Beverly Trafton's page

Not quite the only class or archetype. Abilities like Disarming Block that apply a disarm during the target's turn have got some use, as well, since applying an extra -2 if they make further attacks that turn is a worthwhile benefit.

Good point. This is going to require you to 1) be attacked by a monster with a weapon 2) monster has to hit you 3) you have to have a reaction to spend on a shield block 4) you have to be willing to take shield damage 5) you must get a success on the disarm (athletics) roll 6) monster must attack again that round. It definitely can happen. I don't think it's going to happen enough to justify picking Disarming Block over another level 4 fighter feat like Knockdown which also uses an athletics roll but to much greater effect.

The Firebrand Braggart section (7.2.17) is all kinds of messed up.

The initial Firebrand Braggart Dedication not only gets you into the club but it is an action which you have described under Boaster's Challenge. It should be rated orange because while the action is quite horrible it is the feat tax to get to better stuff.

Boaster's Challenge (deception, diplomacy, intimidation check to get bonus damage) has its function described under Daring Act and I agree with your blue rating.

Daring Act (athletics or acrobatic check to stride without provoking) has its function described under Bravo's Determination. I agree with your green rating.

Bravo's Determination is a reaction to being dropped to 0 HP where you make a deception check to possibly be left with 1 HP instead. Success = orc ferocity and crit success doesn't wound you. If you were crit when dropped to 0 then your deception results get lowered by 1. I'd rate this green/blue.

The rest of the feats are correct.

DISARM is generally regarded as a less useful option because it requires you to critically succeed to achieve your aim, but I believe this misses the point. A regular success imposes a -2 on your enemy’s attacks for a round and makes your next attempt at disarm that much more likely to succeed.

Disarm - without additional feats to improve it - is absolutely awful. Spending feats to improve an awful feature is usually equally awful. Your reported success result for Disarm is wrong.

Success You weaken your target's grasp on the item. Until the start of that creature's turn, attempts to Disarm the target of that item gain a +2 circumstance bonus, and the target takes a –2 circumstance penalty to attacks with the item or other checks requiring a firm grasp on the item.

(emphasis mine)

So if you get a success on a disarm attempt then, unless he uses a reaction attack before his next turn, the bad guy has zero negative effects.

Also note that the Disarm action is an attack and sufferers the Multi-Attack Penalty. So you can add that +2 circumstance bonus to the -5 MAP giving you a -3 to your next attempt. Happy crit fishing.

Quite honestly the only class or archetype that should be messing around with disarm is the swashbuckler which offers a level 1 feat

It's harder for your foes to regain their grip when you knock their weapon partially out of their hands. When you succeed at an Athletics check to Disarm, the circumstance bonus and penalty from Disarm last until the end of your next turn, instead of until the beginning of the target's next turn. The target can use an Interact action to adjust their grip and remove this effect. If your swashbuckler's style is gymnast and you succeed at your Athletics check to Disarm a foe, you gain panache.

(emphasis mine)

TwilightKnight wrote:

Yeah, to follow up on my last comment, DO NOT PLAY A SWASHBUCKLER! especially not the pregen version. There are waaay too many oozes in this that are immune to all your damage types. Ordinarily I wouldn't spoiler in the open, but this is too important.

The swashbuckler is an awesome class, the pregen is a well-built character and I really like this module. However, IMO it is incredibly bad design to release an adventure with the intention of featuring the four new classes from the APG when nearly all of the creatures in the first Chapter of the adventure are immune to virtually everything you do. During the first chapter of the adventure, the swashbuckler is essentially nothing more than a an NPC class, punching with their first and hoping (very unlikely) to win the battle of hit point attrition.

What's up with the open spoilers? That's pretty inconsiderate.

TwilightKnight's statement was not a spoiler. It was a public service announcement. I couldn't agree more with every word that was written. The fact that a pregen swashbuckler was published for this adventure has to be some sort of cruel joke. I shudder to imagine a new player handed the pregen swashbuckler to play for this adventure.

