Cassander Greenleaf's page

Hello, welcome all! Please fill in these and these links (or find them up top) so I can easily reference your stats and the like if I need them.

Standard PbP procedure applies: I expect a post per weekday, less in the weekends. I'll bot you if you haven't responded after 24-ish hours. Also let me know in advance if you'll be unavailable for a few days, so I can take that into account.
My tempo tends to be rather fast, so please tell me to slow down if I'm rushing you. I also live in Europe, so expect me to update on odd hours if you're on another continent.

Since this is a repeatable, please let me know which encounters you've already done so I can hopefully pick something fresh. You can PM me or put it in spoiler tags, whichever you prefer.
Also, like I said, I'm assuming tier 3-4 since that's the highest character Apoc Golem has. Try to pick a character in that range if possible.

You've all gathered before the Maze of the Open Road and are about to be sent away for a mission. This might be a good time for character introductions.

Four seats reserved for Atae, Zabu, Aerin, and Emmanuel. I'll pick up two more from Cottonseed.

Please post an introduction in the Gameplay tab. I'll start once I have six introductions.
Also please fill in macro sheets up at the top and the slide sheet so I have your pictures and marching order.

Standard PbP procedure applies: I expect a post per weekday, less in the weekends. I'll bot you if you haven't responded after 24-ish hours.
My tempo tends to be rather fast, so please tell me to slow down if I'm rushing you.

I'll post to Cottonseed for the last two places once everyone has posted in the Gameplay tab, just to make sure no one takes your seat.

You've all been summoned to Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin's office. The instructions said to enter once all of you are complete.

You're now all standing in front of the door, waiting for everyone to arrive. This is a good time to introduce yourself.

Spots reserved for Anjo Aroh, Atae, Michael Hallet, EbonFist, Farol, and Emmanuel Holysmith.

Please post an introduction in the Gameplay tab. I'll start once I have six introductions.
Also please fill in macro sheets up at the top and the slide sheet so I have your pictures and marching order.

Standard PbP procedure applies: I expect a post per weekday, less in the weekends. I'll bot you if you haven't responded after 24-ish hours.
My tempo tends to be rather fast, so please tell me to slow down if I'm rushing you guys.
I expect posts to slow down around the holiday season. Also, I'll be starting a (my first real actual) job early January, so I might slow down around then.

The atmosphere in the Grand Lodge in Absalom has been grim the last few days. Many people have been experiencing bad dreams, sometimes nightmares, startling them awake at night. This morning, the mess hall is filled with bleary-eyed Pathfinders slurping coffee, tea, and anything else that'll kick you awake by the bucketload.

Please roll a d6; that's the dream you've had last night. Each dream is unique, so the next person rolls a d5, d4, and so on, and skips the ones the others have claimed.

Holy flying penalties and bonuses, Batman! I've tried to list all the things that can penalise/help the PCs on their skills in a separate document, as I'm sure I'll lose track of it during gameplay itself. It's not pretty, maybe someone can spruce it up, but here's what can modify DCs/rolls during the scenario, listed when it's applicable, not necessarily in the adventure itself. I've included the DCs of everything, though maybe that clutters things too much. DC X/Y means low tier/high tier). Each paragraph bundles bonuses/penalties to the same thing (so a blank line means the next paragraph modifies something else).

Befriend Oridius (teach them about Ulfen culture or DC 20/23 Diplomacy to cheer them up during Event 1): -2 to all DCs to interact with them.
Befriend Scourtail (be entertaining during the first three rounds in the fight in Event 2 with enough cool maneuvers, flashy spells, or DC 21/24 Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, or Performance): -2 to all DCs to interact with him.
Befriend Crookscale by teaching him how to swim (first calm him down with DC 20/24 Deception, Diplomacy, or Performance, then a DC 19/22 Instruction/Teacher Lore to teach him): -2 to all DCs to interact with him.
Befriend Brulivex (buy the rabbit during Event 4 for 1 gp): -2 to all DCs to interact with her.
Befriend Manglefang (DC 22/25 Diplomacy, DC 20/23 Performance, or DC 18/21 Circus/Comedy/Theater Lore during Event 5): -2 to all DCs to interact with him.

Fail to calm Crookscale twice or fail twice in swimming lessons (less than DC 20/23 Deception, Diplomacy, Performance to calm him down, DC 19/22 Instruction/Teacher Lore to teach how to swim) during Event 3: permanent +2 to all DCs to interact with Crookscale.

Halgrim
DC 17/20 Performance: +2 circumstance bonus to interact with mothers.

Event 1: Snack Time
Mention mountain goats: +2 circumstance bonus to interact with the linnorms.
Mention vegetables, fruit, or plants: -1 circumstance penalty to interact with the linnorms.
Convince Brulivex to help with Deception, Diplomacy, or Performance (DC 20/23): lower DCs to interact with the others by 2.
Play up the danger of hunting goats to Scourtail: -2 DC to convince her.

Critical failure on Diplomacy to find the linnorms (DC 10/13 or below): -2 to all skill checks to interact with Nelar and Ogsen.
Influence crowd with Performance (DC 19/22): +1 circumstance bonus to interact with Nelar and Ogsen.
Fail to convince Manglefang twice (less than DC 18/22 Intimidation): +1 DC to influence Nelar and Ogsen with Diplomacy.
Fail to convince Oridius twice (less than DC 19/22 Society): +1 DC to influence Nelar and Ogsen.
Fail to convince Scourtail twice (less than DC 20/23 Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Performance): +1 DC to influence Nelar and Ogsen.

Event 2: A Hunting We Will Go
Crit success Arcana (DC 30) at mission briefing: +1 circumstance bonus to find Brethul Scarp.
DC 21/24 Nature or DC 19/21 Survival: +1 circumstance bonus versus Scourtail this event.

Event 3: Bumper Boats
Give Crookscale a flotation device or other rescue aid: +1 circumstance bonus to Athletics to swim ashore.

Fail to convince a linnorm to stop playing: +1 to DCs to placate sailors per failed linnorm, up to 3 (4 if Brulivex joined).
Haul the goods out of the river (DC 20/23 Athletics): -1 DC to placate sailors. (Maybe 2)
Every 2 rounds beyond 4 to rescue all the sailors from the river: +1 DC to placate sailors.

Event 4: Shopping Spree
Fail to placate Manglefang and Scourtail (two DC 20/23 Athletics to grapple, followed by DC 22/25 Intimidation): +1 DC to placate locals.
Fail to convince Oridius to return the maps (DC 20/23 Diplomacy or Intimidate): +1 DC to placate locals.

Fail to locate the warehouse (less than DC 22/25 Perception, DC 20/22 Survival, DC 18/18(?) Architecture or Engineering Lore): +2 DC to interact with Crookscale and Efrith.
Present at least five pieces of evidence: -2 DC to convince Crookscale.

Audience With the King
Refuse to fight Revna in Event 5: +2 DC to all arguments.
At least 3 linnorms behave: -1 DC to all arguments.
Proper introduction (DC 23/26 Diplomacy): -1 DC to all arguments.

Recklessness, befriend Crookscale and Brulivex: -1 DC per befriended linnorm.

Combat Prowess, befriend Scourtail: -1 DC per won combat.

Cultural Knowledge, befriend Oridius and Manglefang: -1 DC per befriended linnorm.

----

I was thinking of putting the befriending parts in the events where they happen, but I thought at the top of the page might be the most useful. Maybe bold it or use bigger font when you print it out so it's more visible.

---

I've also made a potential hand-out for players for all the things they can do during the Bumper Boats. I've removed the DCs and some text regarding what happens after a success to obscure game mechanics to players. The last two options are in line breaks because they happen later and I plan to give those out in separate handouts when they become available. Don't want to spoil everything that's going to happen immediately. If you don't care, remove the line breaks and just give out as one document.

Everyone can do one of the following things each round. Each attempt generally takes 2 or 3 actions.

Abandon Ship: A PC can convince the linnorms to abandon the skiffs and play another game in the river instead. To convince a linnorm to abandon the skiffs, the PCs must succeed at a Deception, Diplomacy, or Intimidation check, or a Performance or Society check to tempt them into a different game.
Craft Rescue Aid: A PC can quickly construct or scavenge a makeshift knotted rope, line, or flotation device with a Crafting check. On a success, they craft one device (two on a critical success).
Grab On: A PC can throw a knotted rope, line, or flotation device that they constructed with the Craft Rescue Aid action above to a person in the water (at the GM’s discretion, the PCs’ existing equipment may be able to serve this function as well). They must attempt a ranged attack.
Swimming: A PC can enter the water and lend aid to people in the water. They must attempt an Athletics check to Swim. A creature with a swim speed treats the result of their check as one higher for the purposes of this skill check.

Recruit Assistance: A PC can urge the crowd to lend a hand in rescuing people. They must attempt a Diplomacy or Intimidation check against the crowd. On a success, they convince the crowd to help. Each round, the crowd rescues one person from the river (two on a critical success). On a failure, the PCs fail to rally the crowd.

