate the luck factor as opposed to not doing boons like this again. They're far better than the old 'reroll a die' multi-table special boons.

Late to the party, so this might have been mentioned:

The last 2 hour "boost" on Tokens was both appreciated and a less than good idea.

1. My last 4 tokens got me 2 Starfinder boons, which was cool.

However...

2. There was lots of resentment voiced by people at my table who had *just* spent their Tokens prior to the "boost" announcement because the "last chance to use your Tokens announcement" had been going over the speakers since 8-99A.

3. Now people will horde their Tokens until the end of GenCon, waiting for the "boost" announcement and then tie up the prize line (and since they're no longer reusable, people will be left without spending their Tokens because the line is so long).

My suggestion: Never "boost" again and make an announcement throughout GenCon 2018 that there will be no boosts so spend your tokens as you get them.

I agree with Blake's post, our Sunday morning GM gave us a break to hit the prize table less than 30 minutes before the announcement. There was definitely some salt there.

I would add that you shouldn't be put into a position of not having enough tokens to make a roll at the end of the con (ie, with slots giving 2 tokens and rolls costing 4, it sucks to be you if you play an odd number of slots.)

I managed to get enough people onboard with doing the Starfinder AP in person locally, so... subscribed!

This should be fun.

I got 1 out of 5... 1-02 for Sat @ 8am.

Hopefully Paizo has the option to juggle table allocations and get a bit more Starfinder into the mix. Some of my buddies got the quest pack, I missed out.

You do raise some good points about how early dips can turn weak later on. Not being able to pass out extracts until 3rd level, and that CL 1 first level spells don't scale.

Intent of the dip was to grab trapfinding with a side order of get disable device as a class skill. Inspiration stacked on top of Bardic Knowledge seemed like a nice bonus, as opposed to +1d6 of Sneak Attack.

In terms of later build, Bard 8 vs Bard 7 / Investigator 1 would put me behind by a level on getting Haste, etc, etc, etc. Not sure how to value that. I think I'll go Bard 2 and give it further thought.

Any thoughts on points 3 and 4?

I'm putting together a pure support character for PFS using the flagbearer feat, based heavily on the guide to the Buffer Bard. And I could use some advice.

At the moment my build looks roughly like this:

Azata-blooded Aasimar (grandfathered GM blob with enough chronicles to start at 2nd level)

Bard X / Investigator (Psychic Detective?) 1

Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha
8/12/12/16/10/18

Feats:
Flagbearer

I could use advice on the following points:

1) I'd like to work trapfinding into the build, so I'm thinking of splashing a level of Investigator (either base or Psychic Detective), and I'm not sure if I want to take 2 levels of bard first and then investigator (to get versatile performance fast), or grab one level of each (to get inspiration fast)

2) base Investigator vs Psychic Detective, Alchemy could be handy for crafting cheap goodies as party favours, and some of the self-buffs are tempting, but since I'm not aiming for combat and won't be advancing past level 1, Psychic Detective for another whack of 0th and 1st level spells seems like a good alternate option.

3) traits, too many options, my shortlist is: Arcane Temper (+1 init, +1 concentration), Focused Mind (+2 concentration), Giant Ambivalence (+1 init, +1 sense motive, +2 perception to avoid surprise), Inner Beauty (1/day +4 to bluf/craft/diplo/perform), Intense Artist (+1 to 2 perform skills), Reactionary (+2 init), Sacred Touch (stabilize for free on touch). I'm thinking Intense Artist and Giant Ambivalence probably.

4) Skills, there are 13 skills! that I want to keep at good levels (the big 6 knowledges, 3 performs, disable device, UMD, perception, spellcraft), and another 5 that I'd like to throw a single rank into. I'm looking at 9 skill points per level. Any suggestions for how to pull this off?

This also affects anyone using the Greater Angelic Aspect spell FWIW.

I can see your points, and I'm aware how ridiculous it is, but in a way there was no reason for me to not cackle in between combats. No diplomacy checks, no riding, no stealth checks, just walking down corridors.

Were the enemies you encountered all aware of your approach as you cackled madly the entire way?

Also, how was your throat feeling afterwards?

Chess Pwn wrote:

Mark Seifter wrote:

Chess Pwn wrote:

Chris Mortika wrote:

The week before Gen Con. What a good time for this kind of sorting out.

well they did say they wanted it out before gen con so that they could sort it out some before the con. so hopefully they will spend a few days at the start of next week answering some of these questions maybe?

