Callin's page

However, my Nexus 7 from a couple of years ago actually does OK with them; it's not too bad flipping.

I have the Nexus 7 but never use it (since I've moved to iPads). What PDF viewer would you recommend for the Paizo PDFs?

Thanks!

I have a name-wartermarked Paizo PDF of it - on the Paizo servers for download whenever I want. :) I would interpret that as fulfilling that requirement, which seems counter-intuitive, so that's why I asked this specific question.

(I also brought a USB flash drive with the files on it too, which also seems to fulfill this requirement in the potentially most useless way in the absence of anything to read the USB drive with.)

(Wouldn't it be great if Paizo had DropBox integration where your PDFs were always up-to-date in relevant folders and even had useful filenames instead of PZO273818.pdf? I had to write a script to unzip the files and rename them to something reasonable based upon the (still unreasonably long) ZIP filename.)

Thanks again.

Great, thanks. I wasn't sure about that so I will stop bringing print-outs and just bring the 2nd iPad with the (watermarked) PDFs. I'd loan the GM the 1st iPad but I have found the Hero Lab iPad app to be much easier than using the Hero Lab printouts for tracking most things!

Cheers!

Hi there,

I happen to have two iPads now and was wondering if I could legally bring the second loaded up with all my official Paizo PDFs and GoodReader and give that to the GM for use to satisfy the requirement to bring the books or printouts for any Additional Resources used. (I had the mini but turns out I prefer a larger screen.)

It seems to meet the spirit of the rules, but from reading plenty of other posts here I know that the spirit is not necessarily the letter of the rules and so I'm asking. :)

Thanks!

If you're using any iOS devices, I cannot recommend GoodReader highly enough

I love GoodReader and have used it for years. They just released a new version which both iPad and iPhone compatible, and will even import all your old version's content. (Which took a while cause I have 16+ GB of content.)

My 9 year old boys did the kids track last year at GenCon. They liked it so much I spent a lot of time returning tickets and getting them tickets for more beginner track events. They did 5 in total. I didn't play in the beginner track events but I did stay there with them and kept them focused and helped them remember to roleplay not play a numbers game. For example, "Say you'll listen for sounds behind the door, not ask if you can make a perception check."

We're signed up for two PFS events now for GenCon 2014 for the three of us. They will need a refresher since they didn't play over the last year, but we're working on that.

Unfortunately I signed us up for a 1-5 adventure (#6-01) and a 3-7 (#6-02). I'm new to PFS and didn't realize that it takes 9 adventures (and no deaths) to get to level 3, so... I have to figure out how to get GenCon to cancel/refund the tickets so I can get another adventure for 1-5 for that second time slot.

I'm not sure where you mean the skill is asterisked within HeroLab I assume, but I don't see any asterisks on my quick rogue build. If I remember right that means there is some kind of circumstantial modifier on that skill?

As for #2, the answer is - it depends :) Trained only class skills? No. You have to have at least 1 rank in them. Non-trained? Yes.

From page 34 of the Hero's Handbook:

If a skill has a gray bar instead of a black bar, you must have some training (at least 1 rank) in that skill to use that skill. If you don’t have any ranks in it, you can’t make the check at all.

Thanks for the clarification. I meant "asterisked" in the original Pathfinder Beginner Box character sheets, not the HeroLab output.

So, a "trained-only" skill and a "class skill" are orthogonal concepts. You can have an untrained class skill that is unusable because it's trained-only. That's what I was getting at.

Thanks!

Okay, I found it. In the Hero's Handbook, page 34, under "Class Skills." I missed it when we were doing the checklist on page 32.

As to my question #2: If it's a class skill, can you use it with 0 ranks even if it is a skill asterisked?

Thanks!

Note that for class kills: "You gain a +3 bonus on all class skills that you put ranks into." Are the skills at issue class skills?

I didn't know about that +3. For whatever reason I thought class skills meant ones that you didn't need ranks in to use, even if they were asterisked.

I take it then that:

1. Class skills get a +3 if you put any ranks in it.

2. If you put no ranks in a class skill that requires ranks then you can't use that skill?

Thanks!

Hi folks,

We're running the "Black Fang" scenario and after part of it I put the characters into Hero Lab, the free Beginner Box edition.

However, I think the skills are adding up differently than the Beginner Box says.

For example, it seems that a skill with 1 rank grants a +1 to a roll in the paper version, but Hero Lab seems to be making it a +4 to a roll if you have one rank. This is making the skill checks much easier to pass.

Thoughts on what may be going on?

Thanks!

Thanks for the details! I decided on the cleric NPC "PC" route.

To offset some of the issue that there were just 3 characters, I let the characters be rolled with 7 4d6, choosing the best 6, and with a "mulligan" to re-roll all 7 without restriction (but without the choice to use the old one). This left the stats distinctly above average. Each character had at one 19 or 20 after the racial adjustments. Hopefully this will help a little bit.

We did the first room of "Black Fang" - with the 2 goblins who jump out from behind the "mossy wall." The rogue killed them both as everyone else missed. Note that the rogue's player is cheap and so the rogue uses darts and a club. :)

So, as to assigning XP for defeating the encounter with the two goblins, the three (N)PCs should each get 1/3rd of 135 x 2 XP, or 90 XP each, yes?

9 year olds don't think ahead. The fighter dropped his torch, drew the great axe, attacked, rolled a natural 1, which I interpreted as accidentally stepped on the torch for 1d4 (rolled 4) fire damage. :) If he hadn't rolled a 1, I would have had it catch him on fire anyway for dropping a lit torch outside right next to a mossy wall, but the 1 gave more storytelling opportunities.

Then, after the goblins were defeated, they immediately wanted to see what was behind the mossy wall. So I had the NPC cleric search the goblins and take all their possessions for herself.

Hopefully they will think in more detail in the future. :)

Next session should be tomorrow.

Any suggestions as to using the free Beginner Box Hero Lab?

Thanks!

Hi folks,

My boys loved Pathfinder at this year's GenCon. I scheduled just two sessions on the first day, and they made me cancel and rearrange things so they could complete the whole Advanced Kids path (5 adventures), so we did 6 2-hour adventures at GenCon.

I'm starting a home campaign for them. It's going to have just two PCs, most likely a Fighter and a Wizard. The pre-generated dungeons are intended for 4 PCs, though. I was wondering:

1. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to add a 3rd party member as an NPC, probably a Cleric? She could also be played by my daughter on occasion if desired. She could also stand in as someone who divulges wisdom on occasion instead of having the GM (me) just invent knowledge the PCs knew. However, I don't know how this would play out. I'd keep her record just as if she were a PC.

2. Assuming 3 PCs, does this imply that I should just reduce all encounters by 25%? If so, should I reduce the enemy HPs by 25%, reduce the # of XP in the encounters by 25% (such as by reducing the # of monsters), or what? Where can I get more information on scaling the encounters for 4 PCs down to 3 or 2? I read that the CR is intended for a party of 4.

Thanks!