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Good suggestions! Thanks again guys!

Thanks guys! I have a home group playing PFS2, and we are about to finish Fall of Plaguestone. If Age of Ashes is not yet sanctioned, can you recommend any other modules/adventure paths that I can download that work with Pathfinder Society (2nd editon)?

Hi all!

Is the Age of Ashes adventure path certified for Pathfinder Society (2nd edition)? If yes, are there downloadable certs somewhere?

Thanks!

Seems like that is a legal use per the rules to me. I don't think it's necessarily "broken" either since you are essentially trading 2 actions for 1 possible action.

In other words, a ranger could have set the snare in front of him and still taken another action. With the ready action it's costing 2 actions on your turn and the ready may not even be triggered (i.e. no baddie may move up to the ranger).

Seems legit to me.

Ahh, I see. It uses the same DC's, etc. but isn't technically a Treat Wounds. Thanks!

Does it seem out of alignment with the rule that Battle Medicine should be allowed to remove the Wounded condition even within the midst of battle?

Use of this feat in our group has made the Wounded condition largely irrelevant.

... it can only be used once per day on each PC. In PFS, that usually means once per scenario...

This is not true I think. It can be used once per day on each PC per character with Battle Medicine, right? So, if a party had 6 characters, each with Battle Medicine, then each PC could benefit 6 times per day.

Or am I missing something?

(PS - This seems weird to me that a character can benefit multiple times from different healers.)

A couple creatures in the 2e bestiary (e.g. Balor) have Dispelling Strike which allows them to target a creature with a Dispel Magic. However, that spell's description does not allow for a creature to be targeted.

Is this just a mistake or an overlooking some rule or errata?

What about having the initiator get a single action, then roll initiative? This seems reasonable to me to give the barbarian a slight perk for starting the fight when others were likely not ready.

There's also not historical precedent for breaking weapons. The "sword breaker" is really misunderstood and should perhaps be thought of as a "sword catcher" as it was designed not to break the opponent's weapon but rather break the opponent's grip of the weapon (i.e. disarm him).

Okay, thanks guys! IMO that's worded very poorly - since they are saying additional cost, there's really no need to have that sentence.

Cheers!

The following rules confuse me:

"Moving into ... difficult terrain ... costs an extra 5 feet of movement. Moving into ... greater difficult terrain instead costs 10 additional feet. This additional cost is not increased when moving diagonally." (p. 476)

As written, moving diagonally in difficult would still cost just 10' and greater difficult would cost 15'.

*However*, the example side-bar on p. 475 says that Lini would need to pay 15' to move diagonally in difficult terrain (not 10').

Is the reference to not having to pay the diagonal penalty only intended for greater difficult terrain? (If so, that's not worded clearly.)

Thanks Iff! :D

Are PFS2 characters allowed to choose one of the Backgrounds listed in the appendix of the Fall of Plaguestone adventure?

Thanks all! :D

Are GM's supposed to have characters pay cost of living?

Thanks all! Hopefully they put that in the errata.

Cheers and happy new year!

p. 554 "Bracers of armor give a +1 item bonus to AC with no Dex modifier cap..."

p. 607 "These stiff leather armguards grant you ... and a maximum Dexterity modifier of +5."

I checked the errata and I do not see any fix. I'd think the item description trumps the side bar text, but on the other hand, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that armguards would interfere with a highly agile character in any way.

Does anyone know if there is an official ruling on this oversight/typo?

Thanks beowulf99!

Thanks Shisumo!

If a creature is in the process of moving and becomes Stunned (e.g. from a readied action or stunning snare), is any remaining movement from the Stride action they were currently taking lost?

1. Snare Specialist: You get additional formulas based on your proficiency level. Is it a correct assumption that you still these additional formulas if you achieve these proficiency levels after taking the feat? (e.g. If you take the feat at level 4 and at level 11 become master, then you would add 3 additional formulas?)

2. Craft skill check: When you create a snare, do you need to make a successful skill check against a DC corresponding to the snare's level? So, for example, crafting a Bleeding Spines Snare (level 12) would require a DC 30 Craft check? If so, then getting the Assurance feat seems really important to me for deploying snares in the middle of combat.

Thanks guys!!

So, Rangers at most get Expert in their weapons. But they have Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon specialization which grants extra damage if they have Legendary skill in weapons.

Is this just a copy/paste to keep the wording of "Weapon Specialization" consistent from class to class, or is there a way I don't see for a ranger to get Legendary skill in their weapons?

Thanks so much, guys!

Thanks Gary! Is that information mentioned in the Pathfinder Society documentation somewhere or is it just generally known?

The wording in the Plaguestone documents confuses me.

