Bottleface's page

I've been excited for this book for some time now as I'm running a campaign in the Mwangi Expanse. Just a shame I have to wait a couple more weeks before I can get it in Canada for some reason. I really want to delve into the deeper lore.

Bottleface wrote:

Am I just blind? I scoured the site for character sheets for 2.0 and this thread was all I found for official stuff. I may check out unofficial ones but it seems odd that they're not readily accessible unless I somehow missed them.

Just scroll up to the top of this page, and there is a link to both B&W and colour.

Yeah I found them in this thread. What I'm saying is that it took a great deal of searching and it would never have occurred to me that the only place to find a character sheet was a random Paizo Blog. I would think there'd be a prominent link to them on the 2e page or something.

Am I just blind? I scoured the site for character sheets for 2.0 and this thread was all I found for official stuff. I may check out unofficial ones but it seems odd that they're not readily accessible unless I somehow missed them.

I currently play in a pickup game in a setting at my game tavern that doesn't really have a proper common language. In the PF version of the game it was possible to work around this thanks to linguistics and skill bonuses, in the 5e version were were even more likely to have parties that literally could not communicate with each other because various party members didn't know any similar languages. I haven't been following the playtest closely but this is one thing that I really don't like. I find the language issue in 5th edition to be far too restrictive and it seems like PF 2.0 went that direction as well. PF 1.0 language rules were fantastic. They did not break the game and allowed players to really find a niche for themselves.

My first experience with Critical Fumbles was a 3.5 game. Due to an unlucky couple of rolls, a character literally impaled themselves with their own sword and died on their first attack in the game.

When you consider that eventually characters are making 4 attacks per round (more if you dual wield) it seems ridiculous that you could accidentally just kill yourself or an ally. 1's being an automatic miss is painful enough.

Critical failures should never be more than an optional house rule.

I appreciate all the responses. Of course it would take all day to respond to everything everyone said so I'll respond to some things that stood out at me.

First, some of you don't understand why these little murder hobo incidents have bothered me to the point that I desire a reboot. Basically, it amounts to the fact that I see my brother's grinning face on every king, queen, peasant and shopkeep in the continent. I was successfully provoked and it's permanent, no rational argument will asuage this. My best friend aka the current DM thinks I'm nuts. It's actually so bad that I'm ensuring my friend's current world stays separate from the new cannon because his world is linked distantly to the murder hobos and a couple of his other characters. A proverbial bridge has been burned.

Also noteworthy were the comments about handwaving the events out of the story, creating an alternate dimension or otherwise waving a DM magic wand to make this ugly episode dissapear. I wish I could do this and "believe" it, but I subscribe to a school of thought which maintains that when things happen in game they're "real" and irreversible. It's the same reason I don't fudge the dice after critting someone's character out of existence. I could say the character is alive, but I would hate myself. I've never been a fan of marvel, particularly the aspect of the cannon where something can happen one way but happened differently in an alternate universe. In other words, it's hard for me to relate to a dead spider man or a senile and sickly wolverine. These things don't strike me as sad because I know that in another universe they're alive and well, and in yet another universe they're awful villains anyway. I'm all about one single consistent universe.

I've had experiences with my group where our session doesn't go well for one reason or another and as a player I dread the next session. However, I've also ended up having great sessions at the next one that leave me feeling like I can't wait for more.

Your brother took a giant crap on everything and if it's an option he should be kicked from the group. I may not agree with your perspective on handwaving or alternate universes but I can understand where it comes from. That said, part of the reason people suggest this event should not be made canon is that it was a deliberate act of sabotage from your brother. In the case of a novel, what's told is told. However, the novel has the benefit of being written by one person. This story is written by several and this one individual did his best to piss on it. This might be one time where your rigidity regarding the story that was told could afford to be relaxed since it was clearly not a regular story telling.

One I recently discovered as I was making a skald for the first time was Aphasia. It's a level one, rnd/level, save or suck spell but if it works, you've potentially taken out the caster. Find a way to extend that and potentially you've left the bbeg looking like he lost his mind with no way to communicate.

