Banpai's page

I had the pleasure of evaluating Kishmo, absolutely one of the best SFS1 GMS out there, if you ever have the option of playing at his tables, I can very much recommend the experience.

It's a horrible story. I hope the many affected publishers make it out of this crisis. This really is the time to support them for those who can.

I have now seen this feat in action in a couple of sessions, and the -20- foot penalty is absolutely brutal, the stunned one on a crit fail is already pretty backbreaking, but the combination is something that worries me a lot.

Especially if you want to use enemies from PF2, but even in the recent playtest adventures, a lot of enemies get reduced to 5ft movement speeds (because even if your movement speed is reduced to 0 you can still move 5ft as an action), and especially if they are written to use area weapons, it tends to break their tactics, and how they are supposed to work.

My suggestion would be to either remove a higher speed penalty than -10 ft. from the game or at the very least limit it to -15.

I am prepping this on short notice, though I could manage to watch the stream where TMun ran it for Jenny and Jon Compton, so I am already a bit familiar with it.

My one big question is regarding the Shimmerstone Exposure disease:

SHIMMERSTONE EXPOSURE

The shimmerstone in Shim-Tek mine is corrupted, and
prolonged exposure to it stokes feelings of aggression,
anger, and frustration. This functions as a disease.
SHIMMERSTONE RAGE
RARE DISEASE MAGICAL
Creatures exposed to corrupted shimmerstone risk
becoming overcome by anger and violently attacking
nearby people and objects.
Saving Throw DC 30 Fortitude; Onset 1 hour; Stage
1 stupefied 1 (1 hour); Stage 2 stupefied 2 (1 hour);
Stage 3 stupefied 3 (1 hour); Stage 4 stupefied 4 and
confused (1 hour)

Unfortunately, the scenario is unclear how often exposure happens and what level the disease is (relevant for counteracting it). The DC would be correct for a level 12 affliction/disease (and that seems compare well to the level 11 Brain Worms disease on page 89 of GM core that uses the standard level 11 DC).

Since multiple exposures to the same disease have no effect (source player core page 430) it might not matter too much if the players are fast, though the stupefied condition will be very brutal for any spellcaster.

The striker operative exchanges proficiency with martial guns for a similar proficiency with unarmed and one-handed melee weapons (as long as they have the agile trait) - unfortunately, the level 5 class feature "Master Gunner" does not give the crit specialization for those melee attacks, it still only provides that effect to guns for which the operative has expert proficiency.

That feels like an oversight, and as my group currently builds characters for Empires Devoured, a change would be most welcome.

Striker

You specialize in hand-to-hand combat and prefer to fight
using your fists or lightweight melee weapons, rather than
guns. Whether you’re a daredevil who lives for the thrill, a
martial artist who likes to show off, or an assassin who kills
with a personal touch, you take the fight to your foes and
use your body as a weapon. You’re trained in Athletics. You
gain a skill feat for Athletics. You can choose Strength as
your key attribute.
Exploit: You have expert proficiency with unarmed and
one-handed melee weapons with the agile trait instead of
with martial guns. Whenever you increase your proficiency
with martial guns, you instead increase your proficiency with
one-handed agile melee weapons and simple guns.

MASTER GUNNER 5TH

You’re a highly skilled sharpshooter and never go anywhere without your gun. Your
proficiency rank increases to master with simple and martial guns, and increases
to expert with advanced guns. You gain access to the critical specialization effects
for all guns for which you have expert proficiency.

A recent errata included this text that at least showcases the intention for how it work, it seems like an oversight:

Page 89 (Operative): The benefits of the Striker Exploit apply to melee unarmed attacks, including the increase in proficiency, benefits of Aim, and ability to use operative feats. Replace the second paragraph of the exploit with: “You can use one-handed melee weapons with the agile trait and melee unarmed attacks with the agile trait to Aim and to satisfy requirements and use operative feats and features that require a ranged Strike or gun.”