I've been spending part of my weekend gathering them, anyway; I'm hoping we of the PDT can discuss them before Gencon (no promises, we are uber-swamped as you might expect, but I'll try). Honestly, I'm just glad it wasn't right before Gencon because it gives at least a little time.

yeah, I've been super impressed by how much you've done already. and I totally understand that you guys are busy for the con, we have the errata, that's good for sure, anything more is super bonus

I just want to do more, even though I know I might not be able to. I've been in the situation of waiting for errata, or for clarifications, as a player, and I know how it feels. Thank you for your patience, and I'll see what I can stir up!

Thank you for being communicative, and for being willing to take a second look at the errata. I'm a fan of seeing errata without waiting for the next printing of the book, and I would very much like this to be the start of a trend of issuing errata when needed instead of when a new printing is about to be released.

If you could revisit the errata for the Arcanist's Consume Spells feature and the Consume Magic Items exploit, it would be much appreciated, it has been mentioned in the product forum thread (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2sjzm&page=5?ACG-Errata), and I agree that the logic behind this change doesn't seem to make sense. Both of the Consumes already consume limited resources (spell slots and magic items respectively), and the limit of cha-mod per day seems punitively low (especially with 0 difference between 5 cha and 12 cha in daily uses).

Being able to refill the arcane pool allows for more usage of exploits, such as the blasts and defences, and for Archetype powers. If this is regarded as a problem where certain exploits become overly powerful when "spammable" (potent magic for example), then perhaps looking at limiting the problem-child powers is an option.

Wait, so for the price of 3 feats, any character can gain a full-progression animal companion from a limited list?

Another option would be for a player using Timeworn technology to keep track on their chronicle sheets when they use their TW devices, and use "real time" to track whether it's been a month or not.

That said, I like the simplicity of Robert's suggestion.

I would disagree with that ruling as it disadvantages those who don't play frequently.

For upcoming archetypes, Druid, Barbarian, Alchemist?

One long-term idea (the practicality of which I won't vouch for) would be an offline mode that lets someone work on a local copy when they don't have a solid internet connection (for example, while traveling to a convention).

(Yes, I did just suggest turning this into a long-term herolab competitor, why do you ask? ;))

With a pregen, it wouldn't matter with regards to treasure, the consumables are tied to the pregen. Maybe he was afraid of running out?

Atragon wrote:

I submitted some feedback on the site about Zen Archer weapon proficiencies not updating correctly.

Also, it looks like there's some bonus feat strangeness, when I swapped out stunning fist, it didn't give me any options other than precise shot.

On a non-archetype specific note, clever wordplay doesn't update the skill total correctly (it swaps int in place of cha for a selected skill, the selected skill still shows the cha modifier in the skills list).

Zen Archer is fixed and thank you for pointing that out; class skills from archetypes were also effected, but those should be working now too.

Also, clever wordplay is now functioning as described.

The issue with the bonus feat is odd and I was not able to replicate it. I'm not sure what's going on there. I even loaded up your character, removed Precise Shot, and saw all the possible bonus feats for zen archers (there's about seven of them I think) come up. I re-selected Precise Shot.

If you remove Precise Shot - do you also see the other feats? If you do not, the most obvious thing is make sure the search filter is empty, though I'm doubting this is the issue.

Cool, thank you for the fast turnaround on the fixes.

For the class bonus feat, search filter not being empty was exactly the problem, specifically, I'd searched for "precise" on the normal feats tab, then went back to the Monk tab, clicked on bonus feat, removed stunning fist, and then only saw Precise Shot listed. (I didn't think to look in the search box, I hadn't entered anything on that tab, I didn't expect that there would be anything in the box.)

Checking again after your post revealed that the search string from the main Feats tab persists into the Bonus Feat sub-tab under the Monk tab. Mystery solved.

I submitted some feedback on the site about Zen Archer weapon proficiencies not updating correctly.

Also, it looks like there's some bonus feat strangeness, when I swapped out stunning fist, it didn't give me any options other than precise shot.

On a non-archetype specific note, clever wordplay doesn't update the skill total correctly (it swaps int in place of cha for a selected skill, the selected skill still shows the cha modifier in the skills list).

Seranov wrote:

Yeah, what? 30ish damage a round at level 11 is hardly what I'd call overpowering. Especially since he's splitting his attacks between various targets and/or making only one attack a round vs. something outside his reach.

Exactly what is the rest of your group doing that this guy is supposedly making them look bad? More and more it sounds less like he's absurdly strong and just that everyone else is just really, really poorly built.

Possibly. He critical hits a lot with his improved critical and keen falchion.

You may want to re-read the rules for Improved Critical and Keen, they explicitly don't stack...