Obviously GM's get XP, fame and treasure, but do they get unlocked items, keepsakes, and boons?

A failure subtracting 1 success and critical failure subtracting 2 successes would totally fix the problem I described. I don't see that wording anywhere in the rules, but for now I'll house rule that. Hopefully Paizo clarifies in a FAQ or in the GM guide.

Thanks guys!

I'm trying to get my head around skill checks. Specifically, what the rules state around retrying a failed check.

I recognize that some skills (e.g. Track) upon a failed check has a delay time built in before you can try again. However, the majority of skills do not have this.

Let's take "Pick a Lock" as an example. There is no penalty on a failed check (other than a critical failure costing some coin). Thus one could simply keep retrying until they got a success (or critical success).

This sort of makes sense - it's the old "Take 20" rule where it's assumed one will eventually roll a "20" given enough time. However, I'm confused by the "Pick a Lock" text that says "locks of higher qualities might require multiple successes to unlock, since otherwise even an unskilled burglar could easily crack the lock by attempting the check until they rolled a natural 20".

How does increasing the # successes needed in any way address the problem of retries? Whether you need 1 or 5 successes doesn't stop the aforementioned burglar to just keep retrying. There's no mention of the progress being reset upon failure. If there were a "reset", then this would address the problem (i.e. need to get X successes before a single failure).

Mechanically, what's to stop a bad burglar (Thievery +1) from just retrying over and over until the get natural 20's. For example, he's trying to pick a good lock (DC 30, 5 successes). If he rolls a "1", he spends 3 SP. If he rolls a "20" (crit successes) he gets 2 successes towards the 5 needed. So, he can just keep retrying until he gets three "20's". Assuming he got three "1's", the attempt cost him 6 SP.

Also, without an official "take 20" rule, isn't it tedious to have everyone at the table wait to see how many tries it takes a player to roll 3 successes?

Am I missing something?

I agree with you that Quick Recognition should work with counterspelling and, as you say, tie it all together, but that is not how it is written.

Thanks but my reading of Quick Recognition differs. You can not use Quick Recognition except with the "Recognize a Spell" action which can only be done on your turn.

Quick Recognition therefore has no synergy whatsoever with counterspelling.

Im not sure what Recognize Spell feat is good for. Since you just used your reaction, you can't Counter Spell the feat being cast. Quick Recognition does not work with the Recognize Spell feat.

What good is it to be able to recognize a spell as it's being cast if you can't do anything about it anyway?

I guess I'm even more confused now because I noticed that the "Bring Them Back Alive" boon reduces the cost of the Raise Dead spell and Resurrection ritual. That either suggests...

a) NPC spellcasting is available even though it's an "uncommon" service, or

b) This boon is only good if there is a character at the table casting this spell or ritual

Thoughts?

Thanks so much all! :D

Just clarifying, that rules as currently written, since Spellcasting Services are specified as being uncommon in the core rules (p. 294), they are not available for purchase by characters.

Thus, to my knowledge, the only spells that characters can have NPC's cast are Raise Dead and Resurrect with the expenditure of 50/25 Fame. Is that correct?

Thanks guys!

I'm confused of what you get spending the points. As I understand the rules:

1 point = free consumable = character level
2 points = bonus lore skill and skill feat
3 points = 2 free consumables = character level + charcter level/2

The rules say the benefits are cumulative the the wording on the 1 and 3 point benefits creates confusion in my mind. If you spend 3 points in a school, is it intended that you will have 3 consumables? You would have the one from the 1 point level and also the two from the 3-point level?

I think this is rules as intended because otherwise a character would be much better off spending 2 points in one school and 1 point in another in order to get two consumables each equal to their character level.

I'm having a tough time finding the documents you mention. Can you please link?

It's a struggle to me to click on all the various links to find information on organized play. I find that the HTML format does not lend itself to conciseness or ease of reference.

Is there a downloadable document that contains all of the information that is needed to participate in PFe2 organized play?

I could see a justification for characters knowing the "numbers" from a role-play perspective.

Let's say you are up against a highly skilled opponent and their attack roll is hitting you by, let's say, 20! Your character sees that their aim and speed of strike is so great you stand no chance of blocking. You know in the moment that your reflexes and shield are insufficient to make a difference.

On the other hand, a different opponent's swing is hitting you by just 1! Your character knows that the arc of the swing can be deflected if you quickly react and throw your shield up.

Yes, behind the scenes it's just numbers. But I can easily see a role-play translation of these numbers into a justification that your character would know if a reactive shield could make the difference.

Thank you, Gloom! :D

I had this exact same question.

Has there been any official errata on this? Rules as written are that a character of 11+ level cannot Atone.