Scavenge: When Crookscale overturns a skiff, the skiff’s contents are dumped into the river. A PC can dive into the water to haul the goods back to shore. They must attempt an Athletics check to determine how long it takes to haul the goods to shore.

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That's all the prep stuff I did out of the way. I have a few questions/remarks.
- How big should I make the siblings if I want to represent them on a map? The adult version is Gargantuan, so I'm thinking somewhere between Medium and Large, to impress upon the players that they can't just bully them into submission and that they're dealing with powerful creatures.
- During Bumper Boats, in the Scavenge section on page 13 it says if you return the goods it reduces the DC to placate them by 1. In the Resolution check a little down, it says the check is reduced by 2. Which is it?
- On page 12, teaching Crookscale how to swim calls for a Profession check. That's probably a slip of the tongue and the author most likely means a Lore check.
- As I noted in the handout, the bonuses to influence people do some strange things. In the very beginning in act 1, some things give bonuses to players, while later on it increases/decreases the DC on the GM's end. It's probably the same thing in the end, but I found it interesting enough to note.
- On page 14 it asks for a DC 18 Architect Lore in low tier to notice something about the building. In the high tier it's the same exact number. I assume that it's 21: 3 higher, like basically all the other checks in high tier.
- The conclusion gives players a Martyr's Shield if they achieved the Thoroughly Impressed score, but it's nowhere on the chronicle. It does give a boon, which I presume is that shield. But as boons are available to everyone, how does the system know if they've earned it or not? Or does the success condition (box C) unlock availability to the boon? Can anyone who has already played this scenario help me on this? I mean, it's not super important, but I'd like to tell my players if they got it or not.

Hello all!

I'll be your GM for this special. Some notes from me:

- I'll be unavailable from October 24th onward due to an operation. As of right now, that should only include the wrap-up and chronicle hand-outs. I've notified other GMs and someone should be able to take over. I'm sorry I can't do it myself, but I hope I can still check in on time to thank you for playing and signing off.
- As this is a special, you're expected to be able to post several times a day. I hope to update as soon as possible as well. I live in western Europe, in timezone GMT +2. My typical hours are from 11 in the morning to just after midnight, for reference.
- There are three players so far. Maybe we'll pick up one more, but please decide on a pregen and who is responsible for controlling them. I'm fine with you all controlling the pregen, but I'd like one "main" person to be responsible for them.
- Please fill out your information in the links above and place your tokens and such. The links just below my username are for my other campaign; ignore those. I'll try to spoiler tag them so you don't get confused, but they're being finicky.
- I'm probably forgetting a lot of things, but I'll post those as I remember them.

Have fun!

Dot in here, please.

As the title says, we're now near the end of book 3, we're currently doing

Party (free archetype rule) consists of:
- A Fighter/Beastmaster (we inherited a raptor from the Ranger who died). She's good at defense and has a solid damage output. Gets a bit tangled up in her action economy with Dueling Parry, attacking, and commanding the animal companion, but overall is a consistent character.
- A Wizard (she's new, don't recall her archetype). Has some niche spells, but overall is a great asset to the party. Focuses on Illusion spells, but packs a lot of other spells as well, so it's not a one-trick pony.
- An alchemy-focused Investigator. Does reasonable damage, but great staying power with all the potions he can whip up.
- Support Bard with Medic archetype (me). A pure Cleric would've been better, I know, but I like the buffs the Bard can hand out. Inspire Defense is my most-used composition. Mostly built around support, though I do have some damaging options.

Are we missing something in our party lineup? I feel like we're missing some consistent damage output. Our Fighter hits for around 20 damage each hit, but when an opponent has 300+ HP, that's still 6 rounds before one opponent drops (assuming two hits per round). I can add to that, but most of the time I'm too busy keeping everyone upright. And even then, a 10d6 blast is only a drop in the bucket compared to their HP. We're currently level 11 and recently fought 4 level 10 monsters, a severe encounter. The adventure said it shouldn't be too much of a problem, but we pretty much blew through all our high-level resources just to stay alive.

We're consistently flanking/making enemies flat-footed, we make them Frightened, and generally do our best to debuff enemies, so I don't feel like we're underoptimised or not being strategic enough, but the last few encounters have felt like a slog to me. Is this a common complaint? We're all pretty knowledgeable about PF2, though this is the first time any of us have hit level 10+, so maybe it just takes some getting used to.

Any advice is welcome. :)

I'm planning on playing a Druid, and the Wild Order seems pretty cool, but it looks like it's kinda different from 1E. Your shapes have a set AC and attack modifier, so I'm wondering if it's worth it to maximise STR and DEX, and if putting points in other stats is a waste of stat points. Taking Animal Form as a baseline, it says this:

One or more unarmed melee attacks specific to the battle form you choose, which are the only attacks you can use. You're trained with them. Your attack modifier is +9, and your damage bonus is +1. These attacks are Strength based (for the purpose of the enfeebled condition, for example). If your unarmed attack bonus is higher, you can use it instead.

Animal Form is a second-level spell, so you'll get it at level 3. If I max Strength, a regular to-hit would be 4 (STR) + 3 (level) + 2 (trained), is also 9. From level 4 onward, it's more profitable to use my own STR modifier for to-hit, but damage-wise, it'll still be a +1. I can theoretically leave my Strength at 10 and have four stat bumps to divide over other stats (most likely 3, since the class bump is WIS).

Similarly, I can take Aerial Form at level 8, which gives me an attack modifier of +16, while the attack modifier the Druid grants me would be 4 (STR) + 8 (level) + 2 (trained) = 14. Again, later on, my innate to-hit will outgrow the spell's to-hit, but is that worth investing all those points?

Similarly, both Animal Form and Aerial Form set my AC to a certain number (Animal Form is 16+level, so AC 19 at level 3, whereas a fully maximised DEX would give me the same). Is it worth it to invest in DEX while I'm out of shape (apart from boosting Reflex save and skills and such)? People who have experience with this class, how often do you stay in your regular shape?

So, in short, what's a good stat spread for a shapeshifting Druid? Should I still max WIS if I intend to be more of a melee character than a ranged character? Is it viable to put stat increases in my off-stats (such as Charisma)? Which additional shapes are worth picking up? Hell, is Animal Form even worth it with its measly +1 damage?

Thanks a lot!

Okay, apologies for the clickbaity title, but I had a discussion with some friends about this, and I wanted to see how the Paizo hivemind thinks about this.

First of all, this is just from a mechanical point of view. Flavourwise, the Society pays you (in part) with the loot you found on your mission, but let's leave that aside for now.

The conclusion we got to was that treasure bundles/loot drops feel more appropriate for modules/APs, not scenarios. You know, proper adventurers, not hired help. See, I ran an adventure where the mission was simple: rescue Person X. My players circumvented part of the scenario and skipped a portion of the dungeon part. They rescued Person X and got away safely. But in doing so, they skipped several treasure bundles by not looting the dungeon. If the mission was to get Person X and get out (which it was, and which they did), why would the Society pay less for a job equally well done?

I've seen several scenarios where the author needs to contort themselves into weird positions to justify handing out item drops. Save a sick commoner? They or their family will scrounge some gold/items together to repay you. Retrieve some stolen goods? The NPC will reward you with more money than the goods were worth. This all makes sense if you're a regular person, not someone with a paid job who will get their money regardless of how many people you help. Yeah, I know, some people like to use scenarios as part of their non-Society adventures, so you need to cater to them as well, but still.

Look, I'm not saying to ditch the loot system and pay people regardless of how well a job you do. You want to be able to measure success, and reward people who do well (conversely, punish people who murderhobo through every scenario and not bother with skill checks), otherwise especially replayable scenarios will just become a race to the finish to earn credit as quickly as possible. But I mean, there has to be a middle ground, yeah? It leads to box-checking and metagaming where people will kick in doors just to get treasure. "Hmmm, we've technically already beaten this boss of this cultist hideout, but there's still two rooms we don't know what's inside of. Do we check them out for more loot, or get the hell out of here?" (Yeah yeah, the Society's motto is "EXPLORE, report, cooperate," but if you've already beaten a mission, does that one odd broom closet hold that much value to the higher-ups?)

I don't have a better solution, nor am I demanding for things to change. I'm just throwing this out there to see how other people feel about this. Rewarding people for smaller tasks feels like it belongs in module/AP writing, I feel. An idea would be to do it like how most secondary success conditions do it: do X out of Y tasks, where none are mandatory, but either help the Society's reputation, discover some lore, or go the extra mile. It's maybe a bit too similar to treasure bundles, but more retrospective: did I do a good job on this mission, or did I go for the "good enough" option?
It would be more hassle to keep track of as a GM, but for instance, you need to earn "points," and at a certain threshold you get paid in full (like, 20 points available in total, 10 is enough for full rewards): Killing the final boss would be one point, bringing them in alive two points (where applicable, of course. I doubt that many undead/demons would surrender, though there have been instances where they did), broker a peace three points, and so on. It's also metagamey, and authors would need to make sure it isn't too rigid (help X people, kill Y bad guys, discover Z lore in every single scenario), but it would avoid the problems I had with the situation I explained before (people rescuing their VIP, but don't get full pay because they didn't look for the shiny behind the door on the other side of the map).