You might find this monk/druid multiclass interesting: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1bu5RkMqNkZR1hpQjNfcDNsUEU/view?pli=1

Personally, I thought that the bloodline would stack nicely with the Razmiran Priest archetype...

... We're toying with something we're calling "Build Plans"...

That sounds very cool and exciting. Will you be able to change things in the middle without having to go back and re-do everything? (For example, in a 10 level build, feat choice at level 5 without having to re-do levels 6-10 (as long as pre-reqs are still met).)

Okay, pushed up some new stuff and I sent out some new codes. Everyone who has asked for a code should now have one; if you don't, then please do poke me with a stick and I will get you one!

If there happens to be another round of codes going out, I'd love to give this a whirl...

I'm looking at putting together a reach cleric build for PFS Core, which eliminates all the sub domain options, and sacred summons. I'm thinking of either luck/travel (desna), strength/travel (cayden), or good/glory (seranrae). Being large seems like it could be worth the step down in domain powers, but I'm not sure which way to go.

I'd like to be able to support the party, with buffs or occasional summons while laying down AoO beats, as opposed to full on clericzilla, which pushes me away from Gorum, for example.

Can anyone offer me some suggestions for domain choices that make sense? (Good things to do with Standard actions would be nice)

I hadn't realized that druids could use weapons containing metal. That does open up another option, though I think I'd rather do a wildshaping melee focused druid as opposed to an archery druid.

I've got a normal campaign reach cleric already. :)

Any feedback on the Bad Touch cleric?

I'm building my first character for the Core campaign in PFS, and I'm stuck trying to decide between a Druid, an archer Cleric (Erastil, Community & Animal domains), or a bad touch Cleric (Pharasma, Death & Repose domains, negative energy channeling).

To briefly outline what I'm looking for:
A character that can buff the party for combat
A character that can heal the party outside of combat
A character that can kick a moderate to high degree of ass in combat

I think all 3 options could be fairly strong in combat. I don't want to steal / hog the spotlight, but I do want a capable character.

My initial thought for race is half-elf with skill focus (perception), and the Grand Lodge or Scarab Sages faction trait to get perception as a class skill if I go Cleric.

Feedback on your experiences either playing as or with similar characters, as well as the viability of the two Cleric options in Core would be most welcome.

Atragon wrote:

Michael Brock wrote:

Akari Sayuri "Tiger Lily" wrote:

Andrew Christian wrote:

Consider though, that if one of you do this, and I present it, and Mike either responds similarly or not at all, then the discussion should probably turn towards "Whats the best current options for my character?" rather than, "He's ruined I want extended grandfathering or a rebuild!"

I of course can't speak for everyone, but my stance is just that I want some kind of acknowledgement that the extended grandfathering proposal has been considered. They have made a few posts, but none have addressed that aspect. It could just be one word, No, and I'll drop it at that (I won't be very happy about the matter, but that's true anyway, and at least I'll drop it).

We considered it. We decided not to go with that option. Thanks for all the feedback.

Would it be possible to announce future changes like this with a blog post, like the assimar/tiefling grandfathering post, so that it is easy to find the official announcement?

If you are asking them to post the ruling in a forum post, they did post about the SLAs here. If you are asking for advanced warning that will not happen due to their stated reasons here, due to abuse.

No, a blog post, similar to the post introducing the core campaign. I find it easier to find official announcements when they aren't buried in a mass of other forum threads.

Akari Sayuri "Tiger Lily" wrote:

Andrew Christian wrote:

Consider though, that if one of you do this, and I present it, and Mike either responds similarly or not at all, then the discussion should probably turn towards "Whats the best current options for my character?" rather than, "He's ruined I want extended grandfathering or a rebuild!"

I of course can't speak for everyone, but my stance is just that I want some kind of acknowledgement that the extended grandfathering proposal has been considered. They have made a few posts, but none have addressed that aspect. It could just be one word, No, and I'll drop it at that (I won't be very happy about the matter, but that's true anyway, and at least I'll drop it).

We considered it. We decided not to go with that option. Thanks for all the feedback.

Would it be possible to announce future changes like this with a blog post, like the assimar/tiefling grandfathering post, so that it is easy to find the official announcement?

It seems like a good start to a guide so far. I would suggest adding sub-headings to the race section to make it easier to find things in, and Aasimar seems to be missing.

I feel like a Razmiran Priest could get quite a bit of mileage out of the vestments, what with having False Focus and all...

