Thanks for pointing this out, I know that we have to run scenarios as written but HYPOTHETICALLY if I was running this this weekend I would HYPOTHETICALLY add the following exchange to the briefing;
"One more thing, you will of course be going into the heart of Aspis territory, do any of you carry Wayfinders?"
No-"Very good, much less chance of discovery, though at the same time if you do meet our agent having a wayfinder in your group would help identify you, hmm, something to think on I suppose"
Yes-"Well I recommend you keep them well hidden, though useful they will bring danger down upon you if sighted"
----PCs take this to mean don't bring it-"Very good, much less chance of discovery, though at the same time if you do meet our agent having even a single wayfinder in your group would help identify you, hmm, something to think on I suppose"
You have to be within the normal range of height and weight for your PC. That is a core rule and nothing in PFS changes them.
I have to say just from a personal preference, its also slightly tiring when everyone has that special snowflake character. Oh yes I am a dwarf, but I am a 7ft tall one, and the last of my village and I was the sole survivor of a deadly curse and am fated to save the world.
Some kind of playtest framework could be useful, like:
Level 7:
Budget for permanent protective items: X gold
Budget for weapons/shields: X gold
Budget for expendable magic items: X Gold
Budget free allocate: X Gold
This way you could a limit the amount of money players can spend (to account for the usual expenses characters have while leveling. Maybe limit it to straight classed characters, if you feel that this gives a clearer picture. Personally quite a number of the occult classes seem to scream for a 1 level dip, to get the heaviest armor.
Since playtests are an attempt at escalation (ok guys show us the worst game breaking things you can come up with ^^ ) letting people play something like this could be very informative. Of course giving GM the option not to allow such a playtest pregen should always be the norm, after all even with the current playtest system, what is actually in the PDF, and how the class is supposed to play are two different things. (Just look at the kineticist and the clarifications in the thread).
I would agree with this, the idea of pre-gen templates isn't going to help much because as Mark said he could just as easily play these pregens himself, its about how players create the characters and what discoveries they find.
I would think it would be much better to have strict guidelines on how to create a high level character and play them as a pregen (for instance the gold restrictions suggested by Hirsch) and the ability for GMs to Veto. Players who want to play these high level characters should in fact have to talk to their GM before the game to ensure they are ok with the idea.
For playtests like this I wish there was a build-a-pregen option. Where could show up with a character at level 1, 4, or 7 with a single class and simmilar restrictions.
Let us test at higher levels and apply credit to other characters. So we can see how the classes play at levels beyond 3.
Considering Level 7 is where "the sweet spot" of pathfinder begins that would be valuable data indeed.
If we could have played at higher levels by effectively generating our own pre-gens then I would have partaken in this playtest even if you WEREN'T allowed to apply the credit if the playtest character was used this way.
As it is I knew I would not get more than a game or two and did not feel like wasting them playing a level 1 character and being able to provide very little feedback.
Its a choice between priorities. It is frustrating to those of us who prioritize conventions and use our personal resources for such (sometimes its at significant sacrifice), only to hear those who do have the wherewithall be unwilling to make a lesser sacrifice.
It is all about choice. True, in some cases the idea of choice is illusion, but I find it hard to believe that all but the smallest percentage couldn't find a way to take 1 or 2 days of vacation and save up $30 for admittance throughout the year. Hotel costs can be lessened by driving in every day or by sharing a room with others.
Refusing to save a couple hundred dollars and a couple vacation days throughout the year, or refusing to share a room for distaste purposes are, in most cases, purely choice.
I'm equally sure it is frustrating for those who try and game as much as they can but when it comes down to the wire they choose to spend their vacations with family hear those of you who are willing to sacrifice such things tell them that they just aren't willing to make the sacrifice. True or not, it definitely oversimplifies things. And again I don't say this to suggest that those who do make the sacrifice are any worse (or better) merely that people should look at it from all angles.
All a local Con would "cost" you would be some vacation days.
I personally GM because I enjoy both it and the feeling of giving back, and am in no way jealous or envious of those who get boons for attending the big cons (although I also wouldn't be averse to other lottery methods or something to expand boons beyond cons).
However I do just want to address this point (not made by Kinevon alone, I just chose to use his quote), but it really is an oversimplification to suggest having holiday days means you can attend a con. You are not taking into account financial issues which may be associated with travel, nor how flexible employers are wrt to holidays (eg my current employer does not allow holidays during Dec-Jan period), and finally you assume that Pathfinder takes priority for Holidays, people with families might have to dedicated 99% (if not 100%) of their holiday days to family holidays.
Again I don't agree that the world is a horrible unfair place because not everyone can attend a con, but I also don't think we should reduce the counter argument to "you have holidays so go".
Quick question and excuse my ignorance, but is there some rule or something about only certain star level GMs or venture-staff able to run new games for a certain period of time? Or can anyone run this for PFS once it goes on sale?
Quick question and excuse my ignorance, but is there some rule or something about only certain star level GMs or venture-staff able to run new games for a certain period of time? Or can anyone run this for PFS once it goes on sale?
THIS SCENARIO USES A SUBSYSTEM - DO NOT GM THIS COLD
On the front cover. This way GMs can know to avoid this scenario if they aren't prepped.
I'd be much more in favor of a warning sign on the GM's forehead that said "I run things Cold, I did not bother to prep anything." In that way I can decide if I want to play the only chance I can play this scenario with a unprepared GM who will likely screw it up or if I will wait for another time.
That -to me- seems a bit harsh, I know where I play that some GMs who run scenarios cold are the best kind of people. The reason? They are standing in for someone else, or else more people turned up than was planned for and in either case these GMs will step up and offer to run something cold so that players can still have a game.
I'm not saying GMs should run a scenario cold if avoidable, but I do think its overly harsh to assume all GMs running a cold scenario are doing it out of lazieness.
Ok then, hows this I know a player who has a mist based toon, that is only deadly when it has cast obscuring mist? this character literally screws over all others to do it's best.
now this could be called "being a dick" but the build is awesome and even as a wizard I was somewhat stuffed by this character, but who cares!
Guys, I am going to say this, it is a game, use it for socialising and do not take it so seriously, it's a concept, let the concept play out, I have built toons that are terrible on paper, but hey they rock cause they are designed for other purposes!
I personally would let the player play (though I would warn them about the dangers of their character in case it was a mistake), but I would ensure a) they didn't try and "hog the spotlight" to make up for their disastrous build and b) that they didnt OOC bully other players into keeping them alive. IMO if the other players feel they arent pulling their weight and decide not to waste the healing I would have no problem with that.
Meadow lark wrote:
Oh and one more thing, what the hell is with the idea of even floating the concept of banning someone, work with it, don't be a dick simple.
The idea would be that floating the concept of banning someone is just as allowable as someone creating a terrible wizard, which is to say everyone can do whatever they want (and float whatever they want) it's only an issue if they try and impose it or if it has a net negative penalty on peoples enjoyment of the game. Insinuating someone is a "dick" for suggesting a course of action is hardly any better.
Most players don't take kindly to someone doing on the job learning with level 7 Ezren in a tier 8-9 or 7-8. That's the problem. They'd prefer to have the level 7 in a tier 3-4. Player preference, to me, trumps the way the GM thinks it should be in this case. The GM is getting their 1 XP 2 PP and table credit no matter what. The GM should have zero say in table composition as long as its legal.
You really sound like you have been lucky enough to not have to GM a bad table. I know a lot of gamers who would be too "nice" to say to someone "we would really prefer you play down" and who would then have a bad game because of it.
I'm not saying the GM should have the preference, I'm saying that if the table needs a ruling or a "bad guy" that the GM is the one (IMO) who should step up and lay down the law. (in as nice a way as possible!)
", you should not be trying to play your pregen at a different level to the party."
Again, though, the second most common pregen I've seen people using like this is Ezren, to learn more about 3rd and 4th level arcane spells. They can't do that with a level 4 Ezren.