Any ideas?

Hello, and thank you for your interest in this campaign! I'm excited to start and get to know all of you. :)

First of all, are there any phobias/sensitive topics I should be aware of?

As for character building: I'd rather not have any playtest classes, if that's okay with you. I am okay with any uncommon ancestry and versatile heritage. Just make sure your ancestry plays nice with the other players. Some internal conflict might be fun to play, but ideally everyone's PCs should get along with each other.
Personally, I think it's fun if people don't all pick the same background, but with only 7 options available, overlap's bound to happen.

The player's guide is considered common knowledge, except for the fact that the Gauntlight has lit up all of a sudden. The adventure itself throws you immediately onto the front steps of the dungeon, but I'd like to roleplay a bit beforehand.
Anyway, you might be from Otari itself, or from the area, but for the hook of this adventure, you are a good friend of Wrin Sivinxi, an elven tiefling with an oddities shop and a scholar of the occult. She knows you as a capable person who isn't afraid of danger, and who is up for an adventure.

Random things I'd like to discuss:

Rainzax, I see in your history you've made a beginning with Abomination Vaults with a different character and different GM, mind telling me why you quit (can be done in a private message.)? I had a quick look through the campaign and it seemed a bit strange.

Maps. As I said in the Recruitment thread, the maps are too big to comfortably fit on Google Slides. It's possible, but it'll shrink a lot of images down to illegibility. I could cut the maps in chunks, but that's an ugly solution. Does anyone have any other ideas? I was thinking of Roll20 or a different VTT, but I'd rather not have us jump through multiple hoops just to view the map and move our characters (Roll20 needs you to log in and wait for the map to load and such).

How do you want to do Hero Point allotment? It's tricky with play by post to estimate time. I've seen some people hand out a few HP per character level and that's it, but I could also hand out a Hero Point every 2-3 encounters or so, that seems reasonable-ish.

I don't have an exact deadline in mind as to when to start the actual campaign, but how does starting in a week sound? That means people have the time to brainstorm character ideas and builds, and if people aren't done by then, we can extend the starting date.

As I said earlier, the adventure pretty much immediately throws you into combat and rarely expects you to return to Otari, but it's certainly an option to hang around for a while. We'll see how much of a role it'll play, but know beforehand that the author did not expect players to explore it very much. :P

Hey all,

I'm hoping to GM Abomination Vaults. This'll be a whole endeavour, and I'll explain the process through the five Ws:

Who
I'm calling anyone who's interested to post here and tell me something about yourself. This is not a first-come, first-serve signup! I'll select people that speak to me, and I will say beforehand that I'll give preference to people I'm familiar with, as to guarantee my enjoyment of the game. If you've played with me before, don't be afraid to mention it! Also, feel free to link to your PbPs so I can get a picture of your play style.
I'll pick a group of people in probably a week or so. The thirtieth of September sounds like a good deadline. I'll pick people on the first of October.

I like to GM for people who roleplay and interact with other players and the environment. I've played with people who simply state their own actions and ignore other people's posts. That's not my thing. I hope to provide an interactive story where everyone has fun.

What
In case people don't know, Abomination Vaults is a three-volume Adventure Path from levels 1 to 10, for Pathfinder Second Edition. It's a megadungeon, so there'll be lots of combat, but that doesn't mean it's devoid of social encounters. The majority will still be dungeon-delving and fighting, but be aware that several encounters can be handled with diplomacy. For more information, look here for info about the AP, and here for the Player's Guide.

When
A ten-level, three-volume AP will take quite some time. Though APs tend to run faster than homebrew games in my experience, it'll still take a significant amount of time to complete. It'll certainly take more than a year to run through all the books, perhaps more than two. Personally, I'm committed to run all three books for people if they want to, and I'd like if my players are as well. I can't fault you if you have to drop out because of unforeseen circumstances, but I'd prefer if you don't sign up if you know you'll have to drop out after a few months.

Also, as a GM, I tend to make one "big" post a day with a general advancement of the story, and maybe one or two smaller posts to reply to players or to advance combat when necessary. In the weekends, I update when necessary, but I don't do a "big" update. For the players, I expect about a post a day on weekdays, and on weekends/holidays whenever you feel like it. Though more is encouraged, I understand if you don't have the time or spoons for it.
Full disclosure, I live in western Europe (UTC +1), so my awake times might not (and probably will not) overlap with those outside of Europe (I'm 5-9 hours ahead of America, for instance), so keep in mind that I might not respond quickly to your posts.

Where
The maps are just big enough that they don't fit comfortably in Google Slides. I haven't thought this through yet, but I'll discuss it with my players once they're finally chosen. I might put the map up on Roll20, or maybe some other site that can give real-time updates.

How
For those who are not familiar with me or my style of GMing: I'm a five-star PF1 GM, and I'm at 22 or so PF2 GM credits. I'm currently also running Age of Ashes IRL, so I'd like to think I'm a decently experienced GM. I've run a handful of PFS scenarios in PbP, some PF1, some PF2.
I like to play up the roleplay, but that doesn't mean there won't be any combat. As stated above, this is a megadungeon, the majority of it will contain fights. I tend to run pretty fast. Not at breakneck speed, but I do tend to skip over the bits where not much happens. I won't have a speech ready about every single shopkeep you meet and I assume most shopping and other bookkeeping is done "off screen." Though if you do want to have specific one-on-one conversations, I'll happily play them out. I just don't want to drag them out too long, so the other players aren't waiting for the conversation to finish. I'm fine with spending a day on describing how you put your children to bed, but if the others are waiting a week just for a single night's rest, I might continue the conversation with you in between other posts. A typical conversation might take two-three days to resolve, maybe more if there's several skill challenges involved, for instance.
If players want me to slow down, I'll do my best to accommodate them, of course. :)

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So, does all this sound good? Any questions? Feel free to ask them! If you want to join up, tell me something about yourself and why you'd like to join. Again, the deadline is the thirtieth of September, and after that, I'll pick four to six players and start talking about characters and such.

Nothing to see here yet.

Okay, so a situation came up in my home game and I'd just check how these things interact.

There's a locked door. Player A has thieves' tools and replacement parts. He crit fails several times and has to go through his replacement parts.
Player B has Quick Repair.

Since the replacement parts are broken (not destroyed), could Player B try to fix those things? That'd mean basically two replacement parts are needed and they can cycle through them, repairing the broken parts when needed, and never have to bother buying more replacement parts (which at 3 silver apiece isn't really worth tracking after a certain point anyway)?

Since the crit fail condition of Pick a Lock says you can repair the tools, as well as use replacement parts, I'm inclined to say yes, but I'm willing to listen to more experienced players to see how much this would impact things down the road.

Thanks in advance.

I'm relatively new to PF2 and I don't have a lot of experience playing it yet. I've got two level 2 Society characters, and they both have a pile of gold and no idea what to spend it on. So, what's the equivalent to PF1's antiplague/antitoxin, Cloak of Resistance, and so on? Stuff, both magical and mundane, I'd want to collect over the first few levels or so?

For information, one character is a flurry Ranger, so a Striking weapon seems obvious, and the other is a Cleric with Druid dedication (pure caster).

Okay, my apologies in advance for the potentially charged title, but I didn't really know how else to formulate it.

The past few seasons there have been several adventures in Iobaria, just on the other side of the Inner Sea Region. For years, we've had adventures in the Inner Sea (and sometimes Tian Xia), establishing it as the "home base of Pathfinder." Why the sudden interest in exploring beyond it? This might be just a knee-jerk reaction of me dealing with change, but I'd like to know the reasoning behind it, so I can understand it better.
On the one hand, I can see how Paizo wants to expand its horizons a little, slowly branching out the Inner Sea Region. But on the other hand, I don't see why most of these adventures couldn't have taken place anywhere in the Inner Sea. It's not like everything has been completely mapped out, or that we need a special location for these adventures. From what I understand (I've read up on some lore, but not everything), Iobaria is just as civilised as the ISR, it's just not the "home turf" of the Society.

To be clear, I'm not mad that these adventures take place outside of the Inner Sea, I'm mostly just confused. Understanding the reasoning why it takes place there takes away that confusion.

Okay, very stupid title, but basically, as a GM, I've sometimes entered the wrong number here or there, either before or after the -. Either I've accidentally given credit to someone's -2 instead of their -1, or entered the wrong PFS number entirely (say, 1234569 instead of 1234567), and I spot it only after I've pressed "save." Or, say, ticked the wrong boxes in the mission notes. When I go to Sessions, and edit the table to correct my mistakes, it'll still display the wrong name and presumably credit the wrong person. I've checked this with one of my characters, and their sheet didn't update with the right info.
I've gotten used to, if I make a sloppy mistake, delete that session and re-enter everything completely, to make sure everything gets entered correctly. But now I noticed something different: for some reason, it'll still register those tables to my GM score, and ACP. I now have one or two more GM tables under my belt than I have actually run.
I'll try to not abuse this fact and artificially inflate my ACP or GM count, but this might happen again. And with ACP being a thing now, I think it's important I give my players the right credits. But if I make a mistake, either the wrong person gets credited, or I correct it and I basically get double credit. What do?