Orichalcum - "...can have four magic property runes instead of three"

Weapon Potency +1[2,3] - "...weapon can be etched with one [two, three] property rune[s]."

So, how is orichalcum supposed to work since the wording says four instead of three.

Option A) Orichalcum adds +1 property runes to any level weapon potency (i.e. +1 can have 2 weapon properties, etc.)

Option B) Orichalcum only has a benefit when combined with Weapon Potency +3 allowing 4 instead of 3 weapon properties.

Rules as written would indicate option B (otherwise rules should simply say adds 1 weapon property to the number normally allowed with weapon potency), but option B makes the material much more restrictive and less interesting.

Thoughts?

Upon further reading, I humbly suggest that the rules do *not* distinguish between "exploration tactics" and "exploration activities". As evidence p. 479 and 496 of Core references things like "Avoid Notice" and "Hustle" as "exploration activities" (not tactics). The rules further elaborate certain skills that can be used as exploration activities.

Additionally, the rules for Fatigued condition (p. 620) reference not being able to select an exploration activity.

Again, I may be overlooking something, but nowhere do I see specific rules restricting characters to just one exploration activity, which skills can be done while travelling, etc. Maybe this is intentionally left vague and open to GM adjudication or maybe it'll be in a GM guide?

Thanks! That makes sense. But are "exploration tactics" defined anywhere?

For example, I'm pretty sure "Track" and "Gather Information" are exploration tactics that you could do on the move. Other things, like "Coerce" and "Repair" are not things you could do while travelling.

Okay, so that makes sense that since the rules account for 1) Encounters, 2) Exploration, 3) Downtime then they have put these kinds of actions into the Exploration phase.

That begs a follow-up question from me then. I'm assuming that while not stated directly in the rules (at least not that I can find), you are limited to selecting one "exploration tactic" to be using.

Which of the skills listed in the Exploration side-bar are appropriate to do *while travelling*, or, in other words, as an "exploration tactic"? Also, which ones would trigger a half speed penalty.

Here's my guess but would love to know if there is an official FAQ somewhere.

Skill Exploration Tactics (full speed):
Impersonate, Sense Direction

Skill Exploration Tactics (half speed):
Borrow Spell, Cover Tracks, Gather Information, Track, Treat Wounds

Skills *not* allowed while travelling:
Coerce, Decipher Writing, Identify Alchemy, Identify Magic, Learn Spell, Make Impression, Repair, Squeeze

Thoughts?

I'm trying to conceptualize how the Coerce action would work in Exploration mode.

Cooerce requires spending at least 1 minute in conversation with a single target. At the end of that conversation, you make your check.

So, imagine that a party is walking around town and a character is using Coerce as an Exploration action. Is the character spending a minute bullying every person they come across? So, in a busy market they spend all afternoon just intimidating everyone present?

Mechanically, how would this work? As a GM, would you have the character make checks against notable NPC's only? Would you have him check each group of similar people?

I'm just not sure how this skill is intended to be used in Exploration Mode as it seems clunky. I have the same questions with Make an Impression.

Personally, I think Skull & Shackles has the whole Passwall spell effect silly and overpowerful. The spell essentially allows one to create a tunnel through a wall. Why wouldn't this 5'x8' spell effect simply travel along with the ship's wall upon which it was cast? Why would it rip the ship apart? This makes no sense to me. Not to mention that this application of the spell was clearly never the intent of the spell ("let's create a 5th level spell that will auto-sink a ship of any size and call it passwall"... huh?)

We playtested these rules and they work very well. I've added the following sentence to the "Attacking While Hidden" section immediately after the first sentence to improve mechanics around attackers with greater invisibility. Note that the stealther could still stealth as part of a move after the action to lose pinpointed, but this allows opponents to ready action against them:

"If you retain hidden condition as a result of greater invisibility or similar effect, you are automatically pinpointed by any creature with line of effect to your square."

Without this clarification, one could argue that they could make a melee attack and their opponents still don't know where they are. It is intuitive that a melee attack would result in the person being pinpointed, and I figure might as well treat ranged and spell attacks the same since they are already advantaged in other ways.

At the risk public scorn and ridicule, I have taken the liberty to take Stephen's base Round-Two rules and try to incorporate fixes to many of the issues that people have expressed in this forum. For example, I attempt to resolve the problem with too many dice rolls by changing opposed rolls to static DC's. I increase these DC's based on number of opponents. I address miscellaneous problem areas like 5-foot steps, unable to open locks stealthily, detecting creatures without necessarily pinpointing them, addressing DC modifiers from spellcasting, resolving quasi-invisible concealment/miss chance problems, clarifying if one can flank, etc. Sorry if this is too forward, but I figured I would try in my own way to further the goal of this exercise.