I understand that but I would advise them to look for a higher level game if they wanted to play a higher level pre-gen. I'm not saying this is always an option and when I say "insist" what I actually mean is "insist if at all possible".
Also to be fair there is a certain degree of "learn by doing" that means players do kinda just have to bite the bullet and learn with their own characters.
Authority can be a bit of a grey area, seing as the GM has the authority to back out of a game (it's bad-form, but the fact that they can does tend to lend them a little bit of extra authority in decision making).
And there is also the RAW vs RAI, I personally believe pregens are available as an option for those who CAN'T play their own character, NOT as an alternative to them. As such you should just be happy to have that option, you should not be trying to play your pregen at a different level to the party.
Again all this is just my opinion, as you can see from my name I'm not some venture captain or anyone important, so its probably not worth much :D
If the party are playing level 4s and 5s you are playing the level 4 pregen. Whether you wanted to play level 1 or level 7, I'm going to be insisting you play at the level closest to the others.
Everybody is equal and all that, but those who are playing their actual characters are MORE equal than those just playing a pregen ;)
So whether this means you dont get to play a higher level pregen and can't beat the scenario one handed, or whether it means you can't play a level 1 pregen and be of little to no use, either way I would have you play closest to the avg level.
No, no matter what the outcome you have to just suck it up. The GM should give out the chronicle with the 1-XP and whatever gold and PA they did manage to get (even if nothing, although thats unlikely as hell).
To do otherwise would IMO be very much a case of bad form. Everyone gets to play their character for a certain number of sessions before hitting level 12, if you start taking 0XPs it gets you more time with your character than others.
Also on a personal level it just seems so wrong to me, it's like treating this like a computer game, oops I didn't make a perfect run, better reload and start again. Your character should be able to make mistakes and mess things up and that's part of their story!
Examples? Ok, well this one time someone was being a jerk, and I privately explained what they were doing that was creating an un-fun table experience for everyone else. They didn't realize it, but once they were informed the stopped acting like a jerk at once.
Can I just say, and this isn't aimed at your quote in particular Walt, it's just yours was the latest. Why the hell is it "Wheatons Law", christ don't be a Dick has been around as long as, as, as, well christ!
I have access to a 3D printer and decided to just print one myself. It's a multi-tailed fox, so not humanoid form, but close enough for what I want. I'll have to see if I can find the link again and post it here.
That is so friggin cool!
Any chance of you posting a pic of the outcome? Would love to see the results!
12. If you're going to eat a snack, don't eat something that's going to gross out the other people at the table (Once I played a game at a con next to a kid who was eating some kind of seaweed chip that smelled like dead fish).
13. Basic hygeine means more than just bathing. If something on your face starts bleeding (like because you were picking at it, or you just got a nosebleed), go get a tissue. Don't just lick the blood from your hand like a cat.
12: Unfortunately this will be hard, I mean don't get me wrong I of all people would love this rule, but what grosses out one person will have another asking for the recipe. I am a horrible eater who is grossed out by the smells of among other things, tomatoes, onions, garlic, chip dips, nachos.... So basically anyone playing by that rule at my table could have, eh, crackers? ;)
13: Just ewwww, to the cat licking example. *shudders*
Cathal, and FoC, the issue isn't the technology, but rather the uses to which you put it.
A couple weeks ago, I walked past a PFS table where one person was playing a video game during a game. I passed by again an hour later and he was cruising sexy pictures on the internet, during combat. That's well and different from taking a call from your family.
The next morning, he was hoping to stop by and play at my table. (I was full-up, but he was hoping there's be a no-show.) If you were in my place, how would you feel?
Now, he could just as well have pulled out a deck of cards and played Solitaire, or opened a copy of Maxim at the table, and it would have been just as rude. It's not the technology that's at the heart of the objection; it's the sort of use.
Which is why both of us quoted DragonCats rule which singles out phones as something which should be banned at the table. I think I (might be possibly able to?) speak for FoC when I say that the rule should be more along the lines of:
"You are there to play PFS, you should not be entertaining yourself in other ways like checking facebook on your phone or reading that book you can't out down"
5. Don't bring your phone to the table, and especially don't text people in the middle of the game.
I'm guilty of this and don't particularly feel bad about it, I bring my phone because although gaming is my hobbie and interest I have a life outside of it. I don't mean that "hey I'm so cool I need to be on twitter and facebook with an update every five minutes", what I do mean is that if my Wife needs to know where I hid the TV remote this time or my Mam and Dad need help with something or Work rings asking about the latest project, then I will text them back, if needed I will even apologise and step away from the table to take a call.
It's not ideal, but I try keep it to a minimum, I don't do it just because I am bored with the current box text, and if I feel I am being disruptive I always apologise.
I miss the old way. I wish PFS would have at least kept the old style in place in Seasons 0-4. I really enjoyed expanding on and personalizing a small bit of material for specific players.
-Matt
My own personal idea of how this ideally should have been handled is to mix the old and the new (and therefore piss EVERYBODY off!).
Have the faction missions work as they currently are with a single secondary goal that avoids everyone having to ask the GM every 5 minutes "Is that the guy i'm looking for? No? How about him?". BUT to tie in the factions and to keep people feeling like the mission is more personal to them bring back faction handouts. These handouts would expand upon the main mission and explain how this could benefit your faction.
Example:
PFS mission is to stop a pirate from pillaging villages used to support worldwound troops. Obvious why you have to do it.
Faction handouts:
Cheliax - Little as I care about the dealings of sea brigands or the plight of fisherfolk, this matter is important to the Decimvirate and our greater plans mean we must be seen to show support.
Andoran - We also want this because these pirates are also rumoured to partake in slavery.
Silver Crusade - We feel among all pathfinders that this mission to bring justice and peace to the defenseless is close to our hearts.
Scazrni - These pirates have paid no "taxes" and are fishing without a license if you know what i mean.
This has the benefit of;
-Keeping the game streamlined, no individual missions.
-Ensuring players feel reconnected with their factions again
-Give the players something to read for a minute or two while the GM preps ;)
-Can be used to give clues to the secondary success condition (not blatant do this, so much as subtle hints as to how to proceed about your mission, ie "Please be respectful of the ambassador")
-Would not require much extra effort to add or incorporate to older scenarios. No success conditions change, its basically just flavour addition!
On a side note, I also find it a bit odd to say its about the Cantina effect when you take away two mostly human races and replace them with a talking fox, a snake man and a shadow puppet from asian mythology.
Two vaguely passable for three furries.
They never said it was about the cantina effect, what they said was that when weighing whether to introduce new races they had to worry about the balance of many things, one of which was the cantina effect.
Blog Post wrote:
It's tough to balance the lure of race boons for conventions against letting as many people as possible play the types of characters they want. Add to that the heated discussions about whether or not some non-standard races are overpowered and the concerns about the so-called "cantina effect." That's a lot to juggle when making a decision, but we decided that introducing a few new options would be best for the campaign.
I personally think its a nice balance to cycle in some new and out some old.
My own opinions is that I really like the removal of Aasimar and Tieflings, aside from the balance issues mentioned I really like the cycling. It allows people access to more and more races but by cycling them back out again we dont't just keep growing, instead we get to keep a nice stable base of the core races plus a small amount of non-core that are currently in-cycle.
Also I understand the problems of people with boons etc, but this is the first complete cycle done (Aasimar and Tiefling in then out again), so for those who have boons for kitsune etc they can probably keep them for when THEIR turn comes to cycle out, or take whatever alternative John Compton ends up deciding on.
2) When everyone had finally arrived, 2 people that had been there for a while decided to leave to get food. Why couldn't they have just done that in the previous 50 minutes?
Usually you have to establish the geek soduko for who has what level characters and what tier you're running at. If you split to get food you're out for that step.
Also people just forget.
It seems like a bad game. They happen sometimes. Doesn't seem to be anything to report.
