BretI's page

You should not barrage them with e-mails. It is counterproductive as then they have to deal with each of those e-mails. My understanding is that they have a large number of e-mails to deal with.

It is much more effective to send one polite, well written, thought out e-mail that contains all the information you think is relevant. Things like the original order number (you can look it up in my orders), date of original order, and anything else you think might matter.

Also, did you check your account settings to see if you have a ticket? Buying another ticket when you already have one is just preventing someone else from being able to attend.

Does anyone know how to get ahold of paizo? I've been emailing for a week. Just trying to figure out if I indeed do have tickets for this year, like the letter I got stated. (Which I can't find anywhere) thanks

If you go into My Account / Account Settings, there should be a box for PaizoCon that tells you if you have an e-ticket. As for contacting them, it sounds like you have already sent an e-mail. I assume you sent it to the normal customer support address and hopefully put PaizoCon in the subject line.

I would also like to meet up with both of you there.

In-person attendees must show proof of vaccination (including booster shots, if eligible)

So does the above mean that those of us that are eligible for the second booster must have the second booster?

Welcome Fi!

Trusty breaks the fourth wall, looks at the dice bot, and asks, "WHAT did I do to YOU? Did I bilk you in a poker game? Make one too many 'Yo' Programma' jokes? Steal the last box of lubricant before you could get to it? What?"

Didn’t look that bad to me. :)

Strange, I never roticed that.

All specific magic armor on pages 124-129, except breastplate of vanishing, catskin leather, demon armor, enchanted eelskin, hamatula hide, mail of malevolence, morlock hide, otyugh hide, scarab breastplate, and warden of the woods are legal for play.

All specific magic shields on pages 130-133, except avalanche shield, belligerent shield, celestial shield, dragonslayer's shield, elysian shield, living steel heavy shield, tempest shield, volcanic shield, wyrmslayer's shield, and zombie skin shield are legal for play.

Seems strange that they allow the armor but not the shield.

Would need to appear on a boon sheet or chronicle sheet in that case.

Does anyone know how one might gain PFS access to a Celestial Shield? I have a character that bought one years back but today do not understand how that was PFS legal. A quick scan of chronicles did not reveal the source.

Own a legal copy of Ultimate Equipment, have enough fame, and pay 13,170 gp for the shield.

Not every party has a wizard.

I fully agree that as a party you need a way to deal with challenges. This is easier in home games than society play since you hopefully have a stable group.

Golems are particularly problematic since any spell that allows SR will either not work or work in a different way than normal on a golem. Might not want to depend on the spellcasters as the primary way to deal with such a challenge.

If we are talking about society play, you may not even have a wizard or sorcerer in the party.

TOZ has a point, sometimes an item can be more efficient.

A golembane scrab costs 2500 gp. Adamantine costs 3000 gp plus whatever the weapon costs. That can be a lot of money if you want it magical.

If you normally use Handwraps, your handwraps are going to be your best attack option. Carrying an ‘extra’ +1 adamantine mace or something like that would cost far more than a golembane scarab.

You don’t need to dedicate your neck slot to the scarab. What you do need to do is check with your GM before the game on the most action efficient way to change the active item in the neck slot. The rules say only one item can be active.

Worst case, you need to remove the current item, stow it, get out the scarab, put it in place.

My experience is that most GMs will not require that full sequence.

Instead you put both items on, with the one you don’t always need (golembane scarab in this example) being the one that is deactivated. Some GMs would have it be the first item put on, others might make it any subsequent items. Either way, you should be able to figure out a way to have the primary item be the active item.

When you need the golembane scarab, remove the other item. Optionally stow it if you don’t want that hand full. Since there is now only one magic item in the slot, the golembane scarab should activate. I know of nothing that defines when, so once again check with how the GM wants to do this.

I do something like this on a few of my characters, only it is with the swarmbane clasp.

It isn’t a waste of a round if it turns you from being incapable of hurting a creature to being able to hurt it but losing a different ability — whatever you normally have in your neck slot.

All the new content is for PF2. That said, they only recently released sanctioning for Tyrant’s Grasp and there is a lot of old content for PF1.

Badgers!

With all the talk of badgers in the book, I am surprised that neither it nor Grand Bazaar (nor anywhere else I can find) gives the price to get a badger.

It would be normal for gnome characters to want a guard badger or pack badger.

Grav Train is a really fun adventure. I highly recommend if.

Yes, I’ve played it.

No Brand Con will be held at the Chula Vista Resort in the Wisconsin Dells, April 22nd - 24th, 2022.

This convention has anime, CosPlay, dances, and tabletop gaming.

Proof of COVID-19 vaccination and masking required.