Maybe this should've fit better under the Website Feedback subforum, but that seems more for actual issues with accounts, which this didn't really feel like.

So, I'm running Strange Aeons. My players recently found two Elder Things and let them escape (they didn't make sense to be overtly hostile). One of my party tried to befriend one, and for the fun of it, the Elder Thing gave that person a fist-sized chunk of flesh before it flew away. I described it as a pulsating piece of flesh, with a latticed structure around it, like this mushroom. Problem is, I haven't really decided what it does. >_> So, I'm here to ask you: what's a fun thing/ability to give to my players? I don't mind homebrewing or increasing their power level a bit. It's mostly a fun thing and a reward for doing fun stuff.

My players think it's an egg of some kind, and they want to hatch it. I was thinking of maybe giving them a summon ability they could use an X amount of times a day, like a Summoner gets. They've also befriended an extraplanar Voonith, so this might summon that as well. But I'm open to all kinds of suggestions. Bonus feats, spell-likes, anything is possible. I've described these things as intensely weird and unknowable, so anything's on the table. Hell, I'd even consider it becoming an animal companion of some kind.

I'm running a PFS adventure in play-by-post, and I just ran into this oddity. In the "Pick a Lock" section of Thievery, it says the following:
Success You open the lock, or you achieve one success toward opening a complex lock.

The "Locks" section gives the DCs and number of successes required for each type of lock, but it never says anything about a complex lock. It just gives qualities of locks, but "complex" is not one of them.

Am I missing something? Is "complex" just a modifier of a regular lock? Can I have a complex poor lock? Because I'm getting mixed messages here: "Picking a Lock"'s success and critical success conditions says you immediately unlock the lock, unless it's complex. Meanwhile, the "Lock" section says it's an X number of successes regardless of whether it's complex or not. Which is it?

I'm running Thrushmoor Terror now, and the random Kuru enemies just seem... out of place. I'm fine with some savagery, but they don't make sense, narrative-wise. Anyone know some interesting monsters or NPCs I can use to substitute them? Preferably around the same CR, but I don't mind tweaking up or down a little. Anything goes: extraplanar entities (though I don't really see them summoning devils or demons), magical beasts, undead, and so on. As long as they're relatively clever and can do a decent job of guarding the place.

This tab is used for out-of-character discussion, such as posting you'll not be able to post for a while (due to holidays, illness, whatever), discussing rules, or basically anything related to this game that isn't directly relevant to the progression of the adventure.

While you're here, also please do the following things:

- Make a new alias to post in the Gameplay tab. To do so, go to "My Account" in the top right, click it (not the dropdown menu).You should get an overview of all your data. In the left column, there should be a section called "Messageboard Aliases." Create a new alias. Or, basically do the same in the regular "Organised Play" tab you use to make a new PFS/SFS character.
- Give that alias a name and an avatar image you like.
- Then, click that alias. It should have several tabs, with things like Profile, Aliases, Campaigns, Posts, and Threads.
- Click "Edit My Profile."
- In the Race line, fill in the following stats, with conditional modifiers in parentheses:
HP | AC | Fort, Ref, Will | Perception | Speed

It should look something like this, using one of my characters as an example:
35 HP | AC 19, T 15, FF 15 | Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +7 (+2 vs fear) | CMB +2, CMD 16 | Init +4 | Perception +2 | Speed: 30
- LEAVE THE REST OF THE ROWS EMPTY! Only exceptions are alignment, languages, and your stats.
- In the "About" box, you can write down whatever you think is relevant to know about your character, purely mechanics-wise (such as to-hit, skill bonuses, equipment, and class abilities). This is in case I need to bot you. I'll just look at your character sheet and find what I need. I'll post an example so you know what it could look like. Or, if you have a direct link to your sheet, that's also great.

You have all received a request from Valais Durant of the Radiant Oath faction. You're all aboard a boat called the Merry Mayfly, and it's headed to Xin-Edasseril. You've been on this boat for a while now, so you've had time to get to know each other.

I won't start the adventure just yet, but you can use this time to introduce your character.

For those not entirely up to date on the lore:
Radiant Oath: Unlike its spiritual predecessor, the Silver Crusade, which threw itself forcefully at the most significant threats and villains, the Radiant Oath emphasizes acts of kindness, compassion, and redemption. However, when dire evils threaten the world, the members of the Radiant Oath are ready to combat it. By consistently promoting the cause of good and building the faction’s reputation, the Radiant Oath strives for greater influence in the Society to direct its resources toward just causes.

Varisia and New Thassilon: A long, long time ago, the Runelords ruled over an empire called Thassilon. Runelords were all very evil, and each Runelord was tied to a separate school of magic and embodied a specific sin (there are seven Runelords). Eventually, that empire fell (during Earthfall, I believe), and Thassilon got wiped off the map. After a long time, the country Varisia was built on the foundations of old Thassilon. Thassilonian ruins were everywhere, so it's an interesting place for adventurers to go to.
However, there is one wrinkle: the Runelords all saw this coming and made preparations. Some put themselves into stasis, others went to a different plane, one even turned into a lich. As part of the transition from Pathfinder version 1 to Pathfinder 2, those Runelords woke up again, and took back Varisia, changing it back into New Thassilon. Several Runelords got killed, but there's still a few roaming around.
New Thassilon is divided into two pieces: In the west, one of the Runelords has shed her evil ways and has become a neutral ruler. She wants to turn her piece of the country into a sort of shelter state for misfits, exiles, and so on. That is not where you are going. In the east, Belimarius, the Runelord of Envy rules, and she's still very much evil.

This tab is used for out-of-character discussion, such as posting you'll not be able to post for a while (due to holidays, illness, whatever), discussing rules, or basically anything related to this game that isn't directly relevant to the progression of the adventure.

While you're here, also please do the following things:

- Make a new alias to post in the Gameplay tab. To do so, go to "My Account" in the top right, click it (not the dropdown menu).You should get an overview of all your data. In the left column, there should be a section called "Messageboard Aliases." Create a new alias. Or, basically do the same in the regular "Organised Play" tab you use to make a new PFS/SFS character.
- Give that alias a name and an avatar image you like.
- Then, click that alias. It should have several tabs, with things like Profile, Aliases, Campaigns, Posts, and Threads.
- Click "Edit My Profile."
- In the Race line, fill in the following stats, with conditional modifiers in parentheses:
HP | EAC, KAC | Fort, Ref, Will | Init | Perception | Speed

It should look something like this, using one of my characters as an example:
35 HP | AC 19, T 15, FF 15 | Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +7 (+2 vs fear) | CMB +2, CMD 16 | Init +4 | Perception +2 | Speed: 30
- LEAVE THE REST OF THE ROWS EMPTY! Only exceptions are alignment, languages, and your stats.
- In the "About" box, you can write down whatever you think is relevant to know about your character, purely mechanics-wise (such as to-hit, skill bonuses, equipment, and class abilities). This is in case I need to bot you. I'll just look at your character sheet and find what I need. I'll post an example so you know what it could look like. Or, if you have a direct link to your sheet, that's also great.

You are all in a Lorespire Complex hangar. You're supposed to meet Venture-Captain Arvin here, but he is running late. Nearby, a Pegasus-class starship is being loaded with astronomical equipment by several workers. There is an uncomfortable silence as you all have been waiting here for several minutes.

You can use this space to introduce yourselves.

Hello,

Not sure if this is supposed to go here or somewhere else. Sorry if I'm in the wrong place.
I earned my fifth GM star for Pathfinder Society several months ago (see here for proof), but it hasn't updated in my PFS profile yet. I've heard there were issues with stars not being displayed correctly, has that been fixed yet?

Thanks a lot.

Hello,

I received a gift voucher at a convention a while ago and wanted to use it, but for some reason the gift card does not work. It keeps saying it's invalid or not for this order (Character Operations Manual PDF). The last one I ruled out because I tried it on a different item and that did not work either. My local VC said to post here because it might've been a misprint or something.

Note: on the voucher is written a different name, crossed out, and then my name. I don't know if it belonged to the previous name who already used it, but that might explain if it's already claimed.

Thanks a lot.

Maybe I'm asking too soon and the numbers haven't been crunched properly, but I'm theorycrafting some builds, and I'm wondering if I'm neglecting my Con score. So far I've left it at 10, and with the new HP system, that sort of seems fine. I've played some Starfinder Society, and there a Con of 10 seems perfectly fine (granted, I've not made a frontliner yet). My Pathfinder 1 characters always started with a Con score of 14, so dropping to 10 seems like a big jump. But considering ability scores at character creation seems less swingy (no dumping to get more point buy, for example), I'm not sure how to do that without completely neglecting my other stats.