Pretty simple, the main condition entry on page 256 of the playtest handbook says:

SUPPRESSED
You’ve been affected by a high volume of incoming fire or a particularly dangerous attack that forces you to act less efficiently for your own safety. You take a –1 circumstance penalty to attack rolls and take a –5-foot status penalty to all your Speeds.

A number of classes and items interact with the condition but the effect is only detailed in the Solder ability (other than on the condition description above):

SUPPRESSING FIRE

You have a knack for using powerful weapons to hinder your foes and prevent
them from operating at their peak. If you make an attack with a weapon that
has the area trait (such as from the Area Fire or Auto-Fire actions), you use it
in a manner that suppresses your targets. Enemies in the affected area who fail

their save against your attack become suppressed (page 256)until the start of your next turn. A suppressed target takes a–1 circumstance penalty on attack rolls and takes a –10-foot status penalty to its Speeds. Some Soldier abilities and class feats interact further with the suppressed condition.

Clarification would be appreciated, personally, I am going with the more general condition description rather than the reference in a class ability.

Short clarification requests regarding the following lores, which are granted by backgrounds and mentioned in the skill chapter as sample lores:

-Physical Science Lore granted by the electrician background
-Life Science Lore granted by the doctor background

As these used to be fully featured skills in Starfinder first edition, could we maybe get an explanation of what they are supposed to cover?

Right now they seem comparable to some very broad lore skills or class features with a custom lore skill that allows you to recall knowledge about everything (Bardic lore being an example).

Previously guidelines about lores indicated that they should be pretty narrow, undead lore is a pretty famous outlier here, which brings me to ask the question above.

I am quite excited, particularly for the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Deluxe Adventure Pack (Foundry VTT), those dice just look amazing ^^

Captain Concierge approved dice rolls.

Clarification request:

The content on pages 5-6 seems to be missing a map, especially since they include a hazard with a listed trigger range and an encounter.

-

Map on page 7 and description on page 8.
Marking actually walls on the overlay layer in the pdf would have been appreciated, since "the upper and lower areas of the map are separated by solid walls instead of railings." does not cover many of the stairs and the chance players triggering more than one encounter at the same time seems very realistic on this map.

I believe that this should be avoided at all cost if possible (and as part of the are description it might be easy to miss, so I felt like mentioning it here in either case).

Thank you, regular errata are very appreciated particularly for those of us with at least one leg in the org play sphere.
EDIT: Might it be possible to add something like a "last updated on [date]" entry to each errata section, to make it easier for GMs and players to check if there are recent errata?

Looking forward to the new season, particularly since it has a chance to advance the plot with the Watcher Lord has not moved much in this edition.

Starting a season with a delicious dinner sounds like a marvelous way to start the season.

I am really looking forward to this batch, particularly the quest as I plan to run it for a mix of players from my Strenght of Thousands groups as a sort of ... student exchange ^^

Errata day, is one of the best and most welcomed blog-related holidays ^^

I know there are a lot of others words in that post, but I am so darn happy about VC Safa ^^

I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite VTT on the Citadel.

Short question... can you wield a weapon you have created via the Elemental Weapon feat in two hands to benefit from a higher damage bonus and potentially other advantages?

All of these sound amazing, but I am really looking forward to Nicole's scenario since I very much enjoyed her bounty.

Hey everyone,

signups for our event have opened a couple of days ago, but we are still adding scenarios to our schedule as people offer to step up to GM. At the time of writing, we offer English/German/Finnish/Italian and French tables.

Of course, since this is the replacement for CoNFuSiOn in the Netherlands and AB-Con in Germany, many of you might already be planning on how to enhance your experience with the usual convention things like snacks, lack of sleep, and as many showers as possible^^

If you already have some plans, please feel free to share them ^^

For those of you who have not found our convention just yet here are links to our Warhorn page and Discord.

Ab-Confusion 2021 Warhorn

Convention Discord

It seems unclear if or when the Evolution Points reset. Options might include:
at the end of combat, when the combat no longer includes a significant enemy, after a 10-minute rest, after resting for the night...