I am organizing the Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society events there. We will be offering the following scenarios:

Friday Noon - 5pm
PFS2: #1-06 Lost on the Spirit Road
SFS: 1-32 Acts of Association

Saturday 10am - 3pm
PFS2: 2-05 Balancing the Scales
SFS: 2-13 Storm of the End Times

Saturday 7pm - 12am
PFS2: 1-07 The Flooded King’s Court
SFS: 3-17 Clone Batch Catastrophe

Sunday 10am - 3pm
PFS2: Intro #2: United in Purpose
SFS: Intro #2 For the Factions

In addition, we will be offering quests and bounties for both systems as a walk-up Learn to Play sessions.

If you are interested in volunteering as a GM, please contact me. GMs that volunteer for at least 10 hours can have the cost of their badges refunded.

This discussion would really be more likely to be seen by the people who make decisions if it were in website feedback.

I don't know what's happened on the website end, but I hope they fix it soon!

What happened.

I would suggest you try logging in using ‘private browsing’ or ‘incognito’ mode — the name depends on the browser. If that works, clear cookies and cache data. That will most likely allow you to log in again in normal mode.

I don’t think they have anything more that they can fix with the log in.

In case you need it, here is the recommended procedure for clearing Paizo data.

Well, According to the Kraken Caller archetype:

Dirty Tactics Toolbox wrote:

Call of the Waves (Ex): A kraken caller must choose Besmara as her deity. If she ever changes her deity, she loses this archetype and becomes a normal druid.

It looks like you can't worship any deity except Besmara.

Oops! I had missed that the deity was a requirement of the archetype! Sorry!

No problem. As I said, the issue is reading the table and trying to avoid issues. Obediences tend to be glossed over so that shouldn’t be a problem, but some of the other things could be. I’ve had some very good and some bad experiences with people playing characters that worship evil gods. It requires that the player show good judgement and be able to read the table for what is appropriate.

I was not aware that some aboleth pretend to be that god. I would think that a very dangerous thing to do, especially for a CE sea god when you are an aquatic race.

Rather a dark background for any public games of PFS, xXCrusaderXx. You would have to read the table for how much of it to ever go into during a game. It also doesn’t seem like something an aboleth would do, reviving a human. I am a little confused by the aboleth portion anyways, Dagon is already an existing deity in Golarian.

To the rules, Dagon is CE so worshippers would need to be within one step of that. Druids need some neutral portion to their alignment. In order to do this your character would need to be CN. The rules of PFS do not allow for evil PCs.

I think that it works provided your character is CN.

Dennis Muldoon wrote:

roll4initiative wrote:

Does anyone have the Threshold of Knowledge pregens they could share on Google files with me? I don't have access to a computer (just my phone) & need to get the pregens out to players.

Thanks in Advance!

Are you looking for the BBCode versions (formatted for PbP), or just an isolated file of the pregens PDFs?

Just the pdf versions for an in-person game.

Why not just take them from the free PDF at the store?

Threshold of Knowledge

You need to go there for the sanctioning documents anyways.

Is there an SFS side to this?

Yes, the SFS is running during Outpost as Tyranius said.

The results of the PF2 special feed into the SFS special.

I don’t think you need more than one bard in a troupe to be the straight man. :)

Ghostbane Dirge is a bard spell.

It has a 50% miss chance against incorporeal (which is the only type of creature you would use it against) and if you get past that the creature gets a saving throw. Sorry, too low a chance of success to be worth taking.

You would need a Flame Dancer bard if you want a blast. :)

Great news! I look forward to the Starfinder bounties!

Thanks for the guide.

I would suggest you change your description of MAD (Multiple Ability Dependent) to better reflect 2nd edition.

You currently have:

MAD - Multiple Ability Dependent. Some characters, such as most wizards, are reliant upon a single ability (e.g., Intelligence). They are called SAD (Single Ability Dependent). Others, such as monks or paladins must excel in several abilities in order to function well. These classes, archetypes and builds are known as MAD.

I would use Alchemist as an example of MAD rather than Champion (you said paladin) or Monk.

There are far less MAD classes in 2e. In my experience it has been the Alchemist and Investigator that have the strongest need for a second attribute. There are certain subclasses that also reward it such as the Ki Monk or the Scoundrel racket of the Rogue.

I would say the most common case of MAD would be caused by the requirements of some of the multi class archetypes.

breithauptclan wrote:

The world itself doesn't have a bulk amount defined. So I can consider it to be of light bulk. It is floating weightless in space after all. So therefore I can grab hold of the world and move it under me. [/troll]

Remember, we can't see the Sun or Moon based on penalties via Distance, so...yeah!

That was in 1st edition. They do not have a flat penalty depending on distance in 2nd edition. They do have things like fog that limit the distance you can see.

Conditions limiting visibility to about a mile are called mist, and those that do so to about 3 miles are called haze.