I would really like an official answer to this situation. That being said I tend to agree with allowing the swashbuckler her bon mot attempt on mindless creatures and the rules seem to support this (although I can see both sides).

Slinging slurs like "rules-lawyer" seems a bit ironic when discussing rules in a forum labelled rules discussion, no?

Handy hint: When looking for non multiclass archetypes found in the APG there are some archetype feats which carry the SKILL tag which allows you to take them as a skill feat, not a class feat. For example the Sentinel archetype (allows heavier armor) gives you a skill feat option at level 4 and another at level six so if you took both you would be eligible for another archetype at level 8 and you haven't passed any juicy class feats. This is not the case with the Mauler, unfortunately.

Hmm, the scorpion whip is from Extinction Curse which has not yet been sanctioned for PFS so it's illegal for now but might become legal later. Even when/if they sanction Extinction Curse that item has to appear on the chronicle sheet AND you have to play the scenario and you then allowed to purchase one copy of the item (on the chronicle sheet). That's a lot of hoops to jump through so I would look for another solution for now.

If you consider spending your highest leveled slot to gain flanking or to eat an attack of opportunity "well worth it", then you and I have drastically different expectations on what makes playing a spellcaster fun.

I find defeating enemies fun. If my summoned dung beetle caused my enemy to hold its nose for 1 action and that was the difference between winning and losing then, yep, that's fun.

Ok, you can't actually summon a dung beetle. My level 2 mage was once in a party with a ranger, barbarian, and bard and the ranger dropped due to an untimely crit. There was a bottleneck behind a door and I spied an open space and summoned a flash beetle inside which promptly did an aoe dazzling attack which worked on 3 of the 4 bad guys. Over the course of the fight 4 bad guy attacks were nullified because they failed the flat check after an otherwise successful attack, the beetle lasted 3 rounds despite having all of 6 hit points. The players were howling with laughter. The GM gave my departed flash beetle a posthumous hero point when the dust settled. Yeah, that was fun.

Yes, and that is why I consider the orange rating to be accurate.

I personally rate the summon spells green because they have so much versatility and you can choose the right summons for the right situation. While summoning a shark can be a terrific idea it is awfully situational - but the spell isn't "summon shark", it's "summon animal". When I get a list of 8-10 critters to choose from - even if each individual critter is highly situational - the spell is still very good because I can make one of those options into the right tool for the job.

I respect your opinion and your play choices. I just like to play differently.
(Edit to conform my color rating to Tarondor's system)

This still doesn't really address the "Why would you ever use a summon spell cast in your highest level slot over an AOE spell or some kind of group debuff or effect?" question.

And what do you mean by "absorb hits and be used tactically"? They can't absorb anything for crap.

I have to disagree strongly here. I have consistently used used my highest slot on a summons and have turned the tide of battle easily. Consider a battle of a party of 4 vs 1 BBEG. If my character wins initiative and gets a summoned creature into the Big Bad's face, have it do a little damage and maybe some added effect (trip/poison/whatever) and then the Big Bad uses its turn to squash my summoned creature into paste, then I win. My team gets an entire turn to act without taking damage and I have effectively nullified the enemy for one round. There are very few spells that don't carry the incapacitate tag (which means they can hardly ever be used effectively) that can do anything close to that. If my summoned creature survives into round 2 it's all gravy from there. Even if my critter is ignored but can contribute by getting into a flanking position, I'll take that. Hell, sometimes just having my critter eat an attack of opportunity - which will allow my party to move around freely for a round can be well worth it.

Do the summon X spells work all the time? Nope. Can they be made to work depending on the situation? Absolutely.

Note to Tarondor - Thanks for the update! I appreciate all your hard work. I love the "summon X" section but you should not consider a creature's reaction ability as a positive quality since, as a Minion, your summoned creature cannot use them.

Fantastic Guide! I especially like the occasional comparisons to previous systems (1ed and D&D) from time to time. I don't agree with it all but then again I never do.