So, especially for mid-level play (I intend to play some PF2 Society soon, which goes to level 11 I believe), how important does a decent Con score seem to you? Especially with most classes getting at least 8 HP each level, a Con of 12 means only one single HP extra per level. That doesn't seem much. My first draft of the character had a Con of 10, but then I realised I might've neglected HP and I might've overcorrected to 14. With a Strength of 18 and a Dexterity of 14, a Constitution of 14 only leaves me with a single +2 to a mental stat. Which, as a Ranger, goes to Wisdom. I'd like to get that Wis to 14, to more properly contribute in skills such as Nature and Survival. And that probably means taking a hit to my Con score, setting it at 12. Or maybe my Strength, if necessary.

Or maybe I'm asking the wrong thing. Am I overinvesting by putting my Strength to 18? If I leave it at 16, I'll be slightly less effective at levels 1 through 4, but catch up again once I put my level 5 stat bump in Strength. Sure, I won't be able to bump it to 20 at level 10, but I'm not sure if I want to do so in the first place. I see most of the pregenerated characters for Society have an 18 in their primary stat, so that seems like the go-to strategy...

Say I throw a Rage spell on an ally, and that ally falls unconscious, does that ally continue raging (and thus, keep their CON boost? This happened last week, and I'd like some clarification. I see two lines of thinking:
1. It works like a Barbarian Rage and as soon as you drop unconscious, you drop rage, and lose HP, possibly killing you.
2. The spell's caster maintains the rage, so as long as the spell is in effect, the recipient will get the benefit from it, even while unconscious.

Option 2 goes against the logic of the normal rage rules (only raging while conscious), and the spell says it "otherwise identical with a barbarian's rage." But on the other hand, the spell also says "each affected creature," which implies the affected creatures don't get a choice in it: you rage until you shut it off. But that would also mean you can rage while sleeping and such. Is that just the side-effect of the spell, or am I just wishful thinking?

Reason I'm asking is, last week I threw this on a party member and he knocked himself unconscious by damaging himself (effect from a fumble card), which meant he'd lose his rage HP, putting him over his CON threshold. This question came up and the GM ruled in our favour, as it was just bad luck anyway, but now I'm curious what the "proper" ruling is.

Hey all,

I had a talk with someone from my lodge about traumas and how it can affect you. I then made the link to Society adventures, where there's a chance you can run into these things without warning. In my lodge, which is quite small (+/- 15-20 people, ish?), there are several people with certain phobias and histories of mental problems, and I can imagine them being confronted with their specific triggers without warning will lead to a bad time.

Pathfinder 1 is nearing the end of its lifespan, but Starfinder is thriving, and Pathfinder 2 is practically around the corner. I think the addition of trigger warning tags in the scenario and in the blurb would be a big help for those who want to avoid certain themes. Starfinder already has tags for spaceship battles and factions, I think this would be a relatively easy addition.

What sort of tags should be included? I'm not sure there should be a definitive list authors should avoid or reference, but there are at least some common themes that could be helpful to know beforehand:
- Arachnophobia
- Horror (physical, mental, body horror, gore, and so on)
- Abuse (mental, physical, and so on)
- Rape (luckily, Society tends to shy away from this, which is a good thing)
- Suicide
- Blasphemy
- Gender/body identity

And possibly many more. Again, this isn't (and shouldn't be) the be-all-end-all list of things authors should shy away from or at the very least mention beforehand, but if an author thinks, "hmm, this might be offensive/problematic for some people," at least make it known. Also, there isn't anything wrong with trying to be inclusive, or being mindful of small groups of minorities. When it comes to phobias and triggers, there is no pandering. I remember people being offended by certain scenarios in Kaer Maga for featuring Miss Feathers, or the nonbinary NPC in a season 9 adventure. I also remember the time I ran The Traitor's Lodge, where the mood went from "regular light-hearted adventure" to "oh s@%# this is messed up" in 15 minutes. Luckily no one was triggered, but I can imagine the scenario needing some redacting if young children are present. And similarly, arachnophobia is a real thing. There are lots of scenarios that have the odd spider. Using realistic minis would be problematic, and someone in my lodge already gets triggered when webs are mentioned. Reflavouring the spiders to say, scorpions might be okay, but it's even better if that weren't necessary.
I can go on with all sorts of stories, but the message is clear: people struggle with things authors might not even realise, and having a list of potential trigger warnings might be a good thing for both the authors and the audience. And ideally, that list is constantly moderated, so that it stays up-to-date and isn't influenced by troll suggestions (where the line between those two should lie isn't for me to decide, but I can imagine this being troll-sensitive)

All I'm trying to say is, Paizo is trying really hard lately to be inclusive. I applaud that. This is a similar simple method of catering to your player base that will increase goodwill towards the company.

So I'm playing a Green Knight in a homebrew, and there's this line of text that's been sitting wrong with me all this time. I believe either the author misinterpreted an ability, or there's a small typo, because the ability would otherwise give way too big a bonus for this archetype:

Beast Tongue (Ex): A green knight can use Diplomacy to improve an animal’s attitude. Beast tongue otherwise functions like the druid’s wild empathy ability, using the green knight’s Diplomacy modifier and using her cavalier level as her effective druid level, and it counts as that ability for the purpose of other effects (such as feat prerequisites or effects that alter or improve wild empathy).

Wild Empathy (Ex): A druid can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The druid rolls 1d20 and adds her druid level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. (...)

Emphasis mine. Regular Wild Empathy would just be Druid level + CHA, but as written the Green Knight would use their Diplomacy modifier. I know something's up, because this way, as quoted, the Cavalier's level would do nothing in this equation. Furthermore, using their Diplomacy modifier is way better than just level + CHA.

I mean, to me (and my GM) it's clear that I should just look at how Wild Empathy works from the Druid, not use what the archetype says, but I'd like to hear from the Paizo hivemind just in case. I just find it strange this wasn't picked up sooner.

We just finished book 3, and my party is bonkers. I already delayed their Mythic ranks by a bit, and they're still tearing through combats like it's nothing. I discussed this with my players, and they agreed to me adding more HP/to-hit to monsters to keep things interesting, as well as maybe some other upgrades. However, I'd like to keep things fair and not use those things too often. So, if you have any ideas how to properly challenge my players without it feeling unfair, please share.

Party composition is:
- Evangelist Cleric with Heroism subdomain. Insane buffs, and he's slowly becoming pretty good at melee combat as well, with Dex to damage and a Holy Keen scimitar.
- Old school Summoner with a grapple/swallow whole-focused Eidolon. Also big fan of creating Pits and just shutting down enemies. Eidolon is nearly impossible to hit for bosses, and mooks just don't hit, period.
- Psychodermist Occultist. Also high AC, and probably the main damage dealer of the party. Also has a boatload of tricks up his sleeve due to being an Occultist.
- Fireball-focused Sorcerer. 'Nuff said. Either combats need to be on insanely large maps, or things melt before they get a chance to do anything.
- Paladin/Swashbuckler/Devoted Muse. Weirdly enough doesn't do a lot of damage, but hyper-mobile, and has reach, which is problematic.

Sorcerer player suggested adding things with fire immunity, or Spell Immunity, so that forces him to get creative. The party has become well-known enough that the demons might start preparing against them now, so that's an option. Other than that, there isn't a main thing that's bothersome, just a confluence of other things, such as extra standard actions with mythic points, the Occultist being able to place Bane on his weapon as a standard action, and Mythic Haste. I was already debating limiting extra standard actions to their their per day, so they don't use it all the time.

I'm thinking of looking for interesting templates to slap onto them, but I don't want to do too much work rebuilding everything. Dual Initiative will already do a lot, and maybe I should look a bit more into easy Mythic templates, such as giving enemies additional standard actions as well. As for the Grapple/Swallow Whole, I'm thinking of looking for spiny creatures/templates that will hurt those tactics.

SO, I'm basically asking if people know any cool/suitable templates or tricks to use against my party without feeling like I'm countering them on purpose, without me rewriting basically everything? I'm already using the updated statblocks for a lot of things, but that doesn't cover everything.

I was GMing a PFS table, and one of my players came with a weird rules interaction I couldn't quite wrap my head around. Didn't help that he explained it poorly and he had some of the rules wrong himself. And now, after digging deep into it myself, I'm not sure of it anymore, either. Partially inspired by this old thread, I didn't want to necro that thread anymore, I come to you for help.

The rules interaction is manyfold. First of all, it concerns movement, concealment, low-light vision and so forth (emphasis mine):

Tactical Movement

Tactical movement is used for combat. Characters generally don’t walk during combat, for obvious reasons—they hustle or run instead. A character who moves his speed and takes some action is hustling for about half the round and doing something else the other half.

Hampered Movement: Difficult terrain, obstacles, and poor visibility can hamper movement (see Table: Hampered Movement for details). When movement is hampered, each square moved into usually counts as two squares, effectively reducing the distance that a character can cover in a move.