——

Back on topic, this is not a rules question. The rules are clear that this would not work.

Emerald Spire is technically a single module. It gives 3xp per level of the spire.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Guild Guide (Season 10) wrote:

Campaign mode is available for all sanctioned Adventure Paths and for Pathfinder Modules that specifically include this option in their sanctioning documents.

An example that specifically allows for non-PFS characters is Seers of the Drowned City:

Seers of the Drowned City sanctioning document wrote:

All players must use an existing Pathfinder Society character (without modification) within the legal character levels range for the specific sanctioned portion of the adventure being played.

Alternatively, you may play the entirety of Seers of the Drowned City, afterward receiving credit for playing the sanctioned portions of the adventure as if you had played a pregenerated character. In this case, GMs running the module are not bound to the rules of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild (such as 20-point buy, unavailability of hero points, etc.) when running the campaign or the sanctioned portion of the adventure. Pathfinder Society characters and characters playing through this alternative format may not play in the same adventure.

Ire of the Storm also allows for campaign mode, starts at 1st level, and is a natural prelude to Seers. The two modules are both fun.

Seers has a sidebar called Ire of the Storm 2.

@GM Aerondor,

The best way I know of is to go into the sessions tab of My Organized Play and limit it.

Applies to: GM
Organized Play: PFS(1ed), PFS1 and maybe PFC (if you did any specials in Core Campaign).

Then go through the ~150 reported tables looking for specials.

I don’t know what the difference is between PFS(1ed) and PFS1. Most of my tables are under PFS(1ed) but I do have 6 tables under PFS1. Two of them are specials.

Darrell Impey UK wrote:

Whilst I remember, I've also got a character with two Adventure Path Chronicles on hold for them to reach high enough level; what happens to the Fame on them?

Fame on held chronicles goes away at the deadline if the Chronicle has not been applied by then.

However you would have already received the ACP for those chronicles assuming they were reported on the system and you hit the refresh button.

I would like to see some of the paper SFS player boons come back as something that could be purchased with ACP. There were several that I felt were interesting and useful.

There is a list of many of the boons here. Although I don’t think all of them would make good choices, many of them would.

Boon Candidates
The one I think most needs to have this happen is Mystical Guidance Systems Upgrade (Starship Boon) since it helps certain builds be competent in Starship Combat.

Other ones I would like to see include Broad Arc Upgrade (Starship Boon), Emergency Resupply (Starship Boon; Limited Use), and Hauler-Bot 6000 (Ally Boon).

Coming up with fair ACP costs

The player boons were generally given away via random chance. It was supposed to average out to a 10% chance of getting one of these boons for each session you played. Playing 10 regular scenarios at a supported convention would get you 60 ACP, which feels much too high.

If we compare them to the boons you can currently purchase from your faction for ACP I think they are a little more desirable than many of the tier 2 boons which cost 4 ACP.

I’m thinking that 10 ACP would likely be a reasonable average cost for many of the boons. I don’t think any of them should cost as much as 20 ACP. For comparison currently we can use ACP to purchase Starfinder Body Recovery (10 ACP), Starship Towing or Infamy Reduction (8 ACP) and the various admittance boons starting at 40 ACP for most Pact Worlds races.

I don’t think any of the player boons would be as valuable as the admittance boons.

Feedback wanted
Which of the paper player boons would you like to see return via ACP and how would you price them?

My understanding is that people are only allowed to start the season 10 FJC but may continue to fill out any earlier ones they may have started.

breithauptclan wrote:

And 'flank with one weapon, then attack with a completely different one that wouldn't qualify for flanking by itself'.

Yeah, I'm still skeptical that that's really intended. I get that you can read the text that way but it still looks like wishful reading/exploiting an ambiguity to me.

If you think it is wrong, please indicate where in the rules we are reading it incorrectly. That is much more productive than implying someone is exploiting the rules.

Flanking rules

It lays out what is required to flank and what happens when you are flanked. Being able to make a melee attack is one of the requirements. Positioning is the other. The flat-footed condition is the result of meeting those requirements.

It isn’t going to come up a lot and will badly backfire if the opponent has an Attack of Opportunity. Flat footed does not prevent Attacks of Opportunity in PF2.

Imperial dragons are legal for PFS and Dragon Disciples correct now with the Mwangi Book, correct?

If done as a sorcerer with the wyrmblessed bloodline, yes.

It isn’t clear to me that a Kobold or Barbarian could choose the new types.

Flanking gives a penalty to AC. Anything that targets AC would benefit from that.

Sounds like people generally agree that this works.

If someone is flanking an opponent, that opponent becomes flat-footed to them. It requires positioning and that both of the people flanking be able to make a melee attack.