This seems to be pretty important since it might open up some out-of-combat use for those abilities. Unfortunately giving players an incentive to extend combat duration, does seem at least a bit problematic.

Stellar work, I was already looking forward to get back into SFS properly but now I am really getting excited ^^

Unsurprisingly that Leshy illustration is absolutely stealing the show, looking forward to the new scenarios ^^

Welcome back Bequeathal, and that new Character Options page really looks lovely ^^

Glad to read that Gencon is supporting a charity with the ticket sales ^^

Edit. And for those that are not familiar with discord, I usually suggest for players to consider installing the actual software, as the browser version can be a bit tricky. If you want to test your microphone setup before your games, there are plenty of org play discords available ^^

You really do not want to learn the finer points of that program when you are about to start your session ^^

The box is looking great, however I have a question. Will this product be using the full PFS2 ruleset or a limited ruleset like previous products?
For example, apparently previous Beginner's Boxes remove some parts of the rules like swift actions and attacks of opportunity, and I would personally love the introductory product features the "normal" ruleset (mostly so I can recommend it as a product for new players).

He really is one of my favorite characters from Golarion, I can't wait to dig deep into my copy of the ACG and the Chrimson Throne AP as soon as I have some time.... and it is really tough to avoid spoilers.

I can absolutely recommend the various audiobooks that feature the Varian and Radovan^^

Just started prepping it, but that custom map really is enormous, that works for an online game, but I have tables that will have a hard time fitting this map and the normal detritus players bring to the table.

I am starting to prep it soon for an online table, that will likely tell me how much of the actual map I need to print or draw.

One thing about the character art, it is very subjective, but I really like the art in this one, particularly the first two illustrated NPCs and would like to see more from this artist.

Good choice about the free rebuild, is there a link or tutorial about how players can redeem they AcP? I am unfortunately unable to find it.

The official character sheet can be seen in the current blog, and unless I am mistaken a local publisher also promoted their crowdfunding fora localized version with a preview of that sheet.

Regarding that sheet I have a couple of requests:

- Can we please get a version that takes less ink/toner to print? The one from the blog seems almost wasteful, but a lot of us are going to have to print a lot of them for our events to help players create their characters.

- Could we please get access to a pdf of the normal version (and printer friendly if at all possible) as soon as possible, ideally today but in all honesty a week before the launch would still help a lot.
Quite a number of those that are involved in Organized Play are going to want to offer PFS2 as soon as possible, and some of us do not have unrestricted access to a printer.
Allowing us to print the sheets a significant time before the event would help a lot.

I guess the same is true for all those players wanting to quickly create their characters and play them at Gencon.

Thank you for taking the time to consider these suggestions.

Our current plans are to open registrations on the 30th of June, right now we are still waiting for a couple more GMs to sign up - or not as the case may be, before finalizing our offerings.

If you want to attend and have any requests or have needs that require special consideration, please let me know ASAP.

https://warhorn.net/events/ab-con-autumn-2019

Hi everyone,

unfortunately, it took longer than expected to transfer funds to my card, could you try my existing card again?

Congratulation to the new 5 star recipients who worked really hard to make this campaign a great experience for everyone.

I am very much looking forward to all those neat PFS 2 news ^^

I apologize if the issue has been raised before, but I just wanted to make sure that I mention it, since it has been a factor that was very unwelcome among my players.

Right now the effect of nat. 20 is that characters will be able to reach a critical result, while those who have invested into a skill might not even have a larger crit range (the option to achieve a critical success by rolling a result that is 10 higher than the DC).
The feedback I have received is that getting a crit success is more dependant on luck (rolling that 20) than actually feeling that their investment mattered.

Early in the playtest (and later towards the end) my player requested more impact of proficiency and less impact from items (removing the bonus to skills from some items might help, since right now they are absolutely essential, and this was not the case in PF1).