2 minor corrections under spells:

Negate Aroma (1st level) won't help with troglodytes unless they consent to having it cast on them. Much like the silence spell (divine, occult) it only works on willing targets. Pretty much makes this spell worse than red.

Geas (3rd level ritual). I have also been pronouncing this wrong for 40 years. I used to pronounce it as you now say to (gee -as) but it is actually pronounced gesh - rhymes with mesh - hard g. It's Gaelic, go figure.

One last thing.. I love the fast updates! For those who haven't noticed the summons list has already been updated with Bestiary 2.

Excellent answers, thanks! My players are new enough that common knowledge about monster types are still being learned. I'm leaning towards option B with perhaps a free knowledge nature check the second time it happens.

The monster ability (reaction) Ferocity reads "Trigger The monster is reduced to 0 HP. Effect THe monster avoids being knocked out and remains at 1 HP, but its wounded value increases by 1. When it is wounded 3, it can no longer use this ability."

This seems like a really strong (almost too strong) ability. It is mitigated by the fact that it is a reaction so it can only be used once per turn. I am torn what I should say as a GM when this happens. The options I am pondering are A) full disclosure - letting them know exactly what is happening B) hint at what is happening or C) simply reply "it's still standing" after repeated hits.

I don't think it matters too much when a single monster is getting pounded on because it'll most likely only be able to use ferocity once. The specific fight that is coming up is with 1 big boar and 2 smaller boars vs a low level party of 2 martials and 2 casters. I am afraid the ferocity mechanic has a potential to make a challenging fight into a deadly one as the fighting gets spread out and ferocity could be used multiple times per boar.

What would you do?

Thanks for the update, Jeff!

I have full confidence in the Paizo team to do what is best for themselves AND their customers. I personally have a lot less confidence that Gen Con will do what is right for their customers but I can appreciate that theirs is a complex situation and I can take a deep breath while things develop and decisions are made.

Kevin Trafton wrote:

Kelseus wrote:

Also another thing to keep in mind is that Paizo makes their money selling books. PaizoCon is just a marketing event.

GenCon makes their money running a Con, so to cancel would be to give up a full year's worth of revenue. Might make them more likely to wait to pull the plug on their whole business.

I was under the impression that GenCon was owned by Wizards of the Coast. Maybe I'm wrong?

You are. GenCon is a separate company.

Ah, I just looked it up. Peter Adkison, founder and former CEO of Wizards of the Coast, is the owner of Gen Con, LLC.

So yeah, a separate company with very very close ties to Wizards of the Coast.

Also another thing to keep in mind is that Paizo makes their money selling books. PaizoCon is just a marketing event.

GenCon makes their money running a Con, so to cancel would be to give up a full year's worth of revenue. Might make them more likely to wait to pull the plug on their whole business.

I was under the impression that GenCon was owned by Wizards of the Coast. Maybe I'm wrong?

I guess I'd like to draw the contrast between PaizoCon and GenCon. Paizo made a swift and decisive move to cancel their convention and then spends 100s of hours organizing an online version for which they will receive little monetary benefit (major props and love, though). GenCon seems to be ready to pass out the Clorox inhalers in order to keep their convention on track. I'm wondering if there has been any financial and/or legal pressure put upon GenCon's major partners such as Paizo to toe the line?

To be fair only around 42% of us are feeling suicidal these days. The rest of us would like to do the smart thing and stay healthy and safe.

GenCon is being very tight lipped about whether they will either a) go ahead with b) delay or c) cancel the convention scheduled for July 30 - Aug 2. They just announced that event signups are now delayed. Many people are speculating that the events are not being posted due to a large number of event hosts are pulling out.

Just wondering what Paizo's plans were?

I got my case today and it is missing 3 rares including the $40 blue dragon. So after paying $375.88 for the subscription case and the bonus item and postage I now have to spend $44.63 (this includes discount plus postage). To finish the set.