One thing that I have found immensely helpful for my Cleric is the feat Selective Casting. At this point, that is an automatic include for me. It allows me to heal up the party in the middle of a fight and then go back to whatever it is I want to do, whether that be meleeing, crowd controlling or blasting stuff.

Hmm, I just realized it requires charisma 13. I see that you realized the importance of charisma after making the character. It might be worth speaking to your gm to see if you could do a one time stat switch. It's irregular but from what you said, you didn't fully understand the class when you made the character. If you could I'd put the 10 on dex or int. Some gm's will say no but it's worth asking.

Also, I took create potion and it's actually been pretty great if you're really into crafting. It seems like you've gotten put in the "walking box of band-aids box" and the beautiful thing about Pathfinder and channel energy is that you can be freed from that. That said, if you're not allowed to retrain feats I wouldn't take it since you already have a crafting feat.

Then it would work like normal I suspect :3

Yeah, but would the Lich still be good to go with the Final Blade acting as his phylactery or would that cut them off from their soul and kill them good?

I'd say no simply because the soul isn't the body getting chopped.

Okay, that's kinda what I figured. Now I'm wondering what would happen if you found a Phylactery and used the final blade on it.

I was curious, would the final blade work on a lich? I'm thinking because it has already trapped its soul in a phylactery it probably wouldn't but the Final Blade is a minor artifact. Would it be able to overcome the necromantic magic?

Our group once encountered a Rakshasa and his minions. He was way beyond our pay grade and the GM expected us to turn around and get the heck out. He was our BBEG at the time. Our sorceror remembered that we had a scroll of sleet storm and cast it between the Rakshasa and us. Then our Dwarven Monk ran around it and grappled the Rakshasa, preventing it from casting while the rest of the party dealt with the minions. When the combat finished the GM told us the session was done because he hadn't expected us to fight, let alone win and he had nothing prepared for that. We all had a great time though, including him.

One character I had potentially had the opportunity to break the game. We had just become demigods (back in 3.5) and I realized that I would potentially gain the ability to turn any metal into another (potentially unlimited wealth). The GM okayed it with the warning that spending too much might draw unwanted attention. Sadly, we never did continue the campaign so I've no idea how it would have gone.

On of my favourite derailing a BBEG encounter was in my first campaign. I was playing a Psion Uncarnate (3.5 again) and our group came up against some kind of Were-Boar giant thing. This GM I later learned is a) a pathological liar and b) always wants to win, so he will cheat. The big bad shows up, we're trying to figure out what the heck to do and one of the other players leans over and asks, 'you have ego whip right?' I went incoporeal and was able to do 1d4 charisma damage a round against this thing. In rage it tried to lash out against me but couldn't hit me and a few rounds later it was comatose. That was the day I discovered how crazy ability damage is.

I never really figured it mattered much mechanically. It was more that flavourwise it made sense for it to be have divine since it's a divine spell. To me a pillar of divine flame makes sense as half fire, half divine damage. Mechanically it's probably not important though.

It's mostly designed for use as a PFS multi-table special, but you might want to check out 7-00: The Sky Key Solution. Summary under the spoiler:

** spoiler omitted **

Edit: They also have a write-up in Occult Mysteries with some potential plot hooks.

Oh that's awesome. I'll have to look into that. Thanks!

Hey people, I've recently been asked by my group if I'd be interested in gming. I've never gm'd any kind of d20 game so I opted to use an existing campaign setting. Our group has been playing PF for several years now and love it, so Golarion is a no brainer.

I've been working through the Inner Sea guide to get a feel for the setting and to think of areas that might work for starting out. As I was reading the Inner Sea Guide I found 2 paragraphs on the Harbingers and instantly loved the idea of using them.

For me, a lot of the excitement comes from the idea of 'what if they're right?' They think the death of Aroden is a cosmic mistake and that if they can get these prophecies working again, they can fix it. That might be woefully naive, but what if they're on to something?

If Aroden wasn't meant to die, why did he? Who is responsible? What forces helped? Is there a way to fix things? Who had the most to gain?