Depends how its reported, if he goes looking for action then maybe so, but if he presents it as just;
"I felt these players were rude, and they were very late and didnt seem to care. If this is the only occurence of such then that is fine, but I thought it worth bringing to your attention in case this is a reoccurring problem"
That way if the players ARE consistently late but the VL was thinking "hmm I better wait and see if anyone else has this problem with them" then they have their answer. But by the same token if they aren't a problem usually the VL can say "Ok, well it seems like an isolated incident so i will just keep it in mind and let it go for now"
Right so took a quick look at a season 1, the one I thought I had possibly made a mistake in (I didnt woo!)
Kingdom of the Impossible:
Tier 1-2 Max Gold 553
Tier 1-2 Max calculatable gold 628
Tier 3-4 Max Gold 1800
Tier 3-4 Max calculatable gold 1900+
As for how this is described, the majority of encounters and optionals are described with "If the PCs complete this award EACH PC with Xgp". With one exception for the Tier 3-4 Scenario there are a number of diamonds to find and it just tells you how many diamonds there are and that they are worth 100gp each. I would assume that you divide the gp by the number the encounter was designed for (4 for early seasons 5 for later or something like that right?)
I do not believe scenarios are in excess. Modules I think are.
I don't know for sure, but I definitely ran one or two scenarios that were somewhere in seasons 1-3 that I totaled up the Gold rewards for and found it came out over the max gold. (I could have made a mistake though)
I definitely remember it, because it was one of my first GM-ings and the player/VL came up to me after and said I think you made a mistake, you gave us more than the max gold.
It seems a little ambigous, the text from the PFS guide reads:
"In addition, every player who completes a scenario receives
a set amount of gold for the scenario that she may spend
to acquire items (either from her collected Chronicle
sheets, from the Core Rulebook, or from approved Additional
Resources). This gold piece total can fluctuate depending on
what you accomplished and how you accomplished it"
So it says both that its a set amount and that it can change?????
I always thought that if you didnt find all the loot in a scenario that you might not get the full gold, but there was usually overspill eg:
Scenario has 5 "treasures" each worth 250gp (total 1250gp), the total gold for the scenario is 1000gp. So you can get at most 1000gp, but if you missed say 2 pieces you would only get 750.
This thread however has now thrown that belief up in the air!
But I know some players who would refuse to use such a system (and I suspect European privacy laws might have something to say on the matter, too).
If you have consent, then it shouldn't be a problem with privacy legislation anywhere.
The problem will be getting the consent from everyone.
Not even really that hard, just whenever you are organising games send around a sheet with the sign in sheet asking people if they want to opt in to the service and if so provide signature.
Brilliant, I was a little worried that the end was going to take a sudden twist and point out the GM was a jerk, but hearing you suggested it makes the whole story gloriously funny.
I thought the reward was that you always got to play what you want and didn't have to worry about getting a seat at the table.
In my experience (not an organiser, just from watching them) this is very much not true. I have seen organisers coralling players (see; herding cats) for games, making sure everyone has what they need etc and then actually missing out on sitting in for a game themselves.
Now, with that said, I want to make a second recommendation: nova abilities (super powerful, but only usable once per day or so) can be really fun. If there is one that you think sounds awesome, go for it. Just remember that it is only a fun ability if you are using it. Don't worry about when the ideal time to use it is.
That said, a lot of scenarios (though by no means all) are pretty blatant about "THIS IS THE BOSS FIGHT!", so if you do only have a 1/day ability you know when you're in your last fight (although it can suck to get to the last fight and realise the ability is useless in this case).
Player: I have a crazy ability that will do super high fire damage, take that big bad boss guy!
GM: You know that he is actually clearly healed by fire right?
Player: I don't care I have been saving that ability ALL DAY!!!
That said, very few GMs will argue with you if you've got a tablet with an internet connection and just show them something on the prd. But do you really want to take the chance of being at a table with a GM who enforces the letter of the law and won't let you play your character?
Eh, to be fair I think you are misusing the term "letter of the law" here.
If I had bought a book, pdf etc and used it to create a character but then accidentally left that at home and had to make use with the PRD but the GM said no (despite me actually owning the material but just having forgotten it) that would be a GM enforcing the letter of the law, as he is correct about the technicality but the spirit of the law was actually to ensure people owned their own copies of additional resources items, which in this case would be incorrect.
But for a player who wants to use the PRD without owning the actual additional resources and a GM enforced it then that GM would really be upholding the spirit and the letter of the law. (Because we support PFS with our money)
I agree that there are not many GMs (I have seen) that call people out on this too much (unless its a HUGE part of the character), but I think its highly unfair to those who do call people on it, if you are to make out like they are blindly following the letter of the law.
BNW You really seem to be taking this too personally I agree with Paz and Kerney that his position was quite neutral, and he wasn't calling people out for being unimaginative he was just suggesting maybe they should try make the best of what they have and come up with cool concepts within the system (and races) available.
I also don't think his Tolkien comment was insulting, you can read into it that he is saying people suck at making characters but tbf most people can read anything INTO anything. I read it as a simple case of trying to turn a negative (restricted races) into a positive (a fun challenge), I really think you are reading too much into it. In fact YOUR posts are now reading as antagonistic to Kerney, so maybe just take a breath and see if its possible you are reading intent where there was none.
I say all of the above without malice, I generally find your posts and positions to be quite well thought out, but I think you may have the wrong end of the stick with this one.
Indeed, though I honestly just forgot to include them in the list.
Nefreet - using the prices you calculated, I made an ammo tracker that I print out and keep with any of my characters who have firearms. I figured I should post the link to share in case anyone else can find it useful.
Pfft, Real men have a wand of Abundant Ammo and use a cracked Ioun stone to hold it.
which Ioun Stone lets you hold a wand?
...and I'm sure you have a trick to let you cast from it without wasting skill points in UMD or taking a wiz dip hmmmmmmm? :)
None, it was a turn of phrase, a cracked vibrant purple Ioun stone allows you to store a single spell (level 1 I think, but could be wrong) like a ring of spell storing.
You can activate it as a standard action, no attack of opportunity, no risk of failing a UMD and you don't have to hold a wand in your hand.
So pick up wand, at the start of every scenario cast wands spell into stone, and then use stone during mission.
@CathalFM—I would wonder, then, if perhaps your own stance needs to switch from "I am okay with X until someone's not comfortable" to "I'm not okay with X until everyone is comfortable". Not to tell you what to do or anything, just brainstorming options; this would seem to address your concerns, yes?
I completely get you, and I definitely lean strongly this way myself, I guess I am just played a degree of devils advocate here, but where exactly is the line? My "Im ok with this for everyone" level might still be cruder than someone elses offence level for instance.
Kydeem de'Morcaine wrote:
So as CathalFM says, I would feel hypocritical saying it bothered me or wasn’t welcome around me. And I’m pretty sure all my friends know it doesn’t bother me.
Pretty much spot on with what I mean, and it can actually make matters worse if you act falsely like this in the sense that your regular players may think "wow he is trying to cozy up to the new player" (not to be sexist but especially if its a woman, due to the assumption its me trying to "get in") and the new player could feel uncomfortable if they feel we don't allow that level of relaxed joking.
Kydeem de'Morcaine wrote:
I disagree that it is natural to be what you term polite.
Some people don't see it that way. You are coming to join our group, great! To them, the 'polite' thing to do is treat them like one of the gang.
This is also very true, and in a lot of cases where I have seen this its been the group GENUINELY trying to make a new person feel like part of the gang.
Jessica Price wrote:
You don't have to use the exact words I gave you. If you're just talking about crude humor, well, "Hey, guys, let's keep the crude humor out of this game, okay?" doesn't force you to lie, does it?
Its not the exact words, I didnt mean to pick at your suggestion by any means, but as I said before people who knew me who might have heard me make such a joke before could find it hypocritical. Again all I mean to point out is the issue is a little murky.
Jessica Price wrote:
And if you're talking about racist/sexist/etc. language or comments--which I assume you weren't :-) --and you're okay with them, well, I'm not personally interested in engaging further with you.
But I would point out that, in the latter case, I believe it's against the PFS code of conduct to engage in that sort of behavior at public PFS games.