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Stealth
(Dex; Armor Check Penalty) You are skilled at avoiding detection allowing you to slip past foes or strike from an unseen position. This skill covers hiding and moving silently.

Check: A Stealth check is made at the start of an eligible action when you have some kind of concealment or cover (except for soft cover). An eligible action that can be peformed with Stealth is any action that is not a charge, run, or attack (see "Attacking While Hidden" to determine what constitutes an attack). If you are hidden, you must succeed at a Stealth check for any subsequent eligible action to remain hidden. Free and intermediate actions can never be taken to become hidden; they may only be taken to remain hidden. Any non-eligible actions taken cause you to immediately lose the hidden condition.

The DC of the Stealth check is 10 + the opponent's Perception bonus - Perception modifiers + 1 for each opposing ally within 20' of the opponent. If you equal or exeed the DC you gain the hidden condition relative to that opponent until the start of your next action or until the end of your turn if you do not end your turn with cover or concealment. You are not hidden from creatures whose DC you did not beat nor from creatures from which you didn't have cover or concealment. If on subsequent rounds you perform no actions and still benefit from cover or concealment you do not make additional Stealth checks. If at any time the conditions change increasing the DC, compare the previous Stealth check result with the new DC to see if you lose your hidden condition.

Moving while Hidden: You can move up to half your speed and use Stealth at no penalty. When moving at a speed greater than half your speed and up to your normal speed, you take a -5 penalty on the Stealth check.

Attacking while Hidden: Any attack (melee or ranged) or any spell targeting a foe or whose area or effect includes a foe ends the hidden condition unless you are subject to greater invisibility or similar effect or you are sniping (see "Sniping" below). Actions directed at an unattended object do not end Stealth. Causing harm indirectly is not an attack. If during your last action you were hidden to a creature, you are still considered hidden when you make the first attack of that new action.

Perception Checks: Once per round a creature may attempt a Perception check as a move action to notice a hidden creature. The DC of the Perception check is the hidden creature's last Stealth check. If this check fails but by 5 or less, the creature detects this hidden creature and knows a general area where that creature is.

Sniping: If you already are hidden to a target and you are at least 10 feet away from that target, as a standard action, you can make one ranged attack against that target and immediately make an opposed Stealth check to stay hidden. You take a –20 penalty on your Stealth check when attempting to snipe.

Creating a Diversion to Hide: You can use Bluff to allow you to use Stealth. If you do not have cover or concealment, as a swift action, you can attempt a Bluff check versus a DC of 10 + the Sense Motive bonus of any opponents that can see you. If you are successful, you may perform a Stealth check as part of a Withdraw action even though you do not have concealment. You can only become hidden relative to those whose Sense Motive DC you beat. If you do not end your Withdraw action within cover or concealment, you are no longer hidden.

Action: Usually making a Stealth check is not an action. Using Stealth is part of the action you are taking. Note that a 5-foot step is not an action but is instead taken as part of another action. Therefore, you cannot make a Stealth check as part of a 5-foot step.

Special: If you are subject to the invisibility or greater invisibility spells or a similar effect, you gain a +10 bonus on Stealth checks. If you are magically silenced as with the silence spell, you gain a +10 bonus on Stealth checks. Casting a non-attack spell with a verbal component incurs a -10 penalty on the Stealth check. A creature larger or smaller than Medium takes a size bonus or penalty on Stealth checks depending on its size category: Fine +16, Diminutive +12, Tiny +8, Small +4, Large –4, Huge –8, Gargantuan –12, Colossal –16. If you have the Stealthy feat, you get a bonus on Stealth checks (see Chapter 5).
Conditions

Hidden: You are difficult to detect but you are not invisible. A hidden creature gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls against opponents, and your opponents are denied their Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). You do not have line of sight to a creature or object that is hidden from you. Hidden creatures still threaten their opponents (for purposes of flanking, attacks of opportunity, etc.). A hidden object or creature gains total concealment. If a hidden object or creature is hit by a melee or ranged attack (even a touch attack), that object or creature loses its hidden status relative to that attacker.

Invisible: Invisible creatures are visually undetectable. An invisible creature or object gains the benefits of the hidden condition which do not end if they are struck by an attack.

Clarifications

Ranger's Camouflage: This ability does not work if the opponent is observing the ranger. In other words, the ranger may gain hidden status while benefiting from concealment or cover and then use favored terrain as if it were concealment to sneak forward. But once the ranger's hidden condition is removed the ranger must re-acquire cover or concealment to reattempt a Stealth check.

Hide in Plain Sight: When the conditions are met for this ability, the character acts as if they have concealment for the purposes of being able to use Stealth.