That is one problem, the second one is rather more problematic:

A Nat 20 usually means that the check is a success, that might be fine for some situations, but looking at something with a set DC like:

BREAK OPEN

Using your body, a lever, or some other tool, you
attempt to forcefully open a door, window, or container; lift a heavy
gate; or break open some kind of bonds restraining your mobility.
With a high enough result, you can even smash through walls.
Success You break the door, window, or container open, and
the door, window, or container gains the broken condition.
Critical Success You open the door, window, or container but
can avoid damaging it in the process.
Critical Failure Your attempt jams the door, window, or
container shut, imposing a –2 circumstance penalty on all
future attempts to open it.

And

Success and Critical Success
If your result is equal to or greater than the DC, you
succeed and apply any success effect (or generally achieve
what you set out to do). However, if you succeed and
rolled a 20 on the die (often called a “natural 20”), or
if your result is equal to or greater than the DC plus 10,
you critically succeed. You apply the critical success effect
instead of the success effect. If the critical success was an
attack roll, it is sometimes called a critical hit.
Critical successes usually have greater effects than
regular successes. For instance, if you succeed at a Strike,
you deal damage, but if you critically succeed, you deal
double damage. If an ability doesn’t specify a critical
success effect, then the effect for a critical success is the
same as that for a success. A critical success counts as a
success for rules that have different effects depending on
whether you succeed or fail.
success for rules that have different effects depending on
whether you succeed or fail.

If your enemy is far more powerful than you or a task
beyond your abilities, you might roll a natural 20 and
still get a result lower than the DC. In this case, you
succeed instead of critically succeed or fail. If you lack the
proficiency for a task in the first place, or it’s impossible,
you might still fail on a natural 20.

Failure and Critical Failure
If your result is less than the DC, you fail. For actions you
initiated, this typically means there is no effect. If you were
rolling a saving throw, failing generally means you are
affected by a spell or ability. If there is no failure effect
listed, the ability simply has no effect if it fails.
If you fail and roll a 1 on the d20 (also called a “natural
1”), or you fail and your result is equal to or less than the
DC minus 10, you critically fail instead of just failing. A
critical failure is sometimes called a “fumble.” If an action
or activity does not specify a critical failure effect, then the
effect for a critical failure is the same as that for a failure.
The effects of a critical failure are often more detrimental
than those for a failure and can be debilitating or even
deadly. If an ability does not specify a critical failure effect,
then the effect for a critical failure is the same as that for
a failure. A critical failure counts as a failure for rules that
have different effects depending on whether you succeed
or fail. It might be possible in some situations to meet the
DC even on a 1.

If your roll would equal or exceed the
DC even on a 1, you don’t critically fail, but you still fail
instead of succeeding. You can’t succeed when you roll a 1
no matter what your modifier is.

Right now, anyone will eventually crack the DC 45 safety deposit box at level one, and even high-level Barbarians will fail at breaking a fortune cookie.

Without having the ability to take 10, that is a bit of a problem, and I feel that the old rules of nat 1s and 20s not being relevant (in PF1) for skills, might have been a good thing, at least when it comes to a situation like this.

Could we maybe add something like "if the DC would require the player to roll higher than a 20 to succeed, even a nat 20 is not a success", so it does not fall on the GM to define what is impossible for a particular character?

That Skittermander picture is... glorious. Looking forward to the scenario ^^

The following question came up recently about the Demi Lich here are the relevant parts:

Speed fly 30 feet (from fly)
Melee jaws +26 (reach 0 feet), Damage 1d6–3 piercing plus
2d6 negative
Arcane Innate Spells DC 32, attack +28; Constant fly, true
seeing; 9th wail of the banshee; At Will blink, dimension door,
spell turning, telekinetic maneuver; Cantrips (8th) mage hand,
telekinetic projectile

Joined Items (arcane) As a lich becomes a demilich, some of its
magic items bleed over into the substance of the creature
itself. A demilich has 20 Resonance Points, which it can use to
Activate these items (and to Trap Souls). It recovers all spent
points after 8 hours spent in torpor. Many of the specific item
abilities vary from demilich to demilich.
• Eye Gems (arcane) A demilich has eye gems that glow when
the demilich is active. It can Activate an eye gem by spending
Focus Activation actions equal to the number of spellcasting
actions the spell requires. Each eye gem contains an 8th-
level spell that targets one creature. Usually, one eye gem
has maze and the other has polar ray. When the demilich
casts a spell from an eye gem, that eye gem stops glowing
for 1d4 rounds, during which time that eye gem’s spell can’t
be used. Occasionally, one or both of the two eye gems can be harvested from a destroyed demilich as magic items.