I am beyond disappointed.

I've got a quick question about assigning points with the schools of Spells, Scrolls, or Swords. The second point invested in a particular school gives us the choice of becoming trained in one of a few listed lore skills at first level and we get a bonus skill feat (choice of 1 of 4 listed) at 5th level. Nowhere does it say we need to be trained in the associated skill of those feats. For example it says I can select the Cat Fall feat through the School of Swords but it doesn't mention if being trained in acrobatics is required. Is that an oversight or intentional?

Go here for reference

See this comment. Encounters happen where the character is.

She is encountering the card at the Chapel, so, I'd say the "At This Location" power of the Wishing Well isn't in effect if Alahazra is at the Chapel, since during the encounter neither her nor the card at "at the location" of the Wishing Well.

The combination of Stargazer and Wishing Well can easily get out of hand. Alahazra can simply camp on the wishing well and use all of her divine cards to examine the top cards of all the locations and encounter the boons, and use the wising well's power to auto-acquire them (since that is where the encounter is taking place). Sure, she'll rack up a lot of Pirate Shade Haunts (I had a die-counter up to 12 and could have gone higher but the boon pickings were getting slim). At the end of each turn she discards all the non-divine cards and resets her hand (she can easily heal herself if necessary). Her teammates then use their turns to move to locations with banes on top and eliminate them so Alahazra has more targets for the next turn. When the boons start running out, have another player close the wishing well (because it would be really hard for Alahazra to do this with all the haunts hanging around), and then spend 1 dead turn for Alahazra to clear her own haunts.

If you end your turn at this location, banish all Haunts next to your character card.

I wouldn't try this with a group of players unless they were all on-board with the strategy, but I don't mind doing this on solo games when playing multiple characters.

I thought I'd seen a similar issue before but I failed my search check today. Thanks for the fast response!!!

This is an adventure 6 monster who has the following powers:

Before the encounter, each character at this location must succeed at a Dexterity or Acrobatics 14 check or be dealt 1d4 Electricity damage.

Damage dealt by the Warden of Thunder is dealt to each character at this location.

So my party of 3 assembles at the last open location and encounters this. Nobody can successfully manage the dex/acro check and they roll 2,3,3 for damage. Does each character take 8 electricity damage or just their individual rolls?

Anybody have a final card count for S&S with the promos? I understand the first set had 1033 single sided and 130 double sided.

Could somebody please give some pro's and con's regarding the Ultra PRO standard and matte sleeves? I understand that the matte sleeves have reduced glare but is it significant enough to justify the price difference?

Also, are the PACG sleeves considered standard or matte sleeves?

Thanks in advance!

Just for clarification. I'm playing three characters solo. All three are at a location that I just permanently closed, and there's only one location left. My question is, can I move all three characters to the final location at once, or one at a time when it's the character's turn? I would guess one at a time. Right?

Depends on which version of the game you're playing. If it's Rise of the Runelords then one at a time is the rule. Amiri does have a power (if chosen) that lets her bring another character with her special move at the end of her turn.

If you're playing the newer Skulls and Shackles game then the active player is the captain of a ship, and as long as the ship is not wrecked or anchored to a specific location you can bring along other (willing) characters as you move.

This is really disappointing. I won't be playing S&S without the add-on decks because the two characters who I've been waiting to play are the druid and alchemist. This also means we can't play with 5 or 6 players for at least another month too.

As far as speculation goes, my guess is that due to the launch of the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild the majority of those add-on decks had to go to stores who have signed up to host sessions and this probably wasn't considered early enough.

Kevin Trafton wrote:

I'm thinking their clockwork could use a potion of lubrication right about now - which is reportedly an actual card in the S&S base set. Being a PACG subscriber I can't confirm this since... well, you know.

There is a potion of lucubration in the set and people will continue misreading it as lubrication.

I think I will rather enjoy "misreading" this card for quite a while.

