BennActive's page

What do you do if you've lost a scenario sheet and the scenario in question was never reported? Or you GM'd a scenario and the only evidence you have is your own written GM sheet since the scenario was never reported?

Yes, I told the the Venture Captain about the non-reported scenarios and then later on gave a massive and detailed list to his successor. I think maybe a third of the scenarios were actually fixed or added.

Since I have no evidence any longer for some games should I go back through the chronicle sheets that I do have and attempt to edit it so that the missing scenarios no longer factor into gold/items bought and experience? I get the feeling after a certain point the character would just no longer make sense since they'd be below the tier they were indicated as playing

What about my GM stars? I've run over 30 games, but since several of them were never reported officially I'm listed as a single star GM. After not seeing the game reported in two years I'm going to go with it never getting reported and don't know how to proceed from there.

Hey folks. It looks like I'm about to GM my very first long term campaign so a few random concerns have popped into my head. It boils down to two questions:

1. What are some very powerful/annoying builds you've come across as a player or GM? (i.e. summons focused casters clogging up the battle field)

2. How did you or the GM counterbalance the build? (anti-summoning magic, readied actions to force a concentration check, etc.)

I don't want to outright deny my players things they want to play, but I want to walk in prepared with compromises and/or an agenda in order to ensure everyone at the table has a good experience and not just the min/max'd shenaniganer.

I was paging* through the Familiar Folio and discovered the Leshy Warden Druid Archetype and knew I had to buy the book. I freakin' love Leshies and am now trying to build one for Pathfinder Society play. I am trying to figure out how to make my desires at least decently viable for play. If you think Leshy Warden is stupid and should be changed then I do please ask you to leave the thread and PM me your tirade against my choices instead.

Basic Premise
Oread Druid (Yes I have the race boon)
Leshy Warden Archetype (Growth Subdomain)
Leaf or eventually Gourd Leshy
Mauler Archetype Familiar

I am not 100% sure if Leshy familiars can take archetypes, but if I can I want to make a ridiculous cute battle leshy to fight alongside my melee druid. I'm looking for suggestions on feat, tactics, traits, items etc. If you've got a compelling reason to alter any of the Basic Premise but the Druid archetype I am certainly happy to look at alternate solutions to the idea of Leshy Druid.

*I initially was going to write "leafing" but thought better of it.

So I really like the occultist and enjoy the variety of things I was able to do with my level 1. With all of my Pathfinder Society characters I sketch out what I will probably do for 12 levels and have some concern for poor Eliot the Occultist.

With an Intelligence of 16 Eliot has 7 Mental focus points at level 1. These are typically going to be used with the Intense Focus and Soulbound Puppet resonant powers for Evocation and Necromancy. The max points required to keep both full is 3 leaving me four points to use on Energy rays, spell shaping, and Mind Fear. This is great for a level one adventurer and felt equal to the casters I've built before.

At second level my MFP goes up to 8 but the options for abilities goes up much higher. Intense focus goes from needing 2 to maintain max to needing 4 points. The soulbound familiar still only needs one, but if I were to use the Spirit Shroud instead I would need 2. I'll be adding Illusion implements and the Distortion ability needs 2 to max out. So I'll have either 1 or no mental focus points to use freely before I start depleting my resonant powers. So I'll trade my four points to spend as I wish for a 10% miss chance, +1 to evocation damage and one free point. That feels like a weird jump.

At 5th level I'll have 11 MFPs. Intense Focus can max out at 6 points, my Soulbound puppet would need 3 to function at full capacity or my Spirit Shroud would need 5, and the Distortion would need 3. So I'm at -1 or -3 MFPs. Let's say I'd have 5 Intense focus, 3 familiar, and 3 distortion. That gives me a +2 to evocation damage (the same as level 2), level 5 familiar, and 15% miss chance with no free points to spend.

I understand that the class requires choosing between full implement resonant power and my focus powers, but I feel like there's just too little points to go around to make it compelling to play. I have all these neat toys, but they break very quickly. Level 6 will see a fourth implement added to the mix but only one more point that can be placed into it which the needs of the others go up. This problem just gets worse the more I get into the class.

At 12th level I would have FIVE implements that desire mental focus with only 19 points to give them. Intense Focus will take 8 points for a +4 to evocation spell damage, Distortion will have 5 points for a %25 miss chance, and my Necromancy implement and Transmutation implement will have to share the remaining 6 points. My fifth implement (I will take evocation twice) is just going to remain depowered. I'm not really sure how this compares to other level 12s but I know the reaction is that I have a lot of neat toys that can't be used.

Currently my only way to address this problem is to increase my Intelligence. I do plan on using 4th and 8th level to boost my Int, but the reason I didn't go higher at level 1 was because I did need bonus to other abilities to make sure my character could do other things. I'm sure the actual book will have a feat to added more, but I'm not sure 3 extra points or whatever it will be is enough to fix what feels like slow suffocation, and then even if it did it would feel like a Feat Tax to make the class functional.

I like the occultist and the flexibility it has, but looking at the future of my character does not make me excited to play him more. I love the feel of 1st level and want to keep more of that at higher level.

After reading about the Soulbound Puppet resonant power I knew I had to build a Necromancy Occultist. What we ended up with was the very memorable Eliot Upton. He's a creepy childish halfling with a doll fixation and focus on ranged attacks.

Our party consisted of Level 2 Samurai, level 1 ninja, level 3 Sacred Fist, Level 3 Mastermind, level 2 Magus, and my level 1 Occultist.

Intro- It's nice to have a couple of points to put into Knowledges. I was able to roll well, but the higher level Magus blew me out of the water. I wasn't very useful while we were sailing to the Gloomspire, but once we got to the top of the tower Mrs. RackleShack (my doll familiar) did prove to be a sneaky scout. We realized that she had no ability to speak Common and our GM had a lot of fun playing charades while we questioned the doll about what she found.

We used my familiar to scout some more. I cast Light on her and dropped her down the crevice on a rope. We climbed down (after the sacred fist and samurai took damage from falling statues) and moved into the room with the Hag Face. My very curious halfling managed to avoid the cannibalistic impulses and shove them into the dark places of his mind like usual.

After all the other combats we steamed rolled the final ghoul in the last room and completed the scenario.

I love all the options I have to choose from: ranged touch ray, area affect spell (that can be selective), ranged weapon, fear affect, and melee attacks in decent armor. I wasn't crippled like the mesmerist at the other table (Crypt of the Everflame) who's psychic powers didn't affect the undead of that adventure. I was equal to the level 2 magus as far as entering melee combat. I rolled well on the die but the plus 1 for my evocation implement was nice. The familiar is fun and I realized if Eliot continues to make dolls I can change what my familiar is each day and have a lot of flexibility on the bonus it gives me. I may have to reconsider my focus on range attacks but I'm not too worried.

Overall I like this class for its flavor and its abilities. My one worry is not having enough Mental Focus points to power my implements and focus powers effectively. That, however, is going to be a separate number crunching post.