If more than one hampering condition applies, multiply all additional costs that apply. This is a specific exception to the normal rule for doubling.

In some situations, your movement may be so hampered that you don’t have sufficient speed even to move 5 feet (1 square). In such a case, you may use a full-round action to move 5 feet (1 square) in any direction, even diagonally. Even though this looks like a 5-foot step, it’s not, and thus it provokes attacks of opportunity normally. (You can’t take advantage of this rule to move through impassable terrain or to move when all movement is prohibited to you.)

You can’t run or charge through any square that would hamper your movement.

Condition Additional Movement Cost
Difficult terrain ×2
Obstacle* ×2
Poor visibility ×2
Impassable —

* May require a skill check

So, according to this, poor visibility applies to tactical movement, so during combat, but doesn't give examples of what "poor visibility" could mean. Technically, Obscuring Mist and any kind of area of effect concealment (such as dim light) is poor visibility. This leads me to the next part of this question.

The player also came with the following bit of rules (again, emphasis mine):

Getting Lost

There are many ways to get lost in the wilderness. Following an obvious road, trail, or feature such as a stream or shoreline prevents most from becoming lost, but travelers striking off cross-country might become disoriented—especially in conditions of poor visibility or in difficult terrain.
Poor Visibility

Anytime characters cannot see at least 60 feet due to reduced visibility conditions, they might become lost. Characters traveling through fog, snow, or a downpour might easily lose the ability to see any landmarks not in their immediate vicinity. Similarly, characters traveling at night might be at risk, too, depending on the quality of their light sources, the amount of moonlight, and whether they have darkvision or low-light vision.

This very clearly states that you get lost in mist if you can't see far enough. It is obviously meant for exploration, not for combat, but this is the first (and only) explanation of what fog does on sight and movement I could find. And that also counts for low-light vision and dim light and such.

Sidenote: I also had an Oracle at my table with the Blind curse, and the previous player said his movement was permanently reduced because he couldn't see at least 60 feet ahead. Which, going by these rules is absolutely correct, but instinctively absolutely wrong. Also explained by mtd in the aforementioned link.

So, I still have no idea what exactly the effects of dimness or concealment are on movement. But, on the other hand, the Blinded condition says you need to make a DC 10 Acrobatics check to move at half speed. Following that player's argument, that would stack with the "not being able to see 60 feet" rule, which is plainly ridiculous.

And finally, here's the final piece of confusion: the player used Eclipsed Spell on his Light cantrip to create permanent dim light around him.

Dim Light

In an area of dim light, a character can see somewhat. Creatures within this area have concealment (20% miss chance in combat) from those without darkvision or the ability to see in darkness. A creature within an area of dim light can make a Stealth check to conceal itself. Areas of dim light include outside at night with a moon in the sky, bright starlight, and the area between 20 and 40 feet from a torch.

So, said player wanted to stealth in his own blob of dim light, and claim that because he made his Stealth roll, no one knew he was there, despite the giant blob of darkness around him. Moreover, he claimed that because of the dim light, everyone without low-light vision or darkvision had to move at half speed in his bubble. All of this technically makes sense according to the rules, but logically this should not be a thing.

I am willing to give him concealment, but he claims that everyone is flat-footed against him because of the dim light. I am less sure of that. Obscuring Mist specifically says creatures far away gain total concealment, but poor visibility and dim light never state anything of the sort.

Can anyone illuminate (pun very much intended) me on the subject? I've heard from other GMs that this player tends to interpret/bend rules to his favour, and I'd like to be clear on the subject (mainly, movement in obscured vision, stealthing in his own concealment, and line of sight in low-light vision). Mainly because I now don't trust myself anymore, either.

I've played a handful of Stafinder scenarios so far, and I've come to the conclusion that there are a few things that could be streamlined in enemy statblocks. A lot of things are derived from other stats that aren't immediately visible and require additional calculation. Sure, Pathfinder didn't have these stats either, but that doesn't mean Starfinder shouldn't have them, either.

I'd like to see a line of text in the statblocks for stuff like the Envoy's Clever Feint. Clever Feint is a weird thing that had some of my GMs looking through statblocks and make quick calculations. That in and of itself isn't that bad, but when you throw 5 or 6 different enemies at the players, you have to calculate that each and every time again. I've come up with a table for my own character to check (I've included it in spoilers at the end of my post), as that's usually faster than checking in with the GM.

See, Clever Feint uses the Feint rules, which checks 10 + Sense Motive bonus or 15 + 1.5 times CR. Most monsters don't have Sense Motive, but against humanoids, especially with class levels, that might get tricky. Now the GM has to look up TWO different numbers, and compare them against each other. And while "CR times one and a half" isn't that difficult, as a GM you're already having to remember conditions, tactics, and so on, so all this is just an extra thing you need to track.

Now, usually something like Intimidate DC or Feint DC aren't spelled out in NPC statblocks, as it's not relevant most of the time, but if it's a core class feature pretty much every Envoy will pick up sooner or later, I think it's reasonable to cater to that.

The only downside is that it's not backwards compatible. When a new class comes out that depends on a derivative of the creature's skills (say, DC 5 + bonus in Computers squared), you'll end up where we are now. But hey, it not perfect system.

It might wreak havoc on the stat block generator system, as maybe some creatures have things like a Bard's Versatile Performance, where they can use X for Y, but that could be noted in the special ability section.

TL;DR: I'd like to see a line of text where commonly-used derived information is immediately visible. Something like this would suffice (ideally near Defense):
Feint DC 27

First off, I love the fact that there's now a simple table for skill checks and saves. Makes it much easier to reference.

I just ran the Hao Jin Cataclysm special, and once again I was suprised by how easy the skill checks are. I am going to have to spoil the DCs of these checks by necessity to be able to talk about them, but I will give ample warning so people can go in blind if they don't want to be spoiled.

My main concern is that all these skill DCs seem way too low, removing all challenge from the game. I didn't tell what the DCs were, but I knew from the start that whoever was attempting the check had a 90% chance of making that check, even the Hard check DCs. I know for specials you can't be guaranteed to have a specialist in certain skills at every table, and you want the game to keep moving at a certain pace due to limited time, but if players catch on to the fact that the skills are only pretty much mandatory obligations in order to proceed, it removes all excitement. My players literally made all of the checks except for two, which were social checks because people wanted to take part in the conversation, as someone else was doing all of the other checks on his own. Ideally, I'd like to see more difficult checks, but with even more leniency to which skills apply, in order to increase the chance of multiple people trying to succeed. I'll come back to that once I've crunched the numbers below.

I have some ideas how this problem can be balanced. None of them are perfect, I have to admit, but maybe we can collectively suggest some cool things. First is the problem of balancing skill DCs between non-specialists and specialists. If we simply up the skill DC so even specialists have trouble with it, it'll become impossible for non-specialists to make those checks. The combination of skill ranks and stat bonuses increase the disparity disproportionally. A smart character will obviously invest more in INT-based skill checks than non-smart people. In this regard, I kinda like PF2's system of skills, where those disparities are much smaller, but that's beside the point. One possible solution is, aside from setting a skill DC, setting a stat DC. Say for instance a DC 30 skill check is needed to succeed, or a DC 17 in the relevant stat. A person who hasn't invested much in that skill can't possibly make that skill DC, but could possibly make that stat check, if he's lucky and didn't totally dump that stat (assuming a stat of 10, that's a 20% chance of him making it, which seems like a proper Hard check).
A different idea is to allow automatic assisting, like some scenarios do in the more recent chase variants. Everyone rolls, everyone who gets a 10 automatically assists the highest roll. This means that a person with an average skill modifier who rolled well can still beat a specialist who rolled poorly. I've seen so many times where people assisted the best modifier to boost him even more, only for him to roll a natural 1, while a second person who rolled alone for the hell of it would've succeeded if they'd assisted him. This also makes the special more accessible and fast-paced, as there's no bickering about who is assisting whom. Also, this allows the skill DCs to increase even more, as there's more chance that people can try the check and roll well. It feels really cool to beat that DC 30 through teamwork, rather than one person making the DC 22 just because he's the only one trained in it (one person out of one needs to roll a 13+ to succeed, versus one person out of five needing to roll an 18+, for instance. Mathematically it's more likely the latter's going to happen, for instance).
A third option I see is to up the DC, but allow even more skills to apply. This won't work all the time, as it might not always make sense in the fiction, but it allows more skills to apply. A social encounter might specifically need Diplomacy to pass, but maybe a Sense Motive to intuit what the person wants to hear, or a relevant Knowledge check to bring up cold hard facts could work as well. Most social encounters already do this, but really open it up. Or explicitly let people come up with things on their own. If you need to cross a river and the party needs to make an X amount of checks, the scenario suggest building a raft using Craft, Profession, or Survival, but maybe just leave it at "you need to cross a river." If a player comes up with building a raft, other people can build on that, offering to go find wood, find the best place to enter the water, and so on. The same skills essentially apply, but it allows players to think outside the box and really be creative. If the Rogue has maxed Sleight of Hand, let him tie the knots, for instance. It doesn't matter which skill is rolled, just that the check is made. Now people can actually roleplay and add to the story.