I just got off the phone with customer service, and finally it looks like we have some information about what's been going on. Apparently, there was an issue with the Character Add-On decks, which they were trying to get resolved but were unable to before the shipping deadline. The base sets are supposed to be shipped today, and the Character add-ons will be sent next month with Adventure deck 2.

I made it clear in my discussion with the representative, but I want to repeat it here to make it clear: this was the wrong way to handle this. The lack of information, and silence right up until the deadline did nothing but create confusion and frustration for the customers. As soon as there was an issue, it should have been publicly announced. At the very least, when it looked like it would be right up to the deadline, an explanation should have been made available. I hope in the future, if there is ever an event like this again, we will have greater transparency regarding issues such as these.

Thanks for the info! It's kinda sad that this didn't come from a CS rep. I completely agree with you.

I'm thinking their clockwork could use a potion of lubrication right about now - which is reportedly an actual card in the S&S base set. Being a PACG subscriber I can't confirm this since... well, you know.

It would be counter to their established practise over at least the last six years (which is how long I've been a subscriber to pretty much everything). They always put enough stock aside for subscribers first - they just dont guarantee them actually being sent first.

I think it's more likely that they havent yet reconciled their stock on returning from GenCon so their software doesnt know the exact number of items on hand and just defaults to "backorder" to be safe.

Sorry, that doesn't make sense. Why would they set aside stock for subscribers and not ship it? And keeping track of inventory is about as simple as it gets in terms of software - I cannot buy the "reconciling inventory" argument.

Regardless, I've lost a lot of enthusiasm I had for this product. I'm very disappointed at this point.

I'm sure they've got enough copies for subscribers...

I seriously doubt that there are a pile of games sitting around their warehouse waiting to be shipped. Face it; everybody who has a subscription and did not pick up their game at Gencon is basically waiting for a backorder. I'm guessing they are receiving a large shipment on the 21st from the manufacturer and will be able to cover most of the subscribers' shipments by the 22nd.

What bothers me is that I'm also guessing that they've known this was the situation since the beginning of August. Their initial pile of games all went to Gencon even though their subscribers have ordered them beforehand. In my case I've had my order paid in full since the 7th which just doesn't seem right.

Again, all of the above is conjecture on my part, but I'd be very surprised if I was proven wrong.

As at least a person has eluded to already: I think the OP's question is something which requires his hypothetical scenario to be modified.

Yes, I didn't realize that the spell negated the torches altogether so my bad on that. So back the drow outside the spell effect and then ask yourself if they can see each other.

The original question still puzzles me, though. I'm guessing there is no definitive answer - only various GM's interpretations.

Since the supernatural darkness emanates from where it is cast (because you can completely cover the source to negate it), it clearly is a magical effect so any real world comparisons will fail. Real world darkness is just an absence of light, after all. Because of this I'd say you cannot see what is on the other side of a deeper darkness sphere.

I would agree with Coriat in the case of natural darkness, where it would not provide concealment behind it.

Two drow 80 feet from each other, with a 60 foot diameter globe of deeper darkness in the middle will have no problem seeing each other. They will not be able to see anything inside the globe.

Well, the deeper darkness spell has a radius of 60 feet (or a diameter of 120') so they both are in the globe. Does this change your answer?

Just trying to clarify.

As the subject states only here's an example:

Two humans are in a cave. They are 80' from each other and each has a lit torch but otherwise there are no light sources. Each human can see 20' around them, and they can see through the darkness to see each other and the other's 20' radius of torch light. Seems easy, right?

Now, replace the humans with drow (darkvision 120'). Each has a lit torch. But this time somebody cast deeper darkness in the middle (60' radius - lowers light 2 levels). Their own torchlight gets reduced from normal light down two steps to regular darkness which doesn't bother the drow but they cannot see beyond the 20' radius of the torches which is now considered magical darkness. Can they see through the magical darkness to see each other?

In other words does magical darkness work like a silence spell where nothing passes through the affected area or more like the human example above?

Thanks in advance for your responses.