I apologise if this wasn't clear but no I genuinely only meant good natured but cruder humour etc, nothing with ANY kind of personal edge and definitely none of the above.
Jessica Price wrote:
Long story short: games are supposed to be fun. If someone at your table is being made uncomfortable by gender-related treatment, crude humor, sexist language or jokes, etc. they're probably not having fun. As the GM, you're best-positioned to change the tone of the game to something that doesn't block their fun with discomfort.
I agree entirely and again I didn't mean to suggest GMs (or anyone) should do nothing, I was just pointing out the murkier areas and playing devils advocate to a degree. As I said in my original post I am someone who is genuinely bothered and upset if I know somebody else is bothered and upset, so I personally always strive to ensure this never happens, but I am sure I have probably inadvertendly offended people before. (I'm sympathetic not empathic!)
Shinteetah wrote:
4.5) Don't let other guys be jerks.
6) Compliment.
You make a lot of good points, but two things. First as an addition to your 4.5 point example, the Blue Balls joke. This was in bad taste if it was directed (even indirectly) at you a new member to a group and I agree wholeheartedly in your case. However (I probably overuse that word) the Blue Balls joke itself is not a definitive example of humour thats too crude, I know a few people who would find that joke extremely funny (if it hadnt been for the knowing look at you) and half of them are female.
Secondly in regards to 6, this can be tricky, I know you say try and compliment something neutral and don't flirt etc etc, but I would be surprised if I was the only person in the world who had experienced a case of somebody thinking you were flirting when you were making an innocuous compliment. In some cases its really best to just skip this step, or at least alter it to a group case, ie "well done pathfinders, you all did really well there".
Ok, so A) thats a lot of text up there, and B) I probably do (but REALLY hope I dont) come across as a sexist jerk. Ah well, the perils of discussion!
Welcome to PFS like Walter above I understand what you are proposing, but I think it would be too open to abuse, too hard to keep track of and I generally just don't feel that the I'd anything wrong with the current system.
4 games really isn't that much. If you dont like your character to that extent you can just start a new one. You may come back to your first character with a new appreciation for them after playing your second or third for a while.
Hey so, I have a few counterpoints if you dont mind;
Jessica Price wrote:
TheInnsmouthLooker wrote:
I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable at my table. If I think that someone is making a woman at the table uncomfortable, should I automatically step in and say something?
Yes.
As you should do if anyone, male or female, is clearly being made uncomfortable.....
The other thing, which you get at below a bit, so I think you already understand this, is that I'd try not to make it about her (or his) discomfort. You don't always know if they're actually uncomfortable or if that's just your perception, and they may not want attention called to it.....
So I'd suggest making it about what you consider acceptable table behavior rather than making it about the person you're trying to support, just saying things like, "Hey, I'm not really comfortable with those sort of jokes/that sort of language/that type of generalization at my table."
To be fair, I very much understand your position, but at the same time this advice can also be seen as "lie to your table". Let me explain, I personally -for instance- don't mind a bit of crude humour, BUT not if it makes anyone uncomfortable. What this means is that if I am playing at a table where everyone is ok with that then it wouldn't bother me. If I was playing with someone who WAS bothered by it, then it in turn would bother me (I'm bothered by other peoples bother!), but if I say "Hey guys I don't think that kind of language is appropriate" etc, then that makes me a hypocrite as I have probably used it before myself. Its a very murky area.
I don't know what the alternative is mind you, I'm just making an observation. Perhaps you should instead go with something more ambigous like "lets tone it down before we scare away any newbies etc", eg try and half laugh it off. But then are you calling attention to the uncomfortable player? As I said murky. (By the way this is all in relation to grey area stuff like crude humour IC stuff etc, for flat out harassment I'm 100% with you).
Jessica Price wrote:
There's a big difference between:
"Guys, please don't use that sort of language at my table. I'm not cool with it."
and
"Gentlemen, you're making the lady uncomfortable, and I will not stand for her being treated like that at my table."
Like a lot of women, I can fight my own battles and am not interested in having a dude volunteer himself as my champion without my input and push me off to the sidelines.
I am, however, always appreciative of people who'll stand by my side when I step onto the field, or who'll fight the battle themselves even if I'm not engaging today--not in my place, not as a self-appointed representative for me, but for themselves, because they recognize that something's not okay and want it to stop.
Again, You seem to draw two distinctions here, either;
1) You personally arent cool with behaviour at the table
2) You are fighting for someone without being asked
Again though, I personally am the type of person who hates seeing other people being given any kind of hard time, so for me if the behavior itself wouldnt bother ME, but I see it would bother someone else and therefore I would like it to stop what camp do I end up in? After all I dont mind the behavior itself so much, so im out of camp1, and I am technically going to be fighting for someone else so that puts me in camp 2. I guess that makes me a White-Knight jerk doesnt it? :( ;)
My point is just that things are unfortunately never so clear cut. I do very much agree with your point though about "I am, however, always appreciative of people who'll stand by my side when I step onto the field". At least here there is no ambiguity, if someone says they have a problem with how things are going then you can step in and support them without worrying about offending them with your "presumption" that they had a problem.
Again I hope the above is read as it was written as a series of observations on the murky waters of defending people, as opposed to any kind of a problem with the intent behind it. Because despite all my observations I am personally more likely to risk offending people by "white knighting" then I am to let someone be given a hard time. Anyone who has a problem with that, well I probably don't care too much about their opinion anyway. :)
TLDR: Eh, Don't bother, not much interesting was said!
@ Blub - I was looking at that but I'm not sure if choosing that bloodline is worth it. If I choose water I effectively get a +2 to casing stat anyway PLUS the ability to convert spells to cold PLUS still open to crossblooding.
@ Andrew - Watersinger does look awesome and I've never played a bard before, but I was just worried about how often you would find enough water near a fight that a GM would allow you to control it.
@ Cao - Some cool synergies there, one thing though I believe (though I could be wrong) that the shaman is one of the classes getting a big rewrite so I'd be apprehensive about relying on it.
1 - Before anything else let me say that from what you have said so far I side with you, so take that into consideration before reading 2!
2 - Were you arguing with the GM? At the table like? Or did you make an argument for your case and then bring it up again only after the game was over? If the former then maybe the VC was just a bit tired and didnt feel like any more arguing, and you could bring it up civily again in future. If the latter then maybe your VC just had a bad day, it happens to the best of us.
3 - Try and in as non-confrontational way as possible bring this up to your VC again (after a few days have passed), either in person or via email. Explain your case, and that you understand that it needed to be adjudicated at the time, but that if he would kindly review the matter that you think he will find that it is viable etc etc etc.
4 - If none of the above work, then all you can really do is either accept it, try and get it added to the FAQ or (NUCLEAR OPTION) bring it up to Mike.
Of course in my timezone its pretty damn late, so take everything I have just said as the ramblings of a man about to fall asleep at the keyboard ;)
- I'm being randomly logged out when viewing threads. Not easily reproducible, but seems to happen when I visit a thread.
- I'm unable to edit a Gameplay post (posted within the last 5 minutes). Attempting to do so gets me redirected to http://paizo.com/posts#newPost (which works out to the home page).
Would it be possible to reassign my newly-created PFS Core character to the number after his current one, preserving the alias and current posts (effectively just shifting the number by one)?
Explanation:
I made a mistake and created my latest PFS character (Rees Kovu) in the wrong spot, as I needed that character to start out at 0 XP but already had some chronicles for that slot.
Since I've already begun a PbP with the alias, it would be rather troublesome to create a new alias and shuffle them around.
I'm open to other solutions, too, so let me know what's easy for you guys/roobit. I'm available here or via PM, chat, email, or passenger pigeon to discuss!
Would it be possible to get the "person" parameter (as used for posting actions via /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Store.woa/wa/Forums) added to the createNewPost endpoint?
One of the features of my browser extension is to select the correct posting alias for campaign threads, and it'd be handy to be able to just adjust a page's "reply" URLs to automatically set the correct alias, instead of having to set the alias and then preview the post (twice the requests!).