Calth wrote:

Apocryphile wrote:

Pummeling style will probably be FAQ'd in the near future to do exactly what we all actually know it already does. Unarmed strikes, and (maybe) brawler close weapons.

Trying to use it for a Zen Archer is ridiculous.

Why is it ridiculous to think that a style ability built on flurry would be usable with monk weapons like every other style feat? There is a one word fix that adjusts Pummeling Style: change normal damage to weapon damage, and bam, feat is good for monks and brawlers and no longer a must have for every non-barbarian/primalist bloodrager.

Except it says:

Pummeling Style wrote:

You collect all your power into a single vicious and debilitating punch.

Prerequisite(s): Improved Unarmed Strike; base attack bonus +6, brawler's flurry class feature, or flurry of blows class feature.

Benefit: As a full-round action, you can pool all your attack potential in one devastating punch. Make a number of rolls equal to the number of attacks you can make with a full attack or a flurry of blows (your choice) with the normal attack bonus for each attack. For each roll that is a hit, you deal the normal amount of damage, adding it to any damage the attack has already dealt from previous rolls (if any). If any of the attack rolls are critical threats, make one confirmation roll for the entire attack at your highest base attack bonus. If it succeeds, the entire attack is a confirmed critical hit.

You have to ignore the word punch, given in both the description and the rules explanation. Merriam-Webster defines punch as "to hit (someone or something) hard with your fist."

However, that is only one possible usage that they cite, for example, as an intransitive verb one of the definitions is:

"to move or push forward especially by a sudden forceful effort <punched into enemy territory>"

Which could cover putting all of your potential into a sudden forceful effort... with a quarterstaf, for example.

I have to admit that when I saw the topic, I thought it was asking about geese for a few seconds...

In which case, not being on the list of additional resources, nothing from it is legal.

As far as I can tell from the description, a number of factors played into it:

-Lucky rolling on the part of the party using called shots to up their impact
-Seemingly weak tactics on the part of the monster, ie: charging in instead of breathing fire from afar, and then hanging around after getting beaten hard by the melee martials (why did it not fly out of range of the guy with the greatsword?)
-Unlucky rolls to avoid any of the effects
-Possibly a side of rules mis-management (by RAW, head shots don't do anything unless ALL the heads get hit for multi-headed monsters, for example).

I also note that the fight doesn't really tell us much about the Arcanist, who died in turn 1 after a single magic missile, and instead confirms that high strength martial classes with two-handed weapons can do a lot of damage on a crit.

I also think the bloodrager _might_ have miscalculated his bonus to damage, +5 for str, +2 for rage +1 from skald = +8, +50% for two-hander = +12.
*EDIT* Except, as pointed out below, the rage bonus and the skald bonus are both morale bonuses, and thus don't stack, resulting in +5 (str), +2 (rage) = +7 +50% = +10 (rounding down)

You may want to look up the blockbuster wizard guide and apply it to the arcanist chassis. It has both blasting and wizardly flexibility when bolted onto an arcanist chassis in my opinion. (And you can also do some cool stuff in terms of picking up school and/or bloodline powers, grabbing a familiar, counterspelling, etc, via your exploits)

Two important questions are: How long are your time slots, and what level of system familiarity are you assuming from your players?

Both the first and the second ones limit how much stuff you can put into a scenario (less experienced players will generally tend to take longer to complete a task compared to more experienced players), while the second one informs the design of both the characters and the difficulty of challenges that require system knowledge.

So do it at 8 and 12 to pick up all three of the beast totem powers and CAGM?

Incidentally, another kneejerk:

Really sad there weren't favored class options for advanced races.

+1 to this, giving a nod to the ARG races would be nice.

Is there a changelog available for the other non-listed changes?

If you change mode from suggesting to viewing, the vandalism will vanish.

I agree with Franz's suggestions.

Building down is probably the best plan for the long term as it will force them to learn how to deal with properly scaled encounters at a low level instead of running into a more deadly wall later on. However, it will likely be both a hard sell, and the most painful for the players.

Slowing down XP awards to the players until things balance out again is the easiest way.

Hmm, you might consider the Destiny of the Sands free RPG day module. I'd be cautious of higher levels as the number of character abilities could be overwhelming. Alternatively, you could pick any of the 1-5 or 3-7 PFS scenarios and use the level 4 pregen characters.

I'm still hoping that one of these days we'll see "Pathfinder Hand Sign" as a legitimate language we can take in PFS for all of those "need to communicate silently/secretly (and we have no one in the party with Message)" moments.

I believe that was already covered by a FAQ for the Oracle's deaf curse, "Sign Language" is a valid language to take from Linguistics.