• Staff Gems A demilich absorbs the spells from a single staff
into gemstone nodules across its head, with larger nodules
representing higher-level spells. It can cast any of the spells
at a cost of 1 Resonance Point as though it were activating
the staff and expending a spell slot of the appropriate level. A
typical demilich has the spells from a staff of necromancy, but
it could have those from another staff of 13th level or lower

My question is regarding the Staff Gems ability, how often can a Demilich cast spells from the staff - is it limited by the number of charges a normal staff would have (staff of necromancy at level 13 has 9 charges) or can you spam spells from your staff and you are just limited by your 20 resonance?

I assume the excessive version is the case since this would actually give the create a bit of versatility when it comes to casting (just changes the source staff and you change the spell repertoire).

How do others read it, this might be and translation issue on my end, and it made a massive difference.

I have been looking forward to giving feedback on those issues, though I didn't even have the time to do the survey for the Resonance Test I ran on Sunday.
The teased 1.6 changes sound very promising, as those classes are among those who have received some negative feedback/request for options.

I played this character in playtest scenario 2 Raiders of Shrieking Peak, and it was very efficient, to the point where I got complaints from the other players and the GM.
The scenario might be somewhat to blame for this, since I was a ranged character and the others weren't. We eventually compared it to a similar fighter build, and thanks to the fact that True Strike really does not get worse, it performed similarly to the fighter with relatively minor investments from me.

My aim was apparently to replicate the magus archer I never got to play in PFS, but frankly considering the options I was given this build made a lot of sense to me:

The build is pretty simple, I went with the fighter multiclass since I didn't want to deal with mage armor which is just worse than actual armor if you want the highest AC. In theory I could also have picked up armor proficiency as a general feat, but that would only have given me light armor, and since I am pretty much stuck with a +4 Dex bonus until level about level 15 where I can hit 20 (22 with a magic item) this seemed like the most effective option to keep my AC up and avoid getting to many crits.

Of course, I already like that kind of character.

The bow was also kinda forced by the current system, right now a lot of spells (and all of the cantrips I have chosen) take 2 actions to cast leaving me with another free action. Reach spell was actually useful, but the bow just made a lot of sense for that last option and synergized very well with my build.

Magical striker really made the whole build work, and I felt very effective.

If I were to follow that build I would pick up point-blank shot and switch to a longbow.

Right now "have a ranged weapon that does not take 2 hands" seems to be the smart choice, which is unfortunate since it makes it very unlikely that I will be able to regularly wield my staff.

If I could point out something that is too good, it's like the Fighter multiclass dedication feat is a bit too good (giving me 2 feats and a couple of other benefits I am not actively using thus far).

---

Of course, this build also shows, that just focussing on casting is not currently very appealing I already had problems to find fitting items for some of my playtest characters, and most of the items available to spellcasters are not available yet.

Would it be possible to get a damag variant of the clerc feat "healing hands"? To allow pure casters a somewhat effective option to improve their casting?

---

Another thing that came up while I was researching this character, is that duellist wands exist, and I would prefer to get some way to get that functionality added to my staff (but that might be a somewhat personal issue).

Upgrading my staff as a weapon (since magic staffs are starting as expert weapons) seems like a neat idea, and even if they just add an item bonus to attack and damage rolls with spells (not unlike the staff of healing) that could give those pure spellcasters an outlet for their gold and prevent them from feeling forced to use a bow or crossbow.

---

I had fun playing the character, but though I have gotten the feedback that True Strike might be too good (in general, good enough the Iomedae cleric also used it in the same game, combined with weapon surge).

I am so looking forward to this, thank you John for making it easier to plan the playtest locally ^^