Any chance adding that would be doable with a minimum of effort?
Hi all. I've begun exploring some options for the WYSIWG* editor mentioned in my poll.
In order to build the best solution, I'd like to better understand your goals with this feature. At a high level, what do you want this feature to do for you?
For example:
"I don't want to worry about tags anymore."
"I want to see a live preview as I compose."
"I just want quick buttons to help input tags."
Along with that, I'd like your thoughts on the current functionality: do you want to still be able to type tags like you do today?
Hey all! I've got a pretty big list of requested features for the Paizo Forum Tools browser extension, and I'd like your help deciding what to work on next!
How It Works
Everyone gets 10 votes. Contributors to the project (either monetary or via Github) and Paizo employees get 20 extra votes, for a total of 30 each. To vote, allocate your votes among the various features and post the result. Your post might look something like this:
Some of these features are more complicated than others, so I reserve the right to apply some kind of weighting system to the votes. That is, 10 votes for feature X might beat 15 votes for feature Y if feature Y is significantly more complicated. (That's what the stars mean next to features; more stars = more complicated).
Potential Features
PbPFinder****
aliases tab arranger*
sheet parser***
aliases tab "data view"*
status line parser**
"roll" BBCode tag***
personal player rating system**
blacklist/settings transfer between browsers*
PFS session exporter/API****
WYSIWYG post Composer**
custom avatars*/**
"favorited by others" tab sorter*
"private" BBCode tag**
mobile app****
alias selector in replies*
"language" BBCode tag**
shared campaigns indicator**
"Need to Post" indicator*
PbPFinder:
Complexity: ****
This isn't technically a PCT feature; it's an enormous new website that I've actually already done a lot of work on. It grabs all the PbP data on Paizo's forums, and uses that to generate lots of statistics about PbPers and their games, then displays those in an easy-to-digest, searchable, cross-referenced way. It'll also recommend specific games to players as well as players to GMs, GMs to players, and even players to other players.
Aliases Tab Sorter:
Complexity: *
This feature would add a small, Paizo-style sorting drop-down to the Aliases tab, allowing sorting of the page (whether your own or someone else's) by activity, post count, name, etc., and save your selection for future visits to the Aliases page. Might also allow the designation of your own aliases as "inactive", and display inactive aliases in a separate subsection.
Sheet Parser:
Complexity: ***
This would enable the extension to parse Hero Lab- and Oladon-formatted alias profiles, which would allow spiffy new features such as the "Roll" tag, the "language" tag, automatic status line generation, and potentially other spiffy things down the line.
Aliases Tab Data View:
Complexity: *
This would add a new view to the Aliases tab, allowing a more table-like view of aliases and likely an export option. If combined with the Aliases Tab Sorter, it would allow sorting based on the various columns.
Status Line Parser:
Complexity: **
This would allow the extension to parse variously-formatted status lines (the character "subtitle" often used for HP, AC, etc.) to allow better sorting of Aliases, dice rolling shortcuts, more informative data display for aliases, and other things down the line (think DM tools, etc.).
Roll BBCode Tag:
Complexity: ***
If you've used MythWeavers, you're familiar with this one. Would require completion of either the Status Line Parser or the Sheet Parser, and would allow you to type things like [roll=Perception]+4[/roll] to quickly roll your character's Perception with an extra +4.
(Personal) Player Rating System:
Complexity: **
Allows you to (privately) rate players and DMs to aid in remembering who you've enjoyed playing with.
Blacklist/Settings Transfer (between browsers):
Complexity: *
This would allow you to connect your extension settings and blacklist to Firefox's or Chrome's central data server so that it's shared across all your authenticated browsers.
PFS Session Exporter/API:
Complexity: ****
This new feature would let users export their (PFS) Sessions tab to a Paizo-external site, where it could then be searched by PFS ID or scenario/module. This would give game coordinators more information to help them determine what to run.
WYSIWYG Post Composer:
Complexity: **
Buttons for adding text styles, dice, etc.; a bit like a live preview of your post. Would likely be in conjunction with John Mechalas, as he's been working on something similar.
Custom Avatars:
Complexity: */**
Ever wanted to change someone's avatar, or use your own image for one of your characters? This feature would allow you to do just that. In the two-star-complexity version of this feature, your custom avatar settings could be shared with other users of the extension to allow users to see other users' custom avatars.
Favorited by Others Tab Sorter:
Complexity: *
I'm Hiding In Your Closet wants to be able to sort your Favorited By Others tab by name or post time. Do you?
Private BBCode Tag:
Complexity: **
Again, if you've used MythWeavers, you're familiar with this. The "private" tag allows users to place targeted text into their posts, and have the text only display to specific other users. For example, [private=Oladon]This is some private text for Oladon only![/private] would be displayed only to Oladon.
Mobile App:
Complexity: ****
Basically, a mobile app version of the Paizo Forum Tools to aid in mobile posting. Details here.
Alias Selector in Replies:
Complexity: *
Currently the Alias Selector feature doesn't work when replying to a post. How important is that to you?
Language BBCode Tag:
Complexity: **
Another classic: allows you to designate specific text as being in a given language. For non-DM users whose sheets don't have that language, the text is shown in some random other language instead of English.
Shared Campaigns Indicator:
Complexity: **
I'd personally find it nice to have shared campaigns marked when I'm visiting another user's Campaigns page. That's what this would do.
Need to Post Indicator:
Complexity: *
A user-settable indicator to remind you to post in certain games. Might automatically unset itself when you post.
TL;DR
I'm running a poll to see which new features would be most popular as additions to my Paizo Forum Tools browser extension. Unless you're special, you get 10 votes; allocate them to let me know your preferences!
It has recently come to my attention that Wayfinder, the app some of you use to post from your mobile computing devices, has become defunct. (Not being a believer in mobile computing devices, I would not have known but for one of you lamenting the fact to me.)
Most of you probably know about my browser extension, which helps make PbP a smoother experience on the desktop. I'm wondering how much interest there would be in a mobile (iOS/Android) app that combined some of the features of my extension with some layout options like those I see in the Wayfinder screenshots.
If there would be enough demand for something like this, I might be able to find time to take a crack at it. Thoughts?
We're up to 67 users of the browser extension I wrote to aid play-by-posters, and I was wondering if you'd mind stickying its thread in the new Online Campaigns Discussion forum. That way more people will be able to see it and benefit from it without needing to bump or re-post the thread.
Reposting this since most of you probably don't read Website Feedback.
I've created a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox containing some useful features for those of us who participate in PbPs here. Current tools are: Arranger (rearranges the user campaigns page to be more readable [with less scrolling]), User Blacklist (greys out or hides posts by certain users), and Highlighter (highlights the "(x new)" links on campaign pages).
Firefox version is available here or here. (At time of posting, both links are on version 1.25, but future versions will be available at the second link first due to Firefox's review process.)
If you use Opera (or another browser that lets you add user scripts), you can still have the Arranger and Highlighter tools by following the "Opera" installation instructions on Github.
Please let me know if you have any questions, requests, or feedback!
Just noticed this oddity: this post and this post are by the same alias, in the same (campaign gameplay) thread, yet one has the alias's header displayed while the other displays the regular user's titles, and no header.
Could be a bug with editing a post, perhaps, but I've never seen it before.
I need you guys' help. For a while now I've been working on a project to generate statistics about all the play-by-posts on Paizo. The resulting public interface is still not quite ready for launch, but I'm at a point where I really need community assistance to complete this portion of the project.
What needs doing?
I've got a spreadsheet that contains all ~3500 PbP gameplay threads from the Paizo boards. I need them categorized and double-checked.
What's the goal?
To start with, cool statistics about who finishes what and how long it takes. Ultimately, I'd like to be able to say "These are the signs of a dying game, here are the stats on it, and here's how to recognize them and prevent it."
There are quite a few other things I'm planning to do as well, but I find that the more I talk about a project, the less I end up getting done on it - so I'm going to just keep the other neat outcomes quiet for now. As Henry Ford said, "You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do." But trust me, they'll be great.