So, basically these are my grievances with the last few specials. The specials themselves have been great, don't get me wrong. I just feel like not as much thought has been given to the skills as the story and the combats, I mean.

I'll be joining an established play by post group soon, and they need a frontliner/trap guy. I thought of making a Slayer, but since I've already made 3 so far (dirty trick specialist, sword and board TWF, trip specialist), I'd like to make him a little more interesting beyond "I hit it." The conventional builds I've tried don't really enthuse me, so if anyone knows any weird build, I'd be interested in trying it out.

I start at level 3 or 4, 20 point buy, amount of gold unknown.
Requirements:
- Core race.
- Needs Trapfinding at level 2 or 4.
- Needs an interesting "thing." Don't know what yet. Don't want a feinting build, but maybe some social skills would be nice. Or some spellcasting maybe.
- Preferably not multiclassed. Or at the very least at least 2 levels Slayer so I can get Trapfinding.
- I'm assuming PFS-legal feats and archetypes.

Thanks a lot!

I didn't like this much in Starfinder, and I'm not sure why they included it here. I don't actively hate it, but I am bothered by the fact that you can leave it away and pretty much nothing will change, apart from a minor boost to HP. I understand some races are more "tough" than others, but that's already reflected in their racial stats.

It's only a very minor thing, and in the grand scale of things it doesn't really matter when you're high-level, but why not give everyone an extra 8 HP at level 1 and be done with it? Seems like you're unnecessarily penalised (albeit very minor) for choosing a Halfling instead of a Human, even if you end up with the same stats.

I'm not advocating to abandon it, I just want to understand why it's a thing. Looks to me like it's creating unnecessary divides where there shouldn't be.

Last night I played a game where the author made a wrong assumption, and technically voided his own "during combat" tactics. Our GM said this was the case and he used his own tactics from then on. But eventually, morale conditions kicked in and the creature fled, costing us our secondary prestige.

I am not disputing the call the GM made, but I am kinda sour about the interaction between the "during combat" and "morale" condition. Now, there's no direct connection between the one and the other, but IMHO, if the author made a mistake, the players shouldn't be punished for it. I'll be more specific in spoiler tags below.

Any thoughts on the matter?

I've been dabbling in Starfinder Society for a bit (got 4 sessions under my belt), and I really like the idea of the Mystic. Especially since my lodge doesn't seem to have a lot of them and I've always liked support characters. Yesterday I played a higher tier with a pregen (Keskodai), and I was amazed at how good of a healer he was. I was talking about this with a friend and he said he also has a Mystic like that. So, not wanting to copy someone's build, I was looking for other potential builds, and I thought of a melee variant (since a lot of people seem to be going for ranged options, and the need for a frontline). But I was wondering if that's a good idea. I have 3 XP on it (and one at tier 4), so I can theoretically rebuild to this, but once I've played it, I'm stuck, so I'd like to make sure if it's viable.

I was thinking of the following:
Race: Shirren (I like them, and they have nice racial features).
Theme: not sure, I usually build flavour around the build, not the other way around. This'll come last.
Stats (pre-racial):
STR 16
DEX 10
CON 10 or 12
INT 10
WIS 12 or 14
CHA 10
Since I'll most likely be hitting people instead of casting, WIS isn't that much of a priority. My current build has WIS at 16 (post-racial), which only seems to matter if you're going for save or suck spells. Which, hopefully, I won't have to use all that much. So if a WIS of 12 (14 post-racial) is enough, the rest can go in CON.
Connection: Not sure yet. To be honest, I'm not that amazed by most of the bonus spells. I can still go for Healer for quick lay on hands on myself, but there are other options. A lot of them depend on saves, which will not be that high, compared to other Mystics. My current Mystic is a Star Shaman, which I honestly like, but honestly, isn't amazing. Xenodruid seems pretty cool, and Animal Adaptation seems useful.
Multiclass (?): I was thinking maybe dipping one level into Soldier for a few more class skills, heavy armor, and maybe some bigger weapons. Blitz Soldier is very tempting, but a bit lame. Bombard seems pretty good, but I'm not sure how good grenades are. Don't intend to use the self-made grenade very often, certainly not at higher levels. Guard also seems pretty decent, with less armor check penalty. Again, not sure how relevant that'll be, but considering I have no DEX, seems convenient.
Feats: If I'm dipping Soldier at first level, a lot of BAB 1 feats open up. Quick Draw and Step Up seem good. My current character has Nimble Moves, which seems pretty good as well.
Weapons/Armour: No idea. I want to go primarily Mystic, so eventually I'll get Weapon Specialization with small arms only, but I can pick that up with a feat. Any advice on that? Pick a good melee weapon I'll need a feat to get extra damage on, or stick to basic melee weapons?

Anyway, thanks a lot for reading and helping out.

As the title says, I'm thinking of doing weird stuff with a Spellstoring weapon or armour. Not the standard stuff everyone uses, like Shocking Grasp and the like, but things that border on the silly. Can you help me find stuff?

- First off, Disguise Other. No save, no spell resistance. Can you imagine if a group of thugs mobbed you, one of them hits you, and gets turned into a girl? Won't work on that person, but his allies might react to it. Or turn him into an identical copy of you.
- Similarly, Vanish or Invisibility. A bit counterproductive to slap that on the enemy, but imagine giving a big speech, like saying "anyone who dares to hit me I will remove from this world." Again, big scare-factor for onlookers.
- Compulsive Liar is interesting. Let someone hit you, let him get away, and he can't speak the truth for several hours. And the best thing is, he won't even know why.
- Every "Touch of..." spell ever. Touch of Blindness. Hit me, and you'll go blind.
- Voluminous Vocabulary. Target suddenly realises he can understand Abyssal. What will he do with that knowledge? No idea, but it's interesting.
- Claim Identity. You suddenly become a copy of the attacker, and he loses his identity.

I just took the Bard spell list because they have the funniest things, but I'm sure there are more. Thanks for the help!

The spell in question.

I've seen some GMs in PFS rule that if a target has Spellcraft and itentifies the spell, he knows what's going on and can decide to keep the item in hand even after making a successful Reflex save, thus automatically accepting the damage and keeping the item in hand.

I have two issues with this: first of all, can you really decide to hold onto it if you know it's temporary? If I have a bet with a friend to see if I can hold my hand on a hot stove for 5 seconds, my first instinct is still to pull away. It's a reflex, after all. Can you override your instincts?
Second, does this affect people with fire resistance? I can make a case for both sides, but I'd like to see someone else's interpretation. It seems weird to me that a big Red Dragon who is immune to fire drops a thing he's holding because it gets kind of hot, but maybe that overrides the resistance somehow.

Hey all,

I just started GMing the second book and I thought it'd be cool if the party could use the Sword of Valor themselves. There's an Evangelist Cleric in the party with the Flagbearer feat, and it'd be cool if he could use it in combat, rather than use it for army rules. Especially since otherwise he'll probably be getting a Banner of Ancient Kings and that'd be just a little bit... boring. I haven't read far enough yet to know if the Sword of Valor will be important to the story, so please notify me if it does. I've also ditched the army rules, so having an actual use for it would be nice.

The item itself.
The Inheritor herself carried this crimson banner into battle during the Shining Crusade. An army commander who carries the Sword of Valor increases the DV and OM of her army by 4 against armies of undead or evil outsiders. Yet the Sword of Valor’s greatest power lies not in offense but in defense. Mounted firmly upon an interior wall in a visible, public place, the Sword of Valor creates a 10-mile-radius area that bars demons and those who worship demons from using teleportation spells and effects and imparts on such creatures a –4 penalty to Armor Class and on all saving throws. Once per month while the banner is mounted on a wall, a worshiper of Iomedae within 30 feet of the banner can use it to summon a planetar to protect the banner and its surroundings for 1 day. Any nonevil creature that sleeps within a 1-mile radius becomes immune to fear effects from demons and demon worshipers for 24 hours.

It's an artifact, so I'd like it to be pretty powerful, but not really game-breakingly so, as Mythic already does that on its own, I feel. I'd like to mimic what the artifact does, but on a much smaller scale. So maybe something like the following:
- 10-mile radius of non-teleportation and -4 to AC and saves could easily be turned into a 10-foot radius, much like a Paladin's Aura of Courage.
- Summoning a Planetar once per month is a bit much, but I like the idea. Maybe once per day Summon Monster a Good-aligned creature based on your level (like Summoner progression).
- Fear immunity would also be cool if it's a 10-foot aura. Maybe a bit larger. I'm not really worried about this one being overpowered. They've got good saves and this would just be icing on the cake.

Any comments? Additions, critique, or whatever would be appreciated.