You look at what happened when Aroden died, the world wound, the Cheliax situation, Ustalav. Demons, Devils and Zon-Kuthon all benefitted. Perhaps even the god of the dead considering all the cataclysms that would have sent souls to her. Maybe the serpent folk had a hand in it? They have every reason to hate the last Azlant, given that the Azlanti nearly destroyed all of them. Heck, maybe even Rovagug was somehow involved. Perhaps somehow various evils who normally would never work together saw a once in a million chance to tips the scales heavily in their favour and worked together to make it happen.

Anyways, I found the idea of the Harbingers so appealing because, they could be great allies or great enemies or both depending on which prophecies they're pursuing. If they are right, perhaps there is a way to right the wrong. Perhaps there might be an epic quest that leads to convincing a time dragon to take them back to the death of Aroden to perhaps save him, or pull a chrono trigger and bring him to the presence at the moment of his death (keeping the timeline in order while still saving him).

The fallout of something like that would be interesting. What would he do to his formerly faithful, would he have mercy on those who lost his way? Would the gods who gained clerics and followers as a result of his demise be thrilled to see him or would they have issues with their demotion? What of those who benefitted from his demise? Would his return even fix the issues like the Worldwound or the Eye of Abendego? What of the Harbingers who seem to stray further and further from Aroden's teachings?

Alternately, what if the Harbingers in their mad quest to right the cosmic wrong stumble upon an ancient artifact that they are convinced could redeem the universe or bring back the age of glory, but will actually cause untold destruction and ruin?

Anyways, something about the Harbingers has my brain ticking and I'd love to hear if anyone else has used them in campaigns or given them any thought. It seems like they weren't meant to be particularly important given that they only got a couple paragraphs but I'm really intrigued.

Personally, I find the deities of a setting to always be an important facet to understand. As such, Inner Sea Gods would be my next suggestion.

Beyond that, I'd peruse the campaign setting books and find an are that tickles your fancy, based on reading the ISWG. They're pretty high quality across the board, in my opinion so whichever area is likely to be important to your chosen campaign starting point (either geographic or thematic) is the best way to choose.

Thanks, I'll definitely check out the Gods book. I've also been interested by the Harbingers even if they only got a few paragraphs. They strike me as an organization that could be great allies, terrible enemies or both depending on which prophecy they pursued.

Hey people,

I've been playing the Pathfinder system for several years with my friends. One of them has a campaign coming to a close soon and asked if I'd be interested in GMing so that he could work with the other gm on fleshing out a homebrew. I agreed and since this is my first time gming a d20 style game, I figured I'd be better off with an established setting until I get the hang of it/work up my confidence.

Given that we love the Pathfinder System, and the decision to use an established campaign setting, Golarion is a no-brainer. I am currently working my way through the Inner Sea World Guide but I'm not sure where to go from there.

I have not yet decided on a starting location as I'm trying to get a feel for things, but I have a lot of time before I start my campaign. Which books would you say are a good idea beyond the Inner Sea Guide? I saw mention of campaign setting booklets but I'm guessing with almost 10 years of catching up, some might be better than others. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Without knowing more, this definitely sounds like something you may want to talk with your GM and maybe the other players out of character. None of them are evil so it doesn't make sense in character for them to steal your items. Not sure which items they're stealing though.

As for your build, those are some fine stats. Level 3 spells (which you get in a couple levels) have some really neat stuff. That said there are some nice spells for level 1 and 2. Part of it depends on what you're looking for. Do you want to be the Cleric putting out a lot of damage? Buff Spells are likely your best best. What I did when I started playing a cleric was I looked at a list of available spells and I made a document for myself with ratings for what I figured were the most useful. The beautiful thing about a Cleric is you can change your spells every day, so experiment. Just reading through quick descriptions of all the spells was a big help. There will be times you might get stuck healing instead of cutting stuff down but it won't be all the time unless you let it.

Derek has some great suggestions. Selective channel is fantastic if you are looking to get into the thick of things as it lets you throw down an aoe heal and then get back to business. Really though, talk to these people. Let them know what's bothering you and look for ways to resolve it.