Meanings of Game Status
There are three status codes you can use to categorize a game: 2, 3, or 4. Many of the games listed will start with a 1 for status; that doesn't mean someone has looked at them, just that the computer thinks they're active. They still need categorizing, so go to the thread URL and have a look.
Has the adventure been successfully completed? Then it's a 2 for "completed".
Did the DM announce an inability/unwillingness to continue running the game, and did NOT disappear for a month or more first? Then it's probably aborted. (Similarly, if the group TPK'd and decided not to restart the game, it's aborted.)
Did the DM just "stop posting" for a month or more, causing the game to die? It's abandoned. Note that on occasion a pause in posting is normal and planned, and doesn't cause the game to die - the players are ready and willing to pick back up when the time comes. Abandoned means that the last DM post(s) indicated an intent to continue, but it's been over a month and the DM hasn't shown back up. **The exception to this is if a game is on a planned hiatus that hasn't expired yet - for example, if they say "let's start back up in June" and it's only May, don't mark it as abandoned.
If none of these fit, just leave the status as it is... or stick a comment on it asking someone else to look!
Questions?
PM me. Or IM me. Or chat with me on the Google Doc chat. I'm around.
Would one of you wonderful people (or Christopher) mind poking this thread when you get a chance? The last page, despite claiming to be displaying 44 posts, actually displays nothing.
Should ranks in a Perform skill you've selected from Versatile Performance count as ranks in the associated skills for purposes of feats, prestige classes, and other abilities that require a certain number of ranks in a given skill?
I can't seem to find any "strict RAW" that would indicate they do, but at the same time it seems pretty reasonable/appropriate for them to do so.
Does anyone have any evidence either way?
Edit: I've just been pointed to this, which seems to indicate that they should indeed count.
Example, in case the question is unclear:
Bob the Bard has chosen Perform (Dance) as his first Versatile Performance skill, and has five ranks in it. (Perform [Dance] has Acrobatics and Fly as associated skills.) Can he take Disorienting Maneuver, which requires 5 ranks in Acrobatics?
Some of you are familiar with my Campaign Arranger script, which is a set of user scripts for Firefox, Chrome and Opera that arranges Paizo campaign pages to dynamically columnize based on your browser width.
I've recently converted the Arranger to a true (manually bootstrapped, restartless) extension for Firefox which no longer requires Greasemonkey. The extension also has a new feature that many of you will (I hope) find useful.
Current tools are: Arranger (rearranges the user campaigns page to be more readable [with less scrolling]), User Blacklist (greys out posts by certain users), and Highlighter (highlights the "(x new)" link on campaign pages).
For Chrome and Opera users, the old user scripts are still available, but the User Blacklist feature is not included. If anyone's interested in teaming up to get real extensions written for Chrome and Opera, let me know!
The new Firefox extension and old script are both available here. For the Firefox extension, all you need to do is download pct.xpi and drag it onto an open Firefox window. Navigating to "about:addons" will bring up your Add-Ons preferences panel, where you can click "Options" to see all the custom bits of the PCT extension.
As always, feel free to PM me your questions and comments, or post them here!
Starting at 2nd level, the warpriest can draw upon the power of his faith to heal wounds or harm foes. He can also use this ability to quickly cast spells that aid in his struggles. This ability can be used a number of times per day equal to half his warpriest level plus his Charisma modifier.
This means that at level 2 when I get the ability, with a Charisma of 8 I'm unable to use Fervor even once per day; is this intended?
Most abilities like this either use the character's Charisma bonus, or else have a "minimum 1" tidbit. I tried searching the forums, but couldn't find anything specific to this ability; is anyone aware of anything about this out there?
Just recently, letters with accents (such as ') have begun being converted to just single quotes upon posting. (Posts preview correctly.) Editing the post and replacing the ' with the desired letter "sticks", but this seems like odd (and undesirable) behavior.
Edit: You can see it in this post, actually, as I was hoping — now I'll edit in the actual character I mean; it's í.
Edit again: I haven't tested whether this happens with all extended ASCII.
For those who've never played a text-based adventure before, I'll explain.
There will be a post describing a room or something. It will end with a prompt (>). At the prompt, you enter the command for what you'd like to do. Here's an example:
First Poster wrote:
You are walking through a dark alley. There is a lantern on the ground.
>
Second Poster wrote:
> get lantern
Rules:
Keep it clean and appropriate.
Guidelines:
Don't post a command and a response in the same post
Let someone else post the response to your command, and vice versa
Try to preserve adventure continuity
Don't do stuff I wouldn't do but have forgotten to mention
Don't forget your prompts!
Let's begin!
You are sitting at your desk at work. There is a computer on the desk. The monitor shows boring financial reports.
>
Just refreshed three subforums (Website Feedback, PFRPG General Discussion, and Suggestions/House Rules/Homebrew) and ended up on random pages in each forum. In the case of Website Feedback, I ended up in posts from 2005, page 51 in General Discussion, and in the case of House Rules, I ended up in 2011 (page 73, to be exact).
Just attempted to refresh the PFRPG General Discussion forum and got an all-grey background with a pop-up reading: There is no element on this page with the id "AUCForumDisplay"
Refreshing again fixed it, but I figured you should know.
Spoiler:
What's AUC stand for? Australian Universe Code? Afternoon Underwear Crash? Abstemious Underwater Crocheting? What is it?!
I initiated the requests pretty close together (F5, ^TAB, F5), and when I went back to look at them after they'd finished loading, both contained the same post list (that of General Discussion), despite the breadcrumb trail correctly listing them as separate forums. Refreshing the Advice page fixed it.
So far I haven't been able to reproduce it, but let me know if there's any other information I can give you to help track it down.
This will be a joint DMing venture; I'll be running the odd-numbered books, and DM Feral will be running the even-numbered books. This means there will be a DMPC at any given time, but both of us are committed to avoiding the usual issues with such characters. Basically, the active DM's character will take a back seat, and only be involved if prompted.
Character Creation Guidelines
Starting level 1
20 point buy
2 traits
average starting gold by class
HP full at level 1, then average rounded up
core races
official Pathfinder materials only
(Exceptions to the last two items may be made on a case-by-case basis.)
We're looking for interesting characters for this; characters who'll be fun to read and engage with, and who have a reason (or a potential reason) to work together with the rest of the party for the common good and/or the good of others. I like heroes.
On Posting Frequency & DM History
Our target posting frequency is 1/day minimum, with more frequent being better. If you can't do that, please don't apply. With that said, I'm a fairly new DM and what with having to convert things from 3.5, my posting rate may be lower than Feral's... but still shouldn't fall below once per day. (Feral is an extremely experienced DM; in fact, we've just finished the entirety of Skull & Shackles as a play-by-post in four months. The overall posting rate was 75 ppd [posts per day].)
On Enjoyable Posts
If your posts aren't well-written, and spell-checked, you're going to be hurting your chances. I want to enjoy reading your posts and interacting with your character, and I find that incorrect grammar and orthography make that difficult.
Do the stats you gain from the elemental body line of spells depend on the size you choose?
Elemental Body I wrote:
Air elemental: If the form you take is that of a Small air elemental, you gain a +2 size bonus to your Dexterity and a +2 natural armor bonus. You also gain fly 60 feet (perfect), darkvision 60 feet, and the ability to create a whirlwind.
Elemental Body II wrote:
This spell functions as elemental body I, except that it also allows...
Air elemental: As elemental body I except that you gain a +4 size bonus to your Dexterity and a +3 natural armor bonus.
Compare this wording to that of beast shape, which specifies that the various stat adjustments are determined by the size of the chosen form. Elemental body doesn't have that wording.
If you use elemental body II to take the form of a Small air elemental, do you gain +2 to Dex, or +4? +2 to natural armor, or +3?
(If you don't know the answer, please FAQ it instead of posting "I think it should be X"; the arguments for or against aren't very hard to come up with, and aren't really helpful here.)