I just wanted to know if you have a "favourite" author. Scenarios that, if they bear that name on them, you say, "no matter what, I want to play that scenario." Authors with a certain sense of style, presentation, or use themes you're fan of.

For me, my favourite writer has to be Larry Wilhelm. Apart from the bland Devil We Know series, all of his scenarios have been big hits with me. He manages to write a fun story with cool little details and flourishes you'd expect from current-season scenarios, yet he does it all the way back in season 1 and 2. And most of his scenarios have cool locations, NPCs, encounters, or a mix of all three of them. Yesterday I ran The Forbidden Furnace of Forgotten Koor for the third time, and I keep finding new cool additions to the story. No Plunder, No Pay has fantastic characterisation of otherwise throwaway NPCs, has a cool minigame included, and so on. Shadows Fall on Absalom has a very cool hook and twist to it, which I really like. And I need more ... of the Fiend scenarios, every one of them has been a blast.

I like Crystal Frasier's wild imagination. Delirium's Tangle was the first scenario I GMed, and while the combats themselves were a bit underwhelming, she went all out on the environments and atmosphere. Below the Silver Tarn had a wonderful Shadows over Innsmouth-feel to it. Pure atmosphere. She fumbled at bit with The Sky Key Solution IMHO, but I like the level of detail that's at work.

Also, shout-out to Jim Groves. The Frostfur Captives is a piece of art, and The Golden Serpent's opening act is fantastic. Murder's Mark is a great module, and I wasn't bored or distracted one time while playing it. Also, he PMed me one or two days after I left a review on one of his scenarios, thanking me for my detailed review. He seems like a great guy.

Are there any authors you particularly long for? Authors you want to see return soon?

Before I go on, I have to say: Maurice, get out. This is secret. I know you're watching.

I'm running a Wrath of the Righteous campaign (still fairly low-level, about to clear the first book), and I'm thinking of substituting some enemies to spice things up a bit. Looking at some enemies, I wonder how they're even a challenge at all.

But anyway, I was looking into the CR system, and the more I look, the less it makes sense to me. It seems more like a "feels" thing and less like an exact science.

So, anyway. What I've found so far:
CRB pages 397-398 have all the relevant info. Determine CR budget, fill in with enemies. Multiple enemies bump CR by 1 each time.

This is fine and all, but it seems like the designers assumed a large number of mooks is equal to a higher-CRed monster. The Core Rulebook specifically suggests replacing a Gargoyle with three Small Earth Elementals. I know there's strength in numbers, but in that specific instance, the group's APL is 9. Small Earth Elementals will be s speedbump, not a serious challenge. Hell, anything 3 CR lower than APL will rarely faze a decent party. I'm experiencing something similar in my campaign right now. They're going to enter the final dungeon of this book, and it's filled with wimps. At APL 4, six 10 HP creatures (CR 0.5), or two 15 HP (CR 1 each) are pathetic. They add up to a decent challenge, but they simply won't stand a chance.

Would working the other way around work, as well? Grab a few monsters, add their XP values, see if it lines up with CR? I'm not going to bother with three Giant Ants (for example) if two Giant Scorpions are a much fairer challenge.

So, because I'm lazy, I'm not going to customize the mooks or give them class levels or whatnot, but I do want to make my players feel challenged. I'll probably grab some random NPCs or monsters that'll approximately be a fair CR, but if you can point me in the right direction, that'd be great (I'm sure there are combat generators online as well). They slaughtered their way through the middle dungeon as well with barely a scratch on them, which also had six fights with the same identical mooks.

I know most Adventure Paths are written for 4 players with 15 point buy. I'm running 20 point-buy with 5 players (though only 4 will be present next session), and I'm really noticing the difference in power. Maybe I'll throw in an extra mook in every encounter, that should at least balance things out somewhat. It's easier to do than applying the Advanced template to everything (and in terms of action economy, the latter won't do much).

The Arrowsong Minstrel archetype gives a Bard effectively full BAB progression for combat feats and prestige classes. I guess this is mainly done to qualify for Arcane Archer and bow feats earlier, but say I want to go a different route. What prestige classes and/or combat feats would be fun/good to have early access to (preferably things that don't require a bow, as I already have an Arrowsong Minstrel and I'd rather not copy that build)? This is a hypothetical build for PFS, so keep that in mind. It also doesn't need to be super-optimised, but also not absolutely suck.

Sadly, most archetypes require 5 skill ranks, so it's hard to cheat early entry, but you can get earlier entry as a Bard, which is something I like.

The first that comes to mind is the Battle Herald, which can be entered with, say, one level of Cavalier, and four of Bard (rather than the other way around). Hell, maybe even delay for one level so Inspire courage bumps to +2, but still. This means probably more skill points at the cost of some BAB and HP. But as of yet, I can't really see how this would give a practical benefit.

A different, more impractical idea would be to go into Scar Seeker at level 6. It's mostly meant for Paladins, as you get their Lay on Hands bonus, but it could be a quirky build for a Bard to take.

Arcane Trickster could work as well with one level of Rogue, Ninja, or Snakebite Striker and Accomplished Sneak Attacker, but I don't think the class is very good.

A Bardic Crimson Templar would also be funny, although a bit murderhobo-y.

Student of War and Hellknight would apply, but both cost quite a number of feats. Also, I probably won't make use of that Hellknight armour, as I still have arcane spell failure.

Devoted Muse would be perfect. It won't be a very heavy hitter, but it's a cool build.

I thought an Asavir would be very cool. Maybe not very practical, but still. A Bard on a mount is a very unique sight. I though Boon Companion would help increase its levels, but it sadly doesn't.

Do you have any cool ideas? Thanks!

I was looking this up for a PFS scenario, and I stumbled upon some weird wording. It seems like in some cases, the rulebook (as well as some adventure paths and PFS scenarios) uses "difficult terrain" and "two squares of movement" interchangeably. But do they mean the same thing, or are they separate entities, meaning they can overlap?

For instance, difficult terrain is only really referenced here:

Hampered Movement: Difficult terrain, obstacles, and poor visibility can hamper movement (see Table: Hampered Movement for details). When movement is hampered, each square moved into usually counts as two squares, effectively reducing the distance that a character can cover in a move.

Also, the bog rules say this:

If a square is part of a shallow bog, it has deep mud or standing water of about 1 foot in depth. It costs 2 squares of movement to move into a square with a shallow bog, and the DC of Acrobatics checks in such a square increases by 2.

They have the same effect, with the bog having an extra rider effect on it (the Acrobatics). Should I treat bog as regular difficult terrain, or as its own thing? Meaning, if it's somehow made difficult terrain as well (through, for instance Entangle), would each square count as four?

Also, I wanted to use Solid Fog as an example, but that has yet another different wording:

(...) Creatures moving through a solid fog move at half their normal speed and take a -2 penalty on all melee attack and melee damage rolls. (...)

So, basically, walking through Solid Fog while Entangled, in a Bog is one-eigth movement? This is an extreme example, obviously, but I've certainly seen two of the three happen.

Also, this is just an example, I'm sure there are more cases like this, this just came to mind. Should all of these things stack, or should I just treat them as variations on the theme of difficult terrain?

Minor Wrath of the Righteous spoilers. Also, Maurice, if you're reading this, shoo!

Not sure if this belongs here or more in the AP subforum, but that one's kinda lifeless. Feel free to move it if necessary.

So, I'm GMing Wrath of the Righteous, and I'm considering fiddling with adding class levels to monsters to make things more interesting. Problem is, I'm not entirely certain it's a fair fight.

They're level 2 right now, with 20 point buy. Party consists of an Evangelist Cleric, Summoner, Sorcerer, Swashbuckler, and Occultist. Level 1 mostly consisted of things with 5-8 HP that all horribly died within one round of combat. And now they're going through a minor dungeon with loads of Mongrelmen. Like, five times the same two Mongrelmen in a small room. To prevent things from going stale, I was thinking of adding class levels, and upon researching how to do that, I found they become much more terrifying. There's one combat with a single Mongrelman scripted who has a single class level and I'm confident they can manage that, but two might already be pushing it.
I was thinking of maybe not increasing all of their stats, but just their main attribute (a Cleric will get +4 Wisdom, for instance, but not necessarily more CON). By just doing half-measures and not necessarily giving them an increase in BAB and HP and stuff, things should become much more manageable. My intent is also to not optimise my encounters and plonk two Barbarians in the same room, but maybe a Bard and a Monk, a Wizard and a Slayer, and so on.

To give context to the threat level of the rest of the dungeon, other encounters there feature a single monitor lizard (the poison could be interesting), a giant amoeba (meh), a level 3 Human with class levels and a badly statted level 1 Rogue, and some more, but that's the main gist. To be fair, I'm not too thrilled with most of these combats and I'm considering adding a mook here and there, but my main worry are those Mongrelmen with identical stats and tactics.

So, what I'm asking, I guess, is which of the following should I do?
A. Keep as-is, it's fine.
B. Give class features and maybe a slight stat bump, but no full class levels.
C. Give full class levels.
D. Something else entirely.