If one of the people flanking does a ranged attack instead, is the opponent still flat-footed to them? Lots of ways to do this, the simplest would be two weapon fighting with a dagger as one of the two weapons. The actual situation where it came up was a gun with a bayonet and another gun.

In past editions flanking only worked for melee. I don’t want to carry forward assumptions from past editions. Right now I don’t see anything that prevents this from working,

One possible reading is that discovery would only be for the weaknesses, strengths, and order of the skills — which is easiest.

The skills for both discovery and influence themselves are known, but the rolls are secret. Since you know that you would be making the skill checks, presumably you would be given a chance to spend a hero point so you would at least know if the initial try was a success or failure.

In general, you get problems with scaling when an encounter has a single creature at level +2 that gets Elite Adjustment and the creature is designed as a brute.

The guideline from the GMG is “Most combat-focused creatures have high AC and either a high attack bonus and high damage, or a merely moderate attack bonus but extreme damage.” Applying the Elite adjustment to such a creature creates a situation where the AC reaches the extreme or higher value. The resulting creature becomes very tough for the characters to hit, has a good chance of getting a critical hit on its own attacks, and shakes off most magic since its saves were also improved.

With multiple smaller creatures you don’t get into that situation. The characters can still hit the creatures and the damage from each hit is more survivable.

Elite adjustment tends to work when the monster is lower level than the characters, it doesn’t work as well when it is higher level.

Pirate Rob’s suggestion of a second monster with both having the Weak template is also a reasonable adjustment. Weak will hurt their AC and damage, giving the characters a chance to take it down.

Sun Orchid Scheme under the right GM is fantastic. I am fond of heist plots, and this one works for me.

It does take a lot of GM prep and a GM that is good at integrating story elements. It is also one of the few scenarios where you want to split the group for parts of it.

The maps are copyrighted. I am not a lawyer but I don’t see anything that gives the purchaser any redistribution rights. Without such permission, I would recommend against distribution.

If a community site started redistributing the artwork, it would likely force Paizo to close that down and attempt to more closely monitor redistribution.

I would add a note on the chronicle stating they needed to buy a second chance boon.

No preference here. I am fine playing either one.

Although I do agree with your point, perhaps you should invite Alex S to your next cruise liner convention.

I think the demand is there, but it's a lot of work to write - and run - the higher level stuff on the supply side. Even the 7-10s were logistically challenging; tons of conditions getting thrown around, and there's lower GM (and probably author) familiarity with the ins and outs of higher level play.

They're charging more for the 7-10 level scenarios already because they're eating up more editor time than the 3-6 and 5-8, and they're cutting back the publication schedule overall so it's not like they have extra capacity.

Even 1 tier per season (Season 3 = 9-12s, Season 4 = 11-14s, etc.) seems optimistic.

You would do better to compare it to Starfinder.

Starfinder in Season 3 has an 11-14 adventure and I expect there will be more in Season 4.

As noted above, there is already a 9-12 planned for the current season of Pathfinder.

They did a lot in Starfinder and even more in Pathfinder 2e to make it easier to write for higher level content. It is very different than the situation in 1e.

As unsatisfying as it is - and I've got a Level 9.2 character that squeezed every last drop out of the Season 1-2 scenarios, starting #2-20 at level 8.2 to play both 7-10s at Level 9, so I totally get how infuriating it is - those Level 8-9 characters are in for very slow advancement over the next 2 years.

If all you want is levels, One Shot adventures have been structured so that they can be credited to a character of any level. We know that they plan to bring out more of them.

Personally, I want to play my character not just build up power on it. I will wait for the scenarios.

Zakzak bites into the nearby zombie. Tastes worse than home cooking! The second bite would have been much more accurate if he wasn’t so busy spitting out the aweful taste from that first bite.

Round 1:

Bolded may act.
Still need initiative from Zindarel

Zakzak
Doc Featherton
Yellow Circle Zombie 1
Red Trapezoid Zombie 1
Red Circle Zombie 12
Blue Circle Zombie
Blue Trapezoid Zombie 5
Booker Kaar
Yellow Trapezoid Zombie 1

Zindarel roll initiative and act if you get better than 18!

Since it is Athletics skill, don’t ignore your strength!

Some people have found it effective to get Assurance with Athletics in order to trip lower level targets as their third action. There are frequently lower level opponents getting between the hero’s and the boss, this is one way to get through them faster.

Re: Headshot the Rot,

I will be sending in the Scenario Support request for these items on October 10th. We do not yet know exact release dates nor when you will actually receive them so please be patient with that process. We just wanted to get word out so that you can plan ahead if you wish to run / play in these One-Shots.

Is it too later to join in on the scenario request? I just had several things change making me more available that weekend to start a PbP and would like to do this.

Bret