While incorporeal, he does not gain a deflection bonus to AC based on his Charisma, but his natural armor bonus is converted to deflection bonus.
Deflection bonuses don't stack... so as written, if you've already got a deflection bonus and activate your Shadowform Belt, your AC will go down.
Does anyone read this differently? If not, please FAQ... it doesn't seem intentional.
Edit: I've added a detailed example below.
Detailed Example:
Character has a Ring of Protection +1 and a +2 natural armor bonus. Character's AC is 13. Character activates Shadowform belt. Character now has an AC of 12.
Just wanted to let everyone know about a browser extension I've written. It rearranges the user profile campaigns page to be more readable. It's available here.
Feel free to PM me with any questions, issues, or suggestions!
In one group of which I'm a part, our party has one character who really dishes out damage, to the point that he one-shots just about anything the DM throws at us, as long as he can get in range. As someone who wants to make sure everyone at the table's having fun, and as someone who may DM for this group in the future, I'm looking for suggestions to help mitigate the "one player does all the work in combat" problem... suggestions which won't end up getting the rest of the party slaughtered.
One thing the DM has recently implemented which seems to have helped somewhat is giving his baddies max HP instead of average. What have you done in similar situations that has worked? What would you try in such a situation?
Please avoid the following responses:
Kick the player!
Kick the DM!
Focus the character 100% of the time to the exclusion of all others!
Class A is totally overpowered!
LolImatroll.
Anything else that isn't productive or beneficial.
You can make a bull rush as a standard action or as part of a charge, in place of the melee attack. You can only bull rush an opponent who is no more than one size category larger than you. A bull rush attempts to push an opponent straight back without doing any harm. If you do not have the Improved Bull Rush feat, or a similar ability, initiating a bull rush provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver.
If your attack is successful, your target is pushed back 5 feet. For every 5 by which your attack exceeds your opponent's CMD you can push the target back an additional 5 feet. You can move with the target if you wish but you must have the available movement to do so. If your attack fails, your movement ends in front of the target.
An enemy being moved by a bull rush does not provoke an attack of opportunity because of the movement unless you possess the Greater Bull Rush feat. You cannot bull rush a creature into a square that is occupied by a solid object or obstacle. If there is another creature in the way of your bull rush, you must immediately make a combat maneuver check to bull rush that creature. You take a –4 penalty on this check for each creature being pushed beyond the first. If you are successful, you can continue to push the creatures a distance equal to the lesser result. For example, if a fighter bull rushes a goblin for a total of 15 feet, but there is another goblin 5 feet behind the first, he must make another combat maneuver check against the second goblin after having pushed the first 5 feet. If his check reveals that he can push the second goblin a total of 20 feet, he can continue to push both goblins another 10 feet (since the first goblin will have moved a total of 15 feet).
(Emphasis mine.) Clearly you have to be within melee range in order to attempt a bull rush. However, there are ways of making melee attacks without being adjacent to the target; namely, via reach (whether natural or with a reach weapon).
Disarm, sunder, and trip are normally the only kinds of combat maneuvers in which you’re actually using a weapon (natural weapons and unarmed strikes are considered weapons for this purpose) to perform the maneuver...
For other maneuvers, either you’re not using a weapon at all, or the weapon is incidental to making the maneuver and its bonuses shouldn’t make you better at attempting the maneuver...
Additionally, the polearm master fighter archetype (Advanced Player’s Guide 106) has an ability called sweeping fend that allows the fighter to use any spear or polearm to make bull rush or trip maneuvers. For the bull rush, this is a specific exception that overrides the general rule of "weapon bonuses don’t apply on bull rushes."
(Emphasis in original.)
Can you bull rush with reach? Nowhere (that I can find) does it say that you have to be adjacent, yet it's called out as one of the maneuvers that doesn't normally use a weapon (whether natural or manufactured). At the same time, it's in place of the melee attack (on a charge or standard action)...
Is this one of the cases where the weapon is just incidental to making the maneuver? I can sortof see that -- if you're trying to chase someone backward by waving your longaxe at them, it's not going to make a difference whether it's a super-sharp axe or just a sharp axe. I can see this interpretation.
However, the wording of the clarification about the Polearm Master archetype's ability seems to indicate that you normally can't use a weapon to perform a bull rush (in which case you'd have to be adjacent). At the same time, the second sentence seems to indicate that you can use a weapon for a bull rush, you just don't apply the bonuses.
Could someone point me to any arguments I'm missing either way, or a ruling if there has been one?
This heavy, reinforced helmet can be used to make melee attacks. The wearer may also use the helmet when attempting bull rush maneuvers, granting a +2 circumstance bonus on the check, but after completing the maneuver (whether successful or not), the wearer is staggered until the end of his next turn... It occupies the head slot and is made of metal, not stone, meaning that it can be crafted from unusual materials as a metal weapon. A dwarven boulder helmet can be enchanted as a weapon (not as armor, despite providing some protection).
Here we have a weapon that can be used with bull rush. However, does this provide:
a) a specific precedent for a weapon being used with bull rush, OR
b) a specific allowance, showing that normally weapons can't be used with bull rush?
Want to run Hollow's Last Hope? Or most of it, anyway? Read on...
A group of us have recently had the unfortunate experience of our PbP GM finding himself without time, thus ending our campaign prematurely. We're left with a fantastic group of six characters* in the midst of a heroic effort to save Falcon's Hollow from a ravaging disease. The party has just departed the witch's hut, having recovered the second ingredient (rat's tail) and a rather non-canonical new party member (an intelligent giant cauldron).
The original recruitment thread is here. Discussion and Gameplay threads are attached there, as well.
This seems to be a pretty popular module, so I'm hoping we'll not have too hard a time finding a new GM. In order to let us know a bit about yourself, please answer the following:
How often would you expect to post? How often would you expect players to post?
Have you run a PbP before? How about a homebrew campaign?
What house rules do you use?
If you have any questions, please post them and we'll do our best to respond quickly.
* Our current group is as follows:
Mrachni (me): half-orc cleric of Iomedae (concerned with justice and the protection of innocents [especially humans])
Makvor: half-orc druid (and his companion, a wolf named Spirit)
Quaylon: half-elf bard (and his bag of spices for the proper seasoning of gnomes)
Zatqualmie someothernamesnobodyremembers: gnomish barbarian (and his mysterious talking hat)
Oglon: human monk (complete with mystic koans and monkish-sounding statements)
Kirche: halfling sorceress (only got three posts in before the game died, but has already run smack into a giant cauldron, cracking her poor little halfling head to boot)
A group of us have recently had the unfortunate experience of being abandoned by our PbP GM rather early in our game. Thus we're left with a group of characters* ready to brave an adventure, but no adventure to brave.
The original recruitment thread is here. Discussion and Gameplay threads are attached there, as well.
The story is, as mentioned, rather young at this point, so a new GM would have quite a bit of leeway as to the specifics. Each player has received at least one private message with some details about his character, which will be passed along to the new GM in short order. We'd like to keep the basic premise/setting the same.
I don't expect we'll receive many replies, but am ever hopeful, so to let us know a bit about yourself, please answer the following:
How often would you expect to post? How often would you expect players to post?
Have you run a PbP before? How about a homebrew campaign?
What house rules do you use?
Since a post similar to this one was what prompted the original campaign, I'm hopeful that we can find a great GM who will integrate well with our group. If you have any questions, please post them and we'll do our best to respond quickly.
*Ryko has had to leave due to RL obligations, but the rest are active on the boards and still available.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who accidentally posts with my main account in PbPs... thus causing me to show as a character in the campaign, in addition to the correct alias. Is there any way to fix this?
When you successfully make an Acrobatics check to avoid provoking an attack of opportunity from a larger opponent when you move through its threatened area or its space, you can make that opponent lose its balance until the end of its next turn as a free action. While that creature’s balance is lost, if it attempts to move, it must make a successful DC 15 Acrobatics check or fall prone, wasting the move action. You can only affect one creature with this effect each round.
Does a 5-foot step count as an "attempt to move" for the purposes of this feat? I'm leaning toward "not per RAW" because a 5-foot step isn't a move action... but on the other hand, they are attempting to move (in the non-action sense of the word).
Created this character for a RotRL opening, but didn't make it... anyone willing to run RotRL for us? There'll be no shortage of applications, I'm sure.
I'm hoping for a relatively fast-paced game, to offset the rather slow ones I'm currently in. At the same time, I understand that PbPs in general suffer during this season, so no worries there.
Introduction
I've heard it from others, and I've said it myself... but do the dice really hate us? I haven't seen any analysis of the Paizo forum dice, so I've decided to do my own. Let's find out if the dice really are biased against us.
Method
The plan is to roll 10000d20, plug the results into a script (or a couple of scripts), and put the results below (in the same post). The script (which I'm writing now) should calculate the mean, mode, and standard deviation of the set, as well as the frequency of each roll. A fancy ASCII graph of the last item would be a big plus (hurray for gnuplot).
I'm composing the bulk of this post before previewing, in order to preserve the dice rolls (in case I can't actually post until tomorrow or later) as well as to avoid posting a thread that (for some period of time) consists of nothing but 10000 rolls.
dicestats.pl:
Quote:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Statistics::Basic qw(:all);
my @allrolls;
my @nums;
my %dice;
while (<STDIN>) {
my @rolls = ($_ =~ /\(([0-9 ,]+)\)/g);
foreach (@rolls) {
for my $roll (split(", ")) {
push(@allrolls,$roll);
$dice{$roll}++;
}
}
}
(I'd rather have used Common Lisp for this, but it's late and it was faster to do it in Perl.)
dice.plt:
Quote:
set term png
set font "Arial"
set output "dicechart.png"
set xrange [0:21]
set yrange [*:*]
set xlabel "Value"
set ylabel "Count"
plot "dice.dat" using 1:2 title "" with boxes
Loading up gnuplot and running:
Quote:
load "dice.plt"
... will produce the graph we want.
Execution
At this point I'll preview the post, copy the dice rolls into a file, and run the scripts. I'll then copy the output, add it as the "Results" section, submit the post, and let the numbers speak for themselves (though I'll be happy to answer any questions that come up).
Sorry everyone, no ASCII chart -- I'd forgotten that the forums don't allow multiple consecutive spaces. Anyway, here's the frequency chart in png form.
Lastly, I performed a Chi-squared test on the data, with the following results.
graphpad.com/quickcalcs/chisquared1 wrote:
P value and statistical significance:
Chi squared equals 15.896 with 19 degrees of freedom.
The two-tailed P value equals 0.6642
By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be not statistically significant.
As of a bit ago, when attempting to view any profile (including my own), I get redirected to the store blog. This does not seem intentional... though I admit, it did get me to look...
Checked in Opera as well as Firefox, just to verify that it's not some weird caching/cookie issue. Any ideas?
The strands of a web spell are flammable. A flaming weapon can slash them away as easily as a hand brushes away cobwebs. Any fire can set the webs alight and burn away one 5-foot square in 1 round. All creatures within flaming webs take 2d4 points of fire damage from the flames.
I've searched, but the nearest I can find to this is from four years ago, so posting an inquiry.
I posted this morning under this thread with this alias. The first post went through fine, and I came back and posted again a bit later. It showed up as normal until I refreshed the page, whereupon the post had disappeared. I've checked using another browser to make sure it's not some weird caching issue.
The post shows up under the alias's posts, but doesn't show in the thread.
I believe this may also be happening in this thread, where the count goes to 55 but there are only 54 posts displayed. (I have, however, checked the post histories of aliases in that thread and haven't found any missing posts... may be a different issue.)
Lastly, I think I've seen this in the "Ask James Jacobs..." thread, where I'll see a response with a quoted post, but the post isn't there.
Any ideas/suggestions? Anything I can do to help troubleshoot or to prevent it?
Can't find anything on the boards or FAQs about this... anyone know what restrictions there are on the Varisian pilgrim cleric archetype's Caravan Bond ability? I.e. does it last indefinitely (for the same traveling companions)?
Caravan Bond wrote:
She may use her domain-granted powers on any of these traveling companions as if they were her.
Does this mean that utilizing the power requires some further action from the cleric, or is it just a way of denoting that the chosen ally/allies' usage of the power still counts against the cleric's limits? (The latter seems like the intended meaning...)
This device is a single leather glove. On command, one item held in the hand wearing the glove disappears. The item can weigh no more than 20 pounds and must be able to be held in one hand. While stored, the item has negligible weight. With a snap of the fingers wearing the glove, the item reappears. A glove can only store one item at a time. Storing or retrieving the item is a free action. The item is shrunk down so small within the palm of the glove that it cannot be seen. Spell durations are not suppressed, but continue to expire. If the glove’s effect is suppressed or dispelled, the stored item appears instantly. A glove of storing uses up the wearer’s entire hands slot. The wearer may not use another item (even another glove of storing) that also uses the hands slot.
Two questions on this:
1) If you hold something in the hand wearing the glove, and the glove is storing an item, what happens if you activate the glove? (Can you perform both the "storing" and "retrieving" functions simultaneously to effectively switch the item in-hand?)
2) The text "one item held in the hand wearing the glove disappears" leads me to believe that a character could hold more than one thing in one hand -- are there any rules/traditions about this? Can a TWF character hold both weapons in one hand in order to do something with the other hand? (I'd lean toward "no", but maybe someone else knows more history around this.)
I've looked through both PF and D&D forums, and only found one reference to swapping your held item using the Glove of Storing. Anyone have definitive answers?
14 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
The new Decoy Ring from Ultimate Equipment requires mislead to craft, and its function is rather close to that of the spell. The spell provides greater invisibility... but the Decoy Ring doesn't specify.
I attempted to break down the cost to see which it would be, but there are too many variables, and I'm not sure how much of a discount "only activating when you withdraw or become helpless" is worth.
Any thoughts, or examples that would help with the price breakdown to figure it out?
My inclination is that withdrawing is just a special type of moving, and thus would allow you to use Acrobatics to tumble through an enemy's square (or threatened space beyond the first 5'). (Some will no doubt bring up that you can't withdraw using a form of movement for which you don't have a listed speed, but I don't think that applies; tumbling isn't a "form of movement".)
Couldn't find any historical posts addressing this... anyone know if there even is an answer?
Withdrawing from melee combat is a full-round action. When you withdraw, you can move up to double your speed. The square you start out in is not considered threatened by any opponent you can see, and therefore visible enemies do not get attacks of opportunity against you when you move from that square. Invisible enemies still get attacks of opportunity against you, and you can't withdraw from combat if you're blinded. You can't take a 5-foot step during the same round in which you withdraw.
If, during the process of withdrawing, you move out of a threatened square (other than the one you started in), enemies get attacks of opportunity as normal.
You may not withdraw using a form of movement for which you don't have a listed speed.
Note that despite the name of this action, you don't actually have to leave combat entirely.
Is there a minimum distance that you have to move as part of a withdrawal in order for it to be considered a withdrawal? Do you have to move away from the enemy? There's nothing in PF RAW (that I've found) to suggest that the answer to either of these is "yes", but perhaps there's a "general knowledge"/traditional answer?
I have recently (through a succession of rather unfortunate events) been reincarnated as a goblin (rogue, 11). I'm not really an artist, but of course I need an image for my character sheet, so I spun up Hero Machine, and here's what I came up with. Any thoughts/suggestions?
Other (HM or non-HM) images are also welcome, if you feel so inclined.
ETC: I'm also interested in which is your favorite, or why you think one looks better than another.
Searched the forum, but didn't find this question.
Grappled wrote:
A grappled creature is restrained by a creature, trap, or effect. Grappled creatures cannot move and take a –4 penalty to Dexterity. A grappled creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grapple.
Would a character with Weapon Finesse end up taking a -4 to all attack rolls due to the Dexterity penalty (stacked with the stated -2 penalty), or is the -2 penalty from being grappled the "complete